Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] An Innovative Outreach effort

2012-03-10 Thread Adethya Sudarsanan
Dear All,

If you guys won't think I am repeating a similar incident like Deba and
Sri, i had a similar experience too...

After our WikiConference @ Mumbai, I traveled on Kingfisher flight back to
my place (Chennai, I am from Chennai btw). I am usually a last minute guy..
so I went to the airport pretty early and i was given access to the Lounge.
When I was looking through the pics taken during our conference, a middle
aged biz man asked me if I attended the conference... I said yes.. and he
told me tht he wanted to come.. but cudn make it cos of his work... I was
not wearing wiki T shirt, but i pinned the Wikipedia badge given by Ashwin
Baindur on to my t-shirt.

he was very eager and asked if I can share what al happened I walked
him thro th entire conference and he wanted to know what exactly we guys
did... so i took the liberty of tellin our editing stuffs in a nut shell

he took serious interest in the initiative...and as luck would have it. we
were on th same flight... and had a few editing session inside th lounge..

i felt happy tht i was able 2 contribute 2 our cause.!!

Thanks,
Ade.

On 10 March 2012 14:04, nischay nahata nischay...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi,

 I have recently been involved with Wikimedia activities and would like to
 know who gets a Wikipedia T-shirt?
 Or rather how do I get a wikipedia T-shirt

 Nischay Nahata
 3rd year
 Dept. of IT
 NITK, Surathkal

 ___
 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] An Innovative Outreach effort

2012-03-10 Thread Yuvi Panda
Something similar happened to me and PlaneMad (Arun Ganesh) in Mumbai.
I was wearing Pune T shirt and him Mumbai T Shirt, and the person
serving us food from the canteen was having fun reading the word
'Wikipedia' in the languages he could read (Kannada and Hindi, I
believe?) - he could not read the english. Arun spent a while
explaining Wikipedia to him, a conversation I was not able to take
part in because of my lack of Hindi knowledge (sigh).

-- 
Yuvi Panda T
http://yuvi.in/blog

___
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] An Innovative Outreach effort

2012-03-10 Thread Amir E. Aharoni
2012/3/10 Yuvi Panda yuvipa...@gmail.com:
 Something similar happened to me and PlaneMad (Arun Ganesh) in Mumbai.
 I was wearing Pune T shirt and him Mumbai T Shirt, and the person
 serving us food from the canteen was having fun reading the word
 'Wikipedia' in the languages he could read (Kannada and Hindi, I
 believe?) - he could not read the english.

Brilliant!!

A strong case for making more Wikipedia t-shirts in Indic languages!

--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
‪“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

___
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] An Innovative Outreach effort

2012-03-10 Thread Amir E. Aharoni
 I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or
 ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their minds:

If you DIDN'T show them a ppt, the chance that it WAS fruitful is a
lot HIGHER :)

If you spoke about so much things to these people, then most likely it
was fruitful, because they will now at least understand Wikipedia
better as readers, and maybe they will even try to edit. For a casual
chat in a train, this is very good.

If a lot of Indian take a lot of long train rides, then consider
preparing something more structured and taking people's emails for
follow-up. Just don't get too pushy with strangers :)

--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
‪“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

___
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] An Innovative Outreach effort

2012-03-10 Thread Pradeep Mohandas
Perhaps something like street theatre?

Pradeep
Handheld
 On Mar 10, 2012 4:35 PM, Amir E. Aharoni amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il
wrote:

  I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or
  ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their
 minds:

 If you DIDN'T show them a ppt, the chance that it WAS fruitful is a
 lot HIGHER :)

 If you spoke about so much things to these people, then most likely it
 was fruitful, because they will now at least understand Wikipedia
 better as readers, and maybe they will even try to edit. For a casual
 chat in a train, this is very good.

 If a lot of Indian take a lot of long train rides, then consider
 preparing something more structured and taking people's emails for
 follow-up. Just don't get too pushy with strangers :)

 --
 Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
 http://aharoni.wordpress.com
 ‪“We're living in pieces,
 I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

 ___
 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] An Innovative Outreach effort

2012-03-09 Thread Debanjan Bandyopadhyay
Hello all,

I am sending this mail, as I am soon going to be leaving for Kolkata and as
such a particular incident reminded me how we can do a free of cost basic
outreach, to spread the word about Wikipedia. The incident occurred when I
was traveling from Mumbai to Kolkata, just after the conference, and not
having time to change, I boarded the Duronto with my conference t-shirt on.

The passengers in the compartment I was in, though initially kept to
themselves, started speaking to each other as often happens on long (28hr)
train journeys. Very soon the focus shifted to my t-shirt and the resultant
was that I ended up explaining the world of Wikipedia to them for hours.

I should mention, it was a very varied crowd and maybe that is why it
happened. There was a lawyer, a psychiatrist, a scientist, an engineer, and
a couple others whose occupations were unknown to me.

