Hello friends,
This is a link I recommend you to bookmark.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Geographical_distribution_of_Indian_Wikipedians
This list is useful for outreach & also whenever someone needs Wiki-Help in
a particular city. It would be great if Wikipedians could update this
list.:)
We have the following completely unrepresented states/UTs:
* Andaman & Nicobar Islands
* Arunachal Pradesh
* Assam
* Chandigarh
* Chhattisgarh
* Dadra, Nagar & Haveli
* Daman & Diu
* Goa
* Himachal Pradesh
* Jammu & Kashmir
* Jharkhand (AngPradesh is in Mumbai)
* Lakshadweep
* Manipur
* Meghalaya
* Mizoram
* Puducherry
* Punjab (oye, ye ki hoya!)
* Nagaland
* Uttar Pradesh
* Uttarakhand
Okay, all you admins, please update your status (Mikey my boy, that means
you too)!
Abroad, we dont have Indic Wikipedians listed for:
* Africa
* Australia
* Asia (other than India)
* Middle East
* North America
* South America
Unless you would like to stay off list, of course that's acceptable too.
May I also request Tinu / list admins to please forward it all the Indic
language & city Wikimedia lists. We need this resource to be as
comprehensible as possible.
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------
Hi all,
Needless to repeat the <India-Indic-Mobile-Growth> story. But I was
surprised even with that, many Indic wikipedias do not have a mobile
site(or some have gone dead since they failed to update for
MobileFrontend[1] changes), even the ones that had weren't very much
usable. Lets not cite, mobile phones do not have fonts, no one uses Indic
on mobile, we all know lot of people do use Opera-mini with complex script
rendering support.
* Please visit <yourlanguage>.m.wikpedia.org and see if there is a page. If
it has nothing but 'search, license, and action control' links, here[2] are
the steps that an admin need to do to get a mobile site running with
content. If you have problem in doing those, come and ask at
#wikimedia-tech (or #mediawiki {?}).
* When I visited Tamil wikipedia mobile site, I was restricted to content
that was put on mainpage, the links in it. Since my Symbian phone doesnt
have Indic input system, I cant search anything. The solution to this is to
have a list of articles in alphabetical order *and* display it in mobile
front page, like Assamese wikipedians have done[3]. Many Indic wikis have
this template, but few show it on main page. This might be incredibly
useful on mobile versions.
More thoughts on improving Mobile sites welcome :)
Mobile sites are important since,
1. Lot of people will be using this.
2. The Wikipedia app uses this(?) [Correct me if am wrong]
[1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend
[2]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/Mobile_Gateway#Mobile_homepa…
[3] http://as.m.wikipedia.org/
--
Regards
Srikanth.L
Hi,
This is to inform those interested that User:Prad2609 and I have written a report on WCI 2011 which is public on meta [1]. A warning on queries; we probably wont answer those since Prad2609 has unsubscribed from all Wikipedia mailing lists and retired and Iv got other priorities myself.
Once again, we thank all those involved with WCI 2011 and thank the Indian Community which responsible for making it a resounding success.
Signing off,
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IN/WikiConference_India_2011/Report
Dear Member,
Subject: Election Notice for Wikimedia Chapter EC Elections
The Election Committee appointed by Wikimedia Chapter Executive
Committee for notifying and conducting the Election to Wikimedia
Chapter EC election,hereby announces the election to the Wikimedia
Chapter EC for the two yearterm.
A detailed ‘Rules & Regulations for the Election’ is available which
includes the Nomination Form for Candidature (at Page 7). There
are 76 members who are on the membership roll as on 23 June 2012
and are eligible to participate in the Election and contest the Election
(as per by-laws,based on the date of election and AGM
scheduled for 23 Sep 2012).As per the communication from EC,
5 vacancies are to be filled.
Please note the following details:
*1. *Date of election: 23rd September 2012.
*2.* Timing for voting in person: As per AGM Agenda which will be
communicated by Chapter later.
*3. *Place of election and for sending postal ballots:
Wikimedia Chapter, No.194,
2nd 'C' Cross, Dommaluru 2nd stage,
Bangalore 560071. India.
*4.* Last date and time of receiving nominations: 12th August, 2012
[http://wiki.wikimedia.in will be used as the electronic medium for
submitting and processing nominations. Each nomination is to be
placed on a sub page and linked from the Elections page at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Nominations_for_the_Executive_Committee
Members proposing and seconding and the candidate have to
sign using their user-ids on wiki. They also need to identify their
membership number on their User pages for validation.
