WikimediaIndia-l December 2021

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14 participants
15 discussions

Condition of a Wikimedian, arrested by UP Police
by praveenp 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

Dear Indian Wikimedians, As many of you may have known, one of our fellow Wikimedian was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police in October 2020. His name is Siddique Kappan (His wikimedia username is User:Sidheeq). He is from Kerala, and he was active in Wikimedia projects (mainly in Malayalam Wikipedia) until his arrest. Incidently he is a journalist and he was arrested from the home of Hathras rape and murder victim while reporting the victim Dalit girl's family members. UP Police has slapped Sedition, Terrorism as well as UAPA charges against him. Kappen is diabetic and now COVID positive. He was admitted to hospital only after he collapsed in the jail cell. With his deteriorating health, it was accused that Kappan was chained to hospital bed like an animal. Today's news reports say that he is in critical condition. (You could always google "Siddique Kappan") As a tone deaf people I don't expect anything from this mail, I just wish to share the information. Stay Inside, Stay Complementary (non-critical), Stay safe, Stay healthy. User:Praveenp ------------- Siddique's en.wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sidheeq

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Subhas Chandra Bose's 125th birth anniversary Wikimedia celebration
by Bodhisattwa Mandal 20 Apr '22

20 Apr '22

Hello all, 23 January 2022 will mark the 125th birth anniversary of Indian freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose West Bengal Wikimedians User Group is planning to conduct a series of events to improve free-content related to Subhas Chandra Bose on different Wikimedia sites. Today, on the 124th birth anniversary of Bose, we have inaugurated the initiative and will continue to work for the next one year. Learn more about the program here- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose%27s_125th_birth_anniver… (under construction and to be expanded gradually). You may also read a blog post on Diff: https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/12/24/125th-birth-anniversary-of-subhas-cha… If you like, you can share your thoughts and good wishes here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Subhas_Chandra_Bose%27s_125th_birth_an… Regards, Bodhisattwa On behalf of West Bengal Wikimedians User Group

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India grants and communication to Wikimediaindia-l
by Tito Dutta 06 Jan '22

06 Jan '22

Namaskara, This might be some food for thought, and inputs are welcome. India mailing list is the largest and most widely used Wikimedia mailing list for the Indian community. Could we have a practice that all grant requests from the country (or related to) are informed on the Wikimediaindia-l mailing list? Whether it is a state-level, project-level, language-level etc, or whether it is a rapid grant, project grant etc it would be good to see the plan details on this mailing list in advance. It will ensure greater visibility, and it will also ensure the community's understanding/knowing of each other's projects. If we can have a practice like this, we can inform Wikimedia, or CR team or relevant support structure(s) as an India community practice. This post is in my personal capacity. Please assume good faith Regards, User:Titodutta

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Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Youth Skill Development Program to Document Oral Culture in Endangered Indian Languages
by Nitesh Gill 28 Dec '21

28 Dec '21

Hi everyone, *This email was sent from Amrit's account but has not been approved yet. Apologies in advance for overwhelming the mailing list in case the other email is also approved.* I am pleased to inform you that Amrit and I have prepared a toolkit for transcription of oral culture which enables non-expert to document their language and culture and digitize them on Wikimedia platforms. We have built upon the OpenSpeaks toolkit and Elicitation Protocol of Wikitongues in order to provide a unified toolkit with content on technical knowledge, oral history elicitation interview questions, wiki workflow and introduction to language documentation. The volunteers who tested this toolkit were mostly female, thus forwarding our aim of inclusivity as an aim of this project. We request you to go through the toolkit on the following page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Oral_Culture_Transcription_Toolkit Please share your ideas and recommendations on it on the Discussion page of the toolkit. Further, we are planning to utilize this toolkit in the new project that we have proposed. In this project, we plan to teach youths speaking endangered languages to document their culture, hold workshops for training in audio-visual documentation and train them for the wiki workflow. We would love to hear from you on this plan of ours, your suggestions are very welcome. Also, if you are interested to participate or volunteer in this project, do let us know on the talk page or via email. We are sharing the link to this project below: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Yo… We are also inviting volunteers to join this project in any capacity. Feel free to add your name to the Volunteers section on the project page. Regards Nitesh and Amrit

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Fwd: [datameet] Digest for [email protected] - 1 update in 1 topic
by Shyamal Lakshminarayanan 27 Dec '21

