Great feedback! On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 1:51 PM, Rohini Lakshané <rohini.laksh...@gmail.com>wrote:
> This is an unedited report of the lecture-cum-demo written by one of the > students who attended it. > > *Wikipedia: Democratic Ritual of Knowledge Transfer * > > What can I say about Wikipedia? Ok, let me ask, can you imagine a world > without Wikipedia? I always wonder who wrote, reviewed, edited, curated and > moderated 30 million articles in 286 languages. Answer is you and me and us! > > Wikipedia, world’s largest and the most referenced work on Internet, has > been ranked at seventh position globally on Alexa as of June 2013. It has, > estimated, 365 million readers worldwide. Though numbers are impressive > enough to boggle one’s mind, what truly electrifies the spinal cord is the > way Wikipedia functions. Anyone from any corner of the world (Now, you can > ask if earth is round or square? Go to Wikipedia, you will get interlinked > references from Heliocentricism to Geocentrism, from Copernicus to Galileo, > from Copernican Revolution to Renaissance, and thus traverse the complete > circle of knowledge!) can write an article. Then some other volunteers keep > the wheel rolling by editing and validating the existing article and by > adding required citation, views and counterviews. This invisible > chain-reaction keeps flourishing Wikipedia just like an unnoticed food > chain of natural ecosystem. > > > On Saturday, 13th July 2013, workshop on Wikipedia was organized by > volunteers of Wikimedia Foundation, in association with SCM, Sophia > Polytechnic, Mumbai. The workshop was conducted by Bishakha Datta and > Rohini Lakshane from Wikimedia Foundation, Mumbai. After giving the brief > on history of Wikipedia, how Wikipedia functions and how one can become a > part of this knowledge thriving community, instructors and volunteers > facilitated SCM students to create articles on Wikipedia. SCM students > successfully created two articles on Dina Vakil, the first woman resident > editor of The Times of > India<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_India>'s > Bombay edition and Ritu Menon, the co-founder, writer and publisher of > India's first feminist publishing house, *Kali for > Women*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_for_Women>. > The workshop truly helped students to realize that how the power of > technology, information and collaborative effort can drive people towards > the informed and knowledge-intensive society. > > After attending the workshop I couldn’t stop myself and posted the > following note dedicated to my all friends: > > · Do you think 30 million articles in 286 languages is too loud a > figure? If you are sceptical, then that’s great. Go and investigate > further. Provide the correct figure (if the given figure is erroneous) and > yeah provide the reference/citation as well. > > > > Bingo! That’s how the whole Wikipedia has been erected, by sharing and > contributing knowledge. Contribute about your locality, personalities, > culture, tradition, etc. > > · Believe in good faith. Knowledge is a path not the signboard. > Be in good faith, put information, views and counter-views with reference, > and don’t be judgmental. Neutrality is the nature of Wikipedia. > > · Acknowledge the effort. Not only when you write a research > paper or contribute to Wikipedia, but also when you receive help, love and > care of someone, do acknowledge. Democracy cannot exist without > thankfulness and compassion. Wikipedia is truly democratic way of > knowledge transfer - for the people, of the people, by the people. > > - Parth Vyas (22nd July 2013, Mumbai) > > > > On Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 5:35 PM, Abhijeet Safai > <abhijeet.sa...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> Great! >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 > >
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