WikimediaIndia-l March 2013

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Women's Day events in India, March 8
by Rohini Lakshané 09 Mar '13

09 Mar '13

A few online and offline events are being conducted in on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8. The events continue thereafter too as March has been declared as Women's History Month. There is a Wikipedia editing workshop in Goa on March 8 at Nirmala Institute of Education from 3 pm to 5 pm. It is followed by an offline and online editathon. The online editathon is a month-long affair, which will be held every weekend starting with the weekend after March 8. Details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/International_Women%27s_Day,_… The goal of the month-long event is to encourage more women to contribute to Wikipedia and increase representation of articles related to women in Wikipedia. The event aims at creating new articles, expanding the existing stubs and translating English articles to various Indian languages. Members are requested to start edithons in regional language Wikipedias. Regards, Rohini Lakshane

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interesting news
by Tejaswini Niranjana 09 Mar '13

09 Mar '13

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/soon-the-web-will-have… -- Tejaswini Niranjana, PhD Lead Researcher - Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications (HEIRA) Senior Fellow - Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) Visiting Professor - Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Visiting Faculty - Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Science (CCS-IISc) t: 91-80-26730476, 26730967, 26730268 f: 91-80-26730722 http://heira.in www.cscs.res.in

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Fwd: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Hackathon Amsterdam 2013: Registration opened
by Karthik Nadar 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

Wikimedia Hackathon 2013 in Amsterdam! --- Forwarded message --- Hi everyone, Wikimedia Nederland invites all developers to the Wikimedia Hackathon. The Wikimedia Hackathon will be in 2013 from 24-26 May. The registration is now open and also includes the possibility to apply for a travel, accommodation or full scholarship. You can find the form at https://docs.google.com/** spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=**dFg2SmRRbkpxNmxCcFNFdlduVlJuTU**E6MQ#gid=0<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFg2SmRRbkpxNmxCcFNFdl…> The hackathon is an opportunity for all Wikimedia community developers and sysadmins to come together, squash bugs and write great new features & tools. Unlike the previous years (2012, 2011, etc.) this Hackathon won't be in Berlin, but in Amsterdam. The event is open to a wide range of developers. We welcome both seasoned and new developers as well as people working on MediaWiki, tools, pywikipedia, Wikidata, gadgets, extensions, templates … . Please suggest and discus topics at https://www.mediawiki.org/** wiki/Amsterdam_Hackathon_2013/**Topics<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Amsterdam_Hackathon_2013/Topics>. You can indicate that you're coming at https://www.mediawiki.org/** wiki/Amsterdam_Hackathon_2013/**Attendees<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Amsterdam_Hackathon_2013/Attendees>and/or https://www.facebook.com/**events/167285526755104/<https://www.facebook.com/events/167285526755104/>. This doesn't replace registration, it's just to let others know what you're up to. Keep an eye on https://www.mediawiki.org/**wiki/Amsterdam_Hackathon_2013<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Amsterdam_Hackathon_2013>for updates! Maarten ______________________________**_________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.**org <Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l> -- Thanks and regards, Karthik Nadar, Secretary, Wikimedia India Chapter.

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Own an Android phone, here comes Wikimedia Commons to your doorstep!
by Subhashish Panigrahi 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

Hey everyone, The Wikimedia Commons Android app for uploading photos is here with the stable version. Go, grab your app and keep uploading ;-) Begin forwarded message: > From: Yuvi Panda <yuvipanda(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [WikimediaMobile] Android Commons app "Stable" and "Beta" channels > Date: 4 March 2013 5:53:48 PM GMT+05:30 > To: mobile-l <mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Reply-To: yuvipanda(a)gmail.com > > Hello everyone! > > The Wikimedia Commons app on Android has been on play store([1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikimedia.commons) for a week now,. I just pushed out an update - the app will be updated every week. The app on the play store uploads directly to Commons and should be considered the 'release' channel. > > There is now also a 'beta' channel, available by installing the apk from > > http://bit.ly/commons-beta > > (expanded URL https://integration.mediawiki.org/nightly/mobile/android-commons/android-co…) > > This is very close to a nightly - will be updated every day or so. It also has a menu item 'Update App' which will blindly get you the latest version. This will *always* upload to testwiki, so you can feel free to upload whatever. > > This is to make sure that people who want to test the app (and hence testwiki) also have a way of actually uploading pictures to Commons! The iOS app has a 'toggle' in the app itself to fix this, but due to how the app is architected this is not possible in Android. Hence two apps. > > Test on! > > -- > Yuvi Panda T > http://yuvi.in/blog > _______________________________________________ > Mobile-l mailing list > Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l Subhashish

