*PRESS RELEASE:*
*Mumbai To Host The First Ever National WikiConference In India***
*Jimmy Wales to deliver the Keynote on November 18 at University Convocation Hall*
* Mumbai, India, November 9*: The *Mumbai Wikipedia Community* and the *Wikimedia Chapter*, India are hosting the first ever WikiConference in Mumbai, India! And to grace the occasion we will see none other than, the founder, open-source evangelist and Chairman Emeritus of Wikimedia foundation – *Jimmy Wales*. The Conference will have a distinct Indian flavour and deal primarily with issues relating to India on Wikipedia, English and Indic language Wikipedia projects in the country, possible partnerships and collaborations and the WikiCommunity editing on these issues, whether in India or abroad.
The event will be a three day extravaganza, to be held from *November 18th *to the* 20th, 2011 *and the venue for this prestigious event is no less in stature when it comes to knowledge – *the Convocation Hall, University of Mumbai, Fort Campus* with the apt iconic Rajabhai tower as its backdrop.
*Arjuna Rao Chavala, President, Wikimedia chapter* said "We look forward to organising the conference on an annual basis to bring together Indian Wikipedians from 20+ Indian language projects to share learnings and best practices. The event will help catalyze contributors in building Knowledge Society through free and open education projects."
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. *Pranav Curumsey, Chairperson, Organizing Committee, WikiConference India* said, “It gives us great pleasure to be hosting such a phenomenal conference in India. The conference aims to promote the vision of the founder Mr. Wales, ‘Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.’ It is very encouraging to see ad-free participation showing a keen interest in attending this conference confirming our belief that India is free knowledge ready.”
The event will see thousands of Wikipedians from all over the country pouring in for sessions covering topics such as ‘Usage of Ajax and Jquery in Wiki’ in Technology to ‘WikiBhasha : Our Experiences with Multilingual Content’ in Enterprise to ‘WikiWomenWeb: Bridging the Gender Gap’ to ‘ Legal Aspects of Wiki Culture’. There is also a live ‘Editathon’ session made possible with Wifi facility within the campus grounds. Another interesting addition is the ‘Hackathon’ that will be simultaneously held at the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (MACCIA), Kala Ghoda.
*Mr. Moksh Juneja*, *Secretary, Organising Committee, WikiConference India*added, “The conference aims to serve as an annual platform for all Indian Wikipedians to meet and share their views, discuss challenges and exchange useful tips and best practices. We have been overwhelmed with the ad-free participation across India where we received 7000 plus entries for scholarships and 550 plus papers were submitted to be presented at the WikiConference India.”
Contributing to the success of WikiConference India are our esteemed sponsors are Google, YouTube, Omidyar Network, Microsoft Research, Yebhi.com, Ang India Technologies, Sarkarinaukri.com & Kalnirnay. WikiConference India has received positive support from their partners Kores, Avignyata Inc., e-RegNow.com, Panache, DSN & Text100 PR.
For further information & to register, please visit- http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2011
Prominent Speakers at WikiConference:
· Jimmy Wales, Founder & Chairman, *WikiMedia Foundation*
· Badri Sheshadri, Co-Founder & Ex MD, *Cric-info* and MD, *New Horizon Media Pvt. Ltd*.
· Barry Newstead, *Chief Global Development Officer, Wikimedia Foundation*
· Prof. (Dr.) Krishna Kumar, Chairman, *Gitanjali Multilingual Literary Circle*, UK
· Anand Kumar, *Super 30 IIT Coaching Programme*
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*About Wikimedia:*
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, a top-ten internet property, and Wikinews, as well as the website, Meta-Wiki. The Wikimedia Foundation is governed by Board of Trustees. Since January 2008, the Wikimedia Foundation has its office in San Francisco, USA. The most famous project from the foundation, Wikipedia , provides free encyclopaedias in most world languages is the 5th most visited site in the world with over 12 billion articles being read every month. Official information about the Foundation may be found on its website: wikimediafoundation.org.
*About Wikimedia India Chapter:*
Wikimedia India was formally approved in June 2010 and India became the 29th Wikimedia Chapter. The Wikimedia India chapter was registered (registered name: Wikimedia Chapter) vide Registrar of Societies, Bangalore Urban District with the objective of educating Indian public about availability and use of free and open educational content and build capacity to access and contribute to such resources in various Indian languages. For more information on the chapter visit its website: wiki.wikimedia.in
Media Contacts:
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Regards Tinu Cherian press@wikimedia.in http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news