Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Minutes of Pune Wikipedia Meetup 18th Sept. 2010
Hi, That was great summary to read. On a lighter vein, it seems en.wiki needs some "encouragement/focus" in Marathi land, i couldn't see it being discussed at all, but for translation. On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 12:01, Mahitgar from Marathi Wikipedia < mahit...@yahoo.co.in> wrote: > Dear Wikimedians , > > Thank you all for the overwhelming response to the 2010 Sept 18th Pune > Wikimedia meetup. 17 people had attended this meet. Special thanks to HOD & > staff of Women’s Studies Centre, University of Pune and visiting media and > open source movement fraternity for their active participation and guidance. > > Mr Vijay Sirdeshpande (Mahitgar from Marathi wikipedia) and Ms Bishakha > Datta (trustee, Wikimedia Foundation) jointly chaired the meet . Ms. Datta > introduced herself . She talked about Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia > Foundation’s plans in India, the Wikimedia India Chapter, and difficulties > faced in completion of its registration process. She also talked about > Bangalore wiki meet-ups. She stressed the need to conduct wikipedia > academies and informed about the upcoming visits of Jimmy Wales to Mumbai at > the end of October. Other Wikimedia Foundation staff visit India in > December, includes Sue Gardner (executive director), Erik Moeller (deputy > director) and Danese Cooper (chief technical officer). > > Then wikipedians introduced themselves. Mr. Amit Yadav raised the topics of > need for and lack of adequate references on Marathi wikipedia, quality of > content, and outreach. He was for most of the discussions to take place > online rather than offline. He stressed the need for initiative and > self-learning process for making contributions on part of wiki-admiring > people.On quality of content front, the success of Malayalam wikipedia was > discussed. Mr. Vijay explained the difference in the initial focus, and said > that now the focus is on making Marathi wikipedia reader-oriented. Everyone > agreed that for bringing better quality we need more active users. Mr.Vijay > also informed that Marathi wikipedians can request for various features and > get various features adopted in the user interface, including page rating > etc. for improvement in quality. > > Mr.Amit Yadav suggested that Marathi Wikipedians wherever necessary can > refer to English language wikipedia but need to do more original writing > than merely translating from English wikipedia and Good number of attendees > supported this idea. One atendee asked whether it is right to give > references of Marathi language sources apart from the English language > references. > > Mr. Amit was of the opinion that those people who use old technologies for > writing can share their documentation online and rest of the people can > support them in uni-coding the texts for wikiprojects, whereas opinion of Mr > Ajay Garg was that we can support these people technologically and we need > to do so. Mr.Sudhanwa Joglekar was of the opinion that it is important to > involve senior citizens. Mr.Vijay informed that we do have already good > support and contribution from working professional and senior citizens > categories; but academic and student categories,women and economically > weaker and rural sections are under-represented in contributing and > interaction with wiki projects. > > On media support, Mr. Samrat Phadnis (esakal.com) and Mr. Nilesh Bane ( > indiatimes.com) assured support from their respective media houses. At the > same time, Mr. Nilesh said that wikipedia in itself is the biggest medium. > On this, Mr.Vijay stressed the need of diverting en wiki traffic using > geo-location and asking for mother tongue while logging in and diverting > users to their respective mother tongue wikipedias.Secondly Mr. Vijay also > requested for a call center facility if possible from the foundation side > (to help contributors all over India instantly).Meeting also discussed > importance of inter-wikilinks in spreading awareness among English language > Wikipedia’s Indian visitors aware of Marathi language Wikipedia. > > Mr.Sudhanwa and Vijay highlighted that Pune would be a good location for > the Foundation’s proposed India office, since it is a major educational hub. > > Mr.Nilesh Bane took up the subject of Marathi language used on Marathi > wikipedia - he felt it should avoid usage of new difficult Marathi words, > and highlighted the importance of usability and simplicity in the user > interface. Mr.Sachin Venga seconded Mr.Nilesh on his points.While agreeing > with his points Mr.Samrat Phadnis (from esakal.com) suggested giving > preference to the language used by people from rural and small cities, since > readers across Maharashtra constitute the major share of Marathi wikipedia’s > target audience. Mr.Sudhanwa Joglekar briefed on the process of language > terminology standardisation through FUEL (Frequently Used Entities in > Localisation) sessions. In this context, the views of Mr.Mahesh Kulkarni of > CDAC and Rachna Pradha