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Female editors in Tamil Wikipedia
by Ravishankar 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

Hi, Just wanted to share info on the role of female editors in Tamil Wikipedia on the occasion of International Women's day. Please see http://ta.wikipedia.org/s/2o04 where we have featured the best of our female editors. Just to give an idea of their backgrounds: Parvathi and Kalai are admins. Parvathi and Poongothai are school teachers. Kalai is a researcher based in Norway and Chandravathana is a writer based in Germany. Especially, check out Poongothai's (she is the most active editor in Tamil Wikipedia recently) inspiring interview at http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AThe_Impact_of_Wikiped… Ravi

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Fwd: Event at NLIU
by Srikanth Ramakrishnan 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

Hi, National Law Institute University, Bhopal wants to conduct an event on the 17th, 18th of this month. Any Wikimedians in an around Bhopal who would like to take part in this event, please send me a mail. -- Srikanth Ramakrishnan Treasurer, Wikimedia Chapter [India] Donate to the Wikimedia India Chapter today<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Donations> -- Srikanth Ramakrishnan Treasurer, Wikimedia Chapter [India] Donate to the Wikimedia India Chapter today<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Donations>

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Wikipedia Women workshop in Bangalore
by RadhaKrishna Arvapally 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

Dear Wikimedians, WikiWomen workshop is being organized in Bangalore. For more details, please visit http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikipedia_Women%27s_Workshop_Bangalore_2013 *Date:*: 9-March-2013 *Time*: 2 PM - 6 PM (tentative) Servelots Infotech Pvt. Ltd. and Janastu 3354, KR Road Bangalore 560070 Karnataka INDIA Best Regards, RadhaKrishna

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decline in editors
by Nikhil Sheth 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

