cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other mailing lists.
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Hisham Mundol <hmundol(a)wikimedia.org>
> Date: August 24, 2011 8:49:42 AM GMT+05:30
> To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: India Programs-Monthly IRC: Welcoming Nitika & Shiju - Thursday August 25th @ 9pm IST (#wikimedia-office)
>
> Hi Folks
>
> As I mentioned earlier, we're scheduling the Monthly IRC of India Programs tomorrow (Thursday August 25th) at 9pm IST. This will be on the #wikimedia-office channel. (For those who are not familiar with IRC, it is an Internet messaging system similar to a regular chat room. It's very simple to use and you can join in by clicking on the following link: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wikimedia-office)
>
> The main agenda items are to give an update on India Programs - and also for Nitika and Shiju to introduce themselves, and for you to get to know them better. For those who missed the earlier mail exchanges on this, Nitika Tandon and Shiju Alex have joined the Wikimedia Foundation's team in India. (Nitika has already started and Shiju will be starting shortly.) I'm really excited about the additions to the team and I invite you to come join us tomorrow night to welcome them aboard!
>
> Hope to see many, many of you tomorrow.
>
> Best
>
> 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!
>
Hi Wikians,
Wikimania fever is over!
Those who have attended would have experienced the greatness of interacting
to many Wikipedians over the world. How about sharing your experiences and
learning with others?
We are all set to observe the 36th Bangalore Wiki Meetup just before a day
of India's Independence Day.
*Date & Time:* 14 August 2011, 3.00 PM (IST)
*Venue:*
The Centre for Internet and Society <http://cis-india.org/>
No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross,
4th Main
Domlur 2nd Stage
Opposite to Domlur Club
Bangalore 560 071
Visit the other details and sign up for the event at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Bangalore/Bangalore36
Please sign up and write your ideas in the facebook event
page.<http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=273269979355472>
Expecting to meet you all who're there in Bangalore.
Warm regards.
*
SubhashishPanigrahi
*
cross-posting pan India (apologies if you got/get this through other mailing lists.)
Hi Folks,
I'm really pleased to send out this email welcoming the first 2 new members of the India Programs team. Just before I introduce them, I thought I'd share with you the background of their selection.
Context
As you might be aware, the Foundation had decided to undertake a catalyst operation in India to promote the growth of the community and projects here. The team is expected to be a small, nimble 5 person group. We had put out 2 job postings - for Indic Initiatives and for Participation. (Please refer: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-May/003007.html) We posted them on linkedin and on the Indian FOSS community list as well as announcing them on various Facebook pages and Twitter feeds.
The response was wonderful. >110 applications for Indic Initiatives and nearly 175 applications for Participation. These were short-listed to 10 (3 for Indic Language and 7 for Participation.) These were a mix of existing & previous Wikipedians, Wikipedia newbies and open source advocates.
In June, the shortlisted 10 were interviewed and further down-selected to 4. These 4 were then further interviewed by a group of other staff members from the Foundation. I am pleased to inform the community of the final selected 2.
Shiju Alex - Indic Initiatives
Most of you already know Shiju. For those who don't, Shiju is a long-time Wikipedian [User: shijualex] and is active on Malayalam Wikipedia, English wikiprojects and Wikimedia Commons, as well as Wikisource and offline. He has been passionately involved with the establishing and building of Indic language Wikipedias. He's participated in a series of outreach activities and is also (jointly) undertaking a grant from the Foundation for outreach across India. He's a regular member of the Bangalore community.
Shiju is from Palakkad, Kerala and is married with a 2 year old baby. He currently works as a Senior Technical Writer with ABB in Bangalore.
Even those of you who know him might not know the following 2 things that I was lucky to discover during the selection process. Shiju is an MSc in Physics with a specialisation in Astronomy and Astrophysics - and he retains a deep interest in anything astronomical. Feel free to quiz him vigorously on this! He also enjoys trekking and misses his time in Pune where he could be up & close the gorgeous Sahyadri Hills.
Shiju is going to lead our work on promoting Indic language projects across India. The challenges are enormous - from technical constraints to low levels of awareness of these projects to vibrant but nascent communities. However, these only point to the massive size of the opportunity for Indic language projects - which is the joint top-2 strategic priority of the movement in India. After he joins, he'll collaboratively put together a plan for Indic language projects and work towards quality execution of high-impact initiatives.
Shiju is currently serving out his notice period so will be able to join us only around September - October.
Nitika Tandon - Participation
Nitika [User:nitika.t] is relatively newer to the community - and has been brushing up her editing. She's been immersing herself in the Wikimedia world and attended community meet-ups as well as reviews of the Wikipedia India Education Program. She is from Delhi - and is currently based in Mumbai - where she works as a Strategic Partnerships Manager with Directi. (If you're not aware, they are one of the most prominent internet domain & solutions providers in India.)
Nitika has an MBA and has also worked on research analytics. A fascinating detail I discovered about a previous assignment of hers - and you must ask her about it - is how African drums can be used for management coaching! She also reliably informs me that there are 7 Spanish dance forms and she instructs in all of them!
