Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Resignation of Noopur Raval from WMIN

[Anivar Aravind]

Can you share  the reason as well?

On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 5:36 PM, Yohann Thomas  wrote:

> Hello one and all,
>
> Mrs Noopur Raval who had recently got elected to the Wikimedia India
> Chapter has resigned from the Executive Committee.
>
> WMIN thanks her for all her time & energy which she has committed to the
> organization & Wishes her all the best for her professional life.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Yohann Thomas
>
> President, Wikimedia India
>
>
> --
> Disclaimer: The Wikimedia India Chapter (WMIN) is an autonomous entity
> with no direct control over the Wikipedia project and other websites hosted
> by the Wikimedia Foundation, USA.
>
> This mail is sent to the members of the Chapter as part of the official
> communications between the Chapter, its Executive Committee and the members.
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "wmin-members" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to wmin-members+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/wmin-members.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wmin-members/CAGJ8y3MH_oXmoYCned4p5OT4ND%2Bo%2BFV%3D_NVyvVA4%2BWVPJqCSCA%40mail.gmail.com
> 
> .
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Community Participation Support at Swatantra 2014

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear all

If anyone planning to attend , come 2 days prior  to attend SMC's 13th year
celebration and Annual Language Technology conference .
it is happening in Thiruvananthapuram itself on 16, 17 th . Swatantra is on
18-20
http://smc13.doattend.com/ have free passes.

~ regards
Anivar


On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 10:22 PM, రహ్మానుద్దీన్ షేక్ 
wrote:

> Dear Wikimedians,
>
> ICFOSS, Govt of Kerala in collaboration with FSF-India, CIS, SFLC.in,
> Swatantra Malayalam Computing and other like minded organisations is
> celebrating Swtantra-2014, fifth international free software confrence of
> Kerala. This is scheduled during 18-20 December 2014 at Thiruvananthapuram.
> More details about the event can be seen at : http://icfoss.in/fs2014/ .
>
> CIS-A2K will be providing limited travel and stay scholarships to
> interested Wikimedians from various language communities to attend this
> event and benefit from it. Upto 10 scholarships are available for
> Wikimiedians applying from Kerala. Upto 3 scholarships will be considered
> from other Indic Wikimedians and India based English Wikipedians. If you
> are interested please register your name here on Meta
> 
> .
>
> *Eligibility*: You should have been a Wikimedian with a minimum of 200
> edits on Wikimedia projects as on June 1, 2014.
>
> *Important dates*: Nominate yourself by *December 8*, 2014 (many
> apologies for this delay and short notice). We will confirm support by
> December 9, 2014.
>
> *Travel & Stay information*: (applicable only once the support is
> confirmed)
>
>   * Low fare flight costs will be considered if your travel by bus/train
> is more than 24 hours to Thiruvananthapuram.
>   * Stay in budget hotels, preferably on twin sharing basis.
>   * All costs of the selected Wikimedians will be reimbursed on actual
> basis upon submission of original bills to CIS Office in Bangalore within
> 10 days of receipt.
>   * It is essential to submit boarding passes along with tickets if you
> travel by a flight.
>   * CIS could help book flight tickets upon request. Those interested to
> avail this support need to fill a form that we will circulate
>
> *Queries and correspondence*:
>
>   * For all queries, please write to rahim{at}cis-india.org and vishnu{at}
> cis-india.org
>
> *Expectations from selected Wikimedians*:
>
>   * Please see if you could utilize this opportunity to find solutions to
> some of the technical/other problems your community may be facing.
>   * Do consider giving back the learning to your respective communities.
>   * We would appreciate if you could share your experience and learning
> publicly. CIS-A2K will be happy to publish your write-up on our blog
>
> If you know of a Wikimedian in your community who could benefit from this
> event and also could bring back learning to benefit your community, please
> encourage them to apply.
>
> Thank you
> Rahmanuddin Shaik
> Program Officer
> CIS-A2K
>
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[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: WMIN Elections 2014 - Results

[Anivar Aravind]

FYI

-- Forwarded message --
From: Anivar Aravind 
Date: Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 12:02 AM
Subject: WMIN Elections 2014 - Results
To: Wikimedia Members List 


Dear Members,

We completed the election process for Wikimedia India Chapter Executive
Committee (EC) Elections for year 2014 in today's Annual General Body
Meeting. We are happy to announce the results of the Election.

http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Results
 Total Open Positions  : 6 Total Eligible Voters  : 116 Total Candidates  :
13 Total Ballots Received : 65 (58 by Post and 8 by hand) , (53.03% Polling
) Total Valid Votes  : 65

*Candidate- Votes polled*

   - Dr. Abhiraj Suryawanshi
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Dr._Abhiraj_Suryawanshi>
:
   32
   - Priyanka Tiwari
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Priyanka_Tiwari>  :
   32
   - Yohann Varun Thomas
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Yohann_Thomas>  : 32
   - Dr. Ekbal Bappukunju
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Dr._Ekbal_Bappukunju>
: 30
   - Sanket Oswal
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Sanket_Oswal>  : 29
   - Nikhil Kawale
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Nikhil_Kawale>  : 28
   - Netha Hussain
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Netha_Hussain>  : 26
   - Karthik Nadar
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Karthik_Nadar>  : 25
   - Yogesh Khandke
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Yogesh_Khandke>  :
   25
   - Sibi Kanagaraj
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Sibi_Kanagaraj>  :
   24
   - Viswanathan Prabhakaran
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Viswanathan_Prabhakaran>
: 24
   - Hiran Venugopalan
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Hiran_Venugopalan>
: 23
   - Dr. Mahesh Mangalat
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Dr._Mahesh_Mangalat>
: 22


Hence, following candidates are declared as elected to EC for the six
vacant positions for term 2014-2016.

   - Dr. Abhiraj Suryawanshi
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Dr._Abhiraj_Suryawanshi>
:
   32
   - Priyanka Tiwari
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Priyanka_Tiwari>  :
   32
   - Yohann Varun Thomas
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Yohann_Thomas>  : 32
   - Dr. Ekbal Bappukunju
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Dr._Ekbal_Bappukunju>
: 30
   - Sanket Oswal
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Sanket_Oswal>  : 29
   - Nikhil Kawale
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Nikhil_Kawale>  : 28

We congratulate the elected candidates . We thank EC, all the candidates
and members for active participation in the Election process.

We thank the outgoing Executive Committee members for all their
contributions. We wish the new EC all the best for growing the movement and
the chapter in future.

Sincerely,
Anivar Aravind (Returning Officer) D.B Srinivas Rao (Polling Officer) Pavithra
H (Polling Officer) Election Committee for EC Elections-2014 Wikimedia
India Chapter
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Fwd: Grossly Obscene pornographic images on WIKIMEDIA.IN

[Anivar Aravind]

On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 2:42 PM, 'Yogesh Khandke' via wmin-members <
wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

> As regards to "Same with Elecom.
> We are volunteers for conducting election process,
> We depends on legal advice from WMIN . So get in touch with WMIN office
> for any more clarification  "
>
> You said there is a rule that debars participation of the community, I
> request you to provide evidence, I don't understand why that is so
> difficult.
>

I pointed chapter MoA and asked you to read that .
All needed documents are public and  linked at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014
Read that and if you think it is not correct,  point the the provision to
open election process to non members of a society . As a volunteer body for
conducting elections, we depends upon legal opinion from WMIN in this
regard as official . You can check the same with WMIN if needed .
If you have any more questions ask it in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Elections2014 page.
This is my last response here .

Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Fwd: Grossly Obscene pornographic images on WIKIMEDIA.IN

[Anivar Aravind]

On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 8:31 AM, 'Yogesh Khandke' via wmin-members <
wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

> I will, but please answer my last question.
>

Yogesh , read it and that have answer to your question :-)
Or get in touch with WMIN  as Ravi informed .



> Also to my understanding as an analogy those who stand for election
> election as MPs etc. aren't constitutional experts and legal luminaries?
>

Same with Elecom.
We are volunteers for conducting election process,
We depends on legal advice from WMIN . So get in touch with WMIN office for
any more clarification

~ Regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Fwd: Grossly Obscene pornographic images on WIKIMEDIA.IN

[Anivar Aravind]

On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 7:33 AM, 'Yogesh Khandke' via wmin-members <
wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

> Please share exact clause.
>

As a potential candidate , I request you to read  chapter registration
documents and understand what Wikimedia Chapter is and what it is not
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/images/2/20/ChapterRegDocsEnglish.pdf

Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Fwd: Grossly Obscene pornographic images on WIKIMEDIA.IN

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 11:54 PM, Dhaval S. Vyas  wrote:

> This is little strange, I can understand that voting and nominations are
> members only regime but why the community is not allowed to participate
> even in Q&A is not clear to me.
>
> If it is so, there should be no wiki page or onwiki discussion, or login
> process on wikimedia.in should be membership number based.
>
>
As you all know, we at WMIN Elecom initially thought about opening it for
all . But  a member  informed us non-members of a society must not
interfere with its election process and opening Q&A with candidates to non
members is a violation of this . We asked WMIN to cross check it and as per
the advice we received  we restricted the privilege for asking questions to
members alone . But the pages will remain open for observing the election
process for community .

It is documented here
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Elections2014#Communications_with_EC_and_Mailing_Lists_about_New_Account_Creation_Blocking

If any community members interested in chapter affairs ,  take a membership
and participate in next year elections

Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Fwd: Grossly Obscene pornographic images on WIKIMEDIA.IN

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear Srikanth,

This is just trash . Ignore it .
Engagement with WMIN Election process is limited to Chapter members  and
mentioning membership No is mandatory for Q&A page . As per Elecom informed
, non members cannot be allowed to engage with Election process. It is
mentioned clearly in the page.
Any questions without membership no will be reverted .

~ regards
Anivar


On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 11:31 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan <
rsrikant...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I've got this mail six times in bcc.
> Please look into it.
> Any more mails of this nature will go into my trash bin.
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: "IAC techs" 
> Date: 05-Nov-2014 10:50 pm
> Subject: Grossly Obscene pornographic images on WIKIMEDIA.IN
> To: , 
> Cc:
>
> REBLOGGED BY iacte...@gmail.com on behalf of India Against
> Corruption's members who are users / editors of Wikipedia community
>
> This is a protest circulated against the strange decision by Anivar
> Aravind to hastily close the Q&A session for candidates after IAC
> poses uncomfortable queries from the "community"
>
> To: nethahuss...@gmail.com,  and other candidates and WMIN members.
>
> We notice that you are a member of the WIKIMEDIA.IN website and
> actively promoting LGBT issues there including for your election
> campaign.
>
> We suppose you know that at the present time "carnal intercourse
> against the order of nature" is against India's laws, and distributing
> grossly obscene / pornographic images of it via WIKIMEDIA.IN is a
> serious criminal offence which IAC has reported to the concerned
> agencies and is seriously prosecuting. IAC is also monitoring
> WIKIMEDIA.IN to assist law enforcement agencies.
>
> This email is being sent to you as the illegally appointed returning
> officer Anivar Aravind has deleted IAC's query for all candidates for
> the WMIN EC vacancies (which was publicly posted to WIKIMEDIA.IN by
> one of IAC's volunteers as a member of the "community").
>
> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Q%26A
>
>
> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/index.php?title=Elections2014%2FNominations%2FQ%26A&action=historysubmit&diff=35158&oldid=35146
>
> PS: And another editor was banned from WIKIMEDIA.IN for asking queries
> on racism and discrimination against Indians at WIKIPEDIA, again by
> Anivar who also refuses to publish the non-existent Karnataka Society
> Rule 1961 to prevent community members posing queries (which actual
> official rules can be accessed here)
>
> https://www.karnataka.gov.in/karigr/actsrules/karnatakasocietiesact.htm
>
> from which it is abundantly clear that you are ineligible to contest
> elections and Anivar cannot conduct it.
>
> --
> Disclaimer: The Wikimedia India Chapter (WMIN) is an autonomous entity
> with no direct control over the Wikipedia project and other websites hosted
> by the Wikimedia Foundation, USA.
>
> This mail is sent to the members of the Chapter as part of the official
> communications between the Chapter, its Director Board and the members.
> ---
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> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wmin-members.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
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> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wmin-members/CANCd7zYeXmF1kcVt2VG2CKX%3DEihm5A_R5G1gWpGt2uSm4PTS1Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] [WMIN Elections 2014] Final Slate of Candidates

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear members,

I am once again reminding all member edits without mentioning membership
No. on Q&A page will be reverted .

~ regards
Anivar

On Sun, Nov 2, 2014 at 4:01 PM, sibi kanagaraj 
wrote:

> Dear Elecom ,
>
> A new question has been added . But , the fellow wikipedian has not done
> it via "New question" section . Instead it has been added under the
> question of Arun .
>
> Please take a note of it .
>
> -Sibi
>
> On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Anivar Aravind  > wrote:
>
>> Dear WMIN Members and Wikimedia Community,
>>
>> As there were no withdrawals, the draft slate is confirmed as the final
>> slate.
>> We have 13 candidates .
>> You can find profiles at a glance at
>> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/ProfilesAtAGlance
>>
>> We are in working in coordination with Sowmyan to send postal ballots as
>> early as possible
>> This will be dispatched by Nov 1st .
>>
>> Public Question and Answer page with candidates is now Open
>> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Q%26A
>> We request wikimedia community , members and candidates to make use of
>> this page
>> The suggested time line for adding questions is Nov 10, 2014 and the
>> discussions is Nov 15, 2014
>>
>> For Elecom
>> Anivar Aravind
>> Returning Officer
>> WMIN Elections 2014
>>
>>
>>
>>  --
>> Disclaimer: The Wikimedia India Chapter (WMIN) is an autonomous entity
>> with no direct control over the Wikipedia project and other websites hosted
>> by the Wikimedia Foundation, USA.
>>
>> This mail is sent to the members of the Chapter as part of the official
>> communications between the Chapter, its Director Board and the members.
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "wmin-members" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
>> email to wmin-members+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
>> To post to this group, send email to wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com.
>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wmin-members.
>> To view this discussion on the web visit
>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wmin-members/CA%2BnuCJbbZK%3DHHmMeLahfMXf7UWJPo%3Dq4AjcwvMV%3DiTP73EPw7Q%40mail.gmail.com
>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wmin-members/CA%2BnuCJbbZK%3DHHmMeLahfMXf7UWJPo%3Dq4AjcwvMV%3DiTP73EPw7Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
>> .
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>
>  --
> Disclaimer: The Wikimedia India Chapter (WMIN) is an autonomous entity
> with no direct control over the Wikipedia project and other websites hosted
> by the Wikimedia Foundation, USA.
>
> This mail is sent to the members of the Chapter as part of the official
> communications between the Chapter, its Director Board and the members.
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "wmin-members" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to wmin-members+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wmin-members.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
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> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wmin-members/CADoCDcuudkc3nSLYKzdQ6JzX3ac7yC3NM996%3DgPezTor_sHUTQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
>
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] (Announcement) Recruitment of Programme Officer, CIS-A2K

[Anivar Aravind]

Just a correction

On Sat, Nov 1, 2014 at 6:48 PM, Anivar Aravind 
wrote:

> Just a comment . "free knowledge" or "free and open knowledge" are the
> usual terms used by wmf and movement in general . the term open knowledge
> movement may be misleading because it is the current legal name of open
> knowledge foundation.
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Knowledge
>
> OKF or okfn.org have an Indian consultant and plans to set up an india
> office soon.
>
> Anivar
>  On 01-Nov-2014 3:20 pm, "Vishnu"  wrote:
>
>>  Dear Wikimedians,
>>
>> Sorry for cross-posting.
>>
>> The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is seeking applications for the
>> post of Programme Officer (Institutional Partnerships) for its Access to
>> Knowledge (A2K) Programme. The position will be based in its Bangalore
>> office. Programme Officer will collaboratively work with the A2K Team and
>> would report to the Programme Director, Access to Knowledge at CIS.
>>
>> Position Summary:
>>
>> As Programme Officer (Institutional Partnerships) your job will be to
>> collaborate with institutions especially in the higher education sector to
>> drive and support the growth of open knowledge movement in India and Indian
>> language Wikipedias and its sister projects. Your primary responsibility
>> will be to assimilate the work started by CIS-A2K through various
>> institutional partnerships during the last 15 months. You are also expected
>> to research, design and implement different pilot projects with an aim to
>> create high quality content and cultivate new editors on different language
>> Wikipedias in a time bound manner.
>>
>> In addition to this you will be anchoring the development and growth of
>> at least one Indian language Wikipedia and its sister projects. You are
>> encouraged to deeply engage with the CIS-A2K Work Plan before making the
>> application.
>>
>> You will work cohesively with the Wikimedia community, the Wikimedia
>> India Chapter, the Wikimedia Foundation and like-minded institutions to
>> meet specific goals of each language Wikimedia community in India. You will
>> be a part of a small team of 5 to 6 doing high visibility and high impact
>> work. You should be open to work in a highly transparent and accountable
>> environment.
>>
>> For more details see this link [1]. The last date of submitting
>> applications is November 14, 2014.
>>
>> Best,
>> Vishnu
>> CIS-A2K
>>
>> [1] http://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-institutional-partnership
>>
>>
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] (Announcement) Recruitment of Programme Officer, CIS-A2K

[Anivar Aravind]

Just a comment . "free knowledge" or "free and open knowledge" are the
usual terms used by wmf and movement in general . the term open knowledge
movement may be misleading because it is the current legal name of open
knowledge foundation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Knowledge

OKF or okfn.org have an Indian office and plans to set up an india office
soon.

