Hi Members of Wikimedia India and Wikimedian Indian Community,
I am happy to introduce Naveen, Sudhanwa and Tinu who are elected to
Chapter EC in the recent elections.
Naveen Francis is a software QA engineer based in Bangalore. active in
English Wikipedia from 2007 with special interest on Indian Education,
Transportation, Railways and Roads Wiki projects.
Sudhanwa Jogalekar is an IT professional with expertise in Information
security, system administration, IT infrastructure management etc with over
26 years experience in the industry. He is a well known FOSS evangelist in
India with contributions of Marathi free font to indic computing. His other
passions include Photography.
Cherian Tinu Abraham is a software professional based in Bangalore. He is
one of the most active Wikipedians in India and one of top 5 Indian editors
on English Wikipedia by number of edits. He is an administrator on English
Wikipedia and contributor to Wikimedia Commons. He has been contributing to
building Wiki communities in India and also has been working as a volunteer
for Media relations/PR for Wikimedia.
The new members bring in lot of diverse experience to the EC team, which I
am sure will help in rapid growth of Wikimedia movement.
You can read more about their profile and see their photos on wiki at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikimedia_India_Chapter_Executive_Committee_Members
Please join me in wishing the new EC members all the best.
Sincerely,
Arjuna Rao Chavala
President, Wikimedia India.
http://wikimedia.in
Here is the monthly update from Wikimedia India
You can read the wiki version at http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Reports/Report_6
***
Date: Oct 4, 2011
Dear Wikimedia India Members and Community,
The highlights of Chapter for the preceding month (Sep-2011) are given below.
Contents
1 Membership Update
2 AGM and Executive Committee Elections
3 Gautam steps down from EC
3.1 Outreach and Wiki Acadamies
Membership Update
The membership count, as on Oct 1st, 2011, stands at 95 members an
addition of 14 members since last month.
AGM and Executive Committee Elections
Gautam presenting Secretary and Treasurers report
Sundar and Achal presenting EC Election results to Arjun
Arjun's address
Some of the attendees to AGM2011
The first Annual General Body Meeting was held on the 24th of
September, 2011 at the registered office of the Chapter in Bangalore.
EC elections to fill three vacancies were held. Naveen Francis,
Sudhanwa Jogalekar and Tinu Cherian ( Profiles ) were elected to the
EC. EC extends a warm welcome to all the new members and looks forward
to working as team to further grow the Wikimedia movement.
Chapter would like to thank the Nominations Committee and all the
members who helped in the smooth conduct of Elections.
Gautam steps down from EC
Gautam John has stepped down from the Secretary's role and EC, in
order to pursue his professional and personal life priorities. Chapter
thanks Gautam for his contributions to Wikimedia Chapter and wishes
him all the best in his future endeavours. New Secretary election
process is in progress and we will be updating once the new Secretary
is elected.
Outreach and Wiki Acadamies
About 30 participants primarily comprising of Deputy Directors and
Chief librarians of the department attended the first Wiki Academy
conducted at Indira Priyadarshini State Childrens Library, Department
of Public Libraries, Bangalore. All participants were given a copy of
Chapter brochure, Welcome to Wikipedia,Evaluating Wikipedia quality
brochures.
Arjuna Rao Chavala explained how Wikipedia was founded ten years back
and how it became the fifth most popular website with content in over
270 languages. He clarified how the principles of verifiability and
Neutral point of view help in ensuring the quality of Wikipedia
articles. Omshivaprakash, Kannada Wikipedian demonstrated how one can
contribute to Wikipedia by explaining various commands available on
Wikipedia page. Several participants made use of the internet lab
available to create accounts, browse Wikipedia and create articles. (
Detailed report)
This has generated three to four leads for conducting similar events
from different parts of the country. Chapter is following up with the
proposers to firm up the schedules. Readers are requested to volunteer
in identifying additional co-hosts for Wiki Academies and help in
conducting the same.