Nitika is going to be working on Participation - which is primarily focussed on increasing the contributor base of non-Indic language projects, primarily Wikipedia. One of her first tasks will be to expand the Wikipedia India Education Program from the Pune pilot to a more national footprint. She'll also work on other initiatives to promote participation - and I can foresee Wikimedia Commons being a potential initiative.
Nitika will join us on August 1st.
Introductions
I'm going to be scheduling the August Monthly India Programs IRC on Thursday August 18th to introduce them both to you. Please do join us. I'll send a reminder closer to the date. Also, needless to say, they'll be attending a series of community meet-ups over the next months.
In the meantime, please do join me in welcoming them onboard. I'm really excited because this means that we will now have the capacity and capability to dramatically accelerate our activities in India.
Warmest Regards,
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!
No, it is not. If it is something you like - best test it in a test wiki - you should propose it to be activated in your wiki community, and if they agree, you can create a request for enabling it in bugzilla.Wikimedia.org with reference to the consensus.
--
Siebrand Mazeland
M: +31 6 50 69 1239
Skype: siebrand
Op 31 jul. 2011 om 19:59 heeft Ashwin Baindur <ashwin.baindur(a)gmail.com> het volgende geschreven:
> Is this enabled on En:WP?
>
> Warm regards,
>
> Ashwin Baindur
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Siebrand Mazeland <s.mazeland(a)xs4all.nl> wrote:
> Recently an extension called Favorites was added to the MediaWiki code[1]. is this (exactly) what you meant?
>
> [1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Favorites
>
> ]What can this extension do?
>
> This extension is designed to create a list of Favorites per-user, similar to the Watchlist. It also allows for the list of favorites to be embedded on a page using a tag.
>
> --
> Siebrand Mazeland
>
> M: +31 6 50 69 1239
> Skype: siebrand
>
> Op 31 jul. 2011 om 19:13 heeft RadhaKrishna Arvapally <radhakrishna.arvapally(a)gmail.com> het volgende geschreven:
>
>> After logging-in, it would be good to have a bookmarking facility in wikipedia.
>> (watch list is not meant for this purpose)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
After logging-in, it would be good to have a bookmarking facility in
wikipedia.
(watch list is not meant for this purpose ...)
--
Thanks & Regards,
A.Radha Krishna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Arkrishna
WIKIMEDIA CHAPTER invites you to a seminar on Copyright and Open licensing
Date: 30 July 2011
Time: 5PM to 8PM
Venue: TERI Auditorium, Domlur, Bangalore
Agenda
05:00PM – 05:05PM Welcome and Introduction of Wikimedia Chapter and
today's seminar speakers .. Gautam, Secretary, Wikimedia Chapter
05:00PM - 05:45PM Copyright law and plagiarism: 101 ... Sudhir
Krishnaswamy, Azim Premji University
05:45PM - 06:30PM Indian copyright law and the Commons: 101 ...
Pranesh Prakash, Centre for Internet and Society
06:30PM - 06:45PM Tea break
06:45PM-07:30PM Open licensing and Creative Commons:101 ... Danish
Sheikh: Alternative Law Forum
07:30PM-08:00PM Q&A
Objectives of the Seminar:
To educate attendees about Copyrights and Open licensing, Wikimedia
copyright policies and how one can become a better contributor to
Wikimedia projects.
About the Speakers:
Sudhir Krishnaswamy: Sudhir was a Professor of Law at the West Bengal
National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata India where he
taught Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence. He studied law at the
National Law School of India University, Bangalore (BA LLB 1998) and
the University of Oxford (BCL 2000 and DPhil 2008). Before NUJS he
taught at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and
Pembroke College, University of Oxford. He has engaged with the
Government at various levels including the Prime Minister’s Committee
on Infrastructure and the Kasturirangan Committee on Bangalore’s
Governance.
Pranesh Prakash: Pranesh Prakash is a graduate with a degree in Arts
and Law from National Law School, Bangalore, with a keen interest in
the law, economics, and culture of intellectual property rights. He
helped found the Indian Journal of Law and Technology, and was part of
its editorial board for two years. He is most interested in
interdisciplinary research on IP and property law, freedom of speech,
and privacy. He has worked with practicing lawyers, civil society
organizations, and law firms.
Danish Sheikh: After 5 years of worrying about the ways in which law
school irreversibly damaged him, the Alternative Law Forum in
Bangalore in their infinite wisdom has given Danish a place to work.
Registration:
Free on first come first served. Pre registration recommended by
signing on the event page on Wikimedia Chapter wiki events page.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Events/Copyright_and_Open_Licensing_Seminar
For more information:
Gautam K John, Secretary, Wikimedia Chapter: gkjohn(a)wikimedia.in
Wikimedia Chapter, No.194, 2nd C Cross, Dommaluru 2nd Stage, Bangalore-560071.
http://wikimedia.in, Email: chapter(a)wikimedia.in
Sponsored by:
Centre for Internet and Society, Dommaluru
About Wikimedia Chapter:
Wikimedia Chapter is a not for profit Society registered on 3 Jan 2011
with Office of Registrar of Socities, 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. It has over
64 members who are passionate about Wikipedia and sister projects from
all over India and representing several Indian languages. Wikimedia
Chapter is an autonomous entity and works in close coordination with
Wikimedia Foundation.
