Hi All,
Here is a abridged summary of the 37th Bangalore Wiki Meetup Summary
on 11thSeptember 2011 at CIS, Bangalore
*Talk: Technology related issues in Wiki projects and their solutions (By
Santhosh Thottingal)*
*
*
This Skype session was presented by the foundation member Santhosh
Thottingal. First of all he was formally greeted by the Wikipedians from
Bangalore for the new position. Santhosh introduced the Narayam project and
its advancements, participation of Malayalam Wikimedian Junaid.V for the
development of typing tools for all the Indian Wikimedia projects and
Myanmar Wikipedia, fixing several bugs and further improvements.
Then answering a question raised by Naveen Francis about how foundation is
going to take initiatives for solving display problems for Iphone/Android
based handheld devices he explained how this technological gaps would be
narrowed in the coming days though foundation doesn’t have any project soon
specifically for this project. FYI the latest Iphone 4 and Android 2.0
supports Indic font rendering while Android 2.2 has rendering issues.
As there are many users who are failing to use Indic Wikipedias because of
font and rendering related issues Santhosh shared his experience, past
issues and their solutions. He also has shared how the typographer of the
Sourashtra language font has come up to release it in PD so that it could be
used by all. The current project for web fonts especially for Indic fonts
have successfully been tested in
www.Translatewiki.net<http://www.translatewiki.net/>which will be soon
launched for all the Indic Wikipedias. The web font
project has even gone beyond the Indic WPs and is also successful for
Hebrew, few
European languages and Myanmar which has rendering issues even in Win 7.
Santhosh also shared his experience related to Text-To-Speech application
development for Indian languages which would be a boon for the visually
impaired people. There would be a common high volume word and phonetic sound
database which would be used to generate downloadable mp3/ogv files so the
Wikipedia articles could be converted to audio files. Though the complexity
of Indian languages doesn’t make this an easy task there had been lot of
advancements in this project which is available for testing at www.silpa.in.
Santhosh explained the thought of outreach programs such as Wiki Maratrhon
to bring more developers into the community which would be one of his talks
in the Mumbai WCI who will address issues in Indian language Wikipedias.
Then he moved onto question based discussion about OCR (Optical character
Reader) and machine translation or TDI, expllained the complexity of the
developing tools to for Indic languages.
Then there was a discussion about WikiProjectIndia by Naveen Francis. Naveen
explained the hierarchy of the project, campus collaborations like
Symbiosis, Pune for Economy subject under this major project. He also
focussed how outreach programs driven in both regional as well as in English
Wikipedia to bring more editors into the project which would be beneficial
for all the Wikipedias. Wikimedians also discussed glimpses of using
different tools in Wiki, Assessment, Analysis of web hits for regional Wiki.
Then there was a small discussion for the regional Wikipedias, how more
editing sessions would help developing Wikipedias. Subha explained the
statistics of Odia Wikipedia followed by a discussion for promoting regional
Wikipedia using social sites like Facebook, taking the Wikipedias to school
children and the government for creating bigger Wiki projects.
regards
*
ସୁଭପାSubhaPa
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ
_______________________________________________
Wikipedia Odia (Oriya) mailing list
wikipedia-or(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-orfacebook.com/OdiaWiki
Tweet @OdiaWiki
..............................
Mailing list for Wikimedians / Wikipedians in & from Bangalore, India
wikimedia-in-blr(a)lists.wikimedia.org
*
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
>
Hi all,
Bangalore Wiki Community invites you the regular monthly meetup on 11 Sep
2011, scheduled at 3.00 PM IST at The Centre for Internet and
Society<http://cis-india.org/>,
Domlur, Bangalore.
Please find the details and sign up at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:MBL37
We also request you to suggest talks and discussions in the *Discussion
page.*<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Meetup/Bangalore/B…>
.
