Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] New members of Language committee
Congrats, Santhosh. What are the functions of a language committee member? - Sundar "That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted." - George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture > >From: CherianTinu Abraham >To: Discussion list on Indian language projects of Wikimedia. > >Sent: Tue, March 1, 2011 11:31:58 AM >Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] New members of Language >committee > >Congratulations and Best wishes to Santhosh Thottingal ! > > >Regards >Tinu Cherian > > >-- Forwarded message -- >From: Milos Rancic >Date: Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 10:49 PM >Subject: [Foundation-l] New members of Language committee >To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List > > >I am glad to announce that Language committee is stronger for three >new members. By the time of getting their applications, the list is: > >Ζαχαρίας Διακονικολάου (Zaharias Diakonikolau) (meta:User:ZaDiak) >* languages spoken: el, en-4, de-2, grc-2, pnt-1 >* living in: Europe, Greece, Rhodes >* reason for inclusion: A couple of months ago Language committee >announced that it is searching for members from the [types of] >projects which don't have Wikipedia-like dynamics. Zaharias has passed >as an applicant from Wikiversity (he is admin at Beta Wikiversity and >bureaucrat at Greek Wikiversity). However, his qualifications go >further: he is actively working on creation, editing and promoting >projects in various Greek languages. Knowing that he is young, he will >be our long term investment, too. > >Oliver Stegen]] (meta:User:Baba Tabita) >* languages spoken: de, en-4, sw-3 nl-1, fr-1 >* living in: Africa, Kenya, Nairobi (from Europe, Germany) >* reason for inclusion: Oliver is a linguist who is working for SIL on >East African languages. We'll have one ultra-relevant expert in >LangCom thanks to Jon Harald Søby, one of the LangCom members, who met >Oliver in Nairobi. > >Santhosh Thottingal]] (meta:User:Santhosh.thottingal) >* languages spoken: ml, hi-3, en-3, ta-2, >* living in: Asia, India, Chennai (Madras) >* reason for inclusion: Santhosh is a free software guru interested in >languages. He will help us in articulating projects for covering >language-related needs of Wikimedia projects. > >I want to add one more point related to Santhosh. He has passed as a >LangCom member not because he is from India, but because he has >relevant expertise and right attitude. Although he speaks three Indian >languages, he has become a member of LangCom because he is a free >software guru interested in languages. Before Santhosh's application, >we would have been happy to see anyone with this qualification and >this attitude, no matter of location of birth or residence. > >However, Bishakha's question and subsequent conversation helped, as it >gave impulse to Santhosh to submit the application. And that brings to >my mind that it would be good to pass the whole world periodically and >raise the geographical equality issue. And it is not a joke. That's >obviously giving people courage, or at least the idea, that they have >the same right to become members of any Wikimedia body, as any >Westerner has. Sometimes the qualifications won't be relevant for >particular position, sometimes they will. > >___ >foundation-l mailing list >foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org >Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > >___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Recent Tamil Wiki outreach efforts
Good job Ravi and Tamil Wiki community. Glad to see lots of good activities and outreach around Tamil Wiki. Would love to see such enthusiasm from other language Wiki communities too. Regards Tinu Cherian On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 3:09 PM, Ravishankar wrote: > Hi, > > Just a quick update on recent Tamil Wiki outreach efforts: > > In the last 60 days, Tamil Wikipedians conducted 7 workshops / meetups. > > 1. December 28, 2010 - Mattakkalappu, SriLanka. First organized Wiki meetup > in SriLanka where Tamil is an official language and has millions of Tamils. > > 2. January 15, 2010 - Chennai, India. On the occasion of Ten Wiki. > > 3. January 16, 2010 - Toronto, Canada. The city has Srilankan Tamil > population in lakhs. There were smaller / informal Tamil Wiki intros in this > city even before this. Two of the most active Tamil Wikipedians reside in > Canada. > > 4. February 6, 2010 - Chennai, India. > > 5. February 20, 2010 - Trichy, India. > > 6. February 20, 2010 - Puduchery, India. First Wiki event in this Union > Territory of India. Tamil is an official language here and has Tamil > population in Lakhs. > > 7. February 26, 2010 - Coimbatore, India. (Students only event) > > The next workshop is planned for March 6, 2010 near Trichy, India. > > Pictures from these events can be seen at the sidebar links at > > http://bit.ly/gveSnh > > Some thoughts: > > * Malayalam Wikians had such series of workshops all over recently and that > was certainly an inspiration for us. And that is the reason we share our > experience now for others. > > * First few workshops happened in 2009. It was hard to arrange and > frequency was less. But once we start doing, we learn things, share > resources and get more people involved. > > * We can't expect that