Wiki Academy/Kanthari Thiruvananthapuram

Date and Time
12 January 2013 11:00 AM TO 3:00 PM

Venue and facilities
Auditorium at Kanthari, International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs. Well equipped auditorium with computers and internet access.

About Kantari
An unconventional training institution for innovators and entrepreneurs from among persons with special requirements. Its current act (term) has about 15 students from over half a dozen countries. Visit their website

Participants
About 12 students and few staff members are expected to benefit from this session.
 * 1) Ojok Simon from Uganda


 * 1) Jacqueline Dorlecu from Ghana


 * 1) Laishram Leingakpa from Assam, India


 * 1) Bruce Sexton from USA


 * 1) Hernando Calderon Bermudez Colombia


 * 1) Tamás Barkó from Hungary


 * 1) Sristi from Nepal


 * 1) Manglu from Kerala, India


 * 1) Lawrence from Nigeria


 * 1) Patrick from Uganda


 * 1) Nyasiri from Kenya


 * 1) Mary from Megalya, India


 * 1) Tayo from Nigeria


 * 1) Saa from Siere Leone


 * 1) Karthik from Puducherry, India

Contact Persons at the Organisation
Sabriye Tenberken Co Founder at Kantari.

Faculty / Volunteers

 * Dr Fuad Jaleel (from ml.wikipedia community)
 * Viswanathan Prabhakaran from (Wikimedia India Chapter)

Report
The academy session went very well as scheduled. The participants showed commendable interest and interaction during the session. Sabriye Tenberker, the head of the institute, present throughout the session led the program, assisting and guiding the students through the social aspects of Wikipedia and its application to their own curriculum. Dr. Fuad demonstrated and trained on how to use and edit Wikipedia. Viswaprabha enhanced the demonstration by adding tips and specific points through interactive discussions. Karthik assisted the training by technical support and hands-on operations.

All the students were enthusiastic to know that Wikipedia is a creation of synergy and self-drive. They offered to learn more and continue to contribute to Wikipedia. They prepared a list of articles to begin with. They promised to create and improve on these articles within a few weeks as a second step of learning.

Being an assembly of a multitude of languages and cultures, the attendees also discussed and ventured into multilingual interfaces available within Wikipedia and about how they are interlinked.

After a scrumptious lunch, the workshop continued on to other Wikimedia projects. Dr. Fuad introduced the basic concepts of Wikisource, Wiktionary, Wikimedia commons, Wikiversity etc. Viswaprabha took the students through a guided tour on how to upload and use media at the wikimedia commons. He also elaborated on the various options of copyleft terms available there and the advantage and disadvantage of each among them.

After the Academy session, Sabriye and her teammates took the guests for a walk-around through the campus which is designed and maintained to be in extreme harmony with the nature.