Anivar
 On 01-Nov-2014 3:20 pm, "Vishnu"  wrote:

>  Dear Wikimedians,
>
> Sorry for cross-posting.
>
> The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is seeking applications for the
> post of Programme Officer (Institutional Partnerships) for its Access to
> Knowledge (A2K) Programme. The position will be based in its Bangalore
> office. Programme Officer will collaboratively work with the A2K Team and
> would report to the Programme Director, Access to Knowledge at CIS.
>
> Position Summary:
>
> As Programme Officer (Institutional Partnerships) your job will be to
> collaborate with institutions especially in the higher education sector to
> drive and support the growth of open knowledge movement in India and Indian
> language Wikipedias and its sister projects. Your primary responsibility
> will be to assimilate the work started by CIS-A2K through various
> institutional partnerships during the last 15 months. You are also expected
> to research, design and implement different pilot projects with an aim to
> create high quality content and cultivate new editors on different language
> Wikipedias in a time bound manner.
>
> In addition to this you will be anchoring the development and growth of at
> least one Indian language Wikipedia and its sister projects. You are
> encouraged to deeply engage with the CIS-A2K Work Plan before making the
> application.
>
> You will work cohesively with the Wikimedia community, the Wikimedia India
> Chapter, the Wikimedia Foundation and like-minded institutions to meet
> specific goals of each language Wikimedia community in India. You will be a
> part of a small team of 5 to 6 doing high visibility and high impact work.
> You should be open to work in a highly transparent and accountable
> environment.
>
> For more details see this link [1]. The last date of submitting
> applications is November 14, 2014.
>
> Best,
> Vishnu
> CIS-A2K
>
> [1] http://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-institutional-partnership
>
>
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Re: [WMIN Elections 2014] Final Slate of Candidates

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear Ravi,

Thanks for the response . We wrote to EC and jayanta responded .
all communication with EC is documented here

http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Elections2014#Communications_with_EC_and_Mailing_Lists_about_New_Account_Creation_Blocking

Quoting from our last response

Technical incapability to handle spam is not a valid reason for preventing
user account creation and it is affecting election process. So from Elecom
we strongly demand to enable account creation again

If you want to block membership creation on chapter wiki do it after the
public discussion period . ie after Nov 15th as per current Q&A Shedule

Nobody in usual use cases are going to write to an email for creating an
account . Those will stay away from participating in process . I hope EC
will reconsider and lift the ban soon.

~ regards
Anivar Aravind


On Fri, Oct 31, 2014 at 3:09 PM, Ravishankar Ayyakkannu <
ravidre...@wikimedia.in> wrote:

> Anivar,
>
> I merely informed about the situation.
>
> This is a technical decision taken by the chapter member who is
> volunteering for spam control. Both EC and I saw the merit in this decision
> as spam was going out of control.
>
> Please note that only direct on wiki registration by the user has been
> disabled.
>
> A new user account can still be created if anyone drops a mail to
> members...@wikimedia.in
>
> So far, we haven't received any request to create a new user account.
>
> Any such request will be immediately taken care of.
>
> Chapter wiki new user account creation is open to public and not limited
> to chapter members alone.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ravi
>
> --
> Disclaimer: The Wikimedia India Chapter (WMIN) is an autonomous entity
> with no direct control over the Wikipedia project and other websites hosted
> by the Wikimedia Foundation, USA.
>
> This mail is sent to the members of the Chapter as part of the official
> communications between the Chapter, its Director Board and the members.
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "wmin-members" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to wmin-members+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wmin-members.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wmin-members/CANY2_jDdmuBEHg0sb4mKdUcp1r6fsMaO%2B3h0SPu_AkctM2TOVw%40mail.gmail.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wmin-members/CANY2_jDdmuBEHg0sb4mKdUcp1r6fsMaO%2B3h0SPu_AkctM2TOVw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
>
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN Elections 2014] Final Slate of Candidates

[Anivar Aravind]

Ravi,

Still New user account creation has been disabled temporarily. Contact
membership at wikimedia dot in if you need one.

please remove this restriction till election is over .

*WMIN wiki is a public wiki and not a members wiki . Most of our members
does not have a chapter wiki account  This restriction is affecting
election Q&A *participation

Election Q& A is initiated in larger interest of the movement and not for
members alone

~ regards
Anivar



On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 9:54 PM, Anivar Aravind 
wrote:

> Just noticed Ravi put up a sitenotice on  WMIN wiki have a sitenotice
> mentioning "New user account creation has been disabled temporarily.
> Contact membership at wikimedia dot in if you need one."
>
> Please re-enable this  because Q&A with candidates is going on
> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Q%26A
>
> Also requesting to put up a sitenotice with Q&A Page link
>
> Anivar
>
> On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Anivar Aravind  > wrote:
>
>> Dear WMIN Members and Wikimedia Community,
>>
>> As there were no withdrawals, the draft slate is confirmed as the final
>> slate.
>> We have 13 candidates .
>> You can find profiles at a glance at
>> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/ProfilesAtAGlance
>>
>> We are in working in coordination with Sowmyan to send postal ballots as
>> early as possible
>> This will be dispatched by Nov 1st .
>>
>> Public Question and Answer page with candidates is now Open
>> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Q%26A
>> We request wikimedia community , members and candidates to make use of
>> this page
>> The suggested time line for adding questions is Nov 10, 2014 and the
>> discussions is Nov 15, 2014
>>
>> For Elecom
>> Anivar Aravind
>> Returning Officer
>> WMIN Elections 2014
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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[Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN Elections 2014] Final Slate of Candidates

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear WMIN Members and Wikimedia Community,

As there were no withdrawals, the draft slate is confirmed as the final
slate.
We have 13 candidates .
You can find profiles at a glance at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/ProfilesAtAGlance

We are in working in coordination with Sowmyan to send postal ballots as
early as possible
This will be dispatched by Nov 1st .

Public Question and Answer page with candidates is now Open
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Q%26A
We request wikimedia community , members and candidates to make use of this
page
The suggested time line for adding questions is Nov 10, 2014 and the
discussions is Nov 15, 2014

For Elecom
Anivar Aravind
Returning Officer
WMIN Elections 2014
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[Wikimediaindia-l] Chapter SIG Nominations and WMIN Elections

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear WMIN Members and Candidates,

Happy to see the discussions on reactivating SIGs
Since election date is already announced and candidate nominations are
already in place , I have a personal request for all candidates to refrain
from SIG nominations till elections as a fair practice.

I am saying this because of noticing GLAM hair nomination  and seconding of
Arun by 2 candidates ie . Viswaprabha  and Netha Hussain.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/SIG_Nominations/GLAM2014
Netha also expressed interest in nominating someone from woman members for
Gender gap chair in another thread

Even though these actions are best in best interest of the movement, it
will be better if candidates not nominating members to SIG positions at
this point of time ,

Even though WMIN does not have any guideline or rule about this in election
process , such moratoriums exist in real world elections once election is
announced to prevent win trading . I am not saying Win trading is happening
here . But it will be good if each candidate refrain from such situations
till 23rd , till election process is over .  I dont have any objections for
members other than candidates participating in SIG nominations


~ regards
Anivar Aravind
As an WMIN Member
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[Wikimediaindia-l] New handwriting style font for Malayalam: Chilanka

[Anivar Aravind]

Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (SMC) Announcing alpha release of new
handwriting style free licensed font for Malayalam . The font is named as
"Chilanka"(ചിലങ്ക).

Technical Details
http://blog.smc.org.in/new-handwriting-style-font-for-malayalam-chilanka/

Malayalam Announcement
http://blog.smc.org.in/chilanka-font/

You can test it at http://smc.org.in/downloads/fonts/chilanka/tests/


   - Design: Santhosh Thottingal
   - Technology: Santhosh Thottingal and Kavya Manohar
   - Total number of glyphs: 676. Includes basic latin glyphs.



~ regards
Anivar Aravind
Swathanthra Malayalam Computing
http://smc.org.in
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[Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN Elections2014] Draft Slate of Candidates and Withdrawal Deadline

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear Members and supporters

We are happy to see the raising interest in WMIN functioning and election
process.  We have received 14 Nominations for 6 vacant positions in EC . 26
people 122 members directly participated in the process so far by proposing
, seconding or accepting  candidate nominations.

Received Nominations are listed at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations#Nominations_Initiated


Elecom minutes are available at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Elections2014#Verification_and_Approval_of_candidates

Elecom observes following points after verifying 14 applications. No
applications received by Post . Election Committee deliberated the
nominations and clarified the information on the nomination forms with the
Chapter.

   - Aishwarya Shendage
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Aishwarya_Shendage>
   - not seconded and form is not complete. This is a disqualification as per
   rule C 2. *Elecom Decision*: Disqualified
   - Edits on Sanket Oswal
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Sanket_Oswal>'s
   nomination 14 hour after nomination deadline . *Elecom decision* :
   Rolled back edit after deadline
   -  Karthik Nadar
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Karthik_Nadar>'s
   nomination is seconded by 2 people . But Balasubramanian Jeyaraman(INDI
   -293) is not part of Electoral roll. *Elecom decision*: Striked invalid
   seconding .
   - Sibi Kanagaraj
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Sibi_Kanagaraj>'s
   seconder Balasundara Raman Lakshmanan signed with name sundar . *Elecom
   decision*: Corrected it as per membership records
   - None of the candidates have serve two consecutive terms.
   - None of the people had more than 4 nomination+proposal+seconding.
   (This can not be more than the number of vacancies, 6 in the present
   situation. Rule C2).
   - All nominated people, proposers, and seconders are eligible members
   who can vote.

*Summary: 13 Nominations are accepted.Approved candidate nominations are
following *

   1. Dr. Abhiraj Suryawanshi
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Dr._Abhiraj_Suryawanshi>
   (Proposer: Yohann Thomas, Seconded by: Sanket Oswal)
   2. Dr. Ekbal Bappukunju
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Dr._Ekbal_Bappukunju>
   (Proposer: Sreejith Koiloth, Seconded by: Manoj K)
   3. Dr. Mahesh Mangalat
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Dr._Mahesh_Mangalat>
   (Proposer: Dr.Ranjit kumar.P , Seconded by: Hrishikesh K B)
   4. Hiran Venugopalan
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/HiranVenugopalan>
   (Proposer: Nandaja Varma, Seconded by: Sebin Abraham Jacob)
   5. Karthik Nadar
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Karthik_Nadar>
   (Proposer: Viswanathan Prabhakaran, Seconded by: Srikanth Ramakrishnan)
   6. Netha Hussain
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Netha_Hussain>
   (Proposer: Viswanathan Prabhakaran, Seconded by: Prasobh G Sreedhar)
   7. Nikhil Kawale
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Nikhil_Kawale>
   (Proposer: Yohann Thomas, Seconded by: Priyanka Tiwari)
   8. Priyanka Tiwari
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Priyanka_Tiwari>
   (Proposer: Sandra Thomas, Seconded by: Ninad Tarambale)
   9. Sanket Oswal
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Sanket_Oswal>
   (Proposer: Yohann Thomas, Seconded by: Nikhil Kawale)
   10. Sibi Kanagaraj
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Sibi_Kanagaraj>
   (Proposer: Karthik Nadar, Seconded by: Balasundara Raman Lakshmanan)
   11. Viswanathan Prabhakaran
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Viswanathan_Prabhakaran>
   (Proposer: Netha Hussain, Seconded by: Kalyan Sarkar)
   12. Yohann Thomas
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Yohann_Thomas>
   (Proposer: Nikhil Kawale, Seconded by: Sanket Oswal)
   13. Yogesh Khandke
   <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations/Yogesh_Khandke>
   (Proposer: Karthik Nadar , Seconded by: Srikanth Ramakrishnan)

*Last date for withdrawal of candidature is 29 Oct 2014, 2359 hrs IST. **Any
candidate withdrawing candidature may express the same on
Talk:Elections2014/Nominations
<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Elections2014/Nominations> and wikisign
before due date. *


Signed by Elecom members

   1. --Anivar Aravind <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/User:AniVar> 13:42, 26
   October 2014 (IST)
   2. --Pavithra <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/User:Pavithra> 15:01, 26 October
   2014 (IST)
   3. --D B Srinivas Rao <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/User:Dbsr> 18:18, 26
   October 2014 (IST)
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Re: [9PM IST : #wikimedia-in] WMIN Elections 2014: Election update and First IRC remainder

[Anivar Aravind]

On Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 4:54 PM, Arun  wrote:


> Dear Anivar and members,
>
> I took the liberty of sprucing up the election page. (since yesterday)
> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014
>
> Added link for procedural documents
> Added a status table for Election progress
> Template for Elections 2014 created with a ready reckoner for Election
> related pages
> Grouped all pages by the Category Elections 2014:
> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Category:Elections_2014
>
>  In addition to the above:
>
> Organized past election pages for reference and suitable reuse of
> practices.
> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Category:Elections_2013
> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Category:Elections_2012
> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Category:Elections_2011
>
> Hope you find this useful to track the election process better and stay
> informed.
>
> Thanks to the EC and the Election committee for doing an excellent job
> thus far.
>
> It is also great to see 14 candidate nominations for the 6 EC roles.
> Request all members to participate actively in the Election process.
>

Happy to  see the raising interest on Election 2014 pages .
Thanks for look and feel and information Arun . (I thanked earlier in wiki
as well)
We need more volunteers like you to keep Information organized.
If anyone else is interested in helping Elecom pages organized please talk
to us at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Elections2014

We will soon need a good template for listing "Profiles at a Glance" and
for "Q&A With Candidates"

Yes we are going to have a long candidate list :-)

Elecom will announce verified list within next few hours after the pending
approval signatures from all members .

~ regards
Anivar
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[Wikimediaindia-l] [Today:11.59PM] WMIN Elections2014 : Candidate nomination deadline reminder

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear WMIN members and supporters ,

Hope many of you will be following WMIN Elections 2014 process. Candidate
nomination deadline for WMIN  elections is today 11:59PM . As of now we can
see 12 Nominations initiated as per
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations page .

If any more people want to submit nominations please do it today itself
before the deadline . If your nomination is already initiated, please make
sure that all  mandatory fields such as membership no  candidate profile ,
position statement , proposer seconder etc are duly filled and signed .

~ regards
Elecom members

Anivar Aravind
Pavithra H
DB Srinivasa Rao
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[Wikimediaindia-l] [9PM IST : #wikimedia-in] WMIN Elections 2014: Election update and First IRC remainder

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear WMIN members,

Hope all you are following WMIN Election updates in Chapter wiki. WMIN EC
have *6 vacancies* to fill and candidate nomination process is ongoing .
You are welcome to propose  a candidate / accept nominations at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations
WMIN EC published  Electoral roll  at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Eligible_Voters_List

Final date of accepting nominations is *24 Oct*(closes at 11.59 PM IST)

The Executive Committee and the Election Committee will host an IRC  *today
20 Oct 2014 *,Monday between *9PM and 10.30PM* on IRC channel #wikimedia-in
in Freenode . All potential candidates and WMIN members are requested to
make use of this for any clarifications on rules and procedures with
Election Committee and Executive Committee.

Join us at http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=0&channels=#wikimedia-in
tonight at 9.PM

For Elecom
Anivar Aravind
Returning Officer
WMIN Elections
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] WMIN Executive committee elections 2014 announcement

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear All ,


I stopped responding to praveen long back in all social media platforms and
blocked him from my contact lists . I do support pseudo anonymity as
political right , But I dont want to entertain his baseless allegations and
abuses

Since this is a response to Election committee mail  , I am responding
inline


On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 7:29 PM, praveenp  wrote:

> Hi Anivar,
>
> I wish to know about the procedure of the selection of Election
> committee and Returning officer.
>

Please ask Chapter .Announcement mail is linked at
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014 page



> truthful atleast to himselft. Last time I saw you in Malayalam
> Wikipedia to teach us that Wikimedians must 'suffer' ULS in developer
> insisted form because what Wikipedia is technocracy not democracy.
>

I think praveen is referring my efforts to interface between the FOSS
developer way of decision making and Wikimedia community way. This post
summarizes it
http://www.quora.com/Why-was-ULS-forced-on-reluctant-language-wikipedias-without-any-community-consensus

various community issues around technology decision making  such as ULS is
also part of  discussions in India Community Consultation as well .

But personalizing issues and building and spreading personal animosity
around technology opinions is a nonconstructive attitude of this identity
for long . So I am not engaging with him further on this off-topic
conversation .