Nomination pages will be locked to prevent editing on the day
following the due date.]
*5. *Last date for withdrawal of nominations: 26th August, 2012
*6. *Date of declaration of Final List of candidates:
28th August, 2012
The Executive Committee and the Election Committee will host an IRC
on Monday, 30th July, 2012 between 9PM and 10PM.
The IRC channel will be notified closer to the date.
The Election Committee comprises of the following members:
1. BalasundarRaman
2. Gautam K John
You can contact us or use the membership list for any
clarifications or discussions.
Yours truly,
For and on behalf of Election Committee
Returning Officer
Dear Wikipedians,
On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 4:18 PM, Barry Newstead (WMF)
<bnewstead(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> Hisham’s departure coincides with another change in the India Program. We are pleased to announce that the Wikimedia Foundation has approved a grant to the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in Bangalore to expand their Access to Knowledge programme to support the achievement of the Wikimedia mission in India. CIS is a leading organization in India working on Internet policy. They are part of the broad free and open community. CIS is a long time friend of Wikimedia, our community in Bangalore, and the Wikimedia India chapter.
>
I would like to first like to thank Wikimedia Foundation for giving us
a grant to expand our Access to Knowledge Programme with a greater
focus on Wikipedia. I look forward to working with colleagues from the
Foundation and serving the community in India.
A little bit about my self since I am posting for the first time on
this list, I was elected an Ashoka fellow in 1999. I was part of the
founding team of Mahiti.org though no longer formally involved.
Between 2004 and 2007, I managed IOSN.net, a project of APDIP-UNDP
that focussed on promoting FOSS, open standards and open content
policies in the Asia-Pacific region. Apart from the Government of
India, I have worked with the governments of Moldova, Tajikistan,
Saudi Arabia and Iraq on free software and open standards policies. I
currently serve on the boards of Samvada and Tactical Technology
Collective and also on the sub-board of Open Society Foundation's
Information Programme.
Now a little about CIS that is not in the FAQ. We are most often in
the news for our work around Freedom of Expression under our Internet
Governance programme. But most of our budget is spent on the other
less controversial areas. As a research organisation CIS does not
enforce party positions across staff members and fellows, like the
Kamasutra we encourage a multiplicity of positions. CIS has hosted
inclusiveplanet.com in the past and is currently hosting hasgeek.in.
CIS's garage has been converted into a hacker space called The Lab. In
the past, we have had the privilege to useful in small ways to
individual Wikipedians, the Indian Wikipedia community and India
chapter. The whole team looks forward to stepping-up that dramatically
with this grant.
As a registered non-profit society, CIS will strive to maintain high
levels of transparency and accountability to the Wikipedia community
and the general public. We will make the budget and programme plan
publicly available shortly. We will be transparent about staff
remuneration and travel-related costs – as is the case with other CIS
staffers. We will setup a recruitment panel for the Programme Director
with hopefully participation from the community and the chapter as was
the case in Brazil. More on that soon.
For now, if there are any questions for me regarding CIS and this
particular grant – I would be happy to answer them.
Best wishes,
Sunil
P.S. Apologies for posting from my Mahiti id.
Dear India Community
I'm writing to inform you that I plan to leave my current role supporting Wikimedia in India. I am going to be exploring opportunities and evaluating options that are closer to my career aspirations and my personal circumstances. I will be working through to ensure that there is a smooth transition - and this is likely to take 2-3 months. I am writing now because I felt it appropriate and opportune to inform you as early as possible.
I want to start off by thanking the Wikimedia community and movement for giving me this extraordinary opportunity. Working on something like India Program has been something that has been professionally enriching and personally fulfilling. Over the past 1 1/2 years, I have been supported by so many of you - and I want to thank you for everything you have done! The passion and intellectual firepower of our community has been my constant source of drive and guidance. There are so many examples of powerful stories from all over the country: the incredible efforts put in by the IEP Campus Ambassadors in Pune; the army of volunteers that drove the outreach push across the country in the first few months of this year; the beautiful stories of fantastic community initiatives from far and wide across the country and sub-continent, and indeed the world; the remarkable stories from so many communities - large, small and tiny ones!
