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
------------------------------------------------------
Thanks Yohann for explaining the accepted mode of functioning of WMIN.
I have several objections to the specific proposal and more importantly I
think WMIN ought to have more general guiding principles and perhaps evolve
explicit guidelines so that proposals are treated fairly, in ways that are
more inclusive, long-term and not one-off, sustainable and offer greater
impact at lower cost.
* There are numerous contributor to Wikimedia Commons who have hitherto
travelled at their own cost and contributed images and media. Many of them
are extremely knowledgeable, identifying the subjects and choosing images
that have encyclopedic value. I suppose that in future, every WMIN member
is going to ask for travel expenses to be covered.
* There are a number of specialist organizations that exist to support
specialized interests. In other words, Special Interest Groups exist
independently of the Wikimedia movement. Partnership with these groups
ought to be the way to go, because it adds the greatest value and is a
viable long-term option. There are a very large number of mountaineering,
trekking and travel groups operating in the area of the proposal - many of
them with qualified subject matter experts involved (with masters or Ph.D.
level expertise in geology, paleontology, glaciology, botany etc.). Some
organizations like the Youth Hostels or the Himalayan Club could easily be
introduced to the idea of contributing images related to travel under a
free-license. [One of the proposers kindly sent me a mail in response to my
earlier mail explaining that the team members had interest and expertise in
photography, ornithology (actually said someone was an ornithologist!),
lepidoptera, botany and geology - I have not seen the publication record of
the said members but based on their wiki activity I am unable to see an
acceptable level of expertise] In terms of these subjects, there is a lot
more to see at mid-altitudes and there is no ethnology involved once you go
above the tree-line.
* There is a vast literature on the Himalayas (See for instance
http://pahar.in/ ) and none of the proposers appear to have substantially
contributed to articles related to the project. There are a few image
additions and minor edits. Adding images is probably the easiest activity.
It is possible to add a large number and it can appear impressive but using
these images in articles is a lot tougher. Even tougher is to make articles
of sufficient depth and value. If the list of proposed articles that will
be augmented by this project is offered, it will be easy to demonstrate
that relevant images can be sourced without the need for this project and
that images are *not* the stumbling block for most part.
* The proposal costing is also somewhat disturbing. I see the proposed
costs as something disturbingly akin to the ploy of a tele-sales
commercial, unintended though it probably is. The full cost of the
expedition is a large amount which we show here and the amount we ask is
only a fraction of it - ie it appears as if you are saving a great deal of
money and therefore that this is a very valuable mission to fund. Someone
with some interest in sailing could show how expensive a yacht is and what
special training it takes to be on it and write up a proposal asking for a
fraction of a supposed budget to be defrayed. Someone interested in
skydiving or gliding could put a cost of the sport and ask for a fraction
of it to get some aerial photographs. [And of course we can always point
out that there is a shortage of aerial images and mariners views from
around India] [The Telesales method for those who are not aware of it is to
show how much you save by buying a product and these figures are often
dramatically boosted and augmented by delivery and voice effects]
* The Wiki Loves Food is an excellent case to study for comparison - it
might be considered successful if the number of images is counted but if we
look at image usage in articles and the quality of articles containing them
- we will see that the impact is low. Of the 9129 images in the category
for 2015 - 247 have been used in articles - about 2% (using
https://tools.wmflabs.org/glamtools/glamorous.php ) Wiki Loves Food
however is a far more inclusive project - and the expenses are low and only
for prize money and it is quite different in the way of functioning (as
also things like Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Takes * ) Compare this level of
image usage with some Indian users: User:AshLin 222 used out of 362 images
- 61% used in articles; User:Vinayraj: 2594 used out of 16086 16% ;
User:Jkadavoor 638 used out of 1342 47%; User:Shyamal 6710 used out of
11984 56% used in articles.
* Here are some alternate ideas I can think of for the 2 Lakh INR being
proposed - if you took a 7000 rupee compact camera (would be even cheaper
if we tried second-hand) and lent 25 of them to a well-established
organization we could do a variety of interesting experiments - views of
the mountains through the eyes of Sherpas or views of an Uttarakhand
village through the eyes of a resident over the course of year. I am fairly
certain that the organizations to support the idea can be found.