27 Dec '21

Of interest... datameet(a)googlegroups.com <https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email#!forum/…> Google Groups <https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email/#!overv…> <https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email/#!overv…> Topic digest View all topics <https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email#!forum/…> - plug -- data story on wikipedia abuse in India <#m_2941445850799524427_group_thread_0> - 1 Update plug -- data story on wikipedia abuse in India <http://groups.google.com/group/datameet/t/a7b03e58922fbe17?utm_source=diges…> Shijith Kunhitty <shijithpk(a)gmail.com>: Dec 21 12:37AM -0800 Hi, my name is Shijith, and I'm a freelance data journalist. (Worked previously at Hindustan Times and IndiaSpend, have also contributed to datameet.org in the past <http://datameet.org/author/shijithpk/>.) Just wanted to plug a data story I did recently about Wikipedia abuse in India. Such abuse is an old problem, but it's getting more media attention with users distorting facts on pages about the Delhi riots or farmer protests. Sometimes users engage in straight out vandalism where they delete whole sections from a page. I tried to determine which wikipedia pages faced the most abuse this year, and I also introduce a twitter account that allows people to track wikipedia abuse weekly. This is the link to the story: https://shijith.com/blog/wikipedia-page-abuse/ This is the twitter account for tracking wikipedia abuse every week: http://twitter.com/abuse_checker And here's the python code I used for the project: https://github.com/shijithpk/wikipedia_abuse_checker (Am in the process of re-working the code. Right now it's querying the wikipedia API every week for the edit histories of over 150k articles, and the whole run is taking 2 days now. Discovered an API endpoint for recent changes that should make things more efficient.) Have any questions or feedback, do let me know! Thanks, Shijith Back to top <#m_2941445850799524427_digest_top> You received this digest because you're subscribed to updates for this group. You can change your settings on the group membership page <https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email#!forum/…> . To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it send an email to datameet+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com.

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Upcoming Call for Feedback (CfF) about the Board of Trustees Elections
by Chitraparna Sinha 27 Dec '21

27 Dec '21

Hello everyone, The Board of Trustees is preparing a Call for Feedback about the upcoming Board Elections, from *7 January - 10 February 2022*. While the details will be finalized the week before the call, we have confirmed at least two questions that will be asked: - What is the best way to ensure fair representation of emerging communities among the Board? - What involvement should candidates have during the election? While additional questions may be added, the Movement Strategy and Governance team wants to provide time for community members and affiliates to consider and prepare ideas on the confirmed questions before the call opens. We apologize for not having a complete list of questions at this time. The list of questions should only grow by one or two questions. The intention is to not overwhelm the community with requests, but provide notice and welcome feedback on these important questions. Do you want to help organize local conversation during this call? Contact the Movement Strategy and Governance team <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Strategy_and_Go…> on Meta, on Telegram <https://t.me/wmboardgovernancechat>, or via email at msg(a)wikimedia.org. Kindly reach out if you have any questions or concerns. The Movement Strategy and Governance team will be minimally staffed until 3rd January. Please excuse any delayed response during this time. We also recognize that some community members and affiliates are offline during the December holidays. We apologize if our message has reached you while you are on holiday. Regards, Chitraparna Sinha (Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:CSinha_(WMF)>) Facilitator, Movement Strategy and Governance <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy_and_Governance>, SAARC, Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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Invitation: Movement Strategy Implementation Grants (MSIG) Call for Wikimedians of India - 18 December 2021 (Saturday)
by Chitraparna Sinha 23 Dec '21

23 Dec '21

Hello everyone, I am Chitraparna Sinha <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:CSinha_(WMF)>, the community facilitator of Movement Strategy <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy> for South Asia after Krishna Chaitanya Velaga. I would like to invite Wikimedians of India for a getting to know each other session and discuss Movement Strategy Implementation Grants <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:MSIG/About> (MSIG), and how it can fund your projects surrounding Movement Strategy Initiatives <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Initiatives>. Proposed Agenda - Introduction with each other & learn about what all is going on in the community; and how I can support the community to grow. - A brief overview of MSIG (what it is & how it will work) & discuss concerns. Meeting Language English / Hindi / Bangla - this could be a multilingual conversation. Meeting Details: (India) Grants Community Conversation Saturday, December 18 · 6:00 – 7:00 pm IST (12:30 to 13:30 UTC) Google Meet joining info Video call link: https://meet.google.com/oug-bfih-vva Or dial: ‪(US) +1 415-604-0877‬ PIN: ‪951 921 494‬# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/oug-bfih-vva?pin=4923022866600 Please share the message among community members. Thanks for sharing your valuable time. Regards, Chitraparna Sinha (Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:CSinha_(WMF)>) Facilitator, Movement Strategy and Governance <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy_and_Governance>, SAARC, Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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Submission Open for Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2022 until 23 January 2022
by subodh kulkarni 23 Dec '21

