[Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] : DNA : College of Engineering Pune students to co-author Wikipedia-India

[CherianTinu Abraham]

*DNA :  College of Engineering Pune students to co-author Wikipedia-India*
http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report_college-of-engineering-pune-students-to-co-author-wikipedia-india_1578420


*

A total of 843 students of the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) will soon
get an opportunity to contribute to the popular search engine,
www.wikipedia.org.

A six-month semester was recently kicked off at the college, thanks to a
joint venture between the CoEP and the Wikipedia team, through their Indian
representative, Wikimedia (national programmes) India.

While briefing mediapersons on Wednesday, director of CoEP, Anil
Sahasrabudhe, said students from seven disciplines — mechanical, electrical,
electronics and telecommunication, production, computer, information
technology, and mathematics — would undergo the course.

“After the students complete the six-month course, they would need to
contribute to the website. They would be given internal marks for these
assignments,” he said.

Wikimedia consultant Hisham Mundol, who also attended the press briefing
said, “We are inviting students and educators in India to join us in this
mission by taking part in the India education programme. Information about
India and contribution by people from India are not adequately represented
on Wikipedia, and we want to change that.”

According to Mundol, the national programme in India has its genesis in a
similar pilot project, a public policy initiative started by Wikimedia in
the US that was received well. Mundol said that a total of four colleges in
Pune, CoEP, Symbiosis School of Economics, SNDT Women’s University and
Modern College of Engineering would be part of the Wikimedia initiative.

“Our goal is to encourage professors and teachers in Pune to join a growing
global community of educators, who use Wikipedia as a teaching and learning
tool in their classrooms,” he said.
*

Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Aug_2011
___
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

[Wikimediaindia-l] Visually challenged people and Indic language wikipedias - Video

[Shiju Alex]

Dear Wikimedians

I would like share an unusual story (unusual - especially for Indic language
wiki communities) that Malayalam wiki community had faced few months back.

In the month of February 2011, I had received an SOS call from a school
teacher (Satyasheelan) who is teaching at the Government School for the
Blind in the Kasargod
district
of Kerala. Satyasheelan was seeking Malayalam wikipedian's support to fix
few issues that he and his students faced with few Malayalam alphabets when
they  read Malayalam wikipedia using a speech synthesizing software called
eSpeak . His phone call was surprise to us
since Malayalam wikimedians were not aware that visually challenged people
are using Malayalam wikipedia. (We were aware about the existence of a
software by Santhosh (named Dhawni ) to read
unicode Malayalam (and other Indic languages also) which is in its early
stages of development). So Satyasheelan's call was surprising.

After his phone call few Malayalam wikipedians (Junaid, Thachan Makan, and
I) contacted Jonathan Duddington , the
primary developer (?) of eSpeak, and we worked with him to fix the issues
for Malayalam that Satyasheelan had pointed out. Jonathan  fixed the issues
pretty fast and later Satyasheelan informed us that now they are able to use
Malayalam wikipedia without any issues.

Later while we were planning for the 4th Malayalam wiki
meetup(2011
July 11) at Kannur, we decided to invite Satyasheelan to conduct a
session, since Malayalam wikimedians liked to hear the experience of
students of Blind school (using Malayalam wikipedia). But when Satyasheelan
came for the meetup we were surprised and taken aback when we learnt that
Satyasheelan is also a visually challenged person. Few of the his colleagues
(who are also visually challenged) also attended the meetup. Satyasheelan
was accompanied by his son, Nalin.

The meetup was attended by more than 80 Malayalam wikipedians. Few photos
are available 
here.
We are happy that Bishaka, Hisham, and Tory were kind enough to join us for
this meetup. There were various programs conducted as part of this meetup
(the report of the meetup is available at various locations (in Malayalam)).
Definitely the highlight of the meetup was the demonstration by
Satyasheelaman. So this mail is about that.

Malayalam wikimedian Ajay Kuyiloor took extra efforts to record
Satyasheelan's session. We are sharing an edited version of this session
assuming that this information will help other Indic language wiki
communities.

The video of Satyasheelan's session is available here: *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr1T3HeBTvU* The duration of the video is
around 9 minutes. We specially thank Ajay Kuyiloor, Girish Mohan, and Jithin
who worked on this video. We admit the low quality of video since we were
not prepared for such a session. Inconvenience due to this is deeply
regretted.

Malayalam community is welcoming your comments regarding this story so that
the discussion regarding this will benefit rest of the Indic wiki
communities also. We are actually humbled by the fact that work we do in
wikipedia is reaching out to people from all wakes of life.

*NOTE:* Satyasheelan specially thanked Malayalam wikimedians for creating a
special navigational
templatefor
reaching out easily to wikipedia articles. I still remember in 2008
when
Malayalam wikipedia user:Sadhik Khalid
created
this template, some of us had doubted the need of such a template. Our doubt
was, why such a template is required when users can reach out to articles
easily using serach box. Now to our surprise we understood this template is
very much useful for the visually challenged people (whom we never thought
about before).