I pointed out the proposal to some people who live in the Himalayas and are
veteran mountaineers and they felt the prices indicated were on the higher
side. One of the jokingly asked why there were no budget items for
Wikipedia flags to be planted along the way. Satire aside, I am sure WMIN
can think of wonderful activities that are inclusive, have high impact,
cost little and build community goodwill and demonstrate good judgement. It
is about whether WMIN can open up the organization to ideas from outside,
to not behave as a club but be an ennabling organization with everyone
being as useful as a member. And that should give me and millions of
Indians an excellent reason why we can remain non-members and expect
organizations to be useful.
best wishes
Shyamal
On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 4:00 PM, Yohann Thomas <yohannvt(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Shyamal
>
> The Executive committee is given that much liberty to take decisions which
> are in the benefit of the community.
>
> In this case, for the above mentioned grant the applicants are well known
> Bengali community members. Also as seen in the grant application,
> endorsements are made from the bangla community members of both India &
> Bangladesh
>
> If the chapter members feel that the EC has taken a decision in haste ,
> the members are welcome to discuss this in our WMIN mailing list.
>
> Regards
> Yohann Thomas
> Executive Committee Member
> Wikimedia India
>
> PS Shyamal, I strongly suggest that you become a member of the chapter :)
> !!
>
> Yohann Thomas
> yohannvt(a)gmail.com
>
> On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 11:51 AM, Shyamal Lakshminarayanan <
> lshyamal(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I am not a member of the Wikimedia India Chapter although I am very much
>> interested in seeing it function as a mature organization. I suppose that
>> Wikimedia Chapters from around the world have evolved a set of best
>> practices and have ensured that these are shared somewhere. These ideas
>> will probably make the requirements of chapters a little more than just the
>> minimum legal requirements involved in maintaining the status of a legal
>> entity according to the laws of the lands in which the chapters operate.
>>
>> I raise this point as a rank outsider because there is a claim in a
>> recent project proposal that it has been "endorsed" by the Wikimedia India
>> Chapter. My expectation then is that this has been given due diligence,
>> discussed by all members and the summary/minutes/transcripts made public.
>> Even ideas on Wikipedia that do not involve any money go through a greater
>> amount of (not to mention transparent) discussion than what we see here and
>> it seems to me that some of these basic discussion procedures that we take
>> for granted as part of the spirit of Wikipedia should be compulsory for
>> organizations associated with the WMF.
>>
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:PEG/Sujay25/Wikipedia_Treks_Kal…
>>
>> Would be very happy to be proved wrong here.
>>
>> best wishes
>> Shyamal
>> en:User:Shyamal
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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
>
>
Hello everyone,
We are going to conduct a Wikipedia workshop at the Govt. College of
Engineering & Leather Technology <http://www.gcelt.gov.in/> on 5 September
2015 as a part of their tech fest Enginerds 2K15 <http://enginerds.co.in/>.
The details are given below:
Venue: Government College of Engg & Leather Technology, Block LB, Sector
III, Salt Lake (near Chingrihata)
Date & Time: 5 Sep 2015 (Saturday) 11 AM - 1 PM
Attendees: 30 - 40, will be asked to bring laptops
Facilities: Projector, WiFi & LAN (100Mbps)
Contact Person: Koustuv Dutta
Workshop will be conducted by Rangan Datta & Indrajit Das.
Thanks and regards,
Kalyan Sarkar
Dear Wikimedians,
We're glad to announce the second edition of WikiConference India. We must
look ahead in order to continue to build the world’s knowledge for the next
decade. As this is a community driven conference, we want the community to
nominate Juries who will select the host cities from different bids.
*Criteria of Nomination*
Your nominated candidate should
- Not be from your local language community or from your state.
- Have at least 4 years experience within Wikimedia.
- Have at least 5000 edits.
- Have deep insight about the course of Wikimedia movement in India.
To nominate the *Jury members for Host City Selection*, please visit this
page.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/City/Nomination_f…>
Please help to find candidates who have perspectives and voices. We also
encourage candidates from all the Indic language projects and communities
who are willing for the success of this conference. We need the full
participation of the Indic Wikimedia community to ensure that the selection
of Juries can be as diverse as possible.
