Hello all,
I am sending this mail, as I am soon going to be leaving for Kolkata and as such a particular incident reminded me how we can do a free of cost basic outreach, to spread the word about Wikipedia. The incident occurred when I was traveling from Mumbai to Kolkata, just after the conference, and not having time to change, I boarded the Duronto with my conference t-shirt on.
The passengers in the compartment I was in, though initially kept to themselves, started speaking to each other as often happens on long (28hr) train journeys. Very soon the focus shifted to my t-shirt and the resultant was that I ended up explaining the world of Wikipedia to them for hours.
I should mention, it was a very varied crowd and maybe that is why it happened. There was a lawyer, a psychiatrist, a scientist, an engineer, and a couple others whose occupations were unknown to me.
I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their minds:
- What is Wikipedia? - Who runs Wikipedia? - Is Wikimedia a sub-project of Wikipedia? - Who edits Wikipedia? - How many employees are there and how many volunteers? - Is it really free? If so, how does it earn money? - Reliability of Wikipedia - If anyone can edit, is it reliable? - Who monitors info? - Copyvio and reliable sources - What do I get out of it, if not money? - Role of a Campus Ambassador - How to edit? - Why edit? - Edit what? - Presence of Indic language wikis - How to edit Indic language wikis - Sister projects like Commons, Wikibooks - Entry of Foundation in India and creation of India Chapter
However, as it was my first journey, I did not note down their emails to follow them up. The number was also limited, only 6. But hey, it was free and killed a lot of time, while at least telling people that Wikipedia can be edited and it has indic languages as well as sister projects. Hence, a sincere request to all Wikimedians. If you are traveling in a long distance train journey, try wearing a Wiki t-shirt if you have one. If you don't but the audience seems interested go over, say hello and ask where they work. When they ask you back, say, "WIKIPEDIA" and see the reaction. That should get you started.
You can always try it. If it fails, then the only thing is you have to wash your Wiki tee at most. But at least you spread the awareness. I am not saying that this will retain people and inspire them to start editing, but at least they might go back and try and look at Wikipedia in a different way, or seek out new info.
Am again going to wear a Wiki tee on my journey, will tell you if i have a similar experience.
Brilliant! I too had got questions when I wore my old Wikipedia t-shirt in Coimbatore and Chennai. Only, I never managed to explain properly and it was in a Local Bus [in CBE] and train [in CHN]. I'd sure love to board a Duronto, just because it is non stop and I have a long time on board it to do so. I think I just need a New Wikipedia size as the others are too small now. : P Cheers,
On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 3:16 AM, Debanjan Bandyopadhyay <debastein@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello all,
I am sending this mail, as I am soon going to be leaving for Kolkata and as such a particular incident reminded me how we can do a free of cost basic outreach, to spread the word about Wikipedia. The incident occurred when I was traveling from Mumbai to Kolkata, just after the conference, and not having time to change, I boarded the Duronto with my conference t-shirt on.
The passengers in the compartment I was in, though initially kept to themselves, started speaking to each other as often happens on long (28hr) train journeys. Very soon the focus shifted to my t-shirt and the resultant was that I ended up explaining the world of Wikipedia to them for hours.
I should mention, it was a very varied crowd and maybe that is why it happened. There was a lawyer, a psychiatrist, a scientist, an engineer, and a couple others whose occupations were unknown to me.
I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their minds:
- What is Wikipedia?
- Who runs Wikipedia?
- Is Wikimedia a sub-project of Wikipedia?
- Who edits Wikipedia?
- How many employees are there and how many volunteers?
- Is it really free? If so, how does it earn money?
- Reliability of Wikipedia - If anyone can edit, is it reliable?
- Who monitors info?
- Copyvio and reliable sources
- What do I get out of it, if not money?
- Role of a Campus Ambassador
- How to edit?
- Why edit?
- Edit what?
- Presence of Indic language wikis
- How to edit Indic language wikis
- Sister projects like Commons, Wikibooks
- Entry of Foundation in India and creation of India Chapter
However, as it was my first journey, I did not note down their emails to follow them up. The number was also limited, only 6. But hey, it was free and killed a lot of time, while at least telling people that Wikipedia can be edited and it has indic languages as well as sister projects. Hence, a sincere request to all Wikimedians. If you are traveling in a long distance train journey, try wearing a Wiki t-shirt if you have one. If you don't but the audience seems interested go over, say hello and ask where they work. When they ask you back, say, "WIKIPEDIA" and see the reaction. That should get you started.
You can always try it. If it fails, then the only thing is you have to wash your Wiki tee at most. But at least you spread the awareness. I am not saying that this will retain people and inspire them to start editing, but at least they might go back and try and look at Wikipedia in a different way, or seek out new info.
