National newspaper "The Hindu" carried an interview with Hisham Mundol and
Frank Schulenburg on Campus Ambassadors Programme* *today. The interview
was of 1/4 newspaper size and was a easily noticeable one. Appears on Page 9
in Bangalore edition.
*The Hindu : "Wikipedia to be promoted in educational institutions"*
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2095004.ecehttp://www.hindu.com/2011/06/11/stories/2011061158740700.htm
*Students to be motivated to write articles for the website*
*
*
*New initiative:Frank Schulenburg, Head of Public Outreach of the Wikimedia
Foundation, and Hisham Mundol, Consultant, India National Programmes of the
Wikimedia Foundation, are training 22 Campus Ambassadors to popularise
Wikipedia among students in Pune.*
*
*
*Last week, Pune etched its place in Wikimedia history by becoming the first
city in India, and the first outside the United States, to host the Campus
Ambassadors' Programme, launched by the Wikimedia Foundation.*
*
*
*The 22 Campus Ambassadors, who were chosen by the foundation, will be
working towards promoting Wikipedia as a tool in education in institutions
in Pune. Frank Schulenburg, Head of Public Outreach of the Wikimedia
Foundation, and Hisham Mundol, Consultant, India National Programmes of the
Wikimedia Foundation, who are now in Pune to train the ambassadors, spoke
toThe Hinduon a variety of topics such as why Wikipedia is looking at India
for its offshore expansion, plagiarism and the skewed sex ratio when it
comes to contributors to Wikipedia.*
*
*
*Excerpts:*
*
*
*Why was India chosen for the programme?*
*
*
*Mr. Schulenburg:We sensed the biggest global opportunity in India. A lot
needs to be written about India, and we need a lot more writers from here.
India tops our priority list, and this was one way to increase our reach in
the global south.*
*
*
*How did you zero in on Pune for the pilot?*
*
*
*Mr. Mundol:Pune has a strong heritage in education and a huge student body.
So when we thought of piloting the program in India. Wikimedia Foundation's
aim has also been to increase the number of Indian language pages. Pune,
having a diverse population mix, can be of great use in that aspect as well.
*
*
*
*How will the education programme work?*
*
*
*Mr. Schulenburg:We chose Campus Ambassadors who promote the use of
Wikipedia in education on a day-to-day basis. 824 students participated in
the program creating 5,605 pages on Wikipedia on a variety of subjects.
While the programme was restricted to the topic of ‘Public Policy' in the
U.S., in India it has opened its doors to include all the possible subjects.
*
*
*
*The aim is to encourage educational institutions and professors to
encourage students to write Wikipedia articles as course assignments. This,
we believe, will enhance critical thinking abilities in students, and add to
the knowledge pool that is Wikipedia. In the U.S., we have got the feedback
that using Wikipedia has increased the level of motivation, and hence the
quality of work among students.*
*
*
*Will this in any way put an end to plagiarism which is one of the main
concerns in academic circles when it comes to using Wikipedia?*
*
*
*Mr. Mundol:Definitely. Imagine this. If a student has to create a Wikipedia
page, he cannot copy from anywhere. He has to reference it to the source. So
he has to research more, think of adding more aspects to the Wikipedia to
enrich it. Once the assignment is done and its up on Wikipedia, the student
can share it on the worldwide platform and keep working on it. He has the
ownership, while knowing that millions of readers are adding value to it.*
*
*
*What is the goal for the programme apart from increasing the number of
contributors to Wikipedia?*
*
*
*Mr. Mundol:We hope that someday the number of articles that a student or an
institute has contributed will be regarded as a measure for academic
excellence. Digital media literacy is a core skill for students in the 21st
century, and the contribution to Wikipedia can be a proof of it.*
*
*
*Is the skewed sex ratio among Wikipedia contributors an issue?*
*
*
*Mr. Schulenburg: It definitely is! Our research tells us that an average
Wikipedia contributor is 25-year-old male. We are definitely looking to
change this. This is where the Education Programme comes in. In the U.S., 46
per cent of the campus ambassadors were female. Among the students who used
Wikipedia in education last year across universities, we had a 50:50 ratio.
