Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Few concerns
Shyamal, You reminded me of the good old days of Wikipedia - the movement that wasn't centered around money, but driven by interest and volunteering. I hope that what you've written about Wikiculture shall be read by many here and if that is understood by more people in coming days, the Indian 'community' can get a wee bit healthier. Of late, whenever I switch over to read the conversations on this list, it is not just intrigue but profound disgust that emerges. On 25 September 2013 10:03, Shyamal L. lshya...@gmail.com wrote: Apologies for the rant that follows and can be conveniently skipped by the busy folks here. I am quite intrigued by the kinds of discussion on this list and indeed intrigued by most of the characters that seem to be involved in the Wikimedia movement in India and how it stands out in contrast to the spirit of Wikipedia and its sister projects. Whereas the project is more a culture of giving, most of what we see here seems to be more about merely getting things for oneself and getting ahead of each other which I suppose is inspiration drawn from street traffic. Having observed the movement from the outside, it is my hope that the best values of Wikipedia culture are imbibed rather than the worst of Indian culture. * Wikiculture - Deal with issues not the persons raising them - what matters more than who. Those who actually interact with the *community* (an earlier thread gave the suggestion that people would get an opportunity to interact with the *community* only by attending Wikimania) on Wikipedia will know this aspect. This is a symptom of the fact that hardly anyone out here is really editing substantially. * Wikiculture - Think independently and question everything - Wikipedia achieved a lot and is interesting because it questions(or questioned) paradigms that are (or were) taken for granted. It uses direct interaction, direct democracy, rather than representatives. So voting people into committees / positions that work in private is not the way things are done here, it is by discussing ideas. Independence requires that you question any sense of group identity. * Wikiculture - Forsake cliques, identity traps and recognize in-out-group dynamics. In particular I think much of the poverty of editing from India comes from poor research driven by the idea that an Indian needs to represent India-related Wikipedia entries in a (POV) way that apparently instills pride among fellow-Indians! * Wikiculture - Wiki is not paper, editors do not need an office, the best community support is provided on-wiki. So again, why would having funds for an office, 3 employees visiting that office each day (and adding to Bangalore's traffic) help the Wikimedia movement? If something needs to be organized, let leadership be elected on Wiki and let there be an grant such as IEG on Wiki to support it. I have been quite intrigued by the idea of Special Interest Groups being defined by many here by the language in which they edit - one would expect SIGs to be subject dependent - so you could have astronomers, law experts, literature experts, and so on with members who work in multiple language mediums. There could be language specific technical SIGs that work on IME, Unicode etc but what we see here instead appears more like language chauvinism. Those professing to be subject matter experts (and really ought to members of specific SIGs) out here seem to contribute almost nothing to Wikipedia in their claimed area of expertise - for instance there are quite a number of law experts in the group and despite that, one finds that the law related articles, even on the English Wikipedia quite atrocious. With the amount of money being thrown here one would expect that at least something like the article on the Indian Copyright Act to be a GA if not an FA (on the English WP). [...] The amount being thrown in is certainly huge. And this money was raised! I'm stumped by the silence of many long time Wikipedians in voicing their opinion against whatever has been going on in India in the name of 'Wikimedia movement'. Thanks to you for speaking out. -- Hari Prasad Nadig http://twitter.com/hpnadig ___ 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] Update: Wiki Loves Monuments India 2013
Did I forgot to attach the link where all the images are?? Please find it here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013_in_India Regards, Karthik Nadar. Secretary, Wikimedia India Chapter. http://wiki.wikimedia.in Participate in world's largest photo contest Wiki Loves Monuments: www.wikilovesmonuments.in On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 12:51 AM, Yohann Thomas yohan...@gmail.com wrote: Congrats to the team. Hopefully this year too we should win like last yr. Yohann Thomas ___ 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] Tamil Wikipedia 10 years
Hi, Just a friendly reminder and invitation for all: September 29 - Tamil Wikipedia celebrates 10 years in Chennai Details can be see at https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:10koodal/en Please feel free to circulate our invitation at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta/4/41/Meetup-invite-ta-wiki-10-english.png and follow https://www.facebook.com/events/330424000428376/ for updates. For those who are unable to attend the event, please leave your wishes at https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:10wish Ravi ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Press coverage: Konkani Wikipedia from Goa University in 6 months