Am again going to wear a Wiki tee on my journey, will tell you if i have a similar experience.
-- Regards, Debanjan*
- Lets make this world a better and more informative place*
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
+1 Deba :)
On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 3:16 AM, Debanjan Bandyopadhyay <debastein@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello all,
I am sending this mail, as I am soon going to be leaving for Kolkata and as such a particular incident reminded me how we can do a free of cost basic outreach, to spread the word about Wikipedia. The incident occurred when I was traveling from Mumbai to Kolkata, just after the conference, and not having time to change, I boarded the Duronto with my conference t-shirt on.
The passengers in the compartment I was in, though initially kept to themselves, started speaking to each other as often happens on long (28hr) train journeys. Very soon the focus shifted to my t-shirt and the resultant was that I ended up explaining the world of Wikipedia to them for hours.
I should mention, it was a very varied crowd and maybe that is why it happened. There was a lawyer, a psychiatrist, a scientist, an engineer, and a couple others whose occupations were unknown to me.
I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their minds:
- What is Wikipedia?
- Who runs Wikipedia?
- Is Wikimedia a sub-project of Wikipedia?
- Who edits Wikipedia?
- How many employees are there and how many volunteers?
- Is it really free? If so, how does it earn money?
- Reliability of Wikipedia - If anyone can edit, is it reliable?
- Who monitors info?
- Copyvio and reliable sources
- What do I get out of it, if not money?
- Role of a Campus Ambassador
- How to edit?
- Why edit?
- Edit what?
- Presence of Indic language wikis
- How to edit Indic language wikis
- Sister projects like Commons, Wikibooks
- Entry of Foundation in India and creation of India Chapter
However, as it was my first journey, I did not note down their emails to follow them up. The number was also limited, only 6. But hey, it was free and killed a lot of time, while at least telling people that Wikipedia can be edited and it has indic languages as well as sister projects. Hence, a sincere request to all Wikimedians. If you are traveling in a long distance train journey, try wearing a Wiki t-shirt if you have one. If you don't but the audience seems interested go over, say hello and ask where they work. When they ask you back, say, "WIKIPEDIA" and see the reaction. That should get you started.
You can always try it. If it fails, then the only thing is you have to wash your Wiki tee at most. But at least you spread the awareness. I am not saying that this will retain people and inspire them to start editing, but at least they might go back and try and look at Wikipedia in a different way, or seek out new info.
Am again going to wear a Wiki tee on my journey, will tell you if i have a similar experience.
-- Regards, Debanjan*
- Lets make this world a better and more informative place*
Very well done deba........ +1
On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 1:31 PM, Ram Shankar Yadav < ramshankaryadav@gmail.com> wrote:
+1 Deba :)
On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 3:16 AM, Debanjan Bandyopadhyay < debastein@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello all,
I am sending this mail, as I am soon going to be leaving for Kolkata and as such a particular incident reminded me how we can do a free of cost basic outreach, to spread the word about Wikipedia. The incident occurred when I was traveling from Mumbai to Kolkata, just after the conference, and not having time to change, I boarded the Duronto with my conference t-shirt on.
The passengers in the compartment I was in, though initially kept to themselves, started speaking to each other as often happens on long (28hr) train journeys. Very soon the focus shifted to my t-shirt and the resultant was that I ended up explaining the world of Wikipedia to them for hours.
I should mention, it was a very varied crowd and maybe that is why it happened. There was a lawyer, a psychiatrist, a scientist, an engineer, and a couple others whose occupations were unknown to me.
I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their minds:
- What is Wikipedia?
- Who runs Wikipedia?
- Is Wikimedia a sub-project of Wikipedia?
- Who edits Wikipedia?
- How many employees are there and how many volunteers?
- Is it really free? If so, how does it earn money?
- Reliability of Wikipedia - If anyone can edit, is it reliable?
- Who monitors info?
- Copyvio and reliable sources
- What do I get out of it, if not money?
- Role of a Campus Ambassador
- How to edit?
- Why edit?
- Edit what?
- Presence of Indic language wikis
- How to edit Indic language wikis
- Sister projects like Commons, Wikibooks
- Entry of Foundation in India and creation of India Chapter
However, as it was my first journey, I did not note down their emails to follow them up. The number was also limited, only 6. But hey, it was free and killed a lot of time, while at least telling people that Wikipedia can be edited and it has indic languages as well as sister projects. Hence, a sincere request to all Wikimedians. If you are traveling in a long distance train journey, try wearing a Wiki t-shirt if you have one. If you don't but the audience seems interested go over, say hello and ask where they work. When they ask you back, say, "WIKIPEDIA" and see the reaction. That should get you started.
