Hello friends,
This is a link I recommend you to bookmark.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Geographical_distribution_of_Indian_Wikipedians
This list is useful for outreach & also whenever someone needs Wiki-Help in
a particular city. It would be great if Wikipedians could update this
list.:)
We have the following completely unrepresented states/UTs:
* Andaman & Nicobar Islands
* Arunachal Pradesh
* Assam
* Chandigarh
* Chhattisgarh
* Dadra, Nagar & Haveli
* Daman & Diu
* Goa
* Himachal Pradesh
* Jammu & Kashmir
* Jharkhand (AngPradesh is in Mumbai)
* Lakshadweep
* Manipur
* Meghalaya
* Mizoram
* Puducherry
* Punjab (oye, ye ki hoya!)
* Nagaland
* Uttar Pradesh
* Uttarakhand
Okay, all you admins, please update your status (Mikey my boy, that means
you too)!
Abroad, we dont have Indic Wikipedians listed for:
* Africa
* Australia
* Asia (other than India)
* Middle East
* North America
* South America
Unless you would like to stay off list, of course that's acceptable too.
May I also request Tinu / list admins to please forward it all the Indic
language & city Wikimedia lists. We need this resource to be as
comprehensible as possible.
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------
Hi all,
Needless to repeat the <India-Indic-Mobile-Growth> story. But I was
surprised even with that, many Indic wikipedias do not have a mobile
site(or some have gone dead since they failed to update for
MobileFrontend[1] changes), even the ones that had weren't very much
usable. Lets not cite, mobile phones do not have fonts, no one uses Indic
on mobile, we all know lot of people do use Opera-mini with complex script
rendering support.
* Please visit <yourlanguage>.m.wikpedia.org and see if there is a page. If
it has nothing but 'search, license, and action control' links, here[2] are
the steps that an admin need to do to get a mobile site running with
content. If you have problem in doing those, come and ask at
#wikimedia-tech (or #mediawiki {?}).
* When I visited Tamil wikipedia mobile site, I was restricted to content
that was put on mainpage, the links in it. Since my Symbian phone doesnt
have Indic input system, I cant search anything. The solution to this is to
have a list of articles in alphabetical order *and* display it in mobile
front page, like Assamese wikipedians have done[3]. Many Indic wikis have
this template, but few show it on main page. This might be incredibly
useful on mobile versions.
More thoughts on improving Mobile sites welcome :)
Mobile sites are important since,
1. Lot of people will be using this.
2. The Wikipedia app uses this(?) [Correct me if am wrong]
[1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend
[2]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/Mobile_Gateway#Mobile_homepa…
[3] http://as.m.wikipedia.org/
--
Regards
Srikanth.L
Hi Folks,
I was thinking of experimenting conducting online outreach. I want to try out if we can do an effective outreach event using a google+ (video) hangout. Virtual outreach has a number of advantages:
* No investment of time/effort/cost in travel
* Personal attention to each participant (because of individual video/screenshare facilities.)
* No complications of no laptops available at the venue or a limit on creating user names from a single IP address during the event
* Lower dependency on institutions/college fests to organize an event for us.
* Not limited by physical presence. Sitting in Kanyakumari, one can conduct outreach for interested folks in Kashmir!
This is just a trial to test if online outreach is effective, doable and manageable. This could be one of the ways forward! (Potentially, we could have more community members doing more events with a more diverse audience.)
I'm really excited. Fingers crossed!
Thanks
Nitika
A friend got in touch with me about this. He is currently seeing
advertisements on Wikipedia pages (on all pages except the home page). Here
is a link to a screenshot:
http://i.imgur.com/dhKyR.jpg
These advertisements were not visible to him when I asked him to check
through the secure WM server. These advertisements are also not visible to
him on any other web page. To the bottom right of each ad, there is some
text that says, "ads not by this site". I've taken a quick look through the
page source he forwarded, nothing looks untoward. His right-click menu does
not appear when he right-clicks on the ad.
