"A very strong argument can be made for quitting presentations altogether and relying only on the internet. A number of students created their accounts."
I like this part! I don't think we can do away with presentations completely, but the presentations should never overshadow the live training aspect. I personally find presentations to limit conversations rather than keeping them open ended. This is specially true for when you are training potential new users.
"The next day’s session was on things geographical. Arun Ganesh dazzled the audience with OpenStreetMap and Quantum GIS. Though the stuff was a bit difficult to cotton on to, the students did really well. At least six sets of students got the Java OpenStreetMap editor going, (quite a feat) and added road after road, building after building. To see the effects visit NERIST at Nirjuli on OpenStreetMap, just 20 kilometers east of Itanagar. The kids pretty much mapped up their whole campus that day. It was amazing to see the student’s lap up the tech stuff. Reminds us how much their inquisitive minds are deprived of genuine stimulation. They were truly awesome."
I liked this part too!
"The Victoria Memorial, Kolkata has been collaborating jointly with them to improve the Museum’s exhibits and the results are very evident."
The entire museum was being revamped last time when I was there. I hope they have made some progress since then.
I really think you should move full-time into training college students how to use Wikipedia, and I believe that would be an invaluable service not only to the Wikimedia community but the entire community of geeky people in the country. :)
Question: I see that the event was fairly successful, but would you consider discussing those elements that could have been better? This may include factors within your control and within the control of the organizers.