On 01/16/2012 07:57 PM, wikimediaindia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
> Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:47:04 +0530
> From: Bala Jeyaraman <sodabottle(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] A report on SSN College Academy
> To: "Discussion list on Indian language projects of Wikimedia."
> <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
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> <CAMiPj9kZTp2K0S6odxowsbmEREQTZ5k+0Oq0zZ9+3i4xH+XpFw(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi,
>
> A Wiki workshop/academy was conducted at SSN College of Engineering,
> Chennai on 11 January. It was organised by SSN opensource enthusiasts under
> the aegis of the SSN Tamil Club. Me, Srikanth Lakshmanan and Arunmozhi from
> the Tamizha FOSS group. [1] 60 students attended the academy.
>
> The academy began at 9 in the morning with a presentation of open web and
> open source from SSN opensource enthusiasts. I followed it up with a intro
> section on wikipedia and a hands on editing session for about an hour. I
> covered the basics of wikipedia, notability standards, five pillars,
> copyright issues. I also covered basics of Wiktionary and Commons. Next
> Srikanth took a session on technology behind wikipedia and how the students
> could contribute technically to Wiki projects. We broke for lunch at 12 and
> reconvened an hour later.
>
> The afternoon session began with a audio recording exercise, where songs of
> the Tamil poet Subramania Bharathi were sung and uploaded to commons.[2]
> This served as a hands on exercise to identify the common copyright
> problems and which material can be added to Wiki projects without copyright
> issues. Public domain, nationalisation, copyright term expiry, threshold of
> originality, open source file formats etc were discussed. Next Arunmozhi (
> a student of a College of Engineering Guindy and a developer of Tamil open
> source software) took a session on the initiatives of the Tamizha group.
> After that we went on a photo walk of the SSN campus. We split into two
> groups and walked around the SSN campus taking pictures. The images were
> uploaded to Commons. [3]. This served as an oppurtunity to explain
> copyright issues like freedom of panorama and derivative works. The academy
> ended with a vote of thanks from the Tamil Club convener.
>
> Over all it was a highly successful exercise (IMO) and a lot of productive
> work was done. The attendees were highly motivated and asked a lot of
> pertinent questions which lead to some interesting discussions. They also
> gave a few interesting suggestions about improving the usability of Wiki
> pages from newbie perspective (Srikanth has already started work on
> implementing one of the suggestions).
>
> I would like to thank the organising team (Dwaraka, Harvesh, Jason and
> others) for doing an excellent job in organising the event , SSN Tamil
> Mandram for its patronage and Wikimedia India Chapter for its help with
> swag and printed material (though the quantity was nowhere sufficient :-).
> Please ramp up the operation guys).
>
> ==Links==
> [1]http://thamizha.com/
> [2]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tamil_audio_songs
> [3]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SSN_College_of_Engineering
Thank you very much for your work! I would be interested specifically
in knowing what opportunities especially appealed to the students and
what kinds of snags and problems they ran into when considering, or
trying to start, contributing to MediaWiki and other Wikimedia technologies.
--
Sumana Harihareswara
Volunteer Development Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello All
This is a slightly belated report of the Wiki 11 celebrations in Pune on
January 15, 2012.
The celebrations were coincided with the first gathering of Wikipedia Club
Pune <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Club_Pune>. The Club
had met on the 14th where participants were instructed on the model, nature
and basics of Wikipedia.
The 15th saw 40+ participants gather in the computer lab at SICSR, Pune for
hands-on Wikipedia editing as well as the 11th anniversary celebrations.
The numbers therefore made this the *largest Wiki 11 celebration in India*.
The participants were largely high school and college students. The morning
session involved a detailed explanation of the five pillars of
Wikipedia<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars>
stressing
the importance of contributing neutral and free content. Feedback for each
sessions was immediately gathered on the Wikipedia Club Pune Facebook
Page<https://www.facebook.com/WikipediaClubPune>
.
The second session involved hands-on editing beginning with talk page
posting, signing of posts, sandbox editing, wiki-linking etc. Then
following a detailed explanation of referencing, the participants were
encouraged (under supervision) to reference articles related to Pune.
