cross-posting pan India (apologies if you got/get this through other mailing lists.)
Hi Folks,
I'm really pleased to send out this email welcoming the first 2 new members of the India Programs team. Just before I introduce them, I thought I'd share with you the background of their selection.
Context
As you might be aware, the Foundation had decided to undertake a catalyst operation in India to promote the growth of the community and projects here. The team is expected to be a small, nimble 5 person group. We had put out 2 job postings - for Indic Initiatives and for Participation. (Please refer: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-May/003007.html) We posted them on linkedin and on the Indian FOSS community list as well as announcing them on various Facebook pages and Twitter feeds.
The response was wonderful. >110 applications for Indic Initiatives and nearly 175 applications for Participation. These were short-listed to 10 (3 for Indic Language and 7 for Participation.) These were a mix of existing & previous Wikipedians, Wikipedia newbies and open source advocates.
In June, the shortlisted 10 were interviewed and further down-selected to 4. These 4 were then further interviewed by a group of other staff members from the Foundation. I am pleased to inform the community of the final selected 2.
Shiju Alex - Indic Initiatives
Most of you already know Shiju. For those who don't, Shiju is a long-time Wikipedian [User: shijualex] and is active on Malayalam Wikipedia, English wikiprojects and Wikimedia Commons, as well as Wikisource and offline. He has been passionately involved with the establishing and building of Indic language Wikipedias. He's participated in a series of outreach activities and is also (jointly) undertaking a grant from the Foundation for outreach across India. He's a regular member of the Bangalore community.
Shiju is from Palakkad, Kerala and is married with a 2 year old baby. He currently works as a Senior Technical Writer with ABB in Bangalore.
Even those of you who know him might not know the following 2 things that I was lucky to discover during the selection process. Shiju is an MSc in Physics with a specialisation in Astronomy and Astrophysics - and he retains a deep interest in anything astronomical. Feel free to quiz him vigorously on this! He also enjoys trekking and misses his time in Pune where he could be up & close the gorgeous Sahyadri Hills.
Shiju is going to lead our work on promoting Indic language projects across India. The challenges are enormous - from technical constraints to low levels of awareness of these projects to vibrant but nascent communities. However, these only point to the massive size of the opportunity for Indic language projects - which is the joint top-2 strategic priority of the movement in India. After he joins, he'll collaboratively put together a plan for Indic language projects and work towards quality execution of high-impact initiatives.
Shiju is currently serving out his notice period so will be able to join us only around September - October.
Nitika Tandon - Participation
Nitika [User:nitika.t] is relatively newer to the community - and has been brushing up her editing. She's been immersing herself in the Wikimedia world and attended community meet-ups as well as reviews of the Wikipedia India Education Program. She is from Delhi - and is currently based in Mumbai - where she works as a Strategic Partnerships Manager with Directi. (If you're not aware, they are one of the most prominent internet domain & solutions providers in India.)
Nitika has an MBA and has also worked on research analytics. A fascinating detail I discovered about a previous assignment of hers - and you must ask her about it - is how African drums can be used for management coaching! She also reliably informs me that there are 7 Spanish dance forms and she instructs in all of them!
Nitika is going to be working on Participation - which is primarily focussed on increasing the contributor base of non-Indic language projects, primarily Wikipedia. One of her first tasks will be to expand the Wikipedia India Education Program from the Pune pilot to a more national footprint. She'll also work on other initiatives to promote participation - and I can foresee Wikimedia Commons being a potential initiative.
Nitika will join us on August 1st.
Introductions
I'm going to be scheduling the August Monthly India Programs IRC on Thursday August 18th to introduce them both to you. Please do join us. I'll send a reminder closer to the date. Also, needless to say, they'll be attending a series of community meet-ups over the next months.
In the meantime, please do join me in welcoming them onboard. I'm really excited because this means that we will now have the capacity and capability to dramatically accelerate our activities in India.
Warmest Regards,
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia India Programs
skype : hisham.wikimedia
gtalk : hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter : @mundol
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
cross-posting pan India (apologies if you have got this through other mailing lists.)
Hi Folks
I wanted to share an update on the Wikipedia India Education Program. As of today, we have 15 teachers from 4 colleges participating. The most exciting part is that we have nearly 800 students (and counting) who are going to work on about 1200 articles in this semester. (Do note these numbers may fluctuate as the actual editing in classrooms starts - which is only to be expected.)
Please see the project page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program - and do go through the sub-tabs for Ambassadors and courses.)