Konkani Wikipedia from Goa University in 6 months http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Konkani-Wikipedia-from-Goa-University-in-6-months/articleshow/23126410.cms PANAJI: Piles of the thick four volumes of Konkani vishwakosh or encyclopedia waiting to be picked up by users at the Goa University (GU) will now attain a modern avatar. The volumes, work on which was first started by renowned Goan writer and academician late Manoharrai Sardessai at GU, will not only be available in digitized format, but will form the base for a Konkani Wikipedia. Goa University has become the first varsity in the country to enter into a creative commons licence that will allow data produced and copyrighted by an Indian university available to internet users and open to modification, making GU a champion of sorts of free knowledge. The Konkani Wikipedia is expected to be ready for use within six months, officials said. The university has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding with the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge Programme, which represents Wikipedia in India, for the Konkani Wikipedia project. Professors, students and anyone with expertise or love for Konkani can come forward to help with the project for which training will be provided. Information in the Konkani vishwakosh will also be updated as per the current developments, Vishnu Vardhan of the centre said. The Wikipedia is the fourth most used property on the internet after Google, Facebook and Yahoo, which acts as an internet based encyclopedia where any of the users can upload new information or update or modify an existing chapter. The Konkani Wikipedia too will offer similar privileges to users and GU's Konkani department and the centre will oversee the process from the university campus. The Konkani vishwakosh covers all realms of knowledge like any other encyclopedia. The Konkani Wikipedia will act as a digitized repository of knowledge for future generations and Konkani speakers across the world. I look forward to the pleasure of going to the internet and clicking away to access a Konkani Wikipedia, GU vice-chancellor Satish Shetye said. Shetye said that GU is glad to associate with Wikipedia which has become a global phenomenon and broken the monopoly of publishers and converted distribution of knowledge into a democratic process. At present, it takes time for a page with information in a regional language to download because they are usually found in the form of scanned pages, which are accessible as images and not text. The Konkani Wikipedia will make the text accessible as is the case of any English text on the internet, GU registrar Vijayendra Kamat said. tnn The Konkani vishwakosh was created over a period of 14 years. Edited by late Manoharrai Sardessai and later Tanaji Halarnkar. GU staffers Ranjan Naik, Kalpana Naik, Kanchan Mordekar, Surekha Naik, Mukesh Thali and Shailendra Mehta contributed to the compilation process. Contains four large volumes of 3,632 of total pages. Konkani vishwakosh or encyclopedia encompasses world information in a nutshell with special emphasis on Goa, Konkani, Goan culture, folklore, history, geography etc. Wikipedia is available in 20 Indian languages including Telugu, Assamese, Marathi, but not in Konkani so far. Students, professors and anyone interested in contributing to the project can do so by enrolling online at bit.ly/konkanivishwakosh before October 5. Thanks Nitika ___ 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] Press coverage: Goa University announces plan to upload Konkani encyclopedia on Wikipedia
Goa University announces plan to upload Konkani encyclopedia on Wikipedia http://www.navhindtimes.in/goa-news/goa-university-announces-plan-upload-konkani-encyclopedia-wikipedia PANAJI: The Goa University, on Thursday, re-launched the four volumes of Konkani Vishwakosh (Konkani encyclopedia), and announced its ambitious plan to upload the same on Wikipedia – a free encyclopedia built collaboratively using Wiki software – so as to build the Konkani Wikipedia. The university has entered into a 3-year memorandum of understanding with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), for building up the Konkani Wikipedia. Vice Chancellor of Goa University Dr Satish Shetye, speaking during the event held at the university said that Wikipedia is a global phenomenon and a platform to bring people together for making creative activities possible, which in fact, has challenged the monopoly of publishers and created a movement in order to put together knowledge, further making it accessible to public. “This platform will bring together Konkani speaking people of the world, besides providing an opportunity to learn about digitisation, and write Konkani of global standard.” Dr Shetye, who incidentally noticed large number of volumes of the Konkani encyclopedia stacked in the Goa University