The final session involved the business end of the Wiki-11 celebration with
a huge Wiki-globe
cake<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Club_Pune_1.JPG>.
We were further buoyed by the presence of the WP English SIG chair Ashwin
who encouraged and helped the participants in editing and did the honours
cutting the cake. The participants and the organizers participated in a
Google+ Hangout with Hisham and the rest of the WMF office in Delhi and
Nitika and the WP 11 party in Kolkata. The participants were quite excited
with both Wikipedia and its community. Their enthusiasm was reflected in
both their editing as well as willingness to return for the next meeting of
the club.
The pictures of the event have been uploaded to commons and can be found
here <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_11_in_India>.
The next meeting of the Wikipedia Club Pune will be on Saturday, 21st Jan.
The Wikipedia Club and celebrations were quite excellently organized by
Abhishek Suryavanshi and several other Campus Ambassadors in Pune.
Warm Regards
--
Srikeit Tadepalli
+91-7709756798
On 01/12/2012 03:28 AM, wikimediaindia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
> Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 18:44:55 +0530
> From: Sucheta Ghoshal <sucheta.ghoshal(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Help needed for Wiki Academy in Kolkata
> To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Message-ID:
> <CAF5rHFdLSyefUQg+4-B1rsR+VwJ1NJ3B-1UwaubZg2TYfOxghg(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi,
>
> We are having a Wiki Academy for the first time in Kolkata at Netaji
> Subhash Engineering College . We would appreciate to have any kind of help
> to make this Wiki Academy a successful event, as of now We are looking for
> person who is willing to speak on the technical aspects of Wikipedia ( More
> specifically "How a developer can contribute to the Meta-Wiki Source Code).
> Since it is an engineering college,and we are hosting it as a college event
> only so Technical part is necessary according to the students concerned.
> Please help us.
>
> Regards,
> Sucheta Ghoshal
Sucheta, I will email the Wikimedia developers' list to let them know
that you would like some MediaWiki developers to attend.
Here are some flyers or notes that you can use if they are suitable for you.
Ten things technically inclined volunteers can do to help Wikimedia
projects: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/TechVolunteersCanDo
The "please contribute to MediaWiki" flyer --
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MediaWiki_flyer_20111116_color.pdf
Also, I am the coordinator for MediaWiki's participation in the Google
Summer of Code, a selective paid summer internship for college students
who want to work remotely on open source software projects. The
homepage for that effort is
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code and the best guide
is http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCStudentGuide/ .
I hope these are useful to you. Please feel free to translate, print,
modify, link, and so on. Thank you! Good luck and best wishes! Hope you
can realize great outcomes from this event. :-)
--
Sumana Harihareswara
Volunteer Development Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation
FW on request.
_____
*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. Ajude-nos a
construir esse sonho. <http://wikimedia.pt/Donativos>*
On 18 January 2012 17:07, Tiffany Smith <tiffany.lmb.smith(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Call for Participation - Wikimania 2012
>
> To submit a proposal, visit:
> http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions
>
> Important Dates
> Deadline for submitting proposals: 18 March 2012
> Notification of acceptance: 8 April 2012
>
> Overview
> Wikimania conferences provide unique opportunities for the wiki
> community and its sister projects (including Wikipedia, Wikibooks,
> Wikinews, Wiktionary, Wikispecies, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikimedia)
> to come together, share their common goals, and develop better ways to
> work together on an international level. The Wikimania 2012 program
> structure is designed to create multiple opportunities for conference
> participants to actively engage with the subject matter, the
> environment, and, most importantly, each other. Washington, D.C, can
> play an important role in Wikimania 2012 as a locale that gathers
> interest in government, culture, media, and academia around the
> general goals of the Wikimania conference series.
>
> In accordance with these goals and themes, the program will include
> traditional conference offerings such as paper presentations,
> tutorials, panels, and poster sessions; provide lounge space and
> breaks throughout for participants to gather; and innovate with an
> unconference day for attendees to design their own schedule and
> participation around common interests. Submissions will be reviewed
> and selected in advance by the program committee. Attendees are
> welcome to present in the open space track of the conference,
> regardless of whether their submitted presentations were accepted.