Kind regards
*
Subha Pa
*Mailing list for Wikimedians / Wikipedians in & from Bangalore,
India<wikimedia-in-blr(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cross-posting to reach pan-India
Thanks
Nitika
From: Nitika Tandon [mailto:ntandon@wikimedia.org]
Sent: 05 September 2011 16:40
To: 'wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org'
Subject: Update, Examples & Request: Wikipedia India Education Program
Hi Folks,
I thought I’ll share an update with you’ll on the Wikipedia India Education Program. It's running majorly in 2 colleges in Pune (Symbiosis School of Economics and College of Engineering Pune). We already have over 1000 students enrolled from just these 2 colleges. Most of these students have gone through one or more out of a total of 35 introductory, basic editing and refresher sessions conducted by Campus Ambassadors.
It’s good to see big numbers but I thought I’ll also share with you some articles that the students have been working on. It’s really inspiring to see their progress! J
User: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Abhilasha369> Abhilasha369 started a new article: Robinson Crusoe Economy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe_Economy>
User: basic.atari <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Basic.atari> is working on article Human capital <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital>
User: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/SaurabhKB> SaurabhKB is editing <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organizing_list> Self-organizing list
User: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Aishani_Sharma> Aishani Sharma on Social preferences <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_preferences>
User: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Jinchurikidan> Jinchurikidan has been actively editing the article on Animation studio <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation_studio>
These is still some way to go on these articles but I think they are fantastic starts! The 5 users and articles above are just illustrative. You can also track progress of the entire program here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:INDIAEDU
Please do reach out to the students (not just the one's listed above) and offer help and encouragement. Please do help them out on their articles as well. While they have been trained, they're going to need a lot of support because they are almost entirely newbies. Please do also leave kind words for the Campus Ambassadors. They've been doing amazing work!
Thanks
Nitika Tandon
Cross-posting to reach pan-India
Thanks
Nitika
From: Nitika Tandon [mailto:ntandon@wikimedia.org]
Sent: 06 September 2011 20:59
To: 'wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org'
Subject: Want to Help Newbie Editor Students of the India Education
Program?: Inviting Online Ambassadors!
Greetings,
As many of you are aware, the Wikipedia India Education Program works with
teachers and students to encourage Wikipedia in the classroom. The basic
idea is that teachers ask their students to edit Wikipedia articles instead
of submitting traditional reports, assignments, etc. Students and teachers
are trained and supported and motivated by Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors -
who are volunteers. We currently have 1,000 students in the pilot we are
running in Pune; the response has been amazing!
There are huge challenges also. Most of the students have already been
taught the basics of Wikipedia by their Campus Ambassadors. However, they
need more help. The workload on Campus Ambassadors is already massive (as
there are hardly 20 Campus Ambassadors for 1,000 students). It is going to
keep increasing as more and more of the students start editing as we are now
in the 2nd half of their semesters - and therefore closer to the last dates
for their articles. We are already increasing Campus Ambassadors numbers by
15 in the next few days - but that still won't be enough.
We're separately building a team of passionate and helpful folks - with good
mentoring and teaching skills - to be Wikipedia Online Ambassadors. Online
Ambassadors will help these students by providing online support and
hand-holding so that the students can make high-quality contributions.
Online Ambassadors can be based anywhere in India (or indeed the world)
since their interaction with students will be over the internet.
I am reaching out to you to see whether you would be interested in helping
students and teachers and becoming a Wikipedia Online Ambassador.
We have two different Online Ambassador roles: Level 1 and Level 2.
. Level 1 is open to everyone - including people who have never edited
Wikipedia before - and will support students on really basic Wikipedia
questions. (They will be given specific training on this.)
. Level 2 is open to experienced Wikipedians and will support students on
more advanced Wikipedia questions.
Both Level 1 and Level 2 roles will be provided orientation sessions.
Currently, all the students are working on English wikipedia.
Passion for helping others and the ability to help newbies are the most
essential qualities for both levels. For more information about these roles
and what is expected of them, please see this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Online_Ambass
adors/Description. The time commitment is 3-5 hours per week on average
throughout the semester (or academic term.)