I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or
ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their minds:

   - What is Wikipedia?
   - Who runs Wikipedia?
   - Is Wikimedia a sub-project of Wikipedia?
   - Who edits Wikipedia?
   - How many employees are there and how many volunteers?
   - Is it really free? If so, how does it earn money?
   - Reliability of Wikipedia - If anyone can edit, is it reliable?
   - Who monitors info?
   - Copyvio and reliable sources
   - What do I get out of it, if not money?
   - Role of a Campus Ambassador
   - How to edit?
   - Why edit?
   - Edit what?
   - Presence of Indic language wikis
   - How to edit Indic language wikis
   - Sister projects like Commons, Wikibooks
   - Entry of Foundation in India and creation of India Chapter

However, as it was my first journey, I did not note down their emails to
follow them up. The number was also limited, only 6. But hey, it was free
and killed a lot of time, while at least telling people that Wikipedia can
be edited and it has indic languages as well as sister projects. Hence, a
sincere request to all Wikimedians. If you are traveling in a long distance
train journey, try wearing a Wiki t-shirt if you have one. If you don't but
the audience seems interested go over, say hello and ask where they work.
When they ask you back, say, WIKIPEDIA and see the reaction. That should
get you started.

You can always try it. If it fails, then the only thing is you have to wash
your Wiki tee at most. But at least you spread the awareness. I am not
saying that this will retain people and inspire them to start editing, but
at least they might go back and try and look at Wikipedia in a different
way, or seek out new info.

Am again going to wear a Wiki tee on my journey, will tell you if i have a
similar experience.

-- 
Regards,
Debanjan*

- Lets make this world a better and more informative place*
___
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] An Innovative Outreach effort

2012-03-09 Thread Srikanth Ramakrishnan
Brilliant!
I too had got questions when I wore my old Wikipedia t-shirt in Coimbatore
and Chennai.
Only, I never managed to explain properly and it was in a Local Bus [in
CBE] and train [in CHN].
I'd sure love to board a Duronto, just because it is non stop and I have a
long time on board it to do so.
I think I just need a New Wikipedia size as the others are too small now. :
P
Cheers,


On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 3:16 AM, Debanjan Bandyopadhyay debast...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Hello all,

 I am sending this mail, as I am soon going to be leaving for Kolkata and
 as such a particular incident reminded me how we can do a free of cost
 basic outreach, to spread the word about Wikipedia. The incident occurred
 when I was traveling from Mumbai to Kolkata, just after the conference, and
 not having time to change, I boarded the Duronto with my conference t-shirt
 on.

 The passengers in the compartment I was in, though initially kept to
 themselves, started speaking to each other as often happens on long (28hr)
 train journeys. Very soon the focus shifted to my t-shirt and the resultant
 was that I ended up explaining the world of Wikipedia to them for hours.

 I should mention, it was a very varied crowd and maybe that is why it
 happened. There was a lawyer, a psychiatrist, a scientist, an engineer, and
 a couple others whose occupations were unknown to me.

 I won't say it was very fruitful, or that I showed them any live demo or
 ppt. Rather I focused on a few crucial question which were on their minds:

- What is Wikipedia?
- Who runs Wikipedia?
- Is Wikimedia a sub-project of Wikipedia?
- Who edits Wikipedia?
- How many employees are there and how many volunteers?
- Is it really free? If so, how does it earn money?
- Reliability of Wikipedia - If anyone can edit, is it reliable?
- Who monitors info?
- Copyvio and reliable sources
- What do I get out of it, if not money?
- Role of a Campus Ambassador
- How to edit?
- Why edit?
- Edit what?
- Presence of Indic language wikis
- How to edit Indic language wikis
- Sister projects like Commons, Wikibooks
- Entry of Foundation in India and creation of India Chapter

 However, as it was my first journey, I did not note down their emails to
 follow them up. The number was also limited, only 6. But hey, it was free
 and killed a lot of time, while at least telling people that Wikipedia can
 be edited and it has indic languages as well as sister projects. Hence, a
 sincere request to all Wikimedians. If you are traveling in a long distance
 train journey, try wearing a Wiki t-shirt if you have one. If you don't but
 the audience seems interested go over, say hello and ask where they work.
 When they ask you back, say, WIKIPEDIA and see the reaction. That should
 get you started.

 You can always try it. If it fails, then the only thing is you have to
 wash your Wiki tee at most. But at least you spread the awareness. I am not
 saying that this will retain people and inspire them to start editing, but
 at least they might go back and try and look at Wikipedia in a different
 way, or seek out new info.

 Am again going to wear a Wiki tee on my journey, will tell you if i have a
 similar experience.

 --
 Regards,
 Debanjan*

 - Lets make this world a better and more informative place*


 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l




-- 
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on February 12th.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore
Aliens invaded Tamil Nadu, left their Spacship and now it is a Toll Plaza.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IVRCL-Vijayamangalam-Toll-Plaza.JPG
___
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l