Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] CIS-A2K Work Plan for July 14-June 15
Forgive me for interjecting at this point, as I am not actively engaged
with any aspect of this process.
Wikimedia is a growing phenomenon, absolutely unique in its demonstration
that value can be created without what is often assumed to be an equivalent
injection of capital. It has happened through a model of cooperative
working that previously we have hardly had work anywhere in the world,
aside from the movement that created Amul ('value beyond money', in a crude
translation).
How will this movement be sustained and nourished into the future? As we
know, traditional organisations, those ones whose models and frameworks
have developed in the past 100 years or so, are quite unable to sustain
their typical outputs, which are brands of goods and services. In some
cases, it is because the products or services themselves become irrelevant,
but in a large number of instances, despite their continuance.
Yet we don't criticise those models adequately, and in fact may refer to
their comings and goings as akin to natural evolution. Rather, the
individual corporations and their organisational styles could be viewed as
examples of unsustainable mutation.
With this one, we have to tread boldly where no man, woman or any other
intelligent creature on earth, as far as we know, has gone before. It seems
reasonable to outsource some functions, as is presently being tried, but
there are misgivings that this process itself introduces viscosity in the
flow of information. Also, and this is a more critical observation, that
money is being spent to do things that were being done by volunteers
earlier.
imho, no matter what activity is being undertaken, be it very manual, or
highly cerebral, the mind that focuses on it narrowly is unable to
adequately deal with matters on another scale. So the volunteers that do
superbly at keeping the information resource humming don't have enough
quality time to focus on how to make sure the resource is sustainable
tomorrow as well as it is today. Tomorrow is another scale of thinking,
when the emergency (or even routine task) is now.
Perhaps handing over some tasks has freed up a few minds to focus on
tomorrow and tomorrow. Maybe those minds aren't thinking about the
short-term issues that have caused some people to already start speaking
up, because they have set something in place and don't yet have good enough
monitoring tools in place to know whether it is working out well, or
creating hitherto unknown problems.
I would like to see some loud thinking focused on less criticism of the
present approach and more on alternate models that will address the
misgivings being voiced, and invite further criticisms as an ongoing
process rather than a staccato and uncomfortable round of finger-pointing
(names haven't been named yet, but ...been there, done that).
On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 7:31 PM, Ravishankar ravidre...@gmail.com wrote:
Ansuman, Jayanta
Thanks for validating my concern.
I have posted an updated and expanded comment at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/The_Centre_for_Internet_and_Society/Proposal_form#Questions_from_an_Indian_Community_member_to_WMF_and_CIS-A2K
== Questions from an Indian Community member to WMF and CIS-A2K ==
'''Questions for WMF'''
1. What happens to the natural growth rate of the communities once a
program like this shuts down?
The former Wikimedia India programs claimed Assamese Wikipedia as a
success story. Now, you can look at
http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaAS.htm for their performance
after that program was shut down.
So, how do you justify the spending for this program which is like spoon
feeding.
The way [
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:India_Access_To_Knowledge/Draft_Work_plan_July_2014_-_June_2015#Hindi_Work_PlanHindi
Wikipedia seeks help for content management] (fixing Google articles)
confirms my concern of spoon feeding.
2. What is WMF's approach and strategy for growing Wikimedia movement in
India? Will there be any end date for the CIS-A2K program or will there be
never ending annual renewals?
3. Is WMF adapting double standards for assessing grant requests?
For example, there is liberal funding for staff salary here but WMIN
chapter was refused even one full time manager and ultimately the chapter
is facing a slow death now. Forget the cost and value of all the volunteer
work done by all the EC members and general members since the beginning of
the chapter.
'''Questions for CIS-A2K'''
4. How do you attribute or separate the performance of CIS-A2K from the
organic efforts and the growth of the community?
5. What is the (subtle) pressure, if any, on the community to achieve the
expected results? The plan is quite ambitious but looks completely top down
in approach. Do you expect the community to be burnt out?
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Calendars in use in India
Hi Gerard Calendars around the world follow a combination of solar and lunar cycles: periodic mismatches between the two have given rise to different ways of keeping track of the days. India also has more than one system in regular use, although as Pranav mentions, only one vernacular calendar is official. It should be possible to devise algorithms that generate the equivalent date corresponding to a different system, but they need to be, of course, sensitive to the periodic 'corrections' inserted to synchronise with the passing seasons. For the Gregorian calendar (with which you are familiar) in use in most places, this adjustment is popularly thought of as only the leap year, but there are other fine adjustments at longer intervals. Hope this helps Vickram On 15 Jan 2014 15:30, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijs...@gmail.com wrote: Hoi Harsh, One obvious thing is to make sure that all the items used in Wikidata have labels in the Gujarati language. This allows you to find them and to see them wherever they are used. I have started adding statements like this months follows / is followed by that month.. Given that some articles list months from the same calendar, this can only be right when all aspects of a month are exactly the same (think number of days, the number it is given in the year etc). As I do not know all this I have asked for help. What would be useful to know is if a calendar is used on a specific Wikipedia (and in a certain language). When other calendars are used, it makes sense for dates to be visible in the calendars used in Wikipedias. I assume that it is possible to convert to and from the common calendar. I do know very little about calendars; I only use one. So when you/we find that we cannot express facts about a calendar, we may need more properties to express this.. Are there any ? I will gladly help in getting these properties requested and created. Finally, Wikipedia and by inference Wikidata is about the sum of all knowledge. It makes sense for us to know about any and all calendars. Thanks, GerardM On 15 January 2014 09:59, Harsh Kothari harshkothari...@gmail.com wrote: For Gujarati I can help. Thanks Harsh On Jan 15, 2014 2:27 PM, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijs...@gmail.com wrote: Hoi, I blogged about calendars. The problem I face is that I am adding statements to the calendars in use in India.. I have worked on the Nepali and the Bengali calendar and, I find that in the English Wikipedia some months are merged into one article. What I want to know is if these months exactly are at the same time or not. Many calendars have special days. It would make sense to have an item for them as well. I assume that many of the Indian Wikipedias have articles for such events. It will help when they are known to be part of a specific calendar.. Are there people who can help me with this ? Thanks, GerardM ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikimedia-in-WB] The Egg
Beautiful image! Excellent. Vickram On 7 Jan 2014 12:10, Kalyan Sarkar kalyan.sar...@gmail.com wrote: Congratulations, Biswarup da! On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:45 AM, Bishakha Datta bishakhada...@gmail.comwrote: Most interesting image - never seen this before. Congratulations, Biswarup. Bishakha On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:33 AM, Biswarup Ganguly gangulybiswa...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Vishnu, Well, the white eggshell has been removed by dipping a normal chicken egg into vinegar for 48 hrs, then very carefully taken near a large window, a white paper reflector was used. Regards, On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:18 AM, Jayanta Nath jayanta...@gmail.com wrote: Dear All, Please have a look Today's main page in English Wikipedia at Featured pictures, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, The egg [1] which uploaded by our Our active contributor, Biswarup Gamguly. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chicken_Egg_without_Eggshell_5859.jpg Jayanta -- Biswarup Ganguly Phones: +919830022449 +919433005886 -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-in-wb/attachments/20140107/aad5db95/attachment.html ___ Wikimedia-in-WB mailing list wikimedia-in...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-wb -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-in-wb/attachments/20140107/b7231fc6/attachment.html ___ Wikimedia-in-WB mailing list wikimedia-in...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-wb ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Digital Language Death
Could you explain, please, what you mean precisely by adding lexical data? An example? Warmly Vickram On 5 Jan 2014 19:01, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijs...@gmail.com wrote: Hoi, Getting content to the Internet is very much a chicken and egg problem. There is nothing and consequently nothing is added. If we want to get more content in a language in a format that can help, Wikidata is a good bet. One of the strategies is to have volunteers work on content that has a big effect. One other strategy is by using lexical data and add this to Wikidata. A lexical approach is possible when the copyright holders of the data understand that their data gains value when it is actually used. By linking significantly into Wikidata several things are achieved: - information will become available thanks to automated disamibiguation and Reasonator - images can be found because of links to Commons categories - links to Wikipedia articles in other languages become available It is relatively easy to add lexical data to wikidata. Many academic projects already link to several external sources and Wikidata is increasingly connected to such sources as well. It takes the ambition to do something for a language to make a difference. By the way big and small languages will benefit from this kind of approach including English. Thanks, GerardM On 31 December 2013 15:27, A. Mani a.mani@gmail.com wrote: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0077056 __ Abstract: Of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken today, some 2,500 are generally considered endangered. Here we argue that this consensus figure vastly underestimates the danger of digital language death, in that less than 5% of all languages can still ascend to the digital realm. We present evidence of a massive die-off caused by the digital divide. Best A. Mani A. Mani [Last_Name. First_Name Format] CU, ASL, AMS, ISRS, CLC, CMS http://www.logicamani.in ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Thesis defence ( on crowdsourcing - of some interest to the community)
All are welcome... where? Which University? Which city? (I'm almost tempted to ask: which country?) It really does look like a very fascinating opportunity, and subject. If successfully defended (and one hopes there is no doubt) do consider an article on it, and/or referencing from within other articles around the subject. Vickram On 11 Dec 2013 13:39, Shyamal L. lshya...@gmail.com wrote: Department of Computer Science and Automation Ph.D. Thesis Defense Speaker : Mr. Swaprava Nath Title : Mechanism Design for Strategic Crowdsourcing Faculty Advisor : Prof. Y. Narahari Date: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 Time: 11:30 AM Venue : CSA Multimedia Class (Room No. 252, First Floor) Abstract This thesis looks into the economics of crowdsourcing using game theoretic modeling. The art of aggregating information and expertise from a diverse population has been in practice since a long time. The Internet and the revolution in communication and computational technologies has made this task easier and given birth to a new era of online resource aggregation, which is now popularly referred to as crowdsourcing. Two important features of crowdsourcing are: (a) crowdsourcing is always human driven, hence the participants are rational and intelligent and they experience a payoff in some form through their participation, and (b) the participants are connected over a social network. To understand the behavior and the outcome of such a strategic crowd, we need to understand the economics of a crowdsourcing network. In the thesis, we have considered the following three major facets of the crowdsourcing problem. (i) Elicitation of the true qualities of the crowd workers: as the crowd is often unstructured and unknown to the designer, it is important to determine if the crowdsourced job is indeed performed at the highest quality. (ii) Resource critical task execution: due to the diverse geographical, cultural, socio-economic reasons, crowdsourcing entails certain manipulations that are unusual in the classical theory. The design has to be robust enough to handle fake identities or information provided by the crowd. (iii) Improving the productivity of the crowdsourcing network: as the designer's goal is to maximize some measurable output of the crowdsourcing system, an interesting question is how one can design the network and/or the incentive scheme so that the system performs at the optimal level considering the strategic nature of the individuals. In the thesis, we provide novel solutions to all the questions above using game theoretic modeling and mechanism design innovations. Our investigation helps in understanding certain limits of achievability, and provides design protocols in order to make crowdsourcing more efficient. ALL ARE WELCOME ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] A Wikipedia success story to emulate
Conceptually, this is similar to the effort made in India over the last couple of years, and it is heartening that the failure here is not representative of the end of the road. However, the degree of buy-in from the institution, obvious in the remarks made by the professor, as well as hints of a certain degree of commitment, in this case to the subject matter, on the part of the active editors, is telling. I am sure we may have had some examples of a similar nature here too, but perhaps we tried too soon to attempt scaling it up. There is mention of an 'official' input from Wikimedia, and there may be some data there that will give us a clue about how the many difficult bridges were traversed. If anyone from this list was involved, please do share your experience. Vickram On 16 Nov 2013 12:44, Tejaswini Niranjana t...@cscs.res.in wrote: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/business/media/editing-wikipedia-pages-for-med-school-credit.html?emc=edit_tnt_20131007tntemail0=y_r=0 -- Tejaswini Niranjana, PhD Lead Researcher - Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications (HEIRA) Senior Fellow - Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) Visiting Professor - Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Humanities, Lingnan University, Hong Kong Advisor, Access to Knowledge Programme, Centre for Internet and Society Visiting Faculty - Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Science (CCS-IISc) t: 91-80-41202302 http://heira.in www.cscs.res.in ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [CC-India] Creative Commons India launch - 12 November
On 2 Nov 2013 09:26, Anivar Aravind anivar.arav...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all , Thanks Jane for the explanation. I remember I am in this cc-india list from 2006 onwards :-) It is better to announce relaunch as it is in the announcements to avoid confusion . Because we wikipedian's value references very much. also ccing the wikimedia India list Just fyi, the occasion titling has been updated, with the change incorporated, and an apology for not doing that in the first place. Copied here: / We apologise for an error in our previous e-mail sent on November 9. There was a change in the title which was unfortunately not updated. Hence, we are sharing the details once again: Wikimedia India, the Centre for Internet and Society, and Acharya Narendra Dev College invite you to the Relaunch of Creative Commons India in New Delhi on November 12, 2013 with the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr. Shashi Tharoor as the Chief Guest. What is Creative Commons? Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States, devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. In simple words, Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge and creativity with the world. Some more facts about Internet licenses Ever wondered what Some Rights Reserved means? Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include the right to reproduce, distribute, display, make adaptations, perform, sell and so on. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rightsholder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call Some Rights Reserved. Is Creative Commons against copyright? Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rightsholders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses. Relaunch Dr. Savithri Singh, Principal, Acharya Narendra Dev College will be the Master of Ceremony and the Moderator for the sessions: 16.00 - 16.30: Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India: Initiatives of MHRD around Openly Licensed Content 16.30 - 16.45: Question and Answer Session 16.45 - 17.00: Sam Pitroda (TBC), Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations: Creative Commons and Open Government Data 17.00 - 17.05: Question and Answer Session 17.05 - 17.25: Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson, Pratham Books: Creative Commons and Pratham Books Case Study (Including Question and Answer Session) 17.25 - 17.40: Moksh Juneja, President, Executive Committee, Wikimedia India Chapter: Creative Commons and Wikipedia (Including Question and Answer Session) 17.40 - 18.00: Lawrence Liang, Co-founder of Alternative Law Forum: Creative Commons and Open Access to Scholarly Journals (Including Question and Answer Session) 18.00: Tea Registration Please register here to attend the event: http://ccindia.doattend.com/Registration is free. Please carry a soft or hard copy of the confirmation email to the venue. Seating will be on first come first served basis. Date: November 12, 2013 Venue: India Islamic Cultural Centre Auditorium: 87 - 88, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, India Time: 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. Download the invite here:http://bit.ly/HPxrAO Thanks and regards, Sunil Abraham Executive Director Centre for Internet and Society Ph: 91-9611100817 Unsubscribe #194, Second 'C' cross Domlur Second Stage Domlur Bangalore, 560071 / ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Featured Wikimedian profile on Wikimedia India Chapter wiki
On 3 Nov 2013 09:16, Netha Hussain nethahuss...@gmail.com wrote: All information given on the profile is based on the answers given by the interviewee at the time of interview. Vibhi gave me an e-mail interview in October 2013. Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast ... http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/youre-big-girl-now Vickram Netha On Sun, Nov 3, 2013 at 8:52 AM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: Is Vibhy still in Class 10? I think that was two years ago. Should be class 12 now! Just saying... On Sat, Nov 2, 2013 at 11:55 PM, Netha Hussain nethahuss...@gmail.com wrote: Hi everyone, The Featured Wikimedian for November is Vaibhav Jain, a class 10 student editing English Wikipedia. His profile can be viewed here : http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Main_Page Regards Netha On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 10:51 PM, Netha Hussain nethahuss...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, Apologies for the late mail. We have a mother-daughter duo for this month! The featured Wikimedian of this month is Parvathisri from Tamil Wikipedia. Her profile can be viewed here : http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Main_Page Regards Netha On Sat, Sep 7, 2013 at 9:50 AM, Vishnu T visdav...@gmail.com wrote: Splendid work Satish Patel and Jayam! Completely agree with Satish Patel who thinks that everyone should contribute to Wikimedia projects because it is our moral responsibility to preserve knowledge for generations to come. Thanks Netha and Harsh for introducing them. Best, Vishnu On Thursday, 5 September 2013, Netha Hussain nethahuss...@gmail.com wrote: Dear all, The Featured Wikimedians of September are Mr.Satish Patel and his son Jayam from Gujrati Wikimedia projects. You can read their profile here: http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Main_Page Sincere thanks to Harsh Kothari for sharing the wonderful story of Satish and Jayam with me. If you know an active Wikimedian who you think is eligible to be featured as the Wikimedian of the Month, please share their name and contact details with me. Thanks Netha On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 12:40 AM, Netha Hussain nethahuss...@gmail.com wrote: Dear all, On a casual request, I was prompted to support some of the tasks the India Chapter and the India community would benefit together, and I decided to take up the responsibility of creating profiles for the 'Featured Wikimedian' section in the Wikimedia India Chapter wiki. This section aims to showcase the achievements of active Wikimedians who have contributed significantly to the Wikimedia projects in English and/or Indian languages. The featured profile for January is that of Mr. Balachandran G from Malayalam Wikipedia. If you know an inspiring Wikimedian whose profile hasn't been featured yet, do let me know! Please also go through the profile of the featured Wikimedian of this month and send your suggestions and comments for improving this section. Happy new year! Regards User: Netha Hussain -- Netha Hussain Student of Medicine and Surgery Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode Blogs : nethahussain.blogspot.com swethaambari.wordpress.com -- Netha Hussain Student of Medicine and Surgery Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode Blogs : nethahussain.blogspot.com swethaambari.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Netha Hussain Student of Medicine and Surgery Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode Blogs : nethahussain.blogspot.com swethaambari.wordpress.com -- Netha Hussain Student of Medicine and Surgery Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode Blogs : nethahussain.blogspot.com swethaambari.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Netha Hussain Student of Medicine and Surgery Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode Blogs : nethahussain.blogspot.com swethaambari.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] : NextBigWhat.com : Piecing Together India’s Heritage One Photo at A Time [Indians Top Contributors to World's Largest Photo Contest]
Very nice. Thanks. It really puts WLM in a good perspective. On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 5:57 PM, CherianTinu Abraham tinucher...@gmail.comwrote: *NextBigWhat.com : Piecing Together India’s Heritage One Photo at A Time [Indians Top Contributors to World's Largest Photo Contest]* http://www.nextbigwhat.com/india-heritage-photo-wiki-loves-monuments-297/ With his point and shoot camera, *Anupam Ganguly* has been keeping busy for the last few weeks. Unlike how most professionals in Gurgaon spend their weekends, Ganguly has been frequenting architectural monuments and places of historical significance with missionary zeal. Taj Mahal Taj Mahal by Anupam Ganguly “I used to take photographs before too, but this month, I’ve been going every weekend,” says Ganguly. It is that time of the year, when hundreds of enthusiasts like him scour the country for pictures to upload to Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), a photo contest run by Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopedia. With the help of these volunteers, India is now one of the top 10 contributing countries across the world to the contest. More than 900 contributors from India have uploaded nearly 6000 photographs to the site, making it one of the highest contributing countries. “I was not aware of the Mehrauli Archaeological Park in Delhi until I went through WLM, and on my visit I ended spending a whole day there,” says Ganguly, who is now one of the highest contributing Indian on the site. A business analyst by professions, Ganguly works for an MNC in the National Capital Region. In 2012 he submitted 794 photographs and became the highest contributor in India and 55th in the world. This year, India is leading the in the number of contributors by a huge margin with 905 contributors so far*. Russia comes in at the second position with only 458 contributing users. Wiki Loves Monuments is an annual international photography competition organized by Wikimedia, held in September every year. In 2011 The Guinness Book of World Records named it the world’s largest photographic competition. WLM 2013 Participating Countries WLM 2013 Participating Countries Participating Wikipedians take pictures of historical monuments and heritage sites in their region, and upload them to Wikimedia Commons, which is an online repository of free-use images, sound, and other media files. The contest usually runs from 1 September to 30 September, and participants should upload photographs during this period to take part in the competition. Last year, *Pranav Singh* from Delhi won the first prize in the international contest and *Narender Kumar *from Delhi, came in 6th. Tomb of Safdarjung By Pranav Singh Won WLM 2012 Tomb of Safdarjung By Pranav Singh Won WLM 2012 The interesting bit is that not all contributors are interested in the prize. According to a survey conducted by Wikimedia, “75% of the people said that they participated only because they wanted to contribute to Wikipedia and not to win anything.” *History of Wiki Loves Monuments* The first WLM was held in Netherlands back in 2010 for “Rijksmonuments”, which means national monuments in Dutch, was started as a project to encourage photographers to seek out Dutch National Heritage Sites. During its first event WLM participants submitted 12,500 photographs. The following year WLM grew to 18 participating countries in Europe in a collaboration with European Heritage Days. This time more than 5000 participants submitted 170,000 photographs making it the largest photo competition in the world. In 2012, the competition went global with 35 participating countries beyond Europe and saw submissions of nearly 350,000 photographs. A picture of Tomb of Safdarjung from Delhi, India, won the contest. *How Wiki Loves Monuments Works* National and regional heritage institutions provide official data regarding monuments, heritage and archeological sites. Each monument is assigned a unique identifier and these can be attached to the photographs at the time of upload using “Wikipedia templates”. Using Wikipedia templates also allows easy Wiki-editing. A program called erfgoedbot (‘erfgoed’ in Dutch means heritage) collates and sorts all the images and identifiers, organising them into correct categories, and updates the Wikimedia Commons database. The database then connects the photographs with the monuments list in Wikipedia using the monuments ID accordingly. Read more about WLM India here, and about the 2013 WLM contest here. *At the time of writing. Regards Tinu Cherian pr...@wikimedia.in Important Note : Non-commercial reproduction for informative purposes only. The publisher ( NextBigWhat ) of the above news article owns the copyrights of the article / content. All copyrights are duly acknowledged. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FDC grant
I looked at the page some days ago, but for some reason it did not allow me to edit anything. On reflection, though, I did not find anything positive to suggest. I assume the monetisation of the projects is a separate exercise, and must confess I have not researched the purpose of this part of the planning. On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 2:20 PM, Pranav Curumsey pra...@wikimedia.inwrote: Sure, you need not be a chapter member to comment. It is open to the community at large. Please add your comments with details on the page itself so everything is in one place. On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Shyamal L. lshya...@gmail.com wrote: If I can make a suggestion as non-member of the chapter it might be useful to consider a plan to encourage India librarians and archivists to be active on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:RX and respond to requests for literature - if librarians in India are motivated only by monetary inducement, the Chapter could also consider becoming a paid member of a library services network within India (such as http://delnet.nic.in/)and handle requests for literature aimed to improve content quality. If the latter service can be handled well, I might even consider becoming a India chapter member! best wishes Shyamal ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com/ *He's still watching me watching you watching the trains go by. And the way he stares --- feel like locking my door and pulling my phone from the wall. His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn making my hair stand --- making the goose-bumps crawl.* Jethro Tull: Watching Me Watching You (1982) ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FDC grant
