Dear friends,
At the beginning of 2011, a group of us began working on a project to
explore alternative methods of citation on Wikipedia. We were motivated
by the lack of published resources in much of the non-Anglo-European
world, and the very real difficulty of citing everyday aspects of lived
reality in India and South Africa.
We are now at a stage where the project is almost complete, and we'd
like to share our work with the broader movement, especially within
India and South Africa.
There are three languages we worked within: Malayalam, Hindi and Sepedi.
The project page documents the process and logistics employed, as well
as the findings and results:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Oral_Citations
A film made from the project is available here: http://vimeo.com/26469276
There have been discussions on oral citations for some time now within
the language communities we worked with for the duration of the project.
At this stage, we are really interested in *your* feedback, either on
this list, or on the Discussion section of the project page.
There are still some things to come, namely:
- Better (high resolution) versions of the film on Wikimedia Commons
with an open subtitle track for translation, in process
- Updates on events, meetings and discussions held around the project
(updated as they happen)
- Updates on articles created in Malayalam, Hindi and Sepedi as a result
of the project (updated as they happen)
We would be very grateful to hear your feedback, and begin a broader
discussion.
Best wishes,
Achal
*apologies for cross-posting*
Dear friends,
A quick update on the oral citations project.
1) We have now posted sample articles in all 3 project languages,
Malayalam, Sepedi and Hindi:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Oral_Citations#Articles.2F_Discussi…
2) A full English subtitle track for the film is now available on
Wikimedia Commons (the previous one only covered non-English speech):
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/TimedText:People-are-Knowledge.ogv.en.srt
---
There are a couple of things yet to come, some of which are
intrinsically linked to the suggestions and comments coming in from the
discussion on the previous thread. These are:
a) A few more articles in development, which will be posted when done
b) Transcripts of the audio interviews in Hindi, Sepedi and Malayalam,
each accompanied by an English transcript (in development)
c) An FAQ, where we can begin thinking collaboratively about ways in
which an exercise like this could work/be made to work under existing
policies within the Wikimedia movement, and Wikipedia specifically; as
well as ways in which this project could be extended to think about
sources and citations generally.
---
Lastly, if you haven't had a chance to see the work of the project, you
can do that here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Oral_Citations
...and if you would like to watch the film made during the course of the
project, please check it out:
on Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:People-are-Knowledge.ogv
or on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/26469276
Cheers,
Achal
Thanks to Michael Dale and Erik Moller, the People are Knowledge film is
now available in an open video format on Wikimedia Commons. This is a
considerably better version than the one available on Vimeo (the link
circulated earlier).
Please see it at:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:People-are-Knowledge.ogv?withJS=Medi…
or in the standard player at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:People-are-Knowledge.ogv
You will have to switch the subtitle track on (instructions on the pages). We are working on creating a full English subtitles track, not just for non-English sections as is currently enabled - help appreciated here and for translation.
Cheers,
Achal
Hello, everyone.
Following the success of the Google Kiswahili Wikipedia
Challenge<http://www.google.com/events/kiswahili-wiki/>[1]
in 2009, the WMF has been in touch with Google's Nairobi office about a
"Wikipedia Challenge" to be conducted in the languages Setswana, isiZulu,
and Afrikaans, to be held from early August 2011 to early October 2011.
This is basically a writing competition (translations are allowed) of
articles, with a proposed grand prize of a sponsored trip to Wikimania 2012
(in Washington D.C.), and several smaller prizes.
The competition is now at the planning phase, and we would very much like to
involve some of you at WMZA on several fronts. The first and most pressing
is finding volunteer judges for the articles that would be submitted.
Google wants 35 judges per language, expecting each judge to need to put in
2-3 hours a week for the duration of the competition. Are you able to begin
interesting your local communities in these languages and enlisting
volunteers for this?
And generally, could you identify an appropriate contact person? (or one
per language?)
This could be a very energizing program for your chapter to engage with.
Google are doing most of the heavy lifting, funding-wise.
Thanks,
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation
[1] http://www.google.com/events/kiswahili-wiki/