every new workshop will bring immediate editors. I > have seen people starting editing after they keep hearing about Wiki > everywhere and often. So, this can be approached like an ad campaign. No one > runs to shop after seeing the ad. But it works later. Infact, we got a very > active editor after he listened to the event's audio recording posted. He > was in Mumbai and the event happened in Chennai. So it is always good to > document the events as much. > > * Besides attracting new editors, it helps build rapport among existing > editors. New editors who attend the event are delighted by the friendship / > collaborative spirit by other editors. This gives them a sense of ownership > / belonging for the project and start editing more and taking part in > organizing future events. One of our most active editor now is an English > Wikipedian who participated in a Tamil Wiki workshop. In his own words, > after seeing people's happiness to have content in Tamil, he started editing > Tamil Wikipedia more. > > * People want to see faces and hear words directly. They are convinced in > person even if we have the same FAQ in Wikipedia website. When we give the > demo, they also learn that it is not so easy to edit as they thought. > > * People who attend these workshops get impressed and invite us to conduct > workshop in their colleges / city and they arrange the venue and other > resources too. So, even though arranging first few events may be difficult, > later more people help. > > * Participating in bigger events like book fairs, internet fairs, FOSS > fairs can only give limited scope to introduce in a very basic way to fast > moving crowd. But it is a good opportunity for Wikimedians to network with > key people working in other knowledge forums and certainly helps in > promoting the Wikipedia brand. More on this later. > > * 2010 is a significant growth year for us and the growth rate in terms of > daily edits, new editors, active editors has almost doubled in last 6 > months. We believe that these workshops and other outreach efforts done > before helped us achieve this in some way :) > > Ravi > > > > ___ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > > ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] New members of Language committee
Congratulations and Best wishes to Santhosh Thottingal ! Regards Tinu Cherian -- Forwarded message -- From: Milos Rancic Date: Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 10:49 PM Subject: [Foundation-l] New members of Language committee To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List I am glad to announce that Language committee is stronger for three new members. By the time of getting their applications, the list is: Ζαχαρίας Διακονικολάου (Zaharias Diakonikolau) (meta:User:ZaDiak) * languages spoken: el, en-4, de-2, grc-2, pnt-1 * living in: Europe, Greece, Rhodes * reason for inclusion: A couple of months ago Language committee announced that it is searching for members from the [types of] projects which don't have Wikipedia-like dynamics. Zaharias has passed as an applicant from Wikiversity (he is admin at Beta Wikiversity and bureaucrat at Greek Wikiversity). However, his qualifications go further: he is actively working on creation, editing and promoting projects in various Greek languages. Knowing that he is young, he will be our long term investment, too. Oliver Stegen]] (meta:User:Baba Tabita) * languages spoken: de, en-4, sw-3 nl-1, fr-1 * living in: Africa, Kenya, Nairobi (from Europe, Germany) * reason for inclusion: Oliver is a linguist who is working for SIL on East African languages. We'll have one ultra-relevant expert in LangCom thanks to Jon Harald Søby, one of the LangCom members, who met Oliver in Nairobi. Santhosh Thottingal]] (meta:User:Santhosh.thottingal) * languages spoken: ml, hi-3, en-3, ta-2, * living in: Asia, India, Chennai (Madras) * reason for inclusion: Santhosh is a free software guru interested in languages. He will help us in articulating projects for covering language-related needs of Wikimedia projects. I want to add one more point related to Santhosh. He has passed as a LangCom member not because he is from India, but because he has relevant expertise and right attitude. Although he speaks three Indian languages, he has become a member of LangCom because he is a free software guru interested in languages. Before Santhosh's application, we would have been happy to see anyone with this qualification and this attitude, no matter of location of birth or residence. However, Bishakha's question and subsequent conversation helped, as it gave impulse to Santhosh to submit the application. And that brings to my mind that it would be good to pass the whole world periodically and raise the geographical equality issue. And it is not a joke. That's obviously giving people courage, or at least the idea, that they have the same right to become members of any Wikimedia body, as any Westerner has. Sometimes the qualifications won't be relevant for particular position, sometimes they will. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] India Programs: Update
