WikimediaIndia-l June 2012

wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

45 participants
48 discussions

[Press]: Lessons and tips on getting media coverage

by Noopur Raval

Dear all, Over the past one month, we've been working with community members from Assamese, Kannada Malayalam and Nepali communities to get maximum possible media coverage and press support in order to highlight their community and events and hopefully get new editors for our movement. In all cases, I help prepare the press release<http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%B5%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%95%…>(as, kn, ml, ne), then community members translate it and then we work together to try and reach out to the widest possible audience. Here are a few links to the press releases and newspaper articles. There are a few in local language papers that are not online. Also, all these reports are due to the collaborative effort and very important follow up by community members like Jyoti, Bishnu, Gitartha, Omshivaprakash, Anoop, Ramesh, Kannan, Sujith, Saroj and Ganesh for the communities respectively. Assamese: http://www.northeasttoday.in/our-states/assam/assamese-wikipedia-celebrates… http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=765639 http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/article3… http://www.sify.com/news/assamese-wikipedia-completes-10-years-of-existence… http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/assamese-wikipedia-completes-10-… http://issuu.com/assamese/docs/ghy_13062012?mode=window&backgroundColor#222… http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120611/jsp/northeast/story_15594299.jsp http://sevensisterspost.com/?p=17895 http://amarasom.glpublications.in/Details.aspx?id=9509&boxid=103211609 Kannada: http://epaper.udayavani.com/Display.aspx?Pg=H&Edn=MN&DispDate=6/18/2012 http://allevents.in/Bangalore/483961428297721 Malayalam: http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=82424 http://keralaitnews.com/state-scan/other-cities/4717-kollam-to-host-malayal… http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article3351423.e… http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-14/social-media/3134186… http://www.techgoss.com/Story/557S12-Wiki-Malayalam-Meet-held-at-Kerala.aspx http://article.wn.com/view/2012/04/28/Malayalam_wiki_most_innovative/ http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/sci-tech/hitech/malayalam-wiki-most… http://ibnlive.in.com/news/malayalam-wikipedia-could-be-emulated/253196-60-… http://newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/article390787.ece Nepali: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34914418/Nagarik_Article.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34914418/karobar_article.png Radio Sagarmatha broadcasted an interview with a Wikipedian Ganesh Paudel... Radio Nepal Bani Broadcasted an interview with Wikipedians located in Kathmandu (Mr. Ganesh Paudel and Mr. Saroj Dhakal) Just thought I'd share a few pointers based on what went right and what could have been better on my part. This may help you in the future if you too are looking to get media attention for your community and events. A few lessons: *Planning:* - Database of contacts: We have put in place a fairly comprehensive database of English as well as local press, television and radio contacts. I'd be happy to share them with anyone who needs to get in touch with journalists. - In case of local language newspapers, calling a journalist/newspaper office or personally visiting them to give the press brief always works better than e-mailing. Most local language newspapers still prefer a hard copy of the brief or even ask for a fax sometimes. - For the Assamese anniversary celebrations, we had an agenda well in advance and we (the community members and I) made sure the press release was ready in English as well as in Assamese so we could send it out to newspapers, television channels and radio stations. - Regarding English language newspapers, it is always advisable to call first and then e-mail the brief to a senior editor as well as a staff reporter (at least two people within the organization) to ensure the story receives due attention. Attaching a few photographs of your past meetups is a good idea. - It is advisable to translate the press release and attach both versions while sending it to the journalist. - If you are planning to have an event on the weekend, make sure you call and e-mail much earlier during the week. *Event:* - Always make sure to invite the journalists to your event. This will not only help in getting a comprehensive story but will also encourage them to take up editing. - Dealing with news channels and radio stations: While DY 365 channel covered the Assamese meetup, other channels did not bother to follow up. For radio, it *only* works if you speak to them in local language. *Other tips:* - It is a *must* to put in a contact number of preferably an email ID at the end of a press release. Maybe all communities should have either a chapter email ID (like bengali(a)wikimedia.in) or a gmail ID run by an active community member. This can be super useful and will avoid giving out personal details. - Building a quote pool: How about we keep a few quotes from different community members on the basics - (examples: why I edit, how I edit, what is your message to fellow Marathi/Tamil/Gujarati speakers) ? Of course, quotes from people are crucial and must not be misused but, this can help the Chapter communications team too - Getting the article right: Spelling mistakes, misquoted information, erroneous figures are a common problem with Wikipedia stories. Although it may not always be possible, do request the journalist to show you the article before publishing it. - Targeting news agencies: After the Assamese press experience, I realized having one PTI press release ensures that the story reaches at least 4-5 newspapers. This is a very effective way of maximizing media coverage. I might have missed out on a few lessons and invite community members and the chapter communication team to contribute with more inputs. Maybe we can even document this on Meta for future reference. Thank you, Best Noopur -- Noopur Raval

