*The Economic Times : "Oral citations to be part of wikipedia entries"*
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/oral-citations-to-be-part…
*When you set out to make the entire global knowledge base freely accessible
, can you leave out subjects that find very little mention in print? The
question posed by Bangalore based researcher Achal Prabhala, has kicked off
a debate among Wikipedia editors, the volunteers behind world's largest
encyclopedia . The collaborative online encyclopedia , supported by the
non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, has over 19 million articles written by
about 90,000 editors across the world. Achal began working on the problem in
January 2011 and carried out a project called the Oral Citations to find
ways to increase local language entries into Wikipedia . At the crux of the
problem is the lack of printed material in local languages and for topics
related to indigenous culture. Editors find it difficult to add articles
because of the lack of citable material. *
*
*
*Right now, the online encyclopedia relies heavily on published material
like newspapers , journals and magazines for citations . However, when it
comes to vernaculars , there is very little published material available and
editors often find a huge amount of knowledge being left out defeating the
entire objective of Wikipedia. Take for instance, Dabba Kali, a traditional
game played in North Kerala is finds very little or almost no reference in
citable sources. "But that's also an important part of culture," says Achal.
"The sum of human knowledge is far greater than the sum of printed knowledge
," he argues. Of late, the Wikimedia foundation has been trying to make its
projects more global. While this is relatively easy in developed countries
with better infrastructure which generate a lot of citable material, the
problem in developing and underdeveloped countries are acute. *
*
*
*" Germany, whose entire population is a fraction of India's online
population has a massive footprint on Wikipedia. While a country like India
is behind. Why is that?" asks Achal. "Because there is a lot more published
material which can be used for citations out there... maybe, because the
people who made the project largely were from the Anglo European or Japanese
world, there has been a conflation of the sum of human knowledge and sum of
printed knowledge," says Achal who mainly works on intellectual property
issues related to medicine. With Shiju Alex, a Malayalam Wikipedian ,
Mayur,one of the top 20 global contributors to the encyclopedia and
Mohau
Monaledi, a software developer from South Africa, Achal set out to find how
easy it is to create original articles that discuss things that have not
been discussed before and are particular to a linguistic culture. "We found
that the citation rules are a huge problem. What do you do when the largest
university library in South Africa has only 80 books in Sepedi, a South
African language spoken by five million people ? Of that, most are bibles
and dictionaries and fiction and poetry which is not good for citations," he
says. The situation is no different for Malayalam or Hindi. *
*
*
*In Kannur, the number of Malayalam books in the varsity library is not more
than 3,000. "A lot of that is also translation which don't contain original
Malayalam knowledge which don't deal with topics intrinsic to Kerala," he
said. He also points out a relatively newer problem: the rules for citations
were made a few years ago when social media was not big and the Internet was
different. While the Internet culture has changed, to become a significant
part of people's lives, the idea is to broaden the base of citation "to
reflect peoples lives more realistically ." So will this change the way
Wikipedia works? "This is a discussion within a community and the desire is
to take it to its logical conclusion. Now we want to know what we can do
around citations as a whole and depending on the inputs make it more
concrete," he said. The project, however, has not been without its share of
critics within the volunteer community. One of the longest running thread,
in the recent history of the foundations public mailing list, debates the
project with scathing criticism, supporting arguments and balanced
suggestions . *
*
*
*For instance, Ziko van Dijk, a Wikimedian from Netherlands, writes: "So,
when someone believes that those "accessible printed sources" are "biased" ,
he comes up with the video of his grand uncle telling the truth? I don't
think that it fits into the scope of Wikimedia. It certainly does not fit
into the scope of Wikipedia." Achal counters: "First, this is an experiment
- an experiment which those of us working on it, and others around us,
thought might lead to interesting result ... the project is not on "oral
history" - it's on using oral sources as citations." Indian Wikipedians have
not been sparing either. For the new generation which is growing up on the
internet, the whole world of referencing and authority is online instead of
through print and very little of that is allowed on Wikipedia, they counter.
Criticsim of the project comes from local Wikipedians too. A Wikipedia
editor told ET: "I'm a bit sceptical about the project. One of our core
principles is we don't do original research. But with oral citations, we
will begin to do original citations. Wikipedia is a tertiary source and not
a primary source. This will be a breach. Also, oral citations are more
unreliable than printed sources." He, however, concedes that the area of
oral citations is relatively unexplored and has potential for study.
