Cross-posting to other lists.
Hi all,
Wikimania is the annual international conference of Wikimedians
, jointly hosted by the local team ( usually local chapter) and the
Wikimedia Foundation.
The previous conferences were held in Frankfurt, Germany (2005), Boston,
USA (2006), Taipei, Taiwan (2007), Alexandria, Egypt (2008), Buenos
Aires, Argentina (2009), Gdan'sk, Poland (2010), and Haifa, Israel (2011).
This year, it is to be held in Washington DC, United States of America,
on July 12-14 , 2012. http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
<http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>
I have attended the Wikimanias in Gdansk and Haifa, along with several
other Wikipedians from India.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikimania2011
<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikimania2011>
I highly recommend everyone to apply and attend Wikimania !
Like every year, The Wikimedia Foundation is offering a limited number
of scholarships to offset the cost of select individuals' attendance at
Wikimania.
Both full and partial scholarships are available for Wikimania 2012:
Full scholarships will award round trip travel, dorms
accommodations and registration.
Partial scholarships will subsidize up to 300EUR of travel expenses.
Scholarship recipients have to bear themselves the additional costs of
taxis, visa & travel agent charges etc.
More Information : http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships
<http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships>
Apply here : https://secure.wikidc.org/wm/schols/
<https://secure.wikidc.org/wm/schols/>
Deadline : *16 Feb 2012*
Around 30 % of the scholarship are allocated to Asia & Pacific, so there
are more chances of scholarship applications from India to be selected. :)
Please note that the selection is mostly based on the merit of the
applications.
One of the common mistakes that Wikimedians in India make is that we
aren't enough vocal of what we do. So please do write in detail about
your Wikimedia activities.
Please feel free to forward this to various language and city mailing
lists and encourage other Wikimedians to apply.
All the best wishes!
Regards
Tinu Cherian
Hi Everyone,
*Update on Wiki11 Pune Meet up:*
On behalf of Pune Community and Pune chapter, we celebrated the 11th
Anniversary of Wikipedia and the 1st Anniversary of India Chapter at
Jnyan Prabodhini, Pune. We started the session with the introduction
by Chapter Marathi SIG (Special Interest Group) followed by Chapter
briefing by EC Member Sudhanwa Jogalekar. Pune SIG lead Mandar
Kulkarni shared a presentation of Marathi Wikipedia which included the
history and the journey of Marathi Wikipedia. The presentation also
explained the common mistakes made by users during editing. The
details statistics of no. of pages, no. of users, no. of articles
since last 6 years and where we stand now was explained in details.
Being Makar Sankranti, as per the Indian tradition we gave Til Gul
(sweets made of sesame & jaggery) to all the participants including
the refreshments. (Please note that for next many decades, Makar
Sankranti is going to be on 15th January only and we will have same
opportunity to celebrate the Wikipedia Anniversary on the day of Makar
Sakranti.)
The next session was handled by senior editors of Wikipedia by
coaching the members in actual wiki academy in the lab. All the new
users created their login accounts and started editing in the
articles. This was very interesting as many members were new to this
would and finding some challenges in tying in Marathi. Some of the
members created new articles and also linked them to English
Wikipedia. Overall, it was a great learning experience for all of us.
*Next Steps:*
1. In the coming months, we have planned number of wiki academies in
English and in Marathi at various places all over Pune.
2. We are also proposing to have one interesting session during our
monthly meet on every 2nd Saturday.
Best regards,
Mandar Kulkarni and other Wikipuneris.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!
web: www.sudhanwa.com blog: www.sudhanwa.in
Twitter: sudhanwa Check on FB, Linkedin for more.
Cross-posting to other lists. Kindly excuse if you have already received
this via another mailing list.
Regards
Tinu Cherian
Head of Communications,
Wikimedia India Chapter
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Naveen Francis <naveenpf(a)wikimedia.in>
Date: Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India Chapter : December 2011 Report
To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear all,
Greetings from Wikimedia India !!!
We are delighted to present the last monthly Wikimedia India report of the
year 2011, almost a year after the chapter received the formal recognition
from the Government of Karnataka on 3 January 2011. The journey so far
wasn't easy, but we appreciate your continued patronage , support and
participation.
