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Minutes of the meeting
by Jyoti Prakash Nath 14 Jun '12

14 Jun '12

The celebration ceremony of 10th anniversary of Assamese Wikipedia was held at the historic “Sudmersen Hall” of Cotton College Guwahati on 10th June 2012. The prizes of the Article and Photography competition were also distributed on the event. Besides of a Wikimeet it was basically an workshop and an outreach program to attract more Assamese netizens towards Wikipedia. More than 60 people attend the event including the media persons. Here are the minutes of the meeting 1:00 PM : Jyoti Prakash Nath the guests with reading the agenda of the workshop. 1:10 PM : Dr. Kulendu Pathak (Retired VC of Dibrugarh University) and Kamrupratna Jatin Giswami (Former Vice President of “Asom Sahity Sabha”, Researcher on Assamese language and script ) inaugurated the workshop by lightening the earthen lamp. (It was for the celebration of 10th anniversary of Assamese Wikipedia). 1:25 PM : Introduction of Noopur Raval and felicitated with a “Eri Chadar” by Anjana Tamuli. 1:30 PM : Gitartha Bordoloi gives a presentation about Wikipedia. His topic was “What is Assamese Wikipedia”. 1:50 PM : Questions from the guests. Answered by Gitartha Bordoloi. 2:00 PM : Banajit Pathak gives a presentation about Assamese typing tools. His topic was ”Unicode and various Assamese typing tools” . 2:20 PM : Questions from the guests. Answered by Banajit Pathak. 2:30 PM : Uddip Talukdar gives a presentation about necessity of Assamese wikipedia and his topic was “The necessity of Assamese wikipedia and its current state”. 2:50 PM : Questions from the guests. Answered by Uddip Talukdar. 3:00 PM : Bishnu Saikia gives a presentation about how to contribute to the Wikipedia. His topic was “How to contribute to Assamese Wikipedia”. Meanwhile a winner of the article competition Indranil Gayan edits his article (produced offline) Gunamala. 3:25 PM : The new “Betupat” (Main Page) of Assamese Wikipedia released by Bishnu Saikia and Gitartho Bordoloi. 3:30 PM : Dr. Kulendu Pathak and Shri Jatin Goswami shares their views about the outreach program and Assamese Wikipedia. 3:40 PM : Light Snacks served. 3:50 PM: Tridip Baruah (Designer of Inscript Assamese Keyboard Ramdhenu) speaks about “The future of Assamese typing tools”. 4:00 PM: The name of the winners of the Photography and Article competition declared and prizes are distributed by Kushol Kumar Rabha (Chief photographer of Indian Railway NFR) and Ananta Mohan Sharma (Professor, Botany, Bajali College, Pathsala) respectively. 4:15 PM : Noopur Raval gives a presentation about Wikimedia Foundation and talks about the policies of uploading media to Commons. 4:30 PM : Jyoti Prakash Nath give a small speech about conducting the event and declares the end of the workshop cum meetup and celebration ceremony of the 10th anniversary of Assamese Wikipedia. Winners of the Photography Competition 1. First : Mauchumi Bordoloi for the article "Malita" (Offline). 2. Second : Indranil Gayan for the article "Gunamala" (Offline). 3. Third : Upama Kalita for the article "Mising Lokageet" (Offline). 4. Special: Manjil Kownar for maximum number of articles (Online) Winners of the Article Competition 1. First : Akashdip Goswami for this Picture 2. Second : Jugal Bharali for this Picture 3. Third : Anirudha Burhagohain for this Picture 4. Special: Nitul Bora for maximum number of photos. Regards Jyoti Prakash Nath

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Agenda for Guwahati meet
by gitartha bordoloi 06 Jun '12

