[Wikimediaindia-l] Sharing insights and experiences from Bengali wiki community
Dear All, As part of my discussions with Indic language Wikipedians I spoke with few members of Bengali wiki community.They have shared their editing experiences, their vision about Bengali wiki projects, and other related topics. I have summarized the discussion in meta wiki. It is available here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_Languages/Bengali/Discussions/2011 As you know most of the current active editors of Bengali Wikipedia is from Bangladesh. Bengali wikipedia has close to 50 active editors as on 2011 Octoberhttps://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/12/indian-language-wikipedia-statistics-october-2011/ . Over the years I got opportunity to work closely with Bengali wikipedians for various programs (Newsletter, developing typing solution, and so on are some of them). I remember Tinu and I closely worked with Jayantha to conduct a wiki workshop in Kolkata. There are a couple of very interesting features I noticed about Bengali community. First of all, even though it is a small community, it is very evident from the tone and content of the discussions that it is a very warm and welcoming community. The second aspect I noticed is that there are frequent community meet ups (though in fairness, there are many more happening in Bangladesh than in India) and there is a reasonably good response to these meet ups. Meet ups are a really useful way of community building because it helps people connect and collaborate. Common to all Indic languages, there is a strong gap of awareness about the existence of Bengali projects and the need is felt to get media press coverage to promote this. In the context of the Kolkata Book Fair, one very interesting point that I found about Tanvir is, he cam to know about Wikipedia at a similar book fair in Dhaka! I wish West Bengal wikipedians all the very best in the Book Fair so that we can introduce and invite newbies to the Bengali wikipedia. We need to figure out a practical way of improving the collaboration between Bengali wikipedians in Bangladesh and in India. I felt very sorry when Tanvir couldn't attend WikiConference due to some VISA issues. Read the discussion at: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_Languages/Bengali/Discussions/2011 Shiju ___ 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] Towards improving infrastructure or resource people on Wikipedia
Why are we discussing it on different threads and not doing it then! :) Let's have a press team and let's have a newsletter for the internal communication purpose! 2011/12/13 ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) viswapra...@gmail.com I would like to stress again that what we need first is to interconnect ourselves. We, at various Indic Wikipedias, are still working very much on our own home islands! Images, references, PR personnel, media - Among various Indic Wikipedias, we have a lot that can be shared together. Beyond the singular difference of native language, our needs, ends and means are mostly same. [Not to mention that (in.en.wiki*) is automatically a subset of (in.wiki*)] So, let us think aloud how to interconnect ourselves more systematically and collectively. Though many may have reservations in using social networking as a tool, we at Malayalam Wikipedia have been using Facebook, Blogs, Google Buzz/Plus/ Docs/Maps/Calendar etc. somewhat effectively to improve and accelerate content and quality of ml.wiki*. (As an example, see this spreadsheet (Geodesic Coords for ml.wikipedia)https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_UShl=en_USkey=0AkzufXP7aCjEdGxvdmw5U2VwTThiUFVLZjVVWVY0dUEoutput=html, It has been just created today as an upcoming collaboration tool for GeoTagging our articles in a massive way. We envisage that the same data can be later shared with other Wikipedias in some automated way. If only we had a larger national network, we could achieve this much faster and wider!!) *What if we setup some similar acts for Inter-Indic Wiki friendship circles (Where every in.wiki user can join and share their problems, solutions and ideas)?* Viswam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 23:20, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Interestingly this was what you and I spoke about over the phone today. I think this should be of the highest priority. If the chapter and foundation are unable to focus on this it becomes the responsibility of the community aka us, to take forward such an initiative. We shall talk more on this soon Pradeep. What you have said could very well accelerate the growth of the movement in India, organically. On 12/12/11, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, We must encourage having resouce persons who can help us with various things and who are networked. We need multiple people who are capable of building the community using these resources. Specifically, we need more people who can communicate with the media, with social media (I know the sterling job that Tinu does in this area, but more hands, do not hurt), with setting up internet infrastructure, having more coders, having more people who are aware of the legal aspects, having more people who are aware of copyright, who are aware of workings in the Government and the Police. Such people may currently exist in each city through personal networks currently, but it might help for a growing community like Wikipedia's to have them in multiple places. I am not sure if this makes sense, but in short, what I mean is that we must now, as a community work towards infrastructure building that will support the community. warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 -- 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 -- Noopur Raval Student Arts and Aesthetics Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Ph: 9650567690 ___ 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 canceled for the next term
Hi, There is also a special extension being developed for Education Program[1] and hope this will introduce a systemic workflow by default for students joining through *EP, hence there could be great control and will help wikipedian volunteers / CA / OA etc. I think the next IEP will also have these tools which will help people who volunteer for / manage the project. [1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Education_Program -- 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Towards improving infrastructure or resource people on Wikipedia
hi Noopur, We already have Wikipatrika. Would any student be interested on working on it to help Tinu? Pradeep Handheld On 13/12/2011, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Why are we discussing it on different threads and not doing it then! :) Let's have a press team and let's have a newsletter for the internal communication purpose! 2011/12/13 ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) viswapra...@gmail.com I would like to stress again that what we need first is to interconnect ourselves. We, at various Indic Wikipedias, are still working very much on our own home islands! Images, references, PR personnel, media - Among various Indic Wikipedias, we have a lot that can be shared together. Beyond the singular difference of native language, our needs, ends and means are mostly same. [Not to mention that (in.en.wiki*) is automatically a subset of (in.wiki*)] So, let us think aloud how to interconnect ourselves more systematically and collectively. Though many may have reservations in using social networking as a tool, we at Malayalam Wikipedia have been using Facebook, Blogs, Google Buzz/Plus/ Docs/Maps/Calendar etc. somewhat effectively to improve and accelerate content and quality of ml.wiki*. (As an example, see this spreadsheet (Geodesic Coords for ml.wikipedia)https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_UShl=en_USkey=0AkzufXP7aCjEdGxvdmw5U2VwTThiUFVLZjVVWVY0dUEoutput=html, It has been just created today as an upcoming collaboration tool for GeoTagging our articles in a massive way. We envisage that the same data can be later shared with other Wikipedias in some automated way. If only we had a larger national network, we could achieve this much faster and wider!!) *What if we setup some similar acts for Inter-Indic Wiki friendship circles (Where every in.wiki user can join and share their problems, solutions and ideas)?* Viswam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 23:20, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Interestingly this was what you and I spoke about over the phone today. I think this should be of the highest priority. If the chapter and foundation are unable to focus on this it becomes the responsibility of the community aka us, to take forward such an initiative. We shall talk more on this soon Pradeep. What you have said could very well accelerate the growth of the movement in India, organically. On 12/12/11, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, We must encourage having resouce persons who can help us with various things and who are networked. We need multiple people who are capable of building the community using these resources. Specifically, we need more people who can communicate with the media, with social media (I know the sterling job that Tinu does in this area, but more hands, do not hurt), with setting up internet infrastructure, having more coders, having more people who are aware of the legal aspects, having more people who are aware of copyright, who are aware of workings in the Government and the Police. Such people may currently exist in each city through personal networks currently, but it might help for a growing community like Wikipedia's to have them in multiple places. I am not sure if this makes sense, but in short, what I mean is that we must now, as a community work towards infrastructure building that will support the community. warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 -- 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 -- Noopur Raval Student Arts and Aesthetics Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Ph: 9650567690 -- 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Towards improving infrastructure or resource people on Wikipedia