Thank you for your support,
*Sailesh Patnaik*
Volunteer, WikiConference India 2016
--
--
*Sailesh Patnaik*
Contributor, Odia Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Saileshpat>
Member, Wikimedia India Chapter
Twitter: @Saileshpat
Linkedin: in.linkedin.com/sailesh-patnaik
<https://in.linkedin.com/pub/sailesh-patnaik/b4/a10/551>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256
Google's OCR which apparently is most accurate OCR
we have seen so far, works really good for all the major South Asian
scripts:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/08/29/googles-optical-character-recog
nition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages
Here are test cases of many Indian scripts: https://goo.gl/3X75iR.
Except Gurmukhi most scripts are working really good.
This could be really useful for Indian language Wikimedians and will
come handy for digitization of printed and scanned text. Here is an
animated tutorial for Wikimedians to use this tool for
Wikisource/Wikipedia:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tutorial_to_use_Google_Optical_C
haracter_Recognition.gif
Please write to me if anyone wants to localize this tutorial in your
language.
- --
Best!
Subhashish Panigrahi
Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge
Centre for Internet and Society
@subhapa / https://cis-india.org
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I am not a member of the Wikimedia India Chapter although I am very much
interested in seeing it function as a mature organization. I suppose that
Wikimedia Chapters from around the world have evolved a set of best
practices and have ensured that these are shared somewhere. These ideas
will probably make the requirements of chapters a little more than just the
minimum legal requirements involved in maintaining the status of a legal
entity according to the laws of the lands in which the chapters operate.
I raise this point as a rank outsider because there is a claim in a recent
project proposal that it has been "endorsed" by the Wikimedia India
Chapter. My expectation then is that this has been given due diligence,
discussed by all members and the summary/minutes/transcripts made public.
Even ideas on Wikipedia that do not involve any money go through a greater
amount of (not to mention transparent) discussion than what we see here and
it seems to me that some of these basic discussion procedures that we take
for granted as part of the spirit of Wikipedia should be compulsory for
organizations associated with the WMF.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:PEG/Sujay25/Wikipedia_Treks_Kal…
Would be very happy to be proved wrong here.
best wishes
Shyamal
en:User:Shyamal
Here we are talking about the grant approval of Wikipedia treks Kalindi
khal and there in English Wikipedia, User:Shyamal is proposing deletion of
previous two Wikipedia treks mountains event pages along with all the
documentation. I have to copy paste all the previous events into meta.
Such a waste of time and data.
On 23 Aug 2015 17:31, <wikimediaindia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Send Wikimediaindia-l mailing list submissions to
> wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> wikimediaindia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
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>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Wikimediaindia-l digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Asking for endorsement for “Wikipedia Treks Kalindi
> Khal” (sankarshan)
> 2. Re: [CIS-A2K] July Newsletter (Ashwin Baindur)
> 3. Re: Asking for endorsement for “Wikipedia Treks Kalindi
> Khal” (Srikanth Ramakrishnan)
> 4. Re: [CIS-A2K] July Newsletter (Subhashish Panigrahi)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 20:10:06 +0530
> From: sankarshan <foss.mailinglists(a)gmail.com>
> To: Wikimedia India Community list
> <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Asking for endorsement for
> “Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal”
> Message-ID:
> <
> CAKQ+-3zMpN5M8d9gKp6TjnGygdmEZriTPviAi_-Ljk-xxsDyRA(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 6:00 PM, Ashwin Baindur
> <ashwin.baindur(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > Request the views of more editors on this proposal. Guys, Santanu took
> > the trouble to give us a detailed proposal, at least lets do him the
> > courtesy of giving our views, whatever these may be.
>
> I went through the proposal in small chunks primarily to think through
> this. I am not an editor and so the views may or, may not be relevant.
> In no particular order, here are a few comments.
>
> [+] The proposal states "The main purpose of Wikipedia Treks Kalindi
> Khal is to increase the material related to Himalayan Range with a
> free license in Wikimedia Commons and improve the quality and increase
> the amount of articles about diversifying Garhwal Himalayan mountain
> range and other respective variety in different languages in
> Wikipedia. Also to raise awareness among various community chapters,
> motivate them to contribute to the Wikimedia projects and organize
> this kind of trekking expedition in future."
>
> This is in fact 3 specific objectives - (a) collect material on the
> region covered by this trek; (b) generate awareness within the
> chapters; (c) establish the feasibility of a similar activity by
> accruing more value than consumed
>
> [+] The proposal states "Currently this project is focused on Global
> south region which will Improve editor diversity by recruiting new
> editors from this particular target group."
