WikimediaIndia-l November 2017

wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

23 participants
16 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

5 7

Please add your name to the Geographical List of Indian Wikipedians
by Ashwin Baindur 30 Jul '18

30 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 ------------------------------------------------------

9 11

Vote on the Community Tech Wishlist!
by Asaf Bartov 11 Dec '17

11 Dec '17

Dear friends, It is time to vote on the Community Tech Wishlist. This *directly determines* what the Community Tech team at WMF will work on, and every vote counts! If you want to help out spreading the word in your communities, feel very welcome to do so. You can see the final proposals here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2017_Community_Wishlist_Survey Just click on the categories. Voting will close on December 10. Cheers, A.

2 2

Train-the-Trainer 2018: Event details and invitation to participate
by Tito Dutta 08 Dec '17

08 Dec '17

Hello, We are delighted to inform that the Train-the-Trainer (TTT) 2018 programme organised by CIS-A2K will be held from 26-28 January 2018, in Mysore, Karnataka, India. *What is TTT?* Train the Trainer or TTT is a residential training program. The program attempts to groom leadership skills among the Indian Wikimedia community (including English) members. Earlier TTT have been conducted in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017. *Who should join?* An editor who is interested to conduct real-life and online Wiki-events such as outreach, workshop, GLAM, edit-a-thon, photowalk etc. Any active Wikimedian contributing to any Indic language Wikimedia project is eligible to apply. The editor must have 500+ global edits before 1 November 2017 Anyone who has already participated in an earlier iteration of TTT, can not apply. Please see more about this program and apply to participate or encourage the deserving candidates from your community to do so: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/20… Note: In an effort to encourage participation from women and other minorities, at least 20 percent of the participants at TTT 2018 would comprise of women and/ or other minorities. Please consider sharing this workshop details with your community members. If you have any question, please let us know. Tito Dutta

1 1

Featured Wikimedia [November 2017]
by Krishna Chaitanya Velaga 03 Dec '17

03 Dec '17

Greetings, I am happy to announce the Featured Wikimedian for November 2017. *Balaji Jagadesh* <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Balajijagadesh> is one of the top contributors from the Tamil Wikimedia community. Though he started contributing since 2009, he was quite active after his participation in WikiConference India 2011. Initially he started contributing to Tamil Wikipedia, but was later attracted towards Tamil Wikisource, Tamil Wikitionary, and Wikidata. His global contributions count to whooping 2,50,000 edits. He is an admin on Tamil Wikitionary. After his interaction with Mr. Loganathan (User:Info-farmer <https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ACentralAuth&target=I…>), Balaji was very much motivated to contribute to Wikimedia projects. He says, "When I was editing in Tamil Wikipedia, I used to translate science articles from English to Tamil. But faced problem in finding equivalent Tamil words. The English to Tamil dictionaries were inadequate. Hence I felt the need to work in the Tamil Wikitionary. After a while there was a collaboration with Tamil Wikisource and Tamil Nadu Government through Tamil Virtual University through 2000 CC0 books were uploaded". As an active contributor to Wikidata, he says that the vision of Wikimedia movement is, "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge", but with Wikidata we can make it, "Imagine a world in which every single human being *and every single machine* can freely share in the sum of all knowledge". Apart from regular contributions, he also created templates to Tamil Wikimedia projects, and also maintains Tamil Wikisource's official Twitter handle <https://twitter.com/tawikisource>. Balaji hails from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and is a post-graduate is Physics. He currently works as a Senior Geophysicist in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC). *Nominations for Featured Wikimedian can be made at:* https://goo.gl/Fpf4D2, *or can be suggested to this email ID.* Regards, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga

9 9

IRC on 24 November 2017 at 9:00 pm IST
by Tito Dutta 24 Nov '17

24 Nov '17

Hello, An IRC discussion will be conducted on 24 November 2017 at 9:00 pm Indian Standard Time. Possible topics of discussions are but not limited to: a) Community discussion about current events and upcoming events related to Indic Wikimedia projects. b) Supporting Indian Language Wikipedias Program ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_ Wikipedias_Program) c) Community discussion to each other and questions and answers. The channel will be #cis-a2k at Freenode, may be accessed from any chat client or using the web version: https://webchat.freenode.net/? channels=#cis-a2k Please free to suggest topics. Thanks Tito Dutta Note: If I don't reply to your email in 2 days, please feel free to remind me over email or phone call.

