Heya,
I guess, not everybody here may know about this, but back in 2009, we have
a phenomenally successful scavenger hunt called Wikipedia Takes Chennai.
THe link in question is :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_Chennai
Don't look at the Commons Category, there are only 31 files there.
This event was one of the first of it's kind in India, and was an
inspiration to many of us.
A quick glance at the talk page reveals a small fraction of what amount of
Back end work was done by several of us, including me.
We received a lot of FlickR donations as well. A heavy ton of this was
uploaded by Srikanth L and Ganesh K. Four were done by me. [YAY!]
Anyway, on this page, we were discussing various things, when GaneshK
posted a link to an article on WHY some people don't like contributing to
the Commons.
I believe this could be of help:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/arts/20funny.html
Wikipedia May Be a Font of Facts, but It’s a Desert for Photos
It is three years old though.
--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on March 18th.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore
Aliens invaded Tamil Nadu, left their Spaceship and now it is a Toll Plaza.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IVRCL-Vijayamangalam-Toll-Plaza.JPG
All,
Please note that hindi wikipedia's bureaucrats has been removed temporarily
for concerns over improper rights management, transparency of the actions
and possible privacy violations due to the rights that was requested and
implemented over the course of time.
An RfC has been
opened<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Userrights_on_hi.wiki>and
all are welcome to comment.
*
*Regards,
Jyothis.
http://www.Jyothis.net
[[User:Jyothis]] <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jyothis>
Camerocks - Rock your digital world! <https://www.camerocks.com/>
completion date = (start date + ((estimated effort x 3.1415926) /
resources) + ((total coffee breaks x 0.25) / 24)) + Effort in meetings
On Mar 14, 2012 11:51 AM, "Pradeep Mohandas" <pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Please mark such posts as off topic.
That depends on how OT is defined. We already face internal restrictions
defining content, we face 'security' restrictions finding content (re our
discussions on photographing heritage structures), and for all we know, one
day we will find ourselves tagged by officious offshoots of the State for
even having independent minds and seeking to spread knowledge.
Sure, Anivar did not spell all this out. Did he need to?
>
> Thank you for letting us know.
>
> Pradeep
> Handheld
>
> On Mar 14, 2012 11:01 AM, "Anivar Aravind" <anivar.aravind(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
>>
>> Reporters Without Borders' annual list of "enemies of the Internet"
published
>>
>> India and Kazakhstan, new additions to the “under surveillance” category
>>
>> Since the Mumbai bombings of 2008, the Indian authorities have stepped
>> up Internet surveillance and pressure on technical service providers,
>> while publicly rejecting accusations of censorship. The national
>> security policy of the world’s biggest democracy is undermining
>> freedom of expression and the protection of Internet users’ personal
>> data.
>>
>> Read Full report
>> http://en.rsf.org/beset-by-online-surveillance-and-12-03-2012,42061.html
>>
>> BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17350225
>>
>>
>> --
>> Anivar Aravind
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
>> 'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
>> other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
>> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
>
Reporters Without Borders' annual list of "enemies of the Internet" published
India and Kazakhstan, new additions to the “under surveillance” category
Since the Mumbai bombings of 2008, the Indian authorities have stepped
up Internet surveillance and pressure on technical service providers,
while publicly rejecting accusations of censorship. The national
security policy of the world’s biggest democracy is undermining
freedom of expression and the protection of Internet users’ personal
data.
Read Full report
http://en.rsf.org/beset-by-online-surveillance-and-12-03-2012,42061.html
BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17350225
--
Anivar Aravind
--
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth
I would like to inform the broad community of more glad tidings - we have
two more volunteers who have agreed to coordinate WikiProjects. These are:
* Wikipedia:WikiProject Transport in India - User:Rsrikanth05
* Volunteer coordinator for the Newsletter of WikiProject India -
User:Prad2609 (who doesn't really like titles) :).
We welcome them to their new responsibilities and they are now proud
members of a select club indeed - people who have publicly volunteered to
look after an area of responsibility on WikiProject India.
Please welcome them on their talk pages and not on the list(s).
We would like to remind readers that we are constantly looking for editors
to help with the various departments and task forces. There are more than
seventy more areas needing looking after. And if the project you are
interested in already has one, welcome to it - we need lots of dedicated
voluntees per department or task force not just one.
Warm regards,
AshLin
------------------------------------------------------
Dear all,
Stories of Census 2011 reveal interesting figures on mobile phone and
internet usage. While it is a sorry situation to see the lack of basic
amenities, it is impressive to see the extent of mobile phone reach.
Pasting the insightful snippets.
*THE Hindu: Half of India's homes have cellphones, but not toilets*
"In stark contrast, 63.2 per cent of the households own a telephone
connection — 53.2 per cent of mobile phones...The data cast light on the
changing character of the media. There has been a 16 per cent increase in
the number of households watching television, but a 15 per cent decline in
the use of radios and transistors. A total of 47.2 per cent of households
own a television; only 19.9 per cent have either radio or transistors."*
*
[Link:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article2992640.ece]
*Deccan Herald: Most Indians lack amenities: Census*
"Use of telephones, mainly mobiles, has rapidly increased with 48 per cent
people in rural areas carrying mobiles and 76 per cent in urban areas.
