WikimediaIndia-l July 2015

wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

18 participants
12 discussions

[Press]: Lessons and tips on getting media coverage
by Noopur Raval 25 Sep '18

25 Sep '18

Dear all, Over the past one month, we've been working with community members from Assamese, Kannada Malayalam and Nepali communities to get maximum possible media coverage and press support in order to highlight their community and events and hopefully get new editors for our movement. In all cases, I help prepare the press release<http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%B5%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%95%…>(as, kn, ml, ne), then community members translate it and then we work together to try and reach out to the widest possible audience. Here are a few links to the press releases and newspaper articles. There are a few in local language papers that are not online. Also, all these reports are due to the collaborative effort and very important follow up by community members like Jyoti, Bishnu, Gitartha, Omshivaprakash, Anoop, Ramesh, Kannan, Sujith, Saroj and Ganesh for the communities respectively. Assamese: http://www.northeasttoday.in/our-states/assam/assamese-wikipedia-celebrates… http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=765639 http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/article3… http://www.sify.com/news/assamese-wikipedia-completes-10-years-of-existence… http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/assamese-wikipedia-completes-10-… http://issuu.com/assamese/docs/ghy_13062012?mode=window&backgroundColor#222… http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120611/jsp/northeast/story_15594299.jsp http://sevensisterspost.com/?p=17895 http://amarasom.glpublications.in/Details.aspx?id=9509&boxid=103211609 Kannada: http://epaper.udayavani.com/Display.aspx?Pg=H&Edn=MN&DispDate=6/18/2012 http://allevents.in/Bangalore/483961428297721 Malayalam: http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=82424 http://keralaitnews.com/state-scan/other-cities/4717-kollam-to-host-malayal… http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article3351423.e… http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-14/social-media/3134186… http://www.techgoss.com/Story/557S12-Wiki-Malayalam-Meet-held-at-Kerala.aspx http://article.wn.com/view/2012/04/28/Malayalam_wiki_most_innovative/ http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/sci-tech/hitech/malayalam-wiki-most… http://ibnlive.in.com/news/malayalam-wikipedia-could-be-emulated/253196-60-… http://newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/article390787.ece Nepali: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34914418/Nagarik_Article.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34914418/karobar_article.png Radio Sagarmatha broadcasted an interview with a Wikipedian Ganesh Paudel... Radio Nepal Bani Broadcasted an interview with Wikipedians located in Kathmandu (Mr. Ganesh Paudel and Mr. Saroj Dhakal) Just thought I'd share a few pointers based on what went right and what could have been better on my part. This may help you in the future if you too are looking to get media attention for your community and events. A few lessons: *Planning:* - Database of contacts: We have put in place a fairly comprehensive database of English as well as local press, television and radio contacts. I'd be happy to share them with anyone who needs to get in touch with journalists. - In case of local language newspapers, calling a journalist/newspaper office or personally visiting them to give the press brief always works better than e-mailing. Most local language newspapers still prefer a hard copy of the brief or even ask for a fax sometimes. - For the Assamese anniversary celebrations, we had an agenda well in advance and we (the community members and I) made sure the press release was ready in English as well as in Assamese so we could send it out to newspapers, television channels and radio stations. - Regarding English language newspapers, it is always advisable to call first and then e-mail the brief to a senior editor as well as a staff reporter (at least two people within the organization) to ensure the story receives due attention. Attaching a few photographs of your past meetups is a good idea. - It is advisable to translate the press release and attach both versions while sending it to the journalist. - If you are planning to have an event on the weekend, make sure you call and e-mail much earlier during the week. *Event:* - Always make sure to invite the journalists to your event. This will not only help in getting a comprehensive story but will also encourage them to take up editing. - Dealing with news channels and radio stations: While DY 365 channel covered the Assamese meetup, other channels did not bother to follow up. For radio, it *only* works if you speak to them in local language. *Other tips:* - It is a *must* to put in a contact number of preferably an email ID at the end of a press release. Maybe all communities should have either a chapter email ID (like bengali(a)wikimedia.in) or a gmail ID run by an active community member. This can be super useful and will avoid giving out personal details. - Building a quote pool: How about we keep a few quotes from different community members on the basics - (examples: why I edit, how I edit, what is your message to fellow Marathi/Tamil/Gujarati speakers) ? Of course, quotes from people are crucial and must not be misused but, this can help the Chapter communications team too - Getting the article right: Spelling mistakes, misquoted information, erroneous figures are a common problem with Wikipedia stories. Although it may not always be possible, do request the journalist to show you the article before publishing it. - Targeting news agencies: After the Assamese press experience, I realized having one PTI press release ensures that the story reaches at least 4-5 newspapers. This is a very effective way of maximizing media coverage. I might have missed out on a few lessons and invite community members and the chapter communication team to contribute with more inputs. Maybe we can even document this on Meta for future reference. Thank you, Best Noopur -- Noopur Raval

