*DNA : "South India bags 50% of Wiki scholarships"*
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_south-india-bags-50pct-of-wiki-schola…
*There are only eight days to go for WikiConference India 2011, the first
national conference of its kind in India aimed at creating a platform for
Wikimedians (volunteers engaged in creating and editing content for all
Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia) from across the country to enter
into a dialogue about the future of the online encyclopaedia in India,
especially its Indian language counterparts.*
*
*
*Interest in this purely volunteer-driven activity can be gauged from the
number of scholarship applications that arrived for assistance to attend
the conference which will take place at the Fort campus of University of
Mumbai. A total of 7,070 applications were received and nearly 100
candidates were selected based on their level of contribution to Wikimedia
projects.*
*
*
*However, even though the conference is being held in Mumbai, the current
lack of awareness about Indian language Wikipedias in western India has
seen just over 15% of application awards go to this region, principally
Gujarat and Maharashtra.*
*
*
*“Within this we have a very strong presence from Pune, including a focused
community working on the Marathi language Wikipedia,” said Vickram Krishna,
head of the scholarship committee for the conference. He added that over
18% of scholarship applications came from the north, and 13% from the
eastern region. The largest number of scholarship-awarded participants came
from south, a total of 50%.*
*
*
*WikiConference India will be held between November 18 and November 20. To
register as a participant, visit bit.ly/wci11* .
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
*Important Note : *The publisher ( DNA / Dainik Bhaskar ) of the above news
article owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to kindly not
reproduce or circulate the content further. The information is only shared
only with an internal community who have been featured on this article.
All copyrights are duly acknowledged.
*The Hindustan Times : "Wikipedia plumbs for more Marathi articles"*
http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HM/2011/11/10/ArticleHtmls…
*Lack of digital archiving, limited Indian references and difficulty in
accessing the Devnagari script are the main reasons for the lack of
contributions made to the Marathi Wikipedia page, said Pranav Curumsey,
chairperson of WikiConference 2011, at a press conference on Wednesday.*
*“While the English Wikipedia page has more than four million articles, the
Marathi page has barely 35,000 articles,“ said Mandar Kulkarni, editor of
Marathi Wikipedia.*
*
*
*The WikiConference 2011, organised by the Mumbai Wikipedia community and
the Wikimedia Chapter (India), will be held from November 18 to 20 at the
Mumbai University Convocation Hall.*
*
*
*The conference will have a Marathi track, including paper presentations
and a group discussion on encouraging Wikipedia users to contribute to the
Marathi page of the webbased encyclopedia project. The three-day conference
will have Jimmy Wales, founder and chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation,
will address attendees during the three-day conference. “Out of the 700
seats, only 50 are vacant at the moment,“ said Hisham Mundol, consultant,
Wikimedia Foundation, India.*
*
*
*The conference will have paper presentations on topics such as Wiki for
the Blind, WikiBhasha: Our Experiences with Multilingual Content and Legal
aspects of Wiki culture.*
*
*
*“We will also have a panel discussion on Wiki Women Web: Bridging the
Gender Gap, which will encourage more women to write and edit articles on
our page,“ said Curumsey. “Even at the conference, only 14 % of the total
registrations include women. We need to change this mindset,“ he added.*
*Important Note* : The publisher ( The Hindustan Times ) of the above news
article owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to kindly not
reproduce or circulate the content further. The information is only shared
only with an internal community who have been featured on this article.
All copyrights are duly acknowledged.
*Oneindia.in : "Mumbai to witness 1st Wikipedia conference on Nov 18"*
English :
http://news.oneindia.in/2011/11/09/mumbai-to-witness-1st-wikipedia-conferen…
Tamil :
http://tamil.oneindia.in/news/2011/11/10/mumbai-to-witness-1st-wikipedia-co…
*The online encyclopaedia - Wikipedia, which has opened its first ever
officein India, is going to hold its first ever national conference in the
country. The three-day-long conference will be held in Mumbai from Nov 18.*
*
*
*The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales also will attend the first ever
WikiConference in India which will be organised at the Convocation Hall,
University of Mumbai, Fort Campus.*
*
*
*Stating about the mega event, President of Wikimedia chapter, Arjuna Rao
Chavala 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."*
*
*
*Supporting Mr Chavala's views, Pranav Curumsey, Chairperson, Organizing
Committee, WikiConference India stated, "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."*
*
*
*Here it can be recalled that the first Wikipedia office in India has been
set up at the national capital (New Delhi) with the aim to attract more
online readers through local languages. It has been reported that Wikipedia
has set up its first ever office outside the USA.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
*Important Note : *The publisher ( OneIndia.in / Greynium Information
Technologies Pvt. Ltd. ) of the above news article owns the copyrights of
the article / content. Request to not kindly reproduce or circulate the
content further. The information is only shared only with an internal
community who have been featured on this article. All copyrights are duly
acknowledged.
*AFP: "Wikipedia eyes India for language growth"*
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j6M8i-wPgsg3vT7wjlHyEokO…
MUMBAI — Wikipedia on Wednesday said it was banking on growth in the mobile
phone sector and increased Internet access to boost content in Indian
languages ranging from Hindi to Telugu.