We are looking for the same kind of figures in India.*
*
*
*What else is in store for India?*
*
*
*Mr. Mundol:We are looking launching an India office of the Wikimedia
Foundation in the national capital region this year. This will again be the
first one outside of U.S. In India, we will be launching new initiatives. We
will be targeting the millions of mobile phone-users in this country to
promote the use of Wikipedia.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#June_2011
hi,
Yes - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Workshop/Mumbai_Workshop_1
warm regards,
Pradeep
On 10 June 2011 13:52, Ang India Tehnologies <angindiatechnologies(a)gmail.com
> wrote:
> Hi Pradeep !
>
> Have u created any event page for this. I think this should be created
> immediately.
> On 2 June 2011 17:03, Pradeep Mohandas <pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> hi,
>>
>> Cross-posted on the GLAM mailing list, Mumbai and India lists.
>>
>> We're having our first GLAM related event in Mumbai, India on June 18,
>> 2011. We're starting off with a talk/workshop by Shishir Jha, Project Lead,
>> Creative Commons India and an Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of
>> Technology, Bombay.
>>
>> The talk is aimed at the Wikipedian and GLAM community to help both of us
>> better understand the Creative Commons set of licenses and its nuances. I'm
>> writing to this list for suggestions on specific set of CC-related topics
>> that we should discuss at such a meeting that would help clarify concepts
>> for both the Wikipedia and the GLAM community related to licensing. The GLAM
>> community in Mumbai will also utilise this to understand CC and its benefits
>> more clearly and use it to approach other GLAM institutions in Mumbai in
>> particular and India in general.
>>
>> If we have Shishir Jha's permission, we hope to video tape and upload the
>> meeting onto the Wikimedia Commons.
>>
>> Thanks in advance and warm regards,
>> Pradeep Mohandas
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia-in-mum mailing list
>> Wikimedia-in-mum(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-mum
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Best Regards.
>
> ==================
> Kundan Amitabh
> Ang India Technologies,
> CH-2/52, Kendriya Vihar,
> Sector-11, Kharghar,
> Navi Mumbai - 410 210.
> =====================
> Contact No.: +919869478444 / +91 - 9320255450
> Website: www.angindia.org
>
>
Hi friends, Sue Gardner will be available in (#wikimedia-office) this
channel at 11.30 AM (IST).
Please do come. :) This time is specially arranged for Asian countries. :)
*$U®¥∩*
http://goo.gl/RoMyo.com <http://FirefoxSurya.blogspot.com>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steven Walling <swalling(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 4:35 PM
Subject: IRC office hours with Sue Gardner, this Friday the 10th at 06:00
UTC
To: foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Hi everyone,
Sorry that we sent out less than a week's notice, but I wanted to extend an
invitation to Sue's office hours this Friday the 10th, at 06:00 UTC.[1]
We're doing it at this time specifically to meet with Wikimedians in
Asia,[2] but the topic of discussion has not been set, so feel free to come
with things you're interested in hearing about.
Talk to you soon,
--
Steven Walling
Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
1. Meta: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours
2. Conversion from UTC:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=06&min=00&sec=0&d…
Just a reminder that this is happening in a little less than 30 minutes.
--
Steven Walling
Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
Hi Wikipedians,
The first community newsletter from the Wikimedia
India community was released in September 2010. Since that time, various
community members have been involved with creating a regular version of the
newsletter; today,* we are pleased to announce the commencement of
WikiPatrika*, a monthly newsletter of Wikimedia community, chapter and
foundation updates from India.
'Patrika' is the closest pan-Indian word that has roughly similar meaning
across the country that also conveys the right spirit; it has a multitude of
meanings, but is broadly understood to mean 'journal' or 'magazine'.
WikiPatrika is an independent publication which is not affiliated with the
Wikimedia Foundation or the Wikimedia India chapter. We sincerely thank the
Wikimedia India chapter for allowing us to host this newsletter on
wikimedia.in .