We look forward to your continued support
Best,
On behalf of Wikimedia Chapter,
Arjuna Rao Chavala
President
Please note:
1. Tamil is not nisspelt as Thamizh or Tamizh, that is intentional.
2. This mail is an important one. It could pretty much give birth to a
massive digital movement that could aid Wikipedia and other projects like
OSM, and more.
3. This mail is a mix of discussions that happened over the list, the phone,
and of a few surveys done by me in Sathyamangalam and Gobichettipalayam
taluks of Erode district and a few in Ramnagar, Coimbatore City.
Dear all,
As you all should know by now, the Tamil Nadu government has already started
distribution of laptops and other paraphernalia.
This year, the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu [ELCOT] has already
distributed 7000+ out of the targetted 9.12 lakh.
The students covered include School students, +2 students, UG and PG [Except
M.Phil and PhD] students.
The breakup of it is 60% goes to school and higher secondary/pre university
students, 32% to Arts and Science college students, 3% to Polytechnic
students and 2% to Engineering students.
Voters in the Nilgiris have already recieved laptops for their wards. [I,
however, inspite of being a student in Tamil Nadu, will not be recieving one
as my Voter registration is in K'taka]. However, my friends will recieve
them, and I can see how we can go about in getting them onto Open Source
projects.
As discussed, the laptop will have the ELCOT logo all across it both
physically and digitally. The Motherboard and other physical ICs will have
the ELCOT logo engraved on it, while you will see the logo on booting, with
Jayalalitaa's photo as a default screensaver[rumoured], similar to ELCOT
TVs.
The laptop runs on Bharat Open Operating System, or BOSS [again, as
discussed earlier], developed by a GoI entity, the Centre for Development of
Advanced Computing [C-DAC]. For a fourth gen Linux distribution[it was
launched in 2007], it is pretty lousy, bugged and has plenty of flaws.
9,12 lakh Laptops will be completely distributed by the end of the Academic
year.
In relation to this, a couple of us wrote to the Tamil Nadu Electricity
Generation and Distribution Company [TANGEDCO] regarding voltage and supply
issues as there is no point in having a laptop, with erratic power supply
and heavy fluctuations, [We came across a case of a laptop charger getting
fried in Gobichettipalayam].
As stated earlier, new textbooks under the Samacheer Kalvi provide links to
Wikipedia articles and feature images from the Wikimedia Commons.
This should be a morale booster for us, to provide better photographs and
media on the Commons and to make sure that the articles in question are
error free, even if it is on the English Wikipedia.
After all this nonsense, I ask a few questions to several groups of people:
1> The chapter, the Foundation office, and board members. This includes
Hisham Mundol, Bishakha Dutta, Achal Prabhala, Shiju Alex, Nitika Tandon et
al.
Are you willing to launch any school student oriented plan in South India,
[not limited to TN]?
I'm not asking for anything similar to the Campus Ambassadors program, but
more of a series of Seminars, workshops, academies, meetups, tutorials etc.
We need your support for such a mass scale program, as individually we
cannot achieve anything.
2> South Indian wikipedians, especially the Bangalore, Chennai and Kerala
communities.
Are you open to helping us out?
Especially Kerala, you are the most advanced in the Indic wiki sphere, will
you please help out your neighbour TN?
I'm willing to do as much as possible from my side[I'm not too good at
arranging meetups, when I say Wikipedia, people stare at me blankly, and I
can't explain it to them in Tamil, even though it is my mother tongue].
Please do consider this Golden opportunity.
There is plenty of potential out here.
The laptops run on Linux, which means, a big boost to Open Source software.
The primary target is school students, which means, more young editors [and
oldies in their late teens like me].
I couldn't think of how to say this, but somehow I just typed it and sent
it.
Note: If you consider this as SPAM, please IGNORE it. There is no need to
send me a mailing asking me to stop SPAMMING the list like last time.
--Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan,
Coimbatore.
--------------------
If there is a Wolfram Alpha, there should also be a SheepRavanBeta no?
Between 1970 and 1990, India did nothing, but increase her population.
The city of Kuzhambathur was famous for Kuzhambu ... The British were unable
to pronounce and hence it became Coimbatore.
