cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other mailing lists.
Hi Folks,
A few months ago, the Foundation asked Tory Read to travel to India and listen and learn and write about the movement in India. The objective was to harvest experiences and learnings and to have an open discussion around what we could all do to further the movement.
This isn't in the form of a (possibly) long & boring report - but in the form of a story. (Tory's a professional researcher, writer and former journalist.) To put this together, Tory travelled for a couple of weeks across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and across towns in Kerala - attending community meet-ups and meeting up/speaking with a host of individual community members (in these cities and indeed beyond.)
Tory's tale is called, "The India Chronicles", and is available on Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_India_Chronicles_(150dpi).pdf
Do have a read through and do share your views on it - positives and negatives - and do feel free to comment on any aspect of it. It would be wonderful to have an engaging conversation on this.
Warmest Regards,
hisham
Dear Indic wikimedians,
Thank you very much for the welcome messages and for making me feel at home.
Over the past few years I have interacted with many of you for the various
Indic Wiki related activities and we have done many successful projects.
Thank you very much for all those wonderful projects. Now when we are moving
to a different phase of growth of Wikimedia in India, I request more
support from your side.
To get started we shall together develop a plan for Indic language wikis and
design few pilot projects to gain learnings to drive growth. I propose to
develop this plan collaboratively and openly - in true wiki style. This
will include focused Indic language meetups, virtual meetings, desk research
and constantly synthesizing the findings from all of these into learnings.
These learnings will then flow into pilots that we will implement and review
and learn from.
For this purpose, I will be using the following page
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_….
It is very preliminary right now - but will keep updating it. The page will
give you a flavor of the kind of process and methodology I plan to use - and
also give you a hint of the end output. However, I stress that is nothing
more than a stub right now. So please provide your suggestions.
I will be in touch soon and regularly on the next steps and I will keep you
constantly posted on progress - both positive and whenever we face setbacks.
The task is huge. The potential is even more massive. I will need a lot of
your help. I invite and welcome and urge all of you to contribute to this
process - during physical meetups, in virtual meetings, one-on-one
conversations or meetings, on the talk page to the Indic Languages page and
in any and every manner that you can imagine.
As part of the India Programs of WMF, my official ID is shiju(a)wikimedia.org.
You can reach me anytime regarding any WMF's Indic wiki related topic.
Thanks
Shiju
On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 7:23 AM, Hisham <hisham(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Dear All
>
> As I had mentioned in a previous posting (and as was so touchingly welcomed
> by so many of of you), Shiju Alex is joining us to lead our Indic Languages
> initiatives. In this mail (
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-July/003845.html),
> I had indicated that he would join around September-October.
>
> I'm really pleased to inform you that he has now joined India Programs (on
> September 24th.)
>
> Indic Languages is an important priority for us - and Shiju intends to
> start work on this urgently. He'll be in touch shortly on this matter.
>
> Welcome aboard, Shiju!
>
> Warmest Regards,
>
> hisham
>
>
Dear All
As I had mentioned in a previous posting (and as was so touchingly welcomed
by so many of of you), Shiju Alex is joining us to lead our Indic Languages
initiatives. In this mail (
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-July/003845.html),
I had indicated that he would join around September-October.
I'm really pleased to inform you that he has now joined India Programs (on
September 24th.)
Indic Languages is an important priority for us - and Shiju intends to start
work on this urgently. He'll be in touch shortly on this matter.
Welcome aboard, Shiju!
Warmest Regards,
*hisham*
Hi
I wanna share some statics on Indic language on web in Unicode , I
conducted a simple search on 18th September 2011 at 9:00 pm with
language name in Unicode with three leading search engines Google, Yahoo,
Bing . I did't include Sanskrit bacasue is based on the Devanagari script .
This latest estimates can help to find the Internet Users by Language
(unicode) due to the lack of other sources in data mining and
technical issues please consider this analysis is just of information
purpose only .
