*DNA : Want to display your photos? Donate them to Wikipedia*
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epaperpdf/17102011/16main%20edition-pg8-0.pdfhttp://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_want-to-display-your-photos-donate-th…
*Kannan Shanmugam's grandfather was the first man to set up a photo studio
in south Kerala at Kollam, giving the locals one of their first tastes of
technology.Around 100 years later, Kannan is hoping to continue his legacy
in a way that could be just as revolutionary in today's world — the act of
giving something away, for free.*
*
*
*Kannan is an active contributor to Wikimedia Commons, an online repository
of free-use images, sound and other media files primarily used to supplement
other Wikimedia projects, Wikipedia being the most popular.*
*
*
*The project, which began in 2006 and to which anybody can contribute, has
amassed over 11 million media files in five years. *
*With the fast-growing interest in Indian topics on English Wikipedia and 20
Indian language Wikipedias already in existence, there is a dire need for
images from India. In the run-up to WikiConference 2011 to be held in Mumbai
in November, the India Loves Wikipedia initiative has been launched to
encourage people to donate their photos for India-related articles.*
*
*
*Kannan has been one of the biggest contributors in the initiative which has
amassed 3,359 photos, but feels it is difficult convincing professional
photographers to contribute their photos.*
*
*
*"Photography equipment is costly. You don't get any returns from uploading
images on Commons. Only those who share this idea of free information are
willing to do it," said Kannan, a former press photographer.*
*
*
*Tinu Cherian, executive committee member of the Wikimedia India Chapter,
agreed. "Releasing images for free use isn't a popular concept in India. And
once your image is in the public domain, you are allowing people to use,
share, alter the images (provided it is attributed) for both free and
commercial purposes."*
*However, Wikimedians (contributors to Wikimedia projects) insist you don't
have to be a professional to submit your images.*
*
*
*Vaishak Kallore from Kannur in Kerala believes it is amateur photographers
in remote villages and towns in India who can be the most useful and
generous contributors. "Professionals might not see it worth their while to
take photos of seemingly mundane things. But there is a desperate need for
such images to substantiate and inspire articles on India."*
*
*
*From images of panoramas tostructures on the verge of extinction, almost
nothing lies beyond the scope of Commons. *
*And being a free repository, the images can be picked up for use by news
publications, portals and blogs. However, Kannan said, Indian media
companies often tend to use these images without giving credit to the
photographers. "There is a need for greater awareness about free licensing.
If there is proper attribution, more people will be encouraged to donate
their photos."*
*
*
*Explaining how government bodies in the US, especially NASA, release images
into the public domain (including Commons) for free public education and
use, Cherian said: "The biggest goldmine for Commons from India is actually
the government. We haven't approached them officially yet, but we should be
lobbying with them to come up with a similar policy." Want to donate your
photos to Wikipedia? Visit www.commons.wikimedia.org*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
*
*
*Important Note : *The publisher ( DNA / Dainik Bhaskar ) of the above news
article owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to not kindly
reproduce or circulate the content further. The information is only shared
only with an internal community who is been featured on this article. All
copyrights are duly acknowledged.
Hi,
I am Sagar Gupta, a software engineer by profession at Amdocs Inc.
I regularly keep browsing Wikipedia for information and knowledge.
I wish to take part in this Conference. However, I need to ask whether I
will get any letter or certificate of participation
if I attend this. Waiting for prompt reply.
