[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Kolkata wiki10 meetup; my report

Tue Jan 25 04:58:52 UTC 2011

Apologies for delay - this was written the day after the wiki10 celebrations
hence many 'yesterdays' in report,
Bishakha

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jayanta nath <jayantanth at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: Kolkata wiki10 meetup; personal report
To: "bishakhadatta (wiki)" <bishakhadatta at gmail.com>


Dear Bishakha

Could you please send our west Bengal and India and 10  mailing list

---------- Forwarded message ----------

> From: Bishakha Datta <bishakhadatta at gmail.com>
> Date: Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 9:00 PM
> Subject: Kolkata wiki10 meetup; personal report
>
> As the meetup ended, two law students said they had clicked the wiki10
> banner on wikipedia not expecting to find a celebration in Kolkata. "We were
> pleasantly surprised," they said. "No one ever comes to the East."
>
> Ok, ok, I'm Bengali and I *was* born in Cal. But even if you factor that
> in, it's still true: the eastern part of the country often seems cut off. In
> general, it gets a smaller piece of the national pie - action, attention,
> opportunities, resources - so much so that the 7 states in the North-east
> have pretty much given up on 'India'. The two students reeled off every band
> or concert that had made it to Del, Bom, Bang - but not to Cal.
>
> Given this, I'm glad a meetup was held here in December. Without it, who
> knows if Kolkata would have joined in the celebrations? As Jayanta jokingly
> told one reporter, "Atleast we had a meetup in time to join the
> celebrations." Till yesterday, Jayanta Nath, who hosted the Dec meetup and
> is an admin on Bangla wikipedia, was the only community member active
> offline; Arnab Dutta, a student and bn:wp editor who lives in Kolkata,
> pitches in online.
>
> The biggest direct benefit from yesterday's meetup was identifying three
> more community members: Rimi Chatterjee who edits in English, Biswarup
> Ganguly who is on commons, and Shankar Vishwanathan, a most charming and
> eccentric senior citizen who edits in English and wants to popularize
> wikipedia among senior citizens. Hopefully, they'll help form the core that
> is needed to keep meetups going (and which seems to have developed in Mumbai
> and Pune, among the ones I know).
>
> The crowd yesterday was exactly what we were expecting: about 60-odd folks,
> the majority of whom had never made a single edit. Less than 10 said they
> had ever edited. Anticipating just this, and given Cal's yen for quizzes, I
> hosted a quiz: 10 things you may not know about wikipedia, which covered all
> the basics and some fun birthday stuff. Luckily, the crowd was game, so the
> event was interactive from the word go. The meeting was bilingual, with
> English and Bengali flowing in abundance; much clapping when I announced the
> Foundation's plans for India and the India chapter. No one had any idea of
> either. Media coverage has been much lower here too.
>
> There was huge interest in Bangla wikipedia; many questions after Jayanta's
> presentation, including some chicken-and-egg ones: Why edit in Bangla when
> there are more readers in English etc? Since many editors are bilingual, one
> suggestion was to encourage editors to also mirror their English
> contributions in Bangla (only voluntarily, of course). Because of the
> unexpected interested in Bangla editing, Arnab did an impromptu
> demonstration of Bangla wikipedia to 25 enthusiasts after the official
> program had ended.
>
> Rimi followed up with a fascinating talk on how the English department at
> Jadavpur Univ, where she teaches, knows students use wikipedia for their
> class projects; so instead of fighting this, they do a two-week session on
> 'How students should use wikipedia'! One of her colleagues also assigns
> students specific pages on wikipedia to upgrade, and marks them after going
> through the page's edit history - to assess participation. Quite unique.
>
> There was a discussion on uploading images to Commons, including a demo of
> the lack of photos of Kolkata and possibilities such as Wikipedia Takes
> Bangalore/Mumbai, both of which happened this week as part of wiki10. Maybe
> it's easier to get young people started off with taking and uploading photos
> to Commons? asked Mr Vishwanathan. He and Bishwarup Ganguly are likely to
> speak with Jayanta and Arnab at a student-run half-day hands-on meetup in
> Feb.
>
> Two specific requests for half-day workshops emerged between yesterday and
> today:
> -the all-male participants at the FSF workshop wanted a hands-on session;
> this seems a critical bridge step to becoming an editor
> -a few women at the event yesterday requested a hands-on session
> exclusively for women (so that they don't feel like dummies because of
> technological issues - Soma is very keen on this; let's keep for my next
> trip)
>
> Today, I attended part of a two-day workshop of the Free Software
> Foundation, mainly to support Jayanta and to build relationships with sister
> orgs/movements. An aside: at wiki meetups in other cities I've been to, many
> people have their own laptops; here, less people did yesterday (expected)
> and today (unexpected). Needs to be kept in mind while doing hands-on
> sessions.
>
> So three thoughts in closing:
> One, let's make sure we don't neglect the east or the northeast in our
> plans. This part of the country needs exposure to other wikimedians, to
> ideas, access to conferences etc, so it does not remain cut off. Language is
> a factor influencing the participation of Bangla editors on the India list.
>
> Two, Jayanta and Arnab feel the biggest barrier facing Bengali wikipedia is
> lack of awareness that it exists; they would like media coverage, specially
> in Bengali newspapers, so that people start using it. No one ever became an
> editor without first being a user, right?
>
> Three, of course, Cal can't lay claim to being the biggest anniv
> celebration or anything or anything. But give us our due: Cal could lay
> claim to 'Best gender ratio among panelists', since women comprised 66% of
> the panel. :)
>
> Jesus, after a month here I'm already saying 'us'. Thank god I return to
> Bombay this week.
>
> Cheers
> Bishakha
>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
With Warm Regards,
*Jayanta Nath*
Calcutta,West Bengal
+91 9836294438
Facebook :http://www.facebook.com/jayantanth
Wikipedia :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jayantanth
Twitter : jayantanth
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