Dear Folks, I'm writing to update you on the community meets held last week. (I had visited Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore along with Barry.) First of all, thank you to everyone who came over. Appreciate your time and also the educative, informative, engaging and wide-ranging discussions we had. I look forward to carrying on these conversations going forward. I also look forward to meeting up with the community across a wider set of towns and cities. I also wanted to share some initial thoughts that I had. a) Communication I think it will be useful to open a regular channel of communication. My current thinking is that this could be in the form of a monthly IRC, as well as periodic emails (probably once a fortnight, but more or less frequently depending on relevance.) Would be good to get your thoughts. Also, would 8pm (India time) for 1 hour on the first Thursday of every month work well for the IRC? In addition to the above, my contact details are the bottom of this mail. Do feel free to reach out; I'd love to hear from you. b) Outreach A lot of the discussions that we had were centered around outreach activities. There were 3 stories that I thought were particularly insightful which I wanted to share with you. * A 67 year old gentleman in Chembur (Mumbai) heard about Wikipedia in Kannada from a Wikimedian. He started contributing because he thought it would be an novel way of spending his free time. He said that it now keeps him occupied doing something that interests him - and it has reignited his family's respect for him. * A young student of Symbiosis in Pune said he discovered that he could edit while playing an online computer game - when some Japanese gamers told him how he could pitch in and contribute articles on the game's characters. * A young guy in Bangalore spoke about how a friend of his attended the 10th do - and came back and told him that he could contribute articles in Oriya. He's started contributing. These 3 stories are familiar to many of you, and they are but 3 of 100s if not 1000s of similarly awesome tales. They are also illustrative of the kind of impact that outreach has. Personally, I found them both inspiring and thought-provoking. Here's what they have triggered in my head. (...and I must confess I have more questions than answers right now!) * Outreach takes time and effort. Given that it conducted by volunteers such as yourselves, there's always going to be limits to how much you can be devote; you all have day jobs/personal lives to lead. Therefore, how can we improve the odds of impact? It starts of with saying every single outreach activity must be regarded as precious and every attempt must be made to help realize the fullest potential of the initiative. If that's the philosophy, then how does one better understand the audience and, therefore, calibrate messages as appropriately as possible. (Also, and this is from my personal experience in community mobilization and outreach messaging, it's very easy to get tempted into providing multiple messages. ...even more so when it comes to Wikimedia when there are so many incredible stories to tell. ...but audiences very rarely take out more than 1 or 2 key points.) /Given this, how does one identify and focus on these key messages? For instance, should the message be different when talking to IT versus arts students? Should the tone of the message be different when talking to 18 years olds as opposed to 30 year olds? Can outreach kits be developed? Can these include some kind of capability building?/ * Outreach requires a feedback loop. Currently, while outreach is happening frequently and widely, it is physically difficult to stay in touch after the event. (I heard about an event in Trichy where 65 people attended. It'd be physically impossible for one or two individuals to regular communicate with all of them.) /Is there a way that we can open some kind of simple and low-resource channel to stay in touch with people who have attended outreach meets. This feedback loop could potentially include what message they took out from the event, whether that got them going to start contributing (and if not, why), and if they started, how things were going. Can this be done online in some manner? How do the results get shared with those who conducted the outreach?/ * Potential contributors are everywhere. They're not only in IT colleges, though these are significant. Anecdotally, I suspect there might
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] "Mailing list for Odia wiki projects is created"-Interested Odia contributors pls participate!
2011/2/28 शंतनू : > Thinking... Why not have 'od.wikipedia.org' instead of 'or.wikipedia.org'? > We use the ISO 639-1 codes for representing the different languages in our projects. The ISO code for the Oriya language is "or". For more information, see: * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriya_language * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-1 -- Casey Brown Cbrown1023 ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Reading Wikipedia on your mobile phone
Hoi, I blogged about using the mobile phone for the Indian languages. What I learned is that some languages need to invest some time in order to get the mobile interface to work for them. Please check out to what extend your language is supported. ( xx.m.wikipedia.org where xx is your language code). Thanks, GerardM http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2011/02/supporting-mobile-phones-in-india.html ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] "Mailing list for Odia wiki projects is created"-Interested Odia contributors pls participate!
