WikiPatrika/2011-11/Meetups and Events

‌A summary of Wikimeetups, Wikiacademies, workshops and other Wikimedia related events around the country.

Kolkata 5th Wikimeetup - 11 June 2011
The fifth Kolkata Wikimeetup, held on 11 June 2011, was attended by 12 Wikipedians and Wiki enthusiasts. Bengali Wikipedian and administrator Jayanta Nath introduced Wikipedia, Bengali Wikiprojects. You can find more photos of the event here..

Kannur Wikimeetup - 11 June 2011
The fourth Malayalam Wikimeetup was held at Kannur, on 11 June 2011. The meetup was inaugurated by former Kerala University Vice-Chancellor B Ekbaal. Malayalam Wikipedians Shiju Alex, Anoop Narayan, Manojk, Dr. Fuad Jaleel introduced Mlayalam Wikipedia and other Wikiprojects. The meetup was also attended by Bishakha Datta (Member, Wikimedia Board of Trustees) ; Hisham Mundol (India Programs, Wikimedia Foundation), Tory Read ( Independent story writer).

Bangalore 34th Wikimeetup - 12 June 2011
The 34th Bangalore Wikimeetup was held on 12 June 2011 at Centre for Internet & Society, Domlur and was attended by 16 enthusiast attendees.

The meetup went through 2 talks by Tory Read and Achal Prabhala and post talk discussions and networking.

Tory Read’s Talk:' (Tory, being a photographer, artist and journalist in profession works basically in arts, humanity, behavioral approach of humans to a new technology and strategic thinking) In her visit to India she has been visiting places, meeting people who are taking part in the WMF initiatives and documenting them in the form of Images/Audio/Video files. For her, photography is a tool to understand how organizations like Wikimedia work. She explained the focus of her ongoing project which is based on making Wikipedia more supportive, how well they could help people, the good and bad points in its organization system, strategic thinking of Wikipedia in India, both in English and regional languages. She has interviewed people of varied personal and professional backgrounds and recorded almost 25 videos which she’d be uploading to commons. She has met Bishakha Datta in Mumbai, visited Pune Pilot Program campus, taken part in interacting with 22 campus ambassadors, attended Kannur Malayalam Wiki Meetup along with Bishakha and Hisham, trvelled Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and interviewed several Malayalam Wikipedians, from a very-young-Wikipedian to a Heart-Stroke-Patient-Wikipedian. Tory would be documenting the history of Wikipedia along with the work pattern, strategic plans, cons and pros of new initiatives based on the behavioral function.

Achal Prabhala’s talk:  (Achal is an Indian researcher, activist and writer based in Bangalore, Karnataka. He works on intellectual property rights in relation to medicine and knowledge. He also serves on the board of the Centre for Internet and Society and on the Advisory board of the Wikimedia Foundation.)

Achal, being a part of a long term project on Oral citation has interviewed many people in India (mostly in Kerala and Maharashtra), attended public gathering, folk dances, observed process of traditional liquor skills of local folks in South Africa, interviewed them and recorded their words and action. His work also pervaded to understand how newspapers in a long span of their lives never worked as authentic source of information, media, entertainment industry has popularized languages like Hindi, but the same language has still not reached more scholarly published articles. During a long presentation Achal showed the extensive approach and need of Oral citation in documenting the history of mankind in a more generic way.Post talks there was few discussions.

Arjuna Rao Chavala explained the Bangalore Community Engagement with Wikimedia Chapter and its role as an independent body. The main topics discussed are: Post discussion, Wikimedia membership forms were distributed.
 * Membership (Membership needs, benefits, role as a Chapter member)
 * Projects 2011-2012
 * Representation of Bangalore in the city SIG

Wikipedians also discussed about taking initiatives to start on on campus Wiki Workshops in Engineering and Communication/Media Studies Institutes which will bring out students for taking part in Wikimedia initiatives. After the meetup, the attendees socialized and had photoshoots. Photos and videos can be found at here

Bangalore 35th Wikimeetup - 10 July 2011
The 35th Wikimeetup at Bangalore was held on 10 July 2011. This was the 2nd anniversary of the regular Bangalore Community meetups, which was started in July 2009. The July meetup was attended by 14 Wikipedians and Wiki enthusiasts. Achal Prabhala, Shiju Alex facilitated the preview of Oral Citations Project Video. The Oral Citations Project is a strategic research project funded by a Wikimedia Foundation grant to help overcome a lack of published material in emerging languages on Wikipedia. It was being undertaken by Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board member Achal Prabhala as a short-term fellowship. Wikipedian Shiju Alex introduced the project to the audience and described about the main goal of the project, how may literary, cultural and living customs and important aspects of humanity could be cited with the lively "Oral citations". Arjuna Rao Chavala, President, Wikimedia India Chapter spoke about the community engagement with Wikimedia Chapter, registration and upcoming Exective Committee Elections details. Photos of this meeetup can be found here.

Bangalore 36th Wikimeetup - 14 August 2011
The 36th Wikimeetup at Bangalore ..

Bangalore 37th Wikimeetup - 11 September 2011
The 37th Wikimeetup at Bangalore ..

Bangalore 38th Wikimeetup - 23 October 2011
The 38th Wikimeetup at Bangalore ..