>
> But doesn't specifically mention the target group or, the methodology
> of recruiting new editors
>
> [+] "Trekking or hiking is extremely well liked adventure sports
> through the globe and it will be enormously easier to find like-minded
> open source and free knowledge organizations and initiatives with whom
> we can collaborator with"
>
> A few examples of such organizations would have been a good thing to
> have at this point. Primarily to estimate the willingness of the said
> organizations to contribute to knowledge under a free (or, liberal)
> license. Anecdotal experience indicates that organizations have their
> own rationale and quirks when engaging in collaborative ventures and
> prior handshakes are required to ensure specific outcomes
>
> [+] "This Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal will be the first major public
> activity of its kind and will be pivotal in the increased uptake of
> Wikimedia projects by the populace of the extreme lands in India."
>
> The simplest question for this line of reasoning is "How?". "Extreme
> lands" would indicate a set of constraints that are unique and perhaps
> primary among those being the awareness of the utility value of
> Wikipedia itself. The proposal does not go on to elaborate how it is
> planned to be addressed
>
> [+] "This team of WTM comprises total nine members; among them three
> wikipedians and a female wikipedian volunteer is involved. We expect
> another three non wikipedian experienced trek member to be converted
> into volunteers.
> After the completion of trek, there will be three edit-a-thons, for
> new editors, where they will be educated with proper guidance,
> follow-up and mentorship."
>
> It would be nice to have a draft idea of what can be documented. This
> can be in the form of stub pages which can be filled out later during
> the edit-a-thons or, an assessment of the gaps in the existing content
> around the region to be covered by the trek thus creating a handy
> guide to what needs to be added. This pre-expedition exercise could
> also serve as a metric of success of such ventures
>
> [+] "Wikimedia Commons has an insignificant representation of
> mountains and peaks along with the species, flora and fauna in the
> complete Himalayan range. The available images are of moderate to
> acceptable quality. Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal aims to improve the
> coverage of the Himalayan range by encouraging people (including
> professional photographers) to take and donate quality images under
> free licenses to the Wikimedia Commons database."
>
> The proposal does not mention whether the current team does comprise
> of individuals who are proficient in skills of photography and would
> contribute (not 'donate') images of higher resolution and greater
> variety to Commons
>
> [+] "Increasing Wikimedia's participation in the remotest places (Mana
> Village, the last village of India) is one of the salient points of
> Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal. Garhwal Himalaya is crucial to this
> objective, as a key hub for the whole range of Himalaya. Since the
> Internet penetrations in these areas are low, the end results will be
> less satisfactory. Henceforth, the initial impact will increase
> awareness."
>
> And again, "How?" The proposal misses an unique opportunity to provide
> creative solutions while attempting to increase awareness of Wikipedia
> (and related projects) in areas that are mostly off-the-internet.
> Also, if the awareness campaign is successful, what are the planned
> next steps which can be looked into?
>
> [+] "Encourage Innovation"
>
> This specific topic could do with a revisit. The current shape of the
> content does not indicate any innovating practices or, approaches.
>
> /s
>
> --
> sankarshan mukhopadhyay
> <https://twitter.com/#!/sankarshan>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 20:41:07 +0530
> From: Ashwin Baindur <ashwin.baindur(a)gmail.com>
> To: Wikimedia India Community list
> <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [CIS-A2K] July Newsletter
> Message-ID:
> <CAMo0PCiiz8sbM5v7+vpbdpFALSaW3AJKkgAvwdc=
> h9wTGMiRhA(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Subhashish, thanks for this detailed report. Wish I was there for some
> of these interesting events. I'm in Pune now so hopefully, a little
> more activity from my side will follow...
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 21:10:08 +0530
> From: Srikanth Ramakrishnan <rsrikanth05(a)gmail.com>
> To: Wikimedia India Community list
> <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Asking for endorsement for
> “Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal”
> Message-ID:
> <CANCd7zbCUtO3K8WcB2_4j2QzkHJp8=
> wsiG7rs9m9u4Yy7twGyw(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hi all, I request all of you to take the discussion to the Grant talk page
> on Meta where it would be more visible and useful for others going thru the
> proposal.