*Organisational Updates*
*Formation of Task Forces:*
As announced earlier, with the objective of increasing the engagement and
participation of the members of the chapter actively in various
initiatives, the India chapter has come up with focused Task Forces for
coordinating and driving various chapter activities [1]. There are two
types of Task Forces - Project Task Forces and Operations Task Forces. The
Project Task Forces are focused on growing the Wikimedia projects. The
Operations Task Forces are critical functions to enable the Project Task
Forces and the Chapter in growing the movement. The operations group
consists of Administration, Fund raising, & Communications. The Projects
task force consists of City and Langugage SIGs and Special Projects. The
new task forces will be led by the following people:
- Anirudh Bhati, Head, Fundraising.
- Arun Ramarathnam, Chair, Special Projects.
- Srinivas Gunta, Head, Administration.
- Sudhanwa Jogalekar, Chair, City and Language Special Interest Groups.
- Tinu Cherian, Head, Communications, PR & Media Relations.
*Membership:*
The Chapter membership stands at 190 members as of 31 December 2011.
*Donations:*
Total donations received in Dec 2011 - INR 700
Average donations in Dec 2011 - INR 350
*FCRA:*
Our application for FCRA prior permission under the Foreign Contribution
(Regulation) Act with the Government of India is still pending. An official
from the Home Ministry has visited Arjuna Rao Chavala, President.
*Internet Relay Chat(IRCs):*
>From time to time, Wikimedia India conduct planned online IRC chat
sessions. The Dec 17, 2011 was anchored by Arun with the focus on Chapter
City & Language Special Interest Groups. [2]
*Board Meetings:*
The Chapter Executive Committee had two Tele-conference meetings in the
month of December (dated 07 Dec and 14 Dec, 2011). The Wikimedia India
chapter and Wikimedia Foundation had one joint co-ordination call on 21 Dec
2011, which was attended by Arjuna Rao Chavala, Arun Ramaratnam, Naveen
Francis, Sudhanwa Jogalekar, Tinu Cherian, Anirudh Bhati, Asaf Bartov and
Hisham Mundol. The summary of the joint coordination call was shared
earlier [3].
Community City and Language Special Interest Groups
City and Language Special Interest Groups are a mechanism to engage the
diverse interests of members across India. The objective is to grow the
wiki projects in their areas of interest by reviewing the status, planning
and executing events of interest through growing the community involvement.
The leadership of these groups is part of the extended leadership of the
Chapter.
The Wikimedia Chapter is proud to announce the appointment of the next
batch of City and Language Special Interest Group Chairs [4] as given
below:
*City*
- Delhi SIG - Noopur Raval (noopur [at] wikimedia [dot] in)
- Bangalore SIG - RadhaKrishna (Arkrishna [at] wikimedia [dot] in)
- Mumbai SIG - Kundan Amitabh (kundan.amitabh [at] wikimedia [dot] in)
- Pune SIG - Mandar Kulkarni(mandar.kulkarni [at] wikimedia [dot] in)
- Kolkata SIG - Kalyan Sarkar (kalyan [at] wikimedia [dot] in)
*Languages*
- English SIG - Ashwin Baindur (ashlin [at] wikimedia [dot] in)
- Kannada SIG - Omshivaprakash H L (omshivaprakash [at] wikimedia [dot]
in)
- Marathi SIG - Mahitgar (mahitgar [at] wikimedia [dot] in)
- Telugu SIG - Rahimanuddin Shaik (rahimanuddin [at] wikimedia [dot] in)
The current sign-ups of Members for the SIGs are as follows:
*City Special Interest Groups*
City Members Bangalore 10 Delhi 2 Mumbai 3 Pune 6 Kolkata 2
*Language Special Interest Groups*
Language Volunteers Bengali 1 English 15 Hindi 1 Kannada 3 Marathi
4 Malayalam 8 Nepali 1 Odia 3 Sanskrit 2 Telugu 3 Events
A round-up of Wikimedia events and initatives around the nation is as
follows.