1 1

Fwd: [Wikimedia-l] Reminder: Currently accepting nominations for the Ombuds Commission
by Krishna Chaitanya Velaga 17 Nov '17

17 Nov '17

Regards, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Karen Brown <kbrown(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 10:55 PM Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Reminder: Currently accepting nominations for the Ombuds Commission To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Hello all, *I'm sending this out as a reminder, since nominations are still open and will remain so until mid-December*. *You may have already seen messages similar to this when I did my last round of requesting-nominations; apologies if I'm cluttering any inboxes.* It's coming close to time for annual appointments of community members to serve on the Ombudsman commission (OC). This commission works on all Wikimedia projects to investigate complaints about violations of the privacy policy, especially in use of CheckUser tools, and to mediate between the complaining party and the individual whose work is being investigated. They may also assist the General Counsel, the Executive Director or the Board of Trustees in investigations of these issues. For more on their duties and roles, see http://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Ombudsman_commission This is a call for community members interested in volunteering for appointment to this commission. Volunteers serving in this role should be experienced Wikimedians, active on any project, who have previously used the CheckUser tool OR who have the technical ability to understand the CheckUser tool and the willingness to learn it. They are expected to be able to engage neutrally in investigating these concerns and to know when to recuse when other roles and relationships may cause conflict. Commissioners are required to identify to the Wikimedia Foundation and must be willing to comply with the appropriate Wikimedia Foundation board policies (such as the access to non-public data policy[1] and the privacy policy[2]). This is a position that requires a high degree of discretion and trust. If you are interested in serving on this commission, please write me an email off-list to detail your experience on the projects, your thoughts on the commission and what you hope to bring to the role. The commission consists of nine members; all applications are appreciated and will be carefully considered. The deadline for applications is end of day on 18 December 2017. Please feel free to pass this invitation along to any users who you think may be qualified and interested. Thank you! -Karen Brown On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Support & Safety team 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_to_nonpublic_information_policy 2. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_policy -- Karen Brown Community Advocate Wikimedia Foundation kbrown(a)wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

1 0

[Updates] Wikimedia Foundation Rapid Grant Program
by Alex Wang 15 Nov '17

15 Nov '17

Hello! We are sending this message to select community mailing lists and all previous recipients of a Wikimedia Foundation Rapid Grant. We have three announcements regarding the Rapid Grants Program: *1. New Rapid Grants Program Officer! * We are very happy to announce we have hired a Program Officer for Rapid Grants -- Woubzena Jifar! She started at WMF on November 13th. Over the last year we have struggled to keep up with the growing demand for Rapid Grants and are excited to be able to add capacity to our team to better (and more rapidly) support the Wikimedia communities. Please see her staff bio here: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:WJifar_(WMF). You can contact her at wjifar(a)wikimedia.org or rapidgrants(a)wikimedia.org. *2. Three grant cap for individuals, groups, and organizations* Beginning December 1, 2017 any individual, group, or organization will only be allowed to have three open grants at any one time [1]. This includes both Rapid Grants and Project Grants. For example, you can have 2 Rapid Grants and 1 Project Grant, 3 Rapid Grants, etc. This is to ensure that grantees and project managers have enough capacity to reach their goals and meet the requirements of the grant agreement. Conference Grants are not included in this cap. Annual Plan Grantees are not eligible for Rapid or Project Grants. *3. Rapid Grants will be closed December 18, 2017 - January 14, 2018* We will not be accepting new grant proposals December 18-January 14. The last day to submit a new proposal before the end of the year will be December 15th. This will give us a week before our offices close for the remainder of 2017 to review and make decisions. We will begin accepting new proposals again on Monday, January 15th. If you have any questions, please email rapidgrants(a)wikimedia.org Cheers, Alex [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/Learn -- Alexandra Wang Program Officer Community Resources Wikimedia Foundation <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home>

1 0

Satdeep Gill joining WMF New Reader's program
by Anne Gomez 14 Nov '17

14 Nov '17

Hello! My name is Anne Gomez <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:AGomez_(WMF)>, and I'm a senior program manager at the Wikimedia Foundation working on the New Readers program. We're working to bring more readers to Wikipedia, primarily in India, Nigeria, and Mexico. Learn more about the program on meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_Readers I'm excited to announce that Satdeep Gill <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SGill_(WMF)> will be joining the team as our Community Outreach Coordinator for India. We know that it's critical to partner with you on our projects and support yours. Satdeep will work closely with the New Readers team, including Ravi Ayyakkannu <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:RAyyakkannu_(WMF)>, to make sure that you are informed of what we're working on and how we can work together. Satdeep has been in the Wikimedia world for a long time and in many roles, starting with editing Wikipedia in 2009. He is a key member of the Punjabi community and served as the program leader for the WikiConference India. Most recently, he was working as a Strategy Coordinator for the Wikimedia movement strategy to facilitate discussion with Hindi Wikimedians. If you have any questions about New Readers, please reach out to me, Satdeep, or Ravi. We're excited to work with you :D Cheers, Anne -- *Anne Gomez* // Senior Program Manager, New Readers <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_Readers> https://wikimediafoundation.org/ *Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment. Donate <http://donate.wikimedia.org>. *

14 13

Removal of Adminstrative powers of User:Mahitgar on Mr.Wp
by Tiven Gonsalves 14 Nov '17

14 Nov '17

Fellow Wikimedians, This is regarding the recent activity notice on Marathi Wikipedia. An Administrator (User:Mahitgar) has been removed out from Administrators powers by Wikimedia Stewards' for *misusing administrative powers.* The link for the discussion of the same can be found at < https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards%27_noticeboard# Emergency_help_from_Steward> The whole of mrwp. community should take note of this recent changes of rights. Thanking you, Tiven Gonsalves (User:Tiven2240)

3 2

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

WikimediaIndia-l November 2017