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Please add your name to the Geographical List of Indian Wikipedians
by Ashwin Baindur 31 Jul '18

31 Jul '18

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 ------------------------------------------------------

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Honorable mentions by Jimmy Wales In WIkimania Mexico 2015
by Yohann Thomas 25 Jul '15

25 Jul '15

Hello One and all Just wanted to inform the community that during Wikimania 2015 - Mexico, while announcing the Wikipedian of the year, Jimmy wales made two honorable mentions. One of them was to Satdeep Gill for his contributions & Promotion of Punjabi Wikipedia. I would like to Congratulate Satdeep for all his Hard work & dedication to the cause leading to the recognition of it on the Global stage!! Kudos!! Yohann Thomas yohannvt(a)gmail.com

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Community voting is on for WIki loves Food
by Yohann Thomas 22 Jul '15

22 Jul '15

Hello one & all We are finally in the last leg of Wiki Loves Food & 10,000+ pictures were uploaded for the competition. We have almost finalized the winners, now only thing left is choosing the Community award The Community Prize of the photo contest will be decided by Community members from Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and social media related to Wikimedia projects which will choose from the top 10 images (apart from the 3 prize winning entries) selected by the official jury. If you want see more about Wiki Loves Food. you can see this <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Food> link. Top 7 images are selected. & if you want, you can vote in 3 ways On Wikimedia Commons - here <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Food/Phase_2/Communit…> On facebook - here <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.682808285196268.1073741831.623531…> (likes will be counted) & on twiiter - here <https://twitter.com/wikilovesfood> (retweets will be counted) Votes in Commons and engagement in social media will have 50:50 weight to decide the community award winner. Voting ends at 27th July 2015 at 18:00 So vote for your favorite image & be part of this wonderful competition which celebrates the beauty & diversity of Indian Cuisine. Yohann Thomas yohannvt(a)gmail.com

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Wiki Loves Monuments India 2015
by Karthik Nadar 17 Jul '15

17 Jul '15

Dear all, We are somewhere in mids of July and have lead WLM India in past, me and Kiran (marked in cc) decided to take it forward again this time after a break. Obvious, that we can not lead it every time and it will need fresh help to take it forward, we would need assistance from some more willing hands. If anyone would like to assist, feel free to send about you either to me or Kiran (marked in cc) with your short profile. Help required will be like about at least 5 hours a week and till November; while the contest will be held in September. Feel free to drop us mail if you would be able to spare so much time. We do have a mailing list; thus further discussions will be held there thus not to disturb the wide India list. Regards, Karthik Nadar

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Peer review and document improvement request
by Mahitgar from Marathi Wikipedia 14 Jul '15

14 Jul '15

This is a Peer review request to seek broader input to improve page: meta:Help:Form I & Affidavit (Customised for relinquishment of copyright as per 'free cultural work' definition) an option available under (Indian) Copyright act 1957 rules. Rgds Mahitgar

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[Press] Times of India : 'The vandals of Wiki'
by CherianTinu Abraham 06 Jul '15