I hope moderators will take a note on this

~ regards

Anivar Aravind
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] WMIN Executive committee elections 2014 announcement

[Anivar Aravind]

sorry for typo in subject line

On Mon, Oct 13, 2014 at 12:51 PM, Ashwin Baindur 
wrote:

> 2004?  Surely its done by now? Oh wait, we didn't have a Chapter then! ;)
>
> On Sat, Oct 11, 2014 at 11:31 PM, Anivar Aravind  > wrote:
>
>> FYI
>>
>>
>> -- Forwarded message --
>> From: Anivar Aravind 
>> Date: Sat, Oct 11, 2014 at 6:37 PM
>> Subject: WMIN 2004 Elections Announcement
>> To: Wikimedia Members List 
>>
>>
>> Dear Members,
>>
>> *Subject: Election Notice for Wikimedia Chapter Executive Committee
>> Elections-2014*
>>
>> The Election Committee appointed by Wikimedia Chapter Executive
>> Committee(EC) for notifying and conducting the Election to Wikimedia
>> Chapter EC election, hereby announces the election to the Wikimedia Chapter
>> EC for the two year term.
>>
>> A detailed ‘Rules & Regulations for the Election’ is available on wiki (
>> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/File:WMINElectionAndAppointmentRules.pdf) which
>> includes the Nomination Form for Candidature (at Page 7). As of now
>> approved Members who are on the membership roll as on 23 August 2014 are
>> eligible to participate in the Election and contest the Election (as per
>> by-laws,based on the date of election and AGM scheduled for 23 Nov 2014).
>> An electoral roll will be made available by the EC at least three weeks
>> before the AGM as per the MOA. This will includes updates if any to the
>> members list which will be used for finalizing the slate of candidates as
>> well as for mailing ballots.
>>
>> Please note the following details:
>>
>> 1. Date of election: 23 Nov 2014.
>>
>> 2. Timing for voting in person: As per AGM Agenda which will be
>> communicated by Chapter later.
>>
>> 3. Place of election and for sending postal communication:
>>
>> Wikimedia Chapter, No.194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Dommaluru 2nd stage, Bangalore
>> 560071. India.
>>
>> 4. Last date and time of receiving nominations: 24 Oct 2014, 11:59PM IST
>>
>> WMIN Wiki <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014>  (
>> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014) will be used as the electronic
>> medium for submitting and processing nominations. Each nomination is to be
>> placed on a sub page and linked from the Elections page. Members proposing
>> and seconding the candidature as well as the candidate have to sign using
>> their user-ids on wiki. They also need to identify their membership number
>> on their User pages for validation. Nomination pages will be locked to
>> prevent editing on the day following the due date.
>>
>> 5. Scrutiny and Publishing Draft slate of candidates: 25 Oct 2014
>>
>> 5. Last date for withdrawal of nominations: 29 Oct 2014 11:59PM
>>
>> 6. Publishing final slate of candidates: 01-Nov-2014
>>
>> The Executive Committee and the Election Committee will host an IRC on 20
>> Oct 2014 ,Monday between 9PM and 10.30PM on IRC channel #wikimedia-in. All
>> potential candidates and WMIN members are requested to make use of this for
>> any clarifications on rules and procedures with Election Committee and
>> Executive Committee.
>>
>> There will facilitate a second IRC meeting on 05 Nov 2014 between
>> Candidates and the Voters . Voters can make use of this opportunity to
>> interact with each candidate in WMIN election.
>>
>>
>> The Election Committee comprises of the following members:
>>
>>- Anivar Aravind  : Returning officer
>>- Pavithra H  : Polling Officer
>>- Srinivas Rao DB : Polling Officer
>>
>> You can contact us via Talk:Elections2014
>> <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Elections2014> for any clarifications or
>> discussions.
>>
>>
>> Thanks in advance for your cooperation to conduct the election in free
>> and fair manner.
>>
>> *More Information*
>>
>>- WMIN Election 2014 Home page http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014
>>- Election Notice http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Announcement
>>- Nomination Procedure
>>http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations
>>- Membership list published by chapter
>>http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Membership_List_as_on_2014_September_30
>>
>>
>> ~ regards
>>
>> Elecom Members
>> Pavithra H
>> Srinivas Rao DB
>> Anivar Aravind
>>
>>
>> ___
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>> To unsubscribe from the list 

[Wikimediaindia-l] WMIN Executive committee elections 2004 announcement

[Anivar Aravind]

FYI


-- Forwarded message --
From: Anivar Aravind 
Date: Sat, Oct 11, 2014 at 6:37 PM
Subject: WMIN 2004 Elections Announcement
To: Wikimedia Members List 


Dear Members,

*Subject: Election Notice for Wikimedia Chapter Executive Committee
Elections-2014*

The Election Committee appointed by Wikimedia Chapter Executive
Committee(EC) for notifying and conducting the Election to Wikimedia
Chapter EC election, hereby announces the election to the Wikimedia Chapter
EC for the two year term.

A detailed ‘Rules & Regulations for the Election’ is available on wiki (
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/File:WMINElectionAndAppointmentRules.pdf) which
includes the Nomination Form for Candidature (at Page 7). As of now
approved Members who are on the membership roll as on 23 August 2014 are
eligible to participate in the Election and contest the Election (as per
by-laws,based on the date of election and AGM scheduled for 23 Nov 2014).
An electoral roll will be made available by the EC at least three weeks
before the AGM as per the MOA. This will includes updates if any to the
members list which will be used for finalizing the slate of candidates as
well as for mailing ballots.

Please note the following details:

1. Date of election: 23 Nov 2014.

2. Timing for voting in person: As per AGM Agenda which will be
communicated by Chapter later.

3. Place of election and for sending postal communication:

Wikimedia Chapter, No.194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Dommaluru 2nd stage, Bangalore
560071. India.

4. Last date and time of receiving nominations: 24 Oct 2014, 11:59PM IST

WMIN Wiki <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014>  (
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014) will be used as the electronic
medium for submitting and processing nominations. Each nomination is to be
placed on a sub page and linked from the Elections page. Members proposing
and seconding the candidature as well as the candidate have to sign using
their user-ids on wiki. They also need to identify their membership number
on their User pages for validation. Nomination pages will be locked to
prevent editing on the day following the due date.

5. Scrutiny and Publishing Draft slate of candidates: 25 Oct 2014

5. Last date for withdrawal of nominations: 29 Oct 2014 11:59PM

6. Publishing final slate of candidates: 01-Nov-2014

The Executive Committee and the Election Committee will host an IRC on 20
Oct 2014 ,Monday between 9PM and 10.30PM on IRC channel #wikimedia-in. All
potential candidates and WMIN members are requested to make use of this for
any clarifications on rules and procedures with Election Committee and
Executive Committee.

There will facilitate a second IRC meeting on 05 Nov 2014 between
Candidates and the Voters . Voters can make use of this opportunity to
interact with each candidate in WMIN election.


The Election Committee comprises of the following members:

   - Anivar Aravind  : Returning officer
   - Pavithra H  : Polling Officer
   - Srinivas Rao DB : Polling Officer

You can contact us via Talk:Elections2014
<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Elections2014> for any clarifications or
discussions.


Thanks in advance for your cooperation to conduct the election in free and
fair manner.

*More Information*

   - WMIN Election 2014 Home page http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014
   - Election Notice http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Announcement
   - Nomination Procedure http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Elections2014/Nominations
   - Membership list published by chapter
   http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Membership_List_as_on_2014_September_30


~ regards

Elecom Members
Pavithra H
Srinivas Rao DB
Anivar Aravind
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Made in Karnataka: Lucia, A crowd funded and crowd sourced movie

[Anivar Aravind]

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 12:40 PM, Ravishankar Ayyakkannu <
ravidre...@wikimedia.in> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Lucia (2013 film) is a crowd funded and crowd sourced movie made in
> Karnataka that used social media for its promotions.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_%282013_film%29
>
> Please watch
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piiTeYDn6xA
>
> where the movie's director Pawan explains the insane amount of creative
> thinking and genius that helped to produce this movie.
>
> Please do watch this 90 minutes video completely. Every minute has
> important lessons.
>
> I couldn't resist sharing this stunning talk as it has lot of correlations
> and implications for what we are doing:
>

What is the license of this movie?
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikikn-l (kannada wikipedia)] Release of 105 books by Govt of Karnataka under CC-BY-SA

[Anivar Aravind]

On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 3:22 PM, Anivar Aravind 
wrote:

>
>
> The books now released by GoK also include some recent books which
>> contains collections like complete works of Dr Ambedkar, essays on
>> Ambedkar, research works on Kanaka dasa, etc.
>>
>
> Copyright on Ambedkar work is yet another interesting grey area
>
> Read this article
>
> http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/annihilation-caste-and-copyright-claims
>
> 
> Since Ambedkar had died intestate, the Maharashtra government was ordered
> by the Bombay High Court to take charge of his voluminous writings which
> were rotting away for want of a custodian. It set up the clumsily titled
> Babasaheb Ambedkar Source Material Publication Committee (BASMP) which
> since 1979 has been publishing omnibus volumes titled Dr Babasaheb
> Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches. To date, 23 such volumes have been
> published in English and these claim the copyright vests with the
> secretary, Education Department of Maharashtra. But that it turns out is
> not strictly true.
>
> BASMP has been selectively giving permission to those who have sought its
> consent to republish Ambedkar’s works—some like Jadhav have not bothered to
> do so—to clear the legal issues that would allow them to copyright their
> value-added books. It was not till Navayana filed a suit in the Delhi High
> Court—its letters to BASMP went unanswered for months as did the their RTI
> (right to information) applications— that the truth finally emerged. In
> February, BASMP admitted that it did not own the copyright and only had the
> lease for it. The copyright, it said, is owned by members of the Ambedkar
> family which had given the rights to the state of Maharashtra on payment of
> royalty.
> Following this submission, the court said Navayana was free to publish AoC
> at its own risk. 
>
> In short whoever license Ambedkar works under CC has to take same risk . I
> doubt Wikimedia community have to wait till 70 years after authors death
> till using these works . Releasing them under CC does not carry any legal
> meaning .
>
>
Even though dr B.R Ambedkar's works are available as a pdf and circulated
online for last 10+ years (see a set at
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5gR958uDQFKQkdDbUhOVVBqbFU) This
is the reason that prevented us from uploading it to commons till date


~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikikn-l (kannada wikipedia)] Release of 105 books by Govt of Karnataka under CC-BY-SA

[Anivar Aravind]

The books now released by GoK also include some recent books which contains
> collections like complete works of Dr Ambedkar, essays on Ambedkar,
> research works on Kanaka dasa, etc.
>

Copyright on Ambedkar work is yet another interesting grey area

Read this article
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/annihilation-caste-and-copyright-claims


Since Ambedkar had died intestate, the Maharashtra government was ordered
by the Bombay High Court to take charge of his voluminous writings which
were rotting away for want of a custodian. It set up the clumsily titled
Babasaheb Ambedkar Source Material Publication Committee (BASMP) which
since 1979 has been publishing omnibus volumes titled Dr Babasaheb
Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches. To date, 23 such volumes have been
published in English and these claim the copyright vests with the
secretary, Education Department of Maharashtra. But that it turns out is
not strictly true.

BASMP has been selectively giving permission to those who have sought its
consent to republish Ambedkar’s works—some like Jadhav have not bothered to
do so—to clear the legal issues that would allow them to copyright their
value-added books. It was not till Navayana filed a suit in the Delhi High
Court—its letters to BASMP went unanswered for months as did the their RTI
(right to information) applications— that the truth finally emerged. In
February, BASMP admitted that it did not own the copyright and only had the
lease for it. The copyright, it said, is owned by members of the Ambedkar
family which had given the rights to the state of Maharashtra on payment of
royalty.
Following this submission, the court said Navayana was free to publish AoC
at its own risk. 

In short whoever license Ambedkar works under CC has to take same risk . I
doubt Wikimedia community have to wait till 70 years after authors death
till using these works . Releasing them under CC does not carry any legal
meaning .



> We should appreciate that officials at Kannada and Culture Dept of GoK
> have realised the importance of open knowledge philosophy and have agreed
> to release the books under CC. This will definitely help in convincing
> other departments, academies and universities to release their works under
> CC.
>

The problem i am seeing here is those who worked with govt to get this work
out does not briefed them well on copyright and ways to make it . I am a
bit sceptical to see this happening from CIS , who have many copyright
experts like Lawrence and Pranesh on board

~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikikn-l (kannada wikipedia)] Release of 105 books by Govt of Karnataka under CC-BY-SA

[Anivar Aravind]

On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 1:02 PM, Vishnu  wrote:

>
>
> On Thursday 25 September 2014 11:19 AM, Rajesh Ranjan wrote:
>
> On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 9:49 AM, Anivar Aravind 
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 9:55 PM, Vishnu  wrote:
>>
>>>  Dear Ravi,
>>>
>>> On the copyright question AFAIK...  it is the manner in which a certain
>>> content is expressed (e.g. analyzed, compiled, paginated, represented,
>>> etc..) the author could claim copyright, as there is a certain basic amount
>>> of creative labour that went into it. So Govt. of Karnataka could
>>> rightfully copyright these works, which it has now released under CC-BY-SA
>>> 3.0. A useful thing to read in this context would be this [1].
>>>
>>
>>  As Ravi pointed 11th Century Kannada literature is already public
>> domain . There is no point in re-licensing it as CC-BY-SA .
>>  Digitization does not create fresh copyright . While thanking Govt for
>> their efforts to make it available , please dont create fresh copyright on
>> it . And while looking at details, There was no  point of time  in which
>> govt of Karanataka had copyright on this content .
>>
>>  This effort is almost in same lines of  Open access initiative of rare
>> public domain books by Kerala Sahitya academy happened almost same time
>> last year (http://www.keralasahityaakademi.org/online_library/index.html)
>> . They havnt claimed any undeserving copyright on these books . SO it is
>> better if people involved canm correct Govt of Karanataka at this point
>> itself showing kerala example to avoid further ambiguities surrounding
>> license .
>>
>>  ~ regards
>>  Anivar
>>
>>
>
>  I agree with Ravi and Anivar!
>
>  I am not an expert of licensing, but the thing that is already in public
> domain, licensing the same under CC-BY-SA 3.0 is one way limiting the
> public availability of the same content.
>
>  Rajesh and Anivar,
>
> Purely from a copyright POV, it is important to recognize the idea -
> expression divide. The content per-se in this case may be public domain,
> but it is the expression of it that is copyrighted as I stated above.
> Especially, as I understand, the copyright act in India has bare minimum
> requirements for creative labour.
>
> But I am willing to be better educated on this.
>
>
In US copyright The Bridgeman v. Corel [1]case established, and several
other courts have followed, the principle that a "slavish copy" does not
have enough originality to warrant copyright protection. Skill in making
that copy, no matter how great it is (and we all know how difficult it can
be to make a good copy), also is not by itself "original" enough to warrant
copyright protection. we only need to care about the US law in this case
because content hosted is in wikimedia servers in US . AFAIK this does not
have  much conflicts with indian law too.

Licensing this under creative commons is a copyright claim of public domain
works  even though spirit behind licensing is different. So my only point
is whoever working on this please correct it at this point itself by giving
proper credit (as Open access initiative of  kannada old classics ) by
pointing examples like kerala sahitya academy's last year efforts.

In india we anyway need to get more public institutions and libraries to
release digitalized /scanned version of PD works . So the each example we
set at this point have impacts over all these decisions. So please correct
the mistakes at this point .

If public institions  who release PD books in digitalized form needs credit
for their efforts do it via press coverage or via GLAM

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel_Corp.


~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikikn-l (kannada wikipedia)] Release of 105 books by Govt of Karnataka under CC-BY-SA

[Anivar Aravind]

On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 11:23 AM, Omshivaprakash | Wikimedia <
omshivaprak...@wikimedia.in> wrote:

> @Rajesh @Ravi @Anivar @Pavanaja Don't you think CC0 (Public Domain) is the
> best license for this? We always back off from using the government
> produced books and content unless it is stated to used by public without
> restrictions. But data that has been in circulation among people doesn't
> require to be copyrighted even for just digitizing. We should surely
> discuss this at large.
>
>
CC0 applies only if the Govt of Karanataka Owns current copyright of it and
want to make it public domain .
In this case Govt does not owns its copyright and It is already public
domain . What they are doing is making them available via Digitalization ,
ie  it is an Open access initiative of rare public domain books

There is no role for copyright or licenses in this
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Recruitment Announcement : Program Director of Wikimedia India Chapter

[Anivar Aravind]

Congrats Ravi,

Happy to see an active wikipedian joining as a chapter staff.
Usually what we see in this sector for last few yerars is community members
quitting staff positions after a short term burnout at official roles. I am
sure Ravi will not join in that list and he will lead the chapter to new
heights with clear understanding on community practices

Wish you and the Chapter all success!

I am very happy that chapter selected an active Wikimedian to its staff
position

~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikikn-l (kannada wikipedia)] Release of 105 books by Govt of Karnataka under CC-BY-SA

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 9:55 PM, Vishnu  wrote:

>  Dear Ravi,
>
> On the copyright question AFAIK...  it is the manner in which a certain
> content is expressed (e.g. analyzed, compiled, paginated, represented,
> etc..) the author could claim copyright, as there is a certain basic amount
> of creative labour that went into it. So Govt. of Karnataka could
> rightfully copyright these works, which it has now released under CC-BY-SA
> 3.0. A useful thing to read in this context would be this [1].
>

As Ravi pointed 11th Century Kannada literature is already public domain .
There is no point in re-licensing it as CC-BY-SA .
Digitization does not create fresh copyright . While thanking Govt for
their efforts to make it available , please dont create fresh copyright on
it . And while looking at details, There was no  point of time  in which
govt of Karanataka had copyright on this content .

This effort is almost in same lines of  Open access initiative of rare
public domain books by Kerala Sahitya academy happened almost same time
last year (http://www.keralasahityaakademi.org/online_library/index.html) .
They havnt claimed any undeserving copyright on these books . SO it is
better if people involved canm correct Govt of Karanataka at this point
itself showing kerala example to avoid further ambiguities surrounding
license .

~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] WMIN shutdown ?

[Anivar Aravind]

On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 10:31 AM, Samuel Klein  wrote:

> I am also surprised to see no reply.  Arjuna, do you have any further
> information?
>

Update on Election commitee process on WMIN Elections is here
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Elections2014

Anivar Aravind
Member , Election Committee , WMIN Chapter
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[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Spoken Tutorials moved into CC-BY-SA 4.0 License

[Anivar Aravind]

-- Forwarded message --
From: Anivar Aravind 
Date: Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 10:26 PM
Subject: Spoken Tutorials moved into CC-BY-SA 4.0 License
To: cc-in...@lists.ibiblio.org


Dear all,

Just heard from Prof. Kannan Moudgalya that Spoken Tutorials (
http://spoken-tutorial.org/) has moved to CC BY-SA 4.0 . It was using
CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 earlier which is non free

Congrats Prof. Kannan and team for changing spoken tutorials as OER
repository

Now this opens room for many FOSS projects like us to prepare and host
local language tutorials of FOSS packages under a free license in Spoken
tutorials

The Spoken Tutorial project is the initiative of the ‘Talk to a Teacher’
activity of the National Mission on Education through Information and
Communication Technology (ICT), launched by the Ministry of Human Resources
and Development, Government of India.