23 Dec '21

Dear Wikimedians, Greetings for the New Year 2022! We are excited to announce that submission for session proposals has been opened for Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2022, the upcoming online wiki-event which is to be conducted from 18 – 20 February 2022 during the occasion of International Mother Language Day. The submission will remain open until 23 January 2022. You can submit your session proposals here - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2022/Submissions A program team has been formed recently from highly experienced Wikimedia volunteers within and outside India. It is currently under the process of expansion to include more diversity in the team. The team will evaluate the submissions, accept, modify or reject them, design and finalise the program schedule by the end of January 2022. Details about the team will come soon. *Guidelines for submissions:* * The sessions will be on any Wikimedia related topics. * Submissions are not restricted to India. Wikimedians from outside India are also welcome to submit proposals. * The decision to accept or reject a submission will depend on the Program Team. Their decision will be final. * The event will have different formats of sessions, like presentations, workshops, panel discussions and 5-minutes lightning talks. * All sessions will be conducted online. * The organisers will provide the support to help the presenter understand the use of online platforms like Zoom etc prior to the event.. * The organisers will also communicate with the presenter prior to the event to help understand the entire process, or for general preparation. * A session can be around 20 minutes long or more. A lightning talk should be no longer than 5 minutes. * There can be more than one presenter in one session. Feel free to make a group for your session. * The presenters for long duration sessions must ensure that they will be available for the preparation and during their sessions. * The presenters for lightning talks however can pre-record their sessions earlier, if they want and send it to the organizers to play the recording during their allotted time. * A session will be conducted in English or any Indian language. * Similar topics may be grouped together, or format may be changed by the program team. The program team will contact the session presenters if those decisions are taken. We are sure that you will share some of your most inspiring stories and conduct some really exciting sessions during the event. Best wishes for your submissions! Regards, Subodh (On behalf of WMWM India 2022)

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Wikimedia Affiliates Environmental Sustainability Covenant
by Bodhisattwa Mandal 21 Dec '21

21 Dec '21

Hello all, In response to the climate crisis, the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group has joined hands with other affiliates from around the world and committed to a cross-affiliate initiative to reduce the environmental impact of the Wikimedia movement. The initiative can be looked at as one of the first steps to implement Movement Strategy Recommendation #1.8 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…>- "*While we grow and become more sustainable as a Movement, we will also align our practices to support the environmental sustainability of our planet.*" The user group took part in drafting a document which we call as Wikimedia Affiliates Environmental Sustainability Covenant <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Affiliates_Environmental_Sustaina…> and became one of the first signatories of the agreement along with Wikimedians for Sustainable Development, Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia France, Wikimedia South Africa, Wikimedia Italia, Wikimedia UK and Wikimedians of Tamazight User Group. The agreement till now is as follows - 1. Affiliates commit to reducing their carbon footprint through a variety of measures, including but not limited to: - drastically limiting the number of kerosene-based flights taken by affiliate staff and representatives and community members, through measures such as - caps for flights taken on behalf of the affiliate, - increased technical and organisational support for remote events, - travel policies that discourage flights over other means of transport and that encourage the use of public transportation, and/or - travel policies that require compensation for the environmental cost of air travel, - switching to renewable energy for their electricity consumption, where possible, - divesting their financial investments from carbon-intensive industries, - when engaging in carbon offset programmes, supporting only the planting of native trees in uninhabited areas and not using offsets as an ‘excuse’ for their carbon emissions, - implementing other practices listed below. Affiliates related to Most Affected People and Areas shall only have limited responsibilities in this regard, and shall receive support from other affiliates to meet them. 2. Affiliates call on other Wikimedia Movement entities, including and especially the Wikimedia Foundation, to follow their example, specifically concerning the sustainable operation of the Wikimedia Foundation’s data centres. 3. Affiliates commit to supporting initiatives aimed at improving the coverage of the climate crisis on Wikimedia projects. 4. Affiliates commit to regularly (at least yearly) sharing their experiences adhering to this covenant to inspire each other and others inside and outside of the Wikimedia Movement. As an affiliate with very limited capacity and resources and from a developing nation, the user group will have technical and infrastructural limitations implementing many of the clauses, but during the next AGM which is going to happen in mid January 2022, a travel policy will be formulated in compliance with this agreement. As before and with agreement with the covenant, the UG will also keep committing to actively promote remote virtual events including conferences, workshops, meetups whenever a physical event can be avoided or deemed unnecessary. The UG will also continue to support projects which focus on digital conservation of nature like Wiki Loves Butterfly etc. There might be some more plans which can come up gradually as our commitment to the agreement. You can learn about this initiative presented by different speakers at different virtual conferences from this year. - Wikimania 2021: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Towards_a_more_environmentally_sust… - WikiIndaba 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch? <goog_766684395> v=uXIVCUNoGu4 </> - WikiArabia 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aENERdAmdAo - CEE meeting 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oAIMDlc13M - WikiConference North America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbJ7IO9cJYg (at 3:33:10) - WikiConvention francophone 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlUD8MVPsyU (at 3:53:00) - German-language WikiCon 2021: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2021-10-01_Klimaschutz_in_der_Commu… Many affiliates are internally discussing the document and reviewing it right now. If you as an affiliate are also interested, you are welcome to do the same and join this effort. We look forward to your active participation. Regards, Bodhisattwa (On behalf of West Bengal Wikimedians User Group)

