A very interesting idea to extract specific information out of Wikipedia.
Do have a look.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Symonds <richard.symonds(a)wikimedia.org.uk>
Date: Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 8:12 PM
Subject: [Wmfcc-l] PRESS: New search tool to unlock Wikipedia
To: Communications Committee <wmfcc-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21625-new-search-tool-to-unlock-wikip…
WOULD you like to ask Wikipedia tougher questions than today's simple
keyword searches allow? A prototype plug-in that can do just that will be
demonstrated at the World Wide Web
conference<http://swipe.i-mozart.com/www2012demo/TR_swipe.pdf>
in Lyon, France, next month.
Called Swipe - loosely short for "searching Wikipedia by example" - the
software aims to let users of the online encyclopedia answer complex
questions that most search engines would stumble over. For example, trying
to figure out "which actresses won academy awards when they were under 30
years old in the last 25 years?" becomes relatively simple when using the
program.
To use Swipe, questions are not typed out in the form of the natural
language above, but Swipe is nevertheless designed for everyday users: no
knowledge of arcane database query languages is necessary, say the
developers, Maurizio Atzori at the University of Cagliari, Sardinia, and
Carlo Zaniolo at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The pair wrote Swipe using MediaWiki, the software Wikipedia is based on,
but it draws its answers from
DBpedia<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dbpedia#Example> ,
an expansive collection of 3.6 million data entries harvested from
Wikipedia's pages. The data pop up in the info boxes on the right-hand side
of Wikipedia entries, which list the details we use to describe the world,
such as dates, prices, ages, heights, names, places, distances, bit rates,
bytes, running times and geographical coordinates.
At a very basic level, Atzori and Zaniolo use this process in reverse:
Swipe "activates" those Wikipedia info boxes, allowing users to take the
data in them and create a tweaked version, and in doing so calls up pages
that match that altered information. For example, says Atzori: "Imagine you
want to search for all Wikipedia pages about singers from North America who
are younger than 20." With Swipe running, you go to an example of a known
singer's page - Lady Gaga's, say - and in the "Born" field overwrite her
age of 25 with "<20" and replace "New York, New York" with "North America".
Swipe then automatically converts that into a DBpedia query that returns a
page with a list of entries that match your requirements.
In a demo video, the pair show how to use pop singer Robbie Williams's
Wikipedia page to find a list of "musicians" with the first name "Mike" who
don't play "poprock" - by overwriting his name and occupation, and placing
the construct "un" before the genre "poprock" (watch the video above).
Swipe could easily be made available as an option on Wikipedia one day,
says Atzori.
"I like the idea because of its simplicity and the way it uses familiar
Wikipedia info boxes to construct powerful queries," says Nigel
Shadbolt<http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/nrs> ,
head of the web and internet science group at the University of
Southampton, UK.
"Structured data resources like DBpedia represent a really rich knowledge
base," he adds, but they are difficult for the average internet user to
take advantage of. "If we could build a query engine that's usable by all,
that would be a real winner," he says.
Richard Symonds
Office & Development Manager
Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 207 065 0992
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--
Noopur Raval
Student
Arts and Aesthetics
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Ph: 9650567690
Hoi,
We have supported input methods and web fonts for the Bhojpuri language for
quite some time at translatewiki.net. In essence it needs the same support
as Hindi. We are happy with the results and intent to make them available
on the bh.wikipedia.org. Have a look at translatewiki and let us know if
there are any issues [1]
When you read about the Bhojpuri language at Ethnologue [2], it is
indicated that the language has also been written in the Kaithi script [3].
When there is a freely licensed font for the Kaithi script, we are quite
happy to provide this as well as an option. If you know of such a font
please let us know.
Thanks,
Gerard
[1] http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Portal:Bho?uselang=bho
[2] http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bho
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaithi
Hi Folks
One of the aspects that India Program constantly works on is that the the work that your team does for and with our community is based on clear objectives, robust design and relevant progress parameters.
India Program has / is / will be undertaking a series of pilots. Pilots by nature indicate that we try innovative things out sometimes, and we may or may not always suceed. We must be bold and try them out - but we must also carefully build these pilots out and measure progress. On the main India Program meta page, I've created a tab that links to a new sub-page called Pilot Designs - where I have published 3 of these pilot designs. More will follow as they are ready, or as we undertake new work, so do add the page to your watchlists.
Basic Community Building is the work that Shiju is doing with small Indic communities - in this case, Assamese. It will show what steps can be taken to build such communities - from communication to collaboration to outreach. This work is especially relevant to small Indic communities - but there are pointers even for larger communities (including English.)
Story-telling for Community Building is the work that Noopur just announced (and as illustrated by the profile on Netha) - where we want to celebrate the diversity and magic in our community.