I did that, and returned to the page, but it did not allow me to edit. But as I said, it is not material to the process. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill communicall.wordpress.com He's still watching me watching you watching ... And the way he stares - feel like locking my door and pulling my phone from the wall. His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn making my hair stand - making the goose-bumps crawl. Jethro Tull: Watching Me Watching You (1982) On Sep 20, 2013 4:53 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@gmail.com wrote: I did that, and returned to the page, but it did not allow me to edit. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill communicall.wordpress.com He's still watching me watching you watching ... And the way he stares - feel like locking my door and pulling my phone from the wall. His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn making my hair stand - making the goose-bumps crawl. Jethro Tull: Watching Me Watching You (1982) On Sep 20, 2013 3:43 PM, Karthik Nadar karthik...@wikimedia.in wrote: Hi Vickram, you need to register at the site to edit. Please create your account through this link: http://wiki.wikimedia.in/index.php?title=Special:UserLogintype=signupreturnto=Main+Page Regards, Karthik Nadar. Secretary, Wikimedia India Chapter. http://wiki.wikimedia.in Participate in world's largest photo contest Wiki Loves Monuments: www.wikilovesmonuments.in On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 3:38 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: I looked at the page some days ago, but for some reason it did not allow me to edit anything. On reflection, though, I did not find anything positive to suggest. I assume the monetisation of the projects is a separate exercise, and must confess I have not researched the purpose of this part of the planning. On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 2:20 PM, Pranav Curumsey pra...@wikimedia.inwrote: Sure, you need not be a chapter member to comment. It is open to the community at large. Please add your comments with details on the page itself so everything is in one place. On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Shyamal L. lshya...@gmail.com wrote: If I can make a suggestion as non-member of the chapter it might be useful to consider a plan to encourage India librarians and archivists to be active on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:RX and respond to requests for literature - if librarians in India are motivated only by monetary inducement, the Chapter could also consider becoming a paid member of a library services network within India (such as http://delnet.nic.in/ )and handle requests for literature aimed to improve content quality. If the latter service can be handled well, I might even consider becoming a India chapter member! best wishes Shyamal ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com/ *He's still watching me watching you watching the trains go by. And the way he stares --- feel like locking my door and pulling my phone from the wall. His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn making my hair stand --- making the goose-bumps crawl.* Jethro Tull: Watching Me Watching You (1982) ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FDC grant
Ah OK, that makes sense. I did not see the mail till later. With phone/tablets, if you leave the browser you often lose the session, so one is reluctant to switch apps if not obviously necessary. Vickram On 20 Sep 2013 18:58, ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) viswapra...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Vickram, Indeed, you seems to have registered as a new user in the Wikimedia Wiki. However, in order to edit, one need to do just one more additional step: Just confirm the email ID. Immediately after registering, you would have received a confirmation request mail in your registered e-mail. (Please also check the spam mail folder). Clicking on the link there will confirm your membership. After that, you will be able to edit most pages of the chapter Wiki. *The same applies to all new registrants on the chapter wikis.* Thanks, Viswam User:viswaprabha Member, EC Wikimedia India Chapter. On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 4:57 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: I did that, and returned to the page, but it did not allow me to edit. But as I said, it is not material to the process. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill communicall.wordpress.com He's still watching me watching you watching ... And the way he stares - feel like locking my door and pulling my phone from the wall. His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn making my hair stand - making the goose-bumps crawl. Jethro Tull: Watching Me Watching You (1982) On Sep 20, 2013 4:53 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@gmail.com wrote: I did that, and returned to the page, but it did not allow me to edit. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill communicall.wordpress.com He's still watching me watching you watching ... And the way he stares - feel like locking my door and pulling my phone from the wall. His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn making my hair stand - making the goose-bumps crawl. Jethro Tull: Watching Me Watching You (1982) On Sep 20, 2013 3:43 PM, Karthik Nadar karthik...@wikimedia.in wrote: Hi Vickram, you need to register at the site to edit. Please create your account through this link: http://wiki.wikimedia.in/index.php?title=Special:UserLogintype=signupreturnto=Main+Page Regards, Karthik Nadar. Secretary, Wikimedia India Chapter. http://wiki.wikimedia.in Participate in world's largest photo contest Wiki Loves Monuments: www.wikilovesmonuments.in On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 3:38 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: I looked at the page some days ago, but for some reason it did not allow me to edit anything. On reflection, though, I did not find anything positive to suggest. I assume the monetisation of the projects is a separate exercise, and must confess I have not researched the purpose of this part of the planning. On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 2:20 PM, Pranav Curumsey pra...@wikimedia.inwrote: Sure, you need not be a chapter member to comment. It is open to the community at large. Please add your comments with details on the page itself so everything is in one place. On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Shyamal L. lshya...@gmail.comwrote: If I can make a suggestion as non-member of the chapter it might be useful to consider a plan to encourage India librarians and archivists to be active on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:RX and respond to requests for literature - if librarians in India are motivated only by monetary inducement, the Chapter could also consider becoming a paid member of a library services network within India (such as http://delnet.nic.in/ )and handle requests for literature aimed to improve content quality. If the latter service can be handled well, I might even consider becoming a India chapter member! best wishes Shyamal ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com/ *He's still watching me watching you watching the trains go by. And the way he stares --- feel like locking my door and pulling my phone from the wall. His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn making my hair stand --- making the goose-bumps crawl.* Jethro Tull: Watching Me Watching You (1982) ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Proposal for hiring consultant to review WMIN
To what extent are the plaguey issues known? Without a very specific brief, a consultant is likely to be neither here nor there in resolving issues in preparation for what lies ahead. Is it possible for the present team to carry out an ABC analysis of issues? At least that way the problems that need to be resolved with external assistance can be put together into a package. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill communicall.wordpress.com He's still watching me watching you watching ... And the way he stares - feel like locking my door and pulling my phone from the wall. His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn making my hair stand - making the goose-bumps crawl. Jethro Tull: Watching Me Watching You (1982) On Sep 3, 2013 2:09 PM, Pranav Curumsey pra...@wikimedia.in wrote: Its now almost 3 years since the chapter was formed. There are quite a few issues plaguing the current organisation, related to membership, functioning and our tax status. The chapter is considering hiring of a consultant to look into these issues, provide remedies and implement those remedies. Should you be aware of someone who has experience and is good at dealing with membership based organisations, please do get in touch with us offlist. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikimedia-in-mum] End of the GLAM pilot project at BNHS
As Ashwin points out, from the point of view of a partnership, this was less than a resounding success. However, Rohini does not call it a partnership, because it isn't one. This was a pilot, intended to demonstrate to persons of influence at BNHS what a partnership could achieve for the Society. The partnership lies ahead. Pradeep does not call it a partnership either, he squarely labels it a pilot, and suggests to Wikimedians everywhere that they initiate similar efforts with similar physical archives in other parts of India. It would have been exceedingly unrealistic to imagine that the philosophy of open knowledge be instantly understood and enthusiastically embraced. None of us did at any stage of this pilot, which we well understand to be a foot in the door. I was warned by other senior Wikimedians, recognised naturalists in their own right, as well as naturalists who are not Wikimedians, but know the Society well, that this would be an uphill task, long before we even took the first steps. Dissing the organisation for its traditional mindset is easy, but not fruitful. For all I know, it may be easier to do this elsewhere, with other organisations. And the very best to others who take up that challenge. Everyone should do what they can, when they can, wherever they can. This is a work in progress. And I wish Rohini the very best, every encouragement, to continue her efforts to get that door opened wider now. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill communicall.wordpress.com He's still watching me watching you watching ... And the way he stares - feel like locking my door and pulling my phone from the wall. His eyes, like lights from a laser, burn making my hair stand - making the goose-bumps crawl. Jethro Tull: Watching Me Watching You (1982) On Aug 9, 2013 8:12 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: From a point of view of GLAM partnership this was emphatically NOT a success. It was not a complete failure also, because brave Rohini persisted in the face of an unresponsive BNHS. In the end BNHS and Wikipedia got a better article on Humayun Abdulali and Rohini got some hard-won experience - that is all. But the potential for this project could have been so much greater. The experiences of Wikipedians-in-residence in the Smithsonian and the British Museum (and other initiatives) was so wonderful, so engaging to both sides and so fruitful that the lacklustre report in the link Pradeep mentions feels like ashes in one's mouth. BNHS has been for many years the iconic symbol of private wildlife research. It has a very long history, had some truly wonderful people in it including Salim Ali and Humayun Abdulali, has a very good library and a very good collection of skins, shells, eggs etc. It has a peer-reviewed scientific journal more than 100 years old which has high repute. It was the place where eminent scientists like Johnsingh, Ravi Sankaran and Bharat Bhushan, besides many others, began their careers or were encouraged. Whether it is mammals, birds, reptiles, marine life or insects; anywhere in India one can definitely say about BNHS - been there, done that! So one would expect BNHS to be open to the idea of helping Indians to learn more about wildlife, nature, environment and conservation? Wrong. Check the site of BNHS for stuff which educates or informs or which guides or helps and see the complete paucity of material. Its a nice enough looking website tells you very much what the organisation, its goals and programmes, but there is zilch information about India's wildlife, from India's premier wildlife NGO. If you compare that with a comparable organisation in the USA and UK say Audobon or RSPB, you will find they have useful articles, knowledge material aside from what they are involved in. Compare Audobon which gives Tips on how to get nature to the classroom or taking schoolchildren outdoors, or RSPB which provides a complete bird list with short writeup. BNHS does not have an altruistic outlook towards IP and the resources they hold. The reason for that is not difficult to understand. BNHS publishes a variety of handbooks, coffee-table books etc and their employees derive additional income from their publication, sale of photographs they take on BNHS funded trips etc, Hardly any activity in BNHS comes without a pricetag for the participants. Standard copyright model is their bread and butter. No wonder, they are not interested very much in joining hands with Wikipedia - there is a direct conflict of interest, if Wikipedia develops pages on India's natural heritage well, the need/dependence for their handbooks reduces. This will affect sales in the long run and affect income of the organisation and its staff. So Rohini's valiant attempt was akin to trying to clap with one hand. You can't hear the clap because BNHS never showed any eagerness other than a bureaucratic acquiescence grudgingly obtained after much effort by Rohini.
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Spooky entry on Wikipedia
It presently reads: He is alleged to plant his staunch supporters as RAW and IB chiefs. He grew infamous when he wanted to sack the then RAW chiefC. D. Sahayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._D._Sahay. He began systematically undermining Sahay; he planted his own man, Hormis Tharakan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormis_Tharakan, former Kerala police chief who was occasionally deputed to RAW, as Sahay’s eventual successor. The then NSA, J. N. Dixithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotindra_Nath_Dixit, countered that Narayanan himself had not been sacked when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated (Narayanan was the IB chief), and that no intelligence heads rolled after the Kargil intrusions were discovered[5]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._K._Narayanan#cite_note-5 He presided over a post-Rabindra Singh(a RAW joint secretary suspected of being a double agent, defected in 2004. Singh was handing RAW secrets over to the USA, to where he fled from Kathmandu via Vienna once he was discovered) defection enquiry that has not damaged a single officer’s career; in some cases, the opposite has happened.[6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._K._Narayanan#cite_note-6 Shashi Bhushan Tomar, the last man to see Rabindra Singh after the latter’s car was searched as he left RAW HQ in Delhi on April 19, 2004. Tomar, suspect colleagues, tipped Singh off that he was under RAW surveillance, enabling the double agent to evade his stake-out and escaped and Tomar is now posted in New York.[7]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._K._Narayanan#cite_note-expressbuzz.com-7 On 24th Jan 2010 he became the governor of West Bengal. He took over from Gopalkrishna Gandhi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopalkrishna_Gandhi who had a few disagreements with the CPM-ruled West Bengal on critical issues like violence in Nandigram and Singur. He was awarded with the Gusi Peace Prizehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gusi_Peace_Prize 2011. Controversy[edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=M._K._Narayananaction=editsection=3editintro=Template:BLP_editintro ] Narayanan offered to resign on 30 November 2008 over the attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly 200 people, but his resignation was not accepted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manmohan_Singh. He experienced heavy criticism after the Mumbai terrorist attacks due to his preoccupation with Sri Lanka and the LTTEhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTTE, instead of what others considered to be India's chief threat, Kashmiri insurgents and Pakistan.[*citation neededhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed *] According to the Outlook magazine, Narayanan asked investigative agencies to go slow when they zeroed-in on Hindutva organizations for Samjhauta Express bombingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Samjhauta_Express_bombings in 2007.[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._K._Narayanan#cite_note-outlook-8 That is not so different from what was depicted in the IE article. The page is marked 'check for neutrality'. It looks like some hasty and a little slipshod editing has recently taken place. I haven't checked, but maybe the changes were made on 13 July, as the previous changes go back to 2012, and seem to be administrative in nature. 'Talk' says: This article has been rated as *Start-Class* on the project's quality scalehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_India/Assessment#Quality_scale . Low http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Low-importance_India_articles This article has been rated as *Low-importance* on the project's importance scalehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_India/Assessment#Importance_scale . [image: Taskforce icon] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kerala_Thumb.png [image: Portal icon]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kerala_houseboat.jpgKerala portal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Kerala This article is supported by *WikiProject Keralahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Kerala * (marked as Low-importancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Low-importance_Kerala_articles ). On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 7:47 AM, Pavanaja U B pavan...@vishvakannada.comwrote: I did not find the sentences quoted by IE in this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._K._Narayanan ** ** Regards, Pavanaja ** ** ** ** *From:* wikimediaindia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto: wikimediaindia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] *On Behalf Of *CherianTinu Abraham *Sent:* 13 July 2013 22:58 *To:* Discussion list on Indian language projects of Wikimedia. *Subject:* [Wikimediaindia-l] Spooky entry on Wikipedia ** ** Wondering if anybody noticed this article on indian express saying Spooky entry on Wikipedia http://www.indianexpress.com/news/spooky-entry/1139880/ Thoughts? Regards Tinu Cherian ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Request for an announcement mailing list
Hi Karthik I too think we would be better served through dedicated use of the existing lists rather than adding to them. I am a fairly diligent email reader, I feel, yet I sometimes don't learn about activities in Mumbai even though I live here. This is rather the opposite to being deluged with irrelevant emails. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill communicall.wordpress.com The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On May 18, 2013 10:40 AM, Abhijeet Safai abhijeet.sa...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Karthik, Good Morning! I also feel same as Mr. Arun. Thanks On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:41 PM, Dhaval S. Vyas dsv...@gmail.com wrote: I echo Arun Regards, Dhaval On May 17, 2013 3:44 PM, Arun Ramarathnam arunra...@gmail.com wrote: Me thinks we have a small community that is active. I feel it is not a good idea to keep forking lists. We already have a problem with many community members not being aware of the India list. Now another one? I already struggle to keep track and manage membership of multiple lists. That is my view. Lets hear from others too. regards Arun On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 1:42 PM, Karthik Nadar karthik...@gmail.comwrote: Dear all, I suggest we have an announcement mailing list. I sometimes see certain mails flooding too mailing list, and it really spams the inbox. If we have an announcement list, we can suggest everyone to subscribe to the list who is interested in announcement from Indian communities like the Chapter , the A2K and various other cities and languages communities. Preferably, the mailing list should be only for one way communication. Admins at this (Wikimedia India) mailing list shall subscribe the announcement mailing list with this email-id wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, so that it reaches mass. Regards, Karthik. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] interesting news
While this is not, per se, a subject directly for this list, I feel that as many Wikimedians as possible ought to appreciate the subtle establishment of hegemony here. ICANN is an independent body, true, but it has been seen in the past to act in favour of US interests, in case of significant conflict of interest. For good reason, many people opine that continuing effort needs to be made to maintain the nature of the Web (the whole Net, actually, but most people really don't perceive anything beyond the Web) and not allow governments to acquire control. Worryingly, the interests of governments and private sector corporations are also being seen as aligned, although it is very clear that corporate control is in the hands of a very small number of individuals (ref an analysis published in New Scientist last year, 155 individuals effectively control the 48,000 top global corporations). This was recently quite naked, with an ITU meeting in Dubai where an effort was made to hand over control of ICANN to a governing body drawn from the diplomatic corps of 55 countries. This move was evidently authored, behind the scenes, by India, hence my raising it here. Now that ICANN has made its move to establish a framework for the other-than-English Web, we see that the Indian government is playing God (DeITy, the official acronym of the department of electronics) in terms of controlling the transitional phase. Some listmembers will recall this same department, a dozen years ago, did nothing to cut access costs until presented with NIXI, the switch that is supposed to keep local traffic local, which it simply annexed, without even a show of hands, or a flag march, the way that traditional takeovers of territory used to be accomplished. Incidentally, this switch still does precious little to keep local traffic local, and is instead used primarily for surveillance of Indian IP users, and to facilitate website blocking. It has a second job, the registrar for tld .in, and here too, there are concerns about its functioning (e.g., the domain iipm.in is apparently registered with a false declaration of physical address, but no action has been taken against the owner. Indeed, some 60 odd urls were blocked at this same outfit's behest a few weeks back, despite the fact that the accompanying court order was very likely mala fide – one of the urls was a page of the UGC website, for instance). As Wikimedians, we face some struggle to ensure our rights are not constrained, especially the right to freedom of expression and its obverse, freedom of information. While it is great to know that some effort will be made to ensure Indian content creators will now have a straightforward way to bring people to Indian-language pages, I question how much effort has been made and is being made on the ground. For instance, to what extent has the team building the Android uploader been supported, and what is the roadmap to an Android local language content creation app? I'm not saying nothing has been done, I'm just saying I don't know, and I would like to hear from our local players. Also, I somehow sense a certain amount of arrogance in the remark that Web creators in Chennai don't know how to use Tamil typing on vanilla keyboards. Are we to conclude that Tamil websites can only be created in Chennai? Nobody else anywhere else can use Tamil? That probably wasn't the intention, but that is how it comes across. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Mar 9, 2013 11:17 AM, Tejaswini Niranjana t...@cscs.res.in wrote: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/soon-the-web-will-have-bharat-in-local-languages/article4485576.ece?ref=sliderNews -- Tejaswini Niranjana, PhD Lead Researcher - Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications (HEIRA) Senior Fellow - Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) Visiting Professor - Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Visiting Faculty - Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Science (CCS-IISc) t: 91-80-26730476, 26730967, 26730268 f: 91-80-26730722 http://heira.in www.cscs.res.in ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikimedia-in-en] Legolas2186
This has happened even with contract-linked editing of information sources, such as the old encyclopedias. As a philosophy, managing information the wikipedia way has many things to offer, but omniscience isn't one of them. Actually, perfection can only be a goal, not a promise. The good thing (some comfort, if not a genuine solution) is that the current resource can be instantly corrected when such unhappy things come to light. A problem will remain with the offline distributed copies that many of us think are essential to bolster information empowerment in the lesser digital world. But even that is not analogous to the sheer waste of millions of copies of paper editions, and the likelihood that many, if not most, never got corrected (appended) and still hang about spreading misinformation. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Mar 2, 2013 6:56 PM, νєηкαтєѕн venjktr...@gmail.com wrote: It's been over a year now. He was considered highly reputed before he was questioned. Once the investigation started he disappeared from the project. On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 6:36 PM, Anirudh Bhati anirudh...@gmail.comwrote: Hi all, I don't think this has been discussed yet. An editor from India with the handle Legolas2186 has been indef'd from the English Wikipedia due to years of fabrication of sources on articles related to Madonna, Lady Gaga and other artistes. Here are a few relevant links: http://www.dailydot.com/society/wikipedia-hoax-vandalism-legolas2186/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Legolas2186/Major_contributions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Legolas2186/Fixing_citation_problems This highlights the vulnerability of the encyclopedia to insidious editing even when published sources were called into question. In this case, a trusted member of the volunteer community displayed a pattern of consistent misrepresentations and even fabrication of sources in some cases. thanks, Anirudh ___ Wikimedia-in-en mailing list wikimedia-in...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-en -- Regards, Venkatesh S ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [Chapters] Wiki Loves Earth
Noise. Troll. Cease and desist, unless you have something positive to contribute. fyi, since you don't seem to have the time to regularly follow Wikimedia activities in India, many Wikimedians took part in the global Wikimedia Loves Monuments event, without any funding offers, with terrific results (that's a bonus, the participation was the prize). If you have ideas for some other kind of event, without necessarily copycatting Ukraine, please do come forward. PS what is a rd nose? Don't bother to reply, unless it is in abbrvtns, I don't need to hit the delete button so often. On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 6:31 PM, Rudolph the Rd Nosed Reindeer rednosedr...@hotmail.com wrote: India Chapter should organize one like this. Oh wait, you need cash first. Sorry. -- Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:58:43 +0400 From: srik.r...@wikimedia.in To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [Chapters] Wiki Loves Earth For your information: -- Forwarded message -- From: *Євген Букет* bu...@wikimediaukraine.org.ua Date: Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 1:54 AM Subject: [Chapters] Wiki Loves Earth To: Dimce Grozdanoski dimce.grozdano...@gmail.com, tomasz.kozlow...@wikimedia.pl, i...@wikibilim.kz, gyo...@wikimedia.org, bu...@wikimedia.org.ph, s...@wikimedia.ru, mede...@wikimedia.ru, abar...@wikimedia.org, chapt...@wikimedia.ch, jon.dav...@wikimedia.org.uk, johannes.r...@wikimedia.de, le...@wikimedia.no, Yuri Perohanych direc...@wikimediaukraine.org.ua FYI, Wikimedia Ukraine is initiating a new photo contest – “Wiki Loves Earth”, its goal being collecting pictures of Ukraine Natural Heritage sites and Landscape and Ornamental Gardening objects for illustrating articles in the worldwide free Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia. Everybody can take part in the competition. A registration on Wikimedia Commons (one of many Wikipedia sister projects) is required. You are to find in the list of natural heritage objects the ones you know of, take a picture of them yourself (it could be done anytime, previously or starting now) and upload them to Commons (during April 15 – May 15, 2013). The authors of the best pictures will be awarded with prizes. The results announcement and the awarding ceremony will be held in Kyiv, on June 5, 2013, on the World Environment Day. The Organizational Committee has already started preparation work on the competition list, and almost 8 000 of entries are to be included there. Nature reserves, landscape parks, protected areas, natural heritage sites, botanical (dendrological), zoological gardens and parks, and ornamenting gardening objects will be in the list. Yuri Perohanych, Wikimedia Ukraine Executive Director, said that this photo contest will draw the society’s attention to the existing problems of Ukraine natural heritage protection, and the contest itself is to show the perspectives of green/eco tourism in Ukraine. As Yevhen Buket, the contest coordinator, pointed out, the idea to initiate such a competition has arisen after conducting a successful international photo contest Wiki Loves Monuments in Ukraine this September. The goal of the contest was collecting pictures of cultural heritage monuments of Ukraine. Wikimedia Ukraine invited Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, environmental organizations, as well as donors and sponsors, to help with the organization of the competition and contribute to the contest prize fund. More information in Ukrainian: http://ua.wikimedia.org/wiki/ВЛЗ - Best regards, Yevhen Buket, WM UA ___ Chapters mailing list chapt...@wikimedia.ch https://intern.wikimedia.ch/lists/listinfo/chapters -- Srikanth Ramakrishnan Member of the Executive Committee Wikimedia Chapter [India] Donate to the Wikimedia India Chapter todayhttp://wiki.wikimedia.in/Donations ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] why to donate
