*Ahmedabad Mirror : " Ahmedabad to go Wiki with your clicks" *
http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/2011122720111227022617405d732bc46/…
*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*
*
*
*
*
*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. *
*
*
*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.*
*
*
*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.”*
*
*
*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.*
*
*
*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.*
*
*
*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.*
*
*
*
*
*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.” *
*
*
*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. *
*
*
*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.*
*
*
*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.”*
*
*
*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.*
*
*
*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.” *
*
*
*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.”*
*
*
*HOW DOES ONE POST INFORMATION ON WIKIPEDIA?*
*
*
*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”.*
*
*
*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.)*
*
*
*WHO ARE WIKI ADMINISTRATORS?*
*
*
*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.*
*
*
*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”).*
*
*
*For further information:*
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_Ahmedabad*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)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
featured on this article. All copyrights are duly acknowledged.
[cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from some other mailing list.]
Hi Folks,
As you might be aware, the Consultant, Team Support position is to be filled as part of the India Programs team. (http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-September/004251….)
I am really pleased and excited to announce that Subhashish Panigrahi has agreed to join as Consultant, Community & Program Support.
Some of you might know Subhashish (or Subha as he's also called.) He is all of 23 and a wonderful Wikimedian from Odisha. He has a BE in Biotechnology from Sapthagiri College of Engineering, Bangalore. He has worked for about 1 1/2 years in business development and is currently based in Bangalore. He's been an active Wikimedian since a friend of his attended a Wikipedia 10th event in Bangalore in January and told Subha about Wikipedia. Subha then spent considerable time - quite a bit of it in Shiju Alex's living room apparently :-) - learning about Wikipedia. Since then, he's been on fire! He's helped the Bangalore community organise the monthly meet-ups, been a central figure in building community & momentum for Odia Wikipedia and has conducted outreach programs for Odia projects back home in Odisha as well as in Bangalore. He's also been helping out other projects and communities; a couple of weekends ago he was in Chennai conducting a WikiAcademy there. He is a fantastically inspiring example of a complete outsider being welcomed into the family, having his hand held in his growth as a newbie, charging forward taking responsibility & ownership and then spreading his skills & knowledge to others. He is also one of the sweetest human beings I have ever met. He is a perfect example of the Wikimedia Dream.
His interests (outside of Wikimedia) are cooking, graphic design and handwriting analysis. (I bet most of you who know Subha don't know that last bit about him. So the next time you see him, show him your writing and get him to reveal your deep dark secrets!) He has also been involved with campaigns for social work during the floods and cholera outbreak in Odisha and been involved with a Odisha community organisation, eOdissa.com.
Originally, the Consultant, Team Support position (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs#Team_S…) was to manage the back-end aspects of India Programs (basic accounting, basic personnel management, office administration, travel support, expense statement management, logistics support for the community, etc.) I have been looking at the actual work load involved and I do not think this is a full time role. The functions listed are essential and need to be done - but there is an opportunity to improve the richness of the position and it's value to the community. I'm therefore proposing that the Consultant, Team Support be redesignated to Consultant, Community & Program Support. I envisage this position to have about 1/3 of time spent on the back-end work listed above but 2/3 of time can be very productively utilised supporting community efforts - such as helping community building & outreach and supporting community-led initiatives. An important consideration I have for this redesignation is after looking at the specific skills that Subha brings to the table; I want to make sure that he has the required space to realise his potential and to support the community and movement.
Subha will of course continue to pursue his personal voluntary work for and as part of the Wikimedia community. The one question that he emphasized during the selection process was whether he would retain the flexibility to continue to pursue his personal passions on Wikimedia; the answer he got was a loud Y-E-S!!! :-) I'm delighted to have another community member joining the team.
He'll formally start in Delhi on January 9th 2012.
Do join me in welcoming him.
Warmest Regards,
hisham
A quick note that, thanks to the sysadmins/listadmins and Gmane admins,
this list has just been added to Gmane and should appear in their
listings when this message is sent, with archives imported (if not, they
will be very soon).
See http://gmane.org/about.php and
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Overview for info on Gmane
and Wikimedia lists, and please add/update yours if missing.
Sorry for crossposting.