Video of Satyasheelan's  session is available here:*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr1T3HeBTvU*

Thanks

Shiju Alex
___
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Visually challenged people and Indic language wikipedias - Video

[Surya Prakash]

The only word I said after reading this was "WOW!"

I appreciate Mr. Satyasheelan's efforts. In Tamil Nadu also, few (very few)
schools are using Tamil Wikipedia. (for usual children)

Thank you Alex for sharing this story. :)

*$U®¥∩*
http://goo.gl/RoMyo.com 
http://about.me/suryaceg



2011/8/22 Shiju Alex 

> Dear Wikimedians
>
> I would like share an unusual story (unusual - especially for Indic
> language wiki communities) that Malayalam wiki community had faced few
> months back.
>
> In the month of February 2011, I had received an SOS call from a school
> teacher (Satyasheelan) who is teaching at the Government School for the
> Blind in the Kasargod 
> district
> of Kerala. Satyasheelan was seeking Malayalam wikipedian's support to fix
> few issues that he and his students faced with few Malayalam alphabets when
> they  read Malayalam wikipedia using a speech synthesizing software called
> eSpeak . His phone call was surprise to us
> since Malayalam wikimedians were not aware that visually challenged people
> are using Malayalam wikipedia. (We were aware about the existence of a
> software by Santhosh (named Dhawni ) to
> read unicode Malayalam (and other Indic languages also) which is in its
> early stages of development). So Satyasheelan's call was surprising.
>
> After his phone call few Malayalam wikipedians (Junaid, Thachan Makan, and
> I) contacted Jonathan Duddington , the
> primary developer (?) of eSpeak, and we worked with him to fix the issues
> for Malayalam that Satyasheelan had pointed out. Jonathan  fixed the issues
> pretty fast and later Satyasheelan informed us that now they are able to use
> Malayalam wikipedia without any issues.
>
> Later while we were planning for the 4th Malayalam wiki 
> meetup(2011
>  July 11) at Kannur, we decided to invite Satyasheelan to conduct a
> session, since Malayalam wikimedians liked to hear the experience of
> students of Blind school (using Malayalam wikipedia). But when Satyasheelan
> came for the meetup we were surprised and taken aback when we learnt that
> Satyasheelan is also a visually challenged person. Few of the his colleagues
> (who are also visually challenged) also attended the meetup. Satyasheelan
> was accompanied by his son, Nalin.
>
> The meetup was attended by more than 80 Malayalam wikipedians. Few photos
> are available 
> here.
> We are happy that Bishaka, Hisham, and Tory were kind enough to join us for
> this meetup. There were various programs conducted as part of this meetup
> (the report of the meetup is available at various locations (in Malayalam)).
> Definitely the highlight of the meetup was the demonstration by
> Satyasheelaman. So this mail is about that.
>
> Malayalam wikimedian Ajay Kuyiloor took extra efforts to record
> Satyasheelan's session. We are sharing an edited version of this session
> assuming that this information will help other Indic language wiki
> communities.
>
> The video of Satyasheelan's session is available here: *
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr1T3HeBTvU* The duration of the video is
> around 9 minutes. We specially thank Ajay Kuyiloor, Girish Mohan, and Jithin
> who worked on this video. We admit the low quality of video since we were
> not prepared for such a session. Inconvenience due to this is deeply
> regretted.
>
> Malayalam community is welcoming your comments regarding this story so that
> the discussion regarding this will benefit rest of the Indic wiki
> communities also. We are actually humbled by the fact that work we do in
> wikipedia is reaching out to people from all wakes of life.
>
> *NOTE:* Satyasheelan specially thanked Malayalam wikimedians for creating a
> special navigational 
> templatefor
>  reaching out easily to wikipedia articles. I still remember in 2008 when
> Malayalam wikipedia user:Sadhik Khalid
> created
> this template, some of us had doubted the need of such a template. Our doubt
> was, why such a template is required when users can reach out to articles
> easily using serach box. Now to

[Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] : DNA : Sahitya Parishad to add more Gujarati pages on Wikipedia

[CherianTinu Abraham]

*DNA : Sahitya Parishad to add more Gujarati pages on Wikipedia*
*
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_sahitya-parishad-to-add-more-gujarati-pages-on-wikipedia_1578522