Supporting Community Communications Initiatives (Wikipatrika) for Community Building is the initiative just announced by Noopur to support our community's newsletter, Wikipatrika. The attempt is to see how Wikipatrika can become more participative, richer in content and more regular in publication.
Do go through these. Do also add your comments on the respective talk pages.
The constant endeavor of all the work that we do is to help community members who want to take up the various initiatives that we are piloting (with them or with other community members.) Do go through these pilot designs and if you are interested in getting involved, or if you need clarification, or if you want support - please feel free to ask for it on the talk pages or offlist to any of us.
Best
hisham
Dear All,
The 2nd Bhubaneswar meetup (http://goo.gl/AccU6) is planned
for Sunday 1st April 2012 (Odisha day), from 1030 to 1230 hrs at
Webrains Solutions Private Limited,
Infocity, Near Gulf Club, Bhubaneswar by Odia Wiki Community.
One community meetup between the existing Odia Wikipedians is also
planned to be held on the same day from 1500 to 1630 hrs.
If you're interested to join in the meet up on Sunday, 1st April
Please register at: http://goo.gl/Qrznv
Two more Wiki WorkShops at Angul (30th March) and Cuttack (31st March
) are also under consideration (Not confirmed till now).
--
Cheers
ମୃତ୍ୟୁଞ୍ଜୟ କର
2nd BBSR Odia Wikipedia Workshop on 1st April 2012.
https://www.facebook.com/events/366609686703867
Dear Wikimedians,
This mail is more relevant to wikimedians working in Wiksiource.
Here is a small blog post about the digitization of books using DjVu (or
about using Proofread extension).
http://shijualex.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/digitization-of-books-in-wikisour…
Post is also placed in metawiki at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages/Digitization_o…
Few Indic wiki source communities (Sanskrit and Malayalam) are using this
method extensively to digitize the books. But some other communities are
not aware about the use of such an extension.
This post is for sharing the best practices from differenent Indic wiki
communities. Going forward I will be sharing these type of best practices
and lessons from various Indic language wiki communities. This
is essential since in most cases challenges, issues, and solutions are
similar for Indic wiki communities.
Shiju Alex
Dear All,
Sorry for sending email for the discussion points so late....
It was a new place called Ranade institute where we had our monthly meet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Pune/Pune19
The mail agenda for meet up was -
*Set up a long-term plan for a year's worth of Wikipuneri activities, with
detailed planning for Wikipedia activities* .
1. Discuss and plan for outreach activities in Pune
2. Communication and reporting of various activities of events
3. Reporting of past events like Marathi Wikisrot launch, Wiki academies
4. Discuss on increase member strength in Pune
5. Discuss immd. project in Pune and the support required
The response was good and many points and ideas came from wikipedians. Here
is the brief summery of the same.
1. Discussed more on the launch of Marathi Wikisource and discussed various
activities to grow it further. Radha madam suggested to have a program with
Madhav Vaze (who played the role of Shyam in the movie "Shyamchi Aai" when
all the books epecially Shyamchi Aai gets uploaded on Marathi Wikisrot.
2. Abhijit Safai suggested some ideas including discussion with MS-CIT
members for increase the contribution in Wikipedia and wikisrot. A meeting
is getting planned.
3. Abhishek suggested to have 2 day residential program on May to increase
the reach of Wikipedia in nearby districts like Nagar, Satara, Nashik,
Kolhapur. We all will support him.
4. Mandar briefed about the activities in Ranade institute including wiki
academy. We need support from more members in this.
5. It was also agreed that we are doing activities in good pace but are bit
lazy in reporting the same in various mailing lists, mail groups and media.
We can make of google groups for the same.
6. All members are requested to get added in the yahoo mailing list.
7. Ashwin also shared some ideas regarding the India English Wikipedia and
Wikipedia loves monuments activity.
Pls. add any more points if I missed anything.
--
Regards,
Mandar V Kulkarni
Email: mandar.kulkarni(a)wikimedia.in
Website: http://mr.wikipedia.org
Dear all,
I'm writing with regard to Wikipatrika. For the folks who don't know, this
is the community newsletter which has come out twice (in September
2010<http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wikimedia_India_Communi…>
& June 2011 <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2011-06>) It's a
really wonderful way documenting and celebrating the amazing work done by
so many community members across so many communities in the various
projects. It helps share ideas with and helps pick up ideas from other
communities.
I think Wikipatrika is something that could be more frequent - given the
range of activities across communities - and I'd like to support it. In
this regard, I approached all the editors who were involved in the previous
2 issues to ask their interest in bringing out the next one in end April
covering Jan - Mar 2012, and to see if we can make it more regular
(potentially every quarter.) 5 community members from different languages
have already offered to help. Another community member will setup a
template that all languages can use (on wiki.wikimedia.in)
I have also started reaching out to editors who might not have been
involved before, and hence this mail.
