Hey All,
I am writing to invite each one of you to India WikiWomen's
Edit-a-Thon<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/India_WikiWomen%27s_Edit-a-Th…>that
has been scheduled for 25th March 2012, Sunday from 12:00pm to 2:00pm.
It's probably not possible for all of us to meet physically to celebrate
Women's Month but we all meet virtually - online!
During the two hour time slot we all will be editing an article which will
be pre-selected by way of nomination and votes. Depending on the number of
members joining in we can also organise an IRC meet to meet each other
before and during the event.
Everyone is welcome to come edit Wikipedia with us at this event. Women,
new editors, all those who relate to women's history or women's issues,
those who want to learn how to edit or can teach others how, and anyone
with an interest in women's history are particularly encouraged to attend.
Please sign Up here<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/India_WikiWomen%27s_Edit-a-Th…>and
suggest and vote for articles
here<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/India_WikiWomen%27s_Edit-a-Th…>.
Nomination for articles will be closed by 22nd of March and the voting will
be closed by 24th March. Hurry! :)
Thanks Nitika <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Nitika.t>, for bringing up
this idea!
I welcome all of you to participate by editing subjects about women's
history and more. Everyone is welcome!
Thanks
--
Netha Hussain
User : Netha Hussain <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Netha_Hussain> on
Wikiprojects
Student of Medicine and Surgery
Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode
Blogs : *nethahussain.blogspot.com
swethaambari.wordpress.com*
Hi Wikimedians in India,
Recently i've been making improvements to the enhanced editing
toolbar, and especially to its "Special Characters" functionality.
The enhanced editing toolbar should be enabled for most of you, but in
case it isn't, go to "My Preferences" -> "Editing" and check "Enable
enhanced editing toolbar" and "Enable dialogs for inserting links,
tables and more" under "Usability features".
Can you please take a look at the toolbar and tell me whether it has
the features needed for your language? It would be really useful if
you could check these things:
* When you are using the toolbar in the English Wikipedia, is the
"Special characters" section useful for adding characters in your
language, for example if you want to add an Indian name? Does it have
all the required characters, including letters, vowels and punctuation
marks? Do the fonts work? Are the characters added correctly to the
editing field?
* When you are using the toolbar in the Wikipedia in your language,
does it provide all the needed functionality as well as in the English
Wikipedia?
If you experience any problems, please tell me and indicate the
versions of the browser and the operating system.
Thank you,
--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
Dear all,
Here is a story by this reporter who attended the Delhi meet up. Caravan folks had been contacting us for a while regarding 'Wikipedia meet ups' and finally their reporter Krishn landed up at the 7th meet up. Just a heads up, these are entirely his observations and even the quotes are not verbatim. He's paraphrased what he heard us say. Subha will agree. Anyway, it's a good piece on an outsider's perspective of Wikipedia outreach.
Also, it happens almost always that journalists are clueless about the Wiki universe and end up misquoting facts, figures, terms. Maybe a journalist outreach session or inviting them to attend an entire editing session could remedy this?
[1] http://caravanmagazine.in/Story.aspx?StoryId=1345
--
FACT CHECK: Krishn Kaushik
BALADEVAN RANGARAJAN moved his brown beanbag to the centre of the room, closer to the round wooden table on which lay a Macbook. He wasn’t well acquainted with the laptop’s keyboard, so he used a wireless one instead. A wall-mounted flat screen TV transmitted the Macbook’s display to a gathering of 14 seated around the unadorned room.
The first step, he instructed the attendees, was to create a Wikipedia account. It was this year’s first summertime meeting for Wikipedia Meetup Delhi (WMD7, to be exact), and most in attendance were newcomers. Launched in 2010, the meetups have helped train aspiring Wikipedians in Delhi the art of editing Wikipedia entries about India.
While registering for an account, Rangarajan tried typing ‘baladevan’ for his username twice—but a prompt informed him that it was already being used by someone else. He tried ‘baladevan.rangarajan’ next, and this time the system accepted.
Asked by the website to introduce himself to other Wikipedia users in the form of a short description, Rangarajan, with side-parted hair and thick eyebrows that slope inwards, typed that he was a public policy researcher who “loves kids and freedom”. Sweet and grand.
With the formality over, Rangarajan opened his first Wikipedia page as an editor: one about Pav Bhaji. The opening sentence read: “‘Pav Bhaji’ (Marathi) is a fast food dish that originated in Marathi cuisine, and is native to Maharashtra and is popular in most metropolitan areas in India, particularly in Gujarat.”
Suspicious, he noted that Pav Bhaji is not just famous in the metropolitan areas of Gujarat, but in cities in central and western India more generally.