5 years, 7 months

Please add your name to the Geographical List of Indian Wikipedians

by Ashwin Baindur

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 ------------------------------------------------------

5 years, 9 months

Mobile sites of Indic Wikipedias

by Srikanth Lakshmanan

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

11 years, 2 months

Fwd: [Wikikn-l (kannada wikipedia)] Global Vandalism through IP 212.121.219.1 on Indian territory info

by Harish

This has been observed and reverted in Kannada wikipedia. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tejas jain <teju2friends(a)gmail.com> Date: 2012/2/2 Subject: [Wikikn-l (kannada wikipedia)] Global Vandalism through IP 212.121.219.1 on Indian territory info To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, wikikn-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Some one has done global vandalism through IP 212.121.219.1< http://toolserver.org/%7Eluxo/contributions/contributions.php?user=212.121.… >on Indian territory info. User's edit list: http://toolserver.org/~luxo/contributions/contributions.php?user=212.121.21… Arunachal pradesh <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachal_Pradesh> and Jammu_and_Kashmir <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir> are hatched as disputed. Was there any discussion before these changes? All the edits on Kannada wiki <http://kn.wikipedia.org/> have been reverted because of following reasons, 1. No discussion prior to the changes 2. No references were made 3. Changes done anonymously 4. No change log message 5. No such changes are done on English wiki If it is sure case of vandalism, changes have to be reverted globally. Thanks, Tejas jain < http://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF:… > _______________________________________________ Wikikn-l mailing list Wikikn-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikikn-l -- Harish 9740069624

11 years, 4 months

Report on WCI 2011

by wheredevelsdare＠hotmail.com

Hi, This is to inform those interested that User:Prad2609 and I have written a report on WCI 2011 which is public on meta [1]. A warning on queries; we probably wont answer those since Prad2609 has unsubscribed from all Wikipedia mailing lists and retired and Iv got other priorities myself. Once again, we thank all those involved with WCI 2011 and thank the Indian Community which responsible for making it a resounding success. Signing off, [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IN/WikiConference_India_2011/Report

11 years, 7 months

FOSS.in - call for proposals open till 8 July

by Sumana Harihareswara

https://lwn.net/Articles/502488/ FOSS.in will take place from November 29th to December 1st at the NIMHANS Convention Center in Bangalore. I would love for the Indian Wikimedia technical community to propose talks and tutorials and miniconferences! The CfP mentions specifically wanting talks about "Education solutions for the 21st century" as well as web development, mobile, privacy, and other topics. http://foss.in/cfp -- Sumana Harihareswara Engineering Community Manager Wikimedia Foundation

11 years, 9 months

Android ICS support for Tamil and Indic languages

by Ravishankar

Hi, I did some testing on how the recently released Android ICS supports Indic languages. *Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and Hindi are the only Indian languages supported for now*. Oh ya, it can also show English well without a problem ;) You can view the findings in details at http://microblog.ravidreams.net/2011/12/android-ics-support-for-tamil-indic… Screen shots with description can be found at https://picasaweb.google.com/115896376016313561916/AndroidICSSupportForIndi… I could not view the web fonts in Kannada, Telugu Wikipedias as Gerard has indicated at http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-android.html Please let me know if I have to configure anything. One major To Do for all Indic Wiki projects: The mobile version homepage of most of the Indic Wikipedias is not showing anything except the search box. Please configure this well. You can see ta.m.wikipedia.org for example. Ravi

11 years, 10 months

Experimenting with Virtual Outreach

by Nitika

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

11 years, 10 months

Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2011

by Karthik Nadar

Hi all. For all those who had been curious about Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2012, the results have been declared: 1. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2011/Results 2. Winning file of the year<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_Bondhus_Norway_2862.jpg> Wishing to see too many Images relating to India contesting next for the next year :) -- Thanks and regards, (User:Karthikndr <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Karthikndr>) *Karthik Nadar.*

11 years, 10 months

Mumbai meetup

by Karthik Nadar

Hi all, this is in reference to an upcoming meetup in Mumbai, which is yet to be announced. Applause's to Nikita Belavate, who wanted the forthcoming meetup to be much more productive one. She wanted to do an editing session, to motivate and explain other non-editing volunteers to edit Wikipedia articles. We have few volunteers who haven't yet involved themselves in editing ever, whereas we believe that the promary and best way of contributing to Wikipedia is by editing and helping the article grow both in quantity and quality. I'm sure its been much gap, since an editing session in Mumbai, and the plan sounded great. +n for it! :) However, we do always face venue problem, and yeah an editing session will involve a couple of internet connected computers. Will be great if anyone knows any place in Mumbai, where we can use their systems probably for *two hours* for the meetup. Just an attempt to enhance the Mumbai community in absence of some senior volunteers. *Do please let us know*! Thanks in advance! -- Thanks and regards, (User:Karthikndr <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Karthikndr>) *Karthik Nadar.*

11 years, 10 months

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WikimediaIndia-l June 2012