- *Wiki Academy @Jaya Engineering college * ( 10 Dec 2011) : The first
Wiki Academy in Jaya Engineering college, Chennai,[5] was organized by the
Wikimedia chapter and co-hosted by Jaya FOSS Club. Odia Wiki Chair &
Chapter member, Subhashish Panigrahi explained basics of Wikipedia, how it
is edited by millions of volunteers, how Wikipedia is exclusively
encyclopedic and kind of articles and notability of articles in Wikipedia,
how Wikipedians communicate and form community, and organization of
Wikimedia foundations and active projects. Then he took the audience
through active editing by signing up, searching for articles, choosing
articles to create. Then he demonstrated about creating an article by using
the Edit toolbar, citing the text by searching the web and uploading and
adding pictures in articles. The editing session was followed by a Q & A
session. Hisham Mundol, Consultant, Wikimedia Foundation India Programs,
connected with the audience via Google Hangout. Hisham interacted with the
audience by giving a talk about the nature of the event, few details about
Wikipedia, WMF and Chapter and foundation are trying to do in India. He
answered questions raised by the audience. Nitika Tandon , Consultant,
Wikimedia Foundation India Programs, later explained about the India
Education program (IEP), how it functions and the
student-teacher-foundation collaborations through the education program.
The photos of the event are available here [6].
- *Coimbatore 1st Meetup*( 10 Dec 2011) : The first Kovai (Coimbatore)
meetup [7] was held at KGISL Campus, Saravanampatti, Coimbatore. The Meetup
was organised by Srikanth Ramakrishnan (User:Rsrikanth05) and
User:Sodabottle.
- *Bangalore Wikimeetup 40* ( 11 Dec 2011) : Around 11 people attended
the 40th Wikimeetup in Bangalore [8]. The Bangalore SIG Chair, RadhaKrishna
presented a talk on the experiences on WikiConference India 2011 and
WikiAcademy events in IT companies. Experiences of Wiki Academy in Jaya
engineering college and way forward was shared by by Subhashish Panigrahi.
Plans regarding Wiki Eleven in January 2012 was discussed. The photos of
the event are available here [9].
- *Wikipedia Meetup1 Salem*( 11 Dec 2011) : A Wikimeetup was organised
at Salem, Tamil Nadu, [10] by Tamil Wikipedians Sodabottle and Surya
Prakash.
- '*Wikipedia Takes Kolkata /Kolkata Photo Walk* (18 Dec 2011) : A Photo
Walk was organised in Kolkata, West Bengal [11] by Kalyan Sarkar (Kolkata
SIG Chair), Jayanta Nath (Bengali SIG Chair) and Biswarup Ganguly. Around
437 images were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as a part of this
initiative.[12]
- *GLAMcamp Amsterdam * Noopur Raval ( Delhi SIG Chair and GLAM
enthusiastic) attended GLAM worskop in Amsterdam, hosted by Wikimedia
Nederland. [13]
- *Wikipedians participation in CMDA IT Expo , 2011*: Indian Wikipedians
participated in the annual CMDA IT Expo 2011, Pune.[14] The stall were
manned by Sudhanwa Jogalekar ( EC member), Mahitgar ( Marathi SIG Chair),
Ashwin Baindur ( English SIG Chair) , Hisham Mundol and Nitika Tandon ( WMF
India Programs), and Campus Ambassador (IEP) volunteers.
- *Malayalam Wiki-Academies:* Malayalam Wiki-community organised two
Wiki-Academies in Kerala in the month of December at Alappuzha ( Dec 13)
and Kollam (Dec 31). The Alappuzha (2nd Wikiacademy) held at St.Joseph
Vanitha College was led by Adv. T.K Sujith, Adv. M.P.Manojkumar and Akhil
Krishnan. The Kollam (4th Wikiacademy) held at Govt. Higher Secondary
School, Anchal West, was led by Kiran Gopi ( User:Kiran_Gopi) , Faud A.J. (
User:Faudaj) , Kannan Shanmugam ( User:Fotokannan)and Sugeesh (
User:Sugeesh)
Other News
- A new initiative named *"Featured Wikimedian* was started on the
public wiki of Wikimedia India. Every month, one Indian wikimedian will be
featured. [15]
- * Tamil Wikimedia contest*: The Tamil Wikimedia community has
organised an international contest to get more photos, videos and audios
related to Tamil, Tamilians and Tamil culture to the Tamil Wikipedia and
Wikimedia Commons. [16] (themed “Eluthu mattum arivanru” or “Knowledge
beyond text”) . The Tamil Wikipedia Community and the Wikimedia Foundation
have jointly sponsored a prize money of $850 (with nine prizes) for
winners. (The first, second and third prizes are $200, $100 and $50. Three
prizes of $100 each are for those uploading the maximum number of quality
entries. A special prize of $150 is for media files on traditional Tamil
arts and crafts. Winners would be announced on March 15, 2012 and they
would get certificates with their entries displayed on the front pages of
Tamil Wiki projects. The contest (, November 15, 2011 to February 29, 2012)
is open to all and is on Facebook [17].