06 Jun '12

বন্ধুসকল, অহা ১০ জুন তাৰিখে গুৱাহাটীত হ'বলগীয়া অসমীয়াৰ ৱিকিপিডিয়াৰ বৰ্ষপূৰ্তি অনুষ্ঠানৰ কাৰ্যসূচীৰ ইংৰাজী অনুবাদ আমাৰ অনা-অসমীয়া শুভাকাঙ্খীসকলৰ জ্ঞাতাৰ্থে ইয়াত দিলোঁ। http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A7%B1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%… -- *~~ গীতাৰ্থ বৰদলৈ (Gitartha Bordoloi) *

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[IRC]: India Program: Community Building Pilot (7th June - 9:30 p.m)
by Noopur Raval 06 Jun '12

06 Jun '12

Hey folks, Hisham <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Hisham> had posted an update on the community building<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Basic_Community_…>pilot Shiju <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Shiju> ran as part of India Program. This pilot was run in Assam but there are tips and pointers and suggestions from this pilot that are relevant for all Indic communities. As part of the India Programs IRCs, we propose the first monthly IRC of June to be on this topic. We'd like to discuss how to build and support communities by increasing the number of editors, assessing progress on Wikiprojects as well as fostering possibilities of new collaborations. Please join us on *7th June* at *09:30 p.m* IST using this link: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wikimedia-office. Thank you, Best, Noopur On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Hisham <hisham(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: > >> Dear All >> >> I wanted to share with you an update on the work that Shiju<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Shiju>[1] is >> doing on Indic languages<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages>[2] >> as part of India Program <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/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<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Basic_Community_…>[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<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-December/005813.…>[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 >> >> 1. *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. >> 2. *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.) >> 3. *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 >> 4. *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<http://blog.wikimedia.in/2012/05/16/ten-glorious-years-of-assamese-wikipedi…> >> .[6] >> 5. *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<http://blog.wikimedia.in/2012/05/16/ten-glorious-years-of-assamese-wikipedi…>.[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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Noopur28>[7] providing >> media assistance for the 10th anniversary and an India Chapter<http://wikimedia.in/> >> [8] grant<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Grants/Photo_and_Article_Competition_and_Wiki_Work…>[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<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Basic_Community_…> >> [4] on meta <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program>[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 <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User: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<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Basic_Commu…> >> .[10] >> >> *hisham <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User: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 >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list >> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l >> >> > > > -- > Noopur Raval > -- Noopur Raval

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[Blog post]: Numerals in Indic languages
by Noopur Raval 01 Jun '12

01 Jun '12

Hey folks, Shiju has published an interesting post on numerals in an Indic context. It's a really fascinating overview - including how numerals are depicted across Indic languages, their use across languages, the policies adopted by the various Indic communities, the need for some community decisions to take things forward, a bit of Shiju's personal grumble on the fact that Hindi film posters are no longer in Hindi :-) and a picture of a Northern Railways bed sheet! Intrigued? Read more on either on meta<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages/Numerals_in_In…> and or the Chapter blog<http://blog.wikimedia.in/2012/06/01/numerals-in-indic-languages-indic-wikip…> . [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages/Numerals_in_In… [2] http://blog.wikimedia.in/2012/06/01/numerals-in-indic-languages-indic-wikip… Regards, Noopur -- Noopur Raval

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Re: [Wikipedia-AS] [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikipatrika]: Announcing the third issue of Wikipatrika!
by Hisham 01 Jun '12