~ regards
Anivar Aravind

Secretary
Swathanthra Malayalam Computing
jttp://smc.org.in


Consultant
International Centre for Free and Open Source Software(ICFOSS)
http://icfoss.in
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikisource-l] Malayalam Wikisource Digitization Contest 2014

[Anivar Aravind]

It is widely covered in vernacular press

This is one among the english reports
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/digitising-contest-to-preserve-rare-books-in-malayalam/article5538126.ece

I think it may be relevant to share the context of this too . This may be
helpful and useful for other wikisource communities. I am part of the
Organizing Team and our organization , Swathanthra Malayalam Computing is
one of the partners for this

1. Unlike Latin based languages , Most of the Indian languages does not
have a functional OCR solution. So for us  the digitalising means typing
the pages and proofreading them .
2. Even though there are many state run institutions and libraries are
engaged in scanning books for their digitization , The public domain works
are not available in most cases . Initiatives like GLAM  s not much suited
for small librarys and state institutions.
3. In short the absence / Way to thank library for preserving books  till
they release under public domain  with proper media attention becomes a
difficult task . This program experimenting a way to thank Govt institution
named Keral Sahithya academi  via media attention for preserving and
donating the public domain copies to many books to wikisource .
4.Wikisource can be used as a way of training new users to familiarize with
mediawiki and wikisyntax . A Typing+proofreading competition with declared
prizes anyway attracts more users and attention . within first 5 days 80+
new contributors and 798 pages added to Malayalam wikisource
5. We Succeeded in getting IT@School program of Govt of Kerala as an
official partner and created a seperate competition for schools . So
Students under the guidance of teachers can involve in  Malayalam
wikisource and get exposure for wikimedia projects
 6. This helps in building more references for wikipedia articles . This is
an important concern for many languages without much digital archives

Thanks to Vishnu , Director of CIS-A2K for initially coming up with an idea
of running a proofreading contest in malayalam wikipedia by offering some
Devices . This helped us to start exploring the possibilities and expanding
the program with more partners .

In last October Malayalam wikisource community released a 2.0 version of
its offline CD  . This is the next major endeavour


~ regards
Anivar Aravind
User:AniVar





On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 5:45 PM, Andrea Zanni wrote:

> That is an amazing news, Manoj,
> good job!
>
> Also, think about writing a blog post for the Wikimedia blog:
> they are always interested in hosting news a about Wikisources all around
> the world.
>
> Aubrey
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 7:13 PM, Jayanta Nath  wrote:
>
>> Keep it up Manoj , it's a great initiatives. We shall try the same for
>> Bengali wiki source .
>>
>> Jayanta
>>
>> On Thursday, January 2, 2014, manoj k wrote:
>>
>>> Dear friends,
>>>
>>> New year wishes to all.
>>>
>>> Wikisource project, a project of Wikimedia foundation is celebrating
>>> its tenth anniversary. As a part of the decennary celebrations, the
>>> Wikisource projects in various languages all over the world are conducting
>>> competitions that enrich their contents including but not limited to
>>> proof-reading and digitization. Being a part of it, Wikisource's
>>> Malayalam version - Wiki Grandhasala community, a voluntary unit
>>> engaged in collecting and digitizing  valuable Malayalam books of
>>> yesteryears, is organizing a digitization (Typing & Proofreading)
>>> competition, along with various Government as well as 
>>> Non-Governmentestablishments and other voluntary organisations with similar 
>>> interestslike Kerala Sahithya Academy, IT@schoolProject,
>>> Swathanthra Malayalam Computing and Center for  Internet and Society
>>> (CIS-A2K) under the banner of  Malayalam Wiki community.. This
>>> digitisation competition is being conducted as a part of an effort that
>>> collects Malayalam Books whose copyright date has expired in digital form
>>> (in unicode format) preserving the content and makig them more accessible
>>> and popular. The competition lasts for a month, starting on January 1, 2014
>>> and ending on Jan 31, 2014. The competition focuses especiallyindividuals 
>>> and schools andincludes someattractive prizes including E-book readers, 
>>> Tablets and selected books for
>>> those who lead the scoreboard. In this competition, books that was
>>> recently released by Kerala Sahithya Academy to its public collection
>>> will be digitised.
>>>
>>> Details of the competition;There are two specific competitions
>>>
>>> *Competition for individuals:-*
>>> T

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [fosscomm] Kerala School text books to be Licensed under Creativecommons, Printing using FOSS Tools

[Anivar Aravind]

On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 8:36 PM, Gautam John  wrote:

> On 16 November 2013 20:31, Nagarjuna G  wrote:
>
> >> How is "CC BY-SA 3.0"  copyright-free?
> > Usual misconception! recently I met people who are vocal advocates of
> > CC in India, they also hold this misconception.
>
> Another common one is the definition of "public domain". One hears of
> material available in the "public domain" where they mean it is
> available on some website.
>

True . Most of the mainstream media  uses these words for articles on
Creative commons licenses.

~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Kerala School text books to be Licensed under Creativecommons, Printing using FOSS Tools

[Anivar Aravind]

Sorry for the typos** earlier


Dear all ,

Some happy news for all of us .


The School curriculum steering commitee of  Kerala Govt's SCERT(State
Council Educational Research and Training)  decided  3 major points in our
interest yesterday

1. SCERT is improving text book printing infrastructure by shifting from
Adobe 's softwares to FOSS based XeTeX and free licensed fonts.

2. They will shift from ASCII to Unicode . This will also help in universal
access for differentially abled via technologies like Text to Speech even
in Malayalam Language .

3. The books will be licensed under  CC-BY-SA .

Official Order is still pending. But I am posting this since it is already
in media reports.

Read a report in TOI
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Now-free-software-to-set-school-textbooks-in-Kerala/articleshow/25781341.cms

The Change will be applicable to all newly publishing books from now
Starting from Malayalam Text books in 5, 7, and 11th standards

Myself, Hrishikesh K.B and a team from Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (
http://smc.org) are working closely with SCERT from last few months to
help  them in initiating this change process.

Thanks to Dr. P.K Thilak, Research Officer  SCERT , Director SCERT, and
Biju Prabhakar IAS (Director of Public Instruction, Govt of Kerala )  for
initiating this Change.

~ regards
Anivar Aravind
Secretary
Swathanthra Malaalam Computing
http://smc.org.in
Ph. 09448063780
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[Wikimediaindia-l] Kerala School text books to be Licensed under Creativecommons, Printing using FOSS Tools

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear all ,

Some happy news for all of us .


The School curriculum steering commitee of  Kerala Govt's SCERT(State
Council Educational Research and Training)  decided  3 majors points in our
interest yesterday

1. SCERT is improving Book printing infrastructure by shifting from Adobe
's softwares to FOSS based XeTeX and free licesned fonts.

2. They will shift from ASCII to Unicode . This will also help in universal
access for differentially abled via technologies like Text to Speech even
in Malayalam Language .

3. The books will be licensed under  CC-BY-SA .

Official Order is still pending. But I am posting this since it is already
in media reports.

Read a repotrt in TOI
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Now-free-software-to-set-school-textbooks-in-Kerala/articleshow/25781341.cms

The Change will be applicable to all newly publishing books from now
Starting from Malayalam Text books in 5, 7, and 11th standards

Myself, Hrishikesh K.B and a team from Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (
http://smc.org) are working closely with SCERT from last to help  them in
initiating this change process.

Thanks to Dr. P.K Thilak, Research Officer  SCERT , Director SCERT, and
Biju Prabhakar IAS (Director of Public Instruction, Govt of Kerala )  for
initiating this Change.

~ regards
Anivar Aravind
Secretary
Swathanthra Malaalam Computing
http://smc.org.in
Ph. 09448063780
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [CC-India] Creative Commons India launch - 12 November

[Anivar Aravind]

Hi all ,

Thanks Jane for the explanation. I remember I am in this cc-india list
from 2006 onwards  :-)
It is better to announce relaunch as it is in the announcements to avoid
confusion . Because we wikipedian's value references very much.  also ccing
the wikimedia* India *list


~ regards
Anivar

~



On Fri, Nov 1, 2013 at 6:01 PM, Jane Hornibrook wrote:

> Hi Anivar and all,
>
> Great spotting, and yes you're correct - this is technically a "re-launch"
> of CC in India. Prof Jha, Lawrence Liang and their colleagues have done
> excellent work in CC outreach and launching a local Indian license suite.
> As projects change, so do CC teams in many countries from time to time, and
> they've both been instrumental in encouraging and assisting us with
> revitalizing, or "re-launching" CC in India with exciting new partners in
> 2013.
>
> In fact, the community discussion list I've included in this mail is a
> revived version of the original list so it's a great forum to post any
> concerns to. We were fortunate enough to run a CC 
> workshop<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Events/Creative_Commons_workshop_in_Mumbai>in
>  February 2013 with Wikimedia India in the lead up to this re-launch at
> IIT under the helpful co-ordination of Professor Jha. At CC HQ, we're
> heartily looking forward to many more activities and successes with CC
> India with new partners CIS, Wikimedia India and Univerity of New Delhi.
>
> With regards
> Jane Hornibrook
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 1, 2013 at 3:11 PM, Jayanta Nath  wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Please go through below our India mailing list.... we need clear
>> explanation for this.
>>
>> Jayanta Nath
>> EC Member
>> Wikimedia India
>>
>> -- Forwarded message --
>> From Anivar Aravind 
>>  Date: Fri, Nov 1, 2013 at 6:25 PM
>>
>> Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Creative Commons India launch - 12
>> November
>> To: Wikimedia India Community list 
>> Cc: Wikimedia Members List 
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 1:14 AM, Karthik Nadar 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Friends,
>>>
>>> Wikimedia India in association with Acharya Narendra Dev College New
>>> Delhi and Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore will be hosting the
>>> launch of Creative Commons India in New Delhi on 12 November, 2013 with
>>> Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Dr. Shashi Tharoor as
>>> Chief Guest. It would be really nice if you could join us.
>>>
>>> Details of the event can be found here:
>>> wiki.wikimedia.in/Events/Creative_Commons_India_launch
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> AFAIK Creative commons india is launched in January 26 2007 in India in a
>> function at IIT Bombay , with Shishir K. Jha as Project Lead and Lawrence
>> Liang as Legal Lead .CC-2.5-IN series licenses are basically developed by
>> this team .  Even Last year I heard about CC India in this list
>>
>> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-June/003381.html
>>
>> This is a snapshot of their old website from internet archive
>> https://web.archive.org/web/20081220221749/http://cc-india.org/
>>
>> Link to Launch event Blogpost
>> https://web.archive.org/web/20081220221749/http://cc-india.org/index.php?q=node/23
>>
>> This looks like a relaunch . It will be good if you can explain why it is
>> relaunching in the above mentioned wiki page
>>
>> ~ regards
>> Anivar
>>
>>
>> ___
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>> Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>> To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Jane Hornibrook
> Regional Project Coordinator - Asia Pacific
> Creative Commons
> Phone 1 647 625 4576
>
> ___
> CC-India mailing list
> cc-in...@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-india
>
>
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Creative Commons India launch - 12 November

[Anivar Aravind]

On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 1:14 AM, Karthik Nadar wrote:

> Dear Friends,
>
> Wikimedia India in association with Acharya Narendra Dev College New Delhi
> and Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore will be hosting the launch
> of Creative Commons India in New Delhi on 12 November, 2013 with Minister
> of State for Human Resource Development, Dr. Shashi Tharoor as Chief Guest.
> It would be really nice if you could join us.
>
> Details of the event can be found here:
> wiki.wikimedia.in/Events/Creative_Commons_India_launch
>
>
>
AFAIK Creative commons india is launched in January 26 2007 in India in a
function at IIT Bombay , with Shishir K. Jha as Project Lead and Lawrence
Liang as Legal Lead .CC-2.5-IN series licenses are basically developed by
this team .  Even Last year I heard about CC India in this list
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-June/003381.html

This is a snapshot of their old website from internet archive
https://web.archive.org/web/20081220221749/http://cc-india.org/

Link to Launch event Blogpost
https://web.archive.org/web/20081220221749/http://cc-india.org/index.php?q=node/23

This looks like a relaunch . It will be good if you can explain why it is
relaunching in the above mentioned wiki page

~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India Chapter to bid to host Wikimedia Conference 2014

[Anivar Aravind]

Goa is a good option.
But just sharing a point of concern. It is extremely important to be
careful in selecting Hotels in Goa for International Conferences .There are
many Hotels violating many coastal regulation zones and environmental laws
.
2 years back Tehelka Think Fest  faced a similar trouble .
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/202792/controversy-clouds-tehelka-thinkfest.html

~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] N A Nazeer's photographs

[Anivar Aravind]

On Sun, Sep 1, 2013 at 12:20 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan <
srik.r...@wikimedia.in> wrote:

> Shyamal,
> Is this rule an unwritten rule or is it a proper legal law of sorts?
> If photography is legally banned,  then all these photographs would be
> technically in violation of the law right?
>

It was not a rule . It was an order issued almost an year ago . There was
huge outcry against it and somebody need to check the status of it now .
Anyway that does not affects these photos because Most of these are taken
much before the issue date of the order.

~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] The Access to Knowledge - Bulletin - March '13

[Anivar Aravind]

Thanks Arun,

But my emphasis was on organisational policy on newsletter format

Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] The Access to Knowledge - Bulletin - March '13

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear Noopur

I request you to not send documents encoded in secret proprietary format.
 If you
want me to read the attached document, please resend it in a free document
standard such as txt, html, odf, rtf, pdf in that order of preference. We
just
passed celebrating Document freedom Day (http://www.documentfreedom.org/ )
 As a known endorser of Open standards and FOSS , I hope CIS will assure
all its
employees will follow the same principles.

polluted digital environment with secret, private and proprietary digital
documents and force other people to live in a dangerous ecosystem.
I request you to please resend it in a free document format .
Thank you for understanding.  Join us in the campaign to create a humane
digital society.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] MS word add-on to Save As Wiki

[Anivar Aravind]

This is very old news.

Libreoffice and Open office  already have this feature from 2008 .
Libreoffice-wiki-publisher module does the job. Microsoft implemented
similar feature in 2010 .

Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] "Malayalam Wikipedia takes a gender turn"

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 11:54 AM, Tejaswini Niranjana wrote:

> I heard about a year ago that a Malayalam project I had helped raise funds
> for had become part of WikiSource. It is a Reader in Gender History put
> together by Prof J Devika of the Centre for Development Studies,
> Thiruvananthapuram. Can Shiju or someone else from the Malayalam Wikipedia
> confirm this?


 Yes . I was instrumental in suggesting  Devika to  change the license of
ചന്തപ്പെണ്ണും കുലസ്ട്രീയും ഉണ്ടായതെങ്ങനെ  to CC-A-SA  License and donate to
wikipedia . ( It was CC-A-NC-SA before)  .
It is the first  contemporary book in Malayalam wikisource  and first
feminist literature in Malayalam wikibooks.
It is available here.
http://ml.wikisource.org/wiki/Kulastreeyum_Chanthapennum_Undayathengane

~ regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Getting a new language Wikipedia going...

[Anivar Aravind]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 2:39 PM, sankarshan  wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 2:37 PM, Pavanaja U B
>  wrote:
>> But then there is one issue of missing characters in some scripts. For
>> example Tamil has very few characters. When we transliterate from other
>> language into Tamil, say Kannada, we will have to put one character instead
>> of another. The original character will be lost. When we transliterate back
>> to Kannada from Tamil 2 or more characters will become just one. One classic
>> example is the case of kaanthi and gaandhi. In Tamil, both are written same.
>
> Without attempting to belabor this point, if you have previously
> attempted to address this, is it possible to point out the code-base
> so that an interested contributor can pick up and run with it?

Make use of Indic soundex tables
http://silpa.org.in/Soundex
Tables here http://thottingal.in/soundex/soundex.html
Read more at http://thottingal.in/blog/2009/07/26/indicsoundex/

~ regards
Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fw: Re: [A2K]: The Access to Knowledge - Bulletin - January '13

[Anivar Aravind]

On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 7:18 PM, Ashwin Baindur wrote:

> I fully agree with Vicram and others who feel its only fair that we give
> the new organisation a chance to do good and succeed.
>
> Dhaval & Aravind, you are both right & wrong. You are right that large
> parts of the India Program's strategic decisions went wrong and should bear
> the major blame for the organisation's failure, but it is equally true in
> the debate which followed, no matter how justifiable, a lot of negative
> energy entered the atmosphere, making things difficult and disheartening
> for anyone who wanted to work sincerely. I'm sure I must contributed some
> of that negative energy myself too. So without trying to blame anyone, what
> Ravi said was essentially true also.


Dear Ashwin,

There are 2 separate issues here . Please address them seperately

1. Blaming community for the organizational management failures of WMF
India program

 (read Ravi once gain  : "Indian Wikimedia office was burnt out precisely
because of this negative approach from the community." , and a WMF Board
member giving +100 to that) .  When you are working on an accountable
position in front of a community there will be questions and critiques
always. This is a usual phenomenon . Blaming the community for the
organizational failures of WMF India team is not the solution for that .
Ravisankar and Bishakha have a moral responsibility to explain this
critique, since this is different from whatever WMF told us so far . I hope
they will respond  and close this thread


2.  CIS A2K team.

I have hope in this program and I wish them all success. Also seconds all
points raised by Ashwin and extending my support to the team.