I warmly invite and highly encourage you to apply to become a Wikipedia
Online Ambassador! To apply, please go to:
https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEdtdG5
ObU9mMm5oZno3MExDc3lEZHc6MA - by Monday, September 12th (earlier is better),
and we will be in touch very soon about next steps. If you have any
questions, please do reach out to me either on this mailing list or offlist.
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
Thank you so very much! I look forward to your application.
Sincerely,
Nitika Tandon
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: India Programs Team: Starting Selection Process for New Team Members
> Date: September 2, 2011 3:32:04 PM GMT+05:30
> To: "Discussion list on Indian language projects of Wikimedia." <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
>
> Hi Folks
>
> I'm writing to update you that the selection process of 2 more team members of the India Programs team has commenced. (As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we've selected Shiju & Nitika for our efforts on Indic languages and Participation.) The 2 positions I'm referring to in this mail are the remaining members of the team:
>
> Communications. This person will manage all communications, public relations/media, social media & digital outreach.
> Team Support. This person will manage all the backend (but essential) operations of the team - such as office administration and basic accounting and personnel management.
>
> Details on the positions as well as the application process are available on the Wikimedia Foundation site :-
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Communications_-_India_…
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Team_Support_-_India_Pr…
>
> Similar to the process that we followed for the earlier selections, these have been posted on linkedin. (I'll be cross posting this mail on local wikimedia mailing lists, as well as the main FOSS India mailing list.)
>
> Can I request the following from as many of you as possible:
>
> We'd love to have existing Wikimedians on board. Please do apply if you're interested!
> Please share this mail with anyone you know who might be interested.
> Pls broadcast these links on your social networks, mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc.
>
> fyi, last date is 10 September.
>
> Please do not hesitate to contact me for any clarifications.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Hisham Mundol
>
> Wikimedia India Programs
> skype : hisham.wikimedia
> gtalk : hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
> twitter : @mundol
>
> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
>
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: India Programs Team: Starting Selection Process for New Team Members
> Date: September 2, 2011 7:44:26 AM GMT+05:30
> To: "Discussion list on Indian language projects of Wikimedia." <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
>
> Hi Folks
>
> I'm writing to update you that the selection process of 2 more team members of the India Programs team has commenced. (As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we've selected Shiju & Nitika for our efforts on Indic languages and Participation.) The 2 positions I'm referring to in this mail are the remaining members of the team:
>
> Communications. This person will manage all communications, public relations/media, social media & digital outreach.
> Team Support. This person will manage all the backend (but essential) operations of the team - such as office administration and basic accounting and personnel management.
>
> Details on the positions as well as the application process are available on the Wikimedia Foundation site :-
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Communications_-_India_…
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Team_Support_-_India_Pr…
>
> Similar to the process that we followed for the earlier selections, these have been posted on linkedin. (I'll be cross posting this mail on local wikimedia mailing lists, as well as the main FOSS India mailing list.
>
> Can I request the following from as many of you as possible:
>
> We'd love to have existing Wikimedians on board. Please do apply if you're interested!
> Please share this mail with anyone you know who might be interested.
> Pls broadcast these links on your social networks, mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc.
>
> Please do not hesitate to contact me for any clarifications.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Hisham Mundol
>
> Wikimedia India Programs
> skype : hisham.wikimedia
> gtalk : hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
> twitter : @mundol
>
> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Bangalore/Bangalore36
Hi folks,
My sincere apologies for the late writeup.
The 36th Bangalore Wiki Meetup was organized on 14 Aug 2011 at CIS,
Bengaluru and attended by 8 Wikipedians.
Talks
*Shiju*
Shiju was formally greeted by the Bangalore community for being appointed as
a consultant by the foundation for Indic initiatives. He shared his
experience in Wikimania-2011, Hafia, Israel, how he interacted with the
attendees over there, the motivation and interest and also the growth
perspectives which could also be part of his initiatives in the coming days.
