Heya,
so I went about doing some homework on the Commons and it's usage from both
sides in India.
Here is what I cam across.
This isn't related at all to my previous mail
For uploads, Commons is hardly used in India.
Major reasons are:
1> The ND/NC Conflict, or the I want my Picture on Wikipedia, but don't
want it to be edited.
Most people want their content on Wikipedia, [not Commons, but Wikipedia],
but don't want it to be edited. I've come across numerous of these cases on
Flickr and Picasa.
2> Isn't Wikimedia a part of Wikipedia? How did you get your images out
there?
People are curious. They think that Wikimedia is part of Wikipedia and that
only select stuff lands up there.
Again, as Bala stated in Coimbatore, this myth needs to be explained. Wiki
is for the people, of the people, by the people.
3> No comments.
A LOT of people want to contribute, but don't, simply because one can't
comment on pictures on the Commons. I suggest that they upload to Flickr,
release it under a Commons Compatible licence, and let FlickrBot take over.
4> Photographs? What?
Most people are unaware that the Commons can also host Audio and Video.
Awareness is needed.
5> My file isn't getting uploaded [Audio and Video]
Most people end up using Propriety formats such as *.mp3, *.aac *.avi and
*.mpg. They don't know or don't want to convert it to *.ogg and *.ogv.
Again, awareness is the only solution.
Around six months ago, F-Secure had stated that Facebook accounts for 4% of
all uploaded images. My estimation is that atleast 10% of these images ALSO
exists on the Commons.
I've been trying to spread awareness about the Commons. Literally preaching
about it in my lab, cyber cafes, and the likes.
Alternatively, I've been trying to get people interested in the matter on
Twitter [My test bed]. Those following me [and NOT too] would know about
this.
Others can look up http://t.co/lEwZkuWW
The only things currently catalysing contributions to the Commons are:
1> TamilWiki Media Contest.
2> Wikipedia Takes Cities.
3> Various Photowalks.
4> The upcoming Wiki Loves Monuments [It will]
Do let me know what your thoughts on this matter are.
--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
P.S: Sundar, Manish, this is the 'research' I mentioned on Twitter.
How about doing this on Wikipedia birthday? 15th Jan? Bombay fellows please
raise hands!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anshuman Fotedar <anshuman.fotedar(a)gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 10:02 AM
Subject: [WMIN-Members] "Wikipedia Takes Mumbai" - Is someone doing this
already?
To: wmin-members <wmin-members(a)googlegroups.com>
Hi All
I am a new member who registered at Wiki Conference Mumbai in
November. I have been in touch with some of the people I met. Some of
them are involved in organising the Wiki Takes Ahmedabad (http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_Ahmedabad) event
scheduled for Jan 3, about which Tinu posted earlier -
http://groups.google.com/group/wmin-members/browse_thread/thread/f23ff51f6e…
.
I have talked to a few other attendees from Mumbai who would love to
organise or aid with organising such an event in Mumbai. Is somebody
already working on this? If so, we should talk!
Cheers
Anshuman
--
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--
Noopur Raval
Student
Arts and Aesthetics
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Ph: 9650567690
Hi All,
Extension:ShortUrl[0] is almost on verge of deployment[1]. We hope to see
light of day soon.
Till now on Tamil Wikipedia, we have been using ShortUrl solution[2]
developed by Chineese Wikimedian Mountain along with the interwiki
redirector app[3] that I had written. Though the code was available it
required someone to poke around to get it deployed for other languages.
YuviPanda has now written a python port of both the url re-directors into a
single app. Code[4]. Now it is possible for any wiki to use this feature
with very little effort. All one needs to do is, buy a domain name(dont use
GoDaddy, Jimbo does like it :D ), point it to our server, copy paste and
localize 4 words in the userscript[5], add it to common.js in their
wikipedia.
Though the extension might make the existing ShortUrl solution obsolete,
its still required for us in Tamil wiki since there are few hundred links
already used online to avoid deadlinks.
Yet another 1 day hack by Yuvi!
[0] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ShortUrl
[1] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/1450
[2] https://github.com/mountain/shortify
[3] http://interwikiredir.appspot.com/
[4] https://github.com/yuvipanda/wikishortipy
[5] http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Logicwiki/shorturl.js
--
Regards
Srikanth.L
Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, turns 11 on 15 January
2012!