I am also not a Chapter member, but for some reason, I am not particularly perturbed about reports, activities and so on. I think Tejas' suggestions are excellent, and made in the positive spirit of building a sense of community amongst Wikimedians in India, be they chapter, foundation, user, contributor, coder and who knows what other plethora of categories of Wikimedians I haven't listed. I sensed a feeling of exclusion being expressed in the flurry of mails following the announcement of staff appointments. It seemed that, whether explicitly or not, some people find the idea of 'outsiders' being appointed for Wikimedia tasks somewhat disconcerting. As can be expected, some express their discomfort quite coherently, while others are either less explicit or more tangential. It's really not much different from the greeting that Indians get when they immigrate into some foreign country – resentment, discomfort, etc. Our new community members have just arrived with a lot more publicity and spotlight than the average, who typically gets no more than a 'hi, newbie' greeting on making a first edit, and for all I know not even that on making a first code contribution. To me, what this event signifies is a new phase of Wikimedia in India, when innovative and perhaps revolutionary new ideas on: how Wikipedia will look (sound, feel), how content will be added, what content will be added, how new media archives will be created, edited, updated etc etc; will all find expression as well as the wherewithal (that's a big word for 'cold cash') to happen. As I posted the other day, it was an eye-opener to me to find I could organise a project to work with some current digital or quasi-digital archive organiser, get the content digitised, categorised and made available through Wikipedia, and have the work done through enthusiastic young volunteers who can actually use that project as a university submission as well as get some money to compensate for their ope, not to mention some hardware or whatever is dedicated to the project. I hope that I can start the ball rolling soon with some likely collaborators, then announce the project through the Web and on lists like this, tie up with volunteers, and execute this summer, under the guidance of experts who understand the details. And I hope that in other places, more people will start acting in this direction as well. And more than that, I hope that other people will start conceptualising other innovations, that might have remained dreams had this window not been open. I don't claim any monopoly on either ideas or of implementing them. Wikipedia is growing in new and exciting ways, and it looks to me like we all have a chance to be part of driving that change. Simply. This does not mean that we are forced to be part of every aspect of that change, either. It is up to each of us to be what we can be. I have seen a lot of organisations, but hardly any have been smart enough to let people do what they do best. That's much more worth applauding than looking for faults in the process or in the ways that people express themselves – which also has its place, when it is meant constructively. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Feb 14, 2013 8:25 AM, Tejas jain teju2frie...@gmail.com wrote: Hi All, First, I am not a chapter member. As a member of mailing list I have few suggestions to resolve issue. 1. Authorized person can publish ,Activity list, Expense list, Financial supporters list Maintenance expenditure list on chapter site share the link (Yes, specific link for report. Not just is on site statement) on this mail chain. (I wonder why this simple solution is not considered yet!) 2. People should stop making climes in chapter's name stop all kind of fights till above lists are given by chapter. 3. Chapter should workout on financial transparency (I mean how public can verify it) to avoid such issue in future. 4. Keep in mind that finance is a critical issue people may get negative message through bad fights like this. Thanks, Tejas jain 2013/2/13 Arnav Sonara sonara.ar...@gmail.com On Feb 13, 2013 12:08 AM, Abhishek Suryawanshi i.abhishek.suryawan...@gmail.com wrote: I understand this might be a serious issue, but I trust all India mailing list is definitely not the platform for discussion. India Community deserves to know answers. At one end Chapter is criticizing CIS continuously on other hand its accepting financial help from them and I am wondering whats wrong in acknowledging it! If someone is helping then its ethical and normal to acknowledge it? Even If and when CIS funds the Chapter then it does not mean that one cannot criticize the other. Criticism is necessary in community, but
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fw: Re: [A2K]: The Access to Knowledge - Bulletin - January '13
Uh, uh. It wasn't an outreach as such, it was an internal (closed) university academic event. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Feb 8, 2013 9:54 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 6:13 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.comwrote: . I had the privilege of attending a workshop session she conducted in Mumbai a couple of months back, and it was absolutely mind-blowing. Vishnu, I would request that the next such outreach may please be recorded and placed on Commons/Youtube for all to access. We are missing opportunities here. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fw: Re: [A2K]: The Access to Knowledge - Bulletin - January '13
I don't know Vishnu, and I have only followed the recruitment process by email windowshopping, no direct participation. I have also enjoyed and admired the hard work being done by other enthusiastic Wikimedians, now in this debate, over the years. But the questions being asked came across to me as perilously close to trolling, seemingly calculated to raise hackles rather than engage in open discourse. Not that the questions themselves were out of place, just that they could have been expressed better, imho. As far as the fact that suddenly a decent amount of money seems to have entered the Indian wikipedia scenario, I hope that is going to result in things that are hugely positive. The Wikimedia phenomenon is an enormous lesson to the world, especially the money-obsessed world that some politicians seem to think is a good thing, that there are choices on working together where achievements are exponentially superior. This is imho a huge thing, in a world where the ravagers of entire countries end up being rewarded with even higher paid jobs in their chosen sphere of junk bonds and predatory banking. How can we take advantage of the fact that, for the first time, some money might be visible to accomplish things that were just dreams till now? A few days back, at one of our Mumbai meets, we had a visiting Wikimedian. He was telling us about some good stuff happening in glam in the USA. We were grousing about the fact that glam stuff is hard to do here, not per se because of resistance from the archive managers, but because those folks neither have money nor expertise to make their archives available digitally. And he pointed out that it is relatively straightforward to identify a project, give students specific work to do in that connection – scanning, uploading etc – something they can report back to their colleges as internships contributing to their degrees, and get grants from wmf to make sure it is done. I have seen that it is hard for young Wikipedia persons to justify the time and work they put in, especially to their parents. Well, this is one way to show that good work can be done, much more rewarding than say, writing empty code for some banker's CSR initiative for a summer internship. There must be many others. It was news to me, and judging from the expressions of the others at the meeting, news to them as well. There must be zillions of other ways in which we can run such projects to make Indian content available to the world of knowledge, before even more is stolen and expropriated by hoarders. And I think we should celebrate that some money is available to leverage, not complain when some of that money goes to pay wages. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Feb 9, 2013 12:27 AM, Theo10011 de10...@gmail.com wrote: Hello Vishnu You seem to be getting awfully defensive in the beginning. On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 1:23 PM, Vishnu t visdav...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Srikanth, On 8 February 2013 18:56, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Vishnu, thanks for responding. Would you or someone from CIS help me understand the rationale for selecting two individuals affiliated with CSCS which is also affiliated with CIS? First about my affiliation: I am not sure what you mean by affiliation. Technically I am no more affiliated to CSCS for the past 5 years. But intellectually I have friends and associates, because of my stint there from 2002-07. I am unable to see if this is in any way problematic. If it is, I am quite perplexed because I have intellectual connections with faculty/departments in nearly 20 Universities to where I would like to Wiki-movement. Or are you suggesting that there is some deep conspiracy to select ONLY because I was affiliated to CSCS? I personally believe not. But it would be nice to hear the interview panel (especially those representing the Community and Chapter) come in on this. On the other hand I am quite happy to showcase my work at CSCS which gave me an exposure to the debates and challenges of Indian Languages in Higher Education and Research. Similarly my role at SRTT over the past 5 years equipped me other intellectual capacities. Not sure, if I was able to address your concern, but I would encourage you further clarify, so that we have a closure on this. Allow me to help. First, here's what Affiliation means[1]. If it helps let's call it association. You mention in the second line, that you haven't been affiliated to CSCS for the past 5 years, implying that you were before then. BTW what is CSCS? I don't know what you mean by where I would like to Wiki-movement it sounds oddly coprophilic. :P I believe Srikanth might indeed be suggesting the latter - a conspiracy! (with dramatic
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fw: Re: [A2K]: The Access to Knowledge - Bulletin - January '13
While broadly concurring with Ravi, I have been informed by several Wikimedians that the office also had to deal with a plethora of well-meant queries and initiatives from external sources, ie outside India. I don't think any of us should be afraid to raise doubts, but equally, I don't think any of us should do so in a fashion that implies doubt about anyone's intentions or abilities, unless the questioner has a serious issue with that itself, based on actual experience. My earlier post on this issue needs some more clarity, I think. For Wikimedians, design projects and initiatives to bring our native storehouse of knowledge to the benefit of the whole world (in every form, be it text, visual, aural, graphic, or whatever). For the Chapter (and CIS, together) build processes to ensure that funds can be smoothly funnelled where needed to make those projects and initiatives fructify in a timely fashion. CIS has the necessary certification from the government to allow international Wikimedia funding to be used in India. The Chapter doesn't, afaik. Let us build from our known strengths, together. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Feb 9, 2013 10:17 AM, Ravishankar ravidre...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, My best wishes for the new A2K team. A sincere request to all Indian Wikimedians: CIS has been given a grant by WMF. Let CIS do their job in peace and let them be answerable to the grant review committee. Just because they are located in India and working on Indian Wikimedia projects, I don't think they need to answer every question from the community. Especially, hiring related questions and when they are yet to start work. The former Indian Wikimedia office was burnt out precisely because of this negative approach from the community. If the community needs to strengthen the movement, either work on your own language Wikimedia projects or join the India Wikimedia chapter and take it forward. Ravi ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikimedia-IN-PUN] Wikimedia India Chapter Anniversary
The period for clearance of permission to receive funds from abroad in the form of donation or grant (as against earnings) is unknowable, but has been getting extensive over the past few years since the rule was instituted. Afaik, there is no obvious reason why it should take long or be considered doubtful. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Jan 7, 2013 2:44 PM, sankarshan foss.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 11:06 PM, Sudhanwa Jogalekar sudhanwa@gmail.com wrote: The answer is, we are still ineligible for FDC (we hope to be eligible for the second round of funding in 2013) I may have missed out on a previous explanation of this - what is the reason for the ineligibility ? -- sankarshan mukhopadhyay https://twitter.com/#!/sankarshan ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia COO was convicted felon
On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 2:18 PM, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.org wrote: On 25 December 2012 09:17, Rohini Lakshané rohini.laksh...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/13/wikimedia_coo_convicted_felon It's more than a few years old, what? I think it is very important to note the closing words from The Register report: The original version of this story said that Carolyn Doran's hit and run DUI resulted in a fatality. This was based on two separate sets of computer records - one with the Loudoun County, Virginia Circuit Court and another on the web site of the Virginia Judicial System. But these records are incorrect. Apologies to Carolyn Doran and her family. It is of particular importance to us here in India, where gradually, following the purported success of e-Bhoomi (the brief report in Wikipedia should speak volumes about how well this project is really doing, but some details might be more welcome to people who want to reference how digitisation proceeds in the real world), there is excitement about increasing digitisation (and more importantly, interlinking) of all kinds of records. In the computer sector, there is a very old expression, 'garbage in, garbage out'. Wikipedia also looks to digital references for credibility. It ought to be noted that in fact, even government-maintained records are sometimes grievously wrong, not just out-of-date. imho, the past ten years have demonstrated unequivocally that a community-sourced and maintained virtual encyclopedia is not just capable, but is far superior to a bespoke production of select persons, both in terms of timeliness and accuracy. Undoubtedly, there is still much to do to make it now more meaningful to the world at large, beyond the English-familiar audience. Perhaps an objective for the future will be adding on-the-ground fact-checking, going beyond digital records that can be (and, given the imperatives of business, will be) perversely altered in the hands of private and other vested interests. At present there is no scope for this kind of value addition, but the need is enormous, and will only grow as Wikipedia's coverage grows beyond the realm of 'credible' digital records. I don't have a roadmap for how this factor will be included, but it is worth planning. Today (as in the perfuffle around Kasab's birthday), we end up firefighting, confusing for information seekers and fodder for a confrontational mainstream media. Vickram ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Spoken Wikipedia Workshop - 16th December-2012 Pune.
I think this is a pretty good idea. Already, the stations have the need to deliver 6 month's recordings to the relevant Ministry, as part of the tc of their licenses. We need to establish a 'chain' to each station, whereby an additional copy (presently, the stipulation mentions a cd or DVD) can be made for wikipedia. Actually, I see scope for a very big step forward, where the content is put up on wikipedia every month, for instance, or even at shorter intervals, and the Ministry be sent the links. This will considerably reduce the 'unofficial' pressure on the stations created by the need for monitoring content (presumably to prevent misuse; in reality, such misuse is inherent in the way that licenses are disbursed, but that is a topic for a different list). What I am suggesting, therefore, is cooperation from Wikimedia to make the content of cr stations available online as a practice. The stations would love it, because it will give them huge leverage in being able to get the Ministry off their backs. If the Chapter can get involved, and a framework established to make this online content available regularly at no cost to the stations (which work hand-to-mouth, the genuine ones, I mean) I think it will be a win-win situation. Even without making it a systemic practice, a lot can be done with individual stations, and in any case it is only respectful to approach each station that way. Still, I am pretty sure the existing cr bodies (there are two) will find this suggestion very welcome, and will put their weight behind getting a system in place. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Dec 14, 2012 10:24 AM, Nee Davis davis...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Abhishek, It is a novel effort. Wish the event a big success. One suggestion. As many on the list may have heard about the growth of Community Radio in India. Probably it would be ideal if we tie up with some of these not for profit entities to tap into their recordings and make them available on the wikiproject platform. This will not only save the energies of community members in creating new audio articles but will also provide the CR stations and the rural communities they target a virtual space and also expand the wiki-India community. I would be more than happy to take a lead on this if the community finds it worthy. Best On 14 December 2012 00:00, Abhishek Suryawanshi i.abhishek.suryawan...@gmail.com wrote: (Similar E-Mail is sent to all Indian Language mailing listshttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Indic_Languages#Indic_Language_Wiki_Projects ) Dear Wikipedia Community, We are planning to develop Dengue article on all Indian Languages. Wikipedia Club Pune is organizing dedicated workshop on 16th December 2012. We would like to invite you participate in Workshop (online or offline as per your convenience) Article of Dengue will be edited through collaborative editing session, and it will be recorded later on as part of Spoken Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia/Indic_Languages - Venue : PAI International Learning Solutions,Camp,Pune 01 - Date : 16th December 2012 (Sunday) - Time : 10:30AM to 02:00PM *FAQ : * *1)Why Dengue Article : * A: Dengue fever is common in this session, so it will be helpful to many people. *2)What about other diseases? * A: We will be covering major diseases one by one in upcoming Sunday workshops. *3)What is Spoken Wikipedia for Indian Languages? * The *WikiProject Spoken Indian Language Wikipedia* is a project undertaken by Wikipedia Club Pune to give a voice to the Indian community and to create a knowledge domain of information related to India and Indian languages through audio recordings of the articles (in various native languages). P.S : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia/Indic_Languages *4)Why (Only) health related articles? * As of now - Our first priority is Health related articles on Indian Language Wikipedia. After recording articles, we are planning to circulate these articles in underprivileged community. *5)How I can help? * Please add your name to Workshop page to help us. *Register* : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Club_Pune/Spoken_Wikipedia_Workshops Kindly do let us know if you have any doubts/queries or suggestions! Keep Supporting, Keep Inspiring! Best Regards, Abhishek Suryawanshi, User:AbhiSuryawanshi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AbhiSuryawanshi On Behalf of Wikipedia Club Pune ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Spoken Wikipedia for Indic Languages
As far as this discussion is concerned, it does not seem that we need to be much bothered about the history and background. What we need to focus on is the word in its current context, so, Indic and Indian languages, with particular reference to display standards, and therefore the direction of work needed to ensure that pages can display correctly on as many devices as follow the standards. From recent posts, it seems that Unicode acknowledges two families of scripts, namely Indic and Brahmic. If this is the correct situation, I see no confusion in defining the work ahead. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Nov 16, 2012 9:25 AM, ஆமாச்சு ama...@amachu.net wrote: On Friday 16 November 2012 09:13 AM, sankarshan wrote: The Wikipedia seems to use Indic and Brahmic scripts as synonyms of each other. Does your contention hold in that case ? well, my opinion is that these have evolved in a complimentary/ collaborative environment certainly Tamil couldn't have existed in seclusion any-time in the past. -- ஆமாச்சு __**_ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.**wikimedia.orgWikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/**wikimediaindia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Indic languages (was Re: Spoken Wikipedia for Indic Languages)
Judging from this clarification, it seems that a position is being created that the Indus valley civilisation was the sole active player in the separation of Dravidian from non-Dravidian communities, and that we should shun any attempt to use the word Indic, as that might show unnecessary respect to the Indus valley lot, in comparison. But is this true, or an accurate reflection of historical events, or is it just blurred hindsight, or even some agenda? Here's the relevant excerpt from the page on the Indus valley civilisation: See also: Substratum in Vedic Sanskrit The IVC has been tentatively identified with the toponym Meluhha known from Sumerian records. It has been compared in particular with the civilizations of Elam (also in the context of the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis) and with Minoan Crete (because of isolated cultural parallels such as the ubiquitous goddess worship and depictions of bull-leaping). [87] The mature (Harappan) phase of the IVC is contemporary to the Early to Middle Bronze Age in the Ancient Near East, in particular the Old Elamite period, Early Dynastic to Ur III Mesopotamia, Prepalatial Minoan Crete and Old Kingdom to First Intermediate Period Egypt. After the discovery of the IVC in the 1920s, it was immediately associated with the indigenous Dasyu inimical to the Rigvedic tribes in numerous hymns of the Rigveda. Mortimer Wheeler interpreted the presence of many unburied corpses found in the top levels of Mohenjo-Daro as the victims of a warlike conquest, and famously stated that Indra stands accused of the destruction of the IVC. The association of the IVC with the city-dwelling Dasyus remains alluring because the assumed timeframe of the first Indo-Aryan migration into India corresponds neatly with the period of decline of the IVC seen in the archaeological record. The discovery of the advanced, urban IVC however changed the 19th century view of early Indo-Aryan migration as an invasion of an advanced culture at the expense of a primitive aboriginal population to a gradual acculturation of nomadic barbarians on an advanced urban civilization, comparable to the Germanic migrations after the Fall of Rome, or the Kassite invasion of Babylonia. This move away from simplistic invasionist scenarios parallels similar developments in thinking about language transfer and population movement in general, such as in the case of the migration of the proto-Greek speakers into Greece, or the Indo-Europeanization of Western Europe. It was often suggested that the bearers of the IVC corresponded to proto-Dravidians linguistically, the breakup of proto-Dravidian corresponding to the breakup of the Late Harappan culture. [88] Today, the Dravidian language family is concentrated mostly in southern India and northern Sri Lanka, but pockets of it still remain throughout the rest of India and Pakistan (the Brahui language), which lends credence to the theory. Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola concludes that the uniformity of the Indus inscriptions precludes any possibility of widely different languages being used, and that an early form of Dravidian language must have been the language of the Indus people. However, in an interview with the Deccan Herald on August 12, 2012, Asko Parpola clarified his position by admitting that Sanskrit-speakers had contributed to the Indus Valley Civilization. [89] Proto-Munda (or Para-Munda) and a lost phylum (perhaps related or ancestral to the Nihali language) [90] have been proposed as other candidates. The civilization is sometimes referred to as the Indus Ghaggar-Hakra civilization [5] or the Indus-Sarasvati civilization by Hindutva groups, which is based on theories of Indigenous Aryans and the Out of India migration of Indo-European speakers. - It seems the jury is still out on this, and there is no value to adopting polarised viewpoints at this stage, just four months after the latest information about this issue, which is so ambivalent. Considering the history is of so many thousand years back, and that there is so little definitive data about this particular aspect of it, why should we get so didactic? Do we have a better (ie more inclusive) word at hand? -- Vickram Fool On The Hill The cameras were all around. We've got you taped; you're in the play. Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.) Invest your life in the memory bank; ours the interest and we thank you. Jethro Tull: A Passion Play (1973) On Nov 14, 2012 1:02 PM, Anirudh Bhati anirudh...@gmail.com wrote: My email was not directed at anyone personally. It was simply a response to the observation Srikanth made and from what I glanced from Wikipedia articles.[1] In the context of linguistics, you will be hard-pressed to find reliable sources that refer to Indic languages as a generic term for all of Indian languages. The word 'Indic' itself is a derivative of the word Hindus or Indus referring to the Indus Valley Civilization, which did not stretch as far as
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Outreach] 1st Wikipedia Workshop in British Library, Chandigarh
Well done! You seem to have had an amazing session over two days! On Aug 28, 2012 8:24 AM, Piyush Aggarwal me.piyushaggar...@gmail.com wrote: Greetings Everyone, I am back from Chandigarh after attending one of the two amazing sessions at British library. The session on day 1 (24 August) was held by Subha and the session on day 2 (25 August) was held by both of us. We are writing a summary of the two events. *Day 1 (24 Aug): Introductory Session* There was a news coverage in Hindustan Times ( https://plus.google.com/111646825844146884911/posts/Yy9xGd9kV14) regarding this session. The members of British Library were informed (members above 16 years) by British Council's mailing list ( http://www.britishcouncilonline.org/events/besuccessful_event_details.aspx?EventID=776). We had 32 participants for the first day. There were people of all different age groups and various different backgrounds, surprisingly more elderly people than youngsters! People came from Ludhiana, Mohalli and Panchkula (Mohalli and Panchkula are two nearby cities) have joined for this session. Subha asked all of them to introduce and speak about their Wikipedia experience and interaction as a user. Many of them asked questions in the beginning itself which was beneficial with spending some time to know each other. The participants were taken through the presentation by questioning about Who edit WP and why they edit. They were asking a lot of questions in between so the intro session was longer. Most people still were not believing that Wikipedia articles could be edited by people like them. So Subha decided to do some vandalism ;-) One of the participants volunteered for creating her user account and we changed the year of Chandigarh declared as being the cleanest city of India. Then she corrected it and Subha explained how experienced editors correct such mistakes. The participants were showed only few formatting like Bold, Italics, Linking and Heading and showed the Help tab from which they can learn more. Majority of them had doubts about credibility and they brought examples of many articles having wrong information. So the rest half of the session was spent discussing about the low visibility is one of the reasons of articles with wrong information and how more editor contribution is essential for articles of Indian context. They were also shown articles with cleanup/More citations needed maintenance tags and how they could be improved. *Day 2 (25 Aug):* *Editing Workshop* Day 2 saw 10 participants from the previous day (including a sports-blogger, a techie, 4 students, a ELT trainer, a pediatrician and a lady from Ludhiana who created her user account on Day 1 and brought her father for Day 2) and 4 new student participants. Subha and me talked briefly about what is intended for the editing session. All of them created their user accounts, some of the participants helped the new participants to create their user accounts. They chose various different articles including articles of local importance (Banka Bihari temple, Chandigarh, Paratha (few raised the question why it is not spelt as ParaNtha!!)), Assam tea, etc. The audience were really patient and asking more questions about What is there for me, What are we going to do next. So we all gathered for a photoshoot and discussed about setting up a wiki club so they stay connected. They were excited to hear that Chandigarh British Library Wikipedia club ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Club_Chandigarh) will be India's 3rd Wikipedia Club. We all shared ideas and about how they will be continuing editing after the session is over. Now a facebook group has been created ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/WikiClubChandigarh) to guide the new editors with editing. *Meeting with Christina and Varinder:* After the session got over we had a meeting with Christina (Manager) and Varinder (IT Head of Brit Lib). One of the Tribune columnists (Renee Singh) and a participant also joined us. We explained how the wiki club will function and would help them also. Being a Library they could involve many of their members in this. A new lady editor from Ludhiana has shown interest for conducting workshops in her town. There was a sports-blogger and a techie who explained how the local blogger community (over 125+ bloggers) meet up regularly and blog actively. This is a community we could explore more to promote Wikipedia amongst techies. What we found is British Library is quite open to ideas and showed interest for this collaborative model. The participants were asking can we define positions for the wiki club also so that people having different interest could take up lead for different activities. Post event steps: - Emails with thanks and appreciating their interest were sent to the participants. - Formal opening of the club is done on Wikipedia (
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Plz consider the primary education as a issue of concern.
The founder of Sugar labs, Walter Bender, will be in India from about 21-29 August (i.e. now) and will speak at HBCSE in Mumbai on 28 August, 4-6 pm, for those interested in furthering the importance of good quality primary education. It is an open, public, meeting. Sugar is the platform developed for the xo NetBook under the olpc program, and is available on most general purpose computers today, and also on a pen drive for a test drive before installation. It provides children with a playground to learn, with communication and collaboration key ingredients. Interested persons needing to know more about the Mumbai program may contact me offlist. His full schedule will be posted shortly, as he is also visiting Guwahati, Goa and Delhi. On Aug 22, 2012 1:11 AM, nazm...@gmail.com nazm...@gmail.com wrote: Here in India most of Rural Pre Primary School education level going down interms of Quality. There huge nos of kids being the prey of quality less education. So next gen is being destroyed in the name of total literacy. Lets organise a campaign aganist that.a-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list wikimediaannounc...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l -- ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] what is a Monument?