>
> --
> Srikanth.
> http://bestpedia.in
> On 22-Aug-2015 8:10 pm, "sankarshan" <foss.mailinglists(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 6:00 PM, Ashwin Baindur
> > <ashwin.baindur(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Request the views of more editors on this proposal. Guys, Santanu took
> > > the trouble to give us a detailed proposal, at least lets do him the
> > > courtesy of giving our views, whatever these may be.
> >
> > I went through the proposal in small chunks primarily to think through
> > this. I am not an editor and so the views may or, may not be relevant.
> > In no particular order, here are a few comments.
> >
> > [+] The proposal states "The main purpose of Wikipedia Treks Kalindi
> > Khal is to increase the material related to Himalayan Range with a
> > free license in Wikimedia Commons and improve the quality and increase
> > the amount of articles about diversifying Garhwal Himalayan mountain
> > range and other respective variety in different languages in
> > Wikipedia. Also to raise awareness among various community chapters,
> > motivate them to contribute to the Wikimedia projects and organize
> > this kind of trekking expedition in future."
> >
> > This is in fact 3 specific objectives - (a) collect material on the
> > region covered by this trek; (b) generate awareness within the
> > chapters; (c) establish the feasibility of a similar activity by
> > accruing more value than consumed
> >
> > [+] The proposal states "Currently this project is focused on Global
> > south region which will Improve editor diversity by recruiting new
> > editors from this particular target group."
> >
> > But doesn't specifically mention the target group or, the methodology
> > of recruiting new editors
> >
> > [+] "Trekking or hiking is extremely well liked adventure sports
> > through the globe and it will be enormously easier to find like-minded
> > open source and free knowledge organizations and initiatives with whom
> > we can collaborator with"
> >
> > A few examples of such organizations would have been a good thing to
> > have at this point. Primarily to estimate the willingness of the said
> > organizations to contribute to knowledge under a free (or, liberal)
> > license. Anecdotal experience indicates that organizations have their
> > own rationale and quirks when engaging in collaborative ventures and
> > prior handshakes are required to ensure specific outcomes
> >
> > [+] "This Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal will be the first major public
> > activity of its kind and will be pivotal in the increased uptake of
> > Wikimedia projects by the populace of the extreme lands in India."
> >
> > The simplest question for this line of reasoning is "How?". "Extreme
> > lands" would indicate a set of constraints that are unique and perhaps
> > primary among those being the awareness of the utility value of
> > Wikipedia itself. The proposal does not go on to elaborate how it is
> > planned to be addressed
> >
> > [+] "This team of WTM comprises total nine members; among them three
> > wikipedians and a female wikipedian volunteer is involved. We expect
> > another three non wikipedian experienced trek member to be converted
> > into volunteers.
> > After the completion of trek, there will be three edit-a-thons, for
> > new editors, where they will be educated with proper guidance,
> > follow-up and mentorship."
> >
> > It would be nice to have a draft idea of what can be documented. This
> > can be in the form of stub pages which can be filled out later during
> > the edit-a-thons or, an assessment of the gaps in the existing content
> > around the region to be covered by the trek thus creating a handy
> > guide to what needs to be added. This pre-expedition exercise could
> > also serve as a metric of success of such ventures
> >
> > [+] "Wikimedia Commons has an insignificant representation of
> > mountains and peaks along with the species, flora and fauna in the
> > complete Himalayan range. The available images are of moderate to
> > acceptable quality. Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal aims to improve the
> > coverage of the Himalayan range by encouraging people (including
> > professional photographers) to take and donate quality images under
> > free licenses to the Wikimedia Commons database."
> >
> > The proposal does not mention whether the current team does comprise
> > of individuals who are proficient in skills of photography and would
> > contribute (not 'donate') images of higher resolution and greater
> > variety to Commons
> >
> > [+] "Increasing Wikimedia's participation in the remotest places (Mana
> > Village, the last village of India) is one of the salient points of
> > Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal. Garhwal Himalaya is crucial to this
> > objective, as a key hub for the whole range of Himalaya. Since the
> > Internet penetrations in these areas are low, the end results will be
> > less satisfactory. Henceforth, the initial impact will increase
> > awareness."