Thinking... Why not have 'od.wikipedia.org' instead of 'or.wikipedia.org'? On 28-Feb-2011, at 2:01 PM, Subhashish Panigrahi wrote: > Hi, > > I am Subhashish Panigrahi from Odia (Oriya) WIkipedia, a new mail list has > been created, anyone who want to take part can join the mail list at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-or > > You can take part in the contribution of content for Odia Wikipedia please go > to http://or.wikipedia.org and sign up and start adding good articles. > > Thanks and regards > ସୁଭ ପା / Subhashish Panigrahi > ଆସ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିକୁ ଆଗେଇନେବା ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Recent Tamil Wiki outreach efforts
Thanks Shiju. A correction in my mail: //When we give the demo, they also learn that it is not so easy to edit as they thought.// should read //When we give the demo, they also learn that it is not so* difficult *to edit as they thought. ravi ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Recent Tamil Wiki outreach efforts
Excellent initiative from Tamil wiki community. It is a welcome sign to see that Indic wiki communities have taken the wiki advocacy programs very seriously. Bengali wikimedians are also doing many programs in WB and Bangladesh. We can't expect that every new workshop will bring immediate editors. > Accroding to me when we introduce a language wiki to 50 people, if 5 of them start editing in wiki then our program is a grand success. The other 45 will have fundamental knowledge about wiki projects. They will help us in various ways later. Also do not expect immediate result. As Ravi said, the inspiration to edit in wiki can come in various ways. * Besides attracting new editors, it helps build rapport among existing > editors. > Very much true. These type of programs will give more responsibility and ownership to moderately active editors. Many of them will take initiatives to do innovative things for wiki community. 2010 is a significant growth year for us and the growth rate in terms of > daily edits, new editors, active editors has almost doubled in last 6 > months. We believe that these workshops and other outreach efforts done > before helped us achieve this in some way :) > Yes, This is very much true in the case of Malayalam wiki community also. We should have stated these type of programs at least 2 or 3 years before. Hope we will have a much better year in 2011. Shiju Alex On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 3:09 PM, Ravishankar wrote: > Hi, > > Just a quick update on recent Tamil Wiki outreach efforts: > > In the last 60 days, Tamil Wikipedians conducted 7 workshops / meetups. > > 1. December 28, 2010 - Mattakkalappu, SriLanka. First organized Wiki meetup > in SriLanka where Tamil is an official language and has millions of Tamils. > > 2. January 15, 2010 - Chennai, India. On the occasion of Ten Wiki. > > 3. January 16, 2010 - Toronto, Canada. The city has Srilankan Tamil > population in lakhs. There were smaller / informal Tamil Wiki intros in this > city even before this. Two of the most active Tamil Wikipedians reside in > Canada. > > 4. February 6, 2010 - Chennai, India. > > 5. February 20, 2010 - Trichy, India. > > 6. February 20, 2010 - Puduchery, India. First Wiki event in this Union > Territory of India. Tamil is an official language here and has Tamil > population in Lakhs. > > 7. February 26, 2010 - Coimbatore, India. (Students only event) > > The next workshop is planned for March 6, 2010 near Trichy, India. > > Pictures from these events can be seen at the sidebar links at > > http://bit.ly/gveSnh > > Some thoughts: > > * Malayalam Wikians had such series of workshops all over recently and that > was certainly an inspiration for us. And that is the reason we share our > experience now for others. > > * First few workshops happened in 2009. It was hard to arrange and > frequency was less. But once we start doing, we learn things, share > resources and get more people involved. > > * We can't expect that every new workshop will bring immediate editors. I > have seen people starting editing after they keep hearing about Wiki > everywhere and often. So, this can be approached like an ad campaign. No one > runs to shop after seeing the ad. But it works later. Infact, we got a very > active editor after he listened to the event's audio recording posted. He > was in Mumbai and the event happened in Chennai. So it is always good to > document the events as much. > > * Besides attracting new editors, it helps build rapport among existing > editors. New editors who attend the event are delighted by the friendship / > collaborative spirit by other editors. This gives them a sense of ownership > / belonging for the project and start editing more and taking part in > organizing future events. One of our most active editor now is an English > Wikipedian who participated in a Tamil Wiki workshop. In his own words, > after seeing people's happiness to have content in Tamil, he started editing > Tamil Wikipedia more. > > * People want to see faces and hear words directly. They are convinced in > person even if we have the same FAQ in Wikipedia website. When we give the > demo, they also learn that it is not so easy to edit as they thought. > > * People who attend these workshops get impressed and invite us to conduct > workshop in their colleges / city and they arrange the venue and other > resources too. So, even though arranging first few events may be difficult, > later more people help. > > * Participating in bigger events like book fairs, internet fairs, FOSS > fairs can only give limited scope to introduce in a very basic way to fast > moving crowd. But it is a good opportunity for Wikimedians to network with > key people working in other knowledge forums and certainly helps in > promoting the Wikipedia brand. More on this later. > > * 2010 is a significant growth year for us and the growth rate in terms of > daily edits, new editors, active editors has almost doubled in last 6 > months.