On Aug 13, 2012 11:51 PM, Pradeep Mohandas pr...@outlook.com wrote: Quite a philosophical question this no? Apparently, India has an act that defines what are monuments. It goes by the rather descriptive name, Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. You can read this act here - http://www.asi.nic.in/asi_monuments.asp Some monuments are well preserved, and others are a blot on our conscience, and the 'activities' of the ASI. Not that this is the objective, and not that the objective of our participation in WLM is to create a tourist paradise, but I do hope that some of the photographic documentation achieved in this year's photothon will help create some public outcry against the widespread decay and neglect. We have, in general, far too many laws and far too little public concern about the manner of their implementation. My answer to you here is in a much broader context than the competition, in reference to which you ask this question. warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas From: tshriniva...@gmail.com Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2012 23:25:55 +0530 To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] what is a Monument? On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 11:10 PM, Karthik Nadar karthik...@wikimedia.in wrote: Just to confirm, heritage temple is part of monument. Thanks. I hope churches, mosques also come under monument. please confirm. -- Regards, T.Shrinivasan My Life with GNU/Linux : http://goinggnu.wordpress.com Free/Open Source Jobs : http://fossjobs.in Get CollabNet Subversion Edge : http://www.collab.net/svnedge ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Volunteer for CIS's A2K programme director recruitment committee
On Aug 6, 2012 12:19 PM, Sunil Abraham su...@mahiti.org wrote: Dear Yuvi and Vickram, On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 3:50 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: On Aug 5, 2012 3:05 PM, Yuvi Panda yuvipa...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 2:41 PM, Sunil Abraham su...@mahiti.org wrote: Simply out of curiosity, what would constitute 'sufficient' managerial experience? The rest of us were hoping ;-) you would explain. Apologies for the imprecise language. I was thinking of 'sufficient' being middle ground between 1) 'any managerial experience' and 2) 'significant managerial experience'. More imprecise phrases to clarify an imprecise phrase. The trouble however in the world of free knowledge and open culture - is that those playing a leadership role are not thought of as managers. But often these leaders have much more management experience than those exposed only to traditional organisations. True. Your explanation clarifies that what is needed is leadership experience, possibly either with large or small teams, obviously somebody who has enough time to devote during the next month or two for this task, but not for the role being filled. I suggest that instead of leaving the 'sufficient' adjective in place, simply request all volunteers with leadership experience to apply (i.e. to advise their availability), and choose the one with the greatest time spent in such roles. Best wishes, Sunil ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Volunteer for CIS's A2K programme director recruitment committee
On Aug 5, 2012 3:05 PM, Yuvi Panda yuvipa...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 2:41 PM, Sunil Abraham su...@mahiti.org wrote: Simply out of curiosity, what would constitute 'sufficient' managerial experience? The rest of us were hoping ;-) you would explain. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [OT] Fwd:Parliament - Say no to Internet Censorship
Not at all OT (unless the rules of this list say otherwise) On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 3:48 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.comwrote: -- Forwarded message -- Date: Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 17:52 Subject: [ilugb] Parliament - Say no to Internet Censorship Parliament - Say no to Internet Censorship The Government notified on April 13, 2011 the Information Technology (Intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011 prescribing guidelines to be observed by the intermediaries. The rules were issued in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (zg) of subsection (2) of section 87 read with sub-section (2) of section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (Act 21 of 2000). The provisions of the new rules are unconstitutional as they affect the right to freedom of speech and expression as well as right to privacy of citizens, are arbitrary being violative of Art. 14 of the Constitution of India and are ultra vires of the parent act. SFLC.in [1] has come out with an ebook, Legal analysis of IT(Intermediaries guidelines)Rules 2011 [2] explaining the impact of the guidelines which the government has come up with. FSMK[3] with support of other organizations is planning a national level campaign against this law which will be discussed in parliament on the second half of the budget session which starts from April 24th. Hence we have chosen 21st April for the nation wide campaign against the law. Content regarding the campaign and the issue is being updated, [4]. Please let me know if the organizations that you are associated with can support us for this campaign. We are maintaining a list of all organization who are supporting us [5]. Also please support this campaign by sharing the link of the website[4] and also by signing the petition [6]. We are also looking for any creative posters/ideas related to this topic which will help us in spreading the word. Please feel free to share such content with us so that we can update it in the website. [1] - http://softwarefreedom.in/ [2] - [pdf] http://softwarefreedom.in/attachments/article/125/LegalAnalysis_ItIntermediaryRules.pdf [3] - http://fsmk.org [4] - http://friendsofinternet.wikispaces.com/ [5] - http://friendsofinternet.wikispaces.com/List+of+friends+of+internet [6] - http://www.change.org/petitions/mps-of-india-support-the-annulment-motion-to-protect-internet-freedom-stopitrules -- Regards, Vignesh Software Engineer http://2paisasbyviggy.wordpress.com/ http://fsmk.org -- Regards Srikanth.L ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] India Program-Fortnightly IRC: Thursday March 29th @ 9pm IST (Outreach Communication) (#wikimedia-office)
On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Hisham, you say you're conducted 22+ sessions. How would you rate the relative success of each of them? Four people editing on the day isn't good enough. Long term editors should be used to measure success. I think what you mean to say is that the editors on the day need to be tracked (not them: their contributions) regularly. This might aid in directing them to whatever post-outreach assistance they need, and also might result in the outreach 'business' snowballing, once other editors see how effective this is. I see two kinds of success for an outreach program: 1. Outreach multiplication, measured in outreach sessions per period (week/month/year) 2. Successful outreach sessions, measured in number of editors contributing x periods (weeks/months/years) after they participated in an outreach There is a third possible outcome, which is identifying (and perhaps rewarding) people who are good (ie conversion of newbies into editors) at outreach. I also see a different kind of outreach outcome, but which probably needs a different kind of outreach session, and that is through the addition of software contributors. -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] India Programs-Fortnightly IRC: Thursday March 15th @ 9pm IST (Indic Languages) Thursday March 29th @9pm IST (Outreach Communication) (#wikimedia-office)
Just to chime in with some observations (empirical, possibly OT) about means of communication. IRC is one of those elegant solutions that just aren't everyone's cup of tea, but sometimes because they haven't tried. Actually, it is the nearest thing to a physical meeting, with the same rules of conduct. It requires only a minimal bandwidth connection, and (afaik) has no limitation of people participating. In this sense it competes headon with Hangout and so on, but, because it has somewhat of an 'insider' perspective (entirely unearned) not many people feel that comfortable using it. It is text only, and nobody cares if you type slowly or badly. It is not useful for file transfers and so on, so one cannot 'show' how something works or should work, or what the problem is. This is usually not the purpose to which it is put, either. The only prerequisite is that you should have something (hopefully relevant) to say. The person choosing (or chosen) to summarise the meeting can do as Pradeep suggested, and do so on an open wikipage which can then be used to discuss wider, including those people who could not attend, but feel they have not conceded the right or duty to contribute by not doing so (maybe their mother-in-law was visiting, or something equally critical). On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 10:17 PM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, I hope some of the IRC-veterans can pitch in here. Not everyone is comfortable with IRC. I think these sessions will be more helpful for all involved if we had a statement put up on a wiki or on the mailing list by individuals who want to make these statements and then have a round of questions around the topics (as an example: community and outreach) which were meant to be discussed at the meeting. Then, perhaps throw the floor open for general questions that members of the community want to raise. I think this will make it interactive and not be percieved as a narrative or a one-sided discussion. These may not have been intentional and should have been raised earlier. I hope the Office continues this practice and tries to improve its effectiveness as they move forward. warm regards, User:Prad2609 On 15 March 2012 20:45, Hisham his...@wikimedia.org wrote: Reminder that we are starting in 15 minutes. Do join in! Details below. *hisham* On Mar 15, 2012, at 8:38 AM, Hisham wrote: Gentle reminder. Do join in. *hisham* On Mar 11, 2012, at 6:41 AM, Hisham wrote: Hi Folks One of the essential things that India Program needs to constantly work out is keeping the community informed of the work that we are doing - so that this work is clearer but also to help cross-pollinate ideas amongst a wider set of community members who might not have been engaged on specific village pump / talk page discussion or involved in particular activities (e.g. outreach events) or wikiprojects. We used to have a monthly IRC with the community and India Program. (For those who are not familiar with IRC, it is an Internet messaging system similar to a regular chat room. It's very simple to use and you can join in by clicking on the following link:* http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wikimedia-office*.) I have been remiss in conducting these for the past few months - and I'd like to make amends by restarting, with a couple of modifications. a) I'd like to propose fortnightly instead of monthly. (I was wary of doing it any more frequently than monthly earlier because I didn't know if there would be enough on the plate to discuss. I have changed my mind now - because there is too much to discuss to cover in a single monthly session.) I'd like to propose that we do it in the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of every month at 9pm IST (which is GMT + 0530) - THOUGH NOT THIS MONTH - BECAUSE I HAVE MISSED THE TIMELINE. Just for March, we will do it on *March 15th* and March 29th (both at *9pm IST* which is GMT + 0530) b) I'd like to propose that we do it focussed on specific work streams instead of general. The reason I say this is that - as with many community meet-ups, folks will give time to attend a meet-up or participate in an IRC only if there is a topic of relevance to them. To that extent, we could do one IRC on Indic languages and one on Outreach Communications. I'd start both the IRCs with a re-cap of India Programs activities for the fortnight (or so) prior to the IRC and forward from the IRC - and then we could talk about either Indic langauges or Outreach Communications. The *March 15th one will be focussed on Indic Languages* and the one on March 29th will be on Outreach Communications. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9
[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: India is country under Internet surveillance : Reporters without Borders
On Mar 14, 2012 11:51 AM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: Please mark such posts as off topic. That depends on how OT is defined. We already face internal restrictions defining content, we face 'security' restrictions finding content (re our discussions on photographing heritage structures), and for all we know, one day we will find ourselves tagged by officious offshoots of the State for even having independent minds and seeking to spread knowledge. Sure, Anivar did not spell all this out. Did he need to? Thank you for letting us know. Pradeep Handheld On Mar 14, 2012 11:01 AM, Anivar Aravind anivar.arav...@gmail.com wrote: Reporters Without Borders' annual list of enemies of the Internet published India and Kazakhstan, new additions to the “under surveillance” category Since the Mumbai bombings of 2008, the Indian authorities have stepped up Internet surveillance and pressure on technical service providers, while publicly rejecting accusations of censorship. The national security policy of the world’s biggest democracy is undermining freedom of expression and the protection of Internet users’ personal data. Read Full report http://en.rsf.org/beset-by-online-surveillance-and-12-03-2012,42061.html BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17350225 -- Anivar Aravind -- [It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and 'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from other kinds of precise information. - Donald Knuth ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: eidete - a nice screencaster for gnu/linux
This is super. Nitika may find this tremendously helpful for her proposed online outreach sessions. We can also crowdsource video shorts: tips and tricks for various aspects of Wikimedia stuff, in multiple languages. On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 8:53 AM, Shrinivasan T tshriniva...@gmail.comwrote: we can use this to create videos in all languages to teach how to contribute for wikipedia. -- Forwarded message -- From: Shrinivasan T tshriniva...@gmail.com Date: Mar 1, 2012 7:21 PM Subject: eidete - a nice screencaster for gnu/linux To: ILUG-C il...@ae.iitm.ac.in Found a nice screencasting application for ubuntu - eidete Though the gnome 3 has its inbuilt screen recording app using crtl+alt+shift+r it can record only video, not the audio. I was looking for a decent screenrecorder with voice. gtk-recordmydesktop is good. But, we have to configure the parameters to get video without any scattering effects. Tried eidete. It is so good. Video is stored as webm format. video/audio quality is fine. Check more about it here: https://launchpad.net/eidete http://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2012/01/record-your-screen-activity-with-eidete.html Recorded a sample screencast - intro to gnome 3 in Tamil. check it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg5h1-YgoJI Now, you can create screencasts easily with Eidete. -- Regards, T.Shrinivasan My Life with GNU/Linux : http://goinggnu.wordpress.com Free/Open Source Jobs : http://fossjobs.in Get CollabNet Subversion Edge : http://www.collab.net/svnedge ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Konkani Wikipedia.
As the old military expression goes, the impossible just takes a little longer. Choose one script/dialect combination (organically, not by diktat), develop it to a starting point, and I venture to suggest that enthusiasts will come forward to support developing the variants. On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 9:07 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Developing each dialect is too complex. It doesn't look feasible. -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on February 12th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore Aliens invaded Tamil Nadu, left their Spacship and now it is a Toll Plaza. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IVRCL-Vijayamangalam-Toll-Plaza.JPG ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Please sign up for WikiProject India if you are an English language Wikipedian (yes, English is an Indic language)
On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Swaroop Rao raul.swar...@gmail.comwrote: Swaroop Rao (MikeLynch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MikeLynch) On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 20:29, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.comwrote: I think we need to contact dormant editors and ask them why they stopped editing. Here is something to think about - is there such a thing as a lifecycle of a Wikipedia where a person goes through stages finally burns out? Just found some WikiHumor related to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Seven_Ages_of_Wikipedians Only one 'age' appears to be missing: the age when the Wikipedian decides that one might as well earn some money editing Wikipedia, even though it is expressly forbidden and hugely frowned upon. They then hire themselves out to ponytailed education businessmen, and when this is discovered, many Wikipedians express their deep sorrow and regret, and remember the good old days when X was such a straight arrow. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Please sign up for WikiProject India if you are an English language Wikipedian (yes, English is an Indic language)
On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 4:25 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Agree with Ashwin. That feeling of nostalgia is very powerful. Vickram, the case of Nichalp is a one of case. It doesn't happen with EVERYONE. :-) Thank goodness, too! But this commercialisation aspect is one that was asked at the WikiAcademy. It is important to explain the ethos right from the beginning. In fact, once this case is resolved, it would be good to have it documented so that it can be used to strongly illustrate the point. On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 12:49 AM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: Hey, we expect people who have moved on to different things NOT to cut all ties but to return back out of nostalgia, often enough. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 12:35 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 02:28, Anirudh Bhati anirudh...@gmail.comwrote: It has probably got more to do with the fact that pages on the encyclopedia (even about general Indian topics) look complete and thorough Also the fact that availability of RS affects. Infact I would say that as one of reason for my non-involvment in the WP:INR workgroup. We created most of content from MoRTH and available RS which are worthy enough to be on encyclopedia. There is so much to add about Indian Roads, but where are the sources :( Naveen found WP:INEI , but then I was hijacked to Tamil Wiki :D -- Regards Srikanth.L ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on February 12th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore Aliens invaded Tamil Nadu, left their Spacship and now it is a Toll Plaza. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IVRCL-Vijayamangalam-Toll-Plaza.JPG ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [Wikimedia-IN-PUN] [Wikimedia-in-en] GLAM-India: Wikipedia and NHHM collaboration
On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 7:48 AM, Anirudh Bhati anirudh...@gmail.com wrote: FYI. -- Forwarded message -- From: Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com Date: Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 7:45 AM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-IN-PUN] [Wikimedia-in-en] GLAM-India: Wikipedia and NHHM collaboration To: Mailing list for Wikimedians in Pune, India wikimedia-in-...@lists.wikimedia.org This is such a major development and wonderful news indeed, Noopur. I am also happy that the GLAM event comes from a soft field of arts and culture which has not quite got the attention it deserves. In the 25 articles, I would off the cuff recommend that about : * at least 5 should be high level topics, such as textiles of India, pottery of India etc * two articles on the Ministry of Culture and the museum itself * half the remainder on regional themes or techniques such as Bidriwork, or carpet-making in Kashmir. * rest about specific objects in their collection In addition, I would recommend outcomes not just in Wikipedia but also in the field of Wikimedia Commons Wikisource. If some language wikipedias come forth to cooperate, you may like to offer the key article about the museum in more than one language. On behalf of English Wikipedians of WikiProject India, I pledge you our support to your venture. Feel free to ask for help on Wikimedia-in-en list WikiProject India noticeboard. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 1:39 AM, Subhashish Panigrahi spanigr...@wikimedia.org wrote: I whole heatedly congratulate you for this real success, oral citation seem to be a good way of collecting sources as most of the stuff they'd be having will have a documented format in the minds of people which we would be documented only via oral citation. Subha On 11-Feb-2012, at 1:11 AM, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Dear all, I am extremely delighted to announce India's first (?) GLAM collaboration with a State institution in New Delhi, the capital of India. The National Well done! -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Pure Fiction: Nichalp and Wifione
On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 1:42 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.comwrote: I was told by someone that Wikipeding was a voluntary activity so high standards should not be expected in competence. If that is true, then we should not suddenly start witch-hunting on the basis of principle when we are ourselves so casual about other qualities in other ways! Witch-hunting, under any circumstances, is a disgraceful business. It is nothing but hypocrisy by another name. However, I find it hard to agree with equating volunteering to low standards. Standards is something that means the most when it applies to oneself. That does not mean that everyone must agree with what one considers a standard, but it does not hurt to look around for an accepted standard or standards for any activity, and seeking to synergise or synthesize them when they are in dissonance. . The problem with paid pages is that people or entities making such payments tend to impose lower standards upon others, just as happens in many other spheres of human activity. It does not happen every time, but it does happen all too often. In fact, where pages are concerned, it is far too likely to be the very purpose of the payment. And compromised pages is compromising knowledge, because the credibility of Wikipedia is (afaik) on the way up. We may feel sympathy for the person who was forced into doing this, but that does not mean we should sit on our hands and let it carry on. However, as has already been pointed out, the client in this case is an extremely dangerous entity, and moreso for volunteer individuals in India. Clearly we need to call for help. I don't know how best to do that, but it seems to me that offlist channels are one way to go. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Backup for Wikipedians
On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 4:32 PM, Deepon Saha hideeponh...@gmail.com wrote: Good Idea Srikanth.. Deepon On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 4:09 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: It isn't easy to stand ground when you are outnumbered. It also isn't god when the cop reels out a law which you've never heard of. I said, I'd look up the law over the Internet on my phone. Saying so, perhaps, we could all create a page with all local laws on such matters and put it up on either Meta or Wikimedia.in ??? For instant reference? Also, in general, it is not a good idea to go around taking pictures or gathering information in potentially sensitive places alone. This applies to anywhere in the world, not just India. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Backup for Wikipedians
Top posting: yes, *sensitive* spots, not spots of possible connection with *national security*. The police take an active interest wherever money can be sniffed, not only where the government may or may not have an interest. In the former kind of places, one can very often discern an extra-legal aura of security, such as the disgraceful scene some months back when a motorist traveling south (Mumbaikars will know what I mean) on Peddar Road was harassed for taking a picture or two of Antillia from across the road. Picture taking there is totally and completely a legal act, of course, but harassment by police is not always worth going to court about. In that case, the media took an interest, which can be better than going to court sometimes. The trouble is that Wikipedians cannot always expect to be able to raise a media fuss, or to expect sympathy or empathy expressed in the media. But I must say that the media is taking a lot more of a positive and encouraging view of Wikimedian activities nowadays (a kudos to you-know-who). On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 6:43 PM, Ravishankar ravidre...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 5:25 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.comwrote: The Doll's Museum in New Delhi used to prohibit photography! There are lot of places including museums and temples globally which prohibit photography or require special permissions. The issue is prohibiting when there is no clear prior notice. ravi ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [datameet] National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy 2012 Approved
It would be absolutely fantastic if we can organise ongoing training and sensitisation sessions for government departments in order to assist them to streamline timely uploading of public information. These may also be conducted at universities where scientific research is published, for the publishing departments. They don't have to be wiki sessions per se, although as we know wiki is a very useful tool. But a lot of departments today (including NIC, I fear) seem to think that uploading .doc and scanned paper documents (even the Gazeete of India) is the same thing as publishing online. The statement released by Pranesh specifically states that the documents published online have to be machine readable. On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 12:27 PM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, I believe that this is relevant here since we have been trying to access government data to improve Wikipedia articles. Pradeep Handheld -- Forwarded message -- From: Pranesh Prakash pran...@cis-india.org Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:22:22 +0530 Subject: [datameet] National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy 2012 Approved To: Datameet datam...@googlegroups.com http://goo.gl/jb9Xc Cabinet February, 2012 12:22 IST National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy – 2012 approved The Union Cabinet today approved the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy – 2012 (NDSAP-2012). The objective of the policy is to facilitate access to Government of India owned shareable data and information in both human readable and machine readable forms through a network all over the country in a proactive and periodically updatable manner, within the framework of various related policies, Acts and Rules of the Government, therefore, permitting a wider accessibility and use of public data and information. The NDSAP policy is designed to promote data sharing and enable access to Government of India owned data for national planning and development. The National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy will apply to all data and information created, generated, collected and achieved using public funds provided by Government of India directly or through authorised agencies by various Ministries / Departments/ Organisations/ Agencies and Autonomous bodies. *** SH/LM (Release ID :80196) -- Pranesh Prakash Programme Manager Centre for Internet and Society W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283 -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Pure Fiction: Nichalp and Wifione
What is rather odd is that the 'story' is written as a defense of Nichalp/Wifione/Wikifone. Possibly some people may have known him personally and therefore the tone of the article. I find the statement They don't realize that, in the long run, editors cannot be expected to devote their time to the project for free.[3] . Realise? What does that mean? Nobody is forcing anyone to devote any time at all to Wikipedia. What Wikipedia represents is an opportunity (among other, better, things) for people to commit fraudulent acts, but that may be said of almost anything material or even spiritual. If anyone doesn't like it, they are free to relax and do something else that they find more spiritually or materially relevant. And it is not 'they' who don't realise (or do, we the silly naive people), it is 'us'. As for the client, the less said the better. It remains to be seen why the government regulators fail year after year to do anything about this sad situation. So far, the scams do not amount to hundreds of thousands of crores, which at least attracts CAG attention, although the impact on India's societal health may end up being far deeper. Have they ever sued the government or threatened to sue? Have they sued individual government officers? - that is certainly pretty hard to do, much much harder than to sue individual volunteer Wikimedians. People following education issues will have noticed that minority education institutions have soundly protested the provisions of the new Right To Education Act. I feel such actions are partly a response the the pressure that will now be put on privately funded teaching mills. It is a very complex situation, but the nexus between politicians and degree shops/moneymaking rackets is a doleful commentary on India's evolving political landscape. On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 1:38 PM, CherianTinu Abraham tinucher...@gmail.comwrote: Unbelievable but Shocking ! I am not sure if Wikifone is same as Nichalp, but a look at the edit history of Wikifone, the editor has some serious interest to protect the interests of IIPM and its stakeholders. He seems to even change policy pages to suit his cause http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3ANo_original_researchaction=historysubmitdiff=475525747oldid=475410422 Wifione seems to be working on IIM and Amity ( Competitors to IIPM) articles as well, possibly trying to show them in bad light. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amity_Universityaction=historysubmitdiff=475405890oldid=474606800 Nevertheless , this has be investigated or possibly reported to Arb Com. -TC On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, I do not understand why this accusation is written as a work of fiction. Whatever the problems faced by an individual, it does not provide grounds for crimes like theft. If the person does resort to these methods, has to face the consequences, if found out. I am sure we appreciated User:Nichalp's contributions when they were made. However, when he/she has made mistakes and makes them multiple times, I think this also warrants serious investigation. Pradeep Handheld On 07/02/2012, guptc...@ovi.com guptc...@ovi.com wrote: This is the story of Nichalp[1], an Indian student from Mumbai who became obsessed with editing Wikipedia at a young age. He transformed several articles into featured articles, and became a role model for many editors. He was granted the bureaucrat, oversight and administrator privileges - nobody deserved these rights more than him, not even Jimbo. A major change in Nichalp's life came when he came to Australia for higher education. Facing a severe financial crunch, Nichalp decided to use the only extraordinary skill he had - editing Wikipedia - for making money. He put up ads on several freelancer recruiting websites, promising to write articles in oexchange for small amounts of money.[2] These were the days when the PR professionals had started realizing the importance of Wikipedia. There were many takers for Nichalp's services. With his sockpuppet accounts, Nichalp made a number of contributions (many of which stand deleted now). Unfortunately for Nichalp, the Wikizealots live in an idealistic world. They don't realize that, in the long run, editors cannot be expected to devote their time to the project for free.[3] When the Wikihounds came to know about one of Nichalp's paid editing accounts they came after him. Nichalp knew he would be stalked in real life, so he made his main account inactive. Meanwhile, he continued to be active through his other paid editing accounts. A man of foresight, Nichalp started another account in April 2009 to gain back his admin rights.[4] The Wikihounds have an astonishing ability to track the suspicious accounts - they tracked another one of Nichalp's paid editing accouents.[5] The drama prompted the
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Backup for Wikipedians
+1 On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 1:09 AM, Aditya Sengupta apsengu...@gmail.comwrote: Ignore any or all of the above advice if you are being physically harmed. Focus on personal safety first. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Letters of authority or press cards (was: Backup for Wikipedians)