> >
> > And again, "How?" The proposal misses an unique opportunity to provide
> > creative solutions while attempting to increase awareness of Wikipedia
> > (and related projects) in areas that are mostly off-the-internet.
> > Also, if the awareness campaign is successful, what are the planned
> > next steps which can be looked into?
> >
> > [+] "Encourage Innovation"
> >
> > This specific topic could do with a revisit. The current shape of the
> > content does not indicate any innovating practices or, approaches.
> >
> > /s
> >
> > --
> > sankarshan mukhopadhyay
> > <https://twitter.com/#!/sankarshan>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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
> >
>
Dear my fellow Wikipedians,
Greetings from Kolkata, India.
I am pleased to inform you that we are going to organize a expedition
project “Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal” under “Wikipedia Treks Mountain “in
September 2015.
This is a high-altitude trekking expedition from Gangotri to Badrinath in
the Garhwal Himalayan region of India, targeting all language editions of
Wikipedia, Commons, Wikspecies, Wikivoyage and other WMF projects.
The overall purpose of Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal is to increase the
material related to Himalayan Range with a free license in Wikimedia
Commons and improve the quality and increase the amount of articles about
diversifying Himalayan mountain range and other respective variety in
different languages in Wikipedia. Reaching out to the majority of Himalayan
mountain range during this trekking program will not only raise awareness
among various community chapters, but also motivate them to contribute to
the Wikimedia projects and organize this kind of trekking expedition in
future.
I just need an endorsement from all of you for this unique project
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Sujay25/Wikipedia_Treks_Kalindi_…
Feel free to discuss about the project in the discussion page.
Thanks in advance,
With warm regards,
---
Santanu Chandra
(Schwiki)
Skype: Santanu731
Dear all,
CIS-A2K would like to share with you the newsletter for the month of
July 2015. We look forward to hearing any feedback or input you might have.
The Goan Konkani Wikipedia (available at gom.wikipedia.org) has gone
live after spending nine long years in incubation.
Konkani Wikipedia has many heroes, Melissa Simoes and Darshan Kandolkar
are two of the many long-term contributors who joined Konkani Wikipedia
during the Konkani Wikipedia @ Goa University program and are still
active even after the program was formally concluded. Darshan is an
Assistant Professor at the Government College Pernem in Goa. His
professor at Goa University, Dr. Madhavi Sardesai—who passed away last
year—played a vital role in inspiring him to pursue higher studies in
Konkani. Darshan realized that there is a lot to be written in Konkani
when he was introduced to Wikipedia, and after that, he became dedicated
towards contributing to the project.
The Konkani Wikimedia community has been using social media actively to
promote the Konkani Wikipedia project, and to celebrate the successes of
its contributors. After Melissa became the top contributor to the
project, her fellow editor Luis Gomes congratulated her. That brought
Melissa into the spotlight, gaining the attention of editors from the
global Wikimedia community. The community is continuing a tradition to
rewarding the most prolific contributor of each month as the "Wikipedian
of the Month".
More in the Wikimedia blog:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/07/15/konkani-wikipedia-goes-live/
== Event organized/participated ==
* Christ university Undergraduate program (July 1-8):
Students were initiated into the Wikimedia activities with hands on
sessions of typing on Wikisource. Faculty of the Christ University
helped the A2K team in deciding on the texts that were to be typed.
These texts will provide much needed impetus for Wikisource related
activities in Indian Languages. Wikipedia Education Programme at Christ
University received support from Ravishankar.A of the Tamil Wikimedia
community and Sayant Mahato from Sanskrit Wikimedia community.
* St. Aloyisius college, Mangalore (July 4-5):
Tulu and Kannada Wikipedia workshops were conducted in St. Aloysis
College, Mangalore. Tulu Wikipedia is in Incubator and a small community
is growing in Mangalore. Pavanaja U.B. and Rahmanuddin Shaik
participated in this events.
* MediaWiki Train the Trainer Program2015
A four-day long train-the-trainer program aimed at building leadership
among technical contributors to Indic language Wikimedians in the areas
of bugs, bots--Pywikipedia and Auto Wiki Browser, various MediaWiki
tools, and translations. This program was organized during June 24-27 by
CIS-A2K with support from Ravishankar.A from Wikimedia India, MediaWiki
developers Pavithra H., Yogesh Omshivaprakash H.L. and Harsh Kothari,
and Tamil Wikimedian Dineshkumar Ponnusamy.
