Hey folks
The next India Program IRC (2nd for April) is scheduled for Thursday 19th
April at 9 p.m. IST. Do join us using this link:
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wikimedia-office.
We'll be discussing Outreach, Communications and Education in this one.
Here is what we plan to discuss this time:
*Outreach*
Over the past few months we have conducted several outreach sessions and
have been able to curate outreach standard presentation decks, best
practices and tips. Now we want to assist community members in
adopting/adapting these to conduct effective outreach sessions in their
respective cities/languages. We'll be soon working on 2 aspects for
increasing the number of outreach sessions we are doing on Indic languages
but we need your help on this:
1. Start translating outreach supporting documents to Indic languages - To
start with we want Indic language community members to help us translate
outreach documents and presentations to Indic languages.
2. Create opportunities for Indic outreach - We have been mailing/calling a
lot of institutes to organize a Wikipedia session (see list
here<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Corresponden…>)[1]
in their regional language but we have not able to get as many outreach
sessions as we'd like since they feel more comfortable corresponding in
their own regional language. We want help from Indic langauge editors who
are interested to do more outreach in their regional languages/cities to
help us reach out to these institutes.
I'd request all the Indic language editors who want to help us out on
either of the two points mentioned above to show up on the IRC or write to
us offlist since we'll be discussing ways of doing effective outreach in
regional languages.
*Communications:* *Wikipatrika:*
6 communities (Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Nepali,Odia, Telugu ) have
already created Wikipatrika pages on their respective Wikipedias. The new
template for Wikipatrika is up
here<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News>.[2]
In tomorrow's outreach, we could discuss ideas and suggestions to make
Wikipatrika more useful. We could also discuss any problems that community
members maybe facing.
*Communications:* *Odia Social Media pilot:*
As proposed earlier,
here's<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Social_Media>[3]
the social media pilot to support the Odia community members. The end
result of this pilot is to attract more newbies and introduce them to the
Wikiverse. This pilot is to try out effective messaging strategies to use a
platform like Facebook optimally and try to recruit more editors to the
Odia Wikipedia. The most important nuance is that we have built a draft
social media messaging strategy and plan to work closely with the Odia
community to implement it - through the community members. We hope to
discuss this plan and get your inputs on it.
As always, the first 45 minutes will be focused on these and the last 15
minutes will be open to any other topic.
Hope you all can join us.
(For those who can't join, the logs will be put up the next morning at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/IRC_meeting_2012-04-19
Thanks
[1]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Corresponden…
[2] http://wiki.wikimedia.in/WikiPatrika/2012-05/Community_News
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Pilot_Designs/Social_Media
--
Noopur Raval
Dear all,
Here's an update on the GLAM initiative at Crafts
Museum<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/CM> [1]
and an invite to an edit-a-thon.
There have been a number of meetings and conversations with the Director of
the Crafts Museum and the museum staff over the past few weeks to plan out
the project. In these meetings, we have explained what is Wikipedia, how
it is used, how it can be useful to the Museum, how can staff members
benefit if they edit and how can Indian handicrafts & handlooms benefit by
more and better content on Wikipedia.
A few things became clear very early on. The language of the project needs
to be primarily in Hindi because the staff members are most comfortable in
Hindi. Another point is that since they are all starting from the very
basics, we should set realistic targets like taking things 5 articles at a
time to begin with.
Two outreach workshops for the museum staff have now been conducted in
Hindi. These covered approximately 8-9 staff members - out of which 6 have
created usernames and started editing. It gives an immense sense of
satisfaction and inspiration to see that so many of them are excited by
this project and they edit voluntarily even after the workshop is over!
(In fact, the clear message sent by the Director was that it was not a
compulsory task - so all the folks editing are doing so out of choice!)
Check out the article on Crafts Museum (शिल्प संग्रहालय,_दिल्ली) in Hindi
Wikipedia<http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AA_…>!
[2]
The Hindi aspect is an important point to note because English would have
been the preferred language because it gives greatest audience and is the
most convenient for other language community (Indic and beyond) to use as a
foundation if they want to create / improve the respective articles on
their respective Wikipedias. In this case, I visualize articles primarily
starting off in Hindi, and then moving to English - and then onwards to
other languages. In fact, the project page has now been created here on
Hindi Wikipedia!<http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AA%…>[3]
The MoU has been signed with Wikimedia India Chapter - for which I'd like
to thank Arun and the EC. The MoU was also important because it formalizes
the taking of pictures of objects and their uploading to Commons. User:Yann
has already done a wonderful job as you can see on the Crafts Museum
project page here at the GLAM project page for Craft
Museum<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/CM>.
[1] User:Arag0n also came in last week and took some wonderful images that
we hope to see soon.
I am currently working with the Director to see how Craft Museum can
improve the infrastructure for its' staff and to figure out how best to
free up time for the museum staff to support this initiative.
There is an innovation that I have tried which I wanted to share because
many community members might find it useful - and it's got nothing to do
with GLAM! There have been a number of meetups and outreach sessions in
Delhi - after a long time. One challenge I was facing was how to keep
engaged with participants of meetups and outreach sessions - and to
constantly encourage them to edit. What I did was shift the meetup up
venue to Crafts Museum itself! Its fun to see new editors and museum staff
get surprised that many people are editing one article at the same time.