>
> The eigth annual Wikimania will be held between 12th and 14th July,
> 2012 in Washington D.C. For more information, please visit the main
> site.
>
> Presentation length
> Due to the extensive amount of program submissions received in the
> previous years, we request your presentation be a maximum of 25
> minutes, including time for questions. You may request more time,
> though shorter individual presentations are more likely to be
> accepted.
>
> This does not apply for keynote speakers, panels, or workshops. 70
> minute presentations must be submitted either as panel presentations
> to include at least three presenters or as workshops with a clear
> lesson plan.
>
> Tracks
> Tracks are used by Wikimania to organize submissions and diversify
> audiences so that presentations of competing interest do not have time
> conflicts. Five tracks are proposed:
>
> Wikis and the Public Sector
> The Washington, DC, location for Wikimania 2012 provides a special
> opportunity for those working in the social good, policy, government,
> nonprofit, and disaster response arenas to share their experience with
> collaboration on a local, national, or international level. Wikis and
> complementary technologies are proving to be critical in times of
> crisis and in ongoing work with citizen participation in government,
> as well as in long-term goals for education, public policy, social
> entrepreneurship, and development in the global south and throughout
> the world. This track will explore the ways that Wikimedia projects
> and related activities can be used to support citizens worldwide.
>
> GLAM: Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums
> This track aims to support current outreach to Galleries, Libraries,
> Archives, and Museums and build enthusiasm for continued work in this
> area. Presentations and panels will demonstrate effective outreach
> techniques and results from ongoing activities as well as envision the
> future path for these efforts. Topics of particular interest to this
> track may include: wiki technology as a tool for cultural
> preservation; use of wikis by museums and libraries for information
> management for the public good; legal and copyright issues; use of
> content in GLAM projects, education, journalism and research;
> conflicts between different laws that apply to the same wiki system
> simultaneously. This track may also incorporate “field trips” before,
> after, or during the evenings of the conference to visit Washington,
> D.C., organizations.
>
> WikiCulture and Community
> Why do people contribute to Wikimedia projects? How might the
> community grow and expand while retaining its inherent cultural ethos?
> This track will explore the sociology of wiki culture and community
> and provide a forum for practitioners and researchers to share
> insights and best practices for community management, engagement,
> participation, and conflict resolution. The assessment of different
> wiki cultures and demonstration of clashes and effects of those
> interactions between wiki communities and chapters is relevant to this
> track. A special focus will be a discussion of gaps between different
> community groups, most notably related to gender and age; within this
> context, submissions related to female and teenage participation,
> representative roles within the community, and the use of wikis as a
> tool for different gender and age group dialogues, are strongly
> encouraged.
>
> Research, Analysis, and Education
> The scope of research and analysis on wikis has grown significantly in
> recent years, and wikis are rapidly being introduced to educational
> institutions in the course of teaching and more formally through the
> Campus Ambassador Program. The scholarly atmosphere of the selected
> venue creates a special opportunity for researchers working in this
> area to present papers and panels to a well-informed audience.
> Subjects associated with the research component of this track can
> include a diverse range of topics including: technical development,
> philosophy and the humanities, communications, community management
> and collaboration, information science, and a broad range of other
> areas. The practitioner side of this track can include: expert
> participation and inviting expert contributions; Wikiversity and other
> higher education wikis; wiki sources deployed and implemented in
> academia and research practice; approaches to the improvement of
> collaboration in research institutions and universities; and
> contribution to content quality, among other areas.
>
> Technology and Infrastructure
> Technology and infrastructure play essential roles in the success of
> Wikimedia projects and other uses of wiki technology. This track will
> incorporate research and practice to showcase technology applications
> and theories, demonstrate new uses of existing and evolving
> technologies, and focus on applying technologies to meet user needs
> and improve the overall user experience. Issues and areas particularly
> of note in this track include: OTRS, MediaWiki development, semantic
> wikis, wiki-based Augmented Reality (AR), the use of QR codes,
> Wikipedia on mobile devices, Wikipedia offline, User Interface Design,
> WikiLove, Liquid Thread and related technical focus points.