I think this is a great suggestion. I know that amateur and even professional photographers (non-Press persons) face endless nuisance simply due the lack of an official looking card. Do we actually have an 'office'? If so, its address on the card would help. Only thing is since probably the 'number' might be a volunteer, we should try not to have such persons bothered by nuisance calls. Perhaps we can take a SIM for the purpose and attach it to an answering service (computer-based). On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 4:55 PM, Fae fae...@gmail.com wrote: Could I make a practical suggestion to help those that might be challenged in public places or when going into institutions? In the UK we are looking at making official press cards for established Wikinews reporters. I know from experience that taking photographs in India can be problematic for many reasons, not just the police. If the local chapter could produce letters of authority or press ID for regular contributors, this might make our contributers feel a bit more confident about having something to produce when questioned about what they are doing. The press ID in the UK would work by the person having their identity on file with the London office. If there are questions about their work (for example photographs being taken or interviews) then the person's real life ID can be checked by phoning the chapter office. This does not have to compromize their on-line identity if anonymous, as real-life identity is kept confidential by the chapter. In most cases we would expect that having an official looking card or letter would solve most problems on the spot, particularly when the Wikimedian can say please phone my office if you want to confirm my details. You can find a discussion about the press ID system for the UK at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Wikinews_reporter_IDs. WMUK would be open to supporting an internationally recognized system along these lines. Thanks, Fae -- http://enwp.org/user_talk:fae Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/faetags ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Letters of authority or press cards (was: Backup for Wikipedians)
Further to Theo's suggestion (inline below) On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 7:15 AM, Theo10011 de10...@gmail.com wrote: Great suggestion Fae. As Srikanth correctly pointed it out, such an ID would be under the content scope, which neither the chapter or the WMF India operations have any jurisdiction over. I remember a couple of years ago, Wikinews tried this for their active editors, offering to print them 'official reporter' IDs. It was an idea at the time, and I'm not sure if they actually implemented it or not. For photographers, this would be the commons community. This shouldn't be too hard, I suggest someone mentioning the political situation and suggesting this for commons photographers in the VP. The great thing is since, it would be the community who would award it, there is little or no direct liability to an official body. There should however be a contribution record or an endorsement from someone to print these out. One thing the chapter can do however, is offer a special member/photographers ID to the existing members. This could be at a surcharge so they don't undertake any expense- they can print out plastic IDs with photos, and membership detail of the existing members. This ID might be able to suffice for the purpose. I don't think that the card should necessarily be printed at a centralised location. In fact, I don't even think this is desirable (from security and logistics viewpoints). It should be fairly simple to 'approve' a request for accreditation (framework discussed already), then lead to a web-based one-time card generator that the user can print and laminate herself. In case of problems printing, the user should have a fallback option to report the failure, in order to enable a second attempt for the card to be printed. Regards Theo On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 8:15 PM, CherianTinu Abraham tinucher...@gmail.com wrote: The chapter can officially decide it only after a discussion within Board , SIG leadership and the members. But on a personal level, I agree with Anirudh's view on this. Since it brings strong accountability for the chapter on the use of the ID by the recipients , this has to be done with caution and utmost care. May be we can set up an empowered committee to review such requests and grant them. ( just a suggestion) Nevertheless, IMHO, such id cards should be issued to only trusted Wikimedians with a substantial amount of history with our projects and mission. Regards Tinu Cherian On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 7:22 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.comwrote: We do need a Chapter EC Board member to respond to this. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 6:56 PM, Anirudh Bhati anirudh...@gmail.com wrote: The question whether the Chapter will help someone if they get into some sort of trouble with the authorities is an important one and should be addressed. Once a letter of authority is issued to a volunteer, the chapter's reputation and credibility is on the line. Therefore, the chapter must endeavor to only approve those members who have a substantial amount of history with our projects and their mission. In such a scenario, I would expect the chapter to extend help to those it endorses. anirudh (personal opinion) On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 6:52 PM, Anirudh Bhati anirudh...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 6:42 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 18:24, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: Will the chapter or India Programs provide assistance? IIRC both of them lie outside the content boundary and wouldn't be helping. I dont recollect reading anything like protecting interests of wikipedians on the chapter's mission / vision. Form a political party (since asking the current ones might not help!) and fight for it, else sit at home and edit non controversial stuff like Brinjal :P Supporting Wikimedia volunteers in their mission to expand the scope and variety of content on Wikimedia projects is an important part of our stated goals. I think this is a very good idea, and a little help to the volunteers from the chapter would go a long way in giving their work some credibility in the eyes of authorities, private and public both. anirudh (personal opnion) ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2012
On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 12:49 PM, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Actually, 'on the spot' was deliberately chosen following earlier walks, where it was noticed that not everyone who participated actually uploaded the content later, or partially uploaded with no captions or details. This makes extra work for other people later. Maybe this is an assumption? We thought the same but took our chances with manuals and people went back home and actually uploaded over 800 pictures. I wouldn't know. I am not such an enthusiastic photographer, nor was I directly involved in the Photowalk, just assisting from the sidelines. I extrapolated from earlier discussions that probably took place here, or on the Mumbai list (or both), or at our Meetup. Regarding the geeky tools- making life simple, again, the moment you push photographers/non Linux users into a Linux lab and talk Python and metadata problems, one is bound to get slightly intimidated. On the back end of course, you can build the geekiest tool and talk about it, but on the front end, it should have been a 'clear solution'. People who struggled with uploads and metadata will surely not go back home and try it again. That was my point. Metadata is just a big word for the text and other attributes attached to a photograph (in this context). A photograph without credentials is a bad idea for a resource, and this was pointed out on the list earlier. If the data is not added by the user herself, it becomes a chore for someone else to research and correctly annotate it. The fact that a digital photograph can have such attributes integrated is a boon, big words notwithstanding. This attributes feature also works for music and videos btw, in fact it works for all standard media, and if anyone comes up with a new media form, a similar standard will be set. The talk about Python was a side-discussion about getting the tool working in time for the crowd to arrive: would it have made anyone feel better if it was called Photoshop or Picture Manager or something? Why would that be? Not a rhetorical question, merely one of checking assumptions. The tool is for mass upload, the issue was enabling multiple people to upload from a single location. The issue there is protective tools built into wikimedia that control such things, in order to prevent malware people from uploading rubbish, running denial of service attacks and the like. Everyone who becomes a wikimedian should understand that, and organisers of wikievents of this nature must learn in advance how to get around this. India is one of the world's biggest sources of such malware (malware superpower), so it is very understandable that people concerned about Wikimedia's credibility and reputation will view such activities from India as a threat. We need to evolve a protocol whereby lead wikimedians at any event notify this intent so that the gates are temporarily opened and the event can take place to everyone's convenience. When this is not done, the experience is not so great, but as I suggested, there are workarounds that will still keep everyone engaged and enthusiastic at the upload venue (which could be a cybercafe stuffed with Windows machines; wikimedia tools try to be as agnostic and inclusive as possible) and the need for such things can only come out of discussion - f2f as well, if the Walkers have a mix of newbie and experienced wikimedians, but the potential to be much richer and more informative if more people can participate, like on this mailing list. The geeky part, the actual design and development of an offline component of the tool (that was only my suggestion: it is possible there may be some more effective way of handling it as well), will be handled by wikimedians who like doing such things, but without this discussion to highlight the need, why would they? And what would they design, if there was no discussion about what it should do? The alternative is everyone goes home, uploads individually, and loses out on any chance for discussing and evolving best practices about that aspect, the addition of captions and metadata. Both options have their merits and demerits, for it is not even necessary that every photosession be a PhotoWalk. On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 12:44 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 12:16 PM, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: IMHO, the point of the photo walk is not just to get pictures but, also to ask people to log on to Commons and check it out by themselves so that they continue uploading pictures etc. This thread seems so complex that a participant must have felt crippled and left thinking that Wikipedia (and Commons) is all so complicated and geeky, it's not my cup of tea. The nuts and bolts will always be geeky (although only some highly specific mails actually had any geeky content in them). The point of all the geeky stuff is to make life simple for persons who do not need to know
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Report on Wikipedia Takes Mumbai II
On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:19 AM, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.comwrote: On Monday 30 January 2012 03:28 AM, Theo10011 wrote: Looks great Anshuman! My best wishes to you and the Mumbai community! I wish we could figure out an easier way to upload, possibly direct mobile uploads to common for events like this. I know it would be a gold-mine for participation when it comes to events like this. For anyone who'd like to send images to commons directly from your android camera phone, there is an app that does exactly this - I've used it to send images directly from my phone to commons; it's simple, easy-to-use and extremely useful: https://market.android.com/details?id=nl.michiel1972.main Achal, this is great! It will help such events enormously, as many of the users will be able to perform 'instant uploads' - Photowalks can be organised with regular breaks to allow successive images to be populated with metadata. (Other than this android app, there appears to be an IPhone app under development: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WikiSnaps) Regards Theo On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 9:54 PM, Anshuman Fotedar anshuman.fote...@gmail.com wrote: Greetings! This is a short note on Wikipedia Takes Mumbai II. Forty people turned up near the Oval Maidan at Churchgate at 8 am yesterday. The landmarks that were photographed included the Babulnath Temple, Nehru Science Centre, Opera House, St Thomas Cathedral, INS Vikrant and Yazdani Bakery. After the photos had been clicked many of the participants proceeded to Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR where they were shown how to upload to Commons using both the usual upload process and by using the mediawiki-uploader mass upload script. Nikita Belavate and Karthik Nadar put in a lot of work into the event. They helped many people contribute to the Commons while having a good time, and they deserve praise for making all of this happen. Our heartfelt gratitude to Pranav Curumsey, Vickram Crishna, Dr Nagarjuna, Noopur Raval and Moksh Juneja for all the help and mentoring. Thanks to Shrinivasan T for mediawiki-uploader :) And apologies if I missed anyone out. Do visit our maintenance category WTMhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:WTM, specially created for the event. 313 pictures have been uploaded so far. Sincerely Anshuman Fotedar PS: 1. During the photowalk, some of the participants who were taking pictures of Bombay House were interrupted by private security personnel and asked to handover their cameras so that the pictures could be removed. Pranav and Aditya Sengupta, who were among them, peacefully put forth the fact that they were not not breaking any laws by photographing the structure from the outside since it was not a legally protected one. They were standing on the road, and not trespassing. To resolve the matter, Aditya, Pranav and Krutikaa Jawanjal accompanied the security personnel to the police station where they explained that they were within their rights to do what they did, and that citizens of the country need not take prior permission to take exterior photographs of private property that was not accorded legal protection. The PSI on duty made a noting in his station diary and informed us that Bombay House has security fears, which is why one should speak to their bosses before taking pictures, but agreed with them per se that there is no law that prohibits people from taking pictures there. 2. The group that went to Bombay House (and subsequently to Yazdani Bakery, St. Thomas Cathedral) and other places was delayed owing to the incident at Bombay House and discovered serendipitously that entry to INS Vikrant was open. Covering Vikrant took a while, adding to the delay. Consequently they (this includes me) never reached HBCSE but uploaded from home instead. Although we did get several good contributions from the participants in this group as well, I do recognise that it may have been nice if we could have joined in with the participants who uploaded together at HBCSE. I apologise. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing listwikimediaindi...@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2012
Failure to make the system work efficiently is also a learning exercise. Given that we are hoping to make such events happen more frequently and at many historically important places across the country, we must work to see that wikimedians are enabled to upload images meaningfully, ie with proper descriptions, as smoothly as possible. It is unlikely that everyone will have access to decent facilities for mass uploading the next time. Ideally, the availability of offline tools for collating and annotating images is needed, so that the tagged pictures can be kept ready in a folder for uploading. Then it won't matter if only a single PC can be used for the actual uploading, as different wikimedians can collate thier pictures individually, and transfer the folder files severally to the designated uploader PC for completion. This is important for such group activities, which may not have been a need when the original upload tool was designed and the rules for uploading set (which were probably designed to control spam and other anti-social uploaders, also an important need). This is analogous to the problems found while running newbie wikiacademies earlier. I suggest one or two of the Photowalk people, who worked at understanding and solving the problem found yesterday, interact with more geek wikimedians who can identify and describe this need as a bug for the community to solve, or to solve it directly. On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 11:27 AM, nikita belavate niki8...@gmail.comwrote: Upload on only one single PC was possible at a time. We tried reaching IRC center, but there was no one online at the IRC center for support.Due to time constraints, we skipped adding descriptions that could be uploaded successfully on their second try. On the first through,Commonist tool, the meta-data was not saved with the images and was erased with an 'unknown error'. So, there are many pictures yet to be uploaded and I will ask the participants to upload them with descriptions. Regards, Nikita. On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 11:14 AM, nikita belavate niki8...@gmail.comwrote: Hii, Its not any problem with the tool. On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 10:53 AM, Shrinivasan T tshriniva...@gmail.comwrote: did you use gthumb to add title and description? On Jan 29, 2012 10:07 AM, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: Thanks for this GN/Srinivasan. Point to note - none of the files uploaded using this script have a description. -- Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:57:14 +0530 From: tshriniva...@gmail.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2012 happy to know that it is useful. the install and readme files explain solving these issues. edit the file to change the default category too. please share if you need any enhancements. thanks. On Jan 28, 2012 8:41 PM, Nagarjuna G nagar...@gnowledge.org wrote: On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 10:37 AM, Shrinivasan T tshriniva...@gmail.com wrote: open the Python file and fill the login details and url for commons. copy the script to the folder where you have the images. run the following command. python mediawiki-uploader.py mail me if you have any issues. We tried this script for some folders. the feedback is as follows: while running the script, it cribbed about missing module poster. I have installed it using pip. then another missing dependency was python-pyexiv2. apt-get install python-pyexiv2 took care of this. after that the script ran successfully. -- GN ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2012
On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 12:16 PM, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: IMHO, the point of the photo walk is not just to get pictures but, also to ask people to log on to Commons and check it out by themselves so that they continue uploading pictures etc. This thread seems so complex that a participant must have felt crippled and left thinking that Wikipedia (and Commons) is all so complicated and geeky, it's not my cup of tea. The nuts and bolts will always be geeky (although only some highly specific mails actually had any geeky content in them). The point of all the geeky stuff is to make life simple for persons who do not need to know anything geeky at all. For the next time, a tiny suggestion: Please resort to simpler techniques of communication and although that may not result in mass uploads *on the spot*, give out manuals or DIY cheat sheets so that people can go back home and look at them again. Actually, 'on the spot' was deliberately chosen following earlier walks, where it was noticed that not everyone who participated actually uploaded the content later, or partially uploaded with no captions or details. This makes extra work for other people later. Maybe you guys can also keep in touch with these people who came, drop in a word and ask them if they need help. Some of them may return to your next meetup and that is how community expands. Noted. I think the purpose of such community efforts is to create more awareness about Wikimedia, that it has such interesting and user-focused details available, and that it is participatory: even when things do not work as hoped, it is we who solve such issues, not they. That is a huge message for people everywhere, one that does not need to be stated because it is being experienced. Having said which, the 'we' who solve the issues work within a commonly agreed framework, to avoid chaos and wandering down blind alleys. This list is not part of that framework, it is the place (within this context) where non-geeky people share their geeky needs. On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 12:05 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: Failure to make the system work efficiently is also a learning exercise. Given that we are hoping to make such events happen more frequently and at many historically important places across the country, we must work to see that wikimedians are enabled to upload images meaningfully, ie with proper descriptions, as smoothly as possible. It is unlikely that everyone will have access to decent facilities for mass uploading the next time. Ideally, the availability of offline tools for collating and annotating images is needed, so that the tagged pictures can be kept ready in a folder for uploading. Then it won't matter if only a single PC can be used for the actual uploading, as different wikimedians can collate thier pictures individually, and transfer the folder files severally to the designated uploader PC for completion. This is important for such group activities, which may not have been a need when the original upload tool was designed and the rules for uploading set (which were probably designed to control spam and other anti-social uploaders, also an important need). This is analogous to the problems found while running newbie wikiacademies earlier. I suggest one or two of the Photowalk people, who worked at understanding and solving the problem found yesterday, interact with more geek wikimedians who can identify and describe this need as a bug for the community to solve, or to solve it directly. On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 11:27 AM, nikita belavate niki8...@gmail.comwrote: Upload on only one single PC was possible at a time. We tried reaching IRC center, but there was no one online at the IRC center for support.Due to time constraints, we skipped adding descriptions that could be uploaded successfully on their second try. On the first through,Commonist tool, the meta-data was not saved with the images and was erased with an 'unknown error'. So, there are many pictures yet to be uploaded and I will ask the participants to upload them with descriptions. Regards, Nikita. On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 11:14 AM, nikita belavate niki8...@gmail.comwrote: Hii, Its not any problem with the tool. On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 10:53 AM, Shrinivasan T tshriniva...@gmail.com wrote: did you use gthumb to add title and description? On Jan 29, 2012 10:07 AM, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: Thanks for this GN/Srinivasan. Point to note - none of the files uploaded using this script have a description. -- Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:57:14 +0530 From: tshriniva...@gmail.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2012 happy to know that it is useful. the install and readme files explain solving these issues. edit the file to change the default category too. please share if you need any
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wiki Takes Mumbai II !!!
On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 2:55 PM, nikita belavate niki8...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks to Vickram uncle and Dr.Nagarjuna :) Hope some 'uncles' will be part of the Photowalk too! -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2012
As discussed with Nikita and Dr Nagarjuna, the HBCSE has kindly offered the use of the Gnowledge Labs at Deonar on Saturday 28 Jan afternoon (2pm onwards; the request was for a couple of hours) for the conclusion of the planned Photowalk, in order to complete uploading/tagging/captioning etc of the pictures acquired to Wikimedia. Organisers may please coordinate with Dr Nagarjuna directly (nagarjun; gnowledge, org) to confirm how many persons etc will be attending. The lab has computers (GNU/Linux only) and connectivity. He may not personally be there on Saturday itself, so please make sure the details are confirmed in advance. HBCSE is a security campus (part of TIFR) and visitors will need to take passes at the gate and have them signed in acknowledgment by an HBCSE staffer before leaving. You also need to make clear what digital equipment will be carried into the campus (phones, cameras, laptops) and declare it coming and going to the security staff at the gate. On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 1:11 PM, Anshuman Fotedar anshuman.fote...@gmail.com wrote: Hi everyone As was discussed in the Mumbai Meetup #14 on the 15th of this month, we are organising WIkipedia Takes Mumbai 2012 on the 28th, which is the coming Saturday. Wiki page for the event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WTMUM2 Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikitakesmumbai Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/301044829930784/ List of places we want to cover: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B_5CneXRV5n1BV4lOtbEGVy-PeTduATRYn-blNbU7n4/edit?pli=1 We have 3 routes in mind: 1) Western: http://g.co/maps/8udzv 2) South A: http://g.co/maps/m4hx2 3) South B: http://g.co/maps/z9atv We would love to get suggestions on the places/routes and any advice that might help going forward. Also we'd be glad if more volunteers come forward for the same. We can definitely use more hands :) Currently myself, Nikita Belavate and Karthik Nadar are working on this, with the aid of mentoring from Pranav Curumsey, Moksh Juneja and Noopur Raval. Thanks and Regards Anshuman Fotedar ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Petition Response: Digitizing Federal Public Records
Who wants copyright free? We want the right to reproduce and distribute freely, since we have already paid for it. The amendments on the way are a mess, designed to reinforce the rights of restrictive copyright holders. It is understandable, since the political leadership of the nation (of all hues) conflates ownership with monetisation, but hardly sensible. On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 11:45 PM, Sudhanwa Jogalekar sudhanwa@gmail.com wrote: I think amendments for the current copyeight act are coming soon. However, there is hardly any chance that Govt. work will be released copyright free. Regards -Sudhanwa On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 10:46 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks for this post, wheredevelsdare. Its high time someone in India put up a PIL to the Supreme court challenging the relevant portions of CopyrightAct 1957 wherein government work from public funds remains in copyright. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 12:06 PM, Kevin Gorman kgor...@gmail.com wrote: As the petition response mentioned, the national archives do have a wikipedian in residence currently - dominic mcdevitt-parks (User:Dominic.) David Ferriero has also attended at least one Wikimedia related event himself - he spoke at the public policy initiative wrapup in boston this summer. --- Kevin Gorman User:kgorman-ucb On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 10:29 PM, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: FYI - since we are looking to start GLAM in India, I thought this would make an interesting read. Answer to a petition for digitalising all Public Records in the US by a Wikimedian. -- *From:* The White House i...@messages.whitehouse.gov *Date:* January 20, 2012 6:27:44 PM EST *To:* filbe...@gmail.comfilbe...@gmail.com *Subject:* *Petition Response: Digitizing Federal Public Records* *Reply-To:* The White House i...@messages.whitehouse.gov [image: The White House] Digitizing Federal Public Records *By David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States* Thank you for signing a petition asking the Obama Administration to digitize all public records. The Obama Administration believes increasing access to our collections by digitizing our records is a great idea. Our most recent efforts to do this ourselves as part of our OpenGovhttp://links.whitehouse.gov/track?type=clickenid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmbWVzc2FnZWlkPU1EQi1QUkQtQlVMLTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xNjgxMjc2NSZlbWFpbGlkPWZpbGJlcnRrQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9ZmlsYmVydGtAZ21haWwuY29tJmZsPSZleHRyYT1NdWx0aXZhcmlhdGVJZD0mJiY=100http://www.archives.gov/open/initiative, include the Citizen Archivisthttp://links.whitehouse.gov/track?type=clickenid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmbWVzc2FnZWlkPU1EQi1QUkQtQlVMLTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xNjgxMjc2NSZlbWFpbGlkPWZpbGJlcnRrQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9ZmlsYmVydGtAZ21haWwuY29tJmZsPSZleHRyYT1NdWx0aXZhcmlhdGVJZD0mJiY=101http://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/project, a Wikipedian in Residencehttp://links.whitehouse.gov/track?type=clickenid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmbWVzc2FnZWlkPU1EQi1QUkQtQlVMLTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xNjgxMjc2NSZlbWFpbGlkPWZpbGJlcnRrQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9ZmlsYmVydGtAZ21haWwuY29tJmZsPSZleHRyYT1NdWx0aXZhcmlhdGVJZD0mJiY=102http://blogs.archives.gov/blog/2011/06/01/meet-our-wikipedian-in-residence-dominic-mcdevitt-parks/, Tag it Tuesdayshttp://links.whitehouse.gov/track?type=clickenid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmbWVzc2FnZWlkPU1EQi1QUkQtQlVMLTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xNjgxMjc2NSZlbWFpbGlkPWZpbGJlcnRrQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9ZmlsYmVydGtAZ21haWwuY29tJmZsPSZleHRyYT1NdWx0aXZhcmlhdGVJZD0mJiY=103http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/?cat=260, and Scanathonshttp://links.whitehouse.gov/track?type=clickenid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmbWVzc2FnZWlkPU1EQi1QUkQtQlVMLTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xNjgxMjc2NSZlbWFpbGlkPWZpbGJlcnRrQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9ZmlsYmVydGtAZ21haWwuY29tJmZsPSZleHRyYT1NdWx0aXZhcmlhdGVJZD0mJiY=104http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/?p=5819. We are also moving forward on implementing the President’s recent Memorandum on Managing Government Recordshttp://links.whitehouse.gov/track?type=clickenid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmbWVzc2FnZWlkPU1EQi1QUkQtQlVMLTIwMTIwMTIwLjUxMjg2MzEmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xNjgxMjc2NSZlbWFpbGlkPWZpbGJlcnRrQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9ZmlsYmVydGtAZ21haWwuY29tJmZsPSZleHRyYT1NdWx0aXZhcmlhdGVJZD0mJiY=105http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/28/presidential-memorandum-managing-government-records, which focuses on the need to update policies and practices for the digital age. But all those things aren’t enough. Your petition, and the Yes We Scan effort
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Supreme Court Says Congress May Re-Copyright Public Domain Works
To be utterly frank, we cannot continue to think that we must follow the example of the west. As Wikimedians in India, we have a particular point of view about copyright, in this case of works created using public money. Whether or not the USA decides to prevent similar works from being openly available, kowtowing to the ceaseless lobbying of proprietary content purveyors, is only incidental to our own attitude. Also note that this is a Supreme Court decision, the same court that kept persons of a particular colour in bondage for centuries. It cannot be said to be the democratic view of the US people. We must continue to make every effort to see our own country does not fall into this trap, at a time when the possibility of widespread knowledge dissemination in the country is just becoming truly feasible. To the extent that this involves taking on the proprietary knowledge (an oxymoron if there ever was one) lobby, so be it. On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 1:06 PM, CherianTinu Abraham tinucher...@gmail.comwrote: This is not good. On one side we are thinking for lobbying for Government works to be moved to public domain in India.. on another side this is happening... -TC On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 12:57 PM, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: FYI: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#URAA_affirmed_by_US_Supreme_Court_-_deletion_request_opened -- Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:50:36 +0530 From: jayanta...@gmail.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Supreme Court Says Congress May Re-Copyright Public Domain Works hi all, May be re-post, Plz look the below link http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/scotus-re-copyright-decision/ -- With Warm Regards, *Jayanta Nath* Calcutta,West Bengal __ ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Minutes of Wikipedia Mumbai Meetup 14