*
*
* Google Yahoo Bing *
অসমীয়া (Assamese) 739,000 91,500
196,000
বাংলা (Bengali) 20,400,000 49,600,000
18,600,000
English 8,510,000,000 2,180,000,000
4,190,000,000
فارسی (Farsi) 222,000,000 193,000,000
5,7,000,000
ગુજરાતી (Gujarti) 12,000,000 4,680,000
4,190,000
हिन्दी (Hindi) 251,000,000 70,500,000
1,7400,000
ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada) 12,700,000 19,500,000
6,130,000
کًشُر (Kashmiri) 44,300 424,000
7,160
മലയാളം (Malayalam) 23,800,000 36,400,000 13,800,000
मराठी (Marathi) 17,500,000 10,800,000
10,600,000
ଓଡ଼ିଆ (Oriya) 1,550,000 123,000
141,000
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Punjabi) 23,000,000 4,490,000
2,110,000
தமிழ் (Tamil) 59,800,000 66,100,000
16,600,000
తెలుగు (Telugu) 40,100,000 24,900,000
9,230,000
اردو(Urdu) 49,900,000 43,100,000
10,500,000
Regards
--
మీ శ్రేయోబిలాషి
కశ్యప్
kaburlu.wordpress.com
9396533666
cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other mailing lists.
hisham
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Hisham Mundol <hmundol(a)wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Press Coverage: Request for Voices & Faces!
> Date: September 12, 2011 3:38:04 PM GMT+05:30
> To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Cc: CherianTinu Abraham <tinucherian(a)gmail.com>, Moka Pantages <mpantages(a)wikimedia.org>
>
> Hi Folks
>
> In the last couple of days, we've had a couple of really insightful, well-written articles on Wikipedia and you, the community.
> http://www.timescrest.com/life/you-cant-copypaste-this-homework-6226
>
> http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110911/jsp/7days/story_14492284.jsp
>
> I want to acknowledge the behind-the-scenes work of Tinu and Moka. (Most of you know Tinu - who's a community member based out of Bangalore. For those of you who don't know, Moka handles Global Communications for the Wikimedia Foundation.) They have worked on making sure that we convey the right messages as well as making the articles as inclusive of as many community members as possible - by covering the stories of as wide a range of editors as possible. The result of their work is the high-quality articles I've referenced above.
>
> We will continue to get requests from the press and I'd love to have them tell the tales of an even larger and more varied group of community members. It'll help to convey the diversity and magic of the community. Can I request you let Tinu and I know (offlist please) if you are willing to be interviewed by journalists in future? Every one of your stories will add emotion to an article - no matter how simple or otherwise your story is.
>
> Also, a practical issue that we are facing is that we don't have enough print-quality images of community meet ups. Can you please add as many high-resolution images of as many community meet ups, outreach events, etc. as you can to Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) so that the press can access it more easily - and they can celebrate the human face of Wikipedia in newspapers and magazines?
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Warm Regards,
>
> hisham
>
Cross-posting to reach pan-India
Thanks
Nitika
From: Nitika Tandon [mailto:ntandon@wikimedia.org]
Sent: 05 September 2011 16:40
To: 'wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org'
Subject: Update, Examples & Request: Wikipedia India Education Program
Hi Folks,
I thought I’ll share an update with you’ll on the Wikipedia India Education Program. It's running majorly in 2 colleges in Pune (Symbiosis School of Economics and College of Engineering Pune). We already have over 1000 students enrolled from just these 2 colleges. Most of these students have gone through one or more out of a total of 35 introductory, basic editing and refresher sessions conducted by Campus Ambassadors.
It’s good to see big numbers but I thought I’ll also share with you some articles that the students have been working on. It’s really inspiring to see their progress! J
User: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Abhilasha369> Abhilasha369 started a new article: Robinson Crusoe Economy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe_Economy>
User: basic.atari <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Basic.atari> is working on article Human capital <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital>
User: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/SaurabhKB> SaurabhKB is editing <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organizing_list> Self-organizing list
User: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Aishani_Sharma> Aishani Sharma on Social preferences <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_preferences>
User: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Jinchurikidan> Jinchurikidan has been actively editing the article on Animation studio <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation_studio>
These is still some way to go on these articles but I think they are fantastic starts! The 5 users and articles above are just illustrative. You can also track progress of the entire program here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:INDIAEDU
Please do reach out to the students (not just the one's listed above) and offer help and encouragement. Please do help them out on their articles as well. While they have been trained, they're going to need a lot of support because they are almost entirely newbies. Please do also leave kind words for the Campus Ambassadors. They've been doing amazing work!