--
Thanks & Regards,
Sagar Gupta
* DNA / Dainik Bhaskar : "The rise of the Wikimedians" , "WikiConference
India 2011: Wikimedians to visit Mumbai in November"*
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epaperpdf/09102011/8sunday-pg4-0.pdfhttp://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_wikimedians-to-meet-at-first-wikiconf…http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/MAH-MUM-wikiconference-india-2011-wikimedi…
*Mumbai: This November, hundreds of Wikimedians will descend in Mumbai to
plan their future course of action, convert the sceptics and inspire the
believers. No, we're not talking about a foreign invasion although, if you
ask a local Wikimedian, the concept of enabling free access to knowledge is
still alien to most Indians.*
*
*
*Wikimedians are contributors to any Wikimedia project, among which
Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia generated wholly by user
contributions, is just one component. And although the community here in
India is still considerably small, the WikiConference India 2011, to be held
between November 18 and November 20, is intended to become an annual
national flagship event for Wikipedia/Wikimedia in the country.*
*
*
*Already, 260 people have registered for the conference, many among whom,
says Pranav Curumsey, chairperson of the conference, have never even edited
on Wikipedia or attended the monthly community meet-ups that are held in
various parts of the country. While this is encouraging news given the need
for more awareness, the primary focus of the conference is to encourage
offline connections and collaborations within the existing Wikimedia
community.*
*
*
*"We want to take the Wikimedian movement to the next step in India. We also
want to share information on best practices that will help develop Indian
language Wikipedias better," said Pranav, adding that a special track on
Marathi Wikipedia is being planned for the conference which will be headed
by the Pune community.*
*
*
*As anyone who's ever edited an article on Wikipedia would acknowledge, it
is the healthy exchange of opinions and its emphasis on neutral, verifiable
information which has contributed to the online encyclopedia's success and
its global appeal. But as more Wikimedians begin to interact offline, this
utopian world-view is likely to get a reality check.*
*
*
*As such, the Wikimedia movement in India is now at a crucial turning point.
The Indian chapter in Bangalore was formally registered in January this year
and the Wikimedia Foundation office in Delhi is currently in the process of
hiring staff to begin a series of localised outreach activities to increase
contributions and access to Indian language Wikipedias, many of which are
languishing due to lack of awareness.*
*
*
*In such a scenario, is a national conference premature? Most Indian
Wikimedians would disagree. Arjuna Rao Chavala, president of the Wikimedia
India Chapter and a contributor to Telugu Wikipedia, said, "When something
is being done for the first time, challenges have to be faced. But there is
a definite need for such a conference."*
*
*
*Achal Prabhala, a Bangalore-based writer and member of the advisory board,
Wikimedia Foundation, states, "In my involvement with Wikimedian communities
in India and South Africa, I've found that personal connections made between
people actually helps us achieve more. There are many active Wikipedians in
different parts of India. This conference will be success if there are
connections being made, say between someone in the northeast and somebody in
Bangalore who decide to collaborate on a project."*
*
*
*WikiConference India 2011 will be held at the Fort campus of Mumbai
University between November 18 and November 20. To register as a
participant, visit bit.ly/wci11 .*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Oct_2011
*Note : *The publisher ( DNA / Dainik Bhaskar ) of the above news article
owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to not
kindly 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 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
Is the "TON" typo in all the logos deliberate?
Isn't it a hack-a-thon
Like a Marathon?
I would avoid a religious or political symbol
Regards
Harriet
Harriet Vidyasagar
www.outofindia.netwww.womenofindia.net
INDIA: 91-99011 66276
USA: 1-301-649-2240
On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 10:40 AM, <wheredevelsdare(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> fyi
>
> ------------------------------
> From: alolita.sharma(a)gmail.com
> Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2011 22:02:58 -0700
> To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> CC: bharris(a)wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Feedback please: Logo concepts for India
> Hackathon
>
> Erik - thanks for posting these logo concepts.
>
> The rendering of "Mumbai" in devanagari is incorrect so that needs to be
> fixed.
>
> My vote on designs: 4 or 3.
>
> It would also be great to get other suggestions from the local Mumbai /
> India community.
>
> With best regards,
> Alolita
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 9:40 PM, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> As GerardM noted the other day, we're planning a hackathon adjacent to
> the WikiConference in Mumbai.