[Wikimediaindia-l] Recent Tamil Wiki outreach efforts
Hi, Just a quick update on recent Tamil Wiki outreach efforts: In the last 60 days, Tamil Wikipedians conducted 7 workshops / meetups. 1. December 28, 2010 - Mattakkalappu, SriLanka. First organized Wiki meetup in SriLanka where Tamil is an official language and has millions of Tamils. 2. January 15, 2010 - Chennai, India. On the occasion of Ten Wiki. 3. January 16, 2010 - Toronto, Canada. The city has Srilankan Tamil population in lakhs. There were smaller / informal Tamil Wiki intros in this city even before this. Two of the most active Tamil Wikipedians reside in Canada. 4. February 6, 2010 - Chennai, India. 5. February 20, 2010 - Trichy, India. 6. February 20, 2010 - Puduchery, India. First Wiki event in this Union Territory of India. Tamil is an official language here and has Tamil population in Lakhs. 7. February 26, 2010 - Coimbatore, India. (Students only event) The next workshop is planned for March 6, 2010 near Trichy, India. Pictures from these events can be seen at the sidebar links at http://bit.ly/gveSnh Some thoughts: * Malayalam Wikians had such series of workshops all over recently and that was certainly an inspiration for us. And that is the reason we share our experience now for others. * First few workshops happened in 2009. It was hard to arrange and frequency was less. But once we start doing, we learn things, share resources and get more people involved. * We can't expect that every new workshop will bring immediate editors. I have seen people starting editing after they keep hearing about Wiki everywhere and often. So, this can be approached like an ad campaign. No one runs to shop after seeing the ad. But it works later. Infact, we got a very active editor after he listened to the event's audio recording posted. He was in Mumbai and the event happened in Chennai. So it is always good to document the events as much. * Besides attracting new editors, it helps build rapport among existing editors. New editors who attend the event are delighted by the friendship / collaborative spirit by other editors. This gives them a sense of ownership / belonging for the project and start editing more and taking part in organizing future events. One of our most active editor now is an English Wikipedian who participated in a Tamil Wiki workshop. In his own words, after seeing people's happiness to have content in Tamil, he started editing Tamil Wikipedia more. * People want to see faces and hear words directly. They are convinced in person even if we have the same FAQ in Wikipedia website. When we give the demo, they also learn that it is not so easy to edit as they thought. * People who attend these workshops get impressed and invite us to conduct workshop in their colleges / city and they arrange the venue and other resources too. So, even though arranging first few events may be difficult, later more people help. * Participating in bigger events like book fairs, internet fairs, FOSS fairs can only give limited scope to introduce in a very basic way to fast moving crowd. But it is a good opportunity for Wikimedians to network with key people working in other knowledge forums and certainly helps in promoting the Wikipedia brand. More on this later. * 2010 is a significant growth year for us and the growth rate in terms of daily edits, new editors, active editors has almost doubled in last 6 months. We believe that these workshops and other outreach efforts done before helped us achieve this in some way :) Ravi ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] "Mailing list for Odia wiki projects is created"-Interested Odia contributors pls participate!
Hi, I am Subhashish Panigrahi from Odia (Oriya) WIkipedia, a new mail list has been created, anyone who want to take part can join the mail list at https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-or You can take part in the contribution of content for Odia Wikipedia please go to http://or.wikipedia.org and sign up and start adding good articles. Thanks and regards ସୁଭ ପା / Subhashish Panigrahi ଆସ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିକୁ ଆଗେଇନେବା ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