You can always try it. If it fails, then the only thing is you have to wash your Wiki tee at most. But at least you spread the awareness. I am not saying that this will retain people and inspire them to start editing, but at least they might go back and try and look at Wikipedia in a different way, or seek out new info.
Am again going to wear a Wiki tee on my journey, will tell you if i have a similar experience.
-- Regards, Debanjan*
- Lets make this world a better and more informative place*
Hi,
I have recently been involved with Wikimedia activities and would like to know who gets a Wikipedia T-shirt? Or rather how do I get a wikipedia T-shirt
Nischay Nahata 3rd year Dept. of IT NITK, Surathkal
On 10 March 2012 14:04, nischay nahata nischayn22@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
I have recently been involved with Wikimedia activities and would like to know who gets a Wikipedia T-shirt? Or rather how do I get a wikipedia T-shirt
Keep attending Wikimedia Events. Best (or I should say Only) way to get one :-)
Nischay Nahata 3rd year Dept. of IT NITK, Surathkal
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Dear All,
If you guys won't think I am repeating a similar incident like Deba and Sri, i had a similar experience too...
After our WikiConference @ Mumbai, I traveled on Kingfisher flight back to my place (Chennai, I am from Chennai btw). I am usually a last minute guy.. so I went to the airport pretty early and i was given access to the Lounge. When I was looking through the pics taken during our conference, a middle aged biz man asked me if I attended the conference... I said yes.. and he told me tht he wanted to come.. but cudn make it cos of his work... I was not wearing wiki T shirt, but i pinned the Wikipedia badge given by Ashwin Baindur on to my t-shirt.
he was very eager and asked if I can share what al happened.... I walked him thro th entire conference and he wanted to know what exactly we guys did... so i took the liberty of tellin our editing stuffs in a nut shell....
he took serious interest in the initiative...and as luck would have it. we were on th same flight... and had a few editing session inside th lounge..
i felt happy tht i was able 2 contribute 2 our cause.!!
Thanks, Ade.
On 10 March 2012 14:04, nischay nahata nischayn22@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
I have recently been involved with Wikimedia activities and would like to know who gets a Wikipedia T-shirt? Or rather how do I get a wikipedia T-shirt
Nischay Nahata 3rd year Dept. of IT NITK, Surathkal
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Something similar happened to me and PlaneMad (Arun Ganesh) in Mumbai. I was wearing Pune T shirt and him Mumbai T Shirt, and the person serving us food from the canteen was having fun reading the word 'Wikipedia' in the languages he could read (Kannada and Hindi, I believe?) - he could not read the english. Arun spent a while explaining Wikipedia to him, a conversation I was not able to take part in because of my lack of Hindi knowledge (sigh).
2012/3/10 Yuvi Panda yuvipanda@gmail.com:
Something similar happened to me and PlaneMad (Arun Ganesh) in Mumbai. I was wearing Pune T shirt and him Mumbai T Shirt, and the person serving us food from the canteen was having fun reading the word 'Wikipedia' in the languages he could read (Kannada and Hindi, I believe?) - he could not read the english.
Brilliant!!
A strong case for making more Wikipedia t-shirts in Indic languages!
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
Simplest way is to attend events as said. Or, you could get one IFF, you have a friend like I do [Tinu] who giftede me one for New Year 2010.
Alternatively, you could be like me today. I've outgrown both my Wikipedia T-shirts and hence I pin my Wikipedia badge [thanks to Sohan and Naveen for giving me one]. It's as effective as the tee.
On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 2:04 PM, nischay nahata nischayn22@gmail.comwrote:
Hi,
I have recently been involved with Wikimedia activities and would like to know who gets a Wikipedia T-shirt? Or rather how do I get a wikipedia T-shirt
Nischay Nahata 3rd year Dept. of IT NITK, Surathkal
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their minds:
If you DIDN'T show them a ppt, the chance that it WAS fruitful is a lot HIGHER :)
If you spoke about so much things to these people, then most likely it was fruitful, because they will now at least understand Wikipedia better as readers, and maybe they will even try to edit. For a casual chat in a train, this is very good.
If a lot of Indian take a lot of long train rides, then consider preparing something more structured and taking people's emails for follow-up. Just don't get too pushy with strangers :)
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
Perhaps something like street theatre?
Pradeep Handheld On Mar 10, 2012 4:35 PM, "Amir E. Aharoni" amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il wrote:
I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their
minds:
If you DIDN'T show them a ppt, the chance that it WAS fruitful is a lot HIGHER :)
If you spoke about so much things to these people, then most likely it was fruitful, because they will now at least understand Wikipedia better as readers, and maybe they will even try to edit. For a casual chat in a train, this is very good.
If a lot of Indian take a lot of long train rides, then consider preparing something more structured and taking people's emails for follow-up. Just don't get too pushy with strangers :)
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org