Dec/2013 Deccan Herald, Press Release/Nilkanth Sah Paddaam, Belgaum.
Velim, 11 kilometers from Margao, South Goa. Dec. 21st 2013. Mr.Venkatesha A. Upadhiaya today submitted a memorandum to the President of India Mr.Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Mr.Manmohan Singh and Mr. Pravin Srivastava of Archeological Survey of India ASI, demanded to immediately acquire and save the 12th century, Kadamba Jayakeshi Southern Capital Velimpura site which is also the cremation ground of the last Ruler of Hangal located in present day Velim, South Goa ‘a place of National Interest’ from the possession of Mrs Ana Emerita, widow of a great Goan, late Roqiue Santana charging her for constructing on the scared grounds, denying access by locking the compound gates and playing regional card with the pilgrims from the neighboring villages of Karnataka who visit Velim once a year, a centuries old practice and as part of the Banavasi festival celebrations to pay their respect to the 1368AD Velimpura cremation ground of Purandarai-Deva the
ruler of Hangal.
Warning the locals who were present here today not to be silent spectators to injustice done to the glorious historical past Mr. Upadhiaya a native of Belgaum lamented while reacting to regionalism that prior to his death in 2007 Roqiue Santana like his father in Portuguese colonial times always gave a warm welcome and supply of drinking water as a gesture of respect to the Kannada visitors at the site. Roqiue Santana popularly known as Father of Goa’s Democracy was the local elected representative to liberated Goa legislative Assembly. “No doubt this family is Goan, like thousands of Goans they are of Deccan origin too”. Mr. Upadhiaya said.
Earlier, a man who walked up behind the secured gates calling himself the security for the Roqiue Santana family charged last years pilgrims of criminal mischief, theft and robbery as important antiques went missing following last Dec. pilgrims visit and said that the family has moved out of this country and ordered the driver of the tour bus to get going. Leading the pilgrims Mr. Upadhiaya 82, denied the allegation here today in Velim saying that we are always protective of the family and do respect their privacy and recollected his family’s ancestors ties as ‘Sarva-Karyakartas’ meaning chief secretary, a hereditary appointment up to the time when Governor of Madras presidency George Harris under Lord Dalhousie administration confiscated the Haliyal Timber and Construction Lime Co. goods of Roqiue Santan’s greatgrand father in Nov of 1855. Mr. Upadhiaya held that most of the pilgrims are the descendants of the family’s Haliyal compound
work force. Historians hold that Haliyal yard was basically Goa ruling Reigns Armoury and is today converted into Haliyal Bus Terminal. In his memorandum he urged Archeological Survey Of India (ASI) to atleast save this Velim landmark for future generations.
According to this famous historical source held sacred by Hangal Coterie, Purandarai ruler of Hangal and family on the eve of his fall in 1347 secretly traveled over night to joined his daughter who herself took shelter in safer Jayakeshi Velimpura compound in 1345 when her husband was assassinated by Mohammedans at present day Chandor. A second wall stone Kannada inscription dated 1396 in the Velim compound marks the death and cremation of Veenomai-Devi beauty and wife of Suriya-Deva, slain Sovereign at Chandrapur palace, daughter of Late Purandaraideva, Kadambarasa of Hangal confirms this history. It can be infered from the Velim inscription that Goa Kadamba Suriya-Deva son of Beera, was married to the nearby royal bride who was his distance cousin. Mr. Upadhiaya said.
Before adopting Portuguese Catholicism this Velimpura family’s ancestors had given up worship in their temples for fear of Mohammedan trap, reinvented themselves as Haliyal timber lords where converted by Orthodox Nasranis of Malabar in early1400’s. Some of the Syrian origin worship items and anointing oil alabastrons saved by Upadhiaya’s great grand father and moved to Belgaum after the 1855 British confiscation of Haliyal compound is convincing evidence. Further, quoting Kannada stone inscriptions on Konkan sea pirate Timu “enemy turned friend” recovered from present day Haliyal Bus stand tell that Timu in those crucial years provided protection for their ancestors in return for timber for his shipbuilding needs had exploited this converts fear issue and used Portuguese forces to drive Mohammedans away and enforced his Timu administration in Goa in 1510. The Portuguese in a while overpowered Timu and colonized Goa. It is a well known
historical conclusion that this Christian connection attracted early Jesuits including Francis Xavier to visit Velimpura first for refreshment before traveling inland for conversions, he added.
Prof. Nilkanth Sah Paddaam in this press release said here today that a six member delegation headed by Mr. Upadhiaya is leaving for New Delhi tomorrow to follow up with his memorandum.
Dec/2013 Deccan Herald, Press Release/Nilkanth Sah Paddaam, Belgaum.
Hello guys,
After many weeks of hard work the Wiki Loves Earth Brasil 2014 was ended.
That was my first time organizing this kind of contet and that was the
first time that we did an edition of Wiki Loves SOMETHING in Brazil, what
generate big challenges!
