Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press} : The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"

[sankarshan]

On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 12:16 AM, Gautam John  wrote:

> Which is what I was referring to in my next sentence - what is growth
> and how do we measure it (I am loathe to use the word holistically) in
> the context of Wikipedia and related Wikimedia projects?

I was reading 
off another thread and, here's a part that I found illuminating



Sharing the reason for choosing India, Frank Schulenburg, Head of
Public Outreach at the Wikimedia Foundation, said: “We need a lot more
writers from India, and a lot about India needs to be written. This is
why we sensed the biggest global opportunity in India.”



In my mind this sums it up well. The initial question or, conversation
with Gautam was not aimed at bike-shedding but was with the idea of
understanding whether everyone shared the same idea when it comes to
the word 'growth'. Personally, I'd see opportunity. That slice in time
and space that allows content and technology to be mashed together to
provide a larger possibility to an ever increasing population by means
of an outreach.

And, yet, there needs to be data points defined to be able to keep
track of such events and such opportunities.

To Tinu, Gautam and Bishakha, thank you for taking time for responding.

-- 
sankarshan mukhopadhyay


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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press} : The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"

[Gautam John]

On 5 June 2011 23:53, Bishakha Datta  wrote:

> In a limited way, yes - but in a more substantial way, no. The assumption
> that all knowledge can get created/contained in one language and then
> transferred to others - is that tenable?

Which is what I was referring to in my next sentence - what is growth
and how do we measure it (I am loathe to use the word holistically) in
the context of Wikipedia and related Wikimedia projects?


Thank you.

Best,

Gautam

http://social.prathambooks.org/

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press} : The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"

[Bishakha Datta]

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 1:37 PM, sankarshan wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 8:54 AM, CherianTinu Abraham
>  wrote:
> > The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"
> > http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?272101 ( web version)
>
> [snip]
>
> > It was inevitable, really. Wikimedia had little choice but to come to
> India
> > as growth in the West, or the ‘Global North’, tapers off.
>
> [snip]
>
> > with its “strong culture of free speech” and its numerous languages.
> “There
> > is a huge growth potential here...just look at the number of languages,”
> > says Datta.
>
> I had a small conversation with Gautam on Twitter (not the best medium
> for a discussion really !) -
>  and so forth.
>
> What interests me is the scope of the word 'growth' - what does growth
> mean, when applied to Wikimedia ?
>
> I meant growth in knowledge - and growth in users, editors, languages,
projects when I used the term.

Cheers
Bishakha
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press} : The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"

[Bishakha Datta]

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 2:22 PM, Gautam John  wrote:

> So here's something that got me thinking, assuming there is a bot that
> could create perfect translations, both linguistically and
> idiomatically, from English to every other language and we ran that on
> Wikipedia - would that be considered growth?
>
> In a limited way, yes - but in a more substantial way, no. The assumption
that all knowledge can get created/contained in one language and then
transferred to others - is that tenable?

Bishakha
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press} : The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"

[Gautam John]

So here's something that got me thinking, assuming there is a bot that
could create perfect translations, both linguistically and
idiomatically, from English to every other language and we ran that on
Wikipedia - would that be considered growth?

Or do we have our own "triple bottom" line, of a kind? People,
Projects and Knowledge?

Thank you.

Best,

Gautam

http://social.prathambooks.org/




On 5 June 2011 14:08, CherianTinu Abraham  wrote:
> I need to agree with Gautam.
> Growth = More Participations | More User/Contributions on  both English and
> Language Wikipedias | More language Wikipedias and Wikimedia Projects
> ( Not necessarily donations ;P )
> - TC
>
> On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 1:37 PM, sankarshan 
> wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 8:54 AM, CherianTinu Abraham
>>  wrote:
>> > The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"
>> > http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?272101 ( web version)
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> > It was inevitable, really. Wikimedia had little choice but to come to
>> > India
>> > as growth in the West, or the ‘Global North’, tapers off.
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> > with its “strong culture of free speech” and its numerous languages.
>> > “There
>> > is a huge growth potential here...just look at the number of languages,”
>> > says Datta.
>>
>> I had a small conversation with Gautam on Twitter (not the best medium
>> for a discussion really !) -
>>  and so forth.
>>
>> What interests me is the scope of the word 'growth' - what does growth
>> mean, when applied to Wikimedia ?
>> --
>> sankarshan mukhopadhyay
>> 
>>
>> ___
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>
>
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>
>

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press} : The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"

[CherianTinu Abraham]

I need to agree with Gautam.

Growth = More Participations* | *More User/Contributions on  both English
and Language Wikipedias* |* More language Wikipedias and Wikimedia Projects

( Not necessarily donations ;P )

- TC

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 1:37 PM, sankarshan wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 8:54 AM, CherianTinu Abraham
>  wrote:
> > The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"
> > http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?272101 ( web version)
>
> [snip]
>
> > It was inevitable, really. Wikimedia had little choice but to come to
> India
> > as growth in the West, or the ‘Global North’, tapers off.
>
> [snip]
>
> > with its “strong culture of free speech” and its numerous languages.
> “There
> > is a huge growth potential here...just look at the number of languages,”
> > says Datta.
>
> I had a small conversation with Gautam on Twitter (not the best medium
> for a discussion really !) -
>  and so forth.
>
> What interests me is the scope of the word 'growth' - what does growth
> mean, when applied to Wikimedia ?
> --
> sankarshan mukhopadhyay
> 
>
> ___
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>
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press} : The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"

[sankarshan]

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 8:54 AM, CherianTinu Abraham
 wrote:
> The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"
> http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?272101 ( web version)

[snip]

> It was inevitable, really. Wikimedia had little choice but to come to India
> as growth in the West, or the ‘Global North’, tapers off.