*raises hand* ME! :) And, I spoke to Srikeit a couple of days ago. He has fine pagemaking and presentation skills. We could collaborate and do our bits. On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 1:47 PM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi Noopur, We already have Wikipatrika. Would any student be interested on working on it to help Tinu? Pradeep Handheld On 13/12/2011, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Why are we discussing it on different threads and not doing it then! :) Let's have a press team and let's have a newsletter for the internal communication purpose! 2011/12/13 ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) viswapra...@gmail.com I would like to stress again that what we need first is to interconnect ourselves. We, at various Indic Wikipedias, are still working very much on our own home islands! Images, references, PR personnel, media - Among various Indic Wikipedias, we have a lot that can be shared together. Beyond the singular difference of native language, our needs, ends and means are mostly same. [Not to mention that (in.en.wiki*) is automatically a subset of (in.wiki*)] So, let us think aloud how to interconnect ourselves more systematically and collectively. Though many may have reservations in using social networking as a tool, we at Malayalam Wikipedia have been using Facebook, Blogs, Google Buzz/Plus/ Docs/Maps/Calendar etc. somewhat effectively to improve and accelerate content and quality of ml.wiki*. (As an example, see this spreadsheet (Geodesic Coords for ml.wikipedia) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_UShl=en_USkey=0AkzufXP7aCjEdGxvdmw5U2VwTThiUFVLZjVVWVY0dUEoutput=html , It has been just created today as an upcoming collaboration tool for GeoTagging our articles in a massive way. We envisage that the same data can be later shared with other Wikipedias in some automated way. If only we had a larger national network, we could achieve this much faster and wider!!) *What if we setup some similar acts for Inter-Indic Wiki friendship circles (Where every in.wiki user can join and share their problems, solutions and ideas)?* Viswam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 23:20, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Interestingly this was what you and I spoke about over the phone today. I think this should be of the highest priority. If the chapter and foundation are unable to focus on this it becomes the responsibility of the community aka us, to take forward such an initiative. We shall talk more on this soon Pradeep. What you have said could very well accelerate the growth of the movement in India, organically. On 12/12/11, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, We must encourage having resouce persons who can help us with various things and who are networked. We need multiple people who are capable of building the community using these resources. Specifically, we need more people who can communicate with the media, with social media (I know the sterling job that Tinu does in this area, but more hands, do not hurt), with setting up internet infrastructure, having more coders, having more people who are aware of the legal aspects, having more people who are aware of copyright, who are aware of workings in the Government and the Police. Such people may currently exist in each city through personal networks currently, but it might help for a growing community like Wikipedia's to have them in multiple places. I am not sure if this makes sense, but in short, what I mean is that we must now, as a community work towards infrastructure building that will support the community. warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 -- 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 -- Noopur Raval Student Arts and Aesthetics Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Ph: 9650567690 -- 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Towards improving infrastructure or resource people on Wikipedia
Great jpsh, Noopur. Just for that you get a COOKIE! I second Noopur taking over responsibilities for WikiPatrika and help relieve Tinu from a huge responsibility. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 1:48 PM, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: *raises hand* ME! :) And, I spoke to Srikeit a couple of days ago. He has fine pagemaking and presentation skills. We could collaborate and do our bits. On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 1:47 PM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi Noopur, We already have Wikipatrika. Would any student be interested on working on it to help Tinu? Pradeep Handheld On 13/12/2011, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Why are we discussing it on different threads and not doing it then! :) Let's have a press team and let's have a newsletter for the internal communication purpose! 2011/12/13 ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) viswapra...@gmail.com I would like to stress again that what we need first is to interconnect ourselves. We, at various Indic Wikipedias, are still working very much on our own home islands! Images, references, PR personnel, media - Among various Indic Wikipedias, we have a lot that can be shared together. Beyond the singular difference of native language, our needs, ends and means are mostly same. [Not to mention that (in.en.wiki*) is automatically a subset of (in.wiki*)] So, let us think aloud how to interconnect ourselves more systematically and collectively. Though many may have reservations in using social networking as a tool, we at Malayalam Wikipedia have been using Facebook, Blogs, Google Buzz/Plus/ Docs/Maps/Calendar etc. somewhat effectively to improve and accelerate content and quality of ml.wiki*. (As an example, see this spreadsheet (Geodesic Coords for ml.wikipedia) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_UShl=en_USkey=0AkzufXP7aCjEdGxvdmw5U2VwTThiUFVLZjVVWVY0dUEoutput=html , It has been just created today as an upcoming collaboration tool for GeoTagging our articles in a massive way. We envisage that the same data can be later shared with other Wikipedias in some automated way. If only we had a larger national network, we could achieve this much faster and wider!!) *What if we setup some similar acts for Inter-Indic Wiki friendship circles (Where every in.wiki user can join and share their problems, solutions and ideas)?* Viswam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 23:20, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Interestingly this was what you and I spoke about over the phone today. I think this should be of the highest priority. If the chapter and foundation are unable to focus on this it becomes the responsibility of the community aka us, to take forward such an initiative. We shall talk more on this soon Pradeep. What you have said could very well accelerate the growth of the movement in India, organically. On 12/12/11, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, We must encourage having resouce persons who can help us with various things and who are networked. We need multiple people who are capable of building the community using these resources. Specifically, we need more people who can communicate with the media, with social media (I know the sterling job that Tinu does in this area, but more hands, do not hurt), with setting up internet infrastructure, having more coders, having more people who are aware of the legal aspects, having more people who are aware of copyright, who are aware of workings in the Government and the Police. Such people may currently exist in each city through personal networks currently, but it might help for a growing community like Wikipedia's to have them in multiple places. I am not sure if this makes sense, but in short, what I mean is that we must now, as a community work towards infrastructure building that will support the community. warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 -- 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 --
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Insights from GLAMcamp Amsterdam
