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
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
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
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବାବଦରେ "ଦି ପଲିଟିକାଲ ଆଣ୍ଡ ବିଜନେସ ଡେଲି"ରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଖବର ।
*The Political and Business Daily (20 May 2012): Techies take the lead to
popularize Odia language in new media*
(By Rashmi Ranjan Parida)
They may be living from their state thousands mile away but their love for
their state never fades. New Media have played a crucial role in bridging
boundaries and cross- ing the seas and enabling
Odia community to communicate on a common platform. In recent years, so
many Odia young techies are working relent- lessly to popularize Odia lan-
guage in different ways. They have taken the initiative to make Odia the
most preferred lan- guage in internet communication among Odia people, no
matter where they are.
Be it in social networking sites, blogs, websites, groups, email, chat or
any medium of internet communication, these groups of Odia youths
developing technical knowhow to communicate in Odia language and script.
While Indian languages like Tamil, Hindi and Telugu are marching ahead with
their rich features and sophistication of usage on computers and worldwide
web, Odia language has been far behind. But Odia youths are taking
initiatives to add rich features and sophisti- cation of usage to Odia
language in the web.
Among them is Delhi-based Gora Mohanty who is involved in the IndLinux and
the Rebati projects. Rebati is an initiative for FOSS computing in Odia.
Mohanty is a Gamma-ray astronomer by profession having PhD from Iowa State
University, USA.
Another Odia techie Prashant K Sahoo who is based in USA has also developed
Aprant Dynamic Font. It is compatible and enable for web for both viewing
and writing on various browsers. Its dynamic font is supported not only by
old version but also many new versions of the browsers like Internet
Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera on Windows, Linux and Mac Computers.
Many people don't know that Odia Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia in
Odia language also exists! Odia Wikipedia was started way back in 2002, but
it remained very less active for 8 long years. After February, 2011
volunteers started contributing to it and now it is 2500 + article rich.
Many Odias in Odisha, India and abroad have taken interest in reviving
presence of Odia lan- guage on internet for free. The volunteers who
contribute to Odia wikipedia meet each others to discuss finding new ways
to reach to more people and help them contribute to wikipedia.
Similarly, Odia youths in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are
driving new forms of social interaction, dia- logue, exchange and
collabora- tion. Social networking sites enable Odia users to swap ideas,
post updates and comments or participate in activities and events, while
sharing their wider interests. From general chit-chat to propagating
breaking news, from scheduling a date to follow- ing MLA abduction by
Maoists or coordinating flood relief, from gentle humour to serious
research, social networks are now used for a host of different reasons by
Odia community across globe.
Subhashish Panigrahi, a con- tributor and consultant with the Wikipedia is
very expectant about Odia Wikipedia. "I was out of Odisha for years and to
keep me rooted to my language and culture I started contributing to
Wikipedia, but the real success is all these people who are volun- tarily
devoting their time for Wikipedia", he says.
Dhanada Mishra, Chairman of Human Development Foundation says, "There are
three major ways through which Odia- based resources can be promoted
online. One is Odia operating system for mass use of computers and
computing devices. Second is large scale availability of Odia language
websites and web por- tals as well as useful content.
Third one is Odia Wikipedia, which is an important tool for development of
online resources in Odia. Interestingly, all the above are being mostly
driven by
what is known as open source technology and voluntary collab- orations of
Odia techies world- wide."
He further said, "All that IT department and OCAC need to do is invest some
money in pro- motional campaign and some support to what already people are
doing voluntarily. It is the best use of government resources ever
possible."
Sabita Mallik, a researcher and housewife based in UK expresses her grief
saying, "Odias across the world are not getting to know each other and
facebook is a saviour for us to reach out to them. When I came to know
about wikipedia I was very sur- prised to find that Wikipedia also exists
in Odia language and now I can contribute so many articles on traditional
crafts of Odisha".