~ Regards
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fw: Re: [A2K]: The Access to Knowledge - Bulletin - January '13

[Anivar Aravind]

On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 10:17 AM, Ravishankar  wrote:

> The former Indian Wikimedia office was burnt out precisely because of this
> negative approach from the community.

Can you  explain this ? I found this is a baseless  allegation

In my observation following 2 major  factors  resulted in the  failure
India program and restructuring/ handing over project to CIS .

1. Failure of Pune Pilot  (There was no role for community in this
process . It was gigantic , There was not enough Wikipedia exposure
for consultants.  Program  plan failed in addressing copyvios , windup
/stopping plan of pune pilot was not well planned and communicated
like "do not edit wikipedia anymore")

2. Unwanted time and efforts on building a third entity "Wikimedia
India Program Trust" on a legal safe distance  from Wikimedia
foundation and wikimedia chapter . Now this is dumped.

Please substantiate your allegations on community else withdraw it .

~ regards
Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Indic languages (was Re: Spoken Wikipedia for Indic Languages)

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 2:58 PM, Anirudh Bhati  wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 4:12 PM, Amir E. Aharoni
>  wrote:
>>
>> Again: Let's not make up controversy.
>
>
> No one is trying to rake up a controversy.  This is a polite discussion, at
> least on my part, so I will appreciate if you do not allude otherwise.
>
> I have presented an authoritative academic source, and in contrast you have
> relied on a document that provides technical description of the Unicode
> standard.

If you need an academic sources , there are plenty in print formats

Language in South Asia
Edited by: Braj B. Kachru, University of Illinois, Chicago
Edited by: Yamuna Kachru, University of Illinois, Chicago
Edited by: S. N. Sridhar, State University of New York, Stony Brook

http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1166851/?site_locale=en_GB


The Indic Scripts: Palaeographic and Linguistic Perspectives
by P. G. Patel, Pramod Pandey, Dilip Rajgor
Publisher: D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd. (2007)
http://www.flipkart.com/indic-scripts-8124604061/p/itmdytjkzepcxuzq?pid=9788124604069

You can find extracts through google book search, if needed

~ Regards
Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Indic languages (was Re: Spoken Wikipedia for Indic Languages)

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 9:31 AM, Anirudh Bhati  wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 1:02 AM, Amir E. Aharoni
>  wrote:
>>
>> If he didn't explain it, then you can presume that it's wrong. There's
>> nothing to discuss, and there's nothing wrong with saying "Indic
>> languages".
>
>
> The word "Indic" refers generally to the Indo-Aryan family of languages,
> which does not include Dravidian languages prevalent in Southern India.

factually incorrect .
Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmic_scripts

> Hence, bunching the entire system of Dravidian languages together with the
> Indo-Aryan languages in India may seem derogatory to some, and reasonably
> so.

cant understand this part . Do you mean Aryan supremacy ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_race ?

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [Wikitech-l] Welcoming Srikanth Lakshmanan to the i18n engineering team

[Anivar Aravind]

Congrats logic
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikimedia-l] Changes to India Program

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear Barry,

Just a  question .

What will happen to Wikimedia India Programme Trust[1]
I think it need to be answered in FAQ[2].
In my observation, the registration of a third entity , at a safe
distance from Wikimedia Foundation and Chapter was a major
organisational mistake in Wikimedia India programme . I like to see
this question answered .


1. 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FAQ_India_Programs/FAQ_Wikimedia_India_Program_Trust
2. 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/India_Program_Announcement_and_FAQ_-_30_July_2012

~ Regards

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] OT: Open Content and Open Educational Resources in India

[Anivar Aravind]

On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 4:04 PM, Gautam John wrote:

> On 18 June 2012 15:19, Shiju Alex  wrote:
>
> > Texts books (of few subjects) are available for download from the
> education
> > department website of the following states (There might be some more
> state
> > government sites).
>
> Thank you, Shiju.
>
> How should I look at the Wikimedia universe specific to India, please?
>
>
The role of free content in vernacular languages in bridging digital divide
.
Wikimedia is the biggest vernakular free content repository in indic
Languages

11th 5 year plan suggested the need of increasing computer penetration from
1% to 5% suggested Open source as the way forward. But the role of free
content is often neglected in policy space


Anivar
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[Wikimediaindia-l] India is country under Internet surveillance : Reporters without Boarders

[Anivar Aravind]

Reporters Without Borders' annual list of "enemies of the Internet" published

India and Kazakhstan, new additions to the “under surveillance” category

Since the Mumbai bombings of 2008, the Indian authorities have stepped
up Internet surveillance and pressure on technical service providers,
while publicly rejecting accusations of censorship. The national
security policy of the world’s biggest democracy is undermining
freedom of expression and the protection of Internet users’ personal
data.

Read Full report
http://en.rsf.org/beset-by-online-surveillance-and-12-03-2012,42061.html

BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17350225


--
Anivar Aravind





--
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] India Program: Community Monthly Report: Feb 2012

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 2:47 PM, Shiju Alex  wrote:
> I am replying to this mail as a Malayalam wikimedia community member.
>
>
>> Fact:  Subhashish, former volunteer, and now paid consultant with India
>> Programs.
>
>
> What do you mean by this? I Shiju Alex is a Indic language wikipedian now
> close to 6 years. According to Mr. Anirudh (an EC member of India chapter) I
> am a former volunteer. is this is the official position of wikimedia India
> chapter? As a community member I require an explanation for this.


Dear Shiju & subha,

Both of you need to differentiate between paid and volunteered works.
you can still volunteer for many things in your individual capacity .
Only two of you need to define which one is a  part of job and which
one is in your volunteer capacities. I think India programme reports
only need to highlight the official part more clearly with specific
involvement. Volunteering can go as a part of community/chapter
reports .

Hope it is clear now

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [WMIN-Members] Wikimedia India Chapter receives FCRA Prior Permission

[Anivar Aravind]

On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Anirudh Bhati  wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> We are very happy to announce that the Ministry of Home Affairs has
> granted us prior permission under the Foreign Contribution
> (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA) to receive funds from the Wikimedia
> Foundation, USA for Chapter programs.
>
> Through this development, we pass the first hurdle of acquiring
> limited funds from the foundation for running programs and enabling
> volunteers across the country.
>
> The application was made to the Government on 4 September 2011 and was
> granted on 13 February 2012.
>

Congrats Arjuna & team . This seems to be a Record in usual time neeed
for FCRA process

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FOSS and Wikipedia

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 3:38 PM, Pradeep Mohandas
 wrote:
> You do not provide only references, you write the relevant paragraph
> that you are referencing. We did not think that we should write that
> down.

The whole article is relevant in the context of this thread, so why replicate?

Stopping my mails on this thread

--

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FOSS and Wikipedia

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 3:31 PM,   wrote:
> Would have been good to mention that when you posted the link.

I am not much aware about such strange rules in English wikipedia :-)

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FOSS and Wikipedia

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 2:15 PM,  wrote:
>
> Refer:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Argumentum_ad_Jimbonem

It was not. Instead of articulating same point again, i pointed the
link. It does not matter even if it someone else's article .
Please respond to it that , instead of rejecting it only because of
seeing jimbo's name there

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FOSS and Wikipedia

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 1:57 PM, Gautam John  wrote:

> On 4 January 2012 13:38, Srikanth Ramakrishnan 
> wrote:
>
> > list and off the list. Wikipedia so't wholely reliant on FOSS, and
> > will never be. I don't mean to offend anyone but this is it. Please
> > comment.
>
> Wikipedia relies on three kinds of openness.
>
> 1. The technical openness that makes the platform possible. Mediawiki is
> FOSS.
> 2. The openness of content that makes participatory content creation
> possible. CC-BY-SA is one of the two definitive 'open' licenses.
> 3. The collaboration that is core to Wikipedia is an attribute of most
> FOSS projects.
>
> Wikipedia isn't FOSS but it certainly is FOS, at the very least. And
> it's important to remember that Wikipedia does not and cannot exist in
> a vacuum.
>
> So for the love of Wikipedia, can you guys please stop sniping about
> what is and what is not FOSS.
>
>
Pointing an old relevant article by Jimmy

http://jimmywales.com/2004/10/21/free-knowledge-requires-free-software-and-free-file-formats/



-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and 'nonnumerical'
algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from other kinds of
precise information." - Donald Knuth
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Welcoming Subhashish Panigrahi

[Anivar Aravind]

Congrats Subha !!

Happy to see average age of WMF India programme got reduced with your entry !!!
Also thanks to  Hisham for renaming the post to suit the skillset of Subha

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Android ICS support for Tamil and Indic languages

[Anivar Aravind]

On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 5:07 PM, sankarshan  wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 11:28 AM, Ravishankar  wrote:
>
>> Only few years before even PCs supported all of these and it will take more
>> years to get this in all gadgets. So, the only expectation now is to at
>> least display the characters well. Input is the next priority which can be
>> solved by 3rd party apps for time being once the display issue is solved.
>
> Linux distributions have had the underlying codebase infrastructure to
> "support" Indian languages for close to 8 years now. Admittedly, the
> frameworks have changed/improved and, the resultant APIs have evolved.
> But the definition and scope of support put forth in my original mail
> has existed for that period of time. So it is certainly not a "few
> years".
>
> "Displaying the characters well" is a very broad based statement and,
> I'll provide an example from the 4.0.3 build - I see Bengali rendered
> with some degree of accuracy when using the Gmail app, the same cannot
> be said when using the Twitter app for Android. Which brings out the
> notion that the ability to build up and use the existing underlying
> frameworks is not very well baked in. The other bit that will be
> useful to create a set of publicly available standard test pages for
> Indic text. Paragraphs which have sufficient complexity being handled
> via nearly all conjunct combinations and so forth would actually help
> testing the mobile app to the fullest.
>
> Input and, primarily input methods are desired to be some form of
> standardization or, at least a reference implementation. In the early
> days of Linux (and, very recently during the stage with the 'Rupee'
> symbol), a lot of 3rd party application developers and ISVs came up
> with their own implementation of input methods and layout. The
> resultant effect was a large corpus of document which needed some form
> of 'translation' into Unicode-compliant form. Punting on ISVs to fix
> the input issue is a bad bet fraught with dangers. I am not suggesting
> that the ISVs will go out and deliberately muddy up waters. But the
> nature of the business and, the precedent leaves no doubt of such a
> situation repeating itself.

Well said sankarsan.

Did anyone tested wikipedias in these languages in Android ICS?
The controversial Lohit-Tamil font (I understand , Quality issues with
Lohit was the reason for disabling Webfonts extention in Tamil) seems
to be  the default in Android . Anyway rendering in Andoid will be
better that that of windows , because it uses harfbuzz.

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Webfonts deployment on Indic Wikiprojects

[Anivar Aravind]

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 8:49 AM, Praveen Prakash  wrote:
> I haven't seen any communication in any open platform with Malayalam
> Community members about this matter. A few weeks before I had a brief
> discussion with Santhosh about webfonts. But it was nothing about webfonts'
> rendering bugs. Infact, popular (and beautiful) Malayalam fonts are open
> licensed, but there are other rendering bugs.  Issue I raised was about an
> unnessessory char code change doing by webfonts which I felt a propaganda
> pushing in favor of his idea about some characters, and which need
> additional scripts on both client (= additional bandwidth) and server. But
> Santhosh quit the thread claiming my concerns are my pure imaginations. :)
> Naturally thread died.

Praveen Do you mean this bug ?
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29005

The bug speaks itself .

From a quick reading I felt what you were asking is to use not
properly forked font projects in webfonts, when santhosh took a stand
to use fonts them from upstream.

On Normalization of characters,  it is an optional feature, for
visibility of some chillus  , that can be disabled in user settings if
needed.
It perfectly makes sense for me, since dual encoding is an issue in
Malayalam , and the fix need to be on Unicode . The Webfonts hack is
just a positive step and optional fix to ensure, people will not be
missed from accessing knowledge in wikipedia , based on browser
restrictions.


Anivar



>
> I know Malayalam Wikimedian 'Vssun' tried to have an open conversation on
> Gerard's talk page, after Gerard's notice, but didn't see any development.
> As far as now I know no one, who was sure about webfonts deployment on ml
> projects.
>
> I certainly do not want webfonts in its current form in any of the Malayalam
> Wikiprojects. But I want to know why Malayalam is excluded from this
> deployment and I want to know why such a code deployed on many other wikies.
>
> I personally don't like Santhosh's enthusiasm to fly his scripts on
> wikimedia servers, based on his "I am correct, I am correct, I am the only
> correct" attitude.
>
> If webfonts is too bad for your language, I urge you to file a bug for
> removing it.
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 2:19 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan
>  wrote:
>>
>> If you want to test something new, either make it opt in, or don't do
>> it live. Not on Tamil, not on Hindi, not on any Wikipedia for that
>> matter.
>>
>> On 12/14/11, Ravishankar  wrote:
>> > On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 1:01 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >> I dont think its appropriate to be a bit more experimental. You are
>> >> seeing
>> >> the scale in absolute sense, we are seeing it in relative sense. Tamil
>> >> Wikipedia is 7th most-viewed Tamil site.
>> >
>> >
>> > +1. Similar stats can be observed for most of the Indic language Wiki
>> > projects with sizable content as they are the only / major source of
>> > reference online for the respective languages.
>> >
>> > Ravi
>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> Regards,
>> Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
>> Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th.
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore
>>
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>
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-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] India Programs Consultants on WMF Staff page

[Anivar Aravind]

On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan  wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I dont see India Programs Staff being mentioned in this page[1]. Is there a
> specific reason to it? IIRC number of employees / contractors from this page
> is important since goes to fundraising appeal numbers. While it is said that
> 95 staff, am not sure if some there are more are missed out like this. Can
> someone take it and forward and update. Thanks!
>
> [1] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Staff

AFAIK, They are Contractors, and not staff as such , due to the
absense of legal structure for WMF in India
And I believe they will become  the staff of India Programme Trust ,
once it is on wheels (And since India Trust is not an official WMF
body, they will not be WMF Staff)

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] IEP Pilot - Preliminary Analysis

[Anivar Aravind]

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 8:58 AM, Pradeep Mohandas
 wrote:
> hi Anivar,
>
> Wikipedians like us call it the Open Source Movement. Since, we're all
> on the Wikipedia list, the acronym is acceptable. We don't have to
> adjust for the FOSS guys and be specific. Please understand and
> adjust.

Pradep, I pointed it because that acronym created confusion in this list
Sudhavana understood OSM as Open street Maps, in the same way as i understood.
I feel your mail is adding further noise to thread

> Just feel that your email was not needed. I know you had good
> intentions and I'm assuming WP:AGF.
>
en:wp does not have a page on Open source Movement
It is FSM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_movement

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] IEP Pilot - Preliminary Analysis

[Anivar Aravind]

On Sat, Dec 3, 2011 at 1:05 AM, Tory Read  wrote:
> Dear Sudhanwa,
>
> My sincerest appologies. In my effort to be transparent, I made a mistake. In 
> the report, attribution by name will not occur.
>
> Thank you for answering the chapter question.
>
> OSM = open source movement. Thanks for your clarification.


For FOSS guys like us these are the meanings of following acronyms

FSM = Free Software Movement
OSM= Open Street Maps


Anivar

>
> Best,
>
> Tory Read
>
> Sent from my mobile
>
> On Dec 3, 2011, at 12:23 AM, Sudhanwa Jogalekar  
> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 10:39 AM, Tory Read  wrote:
>>> Hi Folks,
>>>
>>> My apologies for not replying sooner. I am on the ground in India, doing in 
>>> person interviews, while juggling communication on email, talk pages, 
>>> skype, etc.
>>>
>>> Here is a summary of what I have been up to:
>>> 20 hours in US reviewing talk pages and email list communication regarding 
>>> IEP
>>> Interviews so far, in order in which they were done (in person, unless 
>>> otherwise noted):
>>> - Barry Newstead, WMF SF
>>> - Frank Schulenburg, WMF SF
>>> - Annie Lin, WMF SF
>>> - LiAnna Davis, WMF SF
>>> - Hisham Mundol, WMF India
>>> - Nitika Tandon, WMF India
>>> - Shiju Alex, WMF India
>>> - Ram Shankar Yadav, CA Pune
>>> - Ishita Ghosh, professor, SSE, Pune
>>> - informal conversation with 2 SSE students and 2 CAs over lunch in Pune
>>> - Rashmi Barua, SSE student
>>> - Devanchi Tripathi, SSE student and CA
>>
>>
>>
>>> - Ashwin Baindur, Mandar Kulkarni (Pune WP community members) and Sudhanwa 
>>> Jogalekar (OSM friend of WP, Pune), group interview over dinner
>>
>> Dear Tory,
>> It was really nice to meet you again and have some discussions.
>>
>> I am not sure what is the context you are referring in those lines in
>> the mail. I am very much part of Pune community. and no way related to
>> OSM (open street maps)
>> All of us mentioned are India chapter members. Ashwin is the first
>> member of the chapter !!! and I also happen to be on the India chapter
>> EC. (apart from WMF GAC where I am not so active)
>>
>> One of the members wanted anonymity that you maintained during last
>> visit and was expected this time also. Somehow, that has not happened.
>>
>> Anyways,
>> Keep up the good work. Will like to see your report soon.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> -Sudhanwa
>>
>>
>>
>> [snip]
>
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-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Let's *Talk*

[Anivar Aravind]

On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 4:26 PM, Vickram Crishna
 wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Erik Moeller  wrote:
>>
>> And - to stay with the sandbox metaphor from another thread - if the
>> majority of contributors to a university-based program in India can
>> reach won't be able to contribute at an acceptable quality in WP
>> proper, then perhaps it's also time to think about more aggressive
>> sandboxing of contributions early in the game, at least when we're
>> dealing with a course where we either don't know what to expect, or we
>> _do_ based on experiences like the one to date. Possibly even using an
>> external sandbox.
>>
>
> If I understand it rightly, Erik points out that one of the questions raised
> here is the validity of the University-centric approach to this program.
> Hisham will recall I had queried this approach at a meetup way back when.
> This was before I found that it had a history, being a successful initiative
> in another milieu. I am sure now, with this experience, we can find ways to
> make the program work more effectively here, one possibility (not the only
> one) being shedding the college campus-centric focus, and reaching out more
> widely to people, in order to welcome more people within the contributory
> fold.  As Abhilash points out, this was a pilot, and it is up to us to
> evaluate its learnings and move forward from it, not trash it or its
> participants.
> --
> Vickram

+1 Vickram.