I learned a lot with that experience and we reach great results, bigger
than expected.
So, here I'm publishing some info and links, including the winners of the
contest.
- Winners (Best photos and best contributions categories)
*
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2014/Brasil/V…
- Statistics
-- Pictures
* Photos uploaded: 7060 sendo 6887 elegíveis para o concurso
* Participants: 935
* New users registered for the contest: 895 (96% of all participants)
-- Social Networks
* Facebook
889 likes
~100K people reached with posts/photos/shares
-- Contest Home Page access
* ~220.000 visits
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2014/Brasil
- Media coverage
*
http://www.techtudo.com.br/noticias/noticia/2014/05/wikipedia-lanca-concurs…
Wikipédia lança concurso de fotografia para ilustrar artigos
TechTudo/Globo.com - Publicada em 06/05
*
http://info.abril.com.br/noticias/internet/2014/05/concurso-da-wikimedia-pr…
Concurso da Wikimedia premiará melhores fotos de patrimônios naturais -
Info/Editora Abril - Publicada em 08/05
*
http://blogs.estadao.com.br/link/wikimedia-premie-fotos-de-patrimonios-natu…
Wikimedia premia fotos livres de patrimônios naturais - Link/Estadão -
Publicada em 08/05
*
http://www.techtudo.com.br/noticias/noticia/2014/05/wikipedia-revela-premio…
Wikipédia revela prêmio de concurso no Brasil: melhor foto ganha R$ 2,5 mil
- TechTudo/Globo.com - Publicada em 13/05
*
http://www.revista.espiritolivre.org/concurso-fotografico-wiki-loves-earth-…
Anuncio do Concurso Wiki Loves Earth - Revista Espirito Livre - Publicada
em 14/05
*
http://www.baguete.com.br/noticias/16/05/2014/concurso-de-fotos-wiki-loves-…
Concurso de foto Wiki Loves Earth - Baguete - Publicada em 16/05
*
http://www.fotografemelhor.com.br/grande-angular/concurso-fotografico-wiki-…
Concurso fotográfico Wiki Loves Earth 2014 - Portal da Revista Fotografe
Melhor
*
http://www.revista.espiritolivre.org/concurso-fotografico-wiki-loves-earth-…
Revista Espirito Livre
*
http://www.techtudo.com.br/noticias/noticia/2014/06/vencedores-do-concurso-…
Vencedores do concurso de fotos do Wikipédia revelam paisagens do Brasil
*
- Budget
We defined prizes for 2 categories, based on the local legislation the best
way was to give it in cash.
Best pictures prizes
1. R$2500,00
2. R$1500,00
3. R$1000,00
Best contributions prizes
1. R$2500,00
2. R$1500,00
3. R$1000,00
Total: R$10.000
Exhibition
1. R$13.000
Total: R$13.000
TOTAL BUDGET: R$23.000
- Tools and contributions
WLE Communication Bot ( communication bot developed by Jonas )
Source code: https://github.com/jonasagx/wleBot
WLE Statistics ( statistics tool developed by Danilo)
Tool: http://tools.wmflabs.org/ptwikis/WLE
Source Code: https://bitbucket.org/danilomac/ptwikis/src
WLE Collaborative Filtering Tool (developed by Danilo to help us filtering
the huge amount of pictures received to send to the jury for the final
evalution)
Tool: http://tools.wmflabs.org/images/?campaign=wle-br
WLE Best contribution index ( tool developed by Henrique Andrade)
http://tools.wmflabs.org/ptwikis/WLE_Melhores_Contribui%C3%A7%C3%B5es
- Exhibition
To exhibit the best WLE Brasil photos , we negotiated a partnership with a
local Photo Studio to organize our first photographic exhibition during the
international photography event "Paraty em Foco", which will be held in
September 2014 in the historic city of Paraty - Rio de Janeiro (more
information on http:// paratyemfoco.com )
- Publication of the final results and winners
The contest results were announced by national media, wikimedia mail lists
and it will be published through the printed/digital magazine Fotografe
Melhor(Photo magazine with the largest circulation and importance in
Brazil) in the August edition with distribution in all Brazilian states
(50,000 copies monthly) and shipped to some other countries.
I would like to thank the Brazilian community members who contributed to
the contest and a special thanks to our friends from Wikimedia Ukraine that
provided all the necessary support for the successful organization of the
local contest.
Best regards
Rodrigo Padula
Wiki Loves Earth Brasil - Coordinator
Education Program Coordinator - Brazil
Ação Educativa
Hey, all. Bit of a question, here.
Basically, how does "comment on the content, not the contributor" apply
to staff and contractors? What can we, as volunteers, do when we believe
staff have gone too far (besides create drama on a mailing list)?
In many of our communities, we have a saying: "comment on the content,
not the contributor". When working with others, this is quite useful,
and something we definitely want to remember, because it reminds us to
cooperate and find use for whatever content is good, and it also helps
us to avoid making personal attacks and other generally unhelpful
comments about the people involved that tend not to be relevant to the
situation.