>
> We'd love feedback on some logo ideas that one of our designers put
> together, particularly with an eye to picking a design that resonates
> with the largest number of people without triggering any particular
> sensibilities. As noted, ignore the script -- these are just concepts,
> and we're looking for feedback on the visuals at this stage:
>
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/India_Hackathon_2011/Logo_concepts
>
> Any comments are welcome -- there's a comments section below each logo
> concept.
>
> (If you'd like to add your own suggestion, please do so!)
>
> Thanks!
> Erik
>
>
> --
> Erik Möller
> VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
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> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
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> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
>
>
>
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> change mailing preferences visit
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>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-in-mum mailing list
> Wikimedia-in-mum(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-mum
>
>
hi,
Warning: This is a loooonggg email.
We held our first WikiAcademy in Mumbai on October 1, 2011 at the Center for
Education and Documentation, Colaba. The session was attended by 24
attendees. Roughly, the sessions were:
1. Introduction
2. Creating accounts on Wikipedia
3. Introduction to the interface
4. Rules related to Wikipedia (5 Pillars, AGF etc.)
5. Go out and edit
This was our first experience with such an Academy and hence this note is a
bit detailed.
Many of the folks who came had used Wikipedia but had hardly ever edited
Wikipedia. There was a lot of questioning around the reliability of
Wikipedia as a resource. We had the services of Vickram Crishna to answer
these questions. After the round of introductions, we got
them acquainted with accessing Wikipedia, familiarising them with the
English Wikipedia main page.
The attendees were very interested in learning how to edit Wikipedia and
wanted to learn right from the creating accounts on Wikipedia stage. This we
did, only to realise the limitation existed on creation of not more than 6
accounts per IP address. We got around this limitation by allowing people to
register with dongles that a few people carried with them. Next time,
perhaps making an upfront request to allow more account creations from a
single IP address before the Academy might be a wise thing to do. Any other
suggestions?
Even after logging in the attendees appreciated a "Get to know your Screen"
session.
Pranav then shed some light on the rules of the Wikipedia (frankly, I have
never read this until a few days before the Academy!). Kundan Amitabh also
pitched in to help with a few that Pranav didn't know about. Kundan also
urged them to not give up on Wikipedia if their articles or sections of
articles were deleted. Keep trying! was the call!
In the last go out and edit session, we allowed participants to edit what
they liked. We moved among the audience helping where help was needed. We
encouraged the users to use the various icons on the WYSIWIG editor rather
than learn the Wikisyntax. We think that working on this for a few days will
help them learn things on their own.
There was a diverse audience with requests for specific follow up sessions.
We think that we could have concluded more properly than we did.
warm regards,
Pradeep Mohandas
PS: Apologies for the delay in posting this!
--
Pradeep Mohandas
How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9
fyi
From: alolita.sharma(a)gmail.com
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2011 22:02:58 -0700
To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
CC: bharris(a)wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Feedback please: Logo concepts for India Hackathon
Erik - thanks for posting these logo concepts.
The rendering of "Mumbai" in devanagari is incorrect so that needs to be fixed.
My vote on designs: 4 or 3.
It would also be great to get other suggestions from the local Mumbai / India community.
With best regards,
Alolita
On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 9:40 PM, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
As GerardM noted the other day, we're planning a hackathon adjacent to
the WikiConference in Mumbai.
We'd love feedback on some logo ideas that one of our designers put
together, particularly with an eye to picking a design that resonates
with the largest number of people without triggering any particular
sensibilities. As noted, ignore the script -- these are just concepts,
and we're looking for feedback on the visuals at this stage:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/India_Hackathon_2011/Logo_concepts
Any comments are welcome -- there's a comments section below each logo concept.
(If you'd like to add your own suggestion, please do so!)
Thanks!
Erik
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
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hello,
My name is Ramesh Kamath
I am interested to become a volunteer for the Wiki conference in Mumbai next month
please consider my request
regards
ramesh kamath
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
>
>