06 Jul '15

*Times of India : 'The vandals of Wiki'* http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/The-vandals-of-Wiki/articleshow/47… ( Article appeared on TOI Delhi on 5th July and Mumbai on 6th July print editions. ) For the better part of June 30, Kolkata was India's largest city and Bangla was the government's official language along with Hindi and Indian English. The sly attempt at misinformation also featured the national motto 'Satyameva Jayate' written in Bangla script on Wikipedia's 'India' page. Many hours later, an administrator who goes by the username SpacemanSpiff landed on the page, saw all the telltale signs of a vandal attack, and scrubbed it clean of the errors. This was right after a round of firefighting on the pages of Jawaharlal Nehru and his family, where an anonymous vandal had tried to pass off the late PM's grandfather as a Muslim. Vandalism is a fact of life at Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Administrators like Spacemanspiff are senior editors who, over the years, have been entrusted by the Wikipedia community to protect, delete or restore pages, and even block notorious editors. As* SpacemanSpiff* reminded fellow volunteers on the India notice board about the need to keep a watch on the Nehru wikis, another editor remembered that similar attempts were made in 2014. "This is not a new meme on or off-Wiki. Parallel attempts to establish that Feroze Gandhi was Muslim are even more common," writes Abecedare. The popular site sees vandals of all kinds, says* A Ravishankar*, program director at the Wikimedia Chapter in India. Newbies sometimes click the edit button on a page to make some trivial changes. Some vengeful ones go on a rampage when editors reject their edits due to insufficient citation or poor sourcing. Then there are the passionate hordes that descend on their pet topics, mostly entries about religion and politics. The only way to deal with vandalism is by remaining vigilant, says Ravishankar. What's more insidious and hard to rein in are changes by editors who are paid to twist the rules at Wikipedia so that their clients' pages sparkle. "We've had PR agencies editing pages for their clients, including actors. IIPM was a prime example of such paid editing," claims Ravishankar. The now-defunct business school allegedly got help from a senior editor called Wifione and an army of sock puppets (bogus user accounts) to keep out negative information about it between the years 2010 and 2012. They were reportedly reverted after severe backlash from within Wikipedia. Internationally, blog writers for Wikipediocracy, a review site examining Wiki's flaws, have criticized Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that runs the site, for not doing much to allay allegations that Croatian and Kazakh Wikipedias have been manipulated, sometimes by the government machinery itself. Bots such as @parliamentedits (UK) and @congressedits (US) came up to track anonymous edits done from official IPs after several instances of tinkering by parliamentarians and Congressmen surfaced. A similar bot from India, @AnonGoIWPEdits, linked the Nehru edits to an IP address belonging to the National Informatics Centre. The reason why so many people flock to get the content right on Wikipedia is the number of page views it gets. Indian users account for 4.1% of the total page views on the site. In December 2014 alone, there were 50,000 edits from the country with 'India' itself being the top edited entry for that year. Others on the most-edited list include wikis of actors Vijay, Shah Rukh Khan, Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Curiously, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi and Hinduism also made it to this list as per data generated by the Centre For Internet and Society (CIS) from the Wikimedia database. Trending news items also quickly make their way in. PM Narendra Modi's estranged wife Jashodaben got a wiki last year; so did the first Indian in NBA Satnam Singh Bhamara, says Tanveer Hasan, programme officer, CIS-Access to Knowledge. For all this buzz, India has followed a global trend of slowdown in the number of edits on the English language Wikipedia. "When Wiki started in 2001, the first generation of editors was in their 20s. Many of them have moved out due to family and professional commitments and not many new editors have replaced them," says Ravishankar. Senior editor* Tinu Cherian Abraham *remembers starting off in 2005 and creating entries from scratch about anything and everything, from a historic fort near Bangalore to villages in Kerala. He also used to organize meet-ups in various cities to create awareness about the site and recruit more editors. Though he still edits, he says he doesn't have much time for anything else. For now, the action has shifted to Indian language Wikipedias, where smaller and vibrant communities are busy creating pages and correcting errors. There are nearly 2,600 editors in English and close to 10,000 in Indian languages now. Either way, vandals have their hands full. Regards Tinu Cherian Disclaimer: Non-commercial reproduction of the article by Sandhya Soman / Times of India. All copyrights are respectfully acknowledged.