Hi Pranav On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 10:21 PM, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: Minutes of Wikipedia Mumbai Meetup 14: Coincidentally, 14 people attended the 14th Mumbai Meetup held at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Bandra earlier today :) *Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2* *... Wikimania 2013 *Ansuman, Nikita, Karthik and Krutika were strongly in favour of making a bid for Wikimania 2013, Mumbai. Mehul said he would be able to help out with the internet but not much more. Pradeep, Vickram and myself were not so sure. After the WCI experience we felt that a lot more commitment and focus was required from the community since bidding for Wikimania is like bidding for the Olympics, if we botch up, we put the country to shame. Rohini pointed out that another city like (Delhi) or Bangalore could bid. I mentioned that I had brought the topic up with community members across the country and there was consensus that no city is ready to take on something the scale of a Wikimedia as we currently stand. Pradeep suggested that we should work at the grassroot levels instead, aiming at holding regular events locally for the next year, think of 2014 realistically and involving more people - starting with the photowalk. Everyone agreed to this. * * wrt the W2013 concept, unfortunately due to the higher ambient sound I don't think everything discussed was captured. What I had said about it was that it would be a good idea to put in a bid, having learned from you how the bid for WCI was stewarded. However, as a major constraint is the lack of committed volunteers with the freedom to be able to adjust their time to do whatever was necessary, and that this scenario has been witnessed in most places, it is important to put in a bid, and then publish a calendar of physical events (such as the first point, WTM 2). The action of these physical events will help ensure that sufficient fellowship is created to generate the kind of volunteering activity needed to make a bid like this meaningful. Of course the point you have documented, that such things should be done in any case, is also a key to building a more coherent and practical community. * * -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FOSS and Wikipedia
On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 4:01 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.comwrote: So I request that we may all simmer down a bit. If this continues then I would like to join them since I cant beat them. This I shall do by getting upset about the abhorrent word *baingan. *I dont like the taste of Brinjal and I promise to erupt in protest whenever the use of the term brinjal is used on this list, culinary or otherwise. BTW got to place an AFD on [[Brinjal]]. I am NOT joking. I'm serious, Brinjal must go! +1 -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India: Wikipedia Takes Ahmedabad, January 2012
And, just to nitpick: On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Sudhanwa Jogalekar sudhanwa@gmail.comwrote: Hmmm I don't know why people are so touchy about FOSS. If I mention photographer or security or Media or engineer instead of FOSS, will the reaction be same? On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 12:49 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Can we stop dragging FOSS into every mail unless absolutely necessary? just to clarify. - Roads aren't designed with FOSS. Arguable. The sentence is too imprecise. - Camera firmware isn't FOSS. Yes, and cameras have not essentially changed in well over 100 years. They went digital, but all that happened was the recording medium changed. With the simple pinhole, it is perfectly possible to have software driven lensless, infinitely variable depth of field and focus image recording. Find me one commercial model camera that does this, and I can show you dozens of advertising messages that equate good imaging with megapixels. - Our brain doesn't have FOSS. Can we stick to the point? I do not think anybody on this list is actively aware of any programming techniques that work for the brain; the question or proprietary or FOSS doesn't even arise. However, if you want to include alpha wave conditioning (analogue programming) then surely you will not want to also claim that yoga is proprietary? - Bus ticketing isn't FOSS. A terrible shame. Bus companies (indeed, all mass transit organisations) are largely stuck in the past, their inefficiency mandates that the purpose of public mass transport is a #fail, either because the service providers cannot earn money doing it, or because individual means of public transportation do not 'talk' to each other, their communication channels being trapped within proprietary silos, leaving the public floundering with the need to carry small change and waste time buying multiple tickets to get from A to B. And the few reasonably successfully integrated public mass transit setups that exist anywhere in the world (eg, London) use proprietary software that does not replicate or scale to other places. Well, Mediawiki and whole lot of other things used for Wikipedia related activities are FOSS. And in general, it is about contributing back to the society so that everybody gets benefitted. That's what is common in both FOSS as well as Wikimedia. +1 No offence intended. +1 -Sudhanwa ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~! web: www.sudhanwa.com blog: www.sudhanwa.in Twitter: sudhanwa Check on FB, Linkedin for more. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Supporting Outreach
On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 11:26 AM, Sudhanwa Jogalekar sudhanwa@gmail.com wrote: Probably some bot mechanism will work better. People may not know the IP address from the venue before they start working. Just setup a page where such IPs can be put up and a bot checks them every 1-2 hours or so and enables IPs for 3-4 days. Authorisations for specific users who are co-ordinating the event can be given well in advance to add such IP entries. That will help reduce communication and delay due to time zone related things. This will be the best approach. Pradeep and Pranav (Kundan and I were present, among others) had faced exactly this problem at the first attempt to run the WikiAcademy in Mumbai. For a newbie academy, it is at least an hour or so before one gets around to talking about setting up new accounts. Regards -Sudhanwa On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 10:54 AM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi Phillipe, How much lead time would you need to enable this? Given that India and US are in opposite sides of the world - you guys maybe sleeping while we request an unblock. What venues can we request an unblock - en email to you? On wiki-tech IRC? Pradeep Handheld On 21/12/2011, Nitika ntan...@wikimedia.org wrote: but I wanted to be sure you know that I can lift the cap of 7 account creations per day, if you let me know what day you're doing something. :) That's an open offer to anyone doing outreach... Hey Phillipe, I am now aware that there is a possibility of releasing an IP from this rule. But I learnt this the hard way! I sat through an outreach session where we encountered blocking of IP and the participants were very disappointed because they could not create their usernames. There is another mail from Subhashish which echoes similar experience. By way of working on this document and putting together small tips like these will make sure that others don't go through this pain. I'd encourage everyone to put their thoughts/learnings here so that all of us can benefit out of it and make our outreach sessions more effective. Thanks Nitika -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~! web: www.sudhanwa.com blog: www.sudhanwa.in Twitter: sudhanwa Check on FB, Linkedin for more. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] OT FOSS assist WAS Re: Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects
An interesting blog post that touches upon the same subject: and serendipitously provides a very powerful reason for engineering colleges in particular to be more aware of and to foster the environment of open knowledge working. http://manypossibilities.net/2011/12/everyday-internet-miracles/ I agree with Amir's point that simply switching browsers is a big step forward for the college, as all users will sooner or later understand why using Firefox is intrinsically superior, apart from trivial features (glossware). However, I also feel that in terms of maximising the potential of the college-bought computers, users will probably experience a performance upgrade, even more if unnecessary software and processes are tuned out, more than continuing with XP. Still, this is only an opinion, not a guarantee. On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 12:05 AM, Amir E. Aharoni amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il wrote: I didn't get the feeling that Vickram is saying that it's your fault. It's not possible and not desirable to force everybody to switch to a different browser. It is possible, however, to educate people about having a choice. That's what FOSS activism is about and that's how i understand Vickram's suggestion. Why is FOSS activism relevant in this discussion, you ask? Not just because the Wikimedia movement is very strongly related to FOSS, but because in this case FOSS technologies provide a tangible benefit - the ability to use Indic fonts. And FOSS relies on word-of-mouth promotion and activism rather than on marketing professionals. Moving from IE to Firefox is much easier than moving between operating systems or compilers. Millions of people wouldn't imagine moving from Windows to Linux, but can easily move to Firefox. Both Firefox and IE can be installed side-by-side and the presence of a different browser doesn't require any more maintenance. And if the people don't like Firefox despite its better font support, they can always move back to IE with zero effort. (In general, everything i say about Firefox applies to Google Chrome/Chromium, too - it's open source, modern and standards-compliant. However, for the particular issue of fonts Firefox is better - from my experience Chrome has more bugs in this field.) 2011/12/14 Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com: Vickram, your tone makes it look like everything is our fault. We cannot switch over to Firefox/Linux for one simple reason. Most students here are from a Rural background and won't be able to adjust to new stuff. They had a tough time adjusting from Windows 7 to XP when the rollback was done due to issues with Turbo C++ and Microsoft COBOL compiler. -- On 12/13/11, Amir E. Aharoni amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il wrote: 2011/12/14 Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com: Pardon my intrusion on this thread, but within reason*, if any college or other educational institution chooses to be 'proprietary only' (never mind antediluvian - IE6? really? or is that an XP issue?) FOSSers are prepared to take it up 'officially' with them, reminding them of the nation's commitment to education without strings attached. This is fyi to listers, and I shan't mention it again, but please do consider notifying your friendly neighbourhood FOSSer with details of the person to contact (principal/director etc) for assistance and action. This in turn will get reflected to a FOSS forum (fosscomm is one such) and will hopefully result in notifying the institution concerned as well as the possibility of a local FOSS-based firm offering upgrade services. *ie FOSS as a movement is in continuous need of resources as well, but education is a major priority It is a very valid point. Installing Firefox or at least updating to IE8 on Windows XP costs nothing and has very tangible and easy-to-demonstrate benefits for language support. Wiki Community members should BE BOLD and tell libraries, schools and colleges that they should do it. While you are at it, make sure that auto-updates are enabled and consider installing a version of Firefox with menus translated to the local language (see http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html ; if you can't find it your language, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/L10n .) -- Amir E. Aharoni ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] OT FOSS assist WAS Re: Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects
On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Vickram, your tone makes it look like everything is our fault. We cannot switch over to Firefox/Linux for one simple reason. Most students here are from a Rural background and won't be able to adjust to new stuff. They had a tough time adjusting from Windows 7 to XP when the rollback was done due to issues with Turbo C++ and Microsoft COBOL compiler. There's no question of fault, and no need to take it that way. Every journey needs that first step. However, your doubts have been addressed in many different scenarios before, and really comes across more as FUD than likely reality. You will probably be surprised. Having said which, it is entirely possible that there are no FOSS service agencies in your area, who could walk you (ie the college, details depending on how the upgrade is mutually planned) through it. If you can describe where the college is, perhaps the right persons can get in touch, and if this does not work out, then you have the status quo in any case. As a bonus, most machines that today run XP were designed a while back, and it is very possible that the switch will come with tangible efficiency benefits. -- On 12/13/11, Amir E. Aharoni amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il wrote: 2011/12/14 Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com: Pardon my intrusion on this thread, but within reason*, if any college or other educational institution chooses to be 'proprietary only' (never mind antediluvian - IE6? really? or is that an XP issue?) FOSSers are prepared to take it up 'officially' with them, reminding them of the nation's commitment to education without strings attached. This is fyi to listers, and I shan't mention it again, but please do consider notifying your friendly neighbourhood FOSSer with details of the person to contact (principal/director etc) for assistance and action. This in turn will get reflected to a FOSS forum (fosscomm is one such) and will hopefully result in notifying the institution concerned as well as the possibility of a local FOSS-based firm offering upgrade services. *ie FOSS as a movement is in continuous need of resources as well, but education is a major priority It is a very valid point. Installing Firefox or at least updating to IE8 on Windows XP costs nothing and has very tangible and easy-to-demonstrate benefits for language support. Wiki Community members should BE BOLD and tell libraries, schools and colleges that they should do it. While you are at it, make sure that auto-updates are enabled and consider installing a version of Firefox with menus translated to the local language (see http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html ; if you can't find it your language, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/L10n .) -- Amir E. Aharoni ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] OT FOSS assist WAS Re: Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects
Pardon my intrusion on this thread, but within reason*, if any college or other educational institution chooses to be 'proprietary only' (never mind antediluvian - IE6? really? or is that an XP issue?) FOSSers are prepared to take it up 'officially' with them, reminding them of the nation's commitment to education without strings attached. This is fyi to listers, and I shan't mention it again, but please do consider notifying your friendly neighbourhood FOSSer with details of the person to contact (principal/director etc) for assistance and action. This in turn will get reflected to a FOSS forum (fosscomm is one such) and will hopefully result in notifying the institution concerned as well as the possibility of a local FOSS-based firm offering upgrade services. *ie FOSS as a movement is in continuous need of resources as well, but education is a major priority On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 9:44 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Also forgot to tell you. My college uses ONLY systems with Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6. Most students are from a Tamil background, and they read Tamil websites, Wikipedia very often. On 12/13/11, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, Pardon for a long mail, just unavoidable. We have seen the WebFonts roll out[0] last night to most Indic wikis except Malayalam and Tamil. We in Tamil Community felt WebFonts extension is just not ready for us. We would like to share on why we in Tamil community didnt chose webfonts and also what could work better in future for Indic communities during technology adoption. 1. *Unavailability of Quality Free fonts* :- During the development, our request for not setting the default font as a lower quality font was rejected citing it will defeat the purpose of extension.[1] The available fonts had issues and deploying the extension with those low quality fonts to everyone would not only defeat the purpose of extension, but also gives Tamil Wikipedia a bad image when people just cant read the fonts even though they had better fonts in system. (Just like how i18n team says people who see boxes will just simply close the window, we say giving these poor fonts will also lead to same thing and not help the cause, instead will also hurt those who have better fonts.). 2. *Quality of User Experience* :- We are a smaller wiki, we have a smaller reader base, but still we are ranked 7th most visited website in Tamil according to alexa[2]. Just like how no-nonsense / no-mediocrity is tolerated in any code that enters WMF cluster, any change which will affect the site's look and feel, user experience will have to be of highest standards and must be accepted by community. WebFonts were just not ready to enter Wikipedia, since it changes the UX for all the readers to help a potentially lower number of users who dont have Tamil fonts than the current existing reader base. *What we feel was wrong in WebFonts deployment* We have also been seeing the wikis where they have been rolled out and reporting issues. We ourselves are reporting issues inspite of not taking WebFonts, with the hope software just gets better and some day we can deploy them. Dont get us wrong, we are not against technology, we just need it in better form and are not in any urgency. (After all we at Ta wiki initiated an RFC and asked Webfonts even before the announcement was made). We would also like to mention some points which we feel i18n team could have done better for a smoother launch. 1. *Font Testing* :- The point of language support team is that the people who are aware of language give feedback to make any software better supported for the language. We are not sure if Font-Testing was ever done at all for those languages where the WebFonts were deployed. The hinting issue which was a concern and made us raise against deployment in Tamil is also present in Hindi,Sanskrit,Telugu(atleast till we saw) and gave the same worst readability. The i18n team did font assessment[3], testing only 1 word to test the font. Can any font be tested with just rendering of 4 characters / 1 word? For Tamil,we did a test in little more comprehensive way(We would not say its complete)[4]. This should have been a *must* to see rendering / font issues with chosen default font especially since the fonts are being set default to every single user to the site. Sadly community was involved the least, a note was posted in Village pumps and we dont think community involved itself in any testing and poor quality was eventually pushed without proper testing. 2. *Real world testing* :- Though cross browser testing was done, there was a severe lack of real world testing and as a result we are seeing a host of issues being discovered post launch. Average PC in India might have 1 GB RAM, Firefox 3 / 4, worse IE 5.5 / IE6 on 100 Kbps
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media
Oh, the mention of 'idiot' on that page is vandalism (no, I haven't done it - yet)? I thought we had a very interesting discussion about current affairs at WikiConf where there seemed to be a consensus that presenting every side of the picture is important. Is reporting the fact that major websites like Kafila.org and literally hundreds or thousands of Twitter users are tweeting the hashtag #IdiotKapilSibal wrong, in that case? On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:05 PM, CherianTinu Abraham tinucher...@gmail.comwrote: On a related note, this has appeared on *The Economic Times* : Five reasons why India can't censor the Internet http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/five-reasons-why-india-cant-censor-the-internet/articleshow/11018330.cms *Yes, Internet content has the permanence and public-impact potential that a phone call does not, but equally, it lends itself brilliantly to self-regulation. * * * *3. Peer review works: Wikipedia is the best example. Who could have imagined that a user-created encyclopedia could be so objective, and comprehensive? Yes, anyone can go in and edit anything (barring entries like Kapil Sibal, which have been locked due to vandalism!). * * * *If you make an inappropriate change, someone will come in and correct it. * Regards Tinu Cherian On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: This is basically restriction of freedom of expression and it will hurt Wikipedia much more than it hurts Twitter or Facebook. On 07/12/2011, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com wrote: fyi Original Message Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants to Censor social Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530 From: Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org I just want to write that there was a community member who seemed to be of the notion ImageFilter is the technical fix for what Kapil Sibal is proposing(without probably understanding / knowing much) and connecting the two distinct things. Yes Sibal showed some images as examples for his support, but what Sibal means is much more and prescreening of every byte of user generated content. Please tell that member that linking up 2 different things is not a good idea. ImageFilter needs to be discussed with its own merits / demerits and this thing that Sibal proposes means much more than images. If at all the legislation comes and is being enforced, I think Wikimedia projects are better equipped *technically* than other social media sites cited to support the local laws(so that we need not be banned if that goes to that extreme) with a combination of ImageFilter / FlaggedRevisions and some more customizations, but thats not where we would like to go. Community is already not so strong and needs support, there is so much work to do in increasing content, censorship will cripple Indian community if such a thing happens. There are many questions that the communities need to decide as to submit to Indian laws (if at all they come through) and I hope the situation does not arise for us to take those tough calls. PS : I would not like to post / join foundation-l myself since it has high SNR IMO. -- Regards Srikanth.L -- Sent from my mobile device Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media
I don't know whether a discussion on social networking is really directly on-topic for this list, but the reality is that the provisions of the law as it stands right now are certainly of dire portent for a free and fearlessly neutral Wikipedia and its associated projects. What Mr Sibal appears to be suggesting goes much further than the law, and as has been argued by several lawyers and Constitutional experts already, goes beyond the Constitution. Today social networking, tomorrow any other online content. To take the subject most tiresomely and hotly debated during our recent Wikipedia Conference in Mumbai, maps. Those of us online in the 90s had to suffer the anachronistic and quite patently ridiculous rules of the GoI regarding maps in those days: publishing of anything faintly accurate about India was well-nigh impossible, publishing sensible guidebooks totally impossible for anywhere off the beaten track. To get a detailed map of anywhere Indian, one had to pose as a student and trek to Calcutta's (that's what it was in those days) Survey Institute where you could get a physical copy for a few rupees. Reproducing verboten, in any form, a jailable offence. Google Maps was deemed against national security, until our Air Chief Marshal went public saying he had no objections, that any 'enemy's' airfields were as liable to be exposed as ours. In this particular case, pretty well all the 'proprietary' social networks have a very clear policy that legally objectionable content will be taken down upon receipt of a complaint. Obviously this does not happen overnight, and this is not what Mr Sibal objects to anyway. No, he wants the content to be pre-screened. If the same rule of thumb was applied to cases instituted by the Government of India against ordinary citizens (in criminal and civil matters) in court, a great many would be dismissed immediately, I daresay, as the evidence is found to be wanting once the case is heard. If it was applied to arrests by the police, the situation would be much worse, and the police would be almost completely incapable of carrying out any work at all. To some extent, the pressure on our public servants (elected or otherwise) is psychologically enormous, they deal with incredibly complex problems almost routinely. And most matters do get dealt with reasonably well. It is the silliness of autocracy that stands out most sharply in an increasingly online and increasingly less nationalistic world. Just as being cut off from connectivity can sometimes turn out to be a welcome relief, perhaps some of these fellows need a break from politics. It is a shame that our system of governance does not seem to allow for such breaks, as many of these jobs are also under the hidden pressure of internal competition. On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com wrote: fyi Original Message Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants to Censor social Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530 From: Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org Some updates on this, for anyone interested: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/any-normal-human-being-would-be-offended/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/facebook-google-tell-india-they-wont-screen-for-derogatory-content/2011/12/06/gIQAUo59YO_blog.html http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/06/indias-dreams-of-web-censorship/#axzz1fpN86lWI http://www.legallyindia.com/201112072434/Regulatory/kapil-sibal-to-sterilise-net-but-cis-sting-shows-6-out-of-7-websites-already-trigger-happy-to-censor-content-under-chilling-it-act http://www.livemint.com/2011/12/06130244/Govt-wants-to-scrub-the-Intern.html There's still no clarity on what Kapil Sibal meant/means; whether he's serious; and the rules of the proposed IT act are still worrying; but at least the outcry is now entrenched. On Tuesday 06 December 2011 10:24 PM, Bishakha Datta wrote: On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 9:07 PM, Kim Bruningk...@bruning.xs4all.nl wrote: On Tue, Dec 06, 2011 at 09:25:03PM +0530, Achal Prabhala wrote: On Tuesday 06 December 2011 08:27 PM, Kim Bruning wrote: I do not believe that the Indian internet community shares Kapil Sibal's position. Though they'll have to speak for themselves, of course! :-) They have: http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10pid=2664 and Mr Sibal's passing thought of yesterday is probably not going anywhere. And hurrah for that! :-) A cautious hurrah. In April this year, the Indian government tried to restrict web content by holding sites and service providers - or 'intermediaries' liable for content. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/technology/28internet.html?_r=2scp=1sq=india%20onlinest=cse These new rules will be considered by Parliament in the winter session - and continue to pose a huge
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] IEP Pilot - Preliminary Analysis
Relax, Pradeep. The confusion/noise is only from the fact that OSM has been a longstanding acronym for Open Street Maps, which is an important facet of Open Knowledge Culture. To be very frank, I was completely unaware of the term OSM for Open Source Movement, and also read Tory's acronym as Open Street Maps, and while being very pleased to learn that Sudhanwa was a contributor to it, was confused in equal measure by (what I assumed was) his shyness to being identified with Wikimedia. On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 11:29 AM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, Since I am creating noise on the list, I apologise and resign from the list. Hope the signal levels go back up. If there is no article on OSM, please WP:BEBOLD and create one. Wikipedian vocabulary is not limited by the content of Wikimedia projects but rather by day to day usage. Again, apologies. I am sorry to see this mailing list also getting as divided as things are in the OSM. warm regards, Pradeep User:Prad2609 Handheld. On 05/12/2011, Anivar Aravind anivar.arav...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 8:58 AM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi Anivar, Wikipedians like us call it the Open Source Movement. Since, we're all on the Wikipedia list, the acronym is acceptable. We don't have to adjust for the FOSS guys and be specific. Please understand and adjust. Pradep, I pointed it because that acronym created confusion in this list Sudhavana understood OSM as Open street Maps, in the same way as i understood. I feel your mail is adding further noise to thread Just feel that your email was not needed. I know you had good intentions and I'm assuming WP:AGF. en:wp does not have a page on Open source Movement It is FSM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_movement Anivar ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [[Brian Horrocks]] not an Indian FA
On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 8:16 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.comwrote: Thanks Srikanth, but I'm surprised you come across it at all. Brian Horrocks was a British general, from the British Army (not from British Indian Arny), did not serve in India, not involved in any campaign where Indian troops served (except North Africa). Generally famous in the Indian context for his exploits with the White Russians (Kolchak's Gold) and for Operation Market Garden (Aacted by Edward Fox in A bridge too far) but nothing to do with India except for the accidental fact of his birth. While acknowledging all the points made wrt Gen Horrocks' life, I can't help but feel that it parallels another couple of Britishers of more recent times who are treated (in some circles in India at least) as locals: Cliff Richards (born Harry Webb in Lucknow) and the late Freddy Mercury (born Fardoon Bulsara, early years in Bombay), both well-known entertainers. It may be OT to the discussion on Horrocks, but it does raise some thought about what we do and perhaps should take as subjects of Indian interest. Having said which, I have not participated at all in the India project, so please feel free to ignore my suggestion. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 12:11 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Aswin, true, I don't have it on my talk page, but most India editors do stumble across the page every few weeks. We all used to, back in 2009. -- On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 1:07 AM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: Agreed in principle with Pradeep, but let some talk of content take place here. I'm sure the majority of wikimedia-l readers do not have WT:IN on their watchlist. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 12:56 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 12:18 AM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@hotmail.com wrote: I think the list should be used more as a helpful pointer and as much discussion as possible should be done on Wikipedia itself. I think there are more lists than Wikipedians can handle and more time is spent on the lists than on editing Wikipedia, which is what we're primarily here for. +1. warm regards, Pradeep User:Prad2609 -- Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:14:00 +0530 From: parakara.gh...@gmail.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [[Brian Horrocks]] not an Indian FA I agree more with Swaroop, but since the English wikipedia is picking itself up and dusting itself again, we may want one. --Re, On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 9:58 PM, Swaroop Rao raul.swar...@gmail.comwrote: Good idea, but then, shouldn't we be using WT:INhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk%3aINfor these? :) Swaroop Rao (MikeLynch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%3aMikeLynch) On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 21:47, Shiju Alex shijualexonl...@gmail.comwrote: I think what Srikanth meant is, creating a separate mailing list for English wikipedians from India to discuss their topics of interest. I too think that is a good idea. Shiju On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 9:42 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: Is that what you mean, Srikanth? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_India/Recognized_content I was also not aware till Pranav dhowed me the link today. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 9:40 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Ashwin, I think the Indian English community needs a list of it's own. Re, On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 6:12 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: I found TinuCherianBot had mistakenly made Brian Horrocks, a British Army general unconnected with India except for his birth, as part of WikiProject India, a false positive. Sorry guys, he has nothing to do with us. We are now down another FA. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] People of stature unhappy with own articles
On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 2:58 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: WhereDevilsDare, As Bala pointed out, pages have to be neutral. Example:Look at any Politician's page, it's always Pro-them, rarely is it balanced. We need to have things neutral. If these guys get to decide what goes on their page, it'll be a Conflict of Interest. +1 Even a simple controversy against a person, if added, shouldn't be removed. This is true, but it does not mean that unproven allegations form part of acceptable content, I think. If a person is accused, for instance, in court, that charge may be mentioned, but not giving the impression the charge is proven. Citations will be very important in such situations. Since only a handful of courts in India have gone online, it may be difficult to assert charges filed in some courts. Regards, On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 11:33 AM, Bala Jeyaraman sodabot...@gmail.comwrote: Yes there is. direct them to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:AUTOPROB#Problems_in_an_article_about_you But they shouldn't be expecting wikipedia to do a whitewashing / PR fluff job on it. Sometimes, if they are actually trying to remove negative material about them (and there is a ton of it in RS) it leads to a backlash and more gets added to the article. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striesand_effect) On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 11:30 AM, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: Hiya, Me and a couple of others have been contacted by a couple of people of stature having Wikipedia articles about themselves recently about the articles having derogatory and inaccurate information about them. Is there any procedure set which such people can follow to have an admin look into their page? Kind Regards, ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] IEP Pilot - Preliminary Analysis