What I meant is that someone should take up outreach coordination within the community. That way documentation, compiling, connecting people with other people is centralized and easier to manage. On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 4:04 PM, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: There needs to be some kinda national coordination. In Mumbai, we are in touch with Raj Bhavan and the Maharashtra State Archives. -- Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:27:45 +0530 From: noopur.ra...@gmail.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Insights from GLAMcamp Amsterdam Hello all :) I am glad you liked it and yes, I will post updates on the page. I am in talks with someone from a relatively big museum but am taking it carefully because these things, as you know, are very delicate. I might require the chapter's support and preferably someone from the chapter or foundation who is in Delhi. This will be sometime in January first week. SO, I urge you all to stick around AND, most importantly speak up. I only see a couple of names over and over and I am sure there are more people who agree or disagree. *Also, if you guys from the chapter saw the bit on regular meet-ups, do consider a zonal organisation for India as a community. Everyone kept asking me how this big a country manages to have a single chapter for all. Let's make nodal points and have newsletters or updates. I can volunteer to make a newsletter! * Warmly Noopur PS. (thanks Srikanth R. and Arjuna :) ) On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 6:23 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Hey Noopur, lovely mail. This should be made part of the FAQ on the Wiki India Chapter website. I read about a massive GLAM collaboration in the UK with a Museum for the Hoxne Hoard, which is a Featured Article in English. The efforts to get info, photos etc, are documented in the Foundation Report of 2009 2010. I believe this is what we need to emulate in India simply because much of our culture and heritage is present and rotting in several museums and we can save it on Wiki. On 12/12/2011, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Hey Pradeep and the rest of you, What I think was my biggest take away from the GLAMcamp is: GLAM and Outreach cannot be separated. Similar holds for expanding the India Wikipedia community. While doing Wikiacademy or workshops or clubs or meet-ups, the idea is to spread the word as much as encourage a culture of good editing. That is what these guys back at the camp take very seriously, every occasional meetup is a wonderful outreach opportunity! Let's talk more about that :) Warmly Noopur On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 2:01 PM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, Thank you for your update, Noopur. Coming back with more good and concrete is great and the best way for the community to reflect. Personally, I think there are people right now who are focussed on building a new breed of editors through WikiAcademies and Wiki-Workshops. This seems to be happening in tech schools and not in art schools. Very few of the tech school junta might be interested in the arts or history. But, they can teach the arts school junta to edit and help them out. I think it is this cross-disciplinary editing that we need to foster more in the Indian community. There are people on this mailing list who are interested in participating in GLAM. I hope they respond to this thread and participate in the conversation. warm regards, Pradeep On 12/12/2011, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Dear all, These are my insights from GLAMcamp Amsterdam. I have put them in form of some key questions. For me it was a brilliant learning experience. So, most of these answers are not mine, rather they have been generated as collaborative responses by various people from different chapters. I am grateful to WMF, WM-NL and WM-UK for their special interest in helping encourage GLAM participation in India. This is the link to the programs: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAMcamp_Amsterdam#Schedule and in each session you will find an etherpad link to the live discussion! Why GLAMwiki is becoming all the more important? Flickr: popular mass upload tool but is no longer available; it has pending requests and flickr commons has no money to support more file sharing. Wikimedia Commons allows almost the same functions and metadata sharing, open licensing with a bonus Wikipedia link (something that institutions go by). Since most institutions don’t really know what Wikimedia or commons is, the Wikipedia name leverages partnerships and allows them similar archiving benefits. For us, it is also outreach. Common questions by GLAM institutions in other countries: - Why Wikipedia, why not our own website? Because of the abysmal disparity
[Wikimediaindia-l] Report on WikiKovai meet 1.
Heya all, This should've come in elaier but didn't as my lab was shut. To Pradeep, who's been asking for two days, And Noopur, the only other Wikipedian who asked about this meet. Our meetup was held at the KG Inst. of Tech [KITE] who offered us an A/C presentation hall for this event. KITE, is a part of KG Information Systems Ltd, one of the city's most respected IT establishments. The meetup space was offered by Mr. Ashok Bkathavatsalam himself, the MD of KGISL, who in turn was told about this meet by Gautam John and Venkat Mangudi. Thanks you two. The meetup started at 11am. We had ~14-15 attendees, out of which 8 or 9 were part of ILUGC Pondy [Indian Linux User Group Puducherry]. One Wikipedian saw the link to the meetup on my signature on an online forum SkyScraperCity and came from Chennai. Bala Jeyaraman, aka Sodabottle joined me a few minutes into the meetup and it was him who spoke for the rest of the day. Pre lunch, we basically spoke on how and why the Wikipedia model worked, the principles of the project, with Bala using the age old debate of whether Coimbatore or Madurai was the second largest city in Tamil Nadu as an example for verifiability. Bala explained the ease of typing in Tamil, etc. Post lunch, we were joined by two faculty members of KITE, while Mr. Ashok himself stepped in. Interestingly, he himself has an account on the English Wikipedia and contributes too. The meetup ended at around 4, we took a few photos. I shall ask Prasanna to upload them soon. It was a success, there were three existing Wikipedians, and the rest were interested newcomers. I wouldn't call it an academy though. We've not scheduled a meetup for January yet, as the most probable date is 15th Jan [Wikipedia Day] because both Bala and I won't be in town. If anyone from the chapter/foundation can help lead it, I can get people to attend and myself attend virtually thru Skype or so from Kakinada. Comments, suggestions most welcome. All brickbats my way, bouquets to Bala please. -- -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan, Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05 ___ 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] Report on WikiKovai meet 1.
Amazing non-formal report Srikanth!
Hope the meetup in Kovai bring up more active editors. {{Applause}} for
making this a success!
Best
Subha
On 13 December 2011 16:15, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikant...@gmail.comwrote:
Heya all,
This should've come in elaier but didn't as my lab was shut.
To Pradeep, who's been asking for two days,
And Noopur, the only other Wikipedian who asked about this meet.
Our meetup was held at the KG Inst. of Tech [KITE] who offered us an
A/C presentation hall for this event.
KITE, is a part of KG Information Systems Ltd, one of the city's most
respected IT establishments.
The meetup space was offered by Mr. Ashok Bkathavatsalam himself, the
MD of KGISL, who in turn was told about this meet by Gautam John and
Venkat Mangudi. Thanks you two.
The meetup started at 11am.
We had ~14-15 attendees, out of which 8 or 9 were part of ILUGC Pondy
[Indian Linux User Group Puducherry].
One Wikipedian saw the link to the meetup on my signature on an online
forum SkyScraperCity and came from Chennai.
Bala Jeyaraman, aka Sodabottle joined me a few minutes into the meetup
and it was him who spoke for the rest of the day.
Pre lunch, we basically spoke on how and why the Wikipedia model
worked, the principles of the project, with Bala using the age old
debate of whether Coimbatore or Madurai was the second largest city in
Tamil Nadu as an example for verifiability.
Bala explained the ease of typing in Tamil, etc.
Post lunch, we were joined by two faculty members of KITE, while Mr.
Ashok himself stepped in. Interestingly, he himself has an account on
the English Wikipedia and contributes too.
The meetup ended at around 4, we took a few photos. I shall ask
Prasanna to upload them soon.
It was a success, there were three existing Wikipedians, and the rest
were interested newcomers. I wouldn't call it an academy though.
We've not scheduled a meetup for January yet, as the most probable
date is 15th Jan [Wikipedia Day] because both Bala and I won't be in
town. If anyone from the chapter/foundation can help lead it, I can
get people to attend and myself attend virtually thru Skype or so from
Kakinada.