He confirmed his claim by citing Retail Franchising, a Tata McGraw Hill publication he found on Google Books that talks about the food’s popularity in central India. After all, for facts to hold, they require reliable sources.
And so he rephrased the sentence: “Pav Bhaji (Marathi) is a fast food dish that originated in Marathi cuisine. It is native to Maharashtra and is popular in most metropolitan areas in India, especially in those of central and western Indian states such as Gujarat.”
Much better; everybody else agreed. Rangarajan had just established a fact internationally. And, now, nobody would doubt it.
The Wikipedia Foundation’s office, where Rangarajan had established Pav Bhaji’s regional specificity, is situated in a non-descript building in Hauz Khas. On a door three floors above the street, a wooden nameplate—each letter framed in a small wooden square—reads WIKIPEDIA. Inside are two rooms each with white walls and five workstations: airy and minimalist like the website. The foundation currently has five people on staff, two of which were at the meetup: Subhashish and Nupur.
“We belong to diverse backgrounds,” Subhashish had said before the meetup began when there were only four people in the room. Of the 15 Wikipedians present by the end of the session, at least 11 had been trained as engineers, including Subhashish.
Noopur said that women were underrepresented in the community globally—there were just three present at WMD7.
“Thank god! We would have articles about shades of lipsticks otherwise,” blurted Abhishek, a lanky man with a goatee. Wikipedia was too serious to be “pink” for him. An engineering student from Ghaziabad, he described himself as a “write[r]” of poetry and philosophy, on his Wiki profile. “I have learnt everything from Wikipedia. More than from anyone else,” he added.
As the group focused on the TV screen, which displayed the procedure to establish Pav Bhaji’s popularity in particular parts of India, a plump man with nascent whiskers—Roboture in his Wikipedian avatar—was surfing for more items to edit. An engineer from Jamia Millia Islamia, he surveyed the pages for ‘Poha’, ‘Dahi Bhalla’ and ‘Flattened Rice’, among others, but changed nothing.
It had been one and a half hours since the meeting began, and the group was still mulling over Pav Bhaji. “The lazy bums or those unwilling to invest more time in enhancing or creating Wiki pages can start with translating already existing entries into one of the many Indian-language Wikipedia sites”, Noopur admonished, with a smile.
“Can we reference magazine articles for any edits we make?” someone asked. Two senior Wikipedians advised the group against doing so. “Not well researched,” said Rangrajan.
Important Note : The publisher ( Caravan ) 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.
Thanks,
Regards
Noopur
*[Something I posted as a message to Pradeep's talk page on his decision to
retire from Wikipedia. But I think may make sense to many of you. Please
ignore if you think I'm caballing]*
*
*
*Why retire from here?*
Remember the good old days? When we used to edit in our own cocoons? The
only communication between two editors was through talk pages and the
occasional use of [[Special:Emailuser]]. And we had fun. That fun is why
we're still here.
We moved on to more communication, more outreach. All good. We need to
spread the word. We're evangelists of the noblest of causes. It's all good.
Now there are mailing lists. And IRC. And meetups. And Chat. Chain mails
and more chain mails. Each more frustrating than the other. We're all in
cabals. If not voluntarily, we're slotted into them by force of opinion. As
this message is being read by others visiting this page, I'm being slotted
into one. You have to be pro-someone and anti-someone else. And we fight
till our teeth come loose. And then some more. Politics is fun now.
Wikipedia, not so much.
And if this lack of AGF, too much BITE, BATTLE and blah is too much,
retire. But not from Wikipedia.
Retire from the mailing lists, the meetups, the cabals and the works. If
you're considering quitting Wikipedia, quit those instead. Wikipedia can
still be fun. Edit the articles on astronomy and India space projects
again. India-related patrolling. Contribute to Commons. Only respond to
messages on your talk page. And that occasional email.
As an experienced editor who's largely inactive, I've considered retiring
often rather than staying in limbo. Time and again, I've decided not to. I
may not be able to contribute regularly, but I can step in that one time
when all the experience probably counts for something. Because Wikipedia
was there for me when I really needed it and I will be there when it really
needs me.
We've been struggling with editor retention and that's understandable.
People quitting Wikipedia because it's now a battleground is
understandable. Valuable, experienced editors quitting because the mailing
lists are suffocating, is NOT.
You can edit. Always.
Cheers
~~~~
Hi all,
Greetings from Wikimedia India.
In 2011, WikiConference India was held for the first time and turned out to
be a landmark event.
It was the largest Wikipedia conference in the world, ever held to date!
Last year, the Mumbai Community led the way, playing host and inviting the
rest of India to Mumbai, something that has had a match-stick impact on the
Wikimedia movement growth nationwide.
