<div class="gmail_quote"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:gray">PRESS
RELEASE:<b></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;line-height:115%">Mumbai To Host The First Ever National WikiConference In India</span></b><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%">Jimmy Wales to deliver
the Keynote on November 18 at University Convocation Hall</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b><br>Mumbai,
India, November 9</b>: <span lang="EN-IN">The <b>Mumbai Wikipedia Community</b> and the <b>Wikimedia Chapter</b>, India are hosting
the first ever WikiConference in Mumbai, India! </span>And to grace the
occasion we will see none other than, the founder, open-source evangelist and
Chairman Emeritus of Wikimedia foundation – <b>Jimmy Wales</b>. The Conference will have a distinct Indian flavour and
deal primarily with issues relating to India on Wikipedia, English and Indic
language Wikipedia projects in the country, possible partnerships and
collaborations and the WikiCommunity editing on these issues, whether in India
or abroad. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">The event will be a three day
extravaganza, to be held from <b>November
18<sup>th</sup> </b>to the<b> 20<sup>th</sup>,
2011 </b>and the venue for this prestigious event is no less in stature when it
comes to knowledge – <b>the Convocation
Hall, University of Mumbai, Fort Campus</b> with the apt iconic Rajabhai tower
as its backdrop. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b>Arjuna Rao Chavala, President, Wikimedia chapter</b> said "We look
forward to organising the conference on an annual basis to bring together
Indian Wikipedians from 20+ Indian language projects to share learnings and
best practices. The event will help catalyze contributors in building Knowledge
Society through free and open education projects."</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">Speaking on the occasion, Mr. <b>Pranav Curumsey, Chairperson, Organizing
Committee, WikiConference India</b> said, “It gives us great pleasure to be
hosting such a phenomenal conference in India. The conference aims to promote
the vision of the founder Mr. Wales, ‘Imagine a world in which every single
person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.’
It is very encouraging to see ad-free participation showing a keen interest in
attending this conference confirming our belief that India is free knowledge
ready.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">The event will see thousands of
Wikipedians from all over the country pouring in for sessions covering topics
such as ‘Usage of Ajax and Jquery in Wiki’ in Technology to ‘WikiBhasha : Our
Experiences with Multilingual Content’ in Enterprise to ‘WikiWomenWeb: Bridging the Gender Gap’ to
‘ Legal Aspects of Wiki Culture’. There
is also a live ‘Editathon’ session made possible with Wifi facility within the
campus grounds. Another interesting addition is the ‘Hackathon’ that will be
simultaneously held at the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry &
Agriculture (MACCIA), Kala Ghoda.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b>Mr. Moksh Juneja</b>, <b>Secretary,
Organising Committee, WikiConference India</b> added, “The conference aims to
serve as an annual platform for all Indian Wikipedians to meet and share their
views, discuss challenges and exchange useful tips and best practices. We have
been overwhelmed with the ad-free participation across India where we received
7000 plus entries for scholarships and 550 plus papers were submitted to be
presented at the WikiConference India.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">Contributing to the success of
WikiConference India are our esteemed sponsors are Google, YouTube, Omidyar
Network, Microsoft Research, Yebhi.com, Ang India Technologies,
Sarkarinaukri.com & Kalnirnay. WikiConference India has received positive
support from their partners Kores, Avignyata Inc., e-RegNow.com, Panache, DSN
& Text100 PR. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For further information & to
register, please visit- <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2011" target="_blank">http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2011</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#4F81BD">Prominent Speakers at WikiConference: </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol;color:#4F81BD">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#4F81BD">Jimmy Wales, Founder & Chairman, <i>WikiMedia Foundation</i></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol;color:#4F81BD">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#4F81BD">Badri Sheshadri, Co-Founder & Ex MD, <i>Cric-info</i> and MD, <i>New Horizon Media Pvt. Ltd</i>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol;color:#4F81BD">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#4F81BD">Barry Newstead, <i>Chief Global Development Officer, Wikimedia Foundation</i></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol;color:#4F81BD">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#4F81BD">Prof. (Dr.) Krishna Kumar, Chairman, <i>Gitanjali Multilingual Literary Circle</i>,
UK</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Symbol;color:#4F81BD">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#4F81BD">Anand Kumar, <i>Super 30 IIT Coaching Programme</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#4F81BD"><i><br></i></span></p>
<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b>About Wikimedia:</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is
a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and
distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content
of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia
Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference
projects in the world, including Wikipedia, a top-ten internet property, and
Wikinews, as well as the website, Meta-Wiki. The Wikimedia Foundation is
governed by Board of Trustees. Since January 2008, the Wikimedia Foundation has
its office in San Francisco, USA. The most famous project from the foundation,
Wikipedia , provides free encyclopaedias in most world languages is the 5th
most visited site in the world with over 12 billion articles being read every month.
Official information about the Foundation may be found on its website:
<a href="http://wikimediafoundation.org" target="_blank">wikimediafoundation.org</a>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b>About Wikimedia India Chapter:</b></p>
<div style="border:none;border-bottom:dotted windowtext 3.0pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;border:none;padding:0in">Wikimedia
India was formally approved in June 2010 and India became the 29th Wikimedia
Chapter. The Wikimedia India chapter was registered (registered name: Wikimedia
Chapter) vide Registrar of Societies, Bangalore Urban District with the
objective of educating Indian public about availability and use of free and
open educational content and build capacity to access and contribute to such
resources in various Indian languages. For more information on the chapter
visit its website: <a href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in" target="_blank">wiki.wikimedia.in</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;border:none;padding:0in"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;border:none;padding:0in"><br></p>
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<p style="text-align:justify"> </p>
<p style="text-align:justify">Media Contacts:</p>
<p><b>Firdos Arjani
& Anish Borkataki<br></b>Text100 Public Relations <br>Mob: +91 99200 63777 / +91 88760 16176<br>Email: <a><span style="font-size:10.0pt">firdos.arjani@text100.co.in </span></a> / <a href="mailto:anish.borkataki@text100.co.in" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">anish.borkataki@text100.co.in</span></a></p>
</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div>Regards</div><div>Tinu Cherian</div><div><a href="mailto:press@wikimedia.in" target="_blank">press@wikimedia.in</a></div><div><a href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news" target="_blank">http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news</a></div>
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