[Wikimediaindia-l] Minutes of Pune Wikipedia Meetup 18th Sept. 2010
Dear Wikimedians , Thank you all for the overwhelming response to the 2010 Sept 18th Pune Wikimedia meetup. 17 people had attended this meet. Special thanks to HOD & staff of Women’s Studies Centre, University of Pune and visiting media and open source movement fraternity for their active participation and guidance. Mr Vijay Sirdeshpande (Mahitgar from Marathi wikipedia) and Ms Bishakha Datta (trustee, Wikimedia Foundation) jointly chaired the meet . Ms. Datta introduced herself . She talked about Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Foundation’s plans in India, the Wikimedia India Chapter, and difficulties faced in completion of its registration process. She also talked about Bangalore wiki meet-ups. She stressed the need to conduct wikipedia academies and informed about the upcoming visits of Jimmy Wales to Mumbai at the end of October. Other Wikimedia Foundation staff visit India in December, includes Sue Gardner (executive director), Erik Moeller (deputy director) and Danese Cooper (chief technical officer). Then wikipedians introduced themselves. Mr. Amit Yadav raised the topics of need for and lack of adequate references on Marathi wikipedia, quality of content, and outreach. He was for most of the discussions to take place online rather than offline. He stressed the need for initiative and self-learning process for making contributions on part of wiki-admiring people.On quality of content front, the success of Malayalam wikipedia was discussed. Mr. Vijay explained the difference in the initial focus, and said that now the focus is on making Marathi wikipedia reader-oriented. Everyone agreed that for bringing better quality we need more active users. Mr.Vijay also informed that Marathi wikipedians can request for various features and get various features adopted in the user interface, including page rating etc. for improvement in quality. Mr.Amit Yadav suggested that Marathi Wikipedians wherever necessary can refer to English language wikipedia but need to do more original writing than merely translating from English wikipedia and Good number of attendees supported this idea. One atendee asked whether it is right to give references of Marathi language sources apart from the English language references. Mr. Amit was of the opinion that those people who use old technologies for writing can share their documentation online and rest of the people can support them in uni-coding the texts for wikiprojects, whereas opinion of Mr Ajay Garg was that we can support these people technologically and we need to do so. Mr.Sudhanwa Joglekar was of the opinion that it is important to involve senior citizens. Mr.Vijay informed that we do have already good support and contribution from working professional and senior citizens categories; but academic and student categories,women and economically weaker and rural sections are under-represented in contributing and interaction with wiki projects. On media support, Mr. Samrat Phadnis (esakal.com) and Mr. Nilesh Bane (indiatimes.com) assured support from their respective media houses. At the same time, Mr. Nilesh said that wikipedia in itself is the biggest medium. On this, Mr.Vijay stressed the need of diverting en wiki traffic using geo-location and asking for mother tongue while logging in and diverting users to their respective mother tongue wikipedias.Secondly Mr. Vijay also requested for a call center facility if possible from the foundation side (to help contributors all over India instantly).Meeting also discussed importance of inter-wikilinks in spreading awareness among English language Wikipedia’s Indian visitors aware of Marathi language Wikipedia. Mr.Sudhanwa and Vijay highlighted that Pune would be a good location for the Foundation’s proposed India office, since it is a major educational hub. Mr.Nilesh Bane took up the subject of Marathi language used on Marathi wikipedia - he felt it should avoid usage of new difficult Marathi words, and highlighted the importance of usability and simplicity in the user interface. Mr.Sachin Venga seconded Mr.Nilesh on his points.While agreeing with his points Mr.Samrat Phadnis (from esakal.com) suggested giving preference to the language used by people from rural and small cities, since readers across Maharashtra constitute the major share of Marathi wikipedia’s target audience. Mr.Sudhanwa Joglekar briefed on the process of language terminology standardisation through FUEL (Frequently Used Entities in Localisation) sessions. In this context, the views of Mr.Mahesh Kulkarni of CDAC and Rachna Pradhan of Bhasha Sanchalanalay were brought to notice and the need for previous(Swa.Savarkar time) debates related to Bhasha Shuddhikaran Movement and Balbharti's Dictionary becoming available online were also discussed. Mr.Nilesh Bane expressed his dismay over delay in (Govt.) Marathi Wishvakosh becoming available online. Mr.Ajay Garg promised to support wikiped