Comments, suggestions most welcome.
All brickbats my way, bouquets to Bala please.
--
--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan,
Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers
My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05
___
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
--
*
ସୁ ଭ
*
*S u b h a *
*ଓଡ଼ିଆଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ*
*O d i a W i k i M a i l i n g l i s
t*https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-or
http://facebook.com/subhashishp
http://twitter.com/subhashishphttp://or.wikipedia.org
___
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] Towards improving infrastructure or resource people on Wikipedia
Prad, this isn't what we spoke about last night. What we spoke about was setting up a network of helpers, volunteers, supporters, etc. so that we can have more outreach programs thru a mutually beneficial system. Or I understood you wrongly. On 12/13/11, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi Noopur, We already have Wikipatrika. Would any student be interested on working on it to help Tinu? Pradeep Handheld On 13/12/2011, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Why are we discussing it on different threads and not doing it then! :) Let's have a press team and let's have a newsletter for the internal communication purpose! 2011/12/13 ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) viswapra...@gmail.com I would like to stress again that what we need first is to interconnect ourselves. We, at various Indic Wikipedias, are still working very much on our own home islands! Images, references, PR personnel, media - Among various Indic Wikipedias, we have a lot that can be shared together. Beyond the singular difference of native language, our needs, ends and means are mostly same. [Not to mention that (in.en.wiki*) is automatically a subset of (in.wiki*)] So, let us think aloud how to interconnect ourselves more systematically and collectively. Though many may have reservations in using social networking as a tool, we at Malayalam Wikipedia have been using Facebook, Blogs, Google Buzz/Plus/ Docs/Maps/Calendar etc. somewhat effectively to improve and accelerate content and quality of ml.wiki*. (As an example, see this spreadsheet (Geodesic Coords for ml.wikipedia)https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_UShl=en_USkey=0AkzufXP7aCjEdGxvdmw5U2VwTThiUFVLZjVVWVY0dUEoutput=html, It has been just created today as an upcoming collaboration tool for GeoTagging our articles in a massive way. We envisage that the same data can be later shared with other Wikipedias in some automated way. If only we had a larger national network, we could achieve this much faster and wider!!) *What if we setup some similar acts for Inter-Indic Wiki friendship circles (Where every in.wiki user can join and share their problems, solutions and ideas)?* Viswam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 23:20, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Interestingly this was what you and I spoke about over the phone today. I think this should be of the highest priority. If the chapter and foundation are unable to focus on this it becomes the responsibility of the community aka us, to take forward such an initiative. We shall talk more on this soon Pradeep. What you have said could very well accelerate the growth of the movement in India, organically. On 12/12/11, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, We must encourage having resouce persons who can help us with various things and who are networked. We need multiple people who are capable of building the community using these resources. Specifically, we need more people who can communicate with the media, with social media (I know the sterling job that Tinu does in this area, but more hands, do not hurt), with setting up internet infrastructure, having more coders, having more people who are aware of the legal aspects, having more people who are aware of copyright, who are aware of workings in the Government and the Police. Such people may currently exist in each city through personal networks currently, but it might help for a growing community like Wikipedia's to have them in multiple places. I am not sure if this makes sense, but in short, what I mean is that we must now, as a community work towards infrastructure building that will support the community. warm regards, Pradeep Mohandas -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 -- 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 -- Noopur Raval Student Arts and Aesthetics Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Ph: 9650567690 -- 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Report on WikiKovai meet 1.
And I never imagined that I would be watching Bala create an article
on the Tamil Wikipedia called 8am Arivu saying 8am Arivu is an
upcoming sequel to 7am Arivu starring Superstar Srikanth in front of a
dozen people. ;-)
Yuvi, is it in KITE? If yes, then do drop in a line to those guys that
you know Bala and me. Might help us land another meetup there.
On 12/13/11, Bala Jeyaraman sodabot...@gmail.com wrote:
A great many thanks to Srikanth R for putting together the first Kovai
meetup and making it a reality. (I never dreamt that there would be a kovai
meetup and i would be in it :-)). It gave me a chance to connect with
another wikipedian who was responsible for writing large parts of
Coimbatore article in en wiki. Snagging KGISL as location was a major coup
and thanks to Gautam, Venkat, Srikanth and KGISL themselves for letting us
use their AC seminar room.
On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 4:19 PM, Subhashish Panigrahi psubhash...@gmail.com
wrote:
Amazing non-formal report Srikanth!
Hope the meetup in Kovai bring up more active editors. {{Applause}} for
making this a success!
Best
Subha
On 13 December 2011 16:15, Srikanth Ramakrishnan
rsrikant...@gmail.comwrote:
Heya all,
This should've come in elaier but didn't as my lab was shut.
To Pradeep, who's been asking for two days,
And Noopur, the only other Wikipedian who asked about this meet.
Our meetup was held at the KG Inst. of Tech [KITE] who offered us an
A/C presentation hall for this event.
KITE, is a part of KG Information Systems Ltd, one of the city's most
respected IT establishments.
The meetup space was offered by Mr. Ashok Bkathavatsalam himself, the
MD of KGISL, who in turn was told about this meet by Gautam John and
Venkat Mangudi. Thanks you two.
The meetup started at 11am.
We had ~14-15 attendees, out of which 8 or 9 were part of ILUGC Pondy
[Indian Linux User Group Puducherry].
One Wikipedian saw the link to the meetup on my signature on an online
forum SkyScraperCity and came from Chennai.
Bala Jeyaraman, aka Sodabottle joined me a few minutes into the meetup
and it was him who spoke for the rest of the day.
Pre lunch, we basically spoke on how and why the Wikipedia model
worked, the principles of the project, with Bala using the age old
debate of whether Coimbatore or Madurai was the second largest city in
Tamil Nadu as an example for verifiability.
Bala explained the ease of typing in Tamil, etc.
Post lunch, we were joined by two faculty members of KITE, while Mr.
Ashok himself stepped in. Interestingly, he himself has an account on
the English Wikipedia and contributes too.
The meetup ended at around 4, we took a few photos. I shall ask
Prasanna to upload them soon.
It was a success, there were three existing Wikipedians, and the rest
were interested newcomers. I wouldn't call it an academy though.
We've not scheduled a meetup for January yet, as the most probable
date is 15th Jan [Wikipedia Day] because both Bala and I won't be in
town. If anyone from the chapter/foundation can help lead it, I can
get people to attend and myself attend virtually thru Skype or so from
Kakinada.
Comments, suggestions most welcome.
All brickbats my way, bouquets to Bala please.
--
--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan,
Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers
My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05
___
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
--
*
ସୁ ଭ
*
*S u b h a *
*ଓଡ଼ିଆଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ*
*O d i a W i k i M a i l i n g l i s
t*https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-or
http://facebook.com/subhashishp
http://twitter.com/subhashishphttp://or.wikipedia.org
___
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] Report on WikiKovai meet 1.