He is based out of Mumbai and ISP is "Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd".
His IP address is 114.143.88.193 (or was, while he accessed this page; I've
since had him change his IP address since I'm sharing this one). I'm not
sure if this issue is restricted to Mumbai; since the IP address shows up
in Pune when I try to geolocate it (though I understand this is fairly
common).
The link he is directed to when he clicks the ad is this:
http://www.inkfruit.com/combo-landing?utm_source=CMP1002Combo&utm_medium=CP….
I'm adding this here and copying the founder of Inkfruit since the campaign
data in the URL parameters may help identify the problem (also, I'm not
sure if Inkfruit is aware of this campaign).
I've copied my friend here in case there are further questions he could
help answer.
Could this be a case of DPI by his ISP, or simply malware on his machine?
If it were the former, what would be the legal status of the issue?
Hi all,
Wikimania 2012 scholarships have been announced. Indian wikimedians who
have been awarded full/partial scholarships - please enter your details in
the page: http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikimania2012 This will be helpful for
mutual help with visa application, travel etc (last year it proved very
helpful)
-
Bala
Congrats to all folks who got through, specially to Ankur Anand, Akshay
Chugh, Ashish Dubey, Suhas HS, Nischay Nahata who are the 5 Indians to get
through under WMF.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sumana Harihareswara <sumanah(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 00:58
Subject: [Wikitech-l] GSoC announcement of students for 2012
To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/04/23/wmf-selects-9-students-for-gsoc/
Ankur Anand, integrating Flickr upload and geolocation into
UploadWizard. Mentor: WMF engineer Ryan Kaldari
Harry Burt, TranslateSvg ("Bringing the translation revolution to
Wikimedia Commons"). Mentor: WMF engineer Max Semenik
Akshay Chugh, making a convention/conference extension for
MediaWiki. Mentor: volunteer developer Jure Kajzer
Ashish Dubey, realtime collaboration in the upcoming visual editor.
Mentor: WMF engineer Trevor Parscal
Suhas HS, improvements to the OpenStackManager extension. Mentor:
WMF engineer Ryan Lane
Nischay Nahata, optimizing the performance of the Semantic MediaWiki
extension. Mentor: volunteer developer Markus Krötzsch
Aaron Pramana, watchlist grouping and workflow improvements. Mentor:
volunteer developer Alex Emsenhuber
Robin Pepermans, working on Incubator improvements and language
support, Mentor: WMF engineer Niklas Laxström
Platonides, a desktop application for mass-uploading files to
Wikimedia Commons. Mentor: me (as project manager and mentor of record;
Platonides will consult with technical experts)
Congratulations. You are the most promising students among the 63 who
applied, so we chose you to participate in our Google Summer of Code
program. Please consult your mentor to discuss what you ought to do
during the community bonding period (now till May 21).
Students whom we did not accept: please don't despair. As you can see,
you had a lot of very strong competition, and we only had nine slots.
We encourage you to keep learning about open source, use our IRC
channels and mailing lists, and even work on your projects as
volunteers! Most of us got into this hobby without GSoC, and you can
too. :-)
--
Sumana Harihareswara
Volunteer Development Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation
_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
--
Regards
Srikanth.L
(In response to a certain remark in ‘Malayalam Wikipedia could be emulated’)
(url - http://expressbuzz.com/topnews/%E2%80%98malayalam-wikipedia-could-be-emulat…)
The Malayalam Wikimedian community definitely deserves kudos. A
diverse bunch of people volunteered their effort and skills gratis for
many years to build up what is already a major educational aid in
Malayalam. This will play an actual positive role in community
development and that is what the greatest reward to the participants.
We are confident that they will go on with their exemplary work and
prove to be sources of inspiration to us all in the years to come.
That kind of satisfaction, at being part of something bigger than
oneself and being able to make a difference in the world, motivates
Wikimedians all over the world, as it does in India also.
