WikiPatrika:WikiPatrika/2011-06-06/Meetups and Events

Bangalore 33rd Wikimeetup - 08 May 2011


The 33rd Bangalore WikiMeetup, held on 08 May 2011, was attended by around  19 Wikipedians and Wiki enthusiasts including Bishakha Datta (Member,  Wikimedia Board of Trustees) ; Hisham Mundol (India Programs, Wikimedia  Foundation) and Wikimedia India Chapter Executive Committee members.

Hisham Mundol introduced the ongoing programs of Wikimedia Foundation focused  on the outreach of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects to masses and  bring in potential editors for both English and Indic language  Wikipedias. The primary structure of new projects for India includes creating awareness through various media with a prime focus on Digital  Media (Central Notice, Social Networks, Video Editing, etc) and campus  programs like Pune Pilot Project. The present campus program also encompasses on educating students as well as teachers about the  importance of Wikipedia and Potential of Wikipedia in Classrooms. The model structures from US campus programs which gave rise to a huge some  962 good quality articles could be also a beneficial factor to be  imparted with an Indian context. He also insisted using repeatability impact of core messages during the outreach programs like [Edit]  India!. And also during this sort of campaigns a student-teacher correlation and collaborative effort will give birth to not only a  handy, easily searchable modern tool but also an imperative knowlegde  base for various age groups and professions. These campus programs will also make a student-teacher relationship better to join hands and  produce authentic, reliable source of information and make conventional  education easier rather than creating cracks in the existing education  system, the mission is to bridge the gaps, not expanding them. The campus program will also facilitate extensive support for training on  editing, motivation for both student and teachers, monitoring the  strategic implementation by campus ambassadors. The Pune Pilot project will be a learning sessions and infancy of future outreach campaigns for  India.

The second talk of the day was by Wikimedia India Chapter President Arjuna Rao Cavala, who introduced the other  chapter Executive committee members Gautam John, Anirudh Bhati, Arun  Ramarathnam to the attendees. He shared the following points

a) Formulation of several guidelines of the approved India Chapter  membership. The chapter has opened a bank account and will soon be  opening the membership. All Indian nationals of/above 18 with contact  address in India can become members.  An online form will be made  available, which needs to be filled and then printed. The printed form  after signing can be sent to chapter office along with payment details.   He shared the benefits of membership and encouraged all the  participants to become members once the membership is open. b) He  also shared the idea of designing Wikimedia Chapter brochures in English  and native languages. He shared a sample brochure to explain the key expectations from the brochure. c) He said that city/language  subcommittee is being launched soon and invited community members to  propose Wikimedians to serve on the same. Finally WMF Board of  Trustee member Bishakha Datta shared a brief talk about her current role  with the foundation and possible major goals, involvement of Women  Wikipedians, socio-economic strategies and progressive growth in the  field of Art, Culture and Communication.

You can find more photos of the event here.

Pune 13th Wikimeetup - 14 May 2011


The 13th  Wikimedia Pune Wikimeetup was held on 14 May 2011 at SICSR, Pune. The representatives of Mumbai Wikipedia Community, Amitabh Kundan and Pranav  (User:Wheredevelsdare)  also came over to Pune  for discussing the  forthcoming Wikiconference India 2011 and met up with representatives of  Pune community, Sudhanwa Jogalekar, Radha Mishra, Suhel Bohra, Srikeit,  Harshad Gune and Ashwin Baindur. The Wikimedia India chapter was represented by Arjuna Rao Cavala (chapter President) and the Wikimedia  Foundation India Office by Hisham Mundol.

The Pune Wikipedia Community acknowledged the great honour done by Mumbai  community in asking the Pune community to co-host the event and promised  all cooperation. Subsequently in the evening meetup the members of the Pune Wikipedia Community were informed about this proposal and the Pune  community unanimously agreed to participate and support the venture.

