Hi all
Russavia from English Wikipedia and Commons here
I am currently looking for some photographers in several countries who
might be able to assist me with taking photos from India which I am
requiring for
some articles I am working on. I need photos from Chennai, Kolkata,
Mumbai, Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram
Details of what I require can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Russavia/Required_photos#.C2.A0India
If anyone is able to help me, or if anyone knows of photographers who
can help, feel free to contact me on this email (and to pass my email
on), or i can be contacted at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Russavia
In the event someone is able to help, and the photo subjects are
obscured, I may be able to organise with the local diplomatic mission
for inside access to take photos and the like, so this is an option if
anyone is willing.
Any help appreciated.
Cheers
Scotty (Russavia)
Dear All,
I have compiled the, statistical update of the Indic language Wikipedias
for the year 2011. In this report, my aim is to provide an analysis as well
as my perspectives on the health of various Indic language communities as
well as the state of various Indic language wikipedias for the year 2011.
(The period of analysis is editor contributions between 2011 January 1 and
2011 December 31). As always, a lot of the data for this report and
analysis are based on the statistical data published at
http://stats.wikimedia.org. Thanks to Erik Zachte for compiling all this
information.
I must also point out that this annual update contains a number of insights
that are derived not only from this data but directly from community
members who have shared a very real-world picture.
Read the annual update here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages/Statistics/201…
I welcome your comments on this annual update. Please discuss it on the
talk page. You can also reach me at shiju(a)wikimedia.org
Thanks
Shiju
I suddenly realised that amongst the guys who signed up for WikiProject
India in Jan-Feb are such hardcore Wikipedians as RSrikanth05, Joyson
Prabhu, Karthikndr & Sitush.
Which brings me to the corollary - there are oodles of established Indian
editors who are not yet members of WikiProject India!
Gosh, guys please sign up!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_India/Members
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------
Dear friends,
I would like to welcome Pratik Lahoti or User:BPositive to the fold of
people in charge of doing things in Wikipedia. BPositive is a young member
(in comparison to me :)) of Pune community and Wikipedia Pune Club. He was
an active Campus Ambassador in the first version of India Education
Program. Energetic and enthusiastic BPositive is taking charge of the
India Collaboration of the Month (INCOTM) process and is the first person
to volunteer to help me keep WikiProject India active by taking on a
specific responsibility.
All the best BPositive and hope you have a great time doing things new to
you till now!
I request the wider India community to welcome and support BPositive as he
guides us on our monthly INCOTMs.
AshLin
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for welcoming me to the INCOTM project. :)
I guess it's time for me to get started with the task in hand.
Well, as we are in the middle of the month, I would like to seek
suggestions for the article(s) to be included in the INCOTM for the month
of March 2012. Please reply back to this email with your suggestions. You
may also leave your suggestions and vote for the articles on the India
Notice Board<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Noticeboard_for_India-related_t…>.
Regards,
Pratik Lahoti
User:BPositive
The month of January passed quietly for WikiProject India on English
Wikipedia. However elsewhere, the SOPA/PIPA discussion in the United States
was the hot topic of the month andEnglish Wikipedia went dark on 18 January
for 24 hours in protest against these proposed laws.
At this point of time, getting the few small initiatives to keep going have
been our concern.
We have had [[Premchand]] as [[WP:INCOTM]] and [[Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi]] as GA of the month. Premchand has had substantial improvement. The
GA Master Class ( a hoity-toity name I picked up as an excuse for
periodically giving a few hints on the Wikimedia-in-en list) for Gandhi has
begun and some posts made. GA of the month is a misnomer because despites
lots of edits, there is tremendous amount of work yet to be done on Gandhi.
It seems that we will be doing a GA/FA a quarter instead. :( The new
INCOTM of the month is [[Dance in India]].
The Offline Wikipedia for Schools project has been dawdling along and we
need people to recommit themselves to this Project. Recently, I realised
that the most important parts of Wikipedia which need doing are not "pop
corn and fast food". They require commitment and seem too much like work.
They are not as much fun as editing on our favourite topics. That fact
perhaps is the reason people begn working on this project and finding it is
not much fun, gradually stop editing. However, lakhs of Indian children
await our output so I'm requesting particiants to return and recommit.
On the talk page, we have had a discussion since December and through
January into February about whether caste should be mentioned in
biographies. The protagonists quoting [[WP:BLP]] and [[WP:V]] took the
stand that caste should not be mentioned unless it has been self-identified
by the person concerned in a reliable source. Some Indian editors contested
it vehemently arguing that caste pervades Indian society and binding
strictures on its mention should not be placed. But when it boiled down to
a poll, the majority of editors stood up for the conservative position i.e.
noinclusion unless self-identified in a reliable source.
