[Wikimediaindia-l] July-2011 Chapter Update

[Arjuna Rao Chavala]

Dear Wikimedia India Members and Community,

The highlights of Chapter Update for July 2011 are given below.
Membership update

The membership stands at 67 as on 7 Aug 2011. Few analytics of the data are
given below.
*Gender *

Male membership is at 55 corresponding to 82% and Female membership is at 12
corresponding to 18%.
*Geographic location *

Maharashtra accounted for largest number of members at 26 followed by
Karnataka at 20 and Kerala at 8.
*Vocation *

Industry members are the highest at 23 followed by Student at 17 and
Academia at 9. Others category has 18.
 *Preferred language as Editor *

English at 54 corresponding to 90% stands first followed by Malayalam 11 and
Hindi 6.
 City/Language SIG

   - City/language
subcommittee<http://members.wikimedia.in/City_and_Language_Special_Interest_Group_subcommittee>formation
call (for members only) did not receive a good response. Mumbai
   and Sanskrit communities showed some interest and had proposals for
   respective Chairs.
   - Chapter would like to clarify that SIGs are critical to promote wiki
   projects in their respective areas. SIG Chairs would work closely with
   Chapter EC in getting necessary support for the activities and they are
   expected to play a key role in india wide events like Wiki Conference India.
   As the membership base is low currently as per the analysis in the previous
   section, there could be some issues in forming a group of members interested
   in SIG, but we do hope that these SIGs will be strengthened in due course.
   Aditional clarity on role and responsibility will emerge as we work with
   these groups. Chapter encourages members to associate with one or more SIGs.


 EC Elections

A committee called Nominations Committee consisting of Achal Prabhala,
BalaSundara Raman Lakshmanan and Pradeep Mohandas is appointed to conduct EC
elections. More details on the process and dates will be communicated
shortly by them.
 Events

Wikimedia Chapter organised its first public event on 30 July 2011. The
title of the event was Copyright and open licensing
seminar<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Events/Copyright_and_Open_Licensing_Seminar>.
Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Pranesh Prakash and Dhanish covered the entire breadth
and depth of Copyrights and licensing aspects.

Sudhir explained the abstracted Copyright as a way to regulate information
flow. Reproduction of content without attribution is called as plagiarism.
In academic world, reproduction of 5 word or more in sequence without
acknowledgement of the original source will be termed plagiarism. In open
communities like Wikimedia projects, social form of preventing plagiarism is
practised. He highlighted that Art instruction rests on copying. To a
question on whether Census map reuse in Wikimedia projects will violate
copyright, he clarified that Copyright applies to works created by
Government agencies, hence it is better to get approval from the relevant
authorities. He shared his experience of how government denied reproduction
of NSSO data after extensive analytics. He clarified that the material
released by Press information or public relations department can be
reproduced for journalistic purpose, but it does not mean that the material
has become free of copyright.

Pranesh explained that Copyright originated when there was a need to control
printed documents, but was expanded to included any content on any media
subsequently. Copyright exceptions are provided to Libraries. He said
copyrights are not infringed as per US Copyright act, when the material is
copied for private study/use including research/criticism/review. He said
that even Gazette of GOI is copyrighted and not availble electronically for
public. He shared that Government authorities were planning to make the
Gazette available electonically soon. He shared that with the availability
of e-books, Libraries are also given special and limited licenses of copying
when they lend the books to their customers (Harper Collins gives license to
allow 27 copies). If the number of copies are used, library has to obtain
additional licenses from the vendor as the material is DRM protected. He
expressed his disappointment that GOI is planning to amend the copyright of
photographs to the same terms as books in terms of aligning with WIPO
expectations, although the move will not be beneficial for society at large.


Dhanish explained how creative commons allows the authors to license their
works as desired. So instead of "All rights reserved", it becomes "Some
rights reserved". Wikimedia projects follow CC-BY-SA along with GFDL license
for the content.

Chapter thanks Centre for Internet and Society for sponsoring this event.

Look forward to your continued support

Best,

On behalf of Wikimedia Chapter EC

Arjuna Rao Chavala

President
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