He spoke about the discussions held over.
*Hisham*
Hisham has explained about the tidbits of the Pune pilot program to the
Bangalore community, the details of the outreach movement and its outcome.
He also explained about the mobo initiatives of the foundation to make
Wikipedia available for handheld mobile devices. Indic initiatives would be
one of the other prime focus of the foundation in terms of facilitating the
growth of Indian Wikipedias. Wikipedias of The Netherlands and Germany might
be used as a helping entity where the substantial growth and the strategy
lying therein would also help program new plans for Indian as well as
English Wikipedia in India. He also spoke about GLAM, successful initiatives
in several museums in the UK and how the same strategies could be applied
here to guide people to contribute more for Wikipedia. Hisham also talked
about distribution of 90,000 laptops in Government schools in Assam and
helping the students use and contribute for Wikipedia. He showed the glimpse
of Pune programs, how Nikhil from the Pune community visited school to
school to bring out an active mass for the pilot program. He also mentioned
the statistics of the Pune how 20 Campus ambassadors with the guidance of
100 teachers brought out thousands of articles.
*Nitika*
Hisham introduced Nitika to the Bangalore community. She then was greeted by
the community and talked briefly about her new position, the motivation and
participation and interests.
*Doscussions:*
*Srikanth R.*
Srikanth spoke about the geo-tagging in commons, explained how it would help
to locate places in off and in-Wiki, demonstrated photo upload in Commons
and spoke about the benefits of uploading high quality photos in Commons
with the commercial tags attached by the photographer as most photographers
about their photos uploaded in Commons can never be sold by them.
EC president Arjuna interacted about the chapter and its coordination with
the community where Arun had interaction with the other members.
*
ସୁଭପାSubhaPa
_______________________________________________
Wikipedia Odia (Oriya) mailing list
wikipedia-or(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-orfacebook.com/OdiaWiki
Tweet @OdiaWiki
*
*The Economic Times : "Oral citations to be part of wikipedia entries"*
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/oral-citations-to-be-part…
*When you set out to make the entire global knowledge base freely accessible
, can you leave out subjects that find very little mention in print? The
question posed by Bangalore based researcher Achal Prabhala, has kicked off
a debate among Wikipedia editors, the volunteers behind world's largest
encyclopedia . The collaborative online encyclopedia , supported by the
non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, has over 19 million articles written by
about 90,000 editors across the world. Achal began working on the problem in
January 2011 and carried out a project called the Oral Citations to find
ways to increase local language entries into Wikipedia . At the crux of the
problem is the lack of printed material in local languages and for topics
related to indigenous culture. Editors find it difficult to add articles
because of the lack of citable material. *
*
*
*Right now, the online encyclopedia relies heavily on published material
like newspapers , journals and magazines for citations . However, when it
comes to vernaculars , there is very little published material available and
editors often find a huge amount of knowledge being left out defeating the
entire objective of Wikipedia. Take for instance, Dabba Kali, a traditional
game played in North Kerala is finds very little or almost no reference in
citable sources. "But that's also an important part of culture," says Achal.