Congratulations, Srikanth! And good luck Yuvi! I'm glad I could help in some small way. 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Insights from GLAMcamp Amsterdam
Noopur, while you're at it, don't forget to include QRPedia as well. On 12/13/11, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: What I meant is that someone should take up outreach coordination within the community. That way documentation, compiling, connecting people with other people is centralized and easier to manage. On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 4:04 PM, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com wrote: There needs to be some kinda national coordination. In Mumbai, we are in touch with Raj Bhavan and the Maharashtra State Archives. -- Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:27:45 +0530 From: noopur.ra...@gmail.com To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Insights from GLAMcamp Amsterdam Hello all :) I am glad you liked it and yes, I will post updates on the page. I am in talks with someone from a relatively big museum but am taking it carefully because these things, as you know, are very delicate. I might require the chapter's support and preferably someone from the chapter or foundation who is in Delhi. This will be sometime in January first week. SO, I urge you all to stick around AND, most importantly speak up. I only see a couple of names over and over and I am sure there are more people who agree or disagree. *Also, if you guys from the chapter saw the bit on regular meet-ups, do consider a zonal organisation for India as a community. Everyone kept asking me how this big a country manages to have a single chapter for all. Let's make nodal points and have newsletters or updates. I can volunteer to make a newsletter! * Warmly Noopur PS. (thanks Srikanth R. and Arjuna :) ) On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 6:23 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: Hey Noopur, lovely mail. This should be made part of the FAQ on the Wiki India Chapter website. I read about a massive GLAM collaboration in the UK with a Museum for the Hoxne Hoard, which is a Featured Article in English. The efforts to get info, photos etc, are documented in the Foundation Report of 2009 2010. I believe this is what we need to emulate in India simply because much of our culture and heritage is present and rotting in several museums and we can save it on Wiki. On 12/12/2011, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Hey Pradeep and the rest of you, What I think was my biggest take away from the GLAMcamp is: GLAM and Outreach cannot be separated. Similar holds for expanding the India Wikipedia community. While doing Wikiacademy or workshops or clubs or meet-ups, the idea is to spread the word as much as encourage a culture of good editing. That is what these guys back at the camp take very seriously, every occasional meetup is a wonderful outreach opportunity! Let's talk more about that :) Warmly Noopur On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 2:01 PM, Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com wrote: hi, Thank you for your update, Noopur. Coming back with more good and concrete is great and the best way for the community to reflect. Personally, I think there are people right now who are focussed on building a new breed of editors through WikiAcademies and Wiki-Workshops. This seems to be happening in tech schools and not in art schools. Very few of the tech school junta might be interested in the arts or history. But, they can teach the arts school junta to edit and help them out. I think it is this cross-disciplinary editing that we need to foster more in the Indian community. There are people on this mailing list who are interested in participating in GLAM. I hope they respond to this thread and participate in the conversation. warm regards, Pradeep On 12/12/2011, Noopur noopur.ra...@gmail.com wrote: Dear all, These are my insights from GLAMcamp Amsterdam. I have put them in form of some key questions. For me it was a brilliant learning experience. So, most of these answers are not mine, rather they have been generated as collaborative responses by various people from different chapters. I am grateful to WMF, WM-NL and WM-UK for their special interest in helping encourage GLAM participation in India. This is the link to the programs: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAMcamp_Amsterdam#Schedule and in each session you will find an etherpad link to the live discussion! Why GLAMwiki is becoming all the more important? Flickr: popular mass upload tool but is no longer available; it has pending requests and flickr commons has no money to support more file sharing. Wikimedia Commons allows almost the same functions and metadata sharing, open licensing with a bonus Wikipedia link (something that institutions go by). Since most institutions don’t really know what Wikimedia or commons is, the Wikipedia name leverages partnerships and allows them similar archiving benefits. For us, it is also outreach. Common questions
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Report on WikiKovai meet 1.
Very nice report. I hope to see more active wikipedians. And hope the community grows. You rock, Keep it up. Regards ansu * ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ansumang On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 4:15 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikant...@gmail.com wrote: Heya all, This should've come in elaier but didn't as my lab was shut. To Pradeep, who's been asking for two days, And Noopur, the only other Wikipedian who asked about this meet. Our meetup was held at the KG Inst. of Tech [KITE] who offered us an A/C presentation hall for this event. KITE, is a part of KG Information Systems Ltd, one of the city's most respected IT establishments. The meetup space was offered by Mr. Ashok Bkathavatsalam himself, the MD of KGISL, who in turn was told about this meet by Gautam John and Venkat Mangudi. Thanks you two. The meetup started at 11am. We had ~14-15 attendees, out of which 8 or 9 were part of ILUGC Pondy [Indian Linux User Group Puducherry]. One Wikipedian saw the link to the meetup on my signature on an online forum SkyScraperCity and came from Chennai. Bala Jeyaraman, aka Sodabottle joined me a few minutes into the meetup and it was him who spoke for the rest of the day. Pre lunch, we basically spoke on how and why the Wikipedia model worked, the principles of the project, with Bala using the age old debate of whether Coimbatore or Madurai was the second largest city in Tamil Nadu as an example for verifiability. Bala explained the ease of typing in Tamil, etc. Post lunch, we were joined by two faculty members of KITE, while Mr. Ashok himself stepped in. Interestingly, he himself has an account on the English Wikipedia and contributes too. The meetup ended at around 4, we took a few photos. I shall ask Prasanna to upload them soon. It was a success, there were three existing Wikipedians, and the rest were interested newcomers. I wouldn't call it an academy though. We've not scheduled a meetup for January yet, as the most probable date is 15th Jan [Wikipedia Day] because both Bala and I won't be in town. If anyone from the chapter/foundation can help lead it, I can get people to attend and myself attend virtually thru Skype or so from Kakinada. Comments, suggestions most welcome. All brickbats my way, bouquets to Bala please. -- -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan, Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05 ___ 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] Report on WikiKovai meet 1.