Pranav gave a presentation on the progress so far - the suggested dates for  finalisation i.e. 5 to 7 Nov 2011, the proposed venues for the meetup,  the accommodation, a marquee event featuring Jimbo Wales and a social  get-together. Also discussed at the meeting were the proposed make-up of organising committee, the modalities, likely budget, and other issues. The Mumbai meetup where they will discuss these issues is being held next weekend. After that we assume the planning will begin in right earnest.

The regular monthly meetup was held in the evening. Bishakha Datta, Trustee, Wikimedia Foundation graced the meeting with her presence. Attendance was excellent with 50 plus people turning up. Most of these are the eager young aspirants of the Campus Ambassador program. The meeting began with Arjuna Rao Cavala giving a presentation on the India chapter. He mentioned the short history of raising the chapter, its aims and goals and that the chapter has now  started soliciting membership. Arjuna Rao received the first chapter membership from long time Wikipedian Ashwin Baindur.

In all, 24 applications were handed over from Pune community right there and then and others will follow soon.

Hisham Mundol then addressed the aspirants. He mentioned the role they would play to bridge the gap between people who have the freedom to edit  Wikipedia and those who actually do so. He encouraged them to join one of the finest group of people in the world - Wikipedians. He outlined the sequence of events, the training they would receive. He said that due to the need to start off the program right away, the program would  begin with those aspirants who already had the skills being looked for  especially the knowledge of the Wikipedia world. However, there was an overwhelming need of campus ambassadors; if we say one per class of 50,  Pune would require hundreds and thousands of them. So everyone who applied but was not selected in the first round was considered an  ambassador in waiting and with the help of interaction and training  provided by the Pune community they would be prepared for the next  rounds of selection. The aspirants responded with interest and a lot of questions.

It was interesting to note that amongst the young folk were some adults who wanted to give back something to  society. Coming from varied walks of life, they were yet another face of altruistic Indian society. There were a couple of professors of the Pune Colleges attending out of their own interest. They were keen to bring these programs into their institutions.

Lastly, the community was formally informed about the proposal to co-host the  Wikimedia India Conference 2011 which was unaimously approved.

Hyderabad 4th Wikimeetup - 15 May 2011
The 4th  Wikimeetup  of Hyderabad  was held on May 15th 2011, at Lamakaan,  Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. Around 20 people attended the meetup. There were participants from Wikipedias of Telugu, Tamil, English and  Esperanto and few new comers and Wiki enthusiasts. There was an open agenda with people sharing their motivation for contributing to  Wikipedia and best practices in their Wikipedias. One of the participants promised to get in touch with people from Digital South  Asia Library Project. This was followed by an introduction on editing and campus ambassadors program by Hisham Mundol, Wikimedia Foundaion,  India Programs. The meetup was covered by journalists from Indian Express and Times of India.


 * Blog post by A Giridhar RAO
 * The Times of India : Wiki league, Who wrote my Wiki?

Mumbai 10th Wikimeetup - 21 May 2011
The 10th   Mumbai Wikimeetup was held on 21 May 2011 at Pinstorm office, Santacruz  West, Mumbai. Bishakha Datta, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation and Hisham Mundol, WMF Consultant for National Programs, India, attend  this meetup. Hisham gave a presentation on the upcoming Wikipedia Campus Ambassador program pilot at Pune. An Organising Committee and sub-committees for the WikiConference was purposed and was decided to  work on.

Upcoming events

 * 4/5 June 2011 : Wikipedia Campus Ambassador Program training, Pune
 * 11 June 2011 : Wikimeetup5, Kolkata
 * 11 June 2011 : 4th Malayalam Wikimeetup Kerala, Kannur
 * 12 June-2011 : Wikipedia Wikimeetup34 Bangalore
 * 23 June 2011 : Wikipedia Wikimeetup1 Patna
 * 28 June 2011 : Wikipedia Wikimeetup1 Ranchi
 * 30 June 2011 : Wikipedia Wikimeetup1 Jamshedpur
 * 07 July 2011 : Wikipedia Wikimeetup1 Bhagalpur