I shared the same concerns on assignment based university centric
model. In addition I had concerns with omitting indic language wiki
contributions from Pune Pilot , which i tried to express in an IRC
meetup.  Lets move forward with the learnings, but with wide
consultations on improved programme plan with the involvement of
communities .

This whole story , reminds me some experience in FOSS domain

When we are volunteering with Free software movement , to spread FOSS
in various campuses,  the first info we used to  provide after any
presentation  while reaching out to a new campus is  sharing
information on how to join in local LUG , or initiate a LUG in
college. During the same time, companies like SUN was appointing
campus ambassadors, and pumping money to promote their open source
initiatives, but in a non-collaborative way,through direct links with
college administration. Many times FOSS Activists have to fight with
this approach of Campus Ambassadors, who does not value the movement
or community to get permission for holding a programme in campus .
But over time,  what sustained is FOSS community initiatives and their
mode of budding new developers .

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Death and Post-mortem of Indian Education Program pilot

[Anivar Aravind]

Very Valid Points Aswin & pune community.  This is extremely useful. Putting
blame on students and educational system does not help us to study from
this experience . In addition , i was always wondering how we omitted
addressing copy-vios from the programme plan, since it is always expected
in "assignment" based IEP model .

Anivar


On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 9:13 AM, Ashwin Baindur wrote:

> *On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 4:28 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan 
>  wrote:*
> *I would also request people not to fork any more new threads on this
> with same thoughts, *
>
> CAMPUS AMBASSADOR SETBACK - The Local Community Viewpoint
>
> The recent hiatus in the Campus Education program proved what the Pune
> Community knew. That the statue had feet of clay. For a long time we have
> kept quiet, not wanting to disturb the boat but the time has come to tell
> the tale. So it helps all concerned to revisit the previous decisions,
> actions  and provides for better opportunities for improvements in future.
>
> Hisham first came to Pune in February to our meetup on his trip around the
> country to meet communities. He is smart, very likeable, intelligent,
> focussed and erudite. We were impressed and happy that a suitable person
> would support communities through the India program.
>
> In his subsequent visits over the next two months, whenever we met, there
> was no mention of the campus ambassador scheme or of a pilot project. The
> ambassador project was launched without any intimation and/or consultation
> with the community. The launch of the pilot project in Pune came as a
> complete surprise to the Community who read it from news reports.
>
> Ignoring the slight, on the basis of an email received rather late in the
> day, we looked forward to participating and hoped to make a meaningful
> contribution. We felt that with our contacts, experience, knowledge of
> local language, customs, etc. It would be a mutually beneficial partnership
> with campus ambassadors, which would result in adding to the strength of
> the very small community in Pune. We had no illusions that we could add
> great editting power to the venture because of the size of our community.
> Instead, we hoped to play the role of friend, philosopher and guide. We
> hoped to bring the following to the venture:
>
> * Wiki editting experience - we had a small handful of veteran editors
> including an admin (Srikeit). Whereas Hisham had none and little knowledge
> of the environment or knowledge of the way Wikipedians think.
>
> * Huge experience in event management, FOSS, crisis-management in wide
> fields of experience etc.
>
> * Intimate life-long knowledge of the educational system in Pune. One of
> our communities member Harshad is a notable cog in the academy machinery.
> Sudhanwa has been instructor in half a dozen colleges and has a valuable
> network of contacts in Pune as well as insight into attitudes, local
> politics, expectations etc. The Community also has well-wishers such as Mr
> Lalit Kathpalia, Director SICSR besides others.
>
> * A permanent long-term continuing presence in Pune (which Hisham or his
> staff do not have even today).
>
> * Capacity to act as mentors to campus ambassadors and provide moral and
> other kinds of support to CAs.
>
> * Capacity to act as “train the trainers”.
>
> * A limited capacity to edit the offerings of the students (which we
> considered, the least of the value that we could bring to the table).
>
> * Expertise for the Indic wikipedia aspects of the initiative, especially
> Marathi Wikipedia.
>
>
> Somehow, I do not know why, involvement of the community itself was
> bypassed, not wanted or not required by the program team. We were always
> asking for information, it was not directed purposefully towards us. The
> time came for the first Campus Ambassador. When we suggested that it was
> time to develop the syllabus, we were sent the American syllabus used to
> train the CAs which had a different setting to ours. We were wondering how
> such a thing was to be implemented. We prepared our draft points for how
> the training should be organised and waited to discuss the issue but by the
> time we could meet again, it was just a few days away from the training.
>
> To our surprise, we came to know of an airlift of PPI bigwigs from America
> - Frank Schulenberg, Annie Lin and PJ Tabit (an American CA on sabbatical
> to Pune). When we met just two days before the training became, we were
> told that Annie was driving the show. When Annie was asked what role she
> expected us to play, she asked Ashwin to give an opening address and we
> played some part in some discussions and case studies. Sudhanwa and Ashwin
> were there on Day One and Madar Kulkarni on Day two. Srikeit was there on
> both days (we came to know he is being co-opted into the CA program on a
> fellowship).
>
> Mr Lalit Kathpalia, a well-wisher of the Wikipedia Pune Community and
> Director, Symbiosis Institue of Computer Science and Research and Mr
> 

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Death and Post-mortem of Indian Education Program pilot

[Anivar Aravind]

Thanks Shiju.
I raised same points yesterday , in Malayalam wikimedia list , in a related
thread.
 Thanks for bringing this discussion here

Anivar

On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 5:58 AM, Shiju Alex wrote:

> Another strategy that we can adopt while doing this program in India is,
> about the selection of articles for editing. We can ask students to
> contribute to articles that they are interested in, rather than of all of
> them editing the articles on the same topic.
>
> The reason I am telling this is, In India (in general) it is not the
> students who are deciding the course (and career) that they want to
> study/pursue. Parents, relatives, and community around them decide that. So
> even though the student's interest may lie in a specific area, he might be
> studying a different course.
>
> Allowing students to edit in a topic that they like will bring in more
> original content. But the issue with this methodology is, the role of
> Professors might be reduced, and the role of CA and OA might be increased.
> And I am not sure how the
>
> But this methodology is adopted very successfully in Kerala using School
> wiki . But we may say, that is school children and
> they are not mature enough for wikipedia editing. Again that is our
> misconception. In general, personally I am more interested to target school
> students (high school and Plus 2) than college students. School children
> are fantastic. It is true that most of us under estimate them. But to see
> the successful result from India, see the young and wonderful wikipedians
> we have in Malayalam wikipedia and wikisource.
>
> *Note: *Please note that I am replying to this thread as a Malayalam wiki
> community memeber.
>
> Shiju
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 12:07 AM, Swaroop Rao wrote:
>
>> That's true Arjun, there is a lot of interest in this program in many
>> colleges, and this is going untapped. No, its not dead for sure. It was a
>> pilot, and it didn't come out pretty; no issues, that's how we learn. I
>> think that one thing we learnt is that the US model may not work out well
>> for India, so we need to develop an India specific model for this (That's
>> what we've been trying to do in these previous mails actually I guess).
>>
>> Swaroop Rao
>> (MikeLynch )
>>
>>
>> Steering Committee member, United States Education Program
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 23:36, Arjun mangol wrote:
>>
>>> Hey all,
>>>
>>> I refuse to believe it dead as of yet. There's yet a lot of avenues that
>>> haven't been explored. My personal suggestion was that let IEP establish a
>>> Wikipedia Club in every college in Pune to begin with, that would inculcate
>>> new, interested members who have a genuine passion for the project. Such
>>> clubs could meet every second Sunday, hold guest lecs, set a quota for a
>>> certain no. of articles to be created by the Pune chapter and so on by the
>>> members, teach its members better editing skills, and spread the knowledge.
>>> The CA training prog that I attended was a hell lotta fun and I wish many
>>> of my friends get the feel of it too.
>>>
>>> These clubs would be managed by all the 'veteran' CAs and newer ones if
>>> needed as and when. IEP would be the umbrella organisation to it all, and
>>> we can focus a lot more on quality of articles rather than the sheer no. of
>>> editors and rampant copyvio-ing done as a consequence by the newbies. Give
>>> it thought. My friends in many colleges throughout India were literally
>>> jealous that I was a part of it. Let's not let it go unnoticed that there
>>> is genuine interest spread in pockets throughout the country.
>>>
>>> - Arjun
>>>
>>> On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 11:18 PM, Arnav Sonara 
>>> wrote:
>>>



 hi,
>
> It was a pilot and hence I guess was meant to die at some point.
>
> First up, to the Campus Ambassadors, you guys showed a lot of courage
> in taking up and then following through on your commitment of being Campus
> Ambassadors through the length of this Pilot. I hope the team will also
> speak to the  Ambassadors whilst doing the post-mortem so future programs
> have the benefit of their "experience". The same also goes to the India
> Programs team that initiated this project.
>

 Thanks to all of you, yes this was a Pilot, but at no point I see it
 dying.  Its just that we have taken a pause right now to learn from the
 findings and ll come back all prepared and with the help of you all we ll
 try to gain new heights again.


 --
 Thanks
 Arnav (ricku).
 (User:Rangilo_Gujarati)


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[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] New Delhi, India

[Anivar Aravind]

FYI
>From Foundation List


-- Forwarded message --
From: James Heilman 
Date: Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 9:44 PM
Subject: [Foundation-l] New Delhi, India
To: foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org


Wikimedia Canada in collaboration with Wikimedia India and the University of
New Delhi is organizing a half day in New Delhi India. Anyone in the area is
invited to attend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Medicine/Delhi_2012

--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
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"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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[Wikimediaindia-l] [OT] The Deadly Microsoft Embrace

[Anivar Aravind]

Tehelka Report on TN freebie laptops and it politics
Relevant in the context of wikipedia offline plans in TN laptops
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws101011MICROSOFT.asp


Anivar
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other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Copyright Violations by (some) Students: Wikipedia India Education Program

[Anivar Aravind]

On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 3:11 PM, Gautam John  wrote:
> On 12 September 2011 13:16, Hisham Mundol  wrote:
>
>> (Some) students in the Pune pilot have copy-pasted copyright material onto
>> their articles.  We are taking these copyvios extremely seriously and here's
>> a summary of the action that we have taken.
>
> You know, Hisham, it's nice that the WMF takes this seriously but we
> might be over blowing it a tad too far. The WMFs policies work really
> well in a 1st world environment where there is great sensitivity to
> copyright and violations. In India, it's a different kettle of fish
> and we need to treat it as such.

feeling Same. Treat it like usual copyright violations happening in
wikipedia, and take precautionary steps. Disabling Leaderboad etc
seems to be little overstretched act. I wonder, how we missed
addressing Copyvios at all in the programme plan?

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] social media to use

[Anivar Aravind]

I think it is in the advertisement   of communication position with
foundation posted by Hisham sometimes back

On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 2:14 PM, Pradeep Mohandas
 wrote:
> hi,
> Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Can you share where you have
> spotted this? We're not planning to have a twitter account, just a hashtag -
> #wci11. This is also being used on identi.ca by a few users and we encourage
> this.
> We'd like to correct the error.
> warm regards,
> Pradeep Mohandas
>
> On 10 September 2011 08:18, Nagarjuna G  wrote:
>>
>> In the recent announcement about the wikimedia conference I saw this:
>>
>> Social Media Facebook and Linkedin event pages, and official Twitter
>> account
>>
>> Mediawiki as a media technology does not belong there. It is not the
>> outcome and end that this group should be interested in, but also means of
>> getting there.
>>
>> I personally think we should encourage and use the free software
>> alternatives like identi.ca, diaspora so that the event takes an opportunity
>> to promote these media which protects user's freedom.
>>
>> By linking your account to other facebook or twitter followers to
>> identi.ca account you will help tell the world that microblogging can be
>> done with free software as well and your event supports/sponsors identi.ca.
>>
>> I do hope the mediawiki conference supports free social media and uses
>> this occasion to spread this message among the wikimedians.
>>
>> --
>> GN
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Pradeep Mohandas
> How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9
>
>
>
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Welcome to the India Team! : Shiju & Nitika

[Anivar Aravind]

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 1:41 PM, CherianTinu Abraham
wrote:

> Congratulations to Shiju and Nitika.
>
> It has been great working along with Shiju, closely  for years now and I
> don't have to tell that how much he deserves this. I wondered how he gets
> time to "really" work with ABB with all his wiki activities ;) and I am sure
> that this position would help him concentrate on one thing he is really
> passionate about.
>
> Welcome on-board, Nitika ! Looking forward to work with you too.
>
> Best wishes again to both Shiju and Nitika !
>
>
Dear Tinu,

i was writing same lines . you stole my words

Kudos to expanded India Team !!!

Anivar

>
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikimedia-in-mum] [Wikimedia-IN-PUN] Wiki India Conference

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 4:36 PM, Ashwin Baindur
 wrote:
> That is such a good idea. First of all we would need to see how many
> featured articles exist in each language and if they would fit in a DVD.
> OpenZIM would probably be the way to go. Do we have a list of sysops or
> pointsmen for each language Wikipedia? I think chapter was assembling this
> detail.

https://github.com/santhoshtr/wiki2cd/wiki/
This is another technology option, if each language team can comeup
with selected article titles.

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Technical Help Needed

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 2:10 PM, Anivar Aravind
 wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 2:04 PM, Gautam John  wrote:
>> Hey:
>>
>> I was wondering is anyone here could offer some help to the Chapter to
>> set up a system to process membership forms etc.
>
> Seems like CiviCRM is best suited for your needs in long term . You
> may need some customizations as well for 3.2- 3.5
> http://civicrm.org/

Using Hasgeek Job Board may be helpful for you to get someone , after
defining the technology need well

http://jobs.hasgeek.in/

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Technical Help Needed

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 2:04 PM, Gautam John  wrote:
> Hey:
>
> I was wondering is anyone here could offer some help to the Chapter to
> set up a system to process membership forms etc.

Seems like CiviCRM is best suited for your needs in long term . You
may need some customizations as well for 3.2- 3.5
http://civicrm.org/

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Community-Chapter Relations

[Anivar Aravind]

> On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Shiju Alex  wrote:
>> In fact all of us know the effort and pain took by Mumbai/Pune community to
>> make arrangements for the Wikimedia India conference. They have reached out
>> to almost all community members and asked for the support. As per the below
>> mail they have reached chapter also. The response from chapter is also
>> listed below :)
>>
>> Chapter should support the efforts of Mumbai-Pune community; not to
>> discourage/derail the great work done by a community.
>>
>> There are many other points listed by Ashwin in the below mail, all those
>> need to be discussed.

Corrected typos


 +1 Shiju . A healthy relationship is a must for community growth . I
suggest Chapter to not to make such restrictive
regulations/frameworks or project for the time being, before AGM
starts (after membership periods) , since your role on establishing
chapter is completed, and the very next step is opening chapter for
community ownership

 Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Community-Chapter Relations

[Anivar Aravind]

+1 Shiju . A healthy relationship is a must for community growth . I
suggest Charter to not to make such restrictive
regulations/frameworks or project for the time being, before AGM
starts (after membership periods) , since your role on establishing
chapter is completed, and the very next step is opening chapter for
community ownership

Anivar


On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Shiju Alex  wrote:
> In fact all of us know the effort and pain took by Mumbai/Pune community to
> make arrangements for the Wikimedia India conference. They have reached out
> to almost all community members and asked for the support. As per the below
> mail they have reached chapter also. The response from chapter is also
> listed below :)
>
> Chapter should support the efforts of Mumbai-Pune community; not to
> discourage/derail the great work done by a community.
>
> There are many other points listed by Ashwin in the below mail, all those
> need to be discussed.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 7:33 AM, Ashwin Baindur 
> wrote:
>>
>> The national chapter recently informed the community about its Membership
>> and Community engagement plan -June 2011.
>>
>> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-June/003346.html
>> In that document, the regulatory framework for conduct of Wikiconferences
>> was released.
>> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/India_Wiki_Conference_Framework
>> Shortly thereafter, a clarification was issued.
>>
>> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-June/003378.html
>> Members of the community must be puzzled at the need for clarification
>> from the Chapter on the issues of its regulatory framework when there was no
>> discussion online. This is because the recent announcement of the framework,
>> in conjunction with other issues, led to the community believing that the
>> chapter had forsaken it.
>> A little history - the idea for a Wikiconference was mooted way back in
>> March by the Mumbai community and they asked the Pune community to co-host
>> it to which the Pune community agreed. As India now has a national chapter,
>> we naturally asked for their support more than two months ago.  For more
>> than two months they were silent. Yesterday, they responded saying that the
>> community was invited to submit their proposal, duly modified as per the
>> said framework, and resubmit it for consideration with other bids. The
>> cavaliar treatment of the serious efforts put in to date by the communities
>> and the contents of the Framework of Regulations were disturbing to the
>> community.
>> At the face off it, one may just consider the Regulatory Framework as just
>> another logical and reasonable document, but its language, text and subtext
>> upset the community, in light of Chapter's attitude.
>> The first and over-riding issue was the type of language used and its
>> indication of the relation between chapter and communities. We all know that
>> the Wikimedia Foundation encourages national chapters so that the community
>> and creation of knowledge by them is facilitated. However, the language
>> herein clearly gives a message - that the Indian chapter is boss and all
>> Indian wikimedian communities are subservient to it.
>> While that is a great inequity in itself, the community was also aggrieved
>> that the framework has been foisted on them without discussion, without any
>> attempt to get them to participate and buy in into the plan, without
>> community consensus and without any consideration of the community's
>> interests. This feudalistic attitude is considered to be an anachronism in
>> volunteer driven communities of the 21st Centuries especially in India. So,
>> no matter whether the framework is good or bad, sensible or not, the
>> approach to the community taken by the chapter is to be firmly objected to
>> and resisted.
>> The Mumbai & Pune community supports the chapter, and have defended the
>> chapter on number of occasions in email discussions. Members of the two
>> communities have enthusiastically joined the chapter once membership opened.
>> A member of the Mumbai and a member of the Pune community are the first two
>> members to join by NEFT and physical cheque. To the best of my knowledge 24
>> members from Pune joined the chapter in response to Arjuna Rao Chavala's
>> appeal for member ships when he came last month to our Pune meetup.
>> We earnestly believe that India needs an active, sympathetic, facilitative
>> and supportive chapter. We look forward to heartily cooperating with such a
>> chapter - alas, the chapter's latest tune was nothing of that kind. It
>> seemed to be indicative of wanting power and to dominate.
>> The third issue, were the "black" provisions of the framework. Each of the
>> sentences seemed to imply negative connotations for the community.
>> To give you some examples of the "black" provisions -
>> Example one - Finance
>> The responsibilities of the Host city team included "Fund raising",
>> whereas the corresponding respons

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Delhi Chapter (User:AroundTheGlobe)

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear friends

What happening now here is the splitting of community spirit.
Wikimedia Movement in india is anyway unite and active irrespective of the
presence and activities of chapter/ chapters
And all Indian projects (irrespective of language) achieved a lot of
momentum even without initiating a chapter.
The purpose of Legal bodies is to stregthen this growth by using its
resources and time in various ways.
Leave the number of chapters we need to chapter approval bodies of wikimedia
foundation.