premises, decided to take them to maximum people through their re-launch and upload on the Wikipedia. The work for the Konkani encyclopedia project was commissioned during the tenure of vice chancellor Prof B Sheik Ali, and was carried out by various people from Dr Manoharrai Sardesai to Dr Tanaji Halarnakar, with the aid of the Konkani department at the university. The four volumes of the 3,632 page Konkani encyclopedia are being re-released under Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA 3.0 to support the movement of open knowledge and open access. The programme director for the Access to Knowledge Programme of the Centre for Internet and Society, Vishnu Vardhan, speaking on the occasion said that the process of uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopedia on the Wikipedia would be complete in six months time, and includes processes like scanning, digitisation and creating articles as per the requirement of Wikipedia. He also stressed on the need to rewrite some of the articles in Konkani encyclopedia so as to contemporarise their contents. Vardhan also informed that relevant training programme would be specially co-designed by the CIS as well as the university to put up the content on the Wikipedia. Goa University is the first university in the country to re-license copyright of its content, and hence can be termed as the ‘Champion of open knowledge’, he observed. Registrar Prof V P Kamat and head of Konkani department Priyadarshini Tadkodkar were also present on the occasion. Thanks Nitika ___ 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] Update: Wiki Loves Monuments India 2013
Always impressed by the monumental effort behind this - and the huge number of participants and photos it generates. Congratulations to everyone who is involved! Bishakha On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 10:19 PM, Karthik Nadar karthik...@wikimedia.inwrote: Did I forgot to attach the link where all the images are?? Please find it here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013_in_India Regards, Karthik Nadar. Secretary, Wikimedia India Chapter. http://wiki.wikimedia.in Participate in world's largest photo contest Wiki Loves Monuments: www.wikilovesmonuments.in On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 12:51 AM, Yohann Thomas yohan...@gmail.comwrote: Congrats to the team. Hopefully this year too we should win like last yr. Yohann Thomas ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
[Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India Chapter to bid to host Wikimedia Conference 2014
Hi all, This is to inform you that WMIN has decided to mount a bid for Wikimedia Conference 2014 (aka Chapters Conference). Our reasoning to bid is based on the fact that its been two years since we hosted WCI, a much bigger conference in size as compared to this. There is no perfect time when we can bid, we will need to make decisive decisions should we aspire to grow. We are yet to hold an international conference of any size. WMConf is a closed door conference and we expect to host about 100-150 persons for this. This would be an ideal setting to test ourselves before a Wikimania bid, say in 2-3 years time. When we prepared the bid we looked at options in Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Dharamsala, Goa, Mumbai, Srinagar/Gulmarg and Varanasi. Of these Goa was found to be the best bet and we have prepared a bid available for viewing at: http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikimedia_India_Chapter:Wikimedia_Conference_2014 Link to 2013 event budget for comparison: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IT/Wikimedia_Conference_2013 Regards, Karthik Nadar. Secretary, Wikimedia India Chapter. http://wiki.wikimedia.in Participate in world's largest photo contest Wiki Loves Monuments: www.wikilovesmonuments.in ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India Chapter to bid to host Wikimedia Conference 2014
Goa is a good option. But just sharing a point of concern. It is extremely important to be careful in selecting Hotels in Goa for International Conferences .There are many Hotels violating many coastal regulation zones and environmental laws . 2 years back Tehelka Think Fest faced a similar trouble . http://www.deccanherald.com/content/202792/controversy-clouds-tehelka-thinkfest.html ~ regards Anivar ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India Chapter to bid to host Wikimedia Conference 2014
On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 11:01 AM, Karthik Nadar karthik...@wikimedia.in wrote: When we prepared the bid we looked at options in Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Dharamsala, Goa, Mumbai, Srinagar/Gulmarg and Varanasi. Of these Goa was found to be the best bet and we have prepared a bid available for viewing at: http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikimedia_India_Chapter:Wikimedia_Conference_2014 You will probably require a section similar to http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_IT/Wikimedia_Conference_2013#What_will_be_accomplished_if_the_project_is_successful.3F -- sankarshan mukhopadhyay https://twitter.com/#!/sankarshan ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