Human nature causes wikimedians to look to the statements of WMF
officials for encouragement, advice and guidance (though imho they
should not). In this context, Newstead's comment at the
Wikisangamotsav in Kollam last weekend - "they don’t focus on
politics or personal gains" - can be construed as mischievous in the
worst case and mistaken in the best.
Though the WMF does dole out some grants to individuals and
communities, all Wikimedians are essentially unpaid volunteers, the
vast majority of which do not have access to resources provided by the
Foundation.
Such a remark casts aspersions wrongly on the rest of the Indian
wikipedian community, giving the casual reader the idea that the
Malayalam Wikimedians are paragons of virtue while the remainder of
the Indian Wikimedian community “focus on politics and personal gain”.
The remark indicates a deep distrust of the WMF for the general
community for reasons best known to them. Such a remark is hardly
constructive in motivating the entire bunch of Indian Wikimedians who,
as a collective whole, are making extremely valuable contributions to
society despite being unpaid volunteers and at the cost of a large
amount of personal time and often at their own expense.
The question arises at what could be the reason for politics and what
personal gains are to be found in doing Wikipedia editing or outreach?
Satisfaction, learning, peer approval, interaction with intelligent
fellow-believers, social service and fun are the personal gains for
editors - all legitimate rewards which one can partake off with
integrity and pride.
Politics arises when scarce resources are pursued by many. It cannot
be money, since all funds in Wikipedia are in the hands of the
Foundation which directly receives donations. Nor is it power, as the
community insists on it being a society of equals. The India Chapter
with its few executive members and completely budgetted by the WMF and
with its limited role & mandate cannot be considered worthy target of
Newstead’s remark either. So what politics are we talking about and
who is it that Newstead is referring to?
Perhaps the WMF feels offended by the criticism from Wikimedians
worldwide at the failure of a flagship educational program in India
last year or perhaps at local criticism in their mode of operation in
India and the cost-benefit analysis of their country program where
hundreds of thousands of dollars have been poured in with mediocre
results. Newstead may feel unhappy about these issues but public
statements like these do not add to the confidence of the community in
the WMF either.
In today's world, participants in citizen science or collaborative
projects such as Wikipedia expect the highest levels of transparency,
democracy and debate - in part, Wikipedia’s open ethos itself is
responsible for the extremely democratic aspirations of participants.
Wikipedians routinely engage in large debates on major and minute
issues. They absorb from their experience in the Project the idea that
all action is open for debate and that such criticism/dissent is not
only constructive but vital. It would be a strange quirk of fate,
should an office-bearer of WMF feel threatened by the values
encouraged by their own projects.
This distrust may also be seen as a clash of cultures - on one side, a
corporate culture where actions are expected to be accepted at face
value and not to be justified to those not in power, and on the other,
an open culture where nothing is sancrosanct and responsible action
and respectful response from all, including and especially Jimbo
Wales, is expected as a matter of moral right by volunteers.
The meaningful solution lies through engaging the community as equals
and stakeholders, not with public remarks like these. Wikimedian
volunteers understand and express their gratitude to the foundation
for creating and operating a vehicle which enables their useful
contribution to society. Reciprocally, it is time that WMF
representatives realise that it is the Wikimedian community that is
the living flesh and blood of Wikipedia, without whom the WMF cannot
exist, and who need to be engaged with mutual respect and
consideration, if the encyclopedia is to prosper in the long run.
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------
*Hi all,
There have been numerous outreach sessions organized all across India, so
we decided to organize a WikiWorkshop of our own in Ahmedabad. :)
We decided on the Electronics and Communication Engineering department at
LD Engineering College as the venue a couple of weeks earlier. This was
mainly because Harsh was confident that we would be able to obtain all the
permissions to use a classroom in time. The date was pretty convenient
since it was a state-wide holiday due to Parshuram Jayanti.
