Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] Telegraph : It’s a Wiki Wiki world!
Thanks for sharing this. Coverage of the article was good. regards Arun . On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 9:54 PM, CherianTinu Abraham tinucher...@gmail.comwrote: Thank Srikanth, for sharing this. The article can be viewed on epaper : http://epaper.telegraphindia.com/PUBLICATIONS/TT/TT/2011/09/11/index.shtml ( Nice to see Vibhi's photo and huge heading Wiki Warriors:on the main page ) Don't forget to full article on page 13 too. The full text of the article : *Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopaedia, has a vibrant community of editors and contributors in India. And on its 10th anniversary it is looking to enlarge its base in the country, says T.V. Jayan * * * *Vaibhav Jain, 13, looks like any other child. The Delhi resident is crazy about animated characters Pokémon and Shin-chan, and cheers for the Delhi Daredevils whenever his home team is playing at the IPL. But looks, as they say, can be deceptive. Vaibhav assumes a completely different persona when he is on the Web — that of a vigilant cop waging a war against vandalism. * *Vaibhav is one of the 4,200-odd “rollbackers” of Wikipedia — the world’s largest free and open online encyclopaedia. When he is not studying or playing, he scours Wikipedia articles for recent editorial changes that are suspect and reverts them to the original. Vaibhav, who set up his Wikipedia account earlier this year because he “got bored with social networking sites and online games”, has a Wiki user page that says it all: “This user reverts vandalism faster than Rajinikanth…” * * * *Seventy-three-year old G. Balachandran from Paravur, Kerala, has a different story to tell. Paralysed for nearly two decades, this retired junior commissioned officer of the Indian Army got a new lease of life, thanks to Wikipedia. When his son presented him with a laptop, Balachandran started contributing to Wikipedia in Malayalam. “Wikipedia not only helped me rediscover myself, but also gave me the strength to fight my condition,” says Balachandran, who has contributed nearly 100 articles to the Malayalam Wikipedia since 2008 and has more than 2,000 edits to his credit. * *Vaibhav and Balachandran belong to a vibrant global community of Wikipedians who contribute to the resource in one way or another. And there is a growing number of Indians among them — those who have taken it upon themselves to add, edit and improve Wikipedia in their spare time. * * INDIAN MOVERS: (From top) Vaibhav Jain, K. Ravichandar and G. Balachandran are part of the global community of Wikipedians * * From a little known resource on the Web 10 years ago, Wikipedia has grown into a mammoth, ever-expanding encyclopaedia with more than 19 million articles in 282 languages at last count. The English Wikipedia alone has 3.73 million articles, followed by German (1.28 million) and French (1.14 million). According to Alexa.com, an Internet information company that tracks traffic to websites, wikipedia.org ranks fifth in terms of traffic. More than 14 per cent of global Internet users visit Wikipedia at least once a day. * *India too has been part of the phenomenon, so much so that Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit body which manages Wikipedia’s affairs, has decided to set up its first office outside the US in New Delhi later this year. “India is our new focus area,” says Bishakha Datta, one of the global trustees of Wikimedia Foundation. “The experience that we gain from India will provide us with a blueprint to expand Wiki activities in other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.” * *Right now, Wikipedia is available in 20 Indian languages and 20 other language versions are under incubation. * * * *What sets Wikipedia apart from other encyclopaedia, which are written by renowned subject experts, is not just that it is free and accessible to everyone, but also its dynamic nature. Anybody can contribute a Wikipedia article. “You don’t even need to register to be able to edit 99 per cent of the pages on Wikipedia,” says Tinu Cherian Abraham, a software engineer with a Bangalore-based firm, who has been associated with Wikimedia activities since 2006. Abraham has so far contributed more than 2,000 Wiki articles and done more than 53,000 edits on the English Wikipedia. * * * *However, because of its free and open character, Wikipedia is also liable to abuse and misinformation being fed into it. And that is where feisty rollbackers like Vaibhav come into play. Recently, a Wiki article on Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal was ambushed by a miscreant and his name was changed to Neelabh Kaushik. However, the watchful Vaibhav caught the fraud in no time and rolled it back. * * * *Developing events find their way to Wikipedia almost instantaneously, thanks to more than 1,40,000 registered editors around the world who contribute and edit Wiki articles free of charge. “Everyone can be an editor on Wikipedia,” quips Hisham Mundol, a
[Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] Telegraph : It’s a Wiki Wiki world!
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110911/jsp/7days/story_14492284.jsp -- Regards Srikanth.L http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Sep_2011 ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] Telegraph : It’s a Wiki Wiki world!