Since Delhi Wikimedians raises the concerns  about absence of India
chapter's attention to North India/hindi speaking community, it is an
important area of concern for the current chapter to wipe off that feeling
through its activities, irrespective of whether they are applying for a new
chapter or not.
This list is anyway to share developments in each wikipedias , and to share
best practices
So lets close this discussion here and  continue as the same productive
active community of free knowledge activists in India

~ cheers
Anivar
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Delhi Chapter

[Anivar Aravind]

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Vibhi Jain  wrote:
> Wikimedia India chapter is mainly
> Concentrated toward South Indian Languages,

Any measurable work by Indian Chapter is not visible for me so far.
Both with North /south indian languages/ areas.
I think They are just placing them on track after clearing the hurdles
on legal side.

All work currently visble on their website is the work by language
wiki Communities and not countable as chapter work . May be that
resulted in misconception

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Google shutting down translate and transliterate APIS

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 11:58 AM, sankarshan  wrote:
> On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 8:23 AM, Anivar Aravind
>  wrote:
>> There is major problem in depending upon Non-FOSS solutions.
>
> There is. However, the line that comes immediately next might just
> need to be couched as a personal opinion in the absence of cited facts
> around it :)
>
>> It seems google used api's for collecting crowd sourced input for
>> improving their database & now shutting it down.

We have seen its evolution & improvement of service with wide adoption
over time.
One curious factor i used to notice always is the  formation of words
with chillu characters in transliteration API .
Since there is a standard difference between Unicode 5.0  and 5.1
Chillu Characters it is easy to identify. Google is officially
following most recent unicode version, but since most of the malayalam
users uses chillu letters in unicode 5.0 specifications,  it is
periodically changed in that way .


>> Input methods such as Transliteration does not need online services . It can 
>> be easily done
>> without google or microsoft.  And popularise extensions such as
>> Narayam existing on mediawiki is the best way to move forward. In
>> addition, it will be good if Indic wikipedian's can develop a
>> stylebook for correct usage and link it with extensions such as
>> narayam. Then the possibility of typing errors can also be reduced.
>
> I am more interested in the line in Sudhanwa's mail which seems to
> suggest that WMF should be providing APIs (and, hosting a service
> therefore ?) around this aspect.

Yes, it is an interesting possibility

> And, I am afraid I also do not comprehend the usage of the term
> 'stylebook' - what does it mean in this context ?

In google transliterate , it took a lot of time to correct spellings
in word formations
Since wikipedia have a large DB , and editors , who are aware about
correct usage , a style book of correct indic language spellings for
transliterated  inputs can help input tools like narayam to auto
correct common spelling errors . It was a major feature of google
transliterate . This can be also implemented in API level as well



>> In my opinion Translation Service& its api of google for indic is not
>> that great anyway , and usable for wikimedia projects . So i believe
>> it will not make much issues in wikimedia indic projects
>
> The usage of the Google Translate API has been, for a while, discussed
> under the umbrella of whether the translated content can be 'freely'
> (as in libre-ly) used across domains.

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Odia Wikipedia reached 1000 Articles

[Anivar Aravind]

On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 7:13 PM, Shiju Alex  wrote:
>
> Congrats to Odia wiki community.
>
> From a wiki with almost no activism during 2011 March, now Odia wiki 
> community is grown as one of the most vibrant wiki communities of India. 
> Really appreciate the efforts and pain took by few native language speakers 
> like Subhashih, Srikanth, Ashusthosh, Samvidhan Mohanty, and few others. The 
> support received from Professor Dhanada Mishra during the initial stages also 
> require special mention.
>
> Looking forward to hear more inspiring news from Odia community.

Congrats Odiya team for building a strong wiki community within a
short timespan !

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Google shutting down translate and transliterate APIS

[Anivar Aravind]

There is major problem in depending upon Non-FOSS solutions.
It seems google used api's for collecting crowd sourced input for
improving their database & now shutting it down. Input methods such as
Tranlitration does not need online services . It can be easily done
without google or microsoft.  And popularise extensions such as
Narayam existing on mediawiki is the best way to move forward. In
addition, it will be good if Indic wikipediam's can develop a
stylebook for correct usage and link it with extensions such as
narayam. Then the possibility of typing errors can also be reduced.


In my pinion Translation Service& its api of google for indic is not
that great anyway , and usable for wikimedia projects . So i believe
it will not make much issues in wikimedia indic projects

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press]: The Indian Express : "2, 155 images uploaded in record 23 days"

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 8:39 AM, CherianTinu Abraham
 wrote:
> The newspaper had not contacted me or possibly any ml Wikipedians directly
> for this article.
> There is a general misconception, among general public or media folks, that
> the images that are free to use are not copyrighted.
> Aniwar, How do you think we can create a general awareness to all ?

I think it is better to create a FAQ entry in the current FAQ,  that
addresses  permissible copyright/ copyleft wikipedia uses with answers
to common misconceptions .
We need to link that question with the term copyleft in Press-releases
, while using the term copyleft

And FAQ entry will help  to get it circulated among wikipedians, when
they  are using it on meetups & workshops

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press]: The Indian Express : "2, 155 images uploaded in record 23 days"

[Anivar Aravind]

On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 7:50 AM, CherianTinu Abraham
 wrote:

> The 2,155 copyright-free images uploaded are on diverse topics.

As i mentioned earlier this copyright-free tag coming up with most of
the reports on wikipedia is frustrating. We need to have a proper
strategy to address  it. Most of the images uploaded in Malayalam
Loves wikipedia event are not copyright free


Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] ‘Kanaja’ now accessible for the blind too.. How about wikipedia?

[Anivar Aravind]

On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan
 wrote:
> Aravind, thank you for the link.
> It comes very handy.
> Good to know that the state government is involved in this. Maybe, we could
> try it in other states.
> Regards,
> Srikanth.
>

The project i mentioned is not limited to wikipedia. It is more on
e-accessibility level.
And the attention received for Kanija encyclopedia , just by using a
Text to Speech system(TTS) implies theneed of lobbying on
E-accessibility policies to make Free Knowledge available for Indian
Population

India has a phenomenally large percentage of disabled persons.
Aproximately 6% of the population has a disability. An additional 34%
of the population is illiterate and an additional 77 million are
elderly (as per 2001 Census). The largest democracy in the world
cannot afford to exclude this significant a chunk of its population
from participating in the life of the country, which is increasingly
intertwined with the Internet.

Such exclusion is contrary to the Indian Constitution which guarantees
to its Citizens a Right to receive information. The Freedom of Speech
and Expression enshrined in Art. 19(1) (a) is inclusive of the right
to receive information. This right extends to receiving speech that is
of a commercial nature as well.

India is signatory to the United Nation Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities, 2006 (UNCRPD) and the Biwako Millennium
Framework Towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society
for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific, 2002

In my perception a policy on  E-accessibility on web&Computers must
cover Free Knowledge available to all in accessible formats, including
offline access (in the lines of WMF's vision) , Localised Interfaces &
Free Technologies supporting Local language( Text to speech, speech to
text etc , and indic on web Projects) , Open standards ( WCAG 2.0
Guidelines http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/) and Trainings in FOSS based
accessibility tools for Disabled  for ensuring e-accessibility

A process for building a national e-accessibility Policy is in place.
Groups like Centre for Internet & Society is pushing WCAG 2.0 adoption
to that
If WMF  can involve in this work by highlighting the link between
E-accessibility , and Free Knowledge Resources , it will be an
interesting step.

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] ‘Kanaja’ now accessible for the blind too.. How about wikipedia?

[Anivar Aravind]

in Kerala , I have seen many people visually challenged people
accessing wikipedia (english &hindi wikipedia's) throughout the state
using orca+festival  with the training provided by INSIGHT .a joint
project of state IT mission & a non profit group SPACE this is the
project website http://insight.kerala.gov.in/about/


On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 5:05 PM, Arun Ganesh  wrote:
> He was from this group called Third Eye in Chennai  http://thirdeyetvg.com .
> They support student volunteers to develop accessible technology.
>
> On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan 
> wrote:
>>
>> During the chennai meetup, one gentlemen had told us people from
>> blind-user-group do access Tamil Wikipedia through a screen reading software
>> they have and it was pleasant news to us.
>> Regards
>> Srikanth.L
>
>
> --
> j.mp/ArunGanesh
>
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>



-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press]: The Hindu : "Now, copyright-free maps of States, districts, panchayats"

[Anivar Aravind]

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 4:33 PM, Nagarjuna G  wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 3:28 PM, Anirudh Bhati  wrote:
>> Okay, guys.  This is uber-cool stuff.  Hats off! :)
>>
>> How about a workshop on training Wikimedians on map-creation?  I would
>> love to participate.
>>
>
> Sure.  if you get yourself organized gnowledge.org lab can conduct a
> workshop on making freemaps.
>
> btw., the project reported in the press:  is this same as
> openstreetmap project or it is different?  where are the freemaps of
> Kerala published?

GN,

AFAIK this is a map image generation project to draw the boundaries of
Local Self Governments.

Anivar

> --
> GN
>
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-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press]: The Hindu : "Now, copyright-free maps of States, districts, panchayats"

[Anivar Aravind]

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 7:43 AM, CherianTinu Abraham
 wrote:
> The Hindu : "Now, copyright-free maps of States, districts, panchayats"
> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1697940.ece

In the last few news reports , the "copyright free" phrase is
repeating. This is worrying.
I think we should try to correct the reporters or try to give an
explanation about the
copyright of wiki project content. All the content in wiki projects are not
"copyright free", but uses a permissive copyright or copyleft as its
is popularly known.

I think Wiki Activists also need this sensitizations to communicate
licensing well to reporters & public.

Anivar

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Cheat-Sheet for Fellowships: Campus Program Pilot in Pune

[Anivar Aravind]

Send contacts to you in off list mail

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 9:32 PM, Hisham Mundol  wrote:
> Absolutely.
> Hisham Mundol
>
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> India Programs
>
> skype: hisham.wikimedia
> gtalk: hmun...@wikimedia.org
> twitter: @mundol
> On Apr 12, 2011, at 7:23 PM, Anivar Aravind wrote:
>
> Some of my friends are involved in Designing & Training  a FOSS
> elective in COEP , Pune
> http://www.fosscommunity.in/wiki/Pune/COEP/FOSS_Devel_Elective
>
> May be we can use those networks for popularizing Campus Ambassadors
> programme through students in such networks to invite more quality
> applications
>
> Anivar
>
>



-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Cheat-Sheet for Fellowships: Campus Program Pilot in Pune

[Anivar Aravind]

Some of my friends are involved in Designing & Training  a FOSS
elective in COEP , Pune
http://www.fosscommunity.in/wiki/Pune/COEP/FOSS_Devel_Elective

May be we can use those networks for popularizing Campus Ambassadors
programme through students in such networks to invite more quality
applications

Anivar


On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 6:57 PM, Hisham Mundol  wrote:
> Hi Folks
> It's probably slightly ill-adivised to use the word "cheat-sheet" in
> connection with a campus activity - but this comes dangerously close to
> that!  :-)
> I've received a bunch of queries regarding Fellowships (and Campus
> Ambassadors) for the upcoming Pune pilot of the Campus Program.  The
> document Fellowships Proposal Template outlines the Fellowships that are
> required for this pilot.  I thought I would make it easier for those who
> wish to apply for Fellowships by making this document in the format that you
> can use for a Fellowship Proposal.
> Some additional context and the process is outlined in Fellowships.  You
> could write "Design, Implement, Manage & Monitor Campus Program Pilot in
> Pune, India" in the "Create Proposal" option at the bottom of the
> Fellowships page.  You can then cut and replace the proposal from my
> document.  I have left comments in my document to additional material that
> you can (and ought to) add.  It's really important that your individuality
> and thinking comes through in your proposal so please do amend at will while
> you are submitting your proposal.  If you're interested, please do submit
> proposals as early as you can because the timelines are short for the pilot.
> Please do share this email with whoever else you think might be interested
> but are not on this mailing list.
> As always, feel free to reach out to me if you need any help/clarifications.
> Many thanks.
> Hisham Mundol
>
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> India Programs
>
> skype: hisham.wikimedia
> gtalk: hmun...@wikimedia.org
> twitter: @mundol
>
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>
>



-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Wikita-l] Tamil Wikipedia crossed the 30, 000 articles milestone

[Anivar Aravind]

Congrats Tamil Wikipedian's. Crossing 3 Mark is an Important mile
stone for any non latin -wikipedia
They have to cross barriers of Technology, Access to computers,
Language and many more hurdles in the process to grow.
Congrats Tamil wikipedian's for crossing this 3 article mark.

~ Regards
Anivar Aravind

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] ToI front page: Rs 1 cr for Sanskrit WP

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear hp nadig,

Which department will be incharge of such wikipedia like projects?

May be it can be used for releasing the content and images under
wikipedia complaint license, even if they keep editing control

Anivar

On 2/25/11, Hari Prasad Nadig  wrote:
> Just checked with my sources in the government - and what I hear is that the
> allocated funds *isn't* for Sanskrit Wikipedia, but a project "on the lines"
> of Sanskrit Wikipedia, but perhaps with editing control.
>
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 10:45 AM, Prashanth NS
> wrote:
>
>> Yea. I remember that announcement 2 years back and then it got converted
>> into an internal project.
>>
>> But, a good opportunity for advocacy here. Perhaps some chapter members
>> should meet the department officials and try and get co-opted into the
>> decision-making process. Often, it is lack of information and trust that
>> scares them. Unlike 2 years, back with the chapter in place and most of us
>> quite well networked, we should get involved closely and see if we can get
>> them to invest in improving the sanskrit and kananda wikis.
>>
>>
> The government usually prefers a project with editing control rather than
> one without any direct control over content decisions made.
>
> --
> Hari Prasad Nadig
>

-- 
Sent from my mobile device

"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] (OT) On the importance of Unicode

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear gautam

Thanks for those links. I am aware about that. But not get enough time
to read it yet. But are you sure, it specified unicode 5.1 . I am
curious becuase new rupee symbol getting encoded only in unicode 6.1.
Usually govt standards does not specify versions.

Anivar

On 2/24/11, Gautam John  wrote:
> Two things I meant to add:
>
> 1. The eGov standards body for India has recently notified Unicode
> 5.1.0 as the default standard for all eGov applications henceforth.
> (Sadly, their website is DoA - http://egovstandards.gov.in/) I am
> hopeful that this will be the start of some initiative within
> Government and would, hopefully, spread.
>
> A cache of their Approach Paper on Localization is here:
>
> http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:e28QCFBDI-cJ:egovstandards.gov.in/standards_localisation_app+india+egov+standards+unicode&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in&source=www.google.co.in
>
> And a cache their Character Encoding Standard For Indian Languages is here:
>
> http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:dYxnM6D7IMQJ:egovstandards.gov.in/egscontent.2009-12-29.6248244073/at_download/file+india+egov+standards+unicode&hl=en&gl=in&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgxDT6JyHRlgWfR2TKYHKRGeAM5PigxzZAPyo2M1d6rxGnOC3sQ0S5XVDVVvPL_t5ZKmui0ghMMO63q2hZMT_WeJq0WH5FnEFYFioh7EZ_Uzj8XPnvVMatGZ4vO9kv6RXJZM56e&sig=AHIEtbQnDd2Gy29vyy97FnvAw2g4hN3cqQ
>
> 2. On input methods - is there anything of a best practice or even a
> Government notification about an input standard?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Best,
>
> Gautam
> 
> http://social.prathambooks.org/
>
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-- 
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"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] (OT) On the importance of Unicode

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear sankarshan

Initial license of raghu font series was confusing. But later they
changed it to gnu gpl, as per the insistance of RK joshi. Gnu gpl
licensed fonts were released as a part of Indix project of cdacmumbai.