Sharing an article I came across on Daily Dot (followed it from the vandalism article shared in an earlier mail), dated January 04, 2013 Nobody wants to edit Wikipedia anymore : http://www.dailydot.com/business/wikipedia-editors-decline-wikimedia-fellow… excerpt (and I've underlined what I found significant): That's the question Wikipedia leaders and social science researchers are tackling. They've documented a drastic decline in the retention of new Wikipedia editors over the last five years. A new study published in the American Behavioral Science Journal by former Wikimedia Fellows says Wikipedia has lost some 30 percent of its English-language editors since 2006, as a result of off-putting automated rejections, _restrictive new rules, and controlling older editors.__ __ _"What was most surprising was the scale of the problem," lead researcher Aaron Halfaker told the Daily Dot. Founded in 2001, Wikipedia was a first-of-its-kind experiment in online collaboration. Anyone who desired could sign up and become an editor, contributing to any of the site's entries, which now include more than 23 million topics. This openness allowed Wikipedia to cover a much wider range of subjects than a traditional encyclopedia, but it also made the project a source of criticism for its frequency of misinformation, either through accidental mistakes or deliberate vandalism. That's why Wikipedia instituted new rules in 2007 to improve the quality of information, but according to Halfaker, these same rules have driven away more than just the unwanted vandals. In 2006, only about 6 percent of "quality" new editors had their contributions rejected---a.k.a. "reverted" in Wikipedia lingo. In 2010, the number of contributions by new editors were being reverted at a rate of 1-in-4 by senior editors and the site's own automated response systems. Halfaker said that as a result, only about 11 percent of new editors have been staying on past their first two months, driving down the total number of contributors to the site. He said part of that has to do with the _"nasty" initial experience many new editors have_. If you're a new Wikipedia editor, the first message you get is usually from a bot or a semi-automated editing tool. It'll warn you of such issues as "lack of sources" or "blanking" and is designed to deter vandals or "bad-faith editors." (sorry some links from the article were lost in this paste.. do see the original..) I recently blogged <http://nikhilsheth.blogspot.in/2013/03/feedback-to-wikipedia.html> a rant about this myself: Go a little easy on people who are starting to contribute; love, encourage and forgive them instead of being so critical and punishing. Create page-tags/templates that can illustrate the fact that it's a work-in-progress, assign this status by default on new articles so a newbie isn't expected to already have advanced skills (which is a stupid, stupid thing wikipedia is doing right now. Adding references and templates is difficult, period. Don't expect a person with less than 50 edit counts to know or even want to learn about it). When a visitor comes at a page, maybe an age or number of edits can be displayed at the top to convey an idea of how mature or immature the article is. Having permanent-tenure editors is as bad an idea as having permanent bureaucrats or government leaders: There should be limited terms and off-periods between them and retirement times; that will be good for the editing community and will encourage editors to pass the baton on rather than be in a permanent status contest of entrenchment, edit-counts, deletions etc that I see at present. I got totally turned off at the last wikipedia meetup I attended in my city when people started showing off their edit-counts and were treating them like army medals. Many of the veteran editors today would never have participated in Wikipedia if they'd faced the kind of treatment given to newbies today. Obviously, this is an unsustainable model and headed for collapse when the present generation of editors dies out. Remove any element of competition; there is no such thing as healthy competition. There is no need for wikipedia's editors to have an obsessive compulsive quality control behaviour : we are NOT competing with peer-reviewed journals or mainstream publications; we are NOT supposed to be 100% accurate "no-matter-what". That much is obvious in the disclaimers; we need to remind the editors lobby about it. Quality is achieved through time, love, room for experimentation and prolonged attention; not through rushed editing and deletions. Beware of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. ------- I can expect what the standard set of responses to this would be. I should not rant. Wikipedia has standards. Don't blame the system for your weakness. Only the worthy shall find the grail. So and so textbook definition of so and so rule or word. The iceberg hasn't hit any of the Indian ships yet so we're ok, full steam ahead. Yatta yatta. But I suspect I still won't find anything that addresses the core issue : Why am I and so many others turned off by wikipedia's defence mechanism and its assumption that everyone out there wants to steal its preciousss? Why is no outreach programme or training workshop going to work on me? I can see some parallels here: with the setting in of rigid structures, things take a downturn and the ones at the top/center get full of it. And to control things they end up designing mechanisms that only end up prosecuting the innocent. Everywhere : schools, governments, societies, NGOs, companies, families, even wikipedia. The only place I don't see rigidity setting in with time is Nature : obviously she realized some merits of disorder that we haven't grasped yet. But I will still keep asking: Had all these bots and senior editors and all this mind-boggling complicatedness been present when Wikipedia began, would it ever have taken off? Where in all the asap-reversions and immediate judgements is there any desire for long-term sustainability? Why would any organisation on this planet even have limited terms and retirement ages for their executive members if they weren't necessary? Why is flowing out not seen as a natural precondition to flowing in? When has the relentless pursuit of perfection, at the cost of human connections and vulnerability, made anyone happy? Why does wikipedia today look more like it is ruled by fear than by love? -- Cheers, Nikhil Sheth +91-966-583-1250 Udaipur/Pune, India Self-designed learner at Swaraj University <http://www.swarajuniversity.org> http://www.nikhilsheth.tk http://www.facebook.com/nikjs

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Creative Commons Affiliation
by Karthik Nadar 07 Mar '13

07 Mar '13

Hello all, This is to inform everyone that Wikimedia India was offered affiliation by Creative Commons recently. The Chapter has considered this and has decided to accept and is now working on the formalities. It would be one of the three affiliates in India. Since Wikimedia websites use CC licensing, there are a lot of synergies among our organisations, though we would like to note that our main focus area is and will continue to be Wikimedia. Other chapters like Wikimedia Argentine and Wikimedia Indonesia are also CC affiliates. -- Thanks and regards, Karthik Nadar, Secretary, Wikimedia India Chapter.

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Suggested Programme - National Library Day - August Edit-a-thon
by Pradeep Mohandas 07 Mar '13

07 Mar '13

hi, In India, we celebrate National Libraries Day on August 12. This coincides with the birthday of S R Ranganathan, the father of library science in India, as he is reffered to. Among other things, he put together the colon classification system. We could - 1. Get more information and improve article on S R Ranganathan and the Colon Classification Sytem. 2. Visit our neighbourhood library and borrow a book which could be used in the Edit-a-thon. 3. Edit WikiSource, a Wikipedian's library Perhaps, do all of the above? If you're interested, please sign up - http://wiki.wikimedia.in/GLAM_India/National_Library_Day_Celebrations? Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email? - http://goo.gl/6v1I9

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WikimediaIndia-l March 2013