>
> Lounge Space Presentations
> All proposals and presentations will be welcome in the Lounge space of
> the conference, whether or not they are accepted in this initial
> process.
>
> If you have any questions, please contact:
>
> Tiffany Smith
> Program Committee Chair, Wikimania 2012
> tiffany.lmb.smith(a)gmail.com
>
> Thank you very much for your consideration, and we look forward to
> seeing you at Wikimania 2012 in Washington, DC.
>
> http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions
>
> --
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimania-l mailing list
> Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>
Dear All,
We started meetups around Kannada Wikipedia yesterday. We celebrated Wiki
11 with a long awaited meetup session. 9 people turned up Including Mr.
Arjun Rao chavla. Kalmane Koffee's small little corner turned out to be a
hot discussion point in few minutes. As we had few new editors around us,
Introduction was given on how and why wikipedia can be the best platform to
start sharing knowledge. Naveen and Prabhodh had joined us from FSMK to
share their commitment to work with Wikipedia, and also explained why they
would look for support groups to work on these projects. Naveen explained
how support groups can help us grow steadily.
Discussion continued around topics like 1. Complaints that we hear about
Kannada wikipedia 2. Why we don't see regular editors 3. Support groups for
those who seek help 4. Unattended support requests 5. Unavailable community
around wikipedia to welcome and greet new editors 6. Why should new editors
find Wikipedia Interesting 7. How build the community to be more active in
terms of building the missing support team 7. Special projects that we can
take up to make things Interesting around Kannada Wikipedia 8. Personal
experiences about editing wiki 9. How we can prepare ourselves to better
Kannada wiki state by July 12th on which we will be celebrating our 9th
anniversary and so on.
Abhiram from Sanskrit wiki joined us to explain why he hopped in to Kannada
wikipedia and started helping people around it and how Sanskrit community
working at present.
While Naveen and Prabhod mentioned about their monthly magazine for FSMK
not seeing enough articles from the FOSS community, I got an instant idea
of creating interest in people around us to work on a specific topic for
the month and collate and contribute that to Kannada wikipedia and make it
available / reachable to magazine readers. This can go along with a story
on how the community could go ahead and use Wikipedia to build a detailed
document to feature on its Magazine. This will inspire not only techies but
also those who read the magazine to start contributing.
Shalini, Pradeep who work at Serverlots on a research project called Alipi (
http://janastu.org/technoscience/index.php/Alipi) which is a re-narration
project of the hub understood how wikipedia works and new possibilities of
reaching out to community.
Raghavendra, a linguist & a journalist joined the meetup happily to
understand how he can help us better quality of Articles contributed by
Google Translation team in which he had worked earlier.
Arjun shared his learnings from Telugu wikipedia and encouraged us to find
the new possibilities to engage more people on Kannada Wikipedia.
We were expecting Thejesh GN who was found to be the first Kannada Wiki
editor in early days of Kannada wikipedia, but unfortunately he couldn't
make it for the event. Wish to meet him in upcoming meetups along with
others who missed it.
Before i close this report: Here is something that we had to talk about
during our meetup.
A mail that I received from one of our top most Kannada wiki contributor
Mr. Holalkere Lakshmi venkatesh. On request to reach out to Bangalore
wikipedian's during our first meetup, he had sent an email about Kannada
wikipedia from Mumbai. Kannada wikipedia's present state and how he wishes
to to see in future could be found in his email. I'm sharing it here along
with this email for all to see the.
-----------
Here are some of my wishes about how Kannada Wikipedia should proceed in
the coming years !
The truths about kannada wikipedia :
We were sleeping almost from centuries, with out improving our mother
tounge, keeping in view of some totally unrealistic goals. Even when we
watch some kannada programmes on Chandana, the Anchor will be narrating the
events, etc; in high language, with lots of adjuctives added to it, more
than it deserves. Every thing is superficial non realistic and almost not
practical for the present day situation.
Let us start, from here.