DR Ratio is the ratio of number of dosais to number of rotis a person can
eat under common conditions. It is usually greater than 1.
Changed the Subject line.
Arjuna and I were discussing the below issue that Beria pointed out.
But as Arjuna said, some of the important features like searchability of
archives, stats, and so on are missing in the mail man. As per my
understanding this is one of the reason given by Telugu and Marathi wiki
communities for not moving to Wikimedia list. I am just wondering whether it
is possible to include these features in mail man. At least the search
option which is very vital for groups is a must for wikimedia lists.
Shiju
On Sun, Oct 2, 2011 at 3:25 PM, Béria Lima <berialima(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> *Sorry, I did not notice it. BTW, Telugu wikipedia team uses
>> teluguwiki(a)googlegroups.com.*
>>
>
> Why isn't a "normal" mailing list? Create a bug for it (here are three
> examples: creation of Wikiconference-india<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29487>,
> creation of Wikimedia-blr<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24454>and creation
> of wikiml-l <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15012>)
> _____
> *Béria Lima*
> <http://wikimedia.pt/>(351) 925 171 484
>
> *Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter
> livre acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. É isso o que
> estamos a fazer <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Nossos_projetos>.*
>
>
> On 2 October 2011 04:18, Arjuna Rao Chavala <arjunaraoc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:31 PM, Shiju Alex <shiju(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I will suggest forwarding to respective language wiki mailing list, in
>>>> addition to city mailing lists to reach the target audience.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Arjuna, This is already done. The mail is sent to various Indic language
>>> lists also.
>>>
>>> Sorry, I did not notice it. BTW, Telugu wikipedia team uses
>> teluguwiki(a)googlegroups.com.
>>
>> Cheers
>> Arjun
>>
>>
>>> Shiju
>>>
>>> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:18 PM, Arjuna Rao Chavala <arjunaraoc(a)gmail.com
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>> Shiju,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 6:59 PM, Shiju Alex <shiju(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>> --cut--
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Nice to see the detailed approach.
>>>> I will suggest forwarding to respective language wiki mailing list, in
>>>> addition to city mailing lists to reach the target audience.
>>>>
>>>> Best wishes
>>>>
>>>> Arjun
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia-in-del mailing list
>> Wikimedia-in-del(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-del
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> To unsubscribe / mailing option visit
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
>
>
>
> *Sorry, I did not notice it. BTW, Telugu wikipedia team uses
> teluguwiki(a)googlegroups.com.*
>
Why isn't a "normal" mailing list? Create a bug for it (here are three
examples: creation of
Wikiconference-india<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29487>,
creation of Wikimedia-blr<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24454>and
creation
of wikiml-l <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15012>)
_____
*Béria Lima*
<http://wikimedia.pt/>(351) 925 171 484
*Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter livre
acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. É isso o que estamos a
fazer <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Nossos_projetos>.*
On 2 October 2011 04:18, Arjuna Rao Chavala <arjunaraoc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:31 PM, Shiju Alex <shiju(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
>> I will suggest forwarding to respective language wiki mailing list, in
>>> addition to city mailing lists to reach the target audience.
>>>
>>
>> Arjuna, This is already done. The mail is sent to various Indic language
>> lists also.
>>
>> Sorry, I did not notice it. BTW, Telugu wikipedia team uses
> teluguwiki(a)googlegroups.com.
>
> Cheers
> Arjun
>
>
>> Shiju
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:18 PM, Arjuna Rao Chavala <arjunaraoc(a)gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Shiju,
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 6:59 PM, Shiju Alex <shiju(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>
>>> --cut--
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Nice to see the detailed approach.
>>> I will suggest forwarding to respective language wiki mailing list, in
>>> addition to city mailing lists to reach the target audience.
>>>
>>> Best wishes
>>>
>>> Arjun
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-in-del mailing list
> Wikimedia-in-del(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-del
>
>
Arjun, do you mind not Cc'ing every local list in your responses? I
understand if it is an announcement, but those responses get stuck in
filters and have to be approved individually. I think Shiju left out the
India list and included all local lists in Cc originally.
