Promotion/foss.in

Wikimedia Foundation promoted Wikipedia and its sister projects through a stall at | FOSS.IN exhibition. Erik, Danese, Alolita attended the event. Danese presented the inaugural keynote address on Wikimedia technology issues. Eric conducted a walkthrough for developers with MediaWiki and its extensions in which Sundar participated in a supporting role.

Pin-up badges with Wikipedia logo, press publicity material, T-Shirts with Wikipedia written in many Indian languages were provided by Wikimedia Foundation. Publicity material was used to decorate the stall. Three Wikireader pocket devices and a laptop with internet connectivity was made available to visitors to experience Wikipedia. T-shirts were distributed as part of the delegate kit of foss.in.

Anirudh and Arun Ganesh hosted the stall. They were supported by Arjun, Dileep and Ravi. There was a lot of interest from visitors on Wikireader and about how they can contribute to Wikipedia. Information of visitors was logged in an online form, which can be used for future outreach events.

Feedback

 * There was a high level of interest in wikipedia applications such as editors and viewers for the mobile phone
 * There were not many takers for the printed flyers about the wikimedia India chapter. The colorful wikipedia guidebook however was in high demand. In future more such visual guides needs to be made available
 * Lot of inquiries about swag like wikipedia buttons and stickers. Being a popular brand, everyone wants to show their association with wikipedia.
 * Inquiries on how to contribute to the code development and UI improvements of the project
 * Confusion regarding "wikipedia" and "wikimedia"
 * How to download wikipedia dumps
 * Information on meetups and local groups
 * There was very low awareness ofthe India chapter and local groups and activities on different cities. No one knew about the mailing list
 * Creating a mailing list signup form using google docs helped get a lot of registrants
 * There was still quite a few people who asked if anyone can edit wikipedia and who moderates edits
 * Lot of queries regarding the authenticity of content

Pictures

 * A view of Stall at foss.in
 * Visitors browsing with Wikireader
 * Wikireader