Reports/April&May 2016

=Events=

Hyderabad Meetup on 15th May
The Wikipedia Meetup Hyderabad9 was the ninth edition of Wikipedia/Wikimedia Meetup in Hyderabad held on 15th of May, 2016. The meetup was held as a part of a monthly get-together of Wikipedians (contributors and users), predominantly Telugu Wikipedians- to meet up, discuss ongoing projects, share experiences, reach out and advocate for Wikipedia and Wikimedia

For more details, please visit the meetup page Here

Pune meetup on 21st May
The Wikipedia Meetup Pune was held on 21st May, 2016. The meetup is held as a part of a series of regular get-togethers of Wikipedians (contributors and users) - which majorly consist of Marathi contributors. The main agenda was to discuss the ongoing projects, reach outs and experience sharing.

For more details, please visit Here

Formation of Advisory Board
The chapter’s first in-office advisers are Karthik Nadar, Satdeep Gill, Yann Forget, Dhaval Vyas. Wikimedia India takes immense pride in having them on board.

Wiki Loves Earth
Wiki Loves Earth (WLE) is an annual international photographic competition that will commence in June, organized worldwide by the Wikipedia community members with the help of local Wikimedia affiliates across the globe. Wikimedia India is conducting this competition in India. Participants will take pictures of local natural heritage and scenic landscape in their countries, and upload them to Wikimedia Commons. Check out our Wiki Loves Earth India page

Wiki Loves Earth (WLE) is an annual international photographic competition that will commence in June, organized worldwide by the Wikipedia community members with the help of local Wikimedia affiliates across the globe. Wikimedia India is conducting this competition in India. Participants will take pictures of local natural heritage and scenic landscape in their countries, and upload them to Wikimedia Commons. The aim of event is to highlight the conservation areas of the participating countries with the goal to encourage people to capture pictures of these sights, and to put them under a free licence which can then be re-used not only in Wikipedia but everywhere by everyone.

The aim of event is to highlight the conservation areas of the participating countries with the goal to encourage people to capture pictures of these sights, and to put them under a free licence which can then be re-used not only in Wikipedia but everywhere by everyone.

1st phase of Wiki Loves Earth started with full swing. 20 countries have started their national level version of the competition - For more details check the International page

=Featured Wikimedian of the month=

Featured Wikimedian for April month
Arnab Dutta is one of the most profilic and energetic Bengali Wikimedians from India. He has been editing since April 2008 and has over 34,000 edits till date. He has created more than 1400 articles on a wide range of subjects including Hinduism, Buddhism and West Bengal. Arnab says his first article, a Bengali literature piece was copied from his class notes but later went on to become a Featured Article. Arnab was selected as one of the noteworthy contributors at the Wiki Conference India 2011 and was also honored as part of the Wikipedia 10 celebrations. Arnab urges budding Wikipedians to stop chasing fame as sincerity and hard work will automatically make one famous and respected.

Featured Wikimedian for May month
Tulsi Bhagat is a 15 year old Maithili and Nepali Wikimedian hailing from Rajbiraj, Nepal. Having started contributing to Wikipedia in 2014 due to an outreach program conducted by Biplab Anand & Bijay Chaurasia, Bhagat is now the youngest and most prolific Wikimedian from Nepal with over 34,000 edits spread across many projects.

He serves as an administrator in the Maithili and Nepali Wikipedias. Bhagat says he loves contributing to his mother tongue Maithili where he has authored more than 500 articles. In addition to this, he is a keen vandalism fighter.

You can find the full excerpt in the Featured Wikimedia Archive

=News=

Affiliate-selected Board Elections
The Affiliate-selected Board elections were conducted successfully. The Winning candidates were Christophe Henner and Nataliia Tymkiv. A total of 40 affiliates (including 39 chapters and the sole Thematic Organisation) voted.

For the last 10 years, Christophe Henner served as a board member and led a successful Wikimedia France reorganization. In December 2012, Nataliia Tymkiv joined Wikimedia Ukraine. She was shortly elected as a Board Member and have been on Board of Wikimedia Ukraine ever since.

For more details, please visit the Result Page

WikiConference India Logo finalization
Logo Challenge competition was organized to create logo for WikiConference India 2016. The Page for the challenge can be found here

After voting by community, the result was published

The final selected logo was designed by Manoj, who is a design student and FOSS enthusiast- for WikiConference by Manojopenworks

Upcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s New Readers research in India
WMF team will be in India from June 13 to 27. The research will focus on:


 * Urban, semi-urban, and rural internet users.
 * in Hindi, Tamil, and English languages.
 * From education, technology, and rural industry backgrounds.
 * Around the Delhi (including nearby Noida and Gurgaon) and Chennai areas.

PEG Draft for WikiConference 2016 in April
WikiConference India 2016 is India's national Wikimedia event that will provide a common platform for all Indic Wikimedians to meet and share their views, tell about their works and activities in a national-level event and discuss the challenges they are facing to execute their projects and exchange useful tips, best practices and other information.

The PEG Draft for WikiConference India 2016 was live and available for vetting and consideration by the Grant approval committee in the month of April. For more details, please visit - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/PEG_Draft

=Wikimedia India Blog= Wikimedia India has decided to restart its blog which has been active for quite a long time Our first article has been written by our Inter Rudra Pratap from Kolkatta
 * Equipment Lending and Community Support: How it retained long-term users from declining activity

=In the Media=


 * "Wikimedia art database breaks copyright law: Swedish court". The Times of India. 5 April 2016.
 * Caitlin Dewey (7 April 2016). "What Happens When A Convicted Murderer Edits Wikipedia". NDTV.
 * "Traffic to Wikipedia terrorism entries plunged after Edward Snowden revelations: New study". DNA. 27 April 2016.
 * "Wikipedia Gap Finder: filling in the language holes". DNA. 28 April 2016.
 * "MRA attack: You won’t believe what’s on the Wikipedia page onGender Discrimination in India". The News Minute. 15 April 2016

Blog
E-Books and Wikipedia Are All the Rage in This Rural School in Bihar, Thanks to This Graduate]
 * [http://www.thebetterindia.com/55782/digital-literacy-rural-bihar-sai-prasanna-sbi-fellowship/