Wikipedia-AS May 2012

wikipedia-as@lists.wikimedia.org

6 participants
12 discussions

2011 Picture of the Year Competition
by Srikant Kedia 31 May '12

31 May '12

Dear Wikimedians, Wikimedia Commons is happy to announce that the 2011 Picture of the Year competition is now open at last. We're interested in your opinion as to which images qualify to be the Picture of the Year for 2011 (not for 2012). Any user registered at Commons or a Wikimedia wiki SUL-related to Commons with more than 75 edits before 1 April 2012 (UTC) is welcome to vote. Check your eligibility now<http://toolserver.org/%7Epathoschild/accounteligibility/?user=&wiki=&event=…> ! If you meet the criteria, you are eligible to vote. Nearly 600 images that have been rated Featured Pictures by the international Wikimedia Commons community in the past year are all entered in this competition. From professional animal and plant shots to breathtaking panoramas and skylines, restorations of historically relevant images, images portraying the world's best architecture, maps, emblems, diagrams created with the most modern technology, and impressive human portraits, Commons features pictures of all flavors. For your convenience, we have sorted the images into topic categories. Two rounds of voting will be held: In the first round, you can vote for as many images as you like. The first round the top 32 images , by number of votes, from any category will go to the final round - the categories are irrelevant when it comes to counting the votes. If no picture of one topic category is not in the top 32s, that will be also promoted to the Final to guarantee a diverse final. In the final round, when a limited number of images are left, you must decide on the one image that you want to become the Picture of the Year. To see the candidate images just go to: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2011/Galleries Wikimedia Commons is interested in hearing your opinions on our featured images of 2011. The deadline for first round voting is 2012-06-04 at 23:59 (UTC). Thanks, Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year committee http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:POTY/2011

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India Program: Community Building Pilot Update: Fantastic Story from Assam
by Hisham 30 May '12

30 May '12

Dear Assamese Community: I am sharing this email with you - which I am forwarding to the various mailing lists / village pumps. It is related to the wonderful work in Assam! Congratulations! Dear All I wanted to share with you an update on the work that Shiju[1] is doing on Indic languages[2] as part of India Program.[3] A guiding principle for the thinking and efforts of our team is that community building should be the most essential aspect of all the work that we do. In the context of small Indic communities, Shiju has been working to try and identify the various elements that need to come together to foster community building. This update is about the Community Building pilot[4] that was run for the Assamese community. For context, community building means different things to different people and in fact there was a very interesting post[5] that Shiju put out that articulated his thinking on this and, hence, our priorities. The results of these efforts have been outstanding number of editors on Assamese Wikipedia has increased to 31 in April 2012 (from 18 in December 2011 and just 10 in November 2011.) number of Wikiprojects increased to 6 (from a situation where there were no reasonably active ones in December 2011- and including 5 Wikiprojects independently conceptualised and managed by the community) average monthly edits on Assamese Wikipedia increased to about 5000 in April 2012 from around 3000 in November 2011 There are 5 key factors that are responsible for this remarkable growth Strong communication. This started with Shiju building personal connections with Assamese editors and then encouraging them to communicate with each other on-wiki, online and in meet--ups and outreach sessions. Initial push. Shiju visited Assam in January where he spent time in 2 towns with 7 of the most active community members, who also conducted 2 outreach sessions. This visit has proved to be really useful because it helped to energise the community and also helped to establish a personal relationship between Shiju and these editors (and also, amongst the editors themselves.) Encouraging collaboration. Wikiprojects and outreach are really useful to galvanise a community and helped build personal equations. It's wonderful to see the increase in Wikiprojects and Building capacity & confidence. In all the work that has been done for the Assamese community, the endeavour has been to build capacity. For instance, support was given to get basic outreach material including FAQs prepared and outreach sessions were guided by Shiju. It's inspiring to see the Assamese community now take things to a whole new level and plan out an ambitious 10th anniversary.[6] Healthy environment. This is the last - but probably the most essential point - and it is something I want to call out because it is what will help or severely hinder the abilities of individual communities realise their dreams and potential. The reason why the Assamese community is making such wonderful steps forward is because there is a set of editors with the right level of initiative and motivation a strong sense of co-operation and good spirit amongst the editors an extremely welcoming approach to new editors None of this would have been possible without the efforts of every single Assamese community members. In the early days when Shiju started off, he was interacting with Bishnu, Dipankar, Gitartha, Jyoti & Prabhakar - who helped organise the first meet-ups and outreach sessions. Thanks to their efforts, a list of thank-yous would now be 31 strong! Thank you and congratulations to all of you! To the Assamese community, I wish you the very best for your 10th anniversary.[6] There are exciting plans including your photo contest and your article contest and the meet-up and the outreach session. I know that you are doing most of the event largely independently (with Noopur[7] providing media assistance for the 10th anniversary and an India Chapter[8] grant[9] supporting you.) This is the true signs of a community that is coming of age. There are tremendous opportunities in outreach to get new editors, initiatives like your article & photo contests to improve content and in proposed projects like offline to make transformational changes in the community. With regard to the way forward for India Program, the pilot design page[4] on meta[3] has now been updated. The next steps are going to be to see how we can adapt or build on these experiences with other communities, and as we move to other communities, do them in a more scaleable manner. To all community members - across languages across India - if you did want any help in any aspect of community building, please feel free to reach out to Shiju[1] at shiju(a)wikimedia.org. Please also do add comments or ideas or suggestions you might have to the Community Building Pilot's talk page.[10] hisham[11] Notes [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Shiju [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program [4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Basic_Community_… [5] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-December/005813.… [6] http://blog.wikimedia.in/2012/05/16/ten-glorious-years-of-assamese-wikipedi… [7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Noopur28 [8] http://wikimedia.in/ [9] http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Grants/Photo_and_Article_Competition_and_Wiki_Work… [10] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Basic_Commu… [11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Hisham