An earlier discussion about which should be the languages that a title of
an article should be translated into in the lead. After lots of discussion,
the discussion was closed as no consensus emerged except that IPA should
definitely be present for pronunciation. In this regard, I think common
sense and not misplaced parochialism should help us decide which all
laguanges the title should be transcribed into in the lead.
In this month, we saw Swaroop Rao, aka MikeLynch or Lynch7 as he
masquerades nowadays become an admin. That is great.
However, I am seeing more activity overall on English Wikipedia from the
habitual editors - which is a very good sign. Young former CAs are playing
up too but the spectre of exams had made its presence known by end January.
All in all, a fairly okay month for WikiProject India.
AshLin
Dear Prateek,
Here is the Standard Operating Procedure of the INCOTM (Collaboration of
the Month for WikiProject India on English Wikipedia) as requested.
Name of post: INCOTM Volunteer Coordinator.
Type of post: Wikipedia editor volunteer.
Duties: To run the collaborations of the month concerning WikiProject India.
Standard Operating Procedure:
1. The relevant pages are :
* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_India/Collaborations_of_the_month]]
* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_India/Collaborations_of_the_month/Procedure]]
(this page)
* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_India/Collaborations_of_the_month/Nominations]]
* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_India/Collaborations_of_the_month/History]]
2. Communication about INCOTM is primarily done at :
* [[Wikipedia_talk:Noticeboard_for_India-related_topics]] (also known as
India Notice board).
* [https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-en
Wikimedia-in-en] (Mailing list for Wikimedians working on India
related
content on English Wikipedia & related projects).
3. As per present policy, two articles are selected for development each
month - one is a generic Collaboration of the Month chosen for overall
improvement through joint efforts. The other is chosen for the specific
purpose of converting to GA or FA. The GA/FA article remains COTM till
achieved or abandoned by community consensus.
4. In the last week of the month, work begins to compile a short report
which examines and reports on the collaboration as a whole and the
improvements done to the articles. The report should be published as soon
as possible after the last day of the month. Based on contributions,
barnstars are given to the principal contributors or those who make
important contributions such as creating a diagram, etc. After the report,
the names of the last month's INCOTM and details of improvement are added
to the History page.
5. By the middle of the month, suggestions should be sought from the rest
of the community for next month's INCOTM candidates. These suggestions
should be given on the Nominations page. We ask people for suggestions both
on the Wikimedia-in-en list and India Notice board. After a few days,
notice about the suggestions received should be put up on India Notice
Board and list informed about it and asking people to suggest and/or vote.
Voting should begin immediately and end 48 to 72 hours later (at your
discretion). You may like to remind or prompt people to participate in the
process. After the voting is over, results are to be announced.
6. The old unsuccessful candidates are removed from the nomination so that
fresh nominations can be sought. but there is no hard & fast rule. You can
choose to retain any as per your discretion for another chance at its being
selected as INCOTM.
7. Though INCOTM has a talk page, it should be for specific queries related
to the process while all information, reports & other discussions carried
out on India Notice Board only.
Regards,
Ashwin
At the recent Wikipedia hackathon, I had the privilege of meeting
User:YuviPanda. While taking with him, I came to know that he had writen a
Google Chrome plugin. User: Yuvi Panda has come up with a great extension
which will help discoverability of Wikipedia articles. Since I don't recall
mention of this on the list (probably done about a year ago or so?) I'm
taking the liberty the liberty of re-introducing it in India in-en and my
lists.
YenWikipedia is an extension for both Chrome and Firefox downloadable from:
- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/yenwikipedia (creator -
yuvipanda)
-https://addas.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/yenikipedia (creator -
arunmozhi)
What does it do? When you use Google search and results turn up Wikipedia
articles, the add-on adds interwiki links for that article in the language
of your choice.
The setting of language for the inter-wiki choice is done while setting up
the options in chrome and can be also changed later on. The firefox
extension goes one better- it permits more than one language inter-wiki to
be chosen. In my configuration, my Chrome worked but I was unable to find
out how to adjust the languages in the Firefox.
That apart. it is an excellent idea and it really helps you discover
relevant Wikipedia articles in Indian languages.
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------
Cross posting.
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Nitika <ntandon(a)wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Improving outreach efforts in India
> Date: 13 February 2012 5:12:49 PM GMT+05:30
> To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
>
> Dear All,
>
> The following is a post I've put up on the India Program page on meta regarding outreach (Please see:http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:India_Program/Outreach_Programs). Please do comment on the page itself; I'm posting it on this mailing list only to make sure it doesn't slip your attention.
