Greetings,


Advance Happy New Year to the Bengali Wikimedia community.  I am planning into to apply for a project grant in "Round 1 2018 schedule" for the following project.


To start with, English Wikipedia has a dedicated team of editors to work on computer generated images, illustrations, and maps. The platform is referred as the Graphics Lab, and the contributors are called Wikigraphists. Wikigraphists work to improve the quality of the images that have been proposed by the community. This involves work such as extracting key elements from photos, improving the color of images or emphasizing the main subject, stitching multiple images together and often vectorizing images — converting to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). They also create new drawings, diagrams and maps when requests are made to do so. The Graphics lab functions Illustration workshop, Photography workshop, and Maps workshop, depending upon the type of request by a user. 


However, the of usSVG format, and use of other above mentioned graphic techniques is not seen much seen in practice. The plan is to organize three workshops, three days each, at different cities in India (New Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru/Hyderabad). Each workshop will have emphasis on the "Graphics lab" of Wikipedia, and technicalities and image parameters of Quality and Featured images on Wikimedia Commons. These workshops will emphasize on training established Wikimedians (in and around the region) to create/improve illustrations, maps, and photographs. Also train on what goes in and out for Quality images, and Featured pictures on Wikimedia Commons. We will look for Indian trainers, otherwise if needed, we can invite experienced Wikigraphists.


Hence, I request the community opinion and feedback/suggestion on this proposed idea.


Regards,

Krishna Chaitanya Velaga