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A report on WMIN activities during February to April 30, 2015
by Ravishankar Ayyakkannu 05 Jul '15

05 Jul '15

Hi, A report on WMIN activities during February to April 30, 2015 can be read at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/Wikim… Thanks, Ravi

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Phase 1 of Wiki Loves Food contest extended till May 7, 2015
by Ravishankar 05 Jul '15

05 Jul '15

Hi, Based on community feedback, phase 1 (pilot) of Wiki Loves Food contest is extended till May 7, 2015. There are few slots and community nominations available still . You can register at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Food#Phase_1:_April_1… Phase 2 will start from May 15, 2015. Please help us spread this update and encourage food photographers and bloggers you know to participate. Thanks, Ravi

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[Controversy / Press] : Wikipedia entries on Nehru family edited from NIC IP
by CherianTinu Abraham 04 Jul '15

04 Jul '15

There is a current controversy in which Wikipedia entries related to Jawaharlal Nehru and family, edits from an IP address related to Government. Some coverage:- *CNN-IBN* - Nehru, his forefathers' Wikipedia pages mischievously altered using a government IP address: Congress http://www.ibnlive.com/news/politics/nehru-his-forefathers-wikipedia-pages-… *Times of India* : Wiki entries on Nehru family edited from NIC IP? http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wiki-entries-on-Nehru-family-edite… *The Economic Times* : Jawaharlal Nehru Wikipedia page: Congress demands 'full enquiry', PM Modi's apology http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/jawaharlal-neh… *India Today* : Congress attacks government over doctored Wikipedia entries http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/jawaharlal-nehru-wikipedia-congress-digi… *Scroll* : Think the Nehru Wikipedia edit is bad? See what else government workers have been changing http://scroll.in/article/738084/think-the-nehru-wikipedia-edit-is-bad-see-w… *First Post*: 'Nehru's grandfather was Muslim': Wikipedia pages changed from govt IP address, Congress demands apology http://www.firstpost.com/politics/nehrus-grandfather-was-muslim-wikipedia-p… *First Post *: Nehru Wikipedia page row: Congress demands full enquiry, wants PM Modi to apologise http://www.firstpost.com/politics/nehru-wikipedia-page-row-congress-demands… *Indian Express *: Government agency tried to change Nehru’s profile on Wikipedia, claims Congress http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/jawaharlal-nehrus-wikip… *Hindustan Times*: Jawaharlal Nehru's Wikipedia page edited from govt IP address http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nehru-s-wikipedia-page-edited-from… *NDTV* : Jawaharlal Nehru's Wikipedia Page 'Edited' by Government Department: Congress http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/nehru-wikipedia-page-edited-by-government-de… *IBT-India* : 'Jawaharlal Nehru was Muslim', Says Wikipedia Page Edit Tracked to Govt IP Address http://www.ibtimes.co.in/jawaharlal-nehru-was-muslim-says-wikipedia-page-ed… *The Hindu *: Nehru's Wikipedia pages altered from GoI IP address: Congress http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jawaharlal-nehrus-wikipedia-pages-alt… *New Indian Express* : Congress Attacks Centre over Changes in Wikipedia Page on Jawaharlal Nehru http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Congress-Attacks-Centre-over-Changes… *Zee news *:Jawaharlal Nehru's Wikipedia page edited from govt IP address; Congress seeks PM Modi's reply http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/jawaharlal-nehrus-wikipedia-page-edited… *DNA*: Jawaharlal Nehru's Wikipedia page vandalised, Congress alleges it was done from government IP http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-jawaharlal-nehru-s-wikipedia-page-vand… *Mid-day* : Jawaharlal Nehru's Wikipedia page edited from govt IP address, alleges Congress http://www.mid-day.com/articles/jawaharlal-nehrus-wikipedia-page-edited-fro… Regards Tinu Cherian

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WikimediaIndia-l July 2015