The template for Wikipatrika will be ready only by April 2nd week. In the
meantime, can I ask whoever is interested to create a page on
their respective languages wikipedias and start sharing stories and updates
on this page. I'd encourage everyone to write these in whatever language
they are comfortable in to begin with. (Once the template is set up on
wiki.wikimedia.in, these individual pages could then be posted there.) To
start off, you could start with the following sections (which I'm
illustrating using the
Bengali<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2011-06/Community_News/bn>
page
from a previous Wikipatrika), and just start adding content.
1. General overview
2. Bengali Wikipedia
3. Bengali Wikisource
4. Bengali Wiktionary
5. Bengali Wikibooks
6. News reports
7. Any other section(s) you want to add
Please do add as much as you want on
- Updates on the various projects
- Landmarks, birthdays, celebrations, events, conferences, etc between
Jan-Mar 2012
- Reports on outreach sessions conducted
- Links to meetups and where to find the next ones
- Please feel free to add sections that you think would be nice. I
could suggest "Featured Wikimedians" and "Featured Newbies" as examples.
Here
<http://This%20should%20go%20on%20India%20and%20Indic%20mailing%20lists%20%2…>is
how the Nepali community did it last time. After you set up the page,
please do post this on your respective village pumps or mailing lists and
any other forums so that all community members know. Please do share the
page with me (offlist) so I can help out too.
If you would like to help but are not sure how, or if you are facing any
kind of difficulties, please do not hesitate to contact me (
noopur(a)wikimedia.org)
Regards
Noopur
Dear all,
To celebrate Women's History Month, I thought it would be really nice to
celebrate an Indian woman editor's story. A short story on User: Netha
Hussain was posted on the WMF
blog<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/03/27/wiki-women-joining-indic-languages/>
.
(Netha is an editor on Malayalam Wikipedia, has been involved in women
topics and recently coordinated the first women's
edit-a-thon<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/India_WikiWomen%27s_Edit-a-Th…>
in
India.)
While I was preparing this, I was wondering if we could make story-telling
of this nature a regular feature, and see how it can support community
building. We could do a series of short profiles of editors - in the form
of stories - covering your life as well as your wiki journey. The intent is
to reflect the diversity of our community - language, age, profession,
projects. I am going to try and bring out at least one such story every
month - but we can always try and work on as many more as we can get.
I am already looking for new story ideas and would love to hear from
interested community folks. Here is how it works. I prepare a short set
of questions and points for the story and send it across to you. Once you
reply, I draft out a story and send it back for your approval. After we
make necessary changes to the draft, I can publish it. If you are ok, we
can also look at forwarding these stories to the local media as
well. Please do write to me at nraval(a)wikimedia.org and let's start working
on your story!
Don't forget to go through the Netha's
story<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/03/27/wiki-women-joining-indic-languages/>;
it's really inspiring!
Regards,
Noopur Raval
Hi All,
For the Gujarati language it is one of those golden days today. We have got
our own Wikisource created at http://gu.wikisource.org/. it has been a long
journey and took just over 3 years for the subdomain creation. We had
created request on 5th March 2009 and it has been created Today on 27th
March. This 3 years has brought many of us, Gujarati wikip(m)edians close
and lastly, many of my fellows from Gujarati Wikipedia became active there.
We had set our first benchmark of creating 1000 entries, which was achieved
early last week. As soon as we achieved that goal, we started creating
first complete book, and selected Mahatma Gandhi's Rachanatmak Karyakram
(રચનાત્મક કાર્યક્રમ). User Sushant Savla came up with an idea of
collaborative project and 6 users participated with zeal. Sushant very
coordinated the entire project and we completed the small book in just 5
days. Attracted by the success of this project, now we have started Mahatma
Gandhi's autobiography - સત્યના પ્રયોગો અથવા આત્મકથા, and this project is
being coordinated by another user Ashok Modhvadia. It must be noted that
both, Sushant and Ashok are very old Gujarati Wikipedians, we all started
around the same time (myself in late 2007 and they both in 2008). This
time, we have 2 additional users contributing in this project and 1 more
from the previous task is about to join very soon, making the total count
of 8 users.
I take this opportunity to thank all of my Gujarati Community for
cooperating us, right from the supporting our request through to
localisation of messages and to the contributions till date. I pray that
they all and myself remain active always on wikipedia and its sister
projects and serve to our mother language and we continue bringing more and
more literature from the public domain into gu.wikisource.org tirelessly.
Dhaval
User:Dsvyas