What is our role ?
kannada is rich, we hear. But is it true ? yes and no. Provided if we
contribute a bit to its growth. We are supposed to read a lot to enrich our
knowledge and later find some words new, or borrow some from some where,
and see whether it fits to the context.
Pro. G. T. Narayana rao, T.R.Anantharamu, Pro. HRRRao, Dr. Pavanaja, Hegde,
and others so many of them have been doing a great job in finding some
equivalent Scientific words for the writers. We have to be in costant
touch of their work. Later some thing we have to contribute.
This is not easy. First let us contribute some articles in kannda
wikipedia. They can be biographies, and about the people next door who are
doing some good work, they might not have Ph.Ds or M.Techs added to the end
of their names. Doesn't matter. We have to read them throughly.
What we do when we get a doubt about some word or place or name ? Refer
Dictionary, or Encyclopedia, or ask some one . Right ?
*But just a click distance we have the entire world is unfolded infront of
us- free of charge.*
**
*Why not use it ?*
Here the English wikipedia comes to our mind immediately. It is well
developed and has real wealth of information. That is well managed by
competent people with dedication hard work, with upto date information and
love for the language. *That is how it is treated as a full enclyclopedia.*
In Kannada, and many of our regional languages, we do not have one. Why ?
We are not striving hard to have one. Create one.
We do not love our mother tongue. We won't read kannada literature. We do
not contribute to it. Earlier days during our time, letter writing was
there. But that great art has gone to dust bin; and our skill in writing a
good sentence, or narrating a story to our own children has a back seet,
and the Idiot box has taken over that place ! We are struggling with SMS
language skill.
That is part of history. What we have been facing from our childhood days
to this day.
So, no one has tobe blamed.
We are the makers and destroyers of our own follies.
Let us add something to the already existing articles.
Just like in English enclyopedia, we have to develop on the same lines.
Gradually we can go stronger by innovating it.
*The new generation boys and girls are having lots of skills as for
Computer technology and skill in making the things much faster than the old
timers. This plus point should be encashed.*
Unless you have kannda knowledge you can not make a good article. We have
appropriate words to match the English words. Only way is bring the english
words as they are in kannada, and try to borrow words from hindi, urdu,
Tamil, Telugu, Bengali etc; they can borrow some from kannada.
Rest is when one starts writing in wikipedia one explores the necessity of
finding the new ways and avenues !
Good luck and have a nice time.
I am a blogger. That way, I could improve my language skills.
*When an old timer (68), with out the Computer skills whatsoever, can make
some thing in wikipedia, you can do wonders !*
Wish you best of luck,
My real name is :
(ಹೊಳಲ್ಕೆರೆ ರಂಗರಾವ್ ಲಕ್ಷ್ಮೀವೆಂಕಟೇಶ್)
ನನ್ನ ತಾಯಿಯವರ ಹೆಸರು : ರಾಧಮ್ಮ ಮತ್ತು ತಂದೆಯವರ ಹೆಸರು : ರಂಗರಾಯರು.
I use the following names while writing in Wikipedia.
-Radhatanaya(Purely for kannada wikipedia articles)
-Rangakuvara(Use this name when I write for English wikipedia, some
articles have been written in kannada also)
----------------
Wiki meetup page is available here:-
http://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ:ಸಮ್ಮಿಲನ/೧
It was fun, interesting and there was much sharing... Wish to see more of
this with growing Kannada Wikipedia!
--
With Best Regards,
Omshivaprakash.H.L | ಓಂ ಶಿವಪ್ರಕಾಶ್ ಎಚ್. ಎಲ್ | ॐ शिवप्रकाश् एच्. एल्
Chair, Kannnada SIG
Wikimedia India Chapter
[image: File:Wikimedia India logo.svg] <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/>
Phone: 91- 9902026518
[[User:Omshivaprakash]] kn: en: meta: comm:
Hi Everyone,
*Update on Wiki11 Meet
up<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Kolkata/Kolkata8>
:*
We were about 28 people together in Kolkata celebrating Wikipedia's 11th
Anniversary. :)
We started the meeting with a general introductory round. There were
students from Jadavpur
University<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadavpur_University>,
IIFT, Neetaji Subhash Chandra Bose Engineering College, some people who had
joined us for the Wiki Kolkata Photo walk, a reporter from Times of India,
an editor,Neelanjan Dasgupta
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ne0Freedom>,(User:Ne0Freedom)
who has been contributing to Wikipedia since 2005 (but it was his first
Wiki meet ever), a lot of newbies who wanted to know more about Wikipedia
and our various projects amongst several others. It was great to see that
about 50% of the people were new to Wikipedia family and joined us on this
special day.