01 Jun '12

Thank you to everyone (around 25 at the last count!) who helped out on Patrika. I was going through this again and 5 particular stories caught my attention - from the HUGE number of stories in Patrika[0] a) The 10th anniversary plans of the Assamese community.[1] For a small community, you guys are breath-takingly ambitious and are going about realising your dreams in a wonderfully collaborative manner. b) The section of "Why I do it" by User:BPositive[2] regarding the Collaboration of the Month at the bottom of the English page [3] is what IT is ALL about. Rock On, Pratik! c) The Wikiproject Film [4] - quietly started by the Hindi community [5] - is fantastic. Check out the articles that they have been editing and join them on more! d) To be honest, the Malayalam page [6] just blew my mind... Phew. So much has happened - but the best part for me was the "community interaction" section. That is the surest sign that there is so much more to come. e) Isn't it amazing that there is actually an "Experiments" section on the Tamil page [7]. How cool is that! The trial of site notices and the use of that information for a planned redesign of the main page to try and attract new users is really interesting - and tips from the Tamil community would be useful across India, and indeed the world. I did also want to (re)extend the invite from Kannada[8] Wikimedians for fellow lovers of Kannada to join in their Articles Enhancement Project.[9] The planning stage is complete - and the actual work has started but with about 1800 articles to work on, the workload is huge for a very small set of volunteers. If anyone can help them out, I'm sure they'd be most appreciative. (Some tasks can be done be be done quite comfortably by new editors - and some can even be done by non-Kannada speakers! Everyone is welcome!) Best, hisham [0] http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05 [1] http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News/as [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BPositive [3] http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News/en [4] http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AA%… [5] http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News/hi [6] http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News/ml [7] http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News/ta [8] http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News/kn [9] http://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B5%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%95%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%AA%… On May 10, 2012, at 10:03 PM, Noopur Raval wrote: > 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! :) > > Regards, > Noopur > > -- > Noopur Raval > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

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[Press]: Medianama - Wikipedians Digitizing Out-Of-Copyright Texts In Eight Indian Languages
by Noopur Raval 01 Jun '12