[snip]

> with its “strong culture of free speech” and its numerous languages. “There
> is a huge growth potential here...just look at the number of languages,”
> says Datta.

I had a small conversation with Gautam on Twitter (not the best medium
for a discussion really !) -
 and so forth.

What interests me is the scope of the word 'growth' - what does growth
mean, when applied to Wikimedia ?
-- 
sankarshan mukhopadhyay


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[Wikimediaindia-l] [Press} : The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"

[CherianTinu Abraham]

*The Outlook : "Help: This Is A Stub"*
http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?272101 ( web version)

*Wikipedia is betting on its Indian language versions to drive growth*
*
*
*The Fountainhead*
*
*
** Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia that anybody can contribute to,
has 3.6 million articles in its English version*
** Over 60% of Wikipedia’s traffic comes from the US, Germany, Japan, the
UK, Canada, France*
** Big opportunities now in China, South Korea and India, where less than
10% of online population use Wikipedia now*
** Most popular Indian language Wikipedias: Hindi (97,013 articles), Marathi
(33,711), Tamil (32,439), Bangla (22,234) and Malayalam (18,193)*
*
*
*
*
*Chances are you haven’t heard of Angika, or even realised you had heard it
being spoken. Indeed, the odds are greater you came across it online,
especially on Wikipedia. As the world’s most popular encyclopaedia seeks to
grow outside the West, it is lesser known languages like Angika—spoken
mainly in Bihar and Jharkhand—that the site promoters are betting on.
Currently in incubation, along with 19 other Indian language micro sites,
the Angika version should go live soon, joining the 20 operational Indic
Wikipedias like Hindi, Marathi and Tamil.*
*
*
*India’s rising importance in the expansion plans of Wikimedia Foundation
(which oversees Wikipedia) is evident from the fact that its first office
outside the US is set to open—in Delhi. In a related development,
Mumbai-based documentary filmmaker Bishakha Datta has been appointed to
Wikimedia’s board of directors. It has also launched its first-ever ‘Campus
Ambassadors’ programme in Pune, modelled after universities in America where
teachers and students come together to contribute to Wikipedia. And it’s not
all research and details. Indians were also the sixth largest donors to
Wikimedia—they gave $1,93,000 dollars last financial year.*
*
*
*It was inevitable, really. Wikimedia had little choice but to come to India
as growth in the West, or the ‘Global North’, tapers off. What began in 2001
as an idea to take as much information as possible to as many people in a
multitude of languages—all this for free—which gained spectacular success,
catapulting Wikipedia to the fifth most visited website, has now hit a
roadblock. As it finalised growth plans in February, just after celebrating
its 10th anniversary, it was clear that Wikimedia had to focus on the
‘Global South’ to keep growing. China was thought of as an alternative but
was dropped because of state censorship. India was a more obvious choice
with its “strong culture of free speech” and its numerous languages. “There
is a huge growth potential here...just look at the number of languages,”
says Datta. What also worked in India’s favour is the rapidly growing number
of Indians going online; there are currently over 11 million broadband
subscribers in the country. “More and more people will now begin accessing
the internet from their phones, not even their laptops,” she says. “And
India has over 750 million cellphone consumers.”*
*
*
*A lot of this growth is going to come from India’s young. This is why they
are targeting students in Pune, known for its many educational institutes.
“Wikipedia editors throughout the world tend to be younger people who are
immersed in the world of information and learning. So we see college
campuses as the natural place for us to be,” says Hisham Mundol, a
consultant hired recently to oversee Wikimedia’s activities in India.
“Moreover, Pune’s student community comes from all over the country, making
it an ideal place for diversity and participation.” Diversification of
Wikipedia into different Indian languages is actually not just replicating
existing information on the English version but bringing in new information.
For instance, the Telugu entry on Alluri Sita Rama Raju, a freedom fighter
from Andhra Pradesh, is much more detailed, along with photographs, than the
one in English, points out Arjuna Rao Chavala, an administrator with the
Telugu Wikipedia.*
*
*
*Of all the Indian language Wikipedias, the Malayalam one has especially
been noted for the quality of its articles. However, after the launch in
2002, it struggled with a tally of little over 400 entries till about 2005.
That changed as workshops in Kerala sought to raise awareness and create a
community of people who could generate reliable content. The number of
entries on the site has now gone up to over 18,000; the articles are more
detailed, with a high frequency of reliable citation. This has also
indigenised knowledge generation. “For a long time, most of the
contributions on Malayalam Wikipedia came from emigre Malayalis. But now we
have started receiving more contributions from Kerala itself,” says Tinu
Cherian, an editor with the site.*
*
*
*The Malayalam Wikipedia also prospered because of indirect backing from the
previous Left Front government. It allowed Wikipedia to borrow content from
Sarvavijnanakosam, a state-sponsored encyclopaed