I think it will be a great idea if the Campus Ambassadors had a chance to introduce themselves to you and you had a chance to interact with them. Can we do it on the India Programs Monthly IRC this Thursday (July 28th) at ppm IST on #wikimedia-office. (I apologise that we are late on this month's IRC.)
You can also hear from them about their experiences. They've having 1-on-1 discussions with faculty members to identify potential articles to work on and conducting editing workshops for students in classrooms.
I look forward to as many of you attending as possible - and for a wonderful interaction with the Campus Ambassadors. They are great guys and have done amazing stuff so far. They're going to need your help and encouragement. Drop in and say hello, and a little more!
Warm Regards,
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia India Programs
skype : hisham.wikimedia
gtalk : hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter : @mundol
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
FYI - We invite applications for scholarships for attending WikiConference India, 2011 in Mumbai from 18-20 November 2011. Kindly Refer to email below.
Kind Regards,
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:36:07 +0530
From: vvcrishna(a)radiophony.com
To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] WikiConference India 2011 - Scholarships
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGNxS…
Applications are invited for travel/boarding scholarships for WikiConference India 2011. There are a very limited number of such scholarships, and it is also possible to apply for partial assistance, in case you can handle part of the costs on your own - doing so will ensure that more Wikipedians will be able to get assistance. Provisions have been made for participants from special interest groups. Applications will be welcomed until Aug 15, and the decision process will be completed by the first week of September 2011. Please study the form carefully before submission.
We look forward to plenty of active participation at the conference, with the help of all Wikipedians.
--
Vickram
Fool On The Hill
_______________________________________________
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Hi All,
The 1st Odia Wikipedia Workshop has been organized on 26th of June 2011 at
Orissa Academy of Social science & Integrated Studies(OASIS). This was
started when I was looking for few wikipedians who can contribute to Odia
wikipedia. This was for Odia Wikipedia to bring awareness and motivate
common mass from different educational and social background. Odia Wikipedia
was started way back in 2002, but because of the lack of proper awareness
and activism there was a slight movement for almost 8 years. Odia Wikipedia
is an online encyclopedia in Odia language to make knowledge available
freely for masses.
The workshop was conducted by Dr. Laxmikanta Tripathy, Artist Kesu Das and
me with the help of wikipedian Subhashish Panigrahi. Dr. Laxmikanta Tripathy
who is Organizing Secretary of Odia Bhasa Bikash Aandolon(OBBA) invited many
members of Odia Bhasa Bikash Aandolon. Some of them are Dr. Bhagavat Prasad
Das, Secretary of OBBA Pt. Surendra Nath Kara and President of OBBA Dr.
Ramakanta Behera. Several participants from the nearby management colleges,
engineering students have also participated. We also got the support of Mr.
Sanjay Sahu the Director of OASIS.
Dr. Laxmikanta Tripathy addressed the participants and introduced Poet
Brajanth Ratha and Others. Brajanath Ratha the poet has officially
inaugurated this event enlightening about Odia language and his catching on
Odia wikipedia. A FAQ Booket version 1.1 was released by and distributed
among them. I demonstrated the basics of Wikipedia, Current status, Sign up
process, How to Edit Odia Wikipedia, Searching Existing Articles, Creating
new articles, How to Upload picture and adding that to article and their
alignment along with basic introduction of syntax for the new users. This
was an interactive session where the participants interacted with each other
and several discussions went on about Odia wikipedia. They came up with
several suggestions such as :
- To add Purnachandra Bhasakosa (Odia Lexicon) link on Odia wikipedia
article pages.
- The Pages should be protected so only the authorized person can edit to
avoid vandalism.
- To build a Community Center where members can work on various
fields/Categories to improve Odia wikipedia.
- They use to Windows XP and not ready to the other availability of
Operating System. Issues on XP for Odia Language.
More and more such activism are expected in the coming future with the
involvement of people who are eager for the development of Odia language on
web. Odia Wikipedia can be accessed at
*or.wikipedia.org*<http://or.wikipedia.org>and the Facebook page for
Odia Wikipedia is
*http://facebook.com/OdiaWiki <http://facebook.com/odiawiki> .*
To read this *Report<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%89%E0%AC%87%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%AA%…>
* on Wikipedia Click Here <http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:MBLS1>.
Ansuman Giri
*
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ
_______________________________________________
Wikipedia Odia (Oriya) mailing list
wikipedia-or(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-orfacebook.com/OdiaWiki
Tweet @OdiaWiki
*