Manoranjan Behera, a VFX artist based in Mumbai excitedly expressed,
"Wikipedia is not a small thing. It's about how much we can imagine and
moreover it's in our own language. Let's pro- mote it among as many people
as we can." Krupasindhu Muduli, son of famous Odia singer Arbind Muduli,
another VFX artist based in Bhubaneswar who has contributed many articles
and pictures related to music and film industry says, "Wikipedia is such
fun. I have spent some qual- ity time on Wikipedia and con- tributed
resources which will be helpful for other people".
Swetapadma Satapathy, a rural development manager in AP who has spent time
in remote areas of Koraput district says, "Tribal culture has such
interesting things that the world should know. Odia Wikipedia is a place
where I can contribute about the traditional drink Handia with photos".
Diptiman, an MTech student in BITS, Mesra proudly says, "I miss my home and
fun days of Engineering. After finishing my studies, I am writing articles
related to Computer Science in Odia". Mrutyunjay Kar, who has led
organizing workshops in Angul and Cuttack, spends his leisure time
expressing his love for language saying, "Most peo- ple in my organization,
NALCO spend their leisure time playing cards and I spend time editing Odia
Wikipedia."
Suratha Parhi was looking for a way to share his knowledge and found
Wikipedia. He says, "I was so excited to find Odia wikipedia and never
stopped writing in it for even a day after that." Needless to say he has
con- tributed over 60 articles on medicinal plants. Subhransu Mishra, who
is a doctor from Baleswar silently contributes from his busy schedule and
his articles on Medicinal plants are well written and cited with reli- able
sources. "My sister Sunanda, who is in US now, is brushing her writing
skills while nurturing her daughter so she can learn Odia when she grows
up!" Chinmaya Dash, a pharmacist shares how he spends time on collecting
resources for writing articles on medical topics.
An engineering student Jnanaranjan Sahoo from Kendrapara says, "It is the
love for mother language which drives me and I think students can write a
lot on Wikipedia". Srikant Kedia, a student in DAV School, Cuttack is proud
of him- self as a contributor to Odia Wikipedia, "Our education sys- tem
doesn't give emphasis on Odia, but it never deprives my interests in
helping people feel proud of our language. I am planning to take up Odia
tuition this summer", he said. Kamalakanta Nayak from Cuttack adds, "The
great heritage of Cuttack drives me to write articles on Wikipedia. It is
also a place where I can share my pho- tos which others would be
searching". Asutosh Kar, design lead in Infosys, one of the initial
contributors of Odia wikipedia adds, "We believe in working as an elaborate
team. We support each other and bring new people to write on Wikipedia".
Sailesh, a tenth grade student from Bhubaneswar explains, "We are not
encouraged much for learn- ing Odia in our schools. It's my personal
interest for my lan- guage and I want other people start writing in Odia.
After all, Wikipedia is free for everyone!"
--
ଅଂଶୁମାନ ଗିରି
http://or.wikipedia.orghttp://facebook.com/groups/odiawiki
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
Dear all,
A quick update on Wikipatrika. Here's the current draft of the next issue
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News
As you can see, most of the sections have been updated with information on
events, meetups and Wikipedia news of our various language communities.
This time, we've also added an interview of a community member (Bpositive's
report on INCOTM) and an external interview (interview with a GLAM
Director) to make Patrika more informative and interesting.
Quite a few of you may already have contributed to this draft. The pages
for as, bn, gu, hi, en, kn, ne, or, sa, te and ta have already been
translated from the respective languages. There is also a Commons tab where
we can add information on various photo walks. The reason why I'm sharing
this update is for everyone else to add material that may have been left
out or any other details. Do remember that we are planning to release this
on May 10th so please do add your edits / sections by May 9th.
Also, going forward, we hope to coordinate the issue on the Wikipatrika
mailing list. So, I invite all those interested to join the Wikipatrika
mailing list here:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-newsletter
Regards
Noopur
--
Noopur Raval