Around six per cent of households have the privilege of using both – mobile
and land line telephones...Less than one out of ten households in the
country have computer or laptop with only three per cent having internet
facility."*
*
[Link:
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/234091/half-indians-defecate-open-more.…
]
Important Note : Non-commercial reproduction for informative purposes only.
The publisher ( Times of India ) of the above news article owns the
copyrights of the article / content. All copyrights are duly acknowledged.
Regards
Noopur Raval
Communications, Consultant
India Programs
Hi Folks,
Kritharth is a student at IIT and has been actively involved in Wikipedia monthly meet-ups in Delhi. It was through him that we got in touch with the organisers at Tryst - annual tech fest organized by IIT-Delhi. I'd really like to thank him for helping us organise this session and a big thank you to Noopur, Rajesh and Piyush for all their help.
Two Wikipedia sessions were conducted at IIT Delhi during their tech fest Tryst 2012. The underlying idea was to explain the basics of Wikipedia, 5 Pillars, few policies, anatomy of an article and provide some hands-on training on basic Wikipedia editing. Two sessions were conducted in a slight different manner since we wanted to test effectiveness of different methods. My mail will explain different approaches that were adopted for each of these sessions and outcomes of the same.
First session on March 3rd, Saturday:
About 50 attendees participated in a 3 hour long session. There were IIT students, students from other engineering colleges in NCR and some working fellows amongst the participants. User:Hisham started the session by introducing Wikipedia, who edits Wikipedia, 5 pillars, few Wikipedia policies. We then moved on to actual hands on editing and taught them basic Wikipedia editing. Some students raised really intelligent questions about referencing and NPOV. Though, we noticed that a lot of students lost interest and focus when we spoke about Wikipedia Policies in detail which took over half an hour. During the session we demonstrated by editing articles on Tryst - IIT Delhi and IIT Delhi.
Just the fact that the participants willingly sat through such a long session and had several questions shows their genuine interest in learning more about Wikipedia. About 6 students (12%) created their usernames after the session and 2 (4%) have attempted to make minor edits after the session. A big thank you to User:Piyush.Aggarwal and User:RajeshPandey for all their help and support.
Second session on March 5th, Monday:
There were about 40 participants. Once again, there was mix of IIT and non-IIT students. We organised the session a bit differently - after giving a brief introduction about Wikipedia and showing some basic editing we invited the uninterested participants to feel free to leave the session and requested only the interested lot to stay back for the remaining session. The participants were informed that in the second half of the session we'll be talking in greater detail about Wikipedia policies and do more hands-on editing training hence it made sense only for those students to stay back who'd like to get deeper knowledge about Wikipedia. Eventually we were left with 8 participants but in my opinion that's was the beginning point of a more interactive and interesting session. Each of these 8 participants were more involved when discussing about Wikipedia policies, they wanted to do more hands on editing and we were also able to provide them individual attention because of limited numbers. During the session we edited the article on Chacha Chowdhary and one of the participants started an article on tunde ke kabab.
11 participants (27.5%) created their usernames and 2 (5%) have made few edits post the session.
It's great that we're able to get more people involved in Wikipedia activities - participants who were students outside of IIT also want to conduct similar Wikipedia sessions in their campus, 4 of the participants also joined us for the Delhi 7 meet-up. However, I want to focus on few who have shown interest in Wikipedia editing - provide them editing support and keep them motivated. I'm also thinking of a "Buddy System" to keep these interested participants going and providing them support. If you haven't already guessed what I mean by the name "Buddy System" please stay tuned, I'll soon send another mail about it - I need your ideas and thoughts (needless to say your support too :-)
Thanks
Nitika
Greetings Everyone,
This is a report of the Delhi Wikimeetup
7<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Delhi/Delhi7>conducted
on 11th March, 2012 in New Delhi.
The session started with introductions and with each person talking about
what they wanted to get out of the meet-up.
All except one of the participants had their user accounts on Wikipedia.
Noopur and Subha explained the basics of Wikipedia (nature of articles,
NPOV, copyright, etc). One of the attendees were invited to create his own
user account. Subha explained the basics of editing and invited one
participant to edit an article of his choice. The reason we did this was so
that interest levels were high and that the newbie could felt pride in his
contribution. The article they choose was "Pav
Bhaji<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pav_bhaji>."
Through the course of his editing, the audience learnt about basic edit and
referencing. Noopur then explained Commons, and showed how to upload a
picture and place it in a Wikipedia page.
Noopur talked about GLAM Project Crafts Museum,
Delhi<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/CM> and
requested participation, and a session at the Museum was planned on March
18th.
After the session, there was a Q&A session where questions were answered
about writing on Wikipedia, kind of images to upload and what to do to see
if an image available on Google can be uploaded.
Folks hung out and and they were (photo & video) graphed explaining their
experience of editing.
We have also scheduled a GLAM
meetup<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Delhi/Crafts_Museum_Meet>on
18th March!
Here is a small sample of what we did: http://youtu.be/a8Fdv3rt1NI
Thank You
Regards,
Piyush Aggarwal
