[Wikimediaindia-l] [PRESS RELEASE] "Mumbai To Host First Ever National WikiConference In India"

Wed Nov 9 12:03:26 UTC 2011

*PRESS RELEASE:*

*Mumbai To Host The First Ever National WikiConference In India***

*Jimmy Wales to deliver the Keynote on November 18 at University
Convocation Hall*

*
Mumbai, India, November 9*: The *Mumbai Wikipedia Community* and the *Wikimedia
Chapter*, India are hosting the first ever WikiConference in Mumbai, India! And
to grace the occasion we will see none other than, the founder, open-source
evangelist and Chairman Emeritus of Wikimedia foundation – *Jimmy Wales*.
The Conference will have a distinct Indian flavour and deal primarily with
issues relating to India on Wikipedia, English and Indic language Wikipedia
projects in the country, possible partnerships and collaborations and the
WikiCommunity editing on these issues, whether in India or abroad.

The event will be a three day extravaganza, to be held from *November 18th *to
the* 20th, 2011 *and the venue for this prestigious event is no less in
stature when it comes to knowledge – *the Convocation Hall, University of
Mumbai, Fort Campus* with the apt iconic Rajabhai tower as its backdrop.

*Arjuna Rao Chavala, President, Wikimedia chapter* said "We look forward to
organising the conference on an annual basis to bring together Indian
Wikipedians from 20+ Indian language projects to share learnings and best
practices. The event will help catalyze contributors in building Knowledge
Society through free and open education projects."

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. *Pranav Curumsey, Chairperson, Organizing
Committee, WikiConference India* said, “It gives us great pleasure to be
hosting such a phenomenal conference in India. The conference aims to
promote the vision of the founder Mr. Wales, ‘Imagine a world in which
every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all
human knowledge.’ It is very encouraging to see ad-free participation
showing a keen interest in attending this conference confirming our belief
that India is free knowledge ready.”

The event will see thousands of Wikipedians from all over the country
pouring in for sessions covering topics such as ‘Usage of Ajax and Jquery
in Wiki’ in Technology to ‘WikiBhasha : Our Experiences with Multilingual
Content’ in Enterprise  to ‘WikiWomenWeb: Bridging the Gender Gap’ to ‘
Legal Aspects of Wiki Culture’.  There is also a live ‘Editathon’ session
made possible with Wifi facility within the campus grounds. Another
interesting addition is the ‘Hackathon’ that will be simultaneously held at
the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (MACCIA), Kala
Ghoda.

*Mr. Moksh Juneja*, *Secretary, Organising Committee, WikiConference
India*added, “The conference aims to serve as an annual platform for
all Indian
Wikipedians to meet and share their views, discuss challenges and exchange
useful tips and best practices. We have been overwhelmed with the ad-free
participation across India where we received 7000 plus entries for
scholarships and 550 plus papers were submitted to be presented at the
WikiConference India.”

Contributing to the success of WikiConference India are our esteemed
sponsors are Google, YouTube, Omidyar Network, Microsoft Research,
Yebhi.com, Ang India Technologies, Sarkarinaukri.com & Kalnirnay.
WikiConference India has received positive support from their partners
Kores, Avignyata Inc., e-RegNow.com, Panache, DSN & Text100 PR.

For further information & to register, please visit-
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2011

Prominent Speakers at WikiConference:

·         Jimmy Wales, Founder & Chairman, *WikiMedia Foundation*

·         Badri Sheshadri, Co-Founder & Ex MD, *Cric-info* and MD, *New
Horizon Media Pvt. Ltd*.

·         Barry Newstead, *Chief Global Development Officer, Wikimedia
Foundation*

·         Prof. (Dr.) Krishna Kumar, Chairman, *Gitanjali Multilingual
Literary Circle*, UK

·         Anand Kumar, *Super 30 IIT Coaching Programme*

*
*

*About  Wikimedia:*

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to
encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual
content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to
the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the
largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including
Wikipedia, a top-ten internet property, and Wikinews, as well as the
website, Meta-Wiki. The Wikimedia Foundation is governed by Board of
Trustees. Since January 2008, the Wikimedia Foundation has its office in
San Francisco, USA. The most famous project from the foundation, Wikipedia
, provides free encyclopaedias in most world languages is the 5th most
visited site in the world with over 12 billion articles being read every
month. Official information about the Foundation may be found on its
website: wikimediafoundation.org.

*About Wikimedia India Chapter:*

Wikimedia India was formally approved in June 2010 and India became the
29th Wikimedia Chapter. The Wikimedia India chapter was registered
(registered name: Wikimedia Chapter) vide Registrar of Societies, Bangalore
Urban District with the objective of educating Indian public about
availability and use of free and open educational content and build
capacity to access and contribute to such resources in various Indian
languages. For more information on the chapter visit its website:
wiki.wikimedia.in

Media Contacts:

*Firdos Arjani & Anish Borkataki
*Text100 Public Relations
Mob: +91 99200 63777 / +91 88760 16176
Email: firdos.arjani at text100.co.in  / anish.borkataki at text100.co.in

Regards
Tinu Cherian
press at wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
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