"The sum of human knowledge is far greater than the sum of printed knowledge
," he argues. Of late, the Wikimedia foundation has been trying to make its
projects more global. While this is relatively easy in developed countries
with better infrastructure which generate a lot of citable material, the
problem in developing and underdeveloped countries are acute. *
*
*
*" Germany, whose entire population is a fraction of India's online
population has a massive footprint on Wikipedia. While a country like India
is behind. Why is that?" asks Achal. "Because there is a lot more published
material which can be used for citations out there... maybe, because the
people who made the project largely were from the Anglo European or Japanese
world, there has been a conflation of the sum of human knowledge and sum of
printed knowledge," says Achal who mainly works on intellectual property
issues related to medicine. With Shiju Alex, a Malayalam Wikipedian ,
Mayur,one of the top 20 global contributors to the encyclopedia and
Mohau
Monaledi, a software developer from South Africa, Achal set out to find how
easy it is to create original articles that discuss things that have not
been discussed before and are particular to a linguistic culture. "We found
that the citation rules are a huge problem. What do you do when the largest
university library in South Africa has only 80 books in Sepedi, a South
African language spoken by five million people ? Of that, most are bibles
and dictionaries and fiction and poetry which is not good for citations," he
says. The situation is no different for Malayalam or Hindi. *
*
*
*In Kannur, the number of Malayalam books in the varsity library is not more
than 3,000. "A lot of that is also translation which don't contain original
Malayalam knowledge which don't deal with topics intrinsic to Kerala," he
said. He also points out a relatively newer problem: the rules for citations
were made a few years ago when social media was not big and the Internet was
different. While the Internet culture has changed, to become a significant
part of people's lives, the idea is to broaden the base of citation "to
reflect peoples lives more realistically ." So will this change the way
Wikipedia works? "This is a discussion within a community and the desire is
to take it to its logical conclusion. Now we want to know what we can do
around citations as a whole and depending on the inputs make it more
concrete," he said. The project, however, has not been without its share of
critics within the volunteer community. One of the longest running thread,
in the recent history of the foundations public mailing list, debates the
project with scathing criticism, supporting arguments and balanced
suggestions . *
*
*
*For instance, Ziko van Dijk, a Wikimedian from Netherlands, writes: "So,
when someone believes that those "accessible printed sources" are "biased" ,
he comes up with the video of his grand uncle telling the truth? I don't
think that it fits into the scope of Wikimedia. It certainly does not fit
into the scope of Wikipedia." Achal counters: "First, this is an experiment
- an experiment which those of us working on it, and others around us,
thought might lead to interesting result ... the project is not on "oral
history" - it's on using oral sources as citations." Indian Wikipedians have
not been sparing either. For the new generation which is growing up on the
internet, the whole world of referencing and authority is online instead of
through print and very little of that is allowed on Wikipedia, they counter.
Criticsim of the project comes from local Wikipedians too. A Wikipedia
editor told ET: "I'm a bit sceptical about the project. One of our core
principles is we don't do original research. But with oral citations, we
will begin to do original citations. Wikipedia is a tertiary source and not
a primary source. This will be a breach. Also, oral citations are more
unreliable than printed sources." He, however, concedes that the area of
oral citations is relatively unexplored and has potential for study.
"Perhaps it is time to have a conversation around how you can include these
sources ?" says Achal. The debate still goes on.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Aug_2011
Excellent! Good to know that it is co-hosted by the Department of Public
Libraries.
I'll try and make some time this Sunday to help. Feel free to connect with
me on phone if you need any help before the event.
On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 5:16 PM, Arjuna Rao Chavala <arjunaraoc(a)gmail.com>wrote:
> Hi Members and Wikimedia Community in Bangalore,
>
> I am glad to announce that we are planning for the first Wiki academy<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/File:WikiAcademyCoHostingOpportunityBrochure.pdf>
> co-hosted by Department of Public Libraries, Karnataka for their senior
> Library professionals The draft agenda is as follows
>
> Date: 29 Aug 2011, Monday
>
> Time: 11AM to 2 PM
>
> Venue: Indira Priyadarshini Childrens Library, Near State Central Library,
> Cubbon Park, Bangalore
>
> Agenda
>
> 11:00-11:30 Wikipedia History and Overview
>
> 11:30-12:00 Wikipedia policies
>
> 12:00-12:15 Setting up computer for Indian languages
>
> 12:15-12:30 Break
>
> 12:30-14:00 Wikimedia Lab: Browsing Wikipedia,Editing Wikipedia
>
> We invite volunteers especially Kannada wikipedians to join the Chapter EC
> members in co-facilitate this event.
>
> Cheers
> Arjun
>
>
--
Hari Prasad Nadig
http://hpnadig.nethttp://twitter.com/hpnadighttp://flickr.com/hpnadig