Of course, this depends a great deal on the situation itself - this
applies to an edit dispute or a bug report or an RfC about content or
features or what have you, but what about when the contributor IS a
relevant topic? In volunteer circles it generally boils down to a
question - is the contributor causing more trouble than they're worth?
If so, an appropriate committee or whatever can do something sanctiony,
and the situation will be resolved for the time being.
But what if it's not a volunteer? What if it's a staff developer who is
consistently ignoring project consensus and needs, or a team that
refuses to justify their decisions even in light of scrutiny, or a
contractor hired to do something specific and community-facing who won't
actually do it, and on top of that won't let volunteers do the needful
either? With a volunteer, it's often a pretty simple matter to simply
remove an individual or group from a topic or project, but with staff,
the situation is a lot more complicated - not just because they're paid,
but also because they have specific obligations and requirements, as
well as the power and authority the position grants. Volunteers come and
go, and answer to other volunteers. Staff are supposed to do things, and
paid to be doing things, and answer to staff (and also the board and
crap, but at the level I'm talking about it's basically just other staff).
There's a very real disconnect here, and though community liaisons are
supposed to be bridging that gap, this works far better on content
projects than in development, where developers and designers and whatnot
need to communicate with each other, no matter who they are, in order to
get things done. And indeed, most staff here are pretty great about this
and you can totally go right up to them and talk about their work and
collaborate and what have you, but sometimes they aren't. And that's a
problem.
So what can we, as volunteers, do in such cases? What are our channels
for bringing up issues with staff, so that we don't just wind up
bringing it up somewhere completely inappropriate, where we really
should be commenting on the content itself?
-I
Hello Fellow Wikimedians,
I am pleased to announce that New England Wikimedians’ user group website has officially launched, and is located at ne-wikimedians.org/. I would also like to extend a huge thanks to Wikimedia DC's Technical Infrastructure Committee for helping make this site a possibility, as they were quite instrumental in ensuring that everything worked out in the end.
As always, if anyone has any questions or suggestions, please feel free to e-mail me.
Kevin Rutherford
Co-Chair, New England Wikimedians
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaNewEngland
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WikimediaNE
Hi community members,
I'm wondering how many people might be interested in having an IRC meeting
regarding the community's relationship to WMF and potentially developing
our own strategic plan that would be independent of WMF. In the past few
days I've heard some defense of WMF but mainly criticism and pessimism,
especially people recalling past hurts and feeling powerless to negotiate
with WMF. Perhaps it's time that we in the community create our own
strategic plan and develop strategic options.
Please note that this would be a long-term planning meeting and we are not
likely to make major decisions, but we would start brainstorming and laying
some foundations.
Topics of possible discussion regarding our relationship with WMF:
1. Strategic options, such as finding alternative organizations to WMF for
hosting Wikimedia sites or creating a new hosting organization that is
aligned with community values.
2. Activism at the Board and grassroots levels.
Topics of possible discussion regarding other strategic issues:
3. Internal reform of the community, such as a fresh look at Wikimedia's
founding principles and the Five Pillars, including civility.
4. What we can do as a community about our active editor statistics.
I expect this would be an interesting meeting if people are interested in
participating, and I hope that we would brainstorm some ideas about how we
want to move forward on all of these questions and others if we have time.
If there are many participants, which would be *great*, then we may need
additional meetings or to move the conversation on-wiki.
If you're interested, you can respond on list but feel free to respond to
me off-list also. I'm just trying to get a sense of the interest level of
the community. I hear a lot of people being upset but what I feel we need
to know is how many people would be interested in creating a long-term
strategic plan and brainstorming strategic options.
Thanks,
Pine
Dear friends:
We are pleased to inform you that the WMF Board of Trustees has come to a
decision about which four candidates to appoint to the FDC. It wasn't easy;
as is evident from the nominations, the caliber of the candidates was very
high. The resolution is now published in
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Funds_Dissemination_Committ…
We have selected four appointees as follows:
1)Anne Clin (Risker)
2)Matanya Moses (matanya)
3)Dumisani Ndubane (Thuvack)
4)Osmar Valdebenito (B1mbo)
On behalf of the Board, we want to thank Anders, Arjuna, Mike and Yuri for
their service to the inaugural FDC. We deeply appreciate the two years they
have served the committee and all the work they have done during four
rounds of FDC recommendations. They have helped to shape the FDC itself,
made critical decisions about how to strategically direct movement funds,
and helped to shape the future of the movement. We hope they will continue
to remain engaged in the FDC process and the movement in different ways in
the years ahead.
We also want to thank all the candidates, and encourage them to consider
re-applying for the committee next year, when five new members will be
elected to serve on the committee.
Best,
Bishakha and Patricio
--
Patricio Lorente
Blog: http://www.patriciolorente.com.ar
Identi.ca // Twitter: @patriciolorente