*

*Gujarati Sahitya Parishad is planning to add more Gujarati pages on
Wikipedia. The 100-year-old institution will also correct facts related to
Gujarati literature on the site. This was discussed at a discussion
organised by the literary institution on the issue of Gujarati language,
Wikipedia and internet on Sunday. Veteran Gujarati littérateurs like Ratilal
Borisagar and Ramalal Soni discussed the authenticity of information posted
on Wikipedia. *
*Secretary of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, Rajendra Patel said, “If we want to
pass on a rich legacy of Gujarati language to next generation of Gujaratis,
we must use the technology and medium of expression available. Of course, we
should check the authenticity of the facts and information posted on the
net. Gujarati Parishad is posting Gujarati literature on Wikipedia and as an
institution, we would like to check the information available on the site.”*
*
*
*Dhaval Vyas, a UK-based member of Gujarati Wikipedia, who works in a
multinational bank, said, “It is the characteristic of Wikipedia that
anybody can add, edit or remove information. Of course, there will be people
who may distort the content.”*
*
*
*He further said, “The issue of authenticity of the content put on Wikipedia
can be taken care of if more and more people start uploading information and
verify the content.”*
*
*
*Vyas also argued that while there are millions of pages in English, there
are only 21,000 pages in Gujarati available on Gujarati Wikipedia. He also
talked about Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wikitionary and stressed for creating
more information pages on Wiki.*

Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Aug_2011
___
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Visually challenged people and Indic language wikipedias - Video

[Rajesh Pandey]

Very touching ..
Its awesome and great work and Its great to know that  Satyasheelan has been
acknowledged for his efforts.

Yet another great and inspiring work by Wikipedians :)

On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 5:12 PM, Surya Prakash wrote:

> The only word I said after reading this was "WOW!"
>
> I appreciate Mr. Satyasheelan's efforts. In Tamil Nadu also, few (very few)
> schools are using Tamil Wikipedia. (for usual children)
>
> Thank you Alex for sharing this story. :)
>
> *$U®¥∩*
> http://goo.gl/RoMyo.com 
> http://about.me/suryaceg
>
>
>
> 2011/8/22 Shiju Alex 
>
>> Dear Wikimedians
>>
>> I would like share an unusual story (unusual - especially for Indic
>> language wiki communities) that Malayalam wiki community had faced few
>> months back.
>>
>> In the month of February 2011, I had received an SOS call from a school
>> teacher (Satyasheelan) who is teaching at the Government School for the
>> Blind in the Kasargod 
>> district
>> of Kerala. Satyasheelan was seeking Malayalam wikipedian's support to fix
>> few issues that he and his students faced with few Malayalam alphabets when
>> they  read Malayalam wikipedia using a speech synthesizing software called
>> eSpeak . His phone call was surprise to
>> us since Malayalam wikimedians were not aware that visually challenged
>> people are using Malayalam wikipedia. (We were aware about the existence of
>> a software by Santhosh (named Dhawni ) to
>> read unicode Malayalam (and other Indic languages also) which is in its
>> early stages of development). So Satyasheelan's call was surprising.
>>
>> After his phone call few Malayalam wikipedians (Junaid, Thachan Makan, and
>> I) contacted Jonathan Duddington ,
>> the primary developer (?) of eSpeak, and we worked with him to fix the
>> issues for Malayalam that Satyasheelan had pointed out. Jonathan  fixed the
>> issues pretty fast and later Satyasheelan informed us that now they are able
>> to use Malayalam wikipedia without any issues.
>>
>> Later while we were planning for the 4th Malayalam wiki 
>> meetup(2011
>>  July 11) at Kannur, we decided to invite Satyasheelan to conduct a
>> session, since Malayalam wikimedians liked to hear the experience of
>> students of Blind school (using Malayalam wikipedia). But when Satyasheelan
>> came for the meetup we were surprised and taken aback when we learnt that
>> Satyasheelan is also a visually challenged person. Few of the his colleagues
>> (who are also visually challenged) also attended the meetup. Satyasheelan
>> was accompanied by his son, Nalin.
>>
>> The meetup was attended by more than 80 Malayalam wikipedians. Few photos
>> are available 
>> here.
>> We are happy that Bishaka, Hisham, and Tory were kind enough to join us for
>> this meetup. There were various programs conducted as part of this meetup
>> (the report of the meetup is available at various locations (in Malayalam)).
>> Definitely the highlight of the meetup was the demonstration by
>> Satyasheelaman. So this mail is about that.
>>
>> Malayalam wikimedian Ajay Kuyiloor took extra efforts to record
>> Satyasheelan's session. We are sharing an edited version of this session
>> assuming that this information will help other Indic language wiki
>> communities.
>>
>> The video of Satyasheelan's session is available here: *
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr1T3HeBTvU* The duration of the video is
>> around 9 minutes. We specially thank Ajay Kuyiloor, Girish Mohan, and Jithin
>> who worked on this video. We admit the low quality of video since we were
>> not prepared for such a session. Inconvenience due to this is deeply
>> regretted.
>>
>> Malayalam community is welcoming your comments regarding this story so
>> that the discussion regarding this will benefit rest of the Indic wiki
>> communities also. We are actually humbled by the fact that work we do in
>> wikipedia is reaching out to people from all wakes of life.
>>
>> *NOTE:* Satyasheelan specially thanked Malayalam wikimedians for creating
>> a special navigational 
>> templatefor
>>  reaching out easily to wikipedia articles. I still remember in 2008 when
>> Malayalam wikipedia user:Sadhik Khalid
>>