Then Nitika (We are very proud where she have came first time in kolkata
and motivate us) spoke about various programs that the Trust is currently
involved in. Some of the new participants wanted to know more about Wiki
Loves Monuments competition, Chapters initiatives on GLAM projects, Offline
Project etc. Then Bishakha introduced herself and spoke about SOPA.
The introductory talks were followed by me giving a small presentation
about the various programs, Wikimedia India Chapter, Bengala Wikipedia,
initiatives taken by the Bengali community members etc. There were some
questions about using translation tools for Wikipedia articles.
We then celebrated Wikipedia 11 by cutting a yummy cake. :) This was
followed by Kalyanda giving a hands on training to newbies regarding how to
upload pictures on Commons, how to use a picture from Commons on Wikipedia
and basic Wikipedia editing. There were lots of questions about how to add
a reference, how to edit and Kalyanda addressed all these questions.
We have collected names and email addresses of all the participants so
thats its easy for us to follow up with them and invite them to other Wiki
activites that will take place in Kolkata.
*Next Steps:*
1. We are planning to organise a Kolkata photothon on the Chinese New
Year, 23rd January. As you know Kolkata has the biggest China Town in India
where there will be lots of celebrations on this particuylar day. Hence we
have decided to go down to China town and click pictures that can be
uploaded on Commons.
2. We'll try and organise a full WikiAcademy for all the newbies who joined
us for the celebrations to inform them more a about Wikipedia editing.
3. We'll soon organise a Kolkata Wiki meet up for Feb and invite all the
participants as plan of every month wiki meetup/workshop at Kolkata.
4. We want to start with WP: Kolkata where we all will do collaborative
editing and improve/add articles about the pictures/monuments/buildings we
had clicked during the previous Kolkata photo walk. Just for information,
we contributed over 450 pictures on Commons as a result of this photowalk.
5. Sucheta is organising a WikiAcademy in her college, Neetaji Subhash
Chandra Bose Engineering College on the 25th Jan. Over 70 students have
already registered for it. Jayantada and Kalyanda are supporting her for
this event.
6. Deepon is also speaking with professors/Chairman at Jadavpur University
to figure out the possibility of conducting a WikiAcademy there.
--
With Warm Regards,
*Jayanta Nath*
Calcutta,West Bengal
Hello everyone,
Just to let you know that Bengali Wikipedia [1] has placed a banner on
their site notice protesting SOPA and PIPA. Maybe other Indic language
Wikipedias can take similar initiatives or maybe they have taken one
already? If so, share with us!
In the mean time, I have an translation request for you. Maybe you have
read Sue's letter [2] to the community about the blackout. I invite you all
to translate that letter in your language. Since we have little time (less
than 17 hours), we need be prompt. See the translation request on Meta-Wiki
[3] and start your translation.
Get yourself up and let your people know in your language!
Regards,
Tanvir Rahman
Wikitanvir on Wikimedia
[1] bn.wikipedia.org
[2] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Translation_requests/WMF/English_Wikipedia_…
*The Indian Express : "Would Gandhi have been a Wikipedian?"*
( Article by Achal Prabhala)
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/would-gandhi-have-been-a-wikipedian/90050…http://www.indianexpress.com/news/would-gandhi-have-been-a-wikipedian/90050…
( Single Page Version)
*
In 1941, a young Argentinian librarian who would soon go completely blind
published a story about the futility of the “total” library. His
inspiration was Kurd Lasswitz, a 19th century German philosopher and
science-fiction pioneer, whose own idea of a “universal” library was a
mathematical nightmare of frighteningly large but finite proportions. The
writer was Jorge Luis Borges, and his story, The Library of Babel, (taking
off from the mythical Tower of Babel, a place of linguistic dysfunction)
spawned a minor publishing industry of its own. Borges’ library was not a
happy place: its chronically overworked librarians were suicidal, thuggish
cults periodically vandalised the books, people spent lifetimes searching
for a catalogue without success, and — wondrous as it all was — no one
expected to find anything useful there ever.
