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Hi Ashwin<br>
<br>
Many thanks for this note. It's extremely insightful.<br>
<br>
I am particularly struck by your point on not having an
easy-to-source and effective-to-use wikipedia/wikimedia
introduction. I'd like to volunteer to help put something together.<br>
<br>
Can I request whoever has a deck ready to email me a copy of that
and I'll try to create a deck that can be shared. ...because of
file sizes, if it's easier, could you email it to me on
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:hmundol@wikimedia.org">hmundol@wikimedia.org</a>.<br>
<br>
I'll also try and incorporate learnings from your mail below and
from community members on other aspects such as duration of
sessions, planning the editing during an outreach meet, etc.<br>
<br>
Many thanks.<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature"><font size="2" face="Times New Courier"><i>hisham</i><br>
<b>India Programs - Wikimedia Foundation</b></font>
<p>
<font size="2" face="Times New Courier">skype : hisham.wikimedia<br>
google talk: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:hmundol@wikimedia.org">hmundol@wikimedia.org</a><br>
</font></p>
</div>
<br>
On 3/4/2011 4:42 PM, Ashwin Baindur wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTim9NjR9qTaickAkxkOR2kfeXzoXEO=oibw0Qsac@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div class="gmail_quote">Dear friends,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>A wikipedia introduction and editing session was
held at SNDT Pune on 01 March 2011. Ádvance notice
could not be given to other members of the Pune
wikipedian community due to short notice and yours
truly being extremely busy with academics - this is
deeply regretted. </div>
<div><br clear="all">
Warm regards,<br>
<br>
Ashwin Baindur<br>
------------------------------------------------------
<div><br>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><b><u>WIKIPEDIA
SESSION AT SNDT, PUNE (01 March 2011)</u></b></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>The Department of Communication Media for
Children, SNDT College Of Home Science,
Pune, recently organised a film workshop
called "Filmi Chashma" in conjunction with
the Comet Media Foundation on the College
premises. I came to know about it from an
email from Bishakha Datta, Trustee
(Wikimedia Foundation) asking Pune
wikipedians to please respond to a request
from Comet Media Foundation's Chandita
Mukherjee to conduct an editing session for
the particpants. The aim apparently was to
get the participants, mostly students of the
department and locals of Pune, to edit in
Marathi Wikipedia. The session was to last
one and a half hours and was scheduled for
01st March 2011, a Tuesday. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Since I am the only "unemployed" member
of WikiPuneri, being on a sabbatical, while
my fellow friends are busy earning their
living, I agreed to take on the assignment.
I was also happy to earn some brownie points
with my spouse, an SNDT alumnus, albeit from
the Mumbai college. So I happily went to
SNDT following the accurate directions given
by Dr Radha Misra, HOD and landed up in time
for a sumptious mid-morning snack with the
workshop participants. :-)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Mandar Kulkarni, our local Marathi
Wikipedia enthusiast had promised to try to
make it in his lunch break but was unable to
do so due to the distance his office was
from the location.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I was warmly greeted by Dr Misra and two
members of Comet Media Foundation - Lajpat
Dhingra and Suresh Dhadave. We then moved to
a computer lab in the Education department.
There a Ubuntu :-) laptop was connected and
my presentation materials were loaded. One
of Dr Misra's colleagues, Ms P<span
style="border-collapse: collapse;
font-family: Arial;">ayal Khombhadia,
project officer for Filmy Chashma, </span>introduced
me and we were off.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The presentation began with the
three-minute W10 video created by JESS3,
followed by a short presentation made by me!
Which reminds me that we need some really
good presentations for introduction to
newbies! Strangely, that doesn't seem to be
around! We really need improvement in this!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The presentation was followed by an
editing session. We had to close on time
though people wanted to go on as another
academic event was scheduled in that lab.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>One of the motifs put forth was the
utility of Wikipedia in the sphere of
activities of the workshop participants -
children. Few people realise that how
lacking the internet is in interactivity.
Wikipedia allows children, like it does all
people, to edit and the difference made to
the encyclopedia is not only tangible and
highly visible; moreso, it is immediately
reflected back to the editor. This
instantaneous response acts like a
gratification - a primary reason why
wikipedia can be addictive. So editing in
itself can be rewarding for children,
especially today when they have short
attention spans.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The important point that one should make
to children is that this is one program
where you can actually change the world; by
making more information available one edit
at a time.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
There was not much chance to mention schools
and wikipedia, or the relevant resources on
the web, as the thread of discussion drifted
away to how editors got to learn new skills
through editing on Wikipedia. I was able to
mention the skills I learnt, that a lifetime
of education including a B.Sc. (PCM),
B.Tech. (Electrical), M.Sc. (Defence
Studies) and now an M.Phil. (Def Studies)
had not or did not teach me - namely,
writing accurately, neutrally, skilfully;
with proper citation of all kinds of
resources, to avoid copyright violation;
rewriting to avoid plagiarism; how to
interact in online communities; learning the
niceties of English grammar, punctuation,
and issues pertaining to copy-editing and
desktop publishing.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The editing session, I have found, is the
most exciting for people new to Wikipedia.
People like to be shown how to edit. We
looked at a typical Wikipedia standard
article, the left-hand panel links, the
tabs, navigation by links, categories and by
using search. Featured content and good
content were discussed. We then edited an
article first anonymously, undid it and
repeated the edit under my login. We then
created a stub about the Pune campus of the
SNDT. Then we ran out of time.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Though the session was scheduled for an
hour and a half, activities such as meeting
people, introductions, moving to a
classroom, etc takes time and effectively
the session had lasted just about an hour.
The lesson learnt is a session needs to be
at least two hours long, especially if its
the only session to be scheduled.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We then moved to the tea-room where I
addressed the audience for a few minutes,
mainly acquainting them with details of
activities being undertaken by the Puneri
wikipedian community, exchanging contact
details and distributing W10 swag - I am
pleased to tell you that I was able to give
away twenty tee-shirts to the participants,
an unlooked for treat which brought out
happy smiles of all.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I would like to close with this note -
that the participants were mostly women;
there was only one male particpant and we
three "faculty" guys were male. I mentioned
the gender gap and how important it was for
the health of the community that we get more
women involved. After returning home, a
thank you email was sent to each participant
with an invite to the Wikimedia-IN-PUN list
and to WikiPuneri group on Facebook.</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>My deep gratitude to Chandita Mukherjee of
Comet Media Foundation and Dr Radha Misra
of SNDT College Of Home Science, Pune for
giving this opportunity to me and the
WikiPuneri community.</div>
<div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>Images at : <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/81267486@N00/tags/sndt/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/81267486@N00/tags/sndt/</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Ashwin Baindur</div>
<div style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 0pt;">_</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 0pt;">__,_._,___</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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