Nemo
Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2011 14:44:32 +0530
From: pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com
To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Any Wikipedians in Bharuch?
hi,
In between the conference preparations, I got a job offer and moved to Bharuch, a town situated in between Surat and Baroda. Just wondering if there are any Wikipedians from here. Would be lovely to meet up.
I went to the K J Choksi Public Library today. It's like an oasis in the middle of the Sahara. I fall short of better metaphors to describe the place. Awesome book collection in English, Hindi and Gujarati. While becomign a member I broached the idea of a Wikipedia workshop and the folks at the library are very excited at the prospect. They told me they lack resource persons who can conduct such programmes for children and members.
While I've offered to conduct the workshop in English and if there is interest, in Hindi as well, I need help in Gujarati. Any Wikipedian in Bharuch who is interested in doing a meetup would be great!
warm regards,
Pradeep
--
Pradeep Mohandas
How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9
_______________________________________________
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other mailing lists.
Hi Folks,
A few months ago, the Foundation asked Tory Read to travel to India and listen and learn and write about the movement in India. The objective was to harvest experiences and learnings and to have an open discussion around what we could all do to further the movement.
This isn't in the form of a (possibly) long & boring report - but in the form of a story. (Tory's a professional researcher, writer and former journalist.) To put this together, Tory travelled for a couple of weeks across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and across towns in Kerala - attending community meet-ups and meeting up/speaking with a host of individual community members (in these cities and indeed beyond.)
Tory's tale is called, "The India Chronicles", and is available on Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_India_Chronicles_(150dpi).pdf
Do have a read through and do share your views on it - positives and negatives - and do feel free to comment on any aspect of it. It would be wonderful to have an engaging conversation on this.
Warmest Regards,
hisham
>
> I will suggest forwarding to respective language wiki mailing list, in
> addition to city mailing lists to reach the target audience.
>
Arjuna, This is already done. The mail is sent to various Indic language
lists also.
Shiju
On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:18 PM, Arjuna Rao Chavala <arjunaraoc(a)gmail.com>wrote:
> Shiju,
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 6:59 PM, Shiju Alex <shiju(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear Indic wikimedians,
>>
>> Thank you very much for the welcome messages and for making me feel at
>> home.
>>
>> Over the past few years I have interacted with many of you for the various
>> Indic Wiki related activities and we have done many successful projects.
>> Thank you very much for all those wonderful projects. Now when we are moving
>> to a different phase of growth of Wikimedia in India, I request more
>> support from your side.
>>
>> To get started we shall together develop a plan for Indic language wikis
>> and design few pilot projects to gain learnings to drive growth. I propose
>> to develop this plan collaboratively and openly - in true wiki style. This
>> will include focused Indic language meetups, virtual meetings, desk research
>> and constantly synthesizing the findings from all of these into learnings.
>> These learnings will then flow into pilots that we will implement and review
>> and learn from.
>>
>>
>> For this purpose, I will be using the following page
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_….
>> It is very preliminary right now - but will keep updating it. The page will
>> give you a flavor of the kind of process and methodology I plan to use - and
>> also give you a hint of the end output. However, I stress that is nothing
>> more than a stub right now. So please provide your suggestions.
>
> --cut--
>>
>
>
> Nice to see the detailed approach.
> I will suggest forwarding to respective language wiki mailing list, in
> addition to city mailing lists to reach the target audience.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Arjun
>
>
Dear Indic wikimedians,
Thank you very much for the welcome messages and for making me feel at home.
Over the past few years I have interacted with many of you for the various
Indic Wiki related activities and we have done many successful projects.
Thank you very much for all those wonderful projects. Now when we are moving
to a different phase of growth of Wikimedia in India, I request more
support from your side.
To get started we shall together develop a plan for Indic language wikis and
design few pilot projects to gain learnings to drive growth. I propose to
develop this plan collaboratively and openly - in true wiki style. This
will include focused Indic language meetups, virtual meetings, desk research
and constantly synthesizing the findings from all of these into learnings.
These learnings will then flow into pilots that we will implement and review
and learn from.
For this purpose, I will be using the following page
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_….
It is very preliminary right now - but will keep updating it. The page will
give you a flavor of the kind of process and methodology I plan to use - and
also give you a hint of the end output. However, I stress that is nothing
more than a stub right now. So please provide your suggestions.