Eighty years after it was written, Borges’ feverish fantasy is a cautionary
tale for those who are tempted to take Internet-era fantasies at their
word. When a Google executive was asked to describe the perfect search
engine, he is reported to have said, “It would be like the mind of God.”
Preposterous, yes; but also exciting. And anyone excited enough to adopt
this as a mission statement would do well to have a cold shower, and heed
Borges’ conclusion on the topic — “The library is unlimited and cyclical”.
Happily, there are more human, and altogether more humble manifestations of
the desire to learn and share and prosper. In ancient history, the
pre-biblical city of Babylon was a working counterpoint to the biblical
Tower of Babel; a bustling site where diverse crowds made good together. In
the present day, we are no closer to knowing everything, but we have
Wikipedia: a bustling website where diverse people from everywhere in the
world create miracles. Wikipedia’s humility is the flip-side to its
success, and it comes from wanting to be precisely the opposite of the
total library: call it a perpetually partial library, if you will. No one
who has spent even a minute contributing anything to it would dare assume
that the job is done, the perspective complete, or the game won.
Eleven years ago to this day, Jimmy Wales typed out “Hello world!” and
Wikipedia was born. In 1989, Richard Stallman pioneered a form of copyright
licensing for software that allowed programmers and users to do virtually
anything they liked with it. This formed the basis for free and open source
software, or FOSS. In 1995, Ward Cunningham used FOSS to build the
underlying software for a novel form of collaboration — the “wiki”. By this
time, the benefits of a generous copyright licence to software were
apparent, and it was extended to mainstream culture — to words, sounds and
images. Wikipedia was among the early exponents of this free culture
experiment, quickly followed by sister projects of the Wikimedia
Foundation: Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks and more.
Wikipedia’s collaborative system of knowledge has exceeded everyone’s
wildest expectations. Today, it is the world’s fifth most visited website —
and the sole non-profit upstart in the oligarchical fiefdom that is our
online landscape. There are thriving communities of volunteers in countries
like India and South Africa, among several other places, who are helping us
discover that learning does not have to be a passive act, and that the
value of generosity can be productive and revolutionary at once.
Interestingly enough, it was about a hundred years ago that a young,
idealistic lawyer set off on a similar journey. Affected by colonialism in
his home, India, and faced with debilitating segregation laws in his
adopted home, South Africa, he saw the productive and revolutionary
potential in generous knowledge. Over a long sea journey from London to
Cape Town, he wrote down his ideas on self-determination and independence.
The young lawyer was, of course, Gandhi, and his book, Hind Swaraj, would
go on to become the intellectual blueprint for the Indian freedom movement.
The original was written in Gujarati in 1909. One year later, it was
translated into English and published as Indian Home Rule. On the cover of
the first edition of this English translation is a prominent, if unusual,
copyright legend. It reads, “No Rights Reserved”.
Now it can be told: Gandhi was a free knowledge activist. Consider what he
was encouraging his readers to do. In short order, a person reading Indian
Home Rule in 1910 would have been able to copy the book freely, distribute
those copies widely, translate the book into other languages, and join the
conversation as a participant and not merely as an observer. I know of
Gandhi’s radical copyright intentions because I’ve seen an image of the
cover of this rare first edition, even though it is mostly unavailable in
museums and archives. Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie and Isabel Hofmeyr, two South
African scholars, photographed the book and generously shared it with the
world. And how did they do that? By putting it on Wikimedia Commons, where
anyone can use it, in any form, for all time — exactly as Gandhi intended.
Indeed, the universe is cyclical. Gandhi would have been a Wikipedian.
Prabhala is a Bangalore-based researcher and writer, and serves on the
advisory board of the Wikimedia Foundation *
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
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