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মাত্ৰ দুদিন বাকী
by gitartha bordoloi 29 May '12

29 May '12

বন্ধুসকল, অসমীয়া ৱিকিপিডিয়াৰ আলোকচিত্ৰ আৰু প্ৰবন্ধ প্ৰতিযোগিতা শেষ হ'বলৈ মাত্ৰ দুদিন বাকী আছে। যিসকলে এতিয়াও প্ৰবন্ধ লিখিবলৈ এলাহ কৰি আছে তেখেতসকলক অলপ খৰধৰ কৰিবলৈ অনুৰোধ জনালোঁ। -- *~~ গীতাৰ্থ বৰদলৈ (Gitartha Bordoloi) *

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Updates on Social Media pilot
by Noopur Raval 28 May '12

28 May '12

Dear all, Greetings! Here's an update on the Social Media pilot program<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Social_Media>. Just a small recap before I go on to the numbers. *Why Facebook?* Why we decided to go with Facebook at all is because potential new editors are more comfortable and familiar with the channel. To illustrate, after outreach sessions, we tried staying in touch with around 100 participants using a combination of email and talk page messages and got just 3 responses. When we sent an invite to a Facebook page where they could get help and inputs on how to edit, we got 300 signed up in less than 3 days. Also, social media requires relatively lower investments of time and resources from our community and many Internet savvy people are comfortable using it. The Social Media program was started in order to effectively utilize platforms like Facebook and community groups there (like the Odia Wikipedia group, Kannada Wikipedia group) in order to engage more new editors and give them basic lessons on editing. However, running a Facebook group is very different from using Facebook for personal updates. That's why after observing how these groups work and interacting with a few editors who started these groups, we developed a systematic 19 point guide that looks at various aspects of how to do use Facebook effectively including aspects like discipline in messaging, structuring the interactions, tone of messaging, selecting articles, being cautious with Wikispeak etc. (Of course, it keeps in mind WP:NOTFACEBOOK.) Here's a sneak peek into what we've been doing on two different groups: 1) You can also write on Wikipedia<https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediasupport/> This group was primarily started to give lessons in English editing. Although all of us use social network sites, it is important to understand that the way we interact on Wikipedia is very different from Facebook. This is the gap we are trying to bridge through more deliberate messaging. As mentioned in the detailed program guide<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Social_Media#Pro…>, we try and do regular editing sessions with fun, interesting articles that have adequate space for improvement (therefore making it easier for new editors to make their first edits.) Through a series of 5 basic tasks like creating a username, correcting a spelling mistake, adding a line of information, adding a reference and adding an interwiki link, we try and get the user to make their first 5 edits in less than 10 minutes. Our initial experiments show promise and of the 400+ members right now, over 30 users have participated in these mini-editing sessions and have now edited for the very first time. (You can see their usernames in the doc<https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediasupport/doc/353268748054711/>on the group; do note that are the names of 7 existing editors also on that list, who are the mentors.) To cite examples, User: Zamsam<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Zamsam>(a young new editor) came to the group and wanted to create the article on cricketer Ajit Chandila <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajit_Chandila>. Once we helped him create the article, he started contributing to Chandila's article and moved on to another cricketer, Manvinder Bisla's<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manvinder_Bisla>article. Similarly, User:10gible <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/10gible>joined us to edit the article on Lalu Prasad Yadav <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalu_Prasad_Yadav> while User:Neeasmaverick<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Neeasmaverick>edited the article on his college, Jawaharlal Nehru University <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru_University>, Vicky Donor <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicky_Donor> and Amul girl<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amul_girl>and User:Saranshkataria<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Saranshkataria>edited Aloo Chaat <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloo_Chaat> and Rasgulla<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasgulla>. This could not have been possible without a group of wonderful mentors like Debanjan, Karthik, Deepon, Sheel, Pratik and Harsh who volunteered and constantly keep helping new editors. We had Skype calls and regular chats just to ensure that we connect with new users in a way they find most comfortable. The first hurdle of getting new editors to do a set of basic tasks has been crossed for some. The challenge going forward will always be is to sustain the interest of these new editors and make them long term editors hopefully by multiple editing sessions. That still needs to be figured out. Any inputs, comments and help are welcome. 