- India Wikipedians Sengai Podhuvan , Karthik Nadar and Aniruddha Kumar
joins Jimmy Wales among others in the *Wikimedia Fundraising 2011 banners
* [18].
- *New Mailing lists* are created for Gujarati Wikipedia[19], Assamese
Wikipedia [20], GLAM India [21] and India related content on English
Wikipedia & related projects. [22].
Milestones & Anniversaries
* December 2011* [23]
25
- The Tamil Wikipedia<http://internal.wikimedia.in/index.php?title=Ta:&action=edit&redlink=1>has
reached 1,000,000 page edits.
- The Urdu Wiktionary <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ur:> has reached
10,000 total pages.
21
- The Malayalam
Wikipedia<http://internal.wikimedia.in/index.php?title=Ml:&action=edit&redlink=1>has
turned 9.
18
- The Bengali Wiktionary <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bn:> has reached
2,000 entries, as a user adds over 1,300 entries for Malagasy words in 5
hours.
16
- The Bihari
Wikipedia<http://internal.wikimedia.in/index.php?title=Bh:&action=edit&redlink=1>has
reached 100,000 page edits.
9
- The Sanskrit Wiktionary <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sa:> has
reached 100 entries.
- The Urdu Wiktionary <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ur:> has reached
5,000 entries.
5
- The Marathi
Wikibooks<http://internal.wikimedia.in/index.php?title=B:mr:&action=edit&redlink=1>has
reached 1,000 registered users.
4
- The Kannada Wiktionary <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kn:> has reached
150,000 entries.
Media Coverage
- 28 Dec : Financial Chronicle : Wikipedians say Indian govt should ease
copyright curbs<http://www.mydigitalfc.com/knowledge/wikipedians-say-indian-govt-should-eas…>
- 27 Dec : Ahmedabad Mirror : " Ahmedabad to go Wiki with your clicks"
<http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/2011122720111227022617405d732bc46/…>
- 24 Dec : The Economic Times : "Wikipedia enlists Indians to be the
standard-bearers for its fund-raising
efforts"<http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/wikipedia-enlists-indians…>
- 18 Dec : The Hindu : "Creative Commons: the licence to
evolve"<http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article272537…>
- 16 Dec : The Hindu : "Contest to add files to Tamil Wikipedia gathers
steam"<http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2719118.ece?textsiz…>
- 1 Dec : Tech Marathi: मराठी विकिपीडिया संपादन – अवघड की
सोपे?<http://techmarathi.com/?p=1243>( Marathi)
We look forward to your continued support and active participation.
Best,
On behalf of Wikimedia Chapter (India)
Naveen Francis
Secretary
Notes:
- 1)
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Announcements/Call_for_participation_of_Members_in…
- 2) http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Internet_Relay_Chats/Dec_17,2011
- 3)
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Announcements/Chapter-Foundation:_Co-Ordination_Ca…
- 4) http://wiki.wikimedia.in/City_and_Language_SIG_subcommittee_chair
- 5) http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wiki_Academy/Jaya_Engineering_College
- 6)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jaya_Engineering_College_Wiki_Ac…
- 7) http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore/Coimbatore1
- 8) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Bangalore/Bangalore40
- 9)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bangalore_Meetup_December2011
- 10) http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:SALEM1
- 11) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_Kolkata
- 12) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_Takes_Kolkata
- 13) http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAMcamp_Amsterdam
- 14
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-December/006135.…
- 15) http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Category:Featured_Wikimedian
- 16) http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contest/en
- 17) http://www.facebook.com/tawmc
- 18)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011#A_Parade_of_Appeals.21_Dece…
- 19) https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-gu
- 20) https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-as
- 21) http://lists.wmnederland.nl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/wlm-in
- 22) https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-en
- 23) http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Milestones_and_Anniversary
_______________________________________________
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Hello everyone,
I have been contacted by the students of VIT Pune for a Wikipedia Editing
Workshop during their forthcoming Annual Festival. They want this workshop
on 25th January 2012, I myself am not in town from 23rd Jan 2012, thus
asking anyone from Pune Community interested in taking the session.
Please contact me offline or I have marked Abdul Memon form VIT in this
mail, feel free to contact him. Thanks.
--
Thanks
Arnav (ricku).