Thank you.
Best,
Gautam
(For Wikimedia Chapter, India)
*Bangalore Mirror : "Not just the written word"*
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/article/81/20110724201107240043349229ed6f4b5…
*Bangalore-based Wikipedians are spearheading an experimental initiative,
the Oral Citations Project to overcome the lack of published material in
emerging languages on the online encyclopedia initiative, the Oral Citations
Project to overcome the lack of published material in emerging languages on
the online encyclopedia*
*
*
*There is more Wikipedia in India but it would be interesting if there could
be more India in Wikipedia...or more South Africa for that matter” — this
view put forth by researcher and Wikipedian Achal Prabhala in the film
People are Knowledge, probably sums up the need for capturing simple things
that we know and do in forms other than the published material. *
*
*
*And taking this thought forward is the Oral Citations Project, a pilot
project which explores alternative methods of citation that could be
employed on Wikipedia. Funded through a grant by the Wikimedia Foundation,
the essence of how this project was undertaken is captured quite lyrically
in the short 40-minute film. *
*
*
*“For most of our learning, a majority of us are trained to look at
something that comes in the published form because the written word is
considered sacrosanct. That way, we become prisoners of a system of
hierarchy of knowledge. But there are so many things that we know and do in
our everyday lives that are not documented in the written form or any other
form for that matter. Recording these things in some form would add to the
vast knowledge base,” says Bangalore-based Achal Prabhala who is also member
of the Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board and makes South Africa his home
for three months in a year. *
*
*
*Achal adds that the nature of the project is experimental as nothing like
this has ever been done in Wikipedia before and if it finally gets
implemented, it would be a path-breaking venture. *
*
*
*The idea behind this project was this — Wikipedia privileges printed
knowledge (books, journals, magazines, newspapers and more) as authentic
sources of citable material. Restricting citation sources makes the
enterprise workable. But books and printed words generally are closely
correlated to rich economies: Europe, North America, and a small section of
Asia.*
*
*
*“Just to give an example — in 2005, 161,000 books were produced for a
population of 60 million people, while in South Africa there were 6,100
books for 48 million people and in India for a population of 1100 million
people, only 97,000 books were published. What this means for indigenous
language Wikipedias from India and South Africa is that there is very little
citable, printed material to rely on in those languages; in turn, it means
that it is very difficult for any of those languages to grow on Wikipedia,”
adds Achal. *
*
*
*The project was done with three Wikipedia languages — Malayalam, Hindi and
Sepedi (a South African language) and the subjects chosen to be documented
through audio interviews were two games Sur and Gillidanda in Hindi,
Naaliyar Bhagavathi Theyyam, a temple ritual and Dappa Kali, a folk game,
both from Kerala in Malayalam and in Sepedi, Mokgope, a country liquor made
from the marula fruit, and two games played in Limpopo in South Africa,
Kgati and Tsere Tsere. Collaborators for the project are Bangalore-based IT
professional Shiju Alex and Mayur, Mohau Monaledi of South Africa and Achal
Prabhala, with additional help from Vijayakumar Blathur. *
*
*
*“We wanted to take up languages that were varied in terms of number of
people who spoke them and the kind of media market they reperesent. Sepedi
is a South African language spoken by just 5 million people with hardly any
media market or any published material in that language. The fact that these
language Wikipedias had active editors also helped. The common thread for
picking these topics was that there is hardly any written material on them
and whatever exists cannot be accessed,” says Shiju, a Malayalam Wikipedia
editor, who travelled along with Achal to witness and document Dappa Kali
and Naaliyar Bhagavathi. Achal also travelled to Johannesberg and Limpopo to
collaborate with Mohau, who recorded audio interviews with women who made
the liquor and played the age-old games. *
*
*
*In the long run, Shiju feels that this project will help in capturing for
posterity traditional symbols of Indian society that may get lost to the
coming generations. “Nobody plays Dappa Kali these days. Kids in Kerala are
more interested in cricket,” he rues. The project will be presented at the
forthcoming Wikimania to be held in Israel.*
*
*
*
*
*RECORDING THE PROCESS*
*
*
*The film People are Knowledge was shot and directed by Priya Sen with
additional assistance from Zen Marie and Achal Prabhala and was completed
this month. It includes interviews with noted experts in the field of
language, anthropology and women studies such as Jon Soske, a scholar of
Indo-African history, Urvashi Butalia, a pioneering feminist publisher and
writer, Isabel Hofmeyr from the University of the Witwatersrand and also
various people who were directly involved in the project. It records the
process of audio interviews done through internet telephony and documents
discussions held with a priest in a remote village in Kannur district, women
making liquor from marula and playing their native games and children
playing folk games in remote Kerala villages. *
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#July_2011