"Perhaps it is time to have a conversation around how you can include these
sources ?" says Achal. The debate still goes on.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Aug_2011
With the very kind assistance and support of the Homi Bhabha Centre for
Science Education, we are holding a workshop from 10-6 on Saturday, 27
August, 2011 at the Gnowledge Labs.
We will be developing a routine to sort through the 7070 applications for
scholarships according to the rules set with discussions by the community
for awards of the scholarships, the call for which was extraordinarily
enthusiastic, reflecting the level of keen anticipation amongst persons
interested in Wikimedia activities for a pathbreaking conference of this
nature. We expect to substantially complete the task of sorting through the
bulk of the applications submitted, helping us arrive at the final list of
awardees, and generating stats that will provide a baseline for the future
organisation of such important events.
The workshop will be open to all, except to persons who have already
submitted an application for a scholarship to attend the conference. If you
have submitted an application, therefore, please do not attend this
workshop, but we welcome and look forward to an equally enthusiastic
response for participation at this workshop from all in the community in
Mumbai, who can spare a day for an exhilarating session.
Please note that the Gnowledge Labs has electrical and wireless net
connectivity, but the workshop attendees must bring their own workstations
(laptops, netbooks or tablets).
We look forward to seeing you at the workshop.
--
Vickram
Fool On The Hill <http://communicall.wordpress.com>
An interesting thing happened today. I started receiving frantic calls
this morning from an officer at the National Gallery of Modern Art in
Bangalore, who shall go unnamed. She had got my number from a colleague,
who I met in the course of a GLAM meeting we organised earlier in the
year. This officer was trying to claim exemption from lifetime road tax
on her newly purchased car. (All central government employees are exempt
from this road tax). The Regional Transport Authority office she went to
refused to give her this exemption, on the grounds that the NGMA
Bangalore was not listed as a central government office or agency on
Wikipedia, either here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_agencies#Ministry_of_Culture
or here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Culture_%28India%29
(Additionally, NGMA Delhi and Mumbai were also not listed as
agencies/offices of the Ministry of Culture).
Now that the problem has been solved, after about 30 seconds of editing,
her bona fides as a central government employee will hold good for the
regional government department she is trying to convince, and she will
get the exemption she is entitled to.
It's funny how the world works...
Hiya,
We are looking for Sponsors/Partners in the following spheres (not limited to):
Stationary
Library
Venue
Contest/ editathon
Food
Beverage (Cold/Warm drinks other than water)
Water
Technology
Networking
Out of Home
Country (Tourism)
Open bus
Hospitality
Outdoor
Event Management
Travel (near finalisation)
Registration (near finalisation)
Multimedia
Broadband/Internet
Public Relations
Party
Radio
News
Multiplex
If you can help us recruit Sponsors/Partners in any of the above spheres (or in a sphere not mentioned herein above),
do email us your expression of interest: conference (at) wikimedia.in. Please do so by the end of August.
Kind Regards,
*Sakaal Times : 1,000 city students selected to write for Wikipedia*
http://www.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimesBeta/20110818/5418078935336057340.htmhttp://epaper.sakaaltimes.com/SakaalTimes/18Aug2011/Enlarge/page5.htm
*PUNE: Over 1,000 local students, including 843 from College of Engineering,
Pune (CoEP) alone, have become part of Wikipedia's 'India education program'
that aims at generating quality content for the world's largest online
encyclopedia with the participation from academic community in India. *
* *
*Wikipedia, during early June this year, had rolled out this initiative in
India with Pune being chosen as preferred location for the pilot launch.*
* *
*“We have framed courses in seven different disciplines of engineering as a
part of 'India education program' and a total 843 students have been
enrolled for these courses. Students assessment in these courses will
reflect in their internal evaluation,” CoEP director Anil Sahasrabudhe said.
*
* *
*“We have appointed ten faculty members for these courses, while 12
classrooms are practicing this innovation in teaching,” he told reporters on
Wednesday.*
* *
*Hishan Mundol, who is leading 'India education program' said that Wikipedia
and CoEP faculty members have signed agreement to execute the programme.*
* *
*“Our initiative has been facilitating innovative ways of teaching and
innovative ways of engaging students. Students undergo a lot of written
assignments, some of which would be replaced by writing articles for
Wikipedia,” he said.*
* *
*Symbiosis School of Economics, Modern College of Engineering and SNDT
Women's University (Pune Campus) are other local institutions, whose
students have participated in the 'India education program' in the beginning
phase.*
* *
*Prior to launch of its programme, Wikipedia had trained a group of 22
volunteers, referred as 'campus ambassadors', who are expected to reach out
to campuses to aid faculties and students in the matter of editing/creating
content on online encyclopedia.*
* *
*WIKI’S AIM*
*Wikipedia is of the view that information about India is not adequately
represented on the online encyclopedia and filling this void is their main
aim.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Aug_2011
Now, the Fund Raising for the year 2011 is being translated & the banners
are being created in full fast (in Meta-Wiki).