Assuming this question is not restricted for WMF outreachers only: On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 5:01 PM, sankarshan foss.mailingli...@gmail.comwrote: On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 4:51 PM, Nitika ntan...@wikimedia.org wrote: How many students edited articles outside of their in-class assignments? This is an interesting and non-trivial question. Which prompts me to ask - why would you want to track this ? It is quite possible that many students get conditioned to look at school assignments as 'work', and either try and avoid doing any work outside of the amount specifically committed, or avoid doing anything considered as work outside of the time allotted for 'work'. As a corollary, although I do not fancy that Wikimedia is attempting to directly change the way that our education system works in practice, students who treat contributing to Wikipedia/Wikimedia as 'fun' may be better tuned to handling life tasks better/more responsibly in the future. Lots of imponderables, I know, but there must be something measurable between students who emerge from school having learned something (and continue to learn happily) and those who only get through examinations. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Braille/touchscreen integration
Hello The article is very clear: it is touchscreen for data entry, not reading. The device (integrated with TTS) reads out the characters as they are being typed. On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 3:43 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Gerard, Vickram, From my experience I know that Braille is a physically read language. It is read by feeling the raised dots on a surface. Eg: On elevator buttons, a series of dots on each button. I fail to understand how a touch screen display can work here. Regards, Srikanth On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 9:17 AM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:11 AM, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijs...@gmail.com wrote: Hoi, I do not know exactly how Braille works but if a character in a standard script can be represented by Braille characters in stead, then all it seems to need is a method for us to replace the existing Unicode character with the Braille Unicode character. As we already have WebFonts functionality it seems to me that what is needed is a conversion before the characters are send to the user. When this is done, we can show you the Braille characters on your screen. What works for persons with visual challenges, who have been trained to use Braille typing, is the sequence of simultaneous keypresses that translate into language characters (there are Braille variants for non-Roman scripts). Since the visually challenged person cannot see the screen in any case, the display is not the point. This particular solution allows the touchscreen to accept multiple fingertip contact as individual characters, and of course, for the screen to switch smoothly between screen reading (TTS) and data entry. When a Braille keyboard is used, what is needed is to convert the Braille sequences to whatever script / language is used before it is actually saved. +1 I am convinced that there are many developers both in India and in the rest of the world who are able to take on this challenge and have a proof of concept in a week. Remember it has to be integrated with the TTS used by the device. There are several out there, with different kinds of 'voices', a major one I know about being Festival (FOSS), but at the Conference, several persons referred to eSpeak. An important related piece of work is to augment the existing TTS' with Indian languages, also (for English) with Indian accents. Thanks, GerardM On 24 November 2011 22:12, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@hotmail.com wrote: hi, We were happy to have people with visual challenges challenging our interactions with them. I, personally, was challenged at at least two points in the conference although I thought I had been sensitized for such interactions. We do have an online feedback form for the Conference but wonder whether we can have more ways to reach people with visual challenges and the aged for feedback on how the Conference treated them and how we can improve our communication of the Conference (in future) to them. Thank you for bringing up this point, Vickram. warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas User:Prad2609 Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:45:03 +0530 From: vvcris...@radiophony.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Braille/touchscreen integration Several persons attending the recent WikiConfIndia 2011 drew attention to the need for greater ease of use for persons with visual challenges - Barry Newstead referred specifically to this need, commenting that in general, usability improvements for persons with special needs pay off for the community at large. This recent development at Stanford http://www.springwise.com/lifestyle_leisure/braille-writing-software-touchscreen-devices/ describes how visually impaired persons with Braille skills can interact directly with touchscreen devices. What is very striking about this solution is that it does not involve tactile feedback, as one might expect. Instead, once switched to Braille mode, the screen senses multiple finger placement and translates that into the expected Braille codes (see the video to understand this, if you are unfamiliar with Braille typing). To echo Barry's comments made at WCI2011, I think a certain amount of such out-of-the-box thinking could go a long way to creating an interface that is intuitively more approachable than the present wiki editor. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Braille/touchscreen integration
On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 4:39 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: If it is about data entry, then Braille doesn't really play much of a role does it? AFAIK, visually challenged people don't 'write' in Braille, just read. Correct me if I'm wrong please. +1. Please read the article and view the video, otherwise we might as well be on two different planets :-) And please don't just take my word for it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille --Regards, On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: Hello The article is very clear: it is touchscreen for data entry, not reading. The device (integrated with TTS) reads out the characters as they are being typed. On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 3:43 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Gerard, Vickram, From my experience I know that Braille is a physically read language. It is read by feeling the raised dots on a surface. Eg: On elevator buttons, a series of dots on each button. I fail to understand how a touch screen display can work here. Regards, Srikanth On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 9:17 AM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:11 AM, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijs...@gmail.com wrote: Hoi, I do not know exactly how Braille works but if a character in a standard script can be represented by Braille characters in stead, then all it seems to need is a method for us to replace the existing Unicode character with the Braille Unicode character. As we already have WebFonts functionality it seems to me that what is needed is a conversion before the characters are send to the user. When this is done, we can show you the Braille characters on your screen. What works for persons with visual challenges, who have been trained to use Braille typing, is the sequence of simultaneous keypresses that translate into language characters (there are Braille variants for non-Roman scripts). Since the visually challenged person cannot see the screen in any case, the display is not the point. This particular solution allows the touchscreen to accept multiple fingertip contact as individual characters, and of course, for the screen to switch smoothly between screen reading (TTS) and data entry. When a Braille keyboard is used, what is needed is to convert the Braille sequences to whatever script / language is used before it is actually saved. +1 I am convinced that there are many developers both in India and in the rest of the world who are able to take on this challenge and have a proof of concept in a week. Remember it has to be integrated with the TTS used by the device. There are several out there, with different kinds of 'voices', a major one I know about being Festival (FOSS), but at the Conference, several persons referred to eSpeak. An important related piece of work is to augment the existing TTS' with Indian languages, also (for English) with Indian accents. Thanks, GerardM On 24 November 2011 22:12, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@hotmail.com wrote: hi, We were happy to have people with visual challenges challenging our interactions with them. I, personally, was challenged at at least two points in the conference although I thought I had been sensitized for such interactions. We do have an online feedback form for the Conference but wonder whether we can have more ways to reach people with visual challenges and the aged for feedback on how the Conference treated them and how we can improve our communication of the Conference (in future) to them. Thank you for bringing up this point, Vickram. warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas User:Prad2609 Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:45:03 +0530 From: vvcris...@radiophony.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Braille/touchscreen integration Several persons attending the recent WikiConfIndia 2011 drew attention to the need for greater ease of use for persons with visual challenges - Barry Newstead referred specifically to this need, commenting that in general, usability improvements for persons with special needs pay off for the community at large. This recent development at Stanford http://www.springwise.com/lifestyle_leisure/braille-writing-software-touchscreen-devices/ describes how visually impaired persons with Braille skills can interact directly with touchscreen devices. What is very striking about this solution is that it does not involve tactile feedback, as one might expect. Instead, once switched to Braille mode, the screen senses multiple finger placement and translates that into the expected Braille codes (see the video to understand this, if you are unfamiliar with Braille typing). To echo Barry's comments made at WCI2011, I think a certain amount of such out-of-the-box thinking
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Braille/touchscreen integration
On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:11 AM, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijs...@gmail.com wrote: Hoi, I do not know exactly how Braille works but if a character in a standard script can be represented by Braille characters in stead, then all it seems to need is a method for us to replace the existing Unicode character with the Braille Unicode character. As we already have WebFonts functionality it seems to me that what is needed is a conversion before the characters are send to the user. When this is done, we can show you the Braille characters on your screen. What works for persons with visual challenges, who have been trained to use Braille typing, is the sequence of simultaneous keypresses that translate into language characters (there are Braille variants for non-Roman scripts). Since the visually challenged person cannot see the screen in any case, the display is not the point. This particular solution allows the touchscreen to accept multiple fingertip contact as individual characters, and of course, for the screen to switch smoothly between screen reading (TTS) and data entry. When a Braille keyboard is used, what is needed is to convert the Braille sequences to whatever script / language is used before it is actually saved. +1 I am convinced that there are many developers both in India and in the rest of the world who are able to take on this challenge and have a proof of concept in a week. Remember it has to be integrated with the TTS used by the device. There are several out there, with different kinds of 'voices', a major one I know about being Festival (FOSS), but at the Conference, several persons referred to eSpeak. An important related piece of work is to augment the existing TTS' with Indian languages, also (for English) with Indian accents. Thanks, GerardM On 24 November 2011 22:12, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@hotmail.com wrote: hi, We were happy to have people with visual challenges challenging our interactions with them. I, personally, was challenged at at least two points in the conference although I thought I had been sensitized for such interactions. We do have an online feedback form for the Conference but wonder whether we can have more ways to reach people with visual challenges and the aged for feedback on how the Conference treated them and how we can improve our communication of the Conference (in future) to them. Thank you for bringing up this point, Vickram. warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas User:Prad2609 Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:45:03 +0530 From: vvcris...@radiophony.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Braille/touchscreen integration Several persons attending the recent WikiConfIndia 2011 drew attention to the need for greater ease of use for persons with visual challenges - Barry Newstead referred specifically to this need, commenting that in general, usability improvements for persons with special needs pay off for the community at large. This recent development at Stanford http://www.springwise.com/lifestyle_leisure/braille-writing-software-touchscreen-devices/ describes how visually impaired persons with Braille skills can interact directly with touchscreen devices. What is very striking about this solution is that it does not involve tactile feedback, as one might expect. Instead, once switched to Braille mode, the screen senses multiple finger placement and translates that into the expected Braille codes (see the video to understand this, if you are unfamiliar with Braille typing). To echo Barry's comments made at WCI2011, I think a certain amount of such out-of-the-box thinking could go a long way to creating an interface that is intuitively more approachable than the present wiki editor. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wiki Drugs
I am not familiar with the online availability of pharmaceutical information of drugs made in India. Do websites of manufacturers not list the drugs they make? Is there any issue with citing the manufacturer's list of drugs? What about online pharmacopeia? Do Indian associations not list the drugs made in India? It seems to me this is a very basic requirement, the lack of which (if correct) can be addressed by an RTI to the Ministry of Health, possible bringing about a solution within months. A very similar action could happen with indigenous pharmacopeia, but there may be genuine difficulty with an authoritative source for the medicines/manufacturers/vendors/formulations, as the regulations for these may not be of the same order. Again, there is no logical reason why this situation should be permitted or encouraged to continue - it is in our own interest to see it improve. Oral citations may be the way forward. 2011/11/22 ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) viswapra...@gmail.com User: Netha Hussain +1 On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 23:42, Netha Hussain nethahuss...@gmail.comwrote: Hi all, I am a 3rd year student of medicine from Kerala.Though I work on ml.wikipedia, I have recently started editing pharmacology-related articles on en.wikipedia. I have noticed the same insufficiency you mentioned. On Wikipedia, we do have articles covering various drugs their actions and side effects, but most often they are not useful to the public as these articles do not contain the proprietary(trade) names of the drugs. Most of the trade names listed in Wikipedia are those from the US or UK. Presently, the state of things in en.wikipedia is such that if an Indian trade name is added to the Wikipedia page of a drug, it gets deleted soon because of notability reasons. People often search for the trade names on Wikipedia as they do not know the generic names of the same. The end result is that those looking for information about a particular drug on google end up reaching sites other than Wikipedia. Projects of this kind are something I am looking forward to. Though I am still a student, I would like to get invloved in this project(or similar projects) if ever we plan to launch it. Regards User: Netha Hussain On 11/20/11, RadhaKrishna Arvapally radhakrishna.arvapa...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Some time back I was looking for some drug information (which was in my doctor's prescription). Then I was thinking why that information was not there in wikipedia. I found few wonderful sites which gives that kind of information. http://www.mims.com/index.aspx?Ctry=IN http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ http://www.webmd.com I searched on google for information on a drug prescribed by my doctor. collected lots of info from various sources and added to wikipedia. And I was hoping I can add few more drugs when ever I visit a doctor. later my article was deleted quoting advertising of my own product. I was thinking some kind of wikiDrug would help in understanding composition, use, side effects of each drug. Incubation of such project would be helpful. I found the following website which use wikipedia's logo too. I am sure this is nothing to do with wikimedia foundation project. (see the copyright in the bottom) http://wikidrugs.org/ It is imitation of wikipedia. -- Thanks Regards, A.Radha Krishna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Arkrishna -- Netha Hussain *nethahussain.blogspot.com swethaambari.wordpress.com* ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Let's *Talk*
On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Erik Moeller e...@wikimedia.org wrote: And - to stay with the sandbox metaphor from another thread - if the majority of contributors to a university-based program in India can reach won't be able to contribute at an acceptable quality in WP proper, then perhaps it's also time to think about more aggressive sandboxing of contributions early in the game, at least when we're dealing with a course where we either don't know what to expect, or we _do_ based on experiences like the one to date. Possibly even using an external sandbox. If I understand it rightly, Erik points out that one of the questions raised here is the validity of the University-centric approach to this program. Hisham will recall I had queried this approach at a meetup way back when. This was before I found that it had a history, being a successful initiative in another milieu. I am sure now, with this experience, we can find ways to make the program work more effectively here, one possibility (not the only one) being shedding the college campus-centric focus, and reaching out more widely to people, in order to welcome more people within the contributory fold. As Abhilash points out, this was a pilot, and it is up to us to evaluate its learnings and move forward from it, not trash it or its participants. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Noteworthy Wikimedian Recognition
On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 8:04 AM, CherianTinu Abraham tinucher...@gmail.comwrote: Do notice that we had intentionally named it as Noteworthy Wikimedian and not Best Wikimedian ! So what could you and everyone do ? Find them, nominate and recognize them. +1 On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 6:11 PM, Ravishankar ravidre...@gmail.com wrote: Arjuna, I am not very excited with this idea of a jury for picking noteworthy Wikimedians. 1. Many noteworthy Wikimedians are serving in Jury, conference activities, chapter and WMF. Omitting them from the recognition will not give a real picture to the public. 2. Having a jury to pick this seems so Un-Wikipediac. Only in extreme cases, we have a jury in Wikimedia projects. Usually, the nomination and approval is done by the community itself. 3.There are tens of noteworthy Wikimedians for each Wikipedia. An example for Tamil Wikipedia alone at http://tawp.in/r/1eyn I can't nominate just one or two as every one's contribution is valuable and unique. Not good to have a competition sort of thing and upset a lot of people. 3. What is the point of a citation / certificate in this digital age? What is the purpose achieved after the event is over? I would recommend requesting each language community and project to suggest noteworthy contributions with a mini profile and make a audio / visual out of it. These people can be interviewed and the content can be used in the conference venue and future outreach activities. This will be a powerful way to motivate and recognize a lot of people. Ravi ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Wired article: wikipedia
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/st_essay_wikipediawonders/ Essentially a critique of standards being adopted (mainly by UNESCO) to classify human endeavour as worthy of being noted as 'heritage', the article points to Wikipedia as the logical embodiment of a heritage worth revering: Wikipedia protects the past without impeding the future. Whether we consider recognition by UNESCO as worth anything or not, this description itself stands out, pointing the way forward for intelligent humans to value our futures without trashing the past. More than any other method of capsuling human endeavour, Wikipedia enables us to gain from knowledge, and to contribute to the growing store of knowledge, without in any way detracting from the notable achievements of those who did so earlier, without which our present accomplishments would not be possible. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Wonders of the Post-Modern World - Wikipedia
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/young-restless/seven-wonders-of-the-post-modern-world What are the Seven Wonders of the Post-Modern World? ... Here is a revised list: *1. Wikipedia:* The sum of all human knowledge. This is only a starting point to our greater quest in constructing the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, or the Encyclopedia Galactica. One of the great and rare examples of collaboration in the violent history of our specie. Thanks to the information organised there, the industrial complex of schools is being threatened by universal access and autodidactism. For instance, this article has been largely sourced from Wikipedia. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Aakash UbiSlate 7
On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 7:39 AM, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.orgwrote: On 18 October 2011 17:16, Sudhanwa Jogalekar sudhanwa@gmail.com wrote: Overall, for just 3K , it seems worth buying considering its functionality like internet connectivity, phone calling, various apps etc.. Maybe I will go for one more as standby and still spend just 6k. Sudhanwa, the question is worth buying for whom? As individual purchases, I am fine with it. The Government subsidising it to provide to students, I do not agree with because the cost/benefit doesn't make much sense. We also (although perhaps that is a discussion for a different forum, yet it has its echo right here, because of the content question) need to understand whether the government is being ridden on for a parochial purpose. As it is presently constructed, Aakash seems very unsuitable for higher education. This may seem an extreme view, but I think we have no reason to accept the present quality of higher education as acceptable, for our country, for our children. This debate is already taking place at the level of such celebrity techies as Infosys' emeritus chairman, Narayana Murthy, who has voiced his concern about the premier IITS and IIMs (or maybe he restricted himself to IITs, and it hardly takes much to open one's eyes to the fact that the IITs are not and cannot be the end-all and be-all of higher learning in India). Will this device contribute to raising the bar at our institutes of higher learning? I don't think so. It might be useful as a supplement for secondary education, but even there, its low battery life is worrying. The possibility of recharging regularly, or of providing widely distributed electricity to keep the device working during the normal school day, is simply a pipe dream for the foreseeable future. I am not so concerned about the lack of support for Android Market, provided an alternate channel for maintaining and upgrading the device is created and made available in a meaningful manner. There is no information about any such infrastructure. Tacky construction will have disastrous results for devices placed in the hands of playful schoolchildren. And as of yet, there is no framework of pedagogy to use the device. Who will help implement such a pedagogy when it is developed? Schoolteachers who have not yet put their hands on their first working personal computers? Also, MoHRD does not have a remit to bring a device like this to secondary schools. As such, it falls between two stools. Does the Ministry have good reason to believe that neither private industry nor any collective of techies is gearing to make an affordable and meaningful device possible? If so, I would like to know their source of information. I am aware of several such projects taking place worldwide in the non-private sector, and from the private sector, creating niche products for every conceivable segment seems to be happening almost continuously, or at any rate, at a bewildering speed. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Aakash UbiSlate 7
Aakash is probably great value for money. But the question is, is it the best our students deserve. I think not. Some confusion, I think, about what constitutes value for money. A badly put together device that has every possibility of failing, and does not have sufficient battery life to get through the school day, is not value, it's a waste. Small comfort that it's a waste of 3k instead of 37k. On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 9:08 PM, Bishakha Datta bishakhada...@gmail.comwrote: A reviewhttp://ibnlive.in.com/news/review-worlds-cheapest-tablet-akash/192812-11.htmlof Aakash. Best Bishakha On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 5:42 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.comwrote: On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.orgwrote: On 6 October 2011 12:04, Nagarjuna G nagar...@gnowledge.org wrote: This by itself may not be a problem, as long as it is copyrighted with an appropriate CC clause. Let us send a representation. Will the Chapter consider doing this? And the India Office too? Maybe we can ask CC-India as well and CIS too? I'm a a little confused: the wording says IP will reside with MoHRD if the project is funded by this Mission, whereas afaik, no MHRD funding at all, never mind this mission, has come to any part of the Wikimedia community in India. There is no question, therefore, of copyright being 'vested' with them, and we only need make this clear in the representation. It should in addition be made clear, therefore, that any content taken from any Wikimedia project, including Wikipedia, comes with the appropriate CC copyright. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Aakash UbiSlate 7
From what has been noised, it will not be available until December. Since the IBN review mentions an actual piece, there clearly are some floating about, but one would probably need to get in touch with MoHRD to get access. On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 9:46 PM, Jessie Wild jw...@wikimedia.org wrote: Is it possible to get one of these to test the Kiwix offline Wikipedia on? Would be interesting to do some usability testing during the India Hackathon. On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 2:39 AM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: Aakash is probably great value for money. But the question is, is it the best our students deserve. I think not. Some confusion, I think, about what constitutes value for money. A badly put together device that has every possibility of failing, and does not have sufficient battery life to get through the school day, is not value, it's a waste. Small comfort that it's a waste of 3k instead of 37k. On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 9:08 PM, Bishakha Datta bishakhada...@gmail.comwrote: A reviewhttp://ibnlive.in.com/news/review-worlds-cheapest-tablet-akash/192812-11.htmlof Aakash. Best Bishakha On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 5:42 PM, Vickram Crishna vvcris...@radiophony.com wrote: On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.orgwrote: On 6 October 2011 12:04, Nagarjuna G nagar...@gnowledge.org wrote: This by itself may not be a problem, as long as it is copyrighted with an appropriate CC clause. Let us send a representation. Will the Chapter consider doing this? And the India Office too? Maybe we can ask CC-India as well and CIS too? I'm a a little confused: the wording says IP will reside with MoHRD if the project is funded by this Mission, whereas afaik, no MHRD funding at all, never mind this mission, has come to any part of the Wikimedia community in India. There is no question, therefore, of copyright being 'vested' with them, and we only need make this clear in the representation. It should in addition be made clear, therefore, that any content taken from any Wikimedia project, including Wikipedia, comes with the appropriate CC copyright. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- *Jessie Wild Global Development, Manager Wikimedia Foundation * ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] The copyright question: What would Gandhi do?
Outstanding! 3 words to change the world! On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 9:05 PM, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com wrote: A friend of mine in South Africa, Isabel Hofmeyr, passed on this image of the first page of the first edition of the English translation of Gandhi's Hind Swaraj - or Indian Home Rule in translation. The book was published in South Africa in 1909, and is rarely available. Isabel was able to see it courtesy Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie, who owns a copy. And the copyright legend on this front page? It reads: No rights reserved Isabel and Uma kindly offered to donate the image to Commons, and you can see it here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gandhi-Home-Rule-First-Edition-1909.jpg Finally, an answer to the great copyright question that has never been asked: What would Gandhi do? :) Cheers, Achal ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Aakash UbiSlate 7
On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.orgwrote: On 6 October 2011 12:04, Nagarjuna G nagar...@gnowledge.org wrote: This by itself may not be a problem, as long as it is copyrighted with an appropriate CC clause. Let us send a representation. Will the Chapter consider doing this? And the India Office too? Maybe we can ask CC-India as well and CIS too? I'm a a little confused: the wording says IP will reside with MoHRD if the project is funded by this Mission, whereas afaik, no MHRD funding at all, never mind this mission, has come to any part of the Wikimedia community in India. There is no question, therefore, of copyright being 'vested' with them, and we only need make this clear in the representation. It should in addition be made clear, therefore, that any content taken from any Wikimedia project, including Wikipedia, comes with the appropriate CC copyright. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] WikiAcademy Mumbai 1 notes
On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 1:42 PM, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.org wrote: On 4 October 2011 00:01, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: We held our first WikiAcademy in Mumbai on October 1, 2011 at the Center for Education and Documentation, Colaba. The session was attended by 24 attendees. Thanks Pradeep. Seems like it was very well attended and useful to them too. Just to add to it: in the round of introductions, several of the attendees were from NGOs, including our hosts, CED; we had people coming in from Pune to attend, and most encouraging we had one Wikipedian, User:Outofindia, who flew in from Mangalore! Other attendees were journalists and educators, plus one architect. It was a well balanced gender mix. Another WikiAcademy is planned for Oct 15 in north Mumbai: I believe we need a show of hands (ie experienced Wikipedia volunteers) to come and assist with the actual conduct of the session, as neither Pradeep nor Pranav will be able to attend. Rather than do this onlist, I think it best that volunteers contact Harshita Pande directly. Might you consider posting this to http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Specific_segment_outreach#Events please? With photos, if you have, any? Many pictures were taken, and I think they are with CED. Maybe we can encourage CEDians (who will probably be on this list now) to please upload the pics to commons? Sans tagging, of course. Thank you. Best, Gautam http://blog.prathambooks.org/p/social-media.html ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] third remaider to stop the mail.