The online encyclopaedia currently has versions in more than 20 languages
spoken in India, but the number of pages compared with English, and
considering the size of India's 1.2 billion population, is small.
"Today, we have 50-100 million Internet users and 700-800 million mobile
users (in India)," *Hisham Mundol*, India programmes consultant for the
non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, told a news conference in Mumbai.
"There's going to be a lot more people who will be more comfortable in
their mother tongues than English, so it (developing language pages) is
hugely important."
The founder of the user-generated website, *Jimmy Wales*, predicted last
year there could be at least 100,000 new articles in the top 10 Indian
languages by 2015.
Mundol said applications were required to boost access to the site via
smartphones as well as older handsets without broadband wireless access.
The Internet and Mobile Association of India on Tuesday said that there
were 112 million Internet users by September and the country was adding
five to seven million new users every month.
The industry body predicted that the number of users could leap to about
600 million in the next five years -- if government plans to widen Internet
infrastructure come to fruition.
India had 866 million mobile phone subscribers as of August 31 this year,
according to the latest government data.
The Wikimedia Foundation's India operation is the organisation's first
office outside the United States and was created to tap into the country's
open Internet culture.
A three-day national conference for existing and potential contributors is
being held in Mumbai from November 18.
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
*Important Note* : The publisher ( AFP ) of the above news article owns the
copyrights of the article / content. Request to not kindly reproduce or
circulate the content further. The information is only shared only with an
internal community who have been featured on this article. All copyrights
are duly acknowledged.
* Times of India : WikiConference comes to town*
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/WikiConference-comes-to-town…
*More than 600 people from across the country who regularly write and edit
Wikipedia entries will come together for the first 'WikiConference India',
to be held on the Mumbai University campus at Fort. The three-day event
will commence on November 18. *
*
*
*The conference, which is set to become an annual affair, is aimed at
providing a common platform for all Indian Wikimedians to discuss
challenges and exchange tipsand other information related to the Wiki
project. "We are also looking at encouraging more users to contribute in
their mothertongue so that we can build and improve 22 Indic-language
projects, including the Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati Wikipedias," said Hisham
Mundol, consultant and head, India Programs Division, Wikimedia . "Of the 1
lakh people who contribute, only around 3,000 are Indian. We want to
encourage more people to write articles about the country," he adds. *
*
*
*Co-founder of Wikipedia and chairman emeritus of the Wikimedia
foundation Jimmy
Wales will kick-start the event with a keynote address. This will be
followed by users presenting on Wiki-related topics, including a
visuallyimpaired user's experience of using the service and a talk that
encourages women to contribute more, considering that only 13% of
Wikipedians are women. *
*
*
*"This will be the first time users from different parts of the country,
contributing to different language Wikis, will be able to discuss tips and
problems they face while writing and editing articles," says Pranav Curumsey,
chairperson, organizing committee, WikiConference India.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
*Important Note : *The publisher ( Times of India ) of the above news
article owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to not kindly
reproduce or circulate the content further. The information is only shared
only with an internal community who have been featured on this article.
All copyrights are duly acknowledged.
Secretary Election
Naveen Francis is elected as Secretary, following the resignation of Gautam
John.
Outreach and Wiki Acadamies
14 people participated in Wiki Academy organised as part of Tathva at NIT
Calicut on Sep 24, 2011. The attendance was less than expected, as there
were several parallel sessions happening at the same time. Arjuna Rao
Chavala welcomed the participants and provided a overview of Wikipedia and
Wikimedia Chapter. Netha and Viswam covered wikipedia literacy and
essentials. Manoj and Abhishek helped the participants during hands on
session. Pranav Ashok, 3rd year CS student at NIT-Calicut ably took care of
the logistics and organisation of the event. Full
report<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wiki_Academy/National_Institute_of_Technology,_Cal…>
There have been several enquiries for conducting similar events from
different parts of the country following active promotion Wikipedia
Academies through various social media. Chapter is following up with the
proposers to firm up the schedules. Readers are requested to volunteer in
identifying additional co-hosts for Wiki Academies and help in conducting
the same.
Thanks Arjuna Rao Chavala, Abhishek, Manoj K Mohan, Netha Hussain and
Viswanathan Prabhakaran for organizing the Wiki Academy @ NIT Calicut.
First IRC Session
Chapter organised the first IRC session with community on Oct 29. The
discussion focused on organising Wiki Academies across India in the coming
months. Transcript<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Internet_Relay_Chats/Oct_29,2011>is
available.
City and Language SIG
Chapter would like to have strong City and Language SIG. Currently very few
members have identified themselves with a city/ language SIG by
participating in the voting process for Chairpersons. All the active people
on City and Language SIG are requested to conduct few events and take up
membership drive to strengthen the groups.