2) Odia Wikipedia group <https://www.facebook.com/groups/OdiaWiki/> This group caters to Odia Wikipedians as well as people who speak the language and might be interested in knowing about Wikipedia. We used similar techniques as above to expand the group conversations beyond existing Wikipedians and encourage new editors to participate. Once when an article on Handia <https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handia> (a local beverage) was posted, a new User:Swetapadma<https://or.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E0%AC%AC%E0%AD%8D%E0%AD%9F%E0%A…>came forward to contribute images. Since then, she has been contributing to articles on Odia cuisine and adding images to articles on Tribes of Odisha. User:Hellohappy<https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AD%8D%E0%AD%9F%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%B9…>edited the article on Capital High School, Bhubaneswar<https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_High_School,_Bhubaneswar> . So far almost 10 new users have joined in and made their first few edits in the past month. Given the small size of Indic communities, this could be a very effective way of encouraging newbies. This also helps because it means that it filters in those who have Internet connectivity, are passionate about the language and (in most cases) are familiar with typing in Indic languages). Again, this was done with the help of existing Odia Wikipedians like Gorvachove, Mrutyunjay Kar, Gyanranjan Sahu, Suratha Parhi, Diptiman and others. *Challenges*: Now that we've figured out a way of engaging so many new editors and getting them to make their first 5 edits, the challenge is to integrate them into our community and make sure they continue editing. Also, it would be ideal to expand this initiative to other Indic and Wikipedia user groups. (I am already working with the Kannada community and I know that Wikipedia Club Pune has already been trying something similar). I would like to invite all community members interested to write to me ( noopur(a)wikimedia.org) and then we can have a brief skype call and figure how to implement it for your group. [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Social_Media [2] https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediasupport/ [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Social_Media#Pro… [4] https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediasupport/doc/353268748054711/ [5] https://www.facebook.com/groups/OdiaWiki/ Regards, Noopur -- Noopur Raval -- Noopur Raval

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Fwd: For social media promotion
by gitartha bordoloi 13 May '12

13 May '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tilman Bayer <tbayer(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Sun, May 13, 2012 at 5:22 AM Subject: Re: For social media promotion To: Naveen Francis <naveenpf(a)wikimedia.in> Cc: Jyoti Prakash Nath <jpnath008(a)yahoo.co.in>, socialmedia(a)wikimedia.org, " socialmedia(a)wikimedia.in" <socialmedia(a)wikimedia.in>, "anjal.borah(a)gmail.com" <anjal.borah(a)gmail.com>, gitartha bordoloi <gitartha.bordoloi(a)gmail.com>, " uddiptalukdar(a)rediffmail.com" <uddiptalukdar(a)rediffmail.com>, Bishnu Saikia <bisrin(a)sify.com> Hi all, after following up with Naveen, I just posted messages promoting the competition on the official Wikipedia feeds at Twitter<https://twitter.com/#%21/Wikipedia>, Identi.ca <http://identi.ca/wikipedia>, Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia>and Google+<https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/100123345029543043288/100123345029543043288/p…> . Good luck and let us know how it went! Regards, Tilman On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 7:01 PM, Naveen Francis <naveenpf(a)wikimedia.in>wrote: > Hi Mathew, > > Can you please help to promote the competition ? > > -- > naveenpf > > > -- Tilman Bayer Movement Communications Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB -- *~~ গীতাৰ্থ বৰদলৈ (Gitartha Bordoloi) *

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Ghy meet up
by gitartha bordoloi 12 May '12