Regards
Theo
On Sun, Oct 2, 2011 at 8:48 AM, Arjuna Rao Chavala <arjunaraoc(a)gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:31 PM, Shiju Alex <shiju(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
>> I will suggest forwarding to respective language wiki mailing list, in
>>> addition to city mailing lists to reach the target audience.
>>>
>>
>> Arjuna, This is already done. The mail is sent to various Indic language
>> lists also.
>>
>> Sorry, I did not notice it. BTW, Telugu wikipedia team uses
> teluguwiki(a)googlegroups.com.
>
> Cheers
> Arjun
>
>
>> Shiju
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:18 PM, Arjuna Rao Chavala <arjunaraoc(a)gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Shiju,
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 6:59 PM, Shiju Alex <shiju(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>
>>> --cut--
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Nice to see the detailed approach.
>>> I will suggest forwarding to respective language wiki mailing list, in
>>> addition to city mailing lists to reach the target audience.
>>>
>>> Best wishes
>>>
>>> Arjun
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-in-del mailing list
> Wikimedia-in-del(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-del
>
>
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
>>
>>
>
Dear All:
Tele conference of Wikimedia India (Wikimedia chapter) and Wikimedia Foundation took place on 28 Sep 2011. Here is an update
Chapter Update
General:
Naveen, Sudhanwa, Tinu who are elected in the recent EC elections introduced themselves. Naveen has rich experience on several India focussed wikiprojects, Sudhanwa is a well known name among FOSS projects in India and Tinu has done a lot to promote wikimedia communities across India. Detailed profile at http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikimedia_India_Chapter_Executive_Committee_Members
Asaf gave a brief introduction of his role. He works on supporting communities and chapters in emerging countries such as India and heads up the Wikimedia Grants program globally.
Asaf and Hisham welcomed the new members. They thanked Gautam, outgoing Chapter Secretary for his excellent contributions to the movement.
Arjun explained that FCRA application will be initiated now that the AGM is done and EC elections are completed.
He said that Chapter is in close touch with Wiki Conf India team and is extended the best possible support.
Initiatives/Projects Update
1st WikiAcademy with the Department of Public Libraries, Karnataka for their senior Library professionals was held on 12 Sep 2011. Over 30 people attended the event. Report of the event
Some leads have been generated as a result of the sharing of the report of first wiki academy. EC team is planning to conduct more such events and requested for the support of Wikimedians across India and India Program office staff.
Foundation Update
Hisham gave an update on Education Program. He talked about the increase in number of Campus Ambassadors and enrolling Online Ambassadors to extend support to the students to produce quality articles and to help them understand Wikimedia content guidelines.
He mentioned that Shiju has started work and will soon be sharing an update to the community on how he will be developing an Indic languages plan. There are plans for workshops to understand indic language wikipedia learnings, challenges & opportunities. The objective is to identify potential project pilots. Arjun suggested to include wiki academies as part of the workshops with the support of Wikimedia members or senior Wikipedians from the community as the same can be beneficial for the objectives.
Independent public trust setup is in progress
Collaboration on projects
Wiki Conference India. Team reviewed the status of the planning for conference and agreed to extend additional help to the conference team. Hisham said that he has been mentoring Pranav and Pradeep on several conference planning topics and also wanted the EC to provide additional timely help on priority areas like payment process and program. Arjun clarified that Gautam and Arun, Chapter representatives on Conf organising committee have been participating fully in various discussions and extending timely help. Chapter also had a call with Conf OC to understand the priorities and provide additional support as required.
Thank You.
hisham
Is PAN card used as Photo id?
My passport and my voter-id card both are in middle of processing and I
don’t have any photo id like Passport and Voter-id bt have PAN card which is
as well authentic and issued by Govt. Of India.
Its very kind of you all if you consider this and let me in with my PAN card
as my Photo id. I already done my registration to attend wiki-2011
conference.
Seeking answer from ur side. ASAP
Thank You
Shivam Mishra
Email-theultides(a)gmail.com
Contact No.9454967117