(User:Rangilo_Gujarati) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rangilo_Gujarati>
Very instructive post.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mahitgar from Marathi Wikipedia <mahitgar(a)yahoo.co.in>
Date: Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 9:47 AM
Subject: [mr-wiki] Experience of taking Wiki academy at lesser known site
of digital devide
To: wikimediaindia <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Marathi
Wikipedia <mr-wiki(a)yahoogroups.com>
Cc: "mvkulkarni23(a)gmail.com" <mvkulkarni23(a)gmail.com>, Sudhnwa Joglekar <
sudhanwa.com(a)gmail.com>, "rahuldeshmukh101(a)gmail.com" <
rahuldeshmukh101(a)gmail.com>, "prabodh1987(a)gmail.com" <prabodh1987(a)gmail.com>,
Abhay Natu <anatu(a)yahoo.com>, "sankalp.dravid(a)gmail.com" <
sankalp.dravid(a)gmail.com>, Ashwin Baidur <ashwin.baindur(a)gmail.com>, V
Narsikar <v.narsikar(a)gmail.com>, sachin nawale <dr.sachin23(a)gmail.com>,
Shriniwas Hemade <madshri(a)hotmail.com>, Kaustubh Samudra <ksamudra(a)gmail.com>,
nilesh bane <nileshbane1(a)gmail.com>, "tusharpawar1982(a)gmail.com" <
tusharpawar1982(a)gmail.com>, "umakale.swati(a)gmail.com" <
umakale.swati(a)gmail.com>, "Wikimedia-IN-PUN(a)lists.wikimedia.org" <
Wikimedia-IN-PUN(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Amit Yadav <amityadav8(a)gmail.com>,
Bishakha Datta <bishakhadatta(a)gmail.com>
**
Hi all,
12.05 pm 13th Jan 2012 ,Principal's Cabin at Abasaheb Prashala Day School
near 15August Square Rastapeth Pune ; A visibly anoyed mother with her
middle school son visits principal to discuss her sons school absentism
the mother informs sons father is expired five years ago , She is working
as home maid at some middle class families and making a living; Principal
does her job very well ; seems such situations are quite regular and routin
to the principal madam.
12.15-12.30 School prayer And at 12.30 bell Wikipedia Academy -Sans any
projector or laptop only help available is the black board , a chalk and a
duster- begins in Standard 8A aprox 35-40 students (An equal mix of girls
and boys)
Students are asked to show their hands to find out what do they know about
internet only one hand comes up and rest of the faces are blank and now
the Wikipedian knows the challenge at hand. Mind the fact that the day
before School teacher informs that Wikipedia is part of School syllabus in
english language for 8th standard since 1999 usually he teaches the first
page of the lesson the rest of the pages can not be given justice without
internet support (for aprox 20,00,000 every year ) students across
Maharashtra .The class goes ahead the wikipedians requests to make stack of
all their books on a table and request for a Home Work note book with a
promis that it will not be opened, one girl gets convinced and provides the
same .
Childern smartly give different different answers when asked what is their
in their bunch of school books , Most of them say "study" one Student
answers as Mahiti ie.information and a shy girl answers as Knowldge.The
students know that knowledge available in bunch of school is limited and
there on concept of encyclopedia is explained the word they never heared
before, they answer smartly the wikipedian explains By now children are
getting in interactive mode discussion goes about curiosity information and
knowldge . Without any teaching aid demo laptop how do one explains what is
internet ? Luckily children knew about computers So with crude examples a
book was a web portal and pages ther in were web pages and then rest of
internet story without internet at hand .(May be few schools in rural areas
still wont have computers too and wont know how a teacher explains what is
Computer)
Now the student who provided Home Work note book is asked What will be her
reaction if not herself but other students from the class write her home
work note book turn by turn ,The entire class of students smiles freely
and a smile comes even on the face of the class teacher , who was very
patiantly sitting in last row of the class for wikipedia academy.
Wikipedia home page is drawn on black-board and The black board itself is
edit window . When asked any doubts faces blank, about a thing they never
saw what doubts they will ask ? But when asked what is Wikipedia ? a girl
student Laxmi stands up and answers what she understood to her best about
wikipedia in learned in Wiki academy Students are requested to clap for her
correct answer and a chorus of clapps begins !!
Later Principal agrees to importance of introduction to internet and
informs about their schools steps to upgradation of computer lab
infrastructure , After a cup of tea with the class teacher,the Wikipedia
leaves school premises for next meeting.