Thanks for the positive response guys. I'll try and arrange a meetup in the second week of January. Since the only two Wikipedians are out of town and it also will be Wikipedia Day, presence of a member of chapter or foundation would be welcome. On 12/13/11, ansuman ansum...@gmail.com wrote: Very nice report. I hope to see more active wikipedians. And hope the community grows. You rock, Keep it up. Regards ansu * ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ansumang On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 4:15 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikant...@gmail.com wrote: Heya all, This should've come in elaier but didn't as my lab was shut. To Pradeep, who's been asking for two days, And Noopur, the only other Wikipedian who asked about this meet. Our meetup was held at the KG Inst. of Tech [KITE] who offered us an A/C presentation hall for this event. KITE, is a part of KG Information Systems Ltd, one of the city's most respected IT establishments. The meetup space was offered by Mr. Ashok Bkathavatsalam himself, the MD of KGISL, who in turn was told about this meet by Gautam John and Venkat Mangudi. Thanks you two. The meetup started at 11am. We had ~14-15 attendees, out of which 8 or 9 were part of ILUGC Pondy [Indian Linux User Group Puducherry]. One Wikipedian saw the link to the meetup on my signature on an online forum SkyScraperCity and came from Chennai. Bala Jeyaraman, aka Sodabottle joined me a few minutes into the meetup and it was him who spoke for the rest of the day. Pre lunch, we basically spoke on how and why the Wikipedia model worked, the principles of the project, with Bala using the age old debate of whether Coimbatore or Madurai was the second largest city in Tamil Nadu as an example for verifiability. Bala explained the ease of typing in Tamil, etc. Post lunch, we were joined by two faculty members of KITE, while Mr. Ashok himself stepped in. Interestingly, he himself has an account on the English Wikipedia and contributes too. The meetup ended at around 4, we took a few photos. I shall ask Prasanna to upload them soon. It was a success, there were three existing Wikipedians, and the rest were interested newcomers. I wouldn't call it an academy though. We've not scheduled a meetup for January yet, as the most probable date is 15th Jan [Wikipedia Day] because both Bala and I won't be in town. If anyone from the chapter/foundation can help lead it, I can get people to attend and myself attend virtually thru Skype or so from Kakinada. Comments, suggestions most welcome. All brickbats my way, bouquets to Bala please. -- -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan, Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05 ___ 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] Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects
Rightly said Srikanth. I feel we not be hasty in rolling out new features and the whole community should be considered for testing. Especially since we are talking about Wikipedia. This reminds me of a case last week, where someone on the English Wikipedia replaced the Rupee symbol image with the Unicode character which isn't very compatible with everything. It resulted in boxes on latest browsers too. The user in question tried to justify by saying People should upgrade. Tell me, is this how things should be done. 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 semi-broadband connection. We cannot tell them move to latest or ignore them. More care should have been taken especially since the webfonts is bound to set a default font. With only a few hours of testing serious issues have been found - in IE 8 where webfonts might be rolled back [5], IE 7.0 (where webfonts dont work) [6] , ubuntu + Firefox (fixed now) [7] and Win+Firefox 5.0, [8]. We are still testing for other browsers and usecases and dont know how many issues we will discover. In short - This code is not ready to go live, especially when it is being made default compulsorily for everyone. There are serious performance issues for typical Indian internet connections as well.[9] 3. *Communication
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects
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 semi-broadband connection. We cannot tell them move to latest or ignore them. More care should have been taken especially since the webfonts is bound to set a default font. With only a few hours of testing serious issues have been found - in IE 8 where webfonts might be rolled back [5], IE 7.0 (where webfonts dont work) [6] , ubuntu + Firefox (fixed now) [7] and Win+Firefox 5.0, [8]. We are still testing for other browsers and usecases and dont know how many issues we will discover. In short - This code is not ready to go live, especially when it is being made default compulsorily for everyone. There are serious performance issues for typical Indian internet connections as well.[9] 3. *Communication and Community Engagement* :- Most of the above things could have solved earlier if there was more communication and community engagement. We asked for more information, engagement on this very list. There was no reply to the mail on increasing community engagement for i18n projects[10]. Most communities know WebFonts is
[Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India chapter IRC meetup
Hi friends, We will have our IRC meetup on Dec 17, 2011, from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Internet_Relay_Chats/Dec_17,2011 We from Wikimedia India Chapter invites you all to take part in the IRC meetup. On behalf of Wikimedia Chapter (India) Thanks, Naveen Francis ___ 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] Wikimedians Help! Is this an image of Abanindranath Tagore?
The LIFE repository of public domain images has this image on its Google site http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=7cbc71f276cdecd4 The caption is completely botched up by the Life data input guy (presumably) - it cant be Rabindranath Tagore who sported a beard most of his life. I suspect it is RT's famous painter nephew Abanindranath Tagore (teacher of famous Shantiniketan painter, Nandalal Bose)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abanindranath_Tagore Even this blog page says so : http://www.oldindianphotos.in/2010/04/abanindranath-tagore-famous-artist-of.html What I'm looking from Bengali Wikipedians is to please help me confirm this with some kind of proof. This image is p-d India and uploadable to Commons since Abanindranath died in 1951 at age 80 and this image would be around when he was around 60. 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedians Help! Is this an image of Abanindranath Tagore?
Yes. It is Abanindranath Tagore. Please visit http://www.clicktobuyboi.in/catalog/product/view/id/9452/, which shows a book on him titled 'Agranthita Abanindranath' (Unpublished Abanindranath). The image in the front cover of the book shows the side view of a slightly younger Abanindranath. But one can easily make out that the image is of the same person as that of the image in the LIFE repository. Thanks and regards, Kalyan Sarkar On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 10:38 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.comwrote: The LIFE repository of public domain images has this image on its Google site http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=7cbc71f276cdecd4 The caption is completely botched up by the Life data input guy (presumably) - it cant be Rabindranath Tagore who sported a beard most of his life. I suspect it is RT's famous painter nephew Abanindranath Tagore (teacher of famous Shantiniketan painter, Nandalal Bose)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abanindranath_Tagore Even this blog page says so : http://www.oldindianphotos.in/2010/04/abanindranath-tagore-famous-artist-of.html What I'm looking from Bengali Wikipedians is to please help me confirm this with some kind of proof. This image is p-d India and uploadable to Commons since Abanindranath died in 1951 at age 80 and this image would be around when he was around 60. 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] Wikimedians Help! Is this an image of Abanindranath Tagore?
Thank you Kalyan, that was awesome! Less than an hour to solve the puzzle, Hooray for crowd-sourcing. You deserve a barnstar! Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 11:28 PM, Kalyan Sarkar kalyan.sar...@gmail.comwrote: Yes. It is Abanindranath Tagore. Please visit http://www.clicktobuyboi.in/catalog/product/view/id/9452/, which shows a book on him titled 'Agranthita Abanindranath' (Unpublished Abanindranath). The image in the front cover of the book shows the side view of a slightly younger Abanindranath. But one can easily make out that the image is of the same person as that of the image in the LIFE repository. Thanks and regards, Kalyan Sarkar On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 10:38 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: The LIFE repository of public domain images has this image on its Google site http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=7cbc71f276cdecd4 The caption is completely botched up by the Life data input guy (presumably) - it cant be Rabindranath Tagore who sported a beard most of his life. I suspect it is RT's famous painter nephew Abanindranath Tagore (teacher of famous Shantiniketan painter, Nandalal Bose)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abanindranath_Tagore Even this blog page says so : http://www.oldindianphotos.in/2010/04/abanindranath-tagore-famous-artist-of.html What I'm looking from Bengali Wikipedians is to please help me confirm this with some kind of proof. This image is p-d India and uploadable to Commons since Abanindranath died in 1951 at age 80 and this image would be around when he was around 60. 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 ___ 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] [WMIN-Members] Wikimedia India chapter IRC meetup
Hi, I don't think I will be able to attend any meeting this week. We will be busy in the event. Regards -Sudhanwa On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 9:53 PM, Naveen Francis navee...@gmail.com wrote: Hi friends, We will have our IRC meetup on Dec 17, 2011, from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Internet_Relay_Chats/Dec_17,2011 We from Wikimedia India Chapter invites you all to take part in the IRC meetup. On behalf of Wikimedia Chapter (India) Thanks, Naveen Francis -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Wikimedia Chapter, India Member's Group. To post to this group, send email to wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wmin-members+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wmin-members?hl=en?hl=en -- ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~! 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedians Help! Is this an image of Abanindranath Tagore?