The *first edition of WikiPatrika is now released* - Volume 2 , Issue 1 -
2011 June
*http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika *
*Community News : *
This month: hear what's happening from Wikimedians in Bengali, English,
Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia , Sanskrit,
Tamil, Telegu
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2011-06/Community_News
*Meetups and Events :*
Meetups in Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2011-06/Meetups_and_Events
*Press Coverages :*
As usual, a flood of articles; check in to see where Wikimedia is covered
and how
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2011-06/In_the_news
*Free culture news :*
Copyright law changes, government initiatives, and the latest in licensing
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2011-06/Free_culture_news
*FOSS-MediaWiki Tech news :*
Google Summer of Code, India and Mediawiki. Plus Berlin Hackathon, Wikimedia
Commons and UploadWizard
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2011-06/Tech_News
*WMIN Chapter News:*
Chapter membership opens!
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2011-06/WMIN_Chapter_News
*WMF India Office news :*
Campus ambassadors hit Pune: find out all about it.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2011-06/WMF_India_Office_News
You can subscribe to wikimedia-in-newsletter(a)lists.wikimedia.org to receive
the WikiPatrika newsletters ( If you are not subscribed to wikimediaindia-l
mailing list).
We are are also working on user talk page delivery to your home Wikis in
future .
We hope that you find this useful. Going forward, this exercise will only be
possible with *your* involvement, so if there is something you see that you
would like to contribute to, change, or start - tell us!
Write to us at wikimedia-in-newsletter-editors [at] lists [dot] wikimedia
[dot] org
Regards
WikiPatrika Newsletter Team
Hello everyone,
As the subject suggests, I am planning to carry out few outreach sessions in
Gujarat since I will be there for my vacations starting in few days. These
sessions are simply intended to let people over there know what exactly is
wikipedia and how it is growing in other parts of country and if they are
interested in it how they can start contributing to wikipedia. Now since I
am a newbie and this would be my first kind of presentation, so I need help
from you guys. Please feel free to suggest me anything related to it. I have
downloaded few presentations from various Wikis and might create one
presentation from those only and the sole purpose would be "Introducing
Wikipedia" to them, and am planning to start this from my Hometown and my
own school St. Xavier's High School Jamnagar, and would later contact other
school/colleges in Jamnagar and if I get good response or anyone is willing
then I am ready to move down to nearby cities also. As far as I know these
kind of activities have not yet been conducted in that part of country yet,
I want those people also to know where exactly Wikipedia and India are
headed and since I belong from that locale only the communication would not
be a problem between us. Also I basically plan to go to schools first and
meet teachers and students on how they can use and contribute to wikipedia
and how other people are using it and contributing to it.
So please everyone I want your feedback regarding this, and also if anyone
on this list is from Gujarat please contact me so that we can plan things
and work accordingly.
--
Thanks
Arnav (ricku).
(User:Rangilo_Gujarati) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rangilo_Gujarati>
The chapter is supporting this as stated earlier. Every wikipedian,
irrespective of language, state, nationality, should proudly support this.
Regards,
Sent from my Motorola L9. Please excuse spelling errors.
On Jun 9, 2011 11:03 PM, "mayur" <mayurdce(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
I think India chapter should support Mumbai/Pune community, Both these
community have worked hard and seeking Chapter Support. This is a good time
to take good intiative by India Chapter.
Regards
Mayur
On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 10:55 PM, Pradeep Mohandas <
pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > hi,
> >
> > Just a clarification, since I was a little flustered while writing this -
> >
> > On 9 June ...
>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> > Wikimediaindia-l...
>
_______________________________________________
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
hi,
The Mumbai Wikimedia community will be hosting a Creative Commons workshop
involving a talk by Shishir Kumar Jha followed by an interactive session.
Shishir Jha is the Project Lead, Creative Commons (India project) and an
Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) - more
here: http://www.som.iitb.ac.in/~shishir/fac12.html
The need for this workshop was felt during Liam Wyatt's visit to India when
we found ourselves explaining about Creative Commons to various Galleries,
Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM in wikispeak) before we could even get
to the GLAM idea. Since Shishir was involved with Creative Commons and was
in Mumbai we took the opportunity to invite him for the talk. In addition to
the Wikimedia community, we will also be inviting members from the GLAM
community so that they are also exposed to the idea of Creative Commons.
You can sign up for the event here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Workshop/Mumbai_Workshop_1
You can revert to me if you have any questions/suggestions or leave a note
on the talk page.
warm regards,
Pradeep Mohandas
Mumbai Wikimedia Community