[Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] : Ahmedabad Mirror : " Ahmedabad to go Wiki with your clicks"

[CherianTinu Abraham]

*Ahmedabad Mirror : " Ahmedabad to go Wiki with your clicks" *
http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/2011122720111227022617405d732bc46/Ahmedabad-to-go-Wiki-with-your-clicks.html

*Photos of the city taken by you during a special tour on January 3 will be
uploaded on Wikipedia; they will pop up with your name in the creditline
when someone searches for Ahmedabad on the web encyclopaedia*
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*Want to show the world how aapnu Amdavad looks like? Pick up a camera,
capture glimpses of the city and share them with the world’s largest
collaborative encyclopaedia on the web, Wikipedia. The global non-profit
organisation, Wikimedia Foundation, is organising ‘Wiki Takes The City’
walks for Ahmedabad on January 3, and snaps taken during the initiative
could end up uploaded on the site along with a creditline for you. *
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*Those passionate about the city and photography can join the “walks” that
will begin from Gandhi Ashram in Sabarmati at 8.30 am and cover various
areas of the city.*
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*Said Noopur Raval, a member of the Wikimedia India chapter, “Not many are
aware of the way this group works. Through this walk, we invite anybody and
everybody to join us and take photographs of Ahmedabad. These pictures can
be of something that can be seen as the landmarks of the city. Right from
monuments, food items, buildings, roads and bridges to college campuses.”*
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*All are free to join the tour in which they will use vehicles and
contribute their images to the local chapter. Selected few will be uploaded
on Wikipedia, she said.*
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*The aim of this exercise is to encourage participants to compete to take
photographs of as many local sites and city specific objects of cultural
heritage as possible for Wikipedia articles, says the information on
‘Wikipedia Takes Ahmedabad’ page.*
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*Through this exercise, Wikipedia will add on to its open and free
knowledge sharing and promote awareness of Wikipedia in the city. “Anybody
with a passion for photography and a camera can join us. They may also
carry data transfer cables so that they can hand us the pictures towards
the end of the tour, if they so wish,” Raval said.*
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*The pictures will be uploaded as licensed material with credits attributed
to the photographers. Said Raval, “These pictures will come under the
Creative Commons licence (CC DY-SA) which allows Wikipedia users for use in
educational and commercial purpose as long as they are being attributed to.
They may adapt it and modify it, as long as they acknowledge it.” *
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*So, the next time someone sitting in Bosnia or the Botswana surfs the
internet for Ahmedabad, there are chances of your photograph popping up
along with an article with your name flashing on it. *
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*The recently held first annual India function of Wikimedia Foundation in
Mumbai saw a huge participation. Across the world these Wikimanias see a
participation of around 500 people while at the India conference close to
700 participants remained present. This gave a huge impetus to the group,
Raval said.*
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*Srikeit Tadepalli, a 24-year-old Amdavadi student pursuing MBA
(advertising) at SIMC-Pune, said, “I have been a part of the Wikipedia
since 2006. When I began writing and collecting information I was in
school. I had a bit of time on my hand which I turned into a productive and
global knowledge sharing exercise.”*
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*Tadepalli is one of the few administrators with Wikipedia who usually have
more tools than common users and can reject or block controversial or
indecent articles. The Ahmedabad Wikipedia group has a strength of only six
or seven members. “Contributors from Ahmedabad may be few in number but
they are dedicated to the cause of knowledge sharing. That’s why four out
of these few members have been made administrators,” he said.*
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*Another administrator Anirudh Singh Bhati, a 25-year-old lawyer added, “I
was a student at Gujarat National Law University when I first posted my
edit, on January 26, 2006. It happened when I was searching for my
university but there was not much information which is why I created a page
on GNLU.” *
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*Soon Bhati  realised that this is more than being just an encyclopaedia as
he found an entire community behind the content. The fact that his
knowledge was being seen by millions of net users prompted him to spend
hours of research and work. “My contribution is being read not only by
those reading journals but by billions. It also gets prominently displayed.
Every second close to 10,000 members are watching every word that comes on
Wikipedia with around 1500 administrators which ensures that nothing wrong
goes up on the pages.”*
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*HOW DOES ONE POST INFORMATION ON WIKIPEDIA?*
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*Anyone can edit an existing article or create a new one and volunteers do
not need to have any formal training. The people who create and edit
articles in Wikipedia are spread all over the world and come from a wide
range of age and backgrounds. A contributor to this encyclopaedia,
unregistered or registered, is called a “Wikipedian” or more formally known
as “editor”.*
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*The best of articles are highlighted in the list of featured articles.
These articles were granted “featured” status because they were judged to
be of high quality by other editors. (If later editing compromises the
quality of a featured article, a user can nominate it for removal from the
list.)*
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*WHO ARE WIKI ADMINISTRATORS?*
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*Administrators, commonly known as admins or sysops (system operators), are
Wikipedia editors trusted with access to restricted technical features
(tools). For example, administrators can protect, delete and restore pages,
move pages over redirects, hide and delete page revisions, edit protected
pages, and block other editors.*
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*Administrators assume these responsibilities as volunteers. They must
never use the tools to gain an advantage in a dispute in which they are
involved. Administrators should not be confused with Wikimedia system
administrators (“sysadmins”).*
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*For further information:*
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_Ahmedabad*

Regards
Tinu Cherian
press at wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news

Important Note : The publisher ( Ahmedabad Mirror / Times of India Group)
of the above news article owns the copyrights of the article / content.
Request to kindly not reproduce or circulate the content further. The
information is only shared only with an internal community who have been
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