What's the next step? Dashing off a letter? On 12/13/11, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: Thank you Kalyan, that was awesome! Less than an hour to solve the puzzle, Hooray for crowd-sourcing. You deserve a barnstar! Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 11:28 PM, Kalyan Sarkar kalyan.sar...@gmail.comwrote: Yes. It is Abanindranath Tagore. Please visit http://www.clicktobuyboi.in/catalog/product/view/id/9452/, which shows a book on him titled 'Agranthita Abanindranath' (Unpublished Abanindranath). The image in the front cover of the book shows the side view of a slightly younger Abanindranath. But one can easily make out that the image is of the same person as that of the image in the LIFE repository. Thanks and regards, Kalyan Sarkar On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 10:38 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: The LIFE repository of public domain images has this image on its Google site http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=7cbc71f276cdecd4 The caption is completely botched up by the Life data input guy (presumably) - it cant be Rabindranath Tagore who sported a beard most of his life. I suspect it is RT's famous painter nephew Abanindranath Tagore (teacher of famous Shantiniketan painter, Nandalal Bose)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abanindranath_Tagore Even this blog page says so : http://www.oldindianphotos.in/2010/04/abanindranath-tagore-famous-artist-of.html What I'm looking from Bengali Wikipedians is to please help me confirm this with some kind of proof. This image is p-d India and uploadable to Commons since Abanindranath died in 1951 at age 80 and this image would be around when he was around 60. 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 -- 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] Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects
Have found a few more bugs in testing (other than the ones mentioned in the original mail) 1) Nepali - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33039 2) Sanskrit, Hindi and Nepali - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33038 3) Odiya - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33034 4) Sanskrit, Hindi - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33040 And they keep coming. At this rate me and srikanth should be paid per bug by the WMF. I am yet to touch Assamese, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali or Firefox 4.x, 6.x and IE 6.0, 8.0 and have only began Chrome testing. I am totally wiped for the day and quitting testing. Will try to cover the other cases tomorrow. Two thoughts at the end of a long day: i) To i18n team: Instead of launching a such a buggy code, that too as a compulsory and default option for all users, why not listen to feedback and do proper testing?. Testing is always better than firefighting. Its never too late, roll back this soft launch, form language teams, test this for a few weeks thoroughly and then do project by project launches. ii)To Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit, Oriya, Marathi, Assamese and Bengali folks on this list. Spread the word and test, test, test. File bug reports. This needs thorough testing in all OSes/browsers/connections by people who know the language. Learn from this experience and dont accept any untested products. Mayur has reported in one of the bugs that hi wiki users are reporting strange issues and has suggested making webfonts optional [1] A few weeks back i tried to warn the communities not to accept webfonts without proper testing. [2] What i feared has come to pass. Probably should have posted in all village pumps. ==Links== [1]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33024 [2] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-November/005153.html 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedians Help! Is this an image of Abanindranath Tagore?
Nope. Uploaded to Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abanindranath_Tagore.jpg Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 12:04 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote: What's the next step? Dashing off a letter? On 12/13/11, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: Thank you Kalyan, that was awesome! Less than an hour to solve the puzzle, Hooray for crowd-sourcing. You deserve a barnstar! Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur -- On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 11:28 PM, Kalyan Sarkar kalyan.sar...@gmail.comwrote: Yes. It is Abanindranath Tagore. Please visit http://www.clicktobuyboi.in/catalog/product/view/id/9452/, which shows a book on him titled 'Agranthita Abanindranath' (Unpublished Abanindranath). The image in the front cover of the book shows the side view of a slightly younger Abanindranath. But one can easily make out that the image is of the same person as that of the image in the LIFE repository. Thanks and regards, Kalyan Sarkar On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 10:38 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.bain...@gmail.com wrote: The LIFE repository of public domain images has this image on its Google site http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=7cbc71f276cdecd4 The caption is completely botched up by the Life data input guy (presumably) - it cant be Rabindranath Tagore who sported a beard most of his life. I suspect it is RT's famous painter nephew Abanindranath Tagore (teacher of famous Shantiniketan painter, Nandalal Bose)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abanindranath_Tagore Even this blog page says so : http://www.oldindianphotos.in/2010/04/abanindranath-tagore-famous-artist-of.html What I'm looking from Bengali Wikipedians is to please help me confirm this with some kind of proof. This image is p-d India and uploadable to Commons since Abanindranath died in 1951 at age 80 and this image would be around when he was around 60. 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 -- 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
[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [Wikitech-l] Help us test the VisualEditor prototype
Some of you might interested to have a early sneak peak of widely expected feature on the rolls. Also share some love back by testing and reporting bugs on bugzilla. -- Forwarded message -- From: Neil Kandalgaonkar ne...@wikimedia.org Date: Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 02:57 Subject: [Wikitech-l] Help us test the VisualEditor prototype To: Wikimedia developers wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org Cc: Wikitext-l wikitex...@lists.wikimedia.org Here's the demo, where you can edit some canned texts (but not actual Wikipedia articles, yet): http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:VisualEditorSandbox Post bugs here: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=MediaWiki%20extensionscomponent=VisualEditor And here's the blog post, which puts it more in context. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/help-test-the-first-visual-editor-developer-prototype/ This new editor was mostly written by Trevor Parscal and Inez Korczyński, although lots of others have contributed. I've sat a desk away from them for a few months and I have to say I'm extremely impressed with what they've put together. If you're expecting Google Docs, we're not there yet. But the basics are starting to solidify, and it's getting easier and easier to add cool features. Hey MediaWiki developers, surely you're not going to let Trevor and Inez have *all* the fun? -- Neil Kandalgaonkar (| ne...@wikimedia.org ___ Wikitech-l mailing list wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l -- 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects
