Dear All,
As you all remain aware the world's biggest sporting event 'The Olympics'
is set to knock the door, this August. At present, 111 athletes from India
have qualified, the largest ever contingent. More than 311 National
Coaching Camps have been held across India as a part of their
pre-tournament preparation. To celebrate this sporting festival we at
Wikimedia India have decided to promote a virtual-edit-a-ton.
During the primary research, It was observed that a lot many areas on
Indian Sports and 'India at Olympics' for which no article exist. Even if
they do, there presence on Indian languages remain negligible. Considering
this event would be in progression soon, we have decided to promote this
activity. A draft note could be found here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMIN/Events/India_At_Rio_Olympics_2016_Edit-a-ton>
although this is still in the development stage.
While working on Olympics we have made attempts to promote virtual
edit-a-ton on a different theme altogether, we also decided to make the
awards different. For every 15 good articles created by an editor,
Wikimedia India would be planting trees on their behalf in their name
symbolising '*Wikipedia* *India Supports India at Olympics, tree planted by
Wikipedian......*'. Considering tree plantation involves significant time
and human labour, we have partnered with a tree plantation organisation
SankalpTaru <https://www.sankalptaru.org/>. They would be our sponsors for
this event. Pomegranate trees in Barmer, Thar Desert Rajasthan would be
planted. These trees will be planted on a rural farmer's land who would
further nurture these trees under the supervision of SankalpTaru. Once the
harvest starts, the local inhabitants would start earning livelihood by
selling fruits (based on the consent of Wikipedia who is awarded the
respective tree). A virtual forest could also be monitored online here.
<http://www.sankalptaru.org/c/642> This is a novel idea of English
Wikipedian Mr. Rudra Pratap Sinha (User:JimCarter)
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jim_Carter>. Wikimedia India is
further bringing this this idea into practice, more information here </>.
Besides this, we are happy to inform, Niyogi
<http://www.niyogibooksindia.com/> Books has decided to sponsor the
biography of Mr. Prakash Padukone, 'Prakash Padukone Story' <http:///>and
Sir Sunil Gavaskar, 'Cricket's Little Master'
<http://www.niyogibooksindia.com/showcase/259/>. Every participants who
completes 15 good articles would also be awarded a book.
We plan to roll out this event between 29th July, 2016 and 25th August,
2016. In the meantime we request you all to please provide suggestions on
how to make this event effective.
*Disclaimer : This event is totally a zero-budget exercise.*
Thanks
--
Srivastava
Executive Committee Member|Wikimedia India
Ph - +91-9711739003|Skype: abhinavsrivastava619
Wiki Username - abhinav619