As, India has larger amount of WP (+ Any Wikimedia projects), it will be
nice if the Donation landing page has Indian Rupee as a transaction
currency.
http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:Translate/ext-di-di
As of now, there are only Foreign currencies which are not very common name
to Indians. (Except some)
So, please request the Foundation through the Chapter.
*These are my own comments*
*$U®¥∩*
http://goo.gl/RoMyo.com <http://FirefoxSurya.blogspot.com>
http://about.me/suryaceg
*DNA : Sahitya Parishad to add more Gujarati pages on Wikipedia*
*
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_sahitya-parishad-to-add-more-gujarati-…
*
*Gujarati Sahitya Parishad is planning to add more Gujarati pages on
Wikipedia. The 100-year-old institution will also correct facts related to
Gujarati literature on the site. This was discussed at a discussion
organised by the literary institution on the issue of Gujarati language,
Wikipedia and internet on Sunday. Veteran Gujarati littérateurs like Ratilal
Borisagar and Ramalal Soni discussed the authenticity of information posted
on Wikipedia. *
*Secretary of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, Rajendra Patel said, “If we want to
pass on a rich legacy of Gujarati language to next generation of Gujaratis,
we must use the technology and medium of expression available. Of course, we
should check the authenticity of the facts and information posted on the
net. Gujarati Parishad is posting Gujarati literature on Wikipedia and as an
institution, we would like to check the information available on the site.”*
*
*
*Dhaval Vyas, a UK-based member of Gujarati Wikipedia, who works in a
multinational bank, said, “It is the characteristic of Wikipedia that
anybody can add, edit or remove information. Of course, there will be people
who may distort the content.”*
*
*
*He further said, “The issue of authenticity of the content put on Wikipedia
can be taken care of if more and more people start uploading information and
verify the content.”*
*
*
*Vyas also argued that while there are millions of pages in English, there
are only 21,000 pages in Gujarati available on Gujarati Wikipedia. He also
talked about Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wikitionary and stressed for creating
more information pages on Wiki.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Aug_2011
*DNA : College of Engineering Pune students to co-author Wikipedia-India*
http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report_college-of-engineering-pune-students…
*
A total of 843 students of the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) will soon
get an opportunity to contribute to the popular search engine,
www.wikipedia.org.
A six-month semester was recently kicked off at the college, thanks to a
joint venture between the CoEP and the Wikipedia team, through their Indian
representative, Wikimedia (national programmes) India.
While briefing mediapersons on Wednesday, director of CoEP, Anil
Sahasrabudhe, said students from seven disciplines — mechanical, electrical,
electronics and telecommunication, production, computer, information
technology, and mathematics — would undergo the course.
“After the students complete the six-month course, they would need to
contribute to the website. They would be given internal marks for these
assignments,” he said.
Wikimedia consultant Hisham Mundol, who also attended the press briefing
said, “We are inviting students and educators in India to join us in this
mission by taking part in the India education programme. Information about
India and contribution by people from India are not adequately represented
on Wikipedia, and we want to change that.”
According to Mundol, the national programme in India has its genesis in a
similar pilot project, a public policy initiative started by Wikimedia in
the US that was received well. Mundol said that a total of four colleges in
Pune, CoEP, Symbiosis School of Economics, SNDT Women’s University and
Modern College of Engineering would be part of the Wikimedia initiative.
“Our goal is to encourage professors and teachers in Pune to join a growing
global community of educators, who use Wikipedia as a teaching and learning
tool in their classrooms,” he said.
*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Aug_2011
Hi Folks
I had initially suggested that we'd hold the monthly India Programs IRC at 9pm on Thursday Aug 18th - to formally introduce Shiju & Nitika.. ...I'm requesting a change in this because there are some urgent meetings with the Campus Ambassadors at Pune that have come up which unfortunately can't be rescheduled.
Can I therefore propose Thursday August 24th at 9pm IST pls. (I'll send out a reminder closer to the day.)
Sorry about this.
Best
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia India Programs
skype : hisham.wikimedia
gtalk : hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter : @mundol
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