Dear Abhishek,
Thank you for sharing your IdeaLab proposal. And thank you for wanting to
improve the Indic language content on the Wikimedia projects.
Because your proposal suggests creating and improving health and medical
content, it would be good if you would coordinate with WikiProject Medicine
(on English Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine
And because your proposal involves outreach to university students, it
would be good if you and I could discuss your plans, too.
I look forward to talking with you soon.
Sincerely yours,
Anna Koval, M.Ed.
Manager, Wikipedia Education Program
Wikimedia Foundation
+1.415.839.6885 x 6729
annakoval.wiki on Skype
akoval(a)wikimedia.org
education.wikimedia.org
On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 11:40 AM, Abhishek Suryawanshi <
i.abhishek.suryawanshi(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
Happy New Year everyone! :)
We are planning Indic Language Wikipedia workshops in U.S.
Please go through Project Link :
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Indic_Language_Wikipedia_Out…
Project idea What is the problem you're trying to solve?
Indic languages represent a large portion of languages used worldwide. The
number of contributors for Indic languages has been lagging other language
families for a variety of reasons. Internet connectivity in India being
limited/expensive is a major reason among them. Indic wikiprojects have
beens working to encourage more contributors for Indic Languages.
There are a number of areas on Indic wikipedias where content is either
lacking or is of poor quality. Health-related content is a prime example of
this.
Potential for solution
There is a strong and diverse Indian diaspora in the United States.
Eastern Seaboard has a large number of Indian expats that have either
settled there or live there for work/business. This was evidenced by the
20,000+ people attending a speech in Hindi by the Prime Minister of India
at Madison Square Garden, New York.
In general, the Indian origin community in the United States has very high
literacy rates. They are also well-versed in English as well as at least
one of Indic languages. Access to Internet is not an issue for this
demographic. Enthusiasm for advancement of Indic languages is also evident
by the many initiatives being pursued by this group.
What is your solution?
1. Dedicated workshops for Indian Languages in United States of
America.
2. Informal User Group to conduct periodic meetings/offline events.
3. Collaboration with local chapters and editors to improve Offline
Wikipedia in Indian Languages.
4. Special content (health related articles/essential medicines info
etc) on Indic Wikipedia can be improved by specialized dedicated group of
Indian medical students in U.S.
5. Collaboration with (U.S based) like minded individuals and
organizations dedicated to improve Open Knowledge movement in India.
Pilot Project
Outreach events in
- New York,
- Washington D.C,
- Boston
- Colorado Springs
- A session here will serve as an aide to developing and/or
fine-tuning presentations and sequence of activities.
- San Diego.
Goals
- Reach out to more Indians to increase their understanding of how
Indic Language Wikimedia projects work, and enable them to pass this
knowledge on to others.
- Improving and building upon contributions to Wikimedia projects in
English, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Commons etc.
- Increasing visibility, reach and access to Wikimedia projects
amongst Indian Americans, especially in students.
- Sign up students interested in our various activities & any other
training workshops planned.
- Conduct outreach sessions in universities, student fests, fairs etc.
Other benefits
- A strong, diverse and engaged students community.
- Growth in editorship and readership from U.S.
We look forward to hear from you. Kindly share your views here -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Indic_Language_Wikipedia_Out…
Keep Supporting, Keep Inspiring :-)
--
Warm Regards,
Abhishek Suryawanshi
User:AbhiSuryawanshi
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