hi, Curious: Is anybody testing this for mobile web? Shiju's report last week suggested an increase in traffic via mobile web, I think. I have started trying to read ml.wiki on my cell pointing my phone browser at ml.m.wikipedia.org and all I get are boxes right now. Pradeep Handheld On 14/12/2011, Bala Jeyaraman sodabot...@gmail.com wrote: Have found a few more bugs in testing (other than the ones mentioned in the original mail) 1) Nepali - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33039 2) Sanskrit, Hindi and Nepali - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33038 3) Odiya - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33034 4) Sanskrit, Hindi - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33040 And they keep coming. At this rate me and srikanth should be paid per bug by the WMF. I am yet to touch Assamese, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali or Firefox 4.x, 6.x and IE 6.0, 8.0 and have only began Chrome testing. I am totally wiped for the day and quitting testing. Will try to cover the other cases tomorrow. Two thoughts at the end of a long day: i) To i18n team: Instead of launching a such a buggy code, that too as a compulsory and default option for all users, why not listen to feedback and do proper testing?. Testing is always better than firefighting. Its never too late, roll back this soft launch, form language teams, test this for a few weeks thoroughly and then do project by project launches. ii)To Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit, Oriya, Marathi, Assamese and Bengali folks on this list. Spread the word and test, test, test. File bug reports. This needs thorough testing in all OSes/browsers/connections by people who know the language. Learn from this experience and dont accept any untested products. Mayur has reported in one of the bugs that hi wiki users are reporting strange issues and has suggested making webfonts optional [1] A few weeks back i tried to warn the communities not to accept webfonts without proper testing. [2] What i feared has come to pass. Probably should have posted in all village pumps. ==Links== [1]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33024 [2] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-November/005153.html 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
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects
hi, Curious: Is anybody testing this for mobile web? Shiju's report last week suggested an increase in traffic via mobile web, I think. I have started trying to read ml.wiki on my cell pointing my phone browser at ml.m.wikipedia.org and all I get are boxes right now. I'm using Opera Mini browser on a Nokia E63. Pradeep Handheld On 14/12/2011, Bala Jeyaraman sodabot...@gmail.com wrote: Have found a few more bugs in testing (other than the ones mentioned in the original mail) 1) Nepali - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33039 2) Sanskrit, Hindi and Nepali - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33038 3) Odiya - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33034 4) Sanskrit, Hindi - https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33040 And they keep coming. At this rate me and srikanth should be paid per bug by the WMF. I am yet to touch Assamese, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali or Firefox 4.x, 6.x and IE 6.0, 8.0 and have only began Chrome testing. I am totally wiped for the day and quitting testing. Will try to cover the other cases tomorrow. Two thoughts at the end of a long day: i) To i18n team: Instead of launching a such a buggy code, that too as a compulsory and default option for all users, why not listen to feedback and do proper testing?. Testing is always better than firefighting. Its never too late, roll back this soft launch, form language teams, test this for a few weeks thoroughly and then do project by project launches. ii)To Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit, Oriya, Marathi, Assamese and Bengali folks on this list. Spread the word and test, test, test. File bug reports. This needs thorough testing in all OSes/browsers/connections by people who know the language. Learn from this experience and dont accept any untested products. Mayur has reported in one of the bugs that hi wiki users are reporting strange issues and has suggested making webfonts optional [1] A few weeks back i tried to warn the communities not to accept webfonts without proper testing. [2] What i feared has come to pass. Probably should have posted in all village pumps. ==Links== [1]https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33024 [2] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-November/005153.html 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
[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
[Wikimediaindia-l] Webfonts on Mobile
[Was: Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects] 2011/12/14 Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com: Curious: Is anybody testing this for mobile web? I am doing my best to test it in any mobile phone and tablet upon which i come up, but we cannot systematically cover all the possible devices and mobile OS versions. That's where the community comes in - please test it in any device you can find and report bugs! The WebFonts extension is deployed for all supported languages in translatewiki.net and is updated several times a day with the newest changes. Please feel free to create WebFonts testing pages there. The short summary of my tests is that: * WebFonts are just ignored in older versions of Android, in the various Mobile Windows versions, in Symbian (Nokia) and in Blackberry. * WebFonts may work on the newest Android versions, but i did very little testing on that, and it changes between browsers. * WebFonts are loaded on Apple devices like iPhone and iPad, but not always rendered correctly. * WebFonts work well in devices that run a real GNU/Linux OS, such as Nokia N900. Very sadly, such devices are expensive and rare. (rantIt's just criminal how Nokia markets them so weakly./rant) * biased-opinionMy impression is that mobile Firefox (a.k.a Fennec), in general, has better support for i18n, like web fonts, fonts in general and right-to-left languages, but please test for yourself and don't take my word for it./biased-opinion (Disclaimer: I'm a volunteer Mozilla Rep.) I have started trying to read ml.wiki on my cell pointing my phone browser at ml.m.wikipedia.org and all I get are boxes right now. I'm using Opera Mini browser on a Nokia E63. WebFonts are not currently deployed on Malayalam and Tamil Wikimedia projects. These are probably the same squares you would see a week ago. WebFonts are deployed on translatewiki.net and on test.wikipedia.org, so again - please test them there as much as possible. You can also try testing in other languages of India. -- Amir E. Aharoni Wikimedia i18n team ___ 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] Webfonts on Mobile
Hi Amir, Thanks for informing us. I tried to use the BN Wikipedia from my Samsung Galaxy (android 2.3.6), but the extension did not work on the android default browser or in the Opera Mobile, in Opera Mini it uses a different method to display the complex scripts, but the Webfont icon was not there.And I don't understand which version are you mentioning by the old version of android . thnaks Nasir Khan Wikimedia Bangladesh On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 1:20 PM, Amir E. Aharoni amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il wrote: [Was: Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects] 2011/12/14 Pradeep Mohandas pradeep.mohan...@gmail.com: Curious: Is anybody testing this for mobile web? I am doing my best to test it in any mobile phone and tablet upon which i come up, but we cannot systematically cover all the possible devices and mobile OS versions. That's where the community comes in - please test it in any device you can find and report bugs! The WebFonts extension is deployed for all supported languages in translatewiki.net and is updated several times a day with the newest changes. Please feel free to create WebFonts testing pages there. The short summary of my tests is that: * WebFonts are just ignored in older versions of Android, in the various Mobile Windows versions, in Symbian (Nokia) and in Blackberry. * WebFonts may work on the newest Android versions, but i did very little testing on that, and it changes between browsers. * WebFonts are loaded on Apple devices like iPhone and iPad, but not always rendered correctly. * WebFonts work well in devices that run a real GNU/Linux OS, such as Nokia N900. Very sadly, such devices are expensive and rare. (rantIt's just criminal how Nokia markets them so weakly./rant) * biased-opinionMy impression is that mobile Firefox (a.k.a Fennec), in general, has better support for i18n, like web fonts, fonts in general and right-to-left languages, but please test for yourself and don't take my word for it./biased-opinion (Disclaimer: I'm a volunteer Mozilla Rep.) I have started trying to read ml.wiki on my cell pointing my phone browser at ml.m.wikipedia.org and all I get are boxes right now. I'm using Opera Mini browser on a Nokia E63. WebFonts are not currently deployed on Malayalam and Tamil Wikimedia projects. These are probably the same squares you would see a week ago. WebFonts are deployed on translatewiki.net and on test.wikipedia.org, so again - please test them there as much as possible. You can also try testing in other languages of India. -- Amir E. Aharoni Wikimedia i18n team ___ 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 -- *Nasir Khan Saikat http://profiles.google.com/nasir8891* ___ 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
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