12 May '12

Message from Noopur Raval (for some reason it was not delivered to mailing list): "Dear friends! I am delighted to tell you I will be able to attend the anniversary of Assamese Wikipedia on 10th June in Guwahati. Just for those who don't know me, I am Noopur Raval and I work as a Communications Consultant with India Program office. I've been following up the wonderful photogaphy competition and have also been trying to get in touch with some media persons so we can get maximum publicity for the event. If you have any ideas, please feel free to drop me a word on the list or offlist (nraval(a)wikimedia.org). Let's make it a big success :) Best, Noopur" -- * * -- *~~ গীতাৰ্থ বৰদলৈ (Gitartha Bordoloi) *

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Photography and Article Competition of Assamese Wikipedia
by Jyoti Prakash Nath 12 May '12

12 May '12

Dear All, I am very glad to share a news on behalf of Assamese Wiki Community that a Photography and Article Competition is declared to encourage the contribution and improvement of photographs and good articles on Assamese Wikipedia. There will be prizes for the winners like........... * First, Second and Third: Book Packs * Consolation prizes: Certificate of Merit from Assamese Wikipedia * Certificates for prize winners and winning entries will be displayed in front pages of Assamese wiki projects. The prizes will be distributed on the 4th Assamese Wiki meetup and the celebration ceremony of the 10th anniversary of the Assamese Wikipedia which is going to be held on the Auditorium of The S.K.Hazarika College, Guwahati on Sunday 1PM (10th June 2012). You are all cordially invited to the meetup. Warm Regards JyotiPrakash Nath SSL-Guwahati +919864917706

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[Wikipatrika]: Announcing the third issue of Wikipatrika!
by Noopur Raval 10 May '12

10 May '12

Dear all, I am very happy to tell you all that the third issue of Wikipatrika - the community newsletter is finally out! You can check it here: http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05 First things first, a humble acknowledgement to all the editors who helped out with this issue of the newsletter. A special thanks to Gitartha (as), Debanjan (bn), Karthik (en and mr), Pratik (en), DS Vyas and Sushant (gu), Siddhartha (hi), Omshivaprakash (kn), Anoop, Kannan, Sreejith, Viswaprabha and Shiju (ml), Abhishek (mr), Rajesh and Saroj (ne), Mkar and Srikant Kedia (or), Abhiram (sa), Logicwiki and Shanmugam (ta), Arjuna and Rahimanuddin (te). In other contributions, thanks to Srikanth R for Commons, Logic, Santhosh, Achal for Free culture news and Tinu for Press news. This entire venture could not have been possible without Tanvir's constant support with templates and tweaks. Forgive me if I have missed someone. So, what has changed from last time? Since all the Wikimeetups are listed on Wikipedia here and on the respective community pages, we've omitted the section on events and meetups. Instead, we've added a section on* Featured Interviews* which has a GLAM interview this time and the *EPOV* column (Editor's point of view: INCOTM report). The idea is to make Wikipatrika a supplement to the mailing lists and village pumps and not replicate the same information in all places. Hopefully, by the next issue, with more featured interviews, insightful pieces from editors and free culture persons we will be able to achieve that. *The way forward: * It's a proud moment to see the amount of activity that all our language communities are involved in. We should definitely strive to make Wikipatrika regular and hopefully get more editors to contribute. This is one space where editors can express the dreams, visions and challenges that their Wikipedia community faces. If you have projects you want to publicize or successful projects that could be started in other communities, this is the space to express your opinion! From next time onward, we will coordinate Patrika on https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-newsletter *mailing list*. I welcome you all to join right away and we can discuss ideas for features, changing the format and more! -- Noopur Raval

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[India Program]: Monthly report and updates
by Noopur Raval 08 May '12

08 May '12

Dear all, Time for monthly updates and reports. Here's the India Program report for the month of April: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Reports/Community_Monthly_Repo… and, the proposed work plan for the month of May: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Reports/Community_Monthly_Repo… Also, while I am sure the official report on the very successful WikiSangamolsavam is on it's way, here's a blog post by Barry Newstead who heads Global Development at the Wikimedia Foundation, on his experience of the conference: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/05/04/focusing-on-90-percent-of-india/ Thank you, Regards -- Noopur Raval

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Update:Wikipedia competition
by gitartha bordoloi 07 May '12

07 May '12

Dear all, Due to unavoidable circumstances, the venue of the central wiki meet up and prize distribution ceremony has been changed to Sudmarson Hall, Cotton College, Guwahati. The date and time will be the same as informed previously i.e. 10th June (Sunday), 2012. Regards *~~ গীতাৰ্থ বৰদলৈ (Gitartha Bordoloi) *

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Wikipedia-AS May 2012