That's when they really experience the magic of Wikipedia. This is working
well and I will continue to work on it. The next step is to invite
existing Hindi community members to Crafts Museum - which should happen in
the next couple of weeks.
The next event that we are planning - which is also why I'm writing is to
invite you to an *edit-a-thon on April 21st at 14:00 hrs (IST) (08:30 hrs
GMT)*. This week, instead of the Delhi meetup, we plan to have an editing
session at the Museum itself. You can sign up here. [4] You can be
anywhere in India or the world(!) to join in - and you can choose to edit
in any language - including Hindi, English, any other languages (Indic or
otherwise!) We'll also be active on the *#wikimedia-in* IRC channel, tweet
about it from @crafts_glam and have started a Facebook
group<http://www.facebook.com/CraftsMuseumGlam>.
The museum staff and Delhi community members will be editing at the Museum
- but the museum staff will also be available to help out giving insights
and references for articles.
Really hoping to see all of you participate and make this a big success
across languages! :)
Thanks
Noopur
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/CM
[2]
http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AA_…
[3]
http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AA%…
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Delhi/Crafts_Museum1
*FYI. Sorry for Cross posting. *
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Noopur Raval <nraval(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 11:57 AM
Subject: [Blog]: Postcard from the Tamil Community
To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hey folks,
The Tamil Wikimedia Contest organized by User: Sodabottle and other members
of the Tamil community recently got over. As you are all aware, it
generated over 15,000 media files and got over 250 new contributors to
Commons. A detailed report was published at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Tamil_Wikimedians/TamilWiki_Media_Con…
There's also a blog post that we've been working on that takes a peek at
TWMC behind the scenes with inputs from the organizing team. It might be
really useful to any community planning to conduct a similar events in
future. You can read the post here:
http://blog.wikimedia.in/2012/04/17/postcard-from-the-tamil-community/.
It's a great story of how an off-the-cuff conversation between 2 editors
resulted in a massive community wide initiative - with participation of the
Tamil community (and other communities) from across the world, the kind of
intense efforts, the use of technology enablers and last - and most
certainly not the least - some fantastic images (a sample of which can be
seen at http://www.tawp.in/r/33zx) - which have now been used to create or
improve articles (6122 on Tamil Wiktionary, 1659 on Tamil Wikipedia and
more).
Do go through the story and add comments. Please also share it with
others. Don't forget to use the images to improve articles on your
Wikipedia! (They are all available on Commons at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:TamilWiki_Media_Contest)
I am thankful to Natkeeran for the wonderful story idea and to Sodabottle,
Logicwiki and others for your inputs, insights and times!
Regards
Noopur
--
Noopur Raval
--
Noopur Raval
Hi Folks
Reminder about the IRC today (9pm IST on Thursday April 5th) Do join us using this link: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wikimedia-office.
Here is what we would like to discuss today - which we shall do for the first 45 minutes and then throw it open for 15 minutes for any other topics that anyone wants to discuss related to India Program.
You may have noticed that we are increasing our emphasis on Wikisource. Please see Shiju's post on using simple technology to support digitazation (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages/Digitization_o…) and Noopur's story of the Gujarati Wikisource (http://blog.wikimedia.in/2012/04/04/realizing-the-dreams-of-communities-3-y…)
In addition, Shiju has been engaged with other communities on how to start or accelerate their respective language Wikisources.
Wikisource has some very important characteristics that make it attractive.
It's a (relatively) easier way for newbies to start contributing than the respective Wikipedia
It's a great way to reach out to language lovers - and love for a language is an important motivator for contribution (on this and other projects)
There is a much lower gender gap on Wikisource, and it's easy for a wider age group to contribute
It's more "accessible" as an entry point to newbies because it has less policies than other projects
It's can act as a gateway to other projects
In today's IRC, we'd like to talk through the work that's happening on Wikisource by many communities, discuss best practices and provide a channel of support for anyone interested in joining the project from any language.
Speak soon.
hisham
Cross posting. FYI.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Noopur Raval <nraval(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 5:29 PM
Subject: [Blog]: The source of Gujarati Wikisource
To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear all,
As you might have read earlier, the Gujarati Wikisource was launched
recently on March 27th and is now active with 1000 articles and 1 book
already. As part of the story telling series, here is the wonderful
story<http://blog.wikimedia.in/2012/04/04/realizing-the-dreams-of-communities-3-y…>of
a a journey that started with one member who filed the request to
create Wikisource, 2 members who joined in for their love of Bhajans, and
gradually a group of 6 members who helped reach the 1000 article mark.
The passion and enthusiasm of the Gujarati community members for their
language is very motivating, especially to all Indic Wikipedians who strive
for the same cause. This story will also interest those communities
interested in starting a Wikisource of their own. Most importantly, it
shows the power of individual community members and how community
collaboration is so magical and constructive!
Thank you,
Regards
Noopur
[1]
http://blog.wikimedia.in/2012/04/04/realizing-the-dreams-of-communities-3-y…
--
Noopur Raval
--
Noopur Raval