Come celebrate this joyous occasion with us at:
*Atmabikash Samiti*
77, Satish Mukherjee Road,
Kolkata 700026
West Bengal, India
Nearest Landmarks
- Two minutes from *Kalighat Metro*
- Beside *Deshbandhu College for Girls*
- Behind *Patanjali Chikitsalaya*
*Time: 1630-1830 hours, 15 Jan 2012*
The Wikipedia community is made up of everyday people from all walks of
life, and we’re all united by one common mission: a world in which every
single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
Our birthday wish for our ten years is just this: We want more people from
all backgrounds to get involved, contribute, edit and grow wikipedias in
all the languages of the world in which we think, speak, and dream.
For more details and registration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Kolkata/Kolkata8
--
With Warm Regards,
*Jayanta Nath*
Calcutta,West Bengal
Hello all,
As we count down to the end of the year, this personal appeal to donate to
Wikipedia, made by the Boat club was something very genuine and made me
smile:
http://notesandstones.blogspot.com/2011/12/v-for-wikipedia-2011.html
I saw it thru a friend's FB page. The friend *actually* donated after he
saw this :) I am not sure if you all have seen this already.
Happy holidays!
Cheers
Noopur
--
Noopur Raval
Student
Arts and Aesthetics
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Ph: 9650567690
*Financial Chronicle : "Wikipedians say Indian govt should ease copyright
curbs"*
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/knowledge/wikipedians-say-indian-govt-should-eas…
*Wikipedia the online encyclopaedia is struggling to reproduce contents,
which are freely available in government websites.*
*
*
*Wikipedians say government copyrighting its content has hampered its
publication work in the world’s largest free online encyclopaedia. Gautam
John, a Wikipedian who is former board member and secretary of Wikimedia
India chapter, said, “There is a difference between contents of websites
being publicly accessible and contents in public domain. In India, contents
of government-funded websites are publicly accessible but they are
restricted to be in public domain.”*
*
*
*Gautam added, “In US, government websites are not only in publicly
accessible but are allowed to be in public domain that is reproduced and
publicised”. He can’t understand rationale behind government copyrighting
its websites contents, though it’s a practice inherited from colonial era.”*
*
*
*Wikipedians are asking for an open license for reproducing contents of
government websites. Gautam, said, “Its the tax payers money which was used
for generating such data. Data like census, healthcare, and others are
neither sensitive nor related to national security.*
*
*
*Wikipedians have also abandoned their project to update profiles of six
lakh Indian villages in Wikipedia. Wikipedia enables any person to
contribute matters of his or her interest on it. Tinu Cherian, a Bangalore
based Wikipedian and working in a MNC, had started the project, India
Villages, last year. Tinu, said, "I completed about 1200 villages of
Karnataka and 1200 villages of Kerala. But for the time being I have
stopped the wok.” *
*
*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
Important Note : The publisher ( Financial Chronicle ) of the above news
article owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to kindly not
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.
Heya all,
Just wanted to pass this on:
Most colleges, I've seen 3, and 9/10 cyber cafes I've visited over the last
one month have blocked the Wikimedia Commons citing
commons.wikimedia.org/is blocked because it is currently categorized
as:Reference Open Image /
Media Search.
Now, how do we convince these people to unblock it?
--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan,
Hello everyone,
While on vacations at my hometown Jamnagar, I thought of contributing
something to Commons, thus I decided to start with Archaeological Museum
Jamnagar. The Museum is superb with different variety of exhibits of
Jamnagar like stone excavations, rifles, canons, different pictures to
show. Thus I decided to capture those and put on commons, I am still in
midst of processing many more images and upload them, meanwhile I have
created a Gallery<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lakhota_Museum_Jamnagar> on
commons. Please do have a look at it and give your valuable
suggestions/thoughts.
I was charged Rs 100/- by the Museum authority and also have the receipt of
it, thus they allow to take photographs.
Also one interesting thing was going on in Museum, there was one other
professional photographer taking close up shots with proper background and
lighting of each and every artifact with the help of few other people of
museum, on inquiring it, I came to know that Government has asked to
digitize the whole museum, and thus he got one of the contracts to
photograph them, but sadly all of them will be copyrighted.
Once again the link to my gallery is
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lakhota_Museum_Jamnagar.
Hoping to hear from all of you.
--
Thanks
Arnav (ricku).
(User:Rangilo_Gujarati) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rangilo_Gujarati>