I will be in touch soon and regularly on the next steps and I will keep you
constantly posted on progress - both positive and whenever we face setbacks.
The task is huge. The potential is even more massive. I will need a lot of
your help. I invite and welcome and urge all of you to contribute to this
process - during physical meetups, in virtual meetings, one-on-one
conversations or meetings, on the talk page to the Indic Languages page and
in any and every manner that you can imagine.
As part of the India Programs of WMF, my official ID is shiju(a)wikimedia.org.
You can reach me anytime regarding any WMF's Indic wiki related topic.
Thanks
Shiju
On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 7:24 AM, Hisham <hisham(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other
> mailing lists.
>
> Dear All
>
> As I had mentioned in a previous posting (and as was so touchingly welcomed
> by so many of of you), Shiju Alex is joining us to lead our Indic Languages
> initiatives. In this mail (
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-July/003845.html),
> I had indicated that he would join around September-October.
>
> I'm really pleased to inform you that he has now joined India Programs (on
> September 24th.)
>
> Indic Languages is an important priority for us - and Shiju intends to
> start work on this urgently. He'll be in touch shortly on this matter.
>
> Welcome aboard, Shiju!
>
> Warmest Regards,
>
> hisham
>
>
cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other
mailing lists.
Dear All
As I had mentioned in a previous posting (and as was so touchingly welcomed
by so many of of you), Shiju Alex is joining us to lead our Indic Languages
initiatives. In this mail (
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-July/003845.html),
I had indicated that he would join around September-October.
I'm really pleased to inform you that he has now joined India Programs (on
September 24th.)
Indic Languages is an important priority for us - and Shiju intends to start
work on this urgently. He'll be in touch shortly on this matter.
Welcome aboard, Shiju!
Warmest Regards,
*hisham*
Hi everyone!
I wanted to let you know about a survey that I am running for female
contributors to any Wikimedia project. It is being ran by me as an
independent volunteer, *not* on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dDR3a3JfaTd0a…
If you are a female contributor and you are comfortable working in English,
please participate, and if you know any female contributors, please share it
with them.
Thanks so much!
Sarah Stierch
[[User:SarahStierch]]
--
GLAMWIKI Partnership Ambassador for Wikimedia <http://www.glamwiki.org/>
Wikipedian-in-Residence, Archives of American
Art<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SarahStierch>
and
Sarah Stierch Consulting
*Historical, cultural & artistic research & advising.*
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sarahstierch.com/
cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other mailing lists.
hisham
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Hisham Mundol <hmundol(a)wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Press Coverage: Request for Voices & Faces!
> Date: September 12, 2011 3:38:04 PM GMT+05:30
> To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Cc: CherianTinu Abraham <tinucherian(a)gmail.com>, Moka Pantages <mpantages(a)wikimedia.org>
>
> Hi Folks
>
> In the last couple of days, we've had a couple of really insightful, well-written articles on Wikipedia and you, the community.
> http://www.timescrest.com/life/you-cant-copypaste-this-homework-6226
>
> http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110911/jsp/7days/story_14492284.jsp
>
> I want to acknowledge the behind-the-scenes work of Tinu and Moka. (Most of you know Tinu - who's a community member based out of Bangalore. For those of you who don't know, Moka handles Global Communications for the Wikimedia Foundation.) They have worked on making sure that we convey the right messages as well as making the articles as inclusive of as many community members as possible - by covering the stories of as wide a range of editors as possible. The result of their work is the high-quality articles I've referenced above.
>
> We will continue to get requests from the press and I'd love to have them tell the tales of an even larger and more varied group of community members. It'll help to convey the diversity and magic of the community. Can I request you let Tinu and I know (offlist please) if you are willing to be interviewed by journalists in future? Every one of your stories will add emotion to an article - no matter how simple or otherwise your story is.
>
> Also, a practical issue that we are facing is that we don't have enough print-quality images of community meet ups. Can you please add as many high-resolution images of as many community meet ups, outreach events, etc. as you can to Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) so that the press can access it more easily - and they can celebrate the human face of Wikipedia in newspapers and magazines?
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Warm Regards,
>
> hisham
>