>
> We have conducted over 13 outreach sessions in the past one month and have many more events scheduled to participate in over the coming weeks. (Please see: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Outreach_Ses…). It's amazing that we're doing so many outreach events all over the country to create awareness about Wikipedia, motivate attendees to learn about editing and training newbies to contribute to Wikipedia in their own special way.
>
> The single biggest challenge is that we don't know the actual outcome of these efforts in most cases, and the results are weak when we have the data. I think most of us agree that outreach can be made to work better. (For example, 2 outreach sessions conducted recently by the Assamese community had about 80 participants, and 8 active editors emerged - which is a hit rate of 10% - which is FANTASTIC!) For most other sessions, the results have been closer to 1-2% or even lower - which is depressing. What makes outreach work? How can outreach work better? Is there anything you need from me?
>
> Over the past 3 months, I have been working on building a handbook for Outreach (Please see: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Handbook) where you can get presentation material and tips. Please do go through it and help me build it.
>
> My post consists of 5 (deliberately) provocative statements on the day of and the days after an outreach session. These are framed with the objective of generating debate and suggestions.
>
> THE DAY OF
>
> Hypthesis 1: Don't Shoot the Puppy: Outreach is not being done effectively and we aren't adequately introspecting on what we can do better; instead choosing to lose faith in attendees
>
> Should we discontinue general introduction sessions completely and just convert everything into Wiki workshops? Every second of volunteer time is precious and we need to make sure that every second is made to count. The good sessions appear to be those where people are actually shown how to edit - rather than just doing a song-and-dance about Wikipedia.
> The best sessions are those where people have actual hands-on editing opportunity. Shall we limit the intro session on Wikipedia to just 15 minutes and then spend 45 minute on basic editing, 30 minutes on hand-on editing and leave 30 minutes for Q&A?
> Not everyone is a natural presenter and might need help on basic outreach skills. Is there value and interest in a capacity building roadshow where we help existing editors who want to improve their outreach and presentation skills? Is it useful to pair up a good presenter with a not-so-confident presenter when we are doing outreach?
> THE DAY AFTER
>
> Hypothesis #2: Staying in Touch: We assume the job is complete after the outreach session when in fact the journey has only just begun
>
> Can we gather (basic) information about attendees (e.g., names, usernames & email IDs?) so that we can stay in touch with them after sessions?
> Can we get feedback on sessions (duration, level of detail, quality of presenters, etc.?) so that we can all improve? Do we need some sort of CRM solution for this or will something like Google Docs suffice?
> How do we get more folks to actually provide their contact details and feedback? Which of the following will get higher response rates: asking for these just before the end, immediately after the end or the day after a session?
> Hypothesis #3: Nudge-Nudge: Newbies struggle with the most basic things - including which article to select
>
> Should we send links to useful wiki pages and tutorial videos where they can read up more about how Wikipedia works and how to edit Wikipedia? Can we leave handouts on basic editing after all sessions? Can we send them links to the actual presentations made at the session.
> Can we suggest / elicit potential articles that individual newbies will work on after the workshop? Can we give them individual pointers on what they can do with each article by reviewing them there-and-then during the session?
> Can we schedule a follow-up session (even if virtually using google+ hangout) to clarify any doubts about Wikipedia editing or otherwise - maybe 2 weeks after a session?
> Hypothesis #4: Loneliness - Newbies feel alone and the only time they sense the community is when their edits get reverted
>
> Should we not encourage them to join project pages (such as the WP:INDIA) and/or the India mailing list and/or their city/language mailing list to get involved with the community?
> Can we involve them in COTM or conduct specific editathons for them?
> Can we celebrate their successes and get newbies to talk to other newbies about how they learnt stuff?
> Hyptothesis #5: Black Hole: No one has a clue about the actual results of outreach
>
> Can we regularly monitor number & % of active editors after 1 and 3 months of conducting all events? Can we figure out % of mainspace edits from these newbies after 1 and 3 months? Can this be analysed to provide recommendations on how we can do things better?
> Can we actively reach out to those who look like they are struggling? Do we need a CRM tool for something like this?
> Is it useful to track and attempt to co-relate age / profession / subject (if student) / sex of participants to figure out what is likely to give greatest results?
> I have been working to see how can we overcome these challenges and make our outreach efforts far more effective. I'd love to hear from on the above. Some of you have been actively involved in outreach sessions (attending or conducting or planning) an I'd like to know your thoughts and suggestions which might serve as solutions for this set of very real challenges.
>
> Thanks
>
> Nitika
>
>