I think this is good encouragement for the very young Vaibhav Jain. Good going! Swaroop Rao (MikeLynch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MikeLynch) On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 13:06, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.comwrote: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110911/jsp/7days/story_14492284.jsp -- Regards Srikanth.L http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Sep_2011 ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] Telegraph : It’s a Wiki Wiki world!
really great!! :) proud to be apart of it... On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 3:40 PM, Swaroop Rao raul.swar...@gmail.com wrote: I think this is good encouragement for the very young Vaibhav Jain. Good going! Swaroop Rao (MikeLynch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MikeLynch) On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 13:06, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.comwrote: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110911/jsp/7days/story_14492284.jsp -- Regards Srikanth.L http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Sep_2011 ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l ___ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] Telegraph : It’s a Wiki Wiki world!
Thank Srikanth, for sharing this. The article can be viewed on epaper : http://epaper.telegraphindia.com/PUBLICATIONS/TT/TT/2011/09/11/index.shtml ( Nice to see Vibhi's photo and huge heading Wiki Warriors:on the main page ) Don't forget to full article on page 13 too. The full text of the article : *Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopaedia, has a vibrant community of editors and contributors in India. And on its 10th anniversary it is looking to enlarge its base in the country, says T.V. Jayan * * * *Vaibhav Jain, 13, looks like any other child. The Delhi resident is crazy about animated characters Pokémon and Shin-chan, and cheers for the Delhi Daredevils whenever his home team is playing at the IPL. But looks, as they say, can be deceptive. Vaibhav assumes a completely different persona when he is on the Web — that of a vigilant cop waging a war against vandalism. * *Vaibhav is one of the 4,200-odd “rollbackers” of Wikipedia — the world’s largest free and open online encyclopaedia. When he is not studying or playing, he scours Wikipedia articles for recent editorial changes that are suspect and reverts them to the original. Vaibhav, who set up his Wikipedia account earlier this year because he “got bored with social networking sites and online games”, has a Wiki user page that says it all: “This user reverts vandalism faster than Rajinikanth…” * * * *Seventy-three-year old G. Balachandran from Paravur, Kerala, has a different story to tell. Paralysed for nearly two decades, this retired junior commissioned officer of the Indian Army got a new lease of life, thanks to Wikipedia. When his son presented him with a laptop, Balachandran started contributing to Wikipedia in Malayalam. “Wikipedia not only helped me rediscover myself, but also gave me the strength to fight my condition,” says Balachandran, who has contributed nearly 100 articles to the Malayalam Wikipedia since 2008 and has more than 2,000 edits to his credit. * *Vaibhav and Balachandran belong to a vibrant global community of Wikipedians who contribute to the resource in one way or another. And there is a growing number of Indians among them — those who have taken it upon themselves to add, edit and improve Wikipedia in their spare time. * * INDIAN MOVERS: (From top) Vaibhav Jain, K. Ravichandar and G. Balachandran are part of the global community of Wikipedians * * From a little known resource on the Web 10 years ago, Wikipedia has grown into a mammoth, ever-expanding encyclopaedia with more than 19 million articles in 282 languages at last count. The English Wikipedia alone has 3.73 million articles, followed by German (1.28 million) and French (1.14 million). According to Alexa.com, an Internet information company that tracks traffic to websites, wikipedia.org ranks fifth in terms of traffic. More than 14 per cent of global Internet users visit Wikipedia at least once a day. * *India too has been part of the phenomenon, so much so that Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit body which manages Wikipedia’s affairs, has decided to set up its first office outside the US in New Delhi later this year. “India is our new focus area,” says Bishakha Datta, one of the global trustees of Wikimedia Foundation. “The experience that we gain from India will provide us with a blueprint to expand Wiki activities in other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.” * *Right now, Wikipedia is available in 20 Indian languages and 20 other language versions are under incubation. * * * *What sets Wikipedia apart from other encyclopaedia, which are written by renowned subject experts, is not just that it is free and accessible to everyone, but also its dynamic nature. Anybody can contribute a Wikipedia article. “You don’t even need to register to be able to edit 99 per cent of the pages on Wikipedia,” says Tinu Cherian Abraham, a software engineer with a Bangalore-based firm, who has been associated with Wikimedia activities since 2006. Abraham has so far contributed more than 2,000 Wiki articles and done more than 53,000 edits on the English Wikipedia. * * * *However, because of its free and open character, Wikipedia is also liable to abuse and misinformation being fed into it. And that is where feisty rollbackers like Vaibhav come into play. Recently, a Wiki article on Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal was ambushed by a miscreant and his name was changed to Neelabh Kaushik. However, the watchful Vaibhav caught the fraud in no time and rolled it back. * * * *Developing events find their way to Wikipedia almost instantaneously, thanks to more than 1,40,000 registered editors around the world who contribute and edit Wiki articles free of charge. “Everyone can be an editor on Wikipedia,” quips Hisham Mundol, a consultant with Wikimedia Foundation, who is slated to head its India operations. “We genuinely feel that with inputs from various quarters, Wiki articles can be more rounded,” adds Datta. * * * *The policy has paid off, with a growing number
