Hey Noopur, Have figured out the procedure, will get it done at the earliest. Am looking forward to contributing and interacting with wiki members in Delhi :)
On 26 December 2011 17:17, Noopur <noopur.ra...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear Mitra, why don't you join the chapter and we can work something out > for Delhi too :) Hope to catch up with you in Delhi! > > > On Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 4:51 PM, Mitra sharma <mittyko...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> Quite heart warming to hear about this... hope we have something like >> this in Delhi soon :) >> >> On 26 December 2011 14:01, Sudhanwa Jogalekar <sudhanwa....@gmail.com>wrote: >> >>> Report on Wikipedians participation in CMDA IT Expo, 2011- (15 to 18 >>> Dec. 2011) >>> >>> >>> About CMDA: >>> CMDA, Pune is an association of Computer and Media dealers in Pune. It >>> is a registered organisation and is ISO 9000 certified. Recently, it is >>> declared as the best Computer dealers association across India by DQ Week >>> magazine. Website: www.cmdapune.org >>> >>> *About IT Expo: * >>> CMDA organises IT expo every year. This was 14th year of the expo and >>> was held during 15-18 Dec 2011. As per CMDA organisors, the no. of visitors >>> this year was about 40000. >>> >>> About our activities: >>> CMDA gave us a 2m X 2m stall. The usual cost for the stall is about Rs >>> 25,000. However, considering that we are not doing any business activities >>> and are working for a social cause, this was given to us GRATIS. The stall >>> allocation was confirmed at a very late stage. As such, the call for >>> volunteers was also sent very late and we were running short of people to >>> man the stall. >>> >>> On day 1, (15th Dec), user:Mahitgar, Sudhanwa, Hisham and Nitika started >>> the activities in the morning session. Flex banners were put up and the >>> printed handouts were ready to be distributed. Hisham and Nitika came all >>> the way from Delhi for this. They also got some T shirts for distribution >>> to the right people. Our stall was the last stall in the expo and was >>> adjoining the seminar hall. After the inauguration, people started visiting >>> our stall. The chief guest was visiting all the stalls and he visited our >>> stall also. He was pleasantly surprised to see our activities >>> (non-commercial, social cause) in the expo. >>> >>> On day 1, second half was handled by Ashwin and Mahitgar. We had printed >>> a handout to create a generic awareness about Wikipedia. This was in >>> English on one side and about Marathi Wikipedia on the other side. >>> Initially, we had about 200 handouts printed as the response was not known >>> to us. Ultimately, we had to make many copies many times as the response >>> went on increasing day by day. >>> >>> Day 2 (16th Dec) was managed by Mahitgar, Ashwin, Abhishek and some >>> other CA volunteers. For the CAs, it was a great experience to interact >>> with the people face to face and answer all kinds of their queries. This >>> was totally different from the usual CA activities where they interact with >>> people who are already much aware of Wikipedia and editing and may be other >>> projects too. Abhishek and some others managed the stall till afternoon and >>> later on by Sudhanwa and some others like Pratik. In the evening, Mahitgar >>> gave a talk on the topic “Marathi Wikipedia- Challenges and Future” in the >>> seminar hall which was received very well. >>> >>> Day 3 (17th Dec) was a hectic day being Saturday, the weekend. Mahitgar >>> and Sudhanwa handled the 1st half. Ashwin joined with his spouse for a >>> couple of hours. Mandar joined in the 2nd half till the day ends. There was >>> really an energetic crowd who visited the stall and asked many many >>> questions. >>> >>> Day 4 (18th Dec) Mandar handled the stall since morning for whole day. >>> He was alone there till lunch time when some more volunteers including >>> Ashwin, Mahitgar came to help him out. >>> Being a Sunday, the fourth day was very hectic and most crowded. Some >>> more volunteers like Lochan Makheja (Hindi Wikipedian from Pune) were also >>> added but it was still difficult to address all the visitors to our stall. >>> Even with 4 volunteers at a time, we were not able handle the running crowd >>> at peak hour on Sunday evening. >>> >>> We had kept a notebook at the stall and noted down names and contact >>> details of the people who were interested in further Wikipedia related >>> activities. During the 4 days of expo, we have collected names and contact >>> details of the interested people and that number is about 250!! That is big >>> enough to have multiple wiki-academies in Pune in the next few months. Our >>> guesstimate of the no of people visited our stall is about 3000. >>> >>> While many visitors knew what Wikipedia is, most were not aware that it >>> is also available in Indian languages, especially Marathi. The few who were >>> aware of both were not aware of other projects like Commons, Wikisource >>> etc. People were mostly unaware of the implications of copyrighted and >>> freely