01 Jun '12

Dear all, Here's an article by Medianama on Wikisource in Indic languages ( http://www.medianama.com/2012/05/223-wikipedians-digitizing-out-of-copyrigh…<http://www.medianama.com/2012/05/223-wikipedians-digitizing-out-of-copyrigh…> ). There are a couple of minor misses on the article - but it does refer to two important aspects about Wikisource: a) It is a door through which many have entered our projects and communities (i.e., they start with Wikisource, and indeed Wiktionary, because it's relatively easier to contribute to, and then they move on to contribute to other projects too, such as Wikipedia) - especially in Indic languages. b) The initiative run by Malayalam community (written about in the article) to encourage school children to contribute to Wikisource is something that could be of interest to many other communities. If anyone wants any help to start conversations with schools in their states, Nitika and I would be happy to help out. Please reach out to us at noopur(a)wikimedia.org or nitika(a)wikimedia.org -- *Wikipedians Digitizing Out-Of-Copyright Texts In Eight Indian Languages* *-Nikhil Pahwa In what is a painstaking process, Wikipedians are digitizing Indian language, out-of-copyright texts online, trying to address the comparative paucity of Indic language texts online. Wikisource is a repository of documents and archived material that serves as a reference source for Wikipedia, and a means of improving access to information sources. Of the 64 languages Wikisource is available in, 8 are Indian: Tamil<http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/TablesWikipediaTA.htm>( stats <http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/SummaryTA.htm>), Malayalam<http://ml.wikisource.org/>( stats <http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/SummaryML.htm>), Telugu<http://te.wikisource.org/>( stats <http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/SummaryTE.htm>), Kannada<http://kn.wikisource.org/>( stats <http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/SummaryKN.htm>), Sanskrit<http://sa.wikisource.org/>( stats <http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/SummarySA.htm>), Marathi<http://mr.wikisource.org/>( stats <http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/SummaryMR.htm>), Bengali<http://bn.wikisource.org/>( stats <http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/SummaryBN.htm>) and Gujarati<http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/TablesWikipediaGU.htm>( stats <http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/SummaryGU.htm>). What’s particularly notable about this digitization is that the texts are being typed out by volunteers on their own time, one word at a time.* *How It Began* *Users were adding bhajans of Mirabai to Wikipedia, but according to Wikipedia’s policies, recipes, poems and song lyrics belong to Wikibooks or Wikisource, Noopur Raval, Communications Consultant (India Program) at the Wikimedia Foundation told MediaNama. One user raised this issue, and following discussions, it was decided to create a Wikisource for Gujarati. The first text to be digitized, though, was Rachnatmak Karyakram, a book by Mahatma Gandhi. The project, involving the digitization of 60 pages, took six volunteers a week. This was followed by another project, the digitization of Gandhi’s autobiography, with a group of 13 people typing out the book over a month.* *Identification & Prioritization Of Texts For Digitization* *Selection of text for digitization is entirely community driven: they decide what is important. Editors put up a notice for the project, and user participation is sought. For example, the Gujarati Wikisource editors chose a text by Mahatma Gandhi. The community has an intensive process for checking if a book is out of copyright, either using the publication date, and there are mailing lists which discuss when books go out of copyright. “It’s not as if there is a shortage of texts that are out of copyright,” Hisham Mundol, Consultant (India Program) at the Wikimedia Foundation said, adding that “The kind of projects that the community is undertaking (at present) involves iconic books, where you know the author and the publisher.”* *Overcoming Technological Challenges* *Mundol points out that the process of digitization is brutal, compounded by the fact that there is no reasonably functional OCR (Optical Character Recognition) in Indic languages. Texts are thus manually typed out, followed by a phase of correction and proofreading. In comparison, English texts can be scanned and uploaded and OCR’ed. The lack of tools points towards an issue which Wikipedia faces with Indic languages. “If a MediaWiki tool comes to an English language project, the possibility of implementing it, the kind of people using it, all of that happens very quickly, because most of this is written English. It takes time to localize it. For a bug to be filed for a local language project takes a lot more time. That gap makes for a lot of difference: how many people (use it), how easily is the work done, the kind of ease, at every step you need people who know the language to work with people who know the technology,” says Raval.* *Still, the situation with Indic language fonts has improved over the past year according to Mundol:”The font input problem is no longer the burning issue. There’s been an increase in the volumes on Indic language scripts, emails, mobiles. We’re seeing a doubling of readership of our Indic languages.” One reason for the increase, according to Raval, has been the implementation of a multiple input tool called Narayam, integrating both Inscript and transliteration.* *Reducing Entry Barrier & Involving Schools* *The Wikisource project is really small in India right now, but it plays an important role: “It allows people to enter the Wikimedia world of projects in a much easier manner than editing a Wikipedia article. Wikisource is much more accessible,” Mundol says.* *In Kerala, community members involved schools in the process of digitizing Ramchandra Vilasam. ”As a part of the 7th or 8th standard, the school curriculum encourages typing in Malayalam. So the community members work with the teacher, and instead of 40 students typing out the same two pages that they would have done in a class assignment, they split a book between them, and each types out a separate page. It’s great because if everyone gave in the same page, it would go to the recycle bin quite promptly,” Mundol said, adding that “We are looking at involving more schools, and discussions are on with Malayalam schools and colleges.”* *The Culture Of Knowledge & The Importance Of Community For Wikimedia* *“It’s interesting to see how a culture develops, not just editors and technology, but the whole interaction that builds up the identity of a community,” Raval says. “When Gujarati Wikisource or Marathi Wikisource comes to your mind, you’re actually thinking of a bunch of people you don’t necessarily know, and their attitudes towards knowledge, and why they would go out of their way, spend hours, just to make sure that the knowledge that they think is important in a language should survive and be digitized, and they’ll go through the pain to make it available.” While each project has an individual taking responsibility as a project manager, and a group gets created around each project, since it is volunteer work, whenever someone has exams or has other work, someone else compensates.* *The focus on fostering an involved community often determines Wikimedia’s approach: “The temptation could be to take a bunch of the 4 million articles on the English Wikipedia, and run it through a translator. Very quickly, you can build a huge content base (in Indic languages), but it does nothing for that community. We’ve seen that it not only does no good, it does a great deal of harm because they no longer feel that this is actually their project. It’s about ‘I wrote this paragraph’, or ‘I contributed to this article’,” Mundol says. “Anything that Wikimedia does, we encourage the participation of an individual member as much much more important than anything else because community members edit, contribute, and no technology solution can get you that.”* Best, Noopur -- Noopur Raval

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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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