We look forward to your continued support
Best,
On behalf of Wikimedia Chapter
Thanks,
Naveen Francis
Secretary, Wikimedia India Chapter
[image: File:Wikimedia India logo.svg] <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/>
reachout
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge.*That’s our commitment.*
*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(a)text100.co.in / anish.borkataki(a)text100.co.in
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
Dear Wikimedians
Please note that the link for submitting the nominations is here:
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/NWR_2011
Shiju
On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 10:24 AM, Arun Ramarathnam <arunram25(a)gmail.com>wrote:
> Dear Wikimedians,
>
> Please submit your nominations at the following url:
> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/NWR_2011
>
> Please send in your nominations.
>
> Thank you.
>
> regards
> Arun
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 7:46 AM, Arjuna Rao Chavala <arjunaraoc(a)gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Dear Wikimedians,
>>
>> The traction for Wikimedia projects and content in Indian languages (and
>> Indian content in English) has been growing over the last decade thanks to
>> the passion and tireless contributions of several Wikimedians. We are
>> getting set for WikiConference India 2011 which is around the corner. The
>> Wikimedia Chapter Executive Committee (EC) and the Conference organising
>> team thought it is appropriate to recognize the most noteworthy
>> contributors to Indian language projects and Indian content in English
>> during the conference.
>>
>> Arun Ramarathnam and Naveen Francis from the EC are leading this
>> initiative. The process for the recognition has been prepared and a well
>> diversified Jury is identified. Details of the process and the Jury are
>> enclosed for your perusal.
>>
>> I would like to appeal to all of you to spare few minutes to think of
>> fellow wikimedians who made a significant difference over the first decade
>> of Wikimedia movement and nominate them for the recognition.
>>
>> Further communication on the wiki based nomination form would follow from
>> the Jury. Please spread this communication across other relevant lists and
>> participate enthusiastically and help make this initiative, the first
>> collective effort to appreciate stellar contributions from the community a
>> success.
>>
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Arjuna Rao Chavala
>>
>> President, Wikimedia India
>>
>> ***
>>
>>
>> Noteworthy Wikimedian Recognition
>>
>> The Recognition
>>
>> Wikimedia projects have been active in India for a few years and the
>> journey has been exciting (Wikimedia Chapter First Annual report<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/File:WMIN-AnnualReport2010-11.pdf>,
>> Gautam John's article<http://gkjohn.posterous.com/thoughts-on-wikipedia-in-india>and Wikimedia
>> Foundation article<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_India_Chronicles_%28150dpi%29.pdf>).
>> This has been made possible by the contributions of hundreds of Wikimedians
>> across various Wikimedia projects. WikiConference India 2011 is the first
>> conference and largest congregation of Wikimedians in India across
>> Wikimedia projects. The Wikimedia India chapter Executive committee
>> believes it would be befitting to use this opportunity to recognize
>> noteworthy contributions of some of the best contributors to our projects.
>>
>> The objective of this recognition is to appreciate Wikimedians
>> (contributing to India focused projects) from across Wikimedia projects and
>> languages for their contributions.
>>
>> The nomination process
>>
>> - Any Wikimedian can nominate any other wikimedian of their choice
>> for the recognition (preferred). Self nominations are also allowed.
>>
>>
>> - Nominees for the Recognition should have made significant
>> contributions to Wikimedia India projects or the movement. Contributions
>> include content, Outreach and contributions in any other form.
>> - Nominations should be through a filled Nomination form on the Wikimedia
>> India wiki <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/>.
>> - Incomplete nominations will not be considered.
>> - The jury's decision would be final.
>>
>>
>>
>> Eligibility Criterion
>>
>> Any wikimedian other than current Members of the Wikimedia India
>> Executive committee, members of the Jury, Wiki Conference India Office
>> bearers, staff/contractors of the Wikimedia foundation or anyone paid
>> directly for their time/effort by Wikimedia organisations are eligible for
>> these recognitions.
>>
>> The Jury
>>
>> Jury constitution
>> The chapter has constituted a Jury with members from the Chapter
>> Executive committee, Wikimedia Foundation India office, Conference
>> organisers and Community and other key stakeholders.
>>
>> Jury composition
>>
>> 1. Achal Prabhala
>> 2. Arun Ramarathnam
>> 3. Ashwin Baindur
>> 4. Bishaka Datta
>> 5. Hisham Mundol
>> 6. Jayanta Nath
>> 7. Naveen Francis
>> 8. Pradeep Mohandas
>> 9. Shiju Alex
>>
>>
>>
>> Jury's role and responsibility
>> The role of the jury will be to select Wikimedians for the recognition
>> from the nominations made.
>>
>> Key dates
>>
>> - Announcement of call for nominations to community: 9th Nov 2011,
>> Wednesday.
>> - Last date for nomination submission:13th Nov 2011, Sunday
>> - Finalisation of Jury decision:17th Nov 2011, Thursday
>>
>>
>>
>> The Recognition ceremony
>>
>> The Chapter Executive committee will conduct a formal recognition
>> ceremony in the WikiConference 2011 to recognise the winners. The winners
>> would be given a certificate/citation.
>> ***
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> WikiConference-India mailing list
>> WikiConference-India(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikiconference-india
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> WikiConference-India mailing list
> WikiConference-India(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikiconference-india
>
>