licensed information.The expo gave a very good opportunity to >>> interact with the people directly and get a feel of what the common people >>> understand/know about Wikipedia. Here are some USUAL questions that we >>> faced in the expo. >>> >>> 1. What is the price of Wikipedia? I want to buy some copies. :-) (to be >>> specific - Wikipedia kitne me bech rahe ho.... ) >>> 2. You are not selling anything here? !!! Then why are you in the expo? >>> 3. You are not getting anything from Wikipedia, then why are you >>> standing for whole day on the stall? >>> 4. If anyone can edit Wikipedia, what is the assurance that the content >>> is correct and authentic? >>> 5. Can you edit Wikipedia in Marathi/Hindi? How? >>> 6. If I write any article on Wikipedia, will there be my name on the >>> article? >>> 7 If I type some search string in Marathi (Devanagari), you get search >>> pages in Marathi/ Marathi Wikipedia?? !! >>> 8. If I type in English (Roman) on English Wikipedia,can I get pages >>> from Marathi Wikipedia? >>> 9. When and where you meet? I want to join your activities. >>> 10. What? You can directly edit content on the Wikipedia? >>> >>> >>> Apart from this, in the expo we could interact face to face with Marathi >>> Wikipedia users and the activity helped in explaining Marathi typing in >>> more easier way.This interaction will help in improving related help pages >>> on Marathi Wikipedia. (Marathi Wikipedia sandbox has a good number of >>> trial and error edits of people trying to type in Marathi using phonetic >>> facility and still not succeeding in their effort) >>> >>> It was also observed that the number of visiting women was good but at >>> times the stall being small, it was crowded and they could not come forward >>> to listen amongst the jostling men. Next time we should give a thought to >>> request and hopefully get additional space (and also women volunteers) for >>> addressing women. >>> >>> The happiest experiences were when school children were stopping their >>> parents saying “Papa Mummy Wikipedia Stall !!’ and that naturally made >>> those parents stop at our stall and see what it was all about. it would be >>> great if we are able to get academic fraternity and more volunteer support >>> as many such expos will be forthcoming in the near future. It would be >>> great to arrange such expos in bigger education campuses too. >>> >>> Remarkably, this was a second consecutive year for the expo having a >>> Marathi Wikipedia seminar. Last year’s talk was given by Abhay Natu and >>> this year Mahitgar spoke on “Marathi Wikipedia: Challenges and Future”. >>> Mahitgar used the opportunity to focus on areas where Marathi language has >>> scope to provide significant knowledge. Mahitgar opined that all the >>> technology is available and volunteers are there to support the activity. >>> The real challenge is to bring back the confidence of the people that they >>> can avail all the knowledge in their own language by cooperating each other >>> through projects like indic language Wikipedias. Thanks to Wikimedia >>> projects, the key of the future is in their own hands. >>> >>> *Expenditure:* >>> We had asked for a grant to GAC on almost the last minute and it was >>> sanctioned very quickly. (Money yet to be received in the account) We have >>> asked for about 11000 INR that includes printing, stationary, CD/DVD >>> burning, etc etc. Out of this, we spent about 5000/- Rs. (Expenditure >>> details yet to come from the volunteers) Remaining money was not utilised >>> as additional activities like CD burning, making some goodies like >>> stickers, key chains etc. could not be done as all the volunteers were >>> stuck up at the stall itself. The amount will be used for the given purpose >>> but for/during our further activities like Wiki-academies. >>> >>> *Pictures:* >>> Abhishek has already uploaded some pictures and will be uploading some >>> videos also. Sudhanwa is uploading some photos in the category "CMDA IT >>> Expo 2011, 15-18 Dec" on commons*. We will also try to get some >>> pictures from the expo organisers.* >>> >>> *Conclusion:* >>> With the kind of manpower we had and the time and money in hand, the >>> kind of outreach we achieved is extraordinary. Almost 3000 people >>> interacted and of these 250 showed interest in future activities!! Some of >>> them are very useful people like librarians. We met some editors also in >>> the expo. Some of them are from rural area and are doing work in Marathi!! >>> All of them were unaware of the presence of the Pune Community and we were >>> able to get some dedicated new members to the community. >>> >>> Probably, considering the outreach we had and the response we got in the >>> expo, it is even worth paying for the stall next year!! >>> >>> We can do much better next time if we get enough time span for planning >>> and execution of activities >>> >>> -- >>> >>> ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~! >>> 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 >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 > >
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