Before one day that is on 12th Jan we receive info that a pilot project in
some of Maharashtra schools will be extended from coming academic year to
all schools mandatorily along with practical unicode Marathi typing and
internet , with a chance to explore further collaboration for marathi
language wikisource and school board .
Rgds
-Mahitgar from Marathi Wikipedia
__._,_.___
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Hi all,
12.05 pm 13th Jan 2012 ,Principal's Cabin at Abasaheb Prashala Day School near 15August Square Rastapeth Pune ; A visibly anoyed mother with her middle school son visits principal to discuss her sons school absentism the mother informs sons father is expired five years ago , She is working as home maid at some middle class families and making a living; Principal does her job very well ; seems such situations are quite regular and routin to the principal madam.
12.15-12.30 School prayer And at 12.30 bell Wikipedia Academy -Sans any projector or laptop only help available is the black board , a chalk and a duster- begins in Standard 8A aprox 35-40 students (An equal mix of girls and boys)
Students are asked to show their hands to find out what do they know about internet only one hand comes up and rest of the faces are blank and now the Wikipedian knows the challenge at hand. Mind the fact that the day before School teacher informs that Wikipedia is part of School syllabus in english language for 8th standard since 1999 usually he teaches the first page of the lesson the rest of the pages can not be given justice without internet support (for aprox 20,00,000 every year ) students across Maharashtra .The class goes ahead the wikipedians requests to make stack of all their books on a table and request for a Home Work note book with a promis that it will not be opened, one girl gets convinced and provides the same .
Childern smartly give different different answers when asked what is their in their bunch of school books , Most of them say "study" one Student answers as Mahiti ie.information and a shy girl answers as Knowldge.The students know that knowledge available in bunch of school is limited and there on concept of encyclopedia is explained the word they never heared before, they answer smartly the wikipedian explains By now children are getting in interactive mode discussion goes about curiosity information and knowldge . Without any teaching aid demo laptop how do one explains what is internet ? Luckily children knew about computers So with crude examples a book was a web portal and pages ther in were web pages and then rest of internet story without internet at hand .(May be few schools in rural areas still wont have computers too and wont know how a teacher explains what is Computer)
Now the student who provided Home Work note book is asked What will be her reaction if not herself but other students from the class write her home work note book turn by turn ,The entire class of students smiles freely and a smile comes even on the face of the class teacher , who was very patiantly sitting in last row of the class for wikipedia academy.
Wikipedia home page is drawn on black-board and The black board itself is edit window . When asked any doubts faces blank, about a thing they never saw what doubts they will ask ? But when asked what is Wikipedia ? a girl student Laxmi stands up and answers what she understood to her best about wikipedia in learned in Wiki academy Students are requested to clap for her correct answer and a chorus of clapps begins !!
Later Principal agrees to importance of introduction to internet and informs about their schools steps to upgradation of computer lab infrastructure , After a cup of tea with the class teacher,the Wikipedia leaves school premises for next meeting.
Before one day that is on 12th Jan we receive info that a pilot project in some of Maharashtra schools will be extended from coming academic year to all schools mandatorily along with practical unicode Marathi typing and internet , with a chance to explore further collaboration for marathi language wikisource and school board .
Rgds
-Mahitgar from Marathi Wikipedia
Dear All,
Wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year 2012 !!!
We are heading towards the 11th birthday celebration of Wikipedia
and Wikipedia India Chapter. We have planned a small program on 15th
Jan. being the 11th Anniversary of Wikipedia.
On behalf of Pune Community and Pune SIG of chapter, we
co-ordinarily invite you all for the W11 celebration along with the
Marathi Wiki academy at Jnana Prabodhini School, Sadashiv Peth, Pune.
The detail agenda is as follows:
10.00 - 10.15 Welcome address by Mahitgar
10.15 - 10.30 Address by Sudhanwa containing Pune Community and Chapter stuff
10.30 - 11.00 Presentation on Wikipedia + English + Marathi + Hindi Wikipedia by Mandar Kulkarni
11.00 - 11.05 Sweets distribution to all
11.05 - 1.00 Marathi Wiki academy in lab by Mahitgar supported by other members
The Marathi Wiki academy will contain basic information and some advance editing skills as well.
If you could not join the above function for any reason, you can also join at SICSR, Pune at 4pm for another W11 celebration.
--
Regards,
Mandar V Kulkarni
Pune SIG
Email: mandar.kulkarni(a)wikimedia.in
Website: http://mr.wikipedia.org