* Wikimania 2015, Mexico City:
** Learning Day (15 July 2015):
A whole day dedicated for evaluation of strategies and activities by
various major stakeholders of the Wikimedia movement; community members
who lead major activities, Wikimedia chapters, affiliate organizations
and Wikimedia Foundation itself. There were several group activities,
exchange of ideas focused on project and community level outreach and
other activities, tools and techniques, and best practices. Subhashish
Panigrahi participated in this event.
** Talk on Guerrilla GLAM:
Subhashish presented about doing GLAM the guerrilla way--by sharing many
frugal practices, and ways around acquiring cultural content to enrich
Wikipedia and Wikipedia's sister projects where the conventional GLAM
partnerships do not fetch much success.
* * Panel discussion "Edit-a-thons for bridging the gender gap on Wikimedia:
A panel discussion centered around using edit-a-thons as an outreach
tool among women, measuring its impact and comparing it with other modes
of outreach. Subhashish along with Malayalam Wikimedian Netha Hussain as
moderator, and other fellow Wikimedians in the panel Rohini Lakshane,
Emily Temple-Wood, Siko Bouterse (WMF) and Heather Walls participated in
the discussion.
** Indic meetup:
During Wikimania, an Indic meetup was organized where Wikimedians from
India, Bangladesh and Nepal representing various language communities,
Wikimedia India, Wikimedia Bangladesh, Wikimedia Nepal, and Access To
Knowledge (CIS-A2K) gathered to discuss about various challenges,
cross-community collaborative projects, organizing larger events, and
strategies to grow the Wikimedia movement in South Asia.
* "Classical Languages In The Digital Era" conference, Central Institute
of Indian Languages, Mysore (Participated by Tanveer Hasan on 17 July 2015):
Organized by Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore this
conference was aimed at discussing about the future of Indian classical
languages in the digital era. Classical languages that are more of
confined within the print media have to find their way out to reach to
masses using the digital media. Linguists, researchers and scholars
representing various Indian languages gathered at CIIL where Tanveer
Hasan from CIS-A2K participated.
* Hackathon at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay (28 June 2015)
Around 35 students (25 male and 10 female) and interns together from IIT
Bombay participated in a hackathon organized in the institution by the
Wikimedia community led by Santosh Singare and Rahul Deshmukh.
Rahimanuddin Shaik from CIS-A2K delivered a presentation on Wikidata and
bots and Abhinav Garule supported in organizing the event. The students
formed groups and worked on brainstorming about different bots.
* Odia Wikipedia Turning 13 this June 3 (Organized by the Odia Wikipedia
Community and supported by CIS-A2K; Institute of Physics, Sachivalaya
Marg, Sainik School PO, Gajapati Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha; June 3, 2015):
The Odia Wikipedia turned 13 on June 3. The community gathered in
Odisha's capital city Bhubaneswar for a day to celebrate this day.
During the thirteenth anniversary celebrations, the community had a day
long session to assess community needs, address issues, and identify
priority areas to focus on for the future. A legacy encoding →
Unicodeencoding converter was released publicly during the event. This
'encoding converter' is a community project led by Wikimedians
Jnanaranjan Sahu and Manoj Sahukar and converts the encoding systems
used by Odia newspapers, the Odisha government websites and many
publications into Unicode.
== Blogs ==
* Panigrahi, Subhashish. Konkani Wikipedia Goes Live After 'Nine Years'
of Incubation (July 18, 2015)
* Patnaik, Sailesh. Odia Wikipedia meets Google Developer Group
* Hasan, Tanveer. Magic words (29 July 2015)
* Hasan, Tanveer. Train the Trainer: Running effective outreach
activities in India (30 July 2015)
== Team updates ==
Tito Dutta, Luis Gomes and Abhinav Garule have joined the CIS-A2K team
as Programme Associates from March this year. Tito will be working for
internal documentation and resource building, and Luis and Abhinav will
be implementing the Konkani and Marathi work plan respectively along
with community liaison.
Communications:
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CISA2K
* Visit us at: https://cis-india.org
This newsletter is also available on Meta at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter/July_2015
--
Best!
Subhashish Panigrahi
Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge
Centre for Internet and Society
@subhapa / https://cis-india.org