The time has come for us to now think of WikiConference India 2012. Several
communities from different parts of the country have evinced interest in
hosting the conference this year.
We would like to invite for a Bootstrap team for aiding WikiConference
India 2012.
It will be three member team which will also work in coordination with
Executive Committee of Wikimedia India Chapter. One of the team members
will be playing a lead role.
The role of team is to work with the chapter members and the larger
community
* to discuss, invite framework & process for the WikiConference 2012
* to actively consult and take feedback from the different stakeholders.
* to call for and set up jury members for the selection of the city.
* To invite and facilitate the bidding process and guidelines.
We request the volunteers who are interested to send an email expressing
your interest @ chapter(a)wikimedia.in as early as possible.
Thanks,
Tinu Cherian
Head of Communications,
Wikimedia India Chapter
Hey,
I have been watching the list silently for last few months, have discussed
with some of the active members in the community and here is what I feel:
*To the community:*
* There is simply too much noise and politics in this list. I got so fed up
that I chose to receive no mails for some time. Please be aware that this
list is also followed by global community due to the global south
strategy's significance. Should I request that we can behave better?
* WMF India programs, Wikimedia India chapter and the Indian Wikimedia
community are autonomous entities each answerable to their own framework.
The community can express its requirements, give feedback and point out
when the chapter and WMF India programs can do better but we cannot imagine
us to be in a position to control each and every detail of their activity.
For example, questioning the hiring rationale of the WMF India programs is
simply wrong. Do we interfere on such things with the global WMF? Then why
do so with India operations? Such things are completely within the autonomy
of the organization.
If we need something from the chapter, let us join it and participate. If
we need something from the WMF India Programs, let us voice it officially.
For example, Shiju was asking for project proposals from each Indic
Wikipedia community village pump. That will be the best place to partner
with WMF India programs. Not the mailing list. If something can't be done
by WMF India programs, then let us request a grant.
Unless the community is cleary impacted in a negative way, criticising
every activity of the WMF India programs even before they start can only
shatter their morale.
* I don't know the value of the match-stick impact of the first Wiki
conference India. But, let me wait for its report to see if its really
worth the lakhs and lakhs of Rupees spent on it. Until then, I am not so
keen on an annual Wiki conference of the same scale. Let us do the real
work in Wikipedias and improve them instead of spending our time in mailing
lists.
*To the chapter and the WMF India programs:*
I expect something bigger and grander from both of these organizations.
They should undertake work that the community can't do by itself or which
doesn't require the community work at all.
Example: Making strategic partnerships with academic, knowlege, corporate
and Govt. institutions for non-IEP purposes. This could be acquisition of
archives under free license or partnering with media / mobile phone
companies to distribute Wiki content.
Right now, there is too much overlap on who does what that ultimately most
of the community work is claimed as work done by chapter or the India
programs. We don't require a chapter or India programs to do what the
community was already doing by itself. At least, I don't see how this can
justify their annual budgets.
One personal request: I see that too much of your time is wasted in the
mailing list. Be BOLD, communicate / clarify only when required and to the
minimum. Just implement better and bigger programs and delight the
community with good results.
Thanks,
Ravi
Great, do join us there, it'll be really great if you can come.
Thanks,
Piyush
On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 7:47 PM, Kinshuk Sunil <kinshuksunil(a)gmail.com>wrote:
> Aweomse! I'd like to help with anything that needs doing.
>
> On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 7:43 PM, Piyush Aggarwal <
> me.piyushaggarwal(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Greetings Everyone,
>>
>> Wikipedia has been invited by Jaypee Institute of Information
>> Technology, Noida<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaypee_Institute_of_Information_Technology> (JIIT,
>> Noida) to conduct a workshop during their annual fest Impressions<http://impressions12.com/index.html>.
>> There will be a session on the 31st of March (Saturday). The agenda
>> includes explaining the Basics of Wikipedia, 5 Pillars, Few Policies,
>> Anatomy of an article, Basic editing etc.
>>
>> Here is the link to the event:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Workshop/Delhi_Workshop_5
>>
>> If you'd like to help out please add your details here:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Workshop/Delhi_Workshop_5#Facilitato…
>>
>> Apologies for sending this mail so late, got caught up in work.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Piyush Aggarwal
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia-in-del mailing list
>> Wikimedia-in-del(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-del
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Kinshuk Sunil
> +919910024895
>
>
Sir,
I had herpes a months back and it is still troubling me. hence I am not able to go through the wikimails. Kindly stop sending me these re- letters at your earliest convenience.
R K S Rathore
10, Govind Nagar
Shahganj
AGRA 282 010