Hi Wikimedians,
The Chapter has a statutory requirement that we have our first Annual
General Body meeting before the end of September 2011. We plan on
holding this, in Bangalore, on 24 Sep 2011. (Note: We had earlier
mentioned the date as 17 Sep 2011 but this was changed based on
unforeseen changes in the schedules of EC members and to give more
time for members to join in.)
Filling vacancies in the EC will be one major item on the agenda of
AGM. That said, only people who have become members at least three
months prior to the date of the AGM are eligible to stand and to vote.
Please remember that there is allowance for those members not in
Bangalore to vote as well. What we will do in the next 2 weeks is to
begin a draft nomination process and send it for your feedback and
inputs.
Hence we urge you to join Wikimedia Chapter by 23 June 2011, if you
have not yet applied for membership. Please spread this message with
your fellow wikimedians and encourage them to apply for membership
immediately. The Individual membership
form<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/File:WikimediaChapterMembershipFormIndividual.pdf>
along
with either Cheque/DD payable at par at Bangalore should be received
by 23 June 2011 at Chapter's office.
If you are using online transfer, please send a scanned copy of your
membership form before 23 June 2011 to membership(a)wikimedia.in along
with your online payment details and ensure that your physical
membership form reaches chapter
office before 30 June 2011.
We are really looking forward to an active and strong interest in the
Chapter from the Community.
Sincerely,
Arjuna Rao Chavala
President, Wikimedia Chapter
Dear all,
It seems clear that through a new amendment to the Copyright Act, the
term of copyright of photographs is going to be increased from 25 years
(which is the minimum required by international copyright law) to 60
years *after the death of the photographer* (i.e., copyright term = life
of the photographer + 60 years).
So say a photographer aged 25 clicks a photograph and dies at the age of
75 (in 2061):
Under current law the copyright on that photo expires on January 1, 2037.
Under proposed law, copyright on that photo expires on January 1, 2122.
The difference: 85 years!
(I hope I've done the math correctly.)
So only your great-grandchildren will be able to upload that photograph
to Wikipedia.
As far as I can understand, there has been no positive lobbying on this
front by any photographers. No one has really asked for it.
We, from the Centre for Internet and Society submitted a 'civil society
submission' (with the backing of 22 organizations) which criticised this
to the Standing Committee that was examining the amendment. But the
chairman of that committee did not take notice. In effect, the Standing
Committee heard only rightsholders (and groups, including ours, working
on the exception for persons with disabilities).
Are people on this list concerned about this? If yes, then we all need
to try to get this particular amendment targetted and struck off when
the amendment gets presented before Parliament in the Monsoon session.
Regards,
Pranesh
--
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283
Hi all,
We have recently noticed that many of the subscribers to various Wikimedia
are using Boxbe services.
This creates lots of problem for the mailing lists since unwanted
notifications are sent to the list from your id.
We would appreciate if we could put mails from *(a)lists.wikimedia.org to some
kind of white list.
Thanks for the understanding.
Regards
Tinu Cherian
Hi there,
Are there any active Wikipedians on Assamese Wikipedia on this
list?
Are you a Wikipedian ( any language ) in Assam ?
If so, can you *reply privately* to me , *off this list* ?
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Tinu Cherian
The name "WikiConference India" was selected by the community through simple
majority. The discussion began on this page (url:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WikiConference_India_2011) and has now
been archived here (url :
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WikiConference_India_2011/Conference_Na…
).
For the record, the votes were as follows -
* WikiMela (& variants) - 8 support, 1 oppose
* WikiConference India - 14 support, 2 oppose
* WikiUtsav - 2 support
* WikiMania India - 2 support, 5 oppose
* WikiBharati - 1 support
Those who feel that WikiMela would be more evocative, creative and
brandworthy may consider Harriet's suggestion to :
"within India use locally understood names appropriately to brand events
like Utsav for the After Conference Party..or Mela for Wiki community
meets."
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------
**Cross posted on various Indian Mailing Lists**
As per Community consensus, the annual national conference of Wikipedians in India will be titled WikiConference India.
We now need a special Logo for the event.
This logo will be used not only this year, but annually for the national conference. Community members are requested to come up with designs and post them on the talk page of the event on meta latest by 1PM, Monday 27 June 2011. Thereafter we will have a 48 hour window for the other community members to vote for the design they like.
**Kindly note, we expect the designers to assign unconditionally all rights to the logo design to Wikimedia Chapter (India) under whose jurisdiction this conference comes without any remuneration or other considerations. You will be recognised as the designer of the logo.**
Weblink for the Event Talk Page on Meta: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WikiConference_India_2011#Logo
Looking forward to seeing some brilliant designs.
Kind Regards,
User:AroundTheGlobe
Hi Folks
Here's a report on the Wikipedia India Education Program: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/India_…
In (very) short summary, it's been an action packed 4-5 weeks, the team has done a huge amount of groundwork - and there appears to be significant potential. Do go through the report for further details.
...I've tried to make the report as interesting to read as possible - and focus on the learnings and implications for a national roll-out (instead of making it a random list summarising various activities.)
Do let me have your views on the mailing lists or the Talk Page.
(A project page has also been set up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pune but I hasten to add that it is in early stages of construction. ...but do keep visiting it. Finger crossed, it's going to get very busy, very soon!)
I'd like to thank everyone from the community who have helped out so amazingly!
Best
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia India Programs
skype : hisham.wikimedia
gtalk : hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter : @mundol
Hi,
I'm user:AshLin, co-chair of the Working Group for a forthcoming
Wiki-conference in India in November 2011. I'm writing formally to you to
request for a list for that event; a request which you may have
already received informally from Shiju Alex.
The event will definitely be taking place on 18-20 November 2011 at Mumbai
and we have already requested Jimbo's presence at the event (as an example
of the event's firming up).
This is a joint venture between the Indian Chapter and the Indian Wikimedia
community and will henceforth be an annual feature. We were about to start
communications of the Working Group on a Google Group but community members
have asked if our email group can be hosted by the Foundation and be a
mailman list. If provided, it is planned to use this list for planning and
organising all national wikiconferences in India henceforth.
The advantages, we feel, are that the list and its archives will be
preserved and secure while the Foundation exists, ease of use & interface as
all of us are used to mailman lists for community communication to date and
that the future of the group will not be dependent upon Google policies.
We request that the list be named "WikiConference India", to distinguish it
from other types of WikiConferences such as the Wikimania series.
Should other countries decide to have annual national conferences, perhaps
their lists could be named "WikiConference xxxx" (where xxxx is name of the
country) similarly.
Looking forward to a positive and early response so that we can begin our
organising activities.
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------