Ralph, This is indeed a great opportunity to create greater awareness about the Kannada wikipedia. We need a lot more contributors to Kannada wikipedia. Exhibitions are hectic but p;pose the best outreach opportunity. I though of sharing some learnings from the recent exhibit stall we had at the World Sanskrit Book fair for you and the other volunteers to consider: - These exhibitions tend to draw lot of crowds and can be very exhausting. - There needs to be 4 volunteers at a given time in the stall. - Volunteers need to be in shifts of 2 hours to be effective and retain energy reserves. - Most of the questions in event like these are general awareness, what they can do as readers, how they need to do if they need to contribute (whom to contact). Discussions will not be very technical. (except in the cases of very few visitors) - Having pamphlets is a a great help with the links to wikimedia.in, kannada wikipedia and other projects, India meetup page. We struggled writing the links through the 2 days as we did not have any pamphlets. - We now have the banners from the W10 event in Bangalore. These will be of great use. - Take the wikireader, it generates a lot of interest. It is now with HPN. - Suggest 3-4 laptops with a data card each. This is better than using a single projector. We did not use a projector. One to one discussions are most effective. - Take a a few notebooks to write down contacts of people who want help to become contributors. - You will also run into people who would want to give away content they have created to wikipedia. This is as always a great opportunity. - From our past experience, the volunteers knowing wikipedia (even using is good). Key messages to communicate can be shared with the team. The general public is not very well informed on specifics of wikipedia except being aware. Many may not know about it in Indian languages. - The volunteers need the ability to communicate and relate to the varied audience and backgrounds. This is the most important skill than even being insightful. - Have at least one senior wikipedian in the stall to answer the difficult or detailed questions. - Overlap some volunteers across days to carry the learning and experience of earlier days across subsequent days. - Expect people to ask questions about Kanaja and other similar projects. They may also have stalls. Best wishes for the event. regards Arun Bangalore, India www.twitter.com/arunram On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 9:52 AM, Ralph <work.well.done.in(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote: _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-in-blr mailing list Wikimedia-in-blr(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-blr

Await your comments. Thanks. Ralph