We had also invited Hisham to be a part of the event during Office hours on
19 April 2012. Hisham accepted our invitation to fly in and help us
conduct the workshop. Nitika followed up with the presentations and offered
to help us with event planning. Arnav Sonara, a Gujarati and English
Wikipedia volunteer translated parts of Nitika’s presentation into the
Gujarati language.
We received confirmation of participation from 42 students through a Google
Docs based sign up page created by me. This was very heartening and we
expected at least half of the students to actually turn up for the event.
;)
Hisham landed in Ahmedabad at 8.40am and was available at the venue around
9.30am. Anirudh and I joined in later. Hisham guided Harsh and I through
the presentation he was carrying so that Harsh could use them later for
future workshops in the city.
The time period before the scheduled time for the session was spent
discussing ideas with regard to the purpose and objectives of outreach.
Hisham opined that it is important to keep pursuing the newbies after they
attend outreach sessions and workshops, while Anirudh said that was
probably not the best use of scarce volunteer time, which could be better
spent contributing to the projects themselves, and helping those editors
who approach the veteran contributors on their own accord. We are
interested in learning from the follow-up work that the WMF India team has
done with regard to the programs it has run in the past and its direct
success with the recruitment of new editors. We hope this will start a
useful discussion.
Seventeen people turned up for the workshop. This included Vyom Majmudar,
a veteran Gujarati Wikipedia and a frequent Wikisource editor and Karthik
Mistry, a Debian geek and FOSS advocate.
I commenced the session by introducing Hisham to the participants. Hisham
then began with his presentation. The agenda of this workshop was to
acquaint the participants basics of Wikipedia editing - five pillars,
notability guidelines, followed by a short editing session.
Hisham guided the participants through the first four pillars of Wikipedia
but did not speak about the fifth pillar ([[WP:IAR|There are no firm rules
on Wikipedia]]). He told me that it would be a bit too advanced for new
editors to understand, and then asked to explain it to the participants.
Anirudh also elaborated on the third pillar of Wikipedia
([[Wikipedia:Wikipedia is free content]]) that Wikipedia not only provides
content free of charge, but that the users of the website are free to edit,
use, modify and distribute the content. Free as in free beer, and free as
in free speech and free markets. :)
After the presentation was concluded, eleven people stayed back in the
workshop out of which five were completely new to editing. We edited both
the English and Gujarati Wikipedia projects. [[w:gu:User:Shaildve]]
created three stubs while being guided by Vyom. [[User:Chirayu.Chiripal]],
who, by the way, does not speak Gujarati, has started contributing to
Gujarati Wikipedia by making templates. \m/
The City Bhaskar covered the story on the workshop.[1][2] Many thanks to
Noopur Raval for connecting us with the journalist.
Overall, we think there is scope for improvement in the way we present
Wikimedia projects to new users. Some of the topics we touched and
discussed such as notability guidelines, referencing and the five pillars
could have been presented in a more coherent manner. These are some of the
things we will be working on in the near future and would really like to
take help from more veteran Wikipedia editors to promote our projects in
the state of Gujarat. (Ashwin, are you listening? :P)
TL;DR: The Ahmedabad workshop was organized by Konarak Ratnakar and Harsh
Kothari on 24 April 2012. Seventeen participants attended the event.
Anirudh Bhati (Wikimedia India) and Hisham Mundol (WMF India Programs)
were also present. Hisham addressed the new users initially with a
presentation, and later the experienced contributors trained and answered
the newbies. It was great to have two veteran contributors like Vyom and
Anirudh around, who helped out greatly during the sessions. There is a lot
of scope for improvement in the quality of our outreach sessions and each
and every one of these events contributes to their constant improvement.
Best regards,
Konarak Ratnakar (with inputs from Anirudh Bhati)
[1]
http://epaper.divyabhaskar.co.in/detail.php?id=119618&boxid=42415839921&vie…<http://epaper.divyabhaskar.co.in/detail.php?id=119618&boxid=42415839921&vie…>
[2] http://www.divyabhaskar.co.in/article/MGUJ-AHM-c-69-843564-3161426.html*