Thanks
Nitika Tandon
Cross-posting to reach pan-India
Thanks
Nitika
From: Nitika Tandon [mailto:ntandon@wikimedia.org]
Sent: 06 September 2011 20:59
To: 'wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org'
Subject: Want to Help Newbie Editor Students of the India Education
Program?: Inviting Online Ambassadors!
Greetings,
As many of you are aware, the Wikipedia India Education Program works with
teachers and students to encourage Wikipedia in the classroom. The basic
idea is that teachers ask their students to edit Wikipedia articles instead
of submitting traditional reports, assignments, etc. Students and teachers
are trained and supported and motivated by Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors -
who are volunteers. We currently have 1,000 students in the pilot we are
running in Pune; the response has been amazing!
There are huge challenges also. Most of the students have already been
taught the basics of Wikipedia by their Campus Ambassadors. However, they
need more help. The workload on Campus Ambassadors is already massive (as
there are hardly 20 Campus Ambassadors for 1,000 students). It is going to
keep increasing as more and more of the students start editing as we are now
in the 2nd half of their semesters - and therefore closer to the last dates
for their articles. We are already increasing Campus Ambassadors numbers by
15 in the next few days - but that still won't be enough.
We're separately building a team of passionate and helpful folks - with good
mentoring and teaching skills - to be Wikipedia Online Ambassadors. Online
Ambassadors will help these students by providing online support and
hand-holding so that the students can make high-quality contributions.
Online Ambassadors can be based anywhere in India (or indeed the world)
since their interaction with students will be over the internet.
I am reaching out to you to see whether you would be interested in helping
students and teachers and becoming a Wikipedia Online Ambassador.
We have two different Online Ambassador roles: Level 1 and Level 2.
. Level 1 is open to everyone - including people who have never edited
Wikipedia before - and will support students on really basic Wikipedia
questions. (They will be given specific training on this.)
. Level 2 is open to experienced Wikipedians and will support students on
more advanced Wikipedia questions.
Both Level 1 and Level 2 roles will be provided orientation sessions.
Currently, all the students are working on English wikipedia.
Passion for helping others and the ability to help newbies are the most
essential qualities for both levels. For more information about these roles
and what is expected of them, please see this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Online_Ambass
adors/Description. The time commitment is 3-5 hours per week on average
throughout the semester (or academic term.)
I warmly invite and highly encourage you to apply to become a Wikipedia
Online Ambassador! To apply, please go to:
https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEdtdG5
ObU9mMm5oZno3MExDc3lEZHc6MA - by Monday, September 12th (earlier is better),
and we will be in touch very soon about next steps. If you have any
questions, please do reach out to me either on this mailing list or offlist.
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
Thank you so very much! I look forward to your application.
Sincerely,
Nitika Tandon
cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other mailing lists.
hisham
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Hisham Mundol <hmundol(a)wikimedia.org>
> Subject: India Programs Team: Starting Selection Process for New Team Members
> Date: September 2, 2011 3:32:04 PM GMT+05:30
> To: "Discussion list on Indian language projects of Wikimedia." <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
>
> Hi Folks
>
> I'm writing to update you that the selection process of 2 more team members of the India Programs team has commenced. (As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we've selected Shiju & Nitika for our efforts on Indic languages and Participation.) The 2 positions I'm referring to in this mail are the remaining members of the team:
>
> Communications. This person will manage all communications, public relations/media, social media & digital outreach.
> Team Support. This person will manage all the backend (but essential) operations of the team - such as office administration and basic accounting and personnel management.
>
> Details on the positions as well as the application process are available on the Wikimedia Foundation site :-
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Communications_-_India_…
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Team_Support_-_India_Pr…
>
> Similar to the process that we followed for the earlier selections, these have been posted on linkedin. (I'll be cross posting this mail on local wikimedia mailing lists, as well as the main FOSS India mailing list.)
>
> Can I request the following from as many of you as possible:
>
> We'd love to have existing Wikimedians on board. Please do apply if you're interested!
> Please share this mail with anyone you know who might be interested.
> Pls broadcast these links on your social networks, mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc.
>
> fyi, last date is 10 September.
>
> Please do not hesitate to contact me for any clarifications.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> 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!
>