I think this instruction has been sent to this ID more than once. What is the practice with WP mailing lists elsewhere in the world, when listmembers persist in ignoring replies and continue to spam the list with unsubscribe requests? Can the member (in this case, an anonymous functionary of an NGO, apparently) concerned be put on 'moderate'? I do understand that unilateral banning is not a preferred option. On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Anirudh Bhati anirudh...@gmail.com wrote: Deepam, You can use this link to unsubscribe yourself, simply follow the instructions: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l This link is also available in the signature of all the emails that are routed through this mailing list. Yours sincerely, Anirudh Bhati +855 975 529 803 Skype: anirudhsbh On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 10:41 AM, Deepam Trust i...@deepamtrust-tn.org wrote: will you stop the mail with out delay ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Tamizh Nadu
With all due respect to the notion that many hands working can accomplish more than one, the FOSS community has been working with ELCOT to ensure this scheme was not hijacked by the proprietary vendor lobby (which nearly happened even in this round of distribution), and at least at one point in the past, the inclusion of localised wikipedia was an integral part of that plan, hence, the creation of a 'source' offline wikipedia was a fantastically worthwhile project. I make this statement particularly in response to a discussion on this list just a few days back where a Wikipedian made a point of asserting that FOSS' goals and that of Wikipedians do not match. My point being, while separate movements may have individual objectives, at least when the common goal of open knowledge is at stake, a spot of coming together is needed. That statement was really distressing to read. No war, especially not a war of ideas, can be considered won when a battle or two is over. Again, in the runup to the WikiConference 2011, it is being said time and again that FOSS goals have no place in the conference. Not only is this a poor intellectual construct, it appears to me that a deliberate movement exists to exclude FOSSers from even assisting (if they continue to support FOSS platforms). It really seems very peculiar to me - not that I think Jimmy Wales is the world's greatest saint or evangelist that ever lived, but he is the first person to ask the community to understand how using FOSS tools is a practical and worthwhile part of the Wikipedia experience. Just yesterday or day before, another thread discussed the current features of Mailman, our list software tool, which just happens to be FOSS. Somebody wanted more features - but building in features is exactly the kind of community-facing endeavour that characterises the difference between the intellectual approaches to building tools, between FOSS and proprietary. I could see no indication (so far) that the users concerned were in conversation with active Mailman devs to see these features become a reality. Is it just me, or is there some disconnect or discomfort here? On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 6:56 AM, Hisham his...@wikimedia.org wrote: On Oct 3, 2011, at 2:14 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan wrote: 9,12 lakh Laptops will be completely distributed by the end of the Academic year. We are trying to establish a line of communication with ELCOT to discuss how we could have Wikipedia Offline installed on these computers. After all this nonsense, I ask a few questions to several groups of people: This isn't nonsense! It's fantastic context!!! Many many thanks! 1 The chapter, the Foundation office, and board members. This includes Hisham Mundol, Bishakha Dutta, Achal Prabhala, Shiju Alex, Nitika Tandon et al. Are you willing to launch any school student oriented plan in South India, [not limited to TN]? I'm not asking for anything similar to the Campus Ambassadors program, but more of a series of Seminars, workshops, academies, meetups, tutorials etc. We need your support for such a mass scale program, as individually we cannot achieve anything. Yes! Happy to discuss and see how best we can help out. Let me know when we can talk. 2 South Indian wikipedians, especially the Bangalore, Chennai and Kerala communities. Are you open to helping us out? Especially Kerala, you are the most advanced in the Indic wiki sphere, will you please help out your neighbour TN? I'm willing to do as much as possible from my side[I'm not too good at arranging meetups, when I say Wikipedia, people stare at me blankly, and I can't explain it to them in Tamil, even though it is my mother tongue]. Please do consider this Golden opportunity. There is plenty of potential out here. The laptops run on Linux, which means, a big boost to Open Source software. The primary target is school students, which means, more young editors [and oldies in their late teens like me]. I couldn't think of how to say this, but somehow I just typed it and sent it. Once again, Thank You for this! hisham ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia in TN text books
That is very interesting. Perhaps the WMF has some mechanism in place to go to court? On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 11:48 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikant...@gmail.com wrote: Arun, when has any Indian government ever credited us when flicking our images? Even Doordarshan has aired photographs from the Commons and put a Copyright 2009, Prasar Bharti notice on it. -Re, Srikanth. On 29/09/2011, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikant...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks for the heads up Srikanth and Bala. The website is a bit buggy on my system. Since I have physical access to the Samacheer textbooks, I shall have a look and post a full page *review* of it. I'll keep you both and Sundar updated on the matter. I believe there is a lot of scope for improvement, which we can suggest. As for the who reads Further Reading matter, I do. The textbook has always been my mortal enemy, hence I always stuck to the further reading sections. --Re, Srikanth R, Coimbatore. -- Sent from my mobile device Regards, ME. Wear a Lungi, Support the Movement My infrastructure invasion... plus other images too.. on Wikimedia Commons. http://bit.ly/d50SIq -- Sent from my mobile device Regards, ME. Wear a Lungi, Support the Movement My infrastructure invasion... plus other images too.. on Wikimedia Commons. http://bit.ly/d50SIq ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia in TN text books
I am sorry that my simple query did not include my reasoning. The purpose of going to court is not to enforce rights per se for a particular photograph, but to send a signal to the government that a right enjoyed by all cannot be arbitrarily abstracted by the government, and that it amounts to intellectual theft, aside from a signal failure of the government to protect the Constitution, which assigns this right. In fact, we (persons who have a point of view about IPR that is somewhat at odds with the reasoning that has gone behind the enactment of amendments and/or rules to the Copyright Act in accordance with certain provisions under TRIPS etc, and of course we believe that this category should include all persons in favour of Wikipedia) actually want the opposite, we want the government to assign public rights by default over all intellectual content created at public cost, save only that (and it should be specifically described with a logical, transparent and clear methodology and process, not some peon lagaaoing a rubber stamp marked 'Secret' with gay abandon, only because the officer concerned is too lazy or uneducated to do her homework) content that pertains clearly and unequivocally to national security for which provision has been made in the Constitution, and of course, information pertaining to the personal privacy rights of individuals, which by definition cannot be acquired by the government in the first place (although it may in the interest of good governance, document or tabulate such information for specifically defines purposes, and for such purposes only). Wow! That's some sentence - it is an example of how legal writing sometime needs to be nitpickingly precise, even at the cost of obvious clarity. I am not insisting that WMF or the Chapter take the lead in this matter - there are plenty of NGOs and brave individuals out there fighting for the preservation of our fundamental rights. But in this case, it is precisely WMF (or if you please, the Chapter, although I don't really see the connection, unless the Chapter charter includes a specific assignment of rights from the Foundation for such purposes) that is the aggrieved party, having posted information (or, to be legally specific, enabled the posting) in the public domain for the common weal, that has been sought to be stolen arbitrarily and without any form of legal sanction. My query was only to establish whether Wikimedia in general is playing an active role in the courts in such matters, in India as well as abroad. On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 7:04 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikant...@gmail.com wrote: Gautam, I meant Prasar Bharathi. The parent company of Doordarshan. It is a Central Government entity. Re,+ SR, CBE. On 29/09/2011, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikant...@gmail.com wrote: Gautam, PB is a CG body, you might want to draft a letter in Hindi or for that matter, in all 22 languages enjoying official status. I think our course of action, now is not to draft letters or go to court, but since we now know that media from the Commons is being used in education, bring more awareness about the Commons and get more contributors. On 29/09/2011, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikant...@gmail.com wrote: Arun, when has any Indian government ever credited us when flicking our images? Even Doordarshan has aired photographs from the Commons and put a Copyright 2009, Prasar Bharti notice on it. -Re, Srikanth. On 29/09/2011, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikant...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks for the heads up Srikanth and Bala. The website is a bit buggy on my system. Since I have physical access to the Samacheer textbooks, I shall have a look and post a full page *review* of it. I'll keep you both and Sundar updated on the matter. I believe there is a lot of scope for improvement, which we can suggest. As for the who reads Further Reading matter, I do. The textbook has always been my mortal enemy, hence I always stuck to the further reading sections. --Re, Srikanth R, Coimbatore. -- Sent from my mobile device Regards, ME. Wear a Lungi, Support the Movement My infrastructure invasion... plus other images too.. on Wikimedia Commons. http://bit.ly/d50SIq -- Sent from my mobile device Regards, ME. Wear a Lungi, Support the Movement My infrastructure invasion... plus other images too.. on Wikimedia Commons. http://bit.ly/d50SIq -- Sent from my mobile device Regards, ME. Wear a Lungi, Support the Movement My infrastructure invasion... plus other images too.. on Wikimedia Commons. http://bit.ly/d50SIq -- Sent from my mobile device Regards, ME. Wear a Lungi, Support the Movement My infrastructure invasion... plus other images too.. on Wikimedia Commons. http://bit.ly/d50SIq ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia in TN text books
On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 11:01 AM, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.orgwrote: Vickram: I am not insisting that WMF or the Chapter take the lead in this matter - there are plenty of NGOs and brave individuals out there fighting for the preservation of our fundamental rights. But in this case, it is precisely WMF (or if you please, the Chapter, although I don't really see the connection, unless the Chapter charter includes a specific assignment of rights from the Foundation for such purposes) that is the aggrieved party, having posted information (or, to be legally specific, enabled the posting) in the public domain for the common weal, that has been sought to be stolen arbitrarily and without any form of legal sanction. Actually, in this case the aggrieved party is not the Foundation or the Chapter but Arun Ganesh. Neither the Foundation nor the Chapter derive any rights from the content being available on a WMF project. In this particular case, doubtless Arun Ganesh is specifically aggrieved, since it was his picture the Government has acquired al la Singur (but without the comforting legislative sanction such actions normally need), but WMF's ability to display content in the public domain would be rather severely constrained if government functionaries made a habit of this sort of thing. As a matter of fact, we have been discussing on separate threads just how much that ability is constrained by new definitions in India extending copyright in text and picture for extended periods that even the pharmaceutical sector does not enjoy for formulations that have been brought into the market only after the expenditure of several millions of dollars (which they ameliorate by 'conducting' clinical tests in India winkety wink but that's another tale for another thread) in developmental costs. My query was only to establish whether Wikimedia in general is playing an active role in the courts in such matters, in India as well as abroad. Not in India - it's far too soon but in the US, the WMF has filed, via EFF, an amicus brief in an ongoing litigation in the US. More here: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/foundation/239118 Many thanks Gautam. I agree it is probably a little early for the Chapter, an organisation that is in effect just getting off the ground, but perhaps it can be taken on board. Thank you. Best, Gautam http://blog.prathambooks.org/p/social-media.html ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India - AGM and Election Results
On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 12:29 AM, Akshay Agarwal akshay.leadin...@gmail.com wrote: Congratulations Naveen, Sudhanwa Tinu! +1 On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 8:58 PM, Jayanta Nath jayanta...@gmail.comwrote: Heartiest Congratulations to the all new board members, they should enrich our wikimedia movement in India. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Scholarships WCI2011
Hello fellow Wikimedians As you know, we received 7,070 applications for Scholarships. The Scholarships Team have now finalised *100* *scholarship awards* on the basis of merit according to the set criteria, and individual emails are now being sent to the awardees. As you are probably aware, a fixed sum of money has been budgeted for this award, and, as it happens, there will be some money left over. We Intend to further send out emails to the candidates who are not going to receive scholarships, a process that is also getting underway now. However, and we request your *urgent* participation in this process, there have been a number of calls for using the Scholarship Budget for the purpose of evening out potential imbalances in attendance at the Conference on several counts. The remaining money will support a few additional scholarships, perhaps between 15-30. The number is a variable, as the Scholarships cover only travel to and fro Mumbai and lodging for the days of the Conference. The cost of lodging is fixed, but the cost of travel depends on the journey involved. The potential categories that can be given a little boost are: 1. Gender (the number of present Wikimedians is heavily weighted towards males) 2. Persons with disabilities (several Wikimedians with disabilities have contributed significantly to improving the accessibility of Wikipages for all persons) 3. Age (very young Wikimedians need to be encouraged to participate, and very old persons also need to be recognised for their youthful spirit, enthusiasm and dedication) 4. Indic contributors (as a reflection of the need, and also of the worthy performance of localised Wikipage creators and supporters) Awardees within categories 2 and 3 need attendant caregivers (on request, in some cases, but mandatory for those under 18), and therefore the awarded Scholarships cover 2 persons each, in 2 cases, so the total awards actually cover *102 persons*. Separately, we will inform you of the breakup of these categories from the current awardees, but *could you please* take the trouble to vote (+1 = Yes, -1 = No) in each category, about your own opinion about supporting this endeavour? Please address your reply to *wikiconferencein...@gmail.com* rather than spam the list (or me), if you don't mind, using the words [WCI2011 Scholarship Poll] in square brackets in the subject line, as shown. This poll will close at *midnight Thursday Sept 29, 2011*. We will collate the votes and advise the lists accordingly. Your assistance via participating in this poll is highly appreciated, and your patience in wait for this announcement is also much appreciated. We are sorry it has taken us a little longer than planned to complete this phase of the Scholarship awards. -- (on behalf of the Scholarships Team) Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe / mailing option visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Scholarship team : Status on August 16th, 2011
We will try and send the definitive list (sans Program team's suggested names of Speakers, which is expected by month-end) by tonight to the Conference list, from where it will be disseminated, together with guidelines on how the scholarship awards will be effected. As I understand it, several factors such as confirmation of registration and payment of the registration fees will inherently be part of the scholarship confirmation, but please do wait for the mail explaining the details. Your indulgence is really appreciated. On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 1:58 PM, Saurabh Kushwaha saurabh@gmail.comwrote: Hi, Any Updates regarding the Scholarship list of Wiki Conference-2011? Regards On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 11:02 AM, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: In the coming week. We appreciate your patience in this matter. -- Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 23:19:34 +0530 From: saurabh@gmail.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org CC: vvcris...@gmail.com; whisper.val...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Scholarship team : Status on August 16th, 2011 Hi, When will be the list of shortlisted applicants for the Scholarship for WikiConferance-2011 will be known? Regards On Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Naveen Francis navee...@gmail.comwrote: Scholarship form is closed today morning. Total number of applicants : 7070 Do you require a full, special or partial scholarship? Full Scholarship, travel and accommodation included 4807 68% Full Special Scholarship, including travel and accommodation for caregiver 380 5% Partial Scholarship, accommodation only 719 10% Partial Scholarship, travel only 389 6% 50% of Travel and Accommodation costs (You bear 50%) 294 4% 75% of Travel and Accomodation costs (You bear 25%) 480 7% Sex: Male 6331 90% Female 738 10% Do you plan to speak in Wiki Conference India 2011? Yes 2962 42% No 4107 58% Do you contribute to Wikimedia commons?(Optional question) Yes 1384 20% No 4194 59% Number of responses without dates: 1 Number of daily responses Naveen Francis for Scholarship Team, WCI 2011. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Saurabh Kushwaha Class of 2011, NSIT, Delhi University, India ___ 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 -- Saurabh Kushwaha Class of 2011, NSIT, Delhi University, India ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Indic (Unicode) language statistics on web September 2011
On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Subhashish Panigrahi psubhash...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks a lot Kaśyap for this great input. It's very enlightening. Is there some way (perhaps a wikiproject) this information can be tracked on an ongoing basis, so we can see at a glance how user preferences change over time (grow/modify)? I think that would be a pretty fantastic measure of the amount of growth of information and its usefulness over time. Cheers Subha 2011/9/18 Kaśyap కశ్యప్ kasya...@gmail.com Hi I wanna share some statics on Indic language on web in Unicode , I conducted a simple search on 18th September 2011 at 9:00 pmwith language name in Unicode with three leading search engines Google, Yahoo, Bing . I did't include Sanskrit bacasue is based on the Devanagari script . This latest estimates can help to find the Internet Users by Language (unicode) due to the lack of other sources in data mining and technical issues please consider this analysis is just of information purpose only . * * * Google YahooBing * অসমীয়া (Assamese) 739,00091,500 196,000 বাংলা (Bengali) 20,400,000 49,600,000 18,600,000 English 8,510,000,000 2,180,000,000 4,190,000,000 فارسی (Farsi)222,000,000 193,000,000 5,7,000,000 ગુજરાતી (Gujarti) 12,000,000 4,680,000 4,190,000 हिन्दी (Hindi) 251,000,000 70,500,000 1,7400,000 ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada) 12,700,000 19,500,000 6,130,000 کًشُر (Kashmiri) 44,300 424,000 7,160 മലയാളം (Malayalam) 23,800,000 36,400,00013,800,000 मराठी (Marathi) 17,500,000 10,800,000 10,600,000 ଓଡ଼ିଆ (Oriya)1,550,000 123,000 141,000 ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Punjabi)23,000,0004,490,000 2,110,000 தமிழ் (Tamil) 59,800,000 66,100,000 16,600,000 తెలుగు (Telugu) 40,100,000 24,900,000 9,230,000 اردو(Urdu) 49,900,000 43,100,000 10,500,000 Regards -- మీ శ్రేయోబిలాషి కశ్యప్ kaburlu.wordpress.com 9396533666 ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- * ସୁଭାସିସ ପାଣିଗାହି ** SubhasisaPanigahi ** ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ___ Wikipedia Odia (Oriya) mailing list wikipedia...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-or facebook.com/OdiaWiki Tweet @OdiaWiki * ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] eBooks, Project Gutenberg, founder obituary
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hart A fine tribute to a great achiever and source of inspiration for the progress of open knowledge. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] On creating an Indian Wikisource
On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 1:21 PM, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.org wrote: Hi Yann: Thanks much for this. It's nice to know that ISPs are the same the world over and do more than they are asked to do. *sigh* More to the point, the kind of action initiated by Gallimard, exceeding the limits of the law and banking on other's ignorance of the law (ie FUD) is seen very often in India, although not so much by corporate action (but that is not unknown either). In India, we are far more likely to see this sort of thing from government offices, also preying on people's ignorance of the law (including ISPs etc). The situation is made far more complicated by loose terms employed in the laws and rules pertaining to those laws, especially regarding intermediaries. If put to a vote, I would want Wikipedia (and Wikipedians, of course) to stand fast against all these kinds of pressures in India, by employing the kind of firm responses Yann describes. The price of freedom cannot be freedom itself. On 8 September 2011 12:54, Yann Forget yan...@gmail.com wrote: Hello, For your information, Wikilivres hosting service provider received a letter from Gallimard, a leading French publisher. See http://www.wikilivres.info/wiki/File:Injonction_de_Gallimard.pdf This letter says that major French ISPs have been asked to restrained access to a list of pages. Then the hosting service provider sent me a mail saying that terms of services have been violated, and that there are monitoring the site. In addition, the letter sent to French ISPs is one year old, and the restriction has never been applied by any provider, according to the tests I have made. However these restrictions should have been done within one month, according to this letter. Actually there is nothing in French law which demands ISP to restrict access to content which are not in the public domain in France. AFAIK no terms of service was violated, and I've asked the ISP for clarification. Gallimard issued a similar threath to Wikisource last year, after which some texts were deleted by OFFICE action, and later restored after I sent a counter-notice. There was no news from Gallimard after that. This is to mention that copyright has to be taken seriously in this project. Best regards, Yann 2011/8/26 John Vandenberg jay...@gmail.com: Wikisource already has a Commonwealth copyright wikisource it is called Wikilivres, and it is hosted in Canada. http://www.wikilivres.info/ On that website you will find many examples of works which are illegal to distribute on US servers. Whenever English Wikisource finds a work which is illegal in the US, but legal in Canada, it is moved to Wikilivres. Wikilivres is currently paid for by a Wikisource administrator [[user:Yann]]. -- John Vandenberg ___ 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 -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Arthapedia - Indian Gov Site on the lines of Wikipedia
On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 11:43 AM, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.comwrote: On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 22:20, Gautam John gau...@prathambooks.org wrote: Not really a Wikipedia model, what? Crying shame about the license. Only valid concern is about license, but then if its about bridging the gap between policymakers and general public, I feel it will be yet another tam-tam site from govt and will have no encyclopedia content. We could still use the content as RS since it comes from govt. Wondering if the Chapter and the Office can do anything? Perhaps the Chapter can offer to conduct training programs for government servants in all states (cascading model) to upload and maintain information on government procedures and processes. It could be a steady source of income for the Trust. What is also needed is information on what we might call 'ground reality' processes. For instance, when the information asked for in the form etc does not match the information actually needed by the officer concerned, or at least claimed to be needed. For obvious reasons, such processes cannot be authenticated with references to official documents, yet it is precisely these that are needed by ordinary applicants, who are otherwise driven to the arms of pimps (ie, consultants). The arthapedia site will also necessarily fail in this respect, so either wikifyindia or Wikipedia itself must provide a meaningful solution. FYI: Arthapedia is available at arthapedia.in I dont think there is a room for involvement since the goals are not even intersecting except that they use Mediawiki. Looking at the site, an academy about how to put Wiki texts(syntax), making successful Interlinked content can be given a shot, but then it will help only their project and public over all and may be a fraction of them editing Wikipedia. Currently they are just copy pasting documents without interlinking. Some Mediawiki help(tips/advice) too can be given. -- Regards Srikanth.L ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] (no subject)
There must be an aphorism relating to people who won't help others, remain unable to help themselves. On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 5:55 PM, Sudhanwa Jogalekar sudhanwa@gmail.comwrote: Hmmm See the lines at the end of the mail you receive from the list. Check those urls and help yourself. On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 5:39 PM, hah brother hahbrot...@yahoo.com wrote: Dear sir, Plz Unsubscribe ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~! web: www.sudhanwa.com blog: www.sudhanwa.in Twitter: sudhanwa Check on FB, Linkedin for more. ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] On creating an Indian Wikisource
On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 5:42 PM, Arjuna Rao Chavala arjunar...@gmail.comwrote: On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 2:44 PM, Shiju Alex shijualexonl...@gmail.comwrote: By hosting a WikiSource outside of the US and in the jurisdiction of the country. This is not limited to Wikisource. Wikimedia Commons is definitely in the list, and may be some other projects also. Unfortunately, this leads to fragmentation in the sense there is no one source for the sum of human knowledge. Well, that was the point of the TRIPS agreement, was it not? Were information, knowledge, truly 'free', we might be seeing some very interesting alterations in the balance of the way things get done. The purpose of TRIPS was to maintain the status quo. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Workshop at HBCSE: WikiConference 2011 Scholarships Selection
With the very kind assistance and support of the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, we are holding a workshop from 10-6 on Saturday, 27 August, 2011 at the Gnowledge Labs. We will be developing a routine to sort through the 7070 applications for scholarships according to the rules set with discussions by the community for awards of the scholarships, the call for which was extraordinarily enthusiastic, reflecting the level of keen anticipation amongst persons interested in Wikimedia activities for a pathbreaking conference of this nature. We expect to substantially complete the task of sorting through the bulk of the applications submitted, helping us arrive at the final list of awardees, and generating stats that will provide a baseline for the future organisation of such important events. The workshop will be open to all, except to persons who have already submitted an application for a scholarship to attend the conference. If you have submitted an application, therefore, please do not attend this workshop, but we welcome and look forward to an equally enthusiastic response for participation at this workshop from all in the community in Mumbai, who can spare a day for an exhilarating session. Please note that the Gnowledge Labs has electrical and wireless net connectivity, but the workshop attendees must bring their own workstations (laptops, netbooks or tablets). We look forward to seeing you at the workshop. -- Vickram Fool On The Hill http://communicall.wordpress.com ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