Anivar

On 2/24/11, sankarshan  wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 8:51 AM, Anivar Aravind
>  wrote:
>
>> CDACMumbai have a history of GPL Licensing one font series as a part
>> of their indix project  , Raghu Series, by Late. Prof. R.K.Joshi,
>> Famous Calligrapher and Researcher in Type faces.
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_K_Joshi
>> Rebranding his Jana Series fonts to raghu series & GPLing them  was
>> his long term effort from inside CDAC. But its font tables need to be
>> corrected to make them usable .
>
> The 'GPL' that these fonts had was the 'General Public License' wasn't
> it ? And not the GNU General Public License. I may be mistaken though
> etc.
>
> I've been, in the past, known to berate and sigh C-DAC. In recent
> times I've arrived at the conclusion that there's no upside thinking
> that TDIL/MinIT/C-DAC will eventually figure out that selling services
> around their products make for a better business case than trying to
> hawk the products themselves. Or, that LGPL licensing their products
> might make it easier to have an application developer network around
> it.
>
> --
> sankarshan mukhopadhyay
> <http://sankarshan.randomink.org/blog>
>
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-- 
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"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] (OT) On the importance of Unicode

[Anivar Aravind]

On 2/24/11, Nikhil Sheth  wrote:
> Great discussion, but I wonder why I didn't see any real, easy, doable,
> inexpensive, quickfix solution put forth that every Indian on the internet
> can begin using immediately to get around the Unicode Vs custom Fonts issue.

Hey,
What you are mentioning is just about Transliteration Input methods.
And there are 100's of such solutions , Phonetic Keyboards etc .
Transliteration keyboards existed years before google & most of the
solutions you pointed.
Take a look at Firefox extensions and m17n-db to get a feel of it.

The Discussion here was not only about Input methods. It is about
Encoding , Rendering & Fonts, which is the underlying technology which
enable input methods to work

Also just a friendly request to understand thread first before
knee-jerking with what you know

Anivar Aravind


> So here's some from me:
>
> 1. Quick copy-paste, working with a net connection:
> http://www.google.com/transliterate/
>
> 2. Put a bookmarklet/favorite in your browser to type in Indian language in
> any site. इधर भी : http://t13n.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/blet/docs/help.html
>
> 3. Get these languages installed in 5 mins on your machine so you can use it
> in any application from notepad to chat :
> http://www.google.com/ime/transliteration/ or sneak out the files for
> offline installation in your hometown using this neat hack:
> http://visibleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/google-transliteration-ime-offline.html
>
> (I know our greatest angels won't care about this one because it only works
> on Evil Windows!)
>
> 4. Indian made alternative both editor and input language:
> http://www.baraha.com/
>
> Sincere apologies to the purists who might blow up like a volcano at either
> going to the Evil Google Lord for help, or Daring to use transliteration
> instead of the
> so-easy-to-use-and-learn-if-only-you-spend-a-whole-day-on-it-and-get-an-indic-script-keyboard-from-God-knows-where-because-everyone-is-well-off-and-supposed-to-be-living-in-a-well-connected-metro-like-me.
>
>
> If there is an open-source/cross-platform/creative commons/kumbayaah
> solution where we don't have to mug up what to do when we forget what we are
> supposed to have mugged up like the key combination for भ or त्र or ण
> or ळinstead of just typing "bh" or "tra" or "na" or "l" and (if
> needed)
> backspacing twice to get a dropdown menu to choose what we truly want and
> moving on with our lives, or where we don't have to bend the laws of physics
> to get that elusive त्सा or perform computer साल्सा to have that split
> letter stuff on our screen then let's have it right here and right now or
> let's get our hands dirty and make'em for the love of the Lord instead of
> blasting the impure and corrupt Harijans who dare to take shortcuts for the
> sake of getting their work done on time.
>
> (Disclaimer : Only little offense meant with the hope to give a kick and
> create a demand for real open source solutions that can rival the private
> ones)
>
>
> Cheers,
> Nikhil Sheth
> +91-966-583-1250
> Pune, India
> Teach For India <http://www.teachforindia.org/> Fellow, 2011-13
> www.nikhilsheth.tk
> Find me on: Twitter <http://twitter.com/nikhiljs> |
> Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/nikjs>|
> LinkedIn <http://in.linkedin.com/in/nikhiljs> | Google
> <http://www.google.com/profiles/nikhil.js>|
> RangDe<http://www.rangde.org/investor/nikhilsheth>
> Join me on: Pune Documentary
> Club<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=138497769525636>| Let's
> Do it Pune <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lets-do-it-Pune/103857326346659> |
> Toastmasters in
> Pune<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toastmasters-in-Pune/148767611833746>|
> Wikipedia
> For Schools
> project<http://education.wikia.com/wiki/Wikipedia_For_Schools_Offline_Edition>
>


-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] (OT) On the importance of Unicode

[Anivar Aravind]

On 2/23/11, Gautam John  wrote:
> Dear Anivar:
>
>> There are Four Components
>
> Thanks for the addendum - how important is the rendering engine in the
> scheme of things? Is work on that pretty much done or are there issues
> there too?

If your language have some errors in Complex Glyph formation, it is a
rendering engine issue.
You can find more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Enabling_complex_text_support_for_Indic_scripts

Rendering Engines like Pango evolved through more than 10 years of
patching & correction by language communities. It work Pretty well in
most of the indic languages.
Harfbuzz(http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/HarfBuzz) is
relatively new player in the field by taking code from Pango QT & ICU
. Harfuzz-ng is used in new Firefox 4 as its default Rendering engine
.Uniscribe engine in  Windows based systems started supporting Indic
fonts  from Windows XP SP2  onwards.

Let me give an example for why Rendering engine is important.
Now For latin script wiki's there is PDF download option & Pediapress
to print them directly
But Such Options are not available for Non Latin wikis
Character Rendering is a the block here. Pedia press's library fails
to render non latin  content , because the library they use is not
making use of rendering engines.

If a teacher went to internet cafe for reading a wikipedia entry in
indian language , she must ensure following things before
reading/printing articles

1. ensure the Operating system have Indic support
2. Ensure It have a font to display content correctly
3. Browser renders well

Then only she can read it/ print it in human readable form. If there
is PDF export facility with server side rendering , it was so easy for
her to to take it /print it for students.

Sometime back Santhosh Posted his project Pypdflib for testing in this
list. It is  a library for rendering PDF from Indic language wiki
pages . It uses functionality of pango for generating PDF
In short Rendering is a major roadblock in reaching wikipedia to
masses. The projects like santhosh's effort  are very important to
fill this gap.


>
>> It is Font dependent. There is a need of Preparing Conversion maps for
>> each Ascii font to convert data encoded in them to unicode.
>> Swathanthra Malayalam Computing's Payyan's
>> (http://wiki.smc.org.in/Payyans ) is a tool developed for converting
>> ASCII to Unicode easily  for any Indic Language by building a Font map
>> for each needed font . This tool helped Malayalam Wiktionary to
>> convert many copyright expired books in non standard encodings to
>> Unicode
>> Popular Firefox extension named Padma uses similar encoding conversion
>> tables to display ASCII news websites in Unicode
>
> So how do these work? They have built a map for every single ASCII
> encoding/font pair (since this is some ugly hack) and the
> corresponding Unicode value?

Yes. payyan's wikipage have an Howto for creating fontmaps

>There must be thousands of ASCII
> encoding/font pairs right? Is this even a viable option? Are there
> alternatives to this?

This is the only viable option as of now. Most of the languages have
around 10-20 popular fonts . Creating Mapping tables for them is
anyway a big task . But if each language communities are contributing,
it is not a big task. And Padma project has done mapping of many news
website fonts already through the contributions of many people.

There is no other free alternative .  BTW Document Conversion is a big
business and many corporates are working on this area to provide
solutions for companies & governments

>> I dont think this will happen. There is a long history of lobbying for
>> thiswith CDAC from 2001 Onwards and nothing happened. CDAC made enough
>> money by selling ASCII fonts(and still makes) and They cant even think
>> about giving them away with a FOSS License . And during frequent terms
>>  they eat more government money for making yet another CD to ship with
>> their FOSS project forks (such ad Bhaathiya OO , IndiFox etc )+ These
>> fonts. In the same way most of the TDIL funding to CDAC for Indic
>> Language technology research does not make output at all or not
>> getting released, even after TDIL's policy decision to release them
>> under a foss license.
>
> I can see the frustration of this - so in your opinion, an effort not
> worth undertaking? Assuming they were ready to use a FOSS license, are
> the fonts good enough to want to use?

In my opinion, Efforts on this will be waste of time & money .I dont
believe in miracles with CDAC.

CDACMumbai have a history of GPL Licensing one font series as a part
of their indix project  , Raghu Series, by Late. Prof. R.K.Joshi,
Famous Calligrapher and Researcher in Type faces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_K_Joshi
Rebranding his Jana Series fonts to raghu series & GPLing them  was
his long term effort from inside CDAC. But its font tables need to be
corrected to make them usable .
We did this work for malayalam and Raghu-Malayalam is current

[Wikimediaindia-l] Wikipedia gets worried about legal liability in India

[Anivar Aravind]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-02-21/News_and_notes

Dynamic content so copy-pasting relevant text

Foundation appoints "consultant for National Programs" in India,
following search for National Program Director

The Wikimedia Foundation has appointed a "consultant for National
Programs, India", whose role will be "to design and implement specific
pilot programs that encourage many more Indians to become contributors
to our projects in Indic languages as well as English." The new
position is being filled by Hisham Mundol, who worked on "large-scale
national programs on HIV/AIDS prevention" when he was a consultant for
the Public Health Foundation of India. As Hisham Mundol said in his
first IRC office hours, he speaks Hindi, Malayalam and English, and is
currently based in Delhi.

The announcement by the Wikimedia Foundation's Chief Global
Development Officer, Barry Newstead, explained that Mundol is "a
newcomer to the Wikimedia movement [who] will be spending the coming
weeks (not months!) in learning mode". In an FAQ on the new position,
it was explained that among the 179 applications, there were only
seven from active Wikimedians, who do not have the required
experience.

The Foundation had not been advertising a job opening for a consultant
for National Programs. Instead, the job opening in last August was for
a "National Program Director, India", who would have been "the
Wikimedia Foundation's chief representative in India". Newstead did
not mention the previous job title or explain the modifications,
except to note in the FAQ that the new position was as consultant
rather than a staffer, partly because "we want to keep our options
open in regards to the potential structure of future Wikimedia
Foundation operations in India". It is likely that concerns about such
a director's exposure to legal liability for Wikimedia content may
have played a role. Asked in the IRC office hour about "the strategy
we have for dealing with legal issues in India", Newstead emphasized
that the Indian chapter and "Hisham, who is an independent contractor,
have NO control over Wikimedia content as organizations." Discussing
such concerns further, he advised the Indian chapter to get a good
legal counsel, and align with organizations like the Centre for
Internet and Society (CIS), which might be inclined to support
Wikipedia.

-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] (OT) On the importance of Unicode

[Anivar Aravind]

On 2/22/11, Gautam John  wrote:
> On 22 February 2011 22:29, Santhosh Thottingal
>  wrote:
>
>> I think you have some confusion on Unicode and Fonts. Let me try to
>> clarify in simple words.
>
> Yes - I did! And thank you for such a detailed response.
>
> To see if I have understood this - there are three components:
>
> 1. Input (Different types of keyboard layouts are used but are
> independent of the method of encoding - correct?)
> 2. Encoding and storing the input (ASCII is the older method - have
> heard of ISCII as well but do not know what that is but Unicode is the
> standard.
> 3. Representing, visually for the human user, what has been inputed
> and encoded. (Font or type faces and these are, to an extent,
> independent of the encoding method used.)

There are Four Components

1. Input Methods ( GOI approved Inscript layout, Various Popular
Layouts , Translitraton Keyboards, Phonetic Keyboards)
2. Encoding ( unicode)
3. Font (Opentype Fonts  ie. supporting Unicode)
4. Rendering Engines (this does the shaping of Complex Glyphs using
the Open type font table in Fonts . eg. Pango in Gnome, Harfbuzz in
KDE, ICU in Openoffice & java based programmes , Uniscribe in Windows
etc )


>> But I know that many people still use the term "data in unicode
>> fonts", data in xyz font etc. This usage came into existence just
>> because,  before unicode was popular, most of the Indian publishers
>> used a non-standard way of representing our data- using English(or
>> latin -ascii)  data and change the font's 'face' to Indian glyph. "a
>> fancy dress" hack. The letter "k" will be shown as hindi "ka" with the
>> help of a font. ie the data is still english, but what you "see" is
>> Hindi.
>
> So if I understand correctly, not only is the encoding in ASCII but
> the representation of that encoding is tied to a particular font (that
> was used for representation at entry?) and will only be represented
> properly when using that font? However, what I am trying to understand
> is whether there is consistency across the ASCII encoding? Will ka in
> Hindi be encoded in ASCII only one way or is there a linkage, that I
> do not understand, to the font used to represent it as well?

ASCII is not like Unicode. It only understands latin, not any other
language. All over India, legacy, non-standard local language
"technologies" (ugly hacks) have gained deep roots. Local newspaper
websites as well as publishing houses seem to use their own
non-standard fonts. This means that documents and web sites get tied
to fonts. These fonts may or may not be freely available, and in some
extreme cases, may be no longer available at all. If you lose the
font, you lose the content as well.

Ka in Hindi may be mapped in the position of A in some font , in the
position of H in some other font as per the convenience of font
developer



>
> The reason I ask is because if ka in Hindi is always encoded the same
> way irrespective of the font used to represent it, then it should not
> be hard to build an ASCII to Unicode map of encoding that will only
> have to be done once for each language? Though something tells me I am
> way off on this assumption.

It is Font dependent. There is a need of Preparing Conversion maps for
each Ascii font to convert data encoded in them to unicode.
Swathanthra Malayalam Computing's Payyan's
(http://wiki.smc.org.in/Payyans ) is a tool developed for converting
ASCII to Unicode easily  for any Indic Language by building a Font map
for each needed font . This tool helped Malayalam Wiktionary to
convert many copyright expired books in non standard encodings to
Unicode

Popular Firefox extension named Padma uses similar encoding conversion
tables to display ASCII news websites in Unicode

>
>> This is true. Fonts exist for all scripts ,  but the variety , or
>> quality of the existing fonts varies. Availability of fonts licensed
>> in foss compatible license is also a problem. For a detailed list of
>> Indic fonts with license info, see
>> http://indlinux.org/wiki/index.php/IndicFontsList
>
> Thanks, Santosh. This is a really useful. Also, are these screen or
> print ready fonts?

Each Language Communities can answer this question well. In Malayalam
we have both screen and print fonts, including one Ornamental font .


>> You are correct.  I would say "fonts licensed under any FOSS license"
>> instead of "free use/reuse".
>
> Indeed. FOSS license is what I should have said.
>
>> In fact, the funds were spent(read wasted) for the development of
>> Proprietary fonts by government agencies like CDAC. Fonts with
>> free(dom) licenses were developed and maintained by FOSS developer
>> communities.
>
> *sigh* In your opinion, would they be any real benefit if they did
> license the ILDC series under a true FOSS license?

I dont think this will happen. There is a long history of lobbying for
thiswith CDAC from 2001 Onwards and nothing happened. CDAC made enough
money by selling ASCII fonts(and still makes) and They cant even 

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Developers list for India specific discussions

[Anivar Aravind]

I tend to agree with Gerard's views  & Siebrand's  points. Since there
are many lists , Yet another list will be a waste . There are many
lists for Indic Specific issues such as Indlinux list, which can be
also used to connect with indic developers

Anivar

On 1/31/11, praveenp  wrote:
> Hi,
> I think Siebrand is correct! From what I see from wiki projects, I feel
> problems in Indian languages are common with other non-Indian complex
> scripts. If we create an 'Indian language developers list', I think that
> will be an unnecessary dividing of development power.
>
> But also I think mediawiki should consider non-latin script probems more
> seriously. (For eg: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21497
> an old bug, still not fixed.
> Other common SVG rendering is also bad (a server problem ?), please see
> https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25140. I am almost sure
> that these bugs affects all complex scripts, than just Indian languages.)
>
> Praveen
>
> On Monday 31 January 2011 02:34 PM, Siebrand Mazeland wrote:
>> Dear Hari and others,
>>
>> I think there is no obvious need whatsoever for an "Indian language
>> developers list". If there are issues the require attention and
>> discussion related to language support in MediaWiki, there are three
>> mailing lists that qualify for discussion already -- depending on the
>> exact topic -, and bugzilla[1] is the place to register the issue.
>> Please be aware that cocooning leads to separation, while one of the
>> strongpoints of the Wikimedia movements is being involved worldwide.
>>
>> Mailing lists:
>>
>> * MediaWiki language support:
>>   https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-i18n
>> * Wikimedia related technology:
>>   https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
>> * Wikimedia translators:
>>   https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/translators-l
>>
>> Of these three lists, currently only wikitech-l has a reasonable
>> volume. The other lists are direly awaiting issues you will raise and
>> discuss. For hardcore translation contributions for MediaWiki and its
>> extensions, you are of course very welcome at
>> https://translatewiki.net. Many Indian language need a lot more love
>> with regards to localisation.
>>
>> I hope you will reconsider having a need for a separate mailing list
>> for developers with regards to language support for languages from India.
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>
>


-- 
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and
'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from
other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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