I want to thank the team that I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with - Nitika, Noopur, Shiju & Subha. You guys have been wonderful. The work that we are doing is experimental and we have been innovating every day, and I know the circumstances have not always been easy. Take strength and inspiration from the large number of community members who have been touched by you and appreciate your efforts and value your work.
I will send an actual "over and out" message later. In the meantime, I will continue to work on everything that needs working on.
Happy Editing!
Warmest Regards,
hisham
Before i start, I am not a Wikipedia editor. Just someone who knows several
of them.
None of you seem to be thinking, or else no thinker is replying.
Hisham is not some war hero that you have to praise him like this.
If there is anything he has done, it is not praiseworthy.
yes, we weill miss him. a lot. who else do we blame for failurs and all the
nonsense in the community?
Hisham has done nothing for the community that stands out. all that he has
done is what volunters do.
if any volunteer asked for help and he responded, that voulneter would do
exzctly what hisham tells him to.
if he doesnt, hisham cribs that they don't let him do his work.
if he does, he claims credt for that volunteers success and puts the blame
on the volunteer if it fails.
he runined th english wikipedia with his IEP crap.
the community is still trying to recover.
on top of that he called up several voluntrs over the phone for iep this yr
and justified his actions.
congrats hisham, you've done a lot in one and a hafl years. a lot of damage.
Wer'e not happy that you are leaving, but sad, because we won't have anyone
to blame.
Have a good time.
On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 9:02 AM, Bishakha Datta <bishakhadatta(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Dear Hisham,
I’m thinking back on your time here and want to thank you for so much that
you’ve done and built in these one and a half years. For setting up things
from scratch when there was neither a team nor an office and you were on
your own. For building and motivating a small team to venture into unknown
terrain (and for even daring to step into this terrain) without any
surefire guarantee of success. For tirelessly and successfully supporting
many Indic language wikipedias and the first-ever community-led
WikiConference India. For keeping up team morale in the difficult days
following the India Education program. For reaching out to hundreds of
people in India through any means necessary to create new editors. And,
yes, for being bold.
One of the things that makes this kind of work difficult is not just its
newness or its experimental unsure nature, but also its publicness.
Brickbats pour in much faster than bouquets in public fora, creating a
narrative of their own that is hard to buck. I want to thank you for being
able to smell the roses, for having a tough enough hide to survive the
brickbats while continuing to steer India programs and motivating your team
to do its best. I also want to urge the Wikimedia India community to be
constructive and rigorous in holding India programs accountable in its next
avatar - without being destructive or personal.
You’ve laid a very solid foundation for India programs that I expect the
team will continue to build on. I hope you enjoy your remaining time here
and leave with many more good memories than bad.
Will miss you, my friend!
Bishakha
On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 4:11 PM, Hisham <hisham(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Dear India Community
I'm writing to inform you that I plan to leave my current role supporting
Wikimedia in India. I am going to be exploring opportunities and
evaluating options that are closer to my career aspirations and my personal
circumstances. I will be working through to ensure that there is a smooth
transition - and this is likely to take 2-3 months. I am writing now
because I felt it appropriate and opportune to inform you as early as
possible.
I want to start off by thanking the Wikimedia community and movement for
giving me this extraordinary opportunity. Working on something like India
Program has been something that has been professionally enriching and
personally fulfilling. Over the past 1 1/2 years, I have been supported by
so many of you - and I want to thank you for everything you have done! The
passion and intellectual firepower of our community has been my constant
source of drive and guidance. There are so many examples of powerful
stories from all over the country: the incredible efforts put in by the IEP
Campus Ambassadors in Pune; the army of volunteers that drove the outreach
push across the country in the first few months of this year; the beautiful
stories of fantastic community initiatives from far and wide across the
country and sub-continent, and indeed the world; the remarkable stories
from so many communities - large, small and tiny ones!
I want to thank the team that I have had the pleasure and privilege of
working with - Nitika, Noopur, Shiju & Subha. You guys have been
wonderful. The work that we are doing is experimental and we have been
innovating every day, and I know the circumstances have not always been
easy. Take strength and inspiration from the large number of community
members who have been touched by you and appreciate your efforts and value
your work.
I will send an actual "over and out" message later. In the meantime, I
will continue to work on everything that needs working on.
Happy Editing!
Warmest Regards,
hisham
--Sent from my LG Optimus.