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art4good - a campaign on mental heath related images creation [Internal Announcement]
by Praveen Das 17 Dec '21

17 Dec '21

Dear All, We want to share about art4good - a year long campaign to create mental health related images. Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF) a Section-8 not-for-profit, has partnered with the Wikimedia Foundation to launch art4good, an initiative that invites professional artists, photographers, students, and amateurs to create the world’s largest repository of mental health-related imagery. The year-long initiative, which commences in December 2021, aims to leverage the power of visual imagery to reframe the narrative around mental health in an effort to increase awareness, reduce stigma, bust myths, and encourage help-seeking. Under this collaboration, art4good is inviting participants to curate artwork that helps create awareness, break stigma, and promote dialogue around mental health. SPIF will release the art4good posters under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 license and make them freely accessible on Wikimedia Commons for volunteers to use on Mental Health/Suicide Prevention-related articles on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. False representations of mental health can have damaging effects. There are numerous studies that highlight how entertainment and news media’s <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16478286/> representation of mental illness and those with mental illnesses are exaggerated, dramatic and even distorted. Worryingly, those with mental illness are presented as dangerous, potentially criminal and socially inept. A paper by researcher Heather Stuart noted that the media focuses on negative reactions to the mentally ill, including fear, rejection, derision and ridicule. This negative portrayal impairs self-esteem, reduces help-seeking behaviours, meddles with medication adherence and overall recovery. Individuals from across the Wikimedia movement developed the Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy Recommendations <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…> to enable the movement to grow sustainably and inclusively. Recommendation #8 highlights “Identifying Topics for Impact” as a priority for the movement. Improving Wikipedia’s coverage of suicide to better align with the recommendations of public health experts is just one way that the movement can focus on the impact of our projects on the public’s understanding of suicide and suicide prevention.[1] <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/09/09/world-suicide-prevention-day-and-the-…> Wikipedia's health material is the most accessed resource for health information on the internet [2 <https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228786>]. As a result, Wikimedia communities have an opportunity to increase access to knowledge on suicide prevention as a key impact subject. art4good is a year-long campaign starting this month (December 2021). These free-to-download and distribute images will seek to leverage the popularity of memes, cartoons, illustrations, infographics, and also the enduring power of photos to support text-based narratives. The winners will stand a chance to win exclusive merchandise and a participation certificate. What themes is the campaign targeting?: The campaign will focus on 10 main themes, which have been curated to provide direction and structure, but should not be limiting, participants can choose their own themes. 1. I, me, myself (Self-care) 2. You are not alone (Care-giving) 3. Ssh-out - stop the silence (Reduce stigma around mental health) 4. Color your emotions (Speak up, don’t bottle your emotions) 5. Digitally connected, socially isolated (downsides of dopamine rush from digital) 6. Work-life balance (Yin-Yang, time to seek balance) 7. Your life matters (Choose life) 8. Help-seeking is cool (We all need a little help) 9. Protective factors (Who or what are my safety nets?) 10. Neurodivergent (We maybe different but same) How can I participate? Pick your theme or make your own theme, spend time making something that will change hearts and mindsets, and then log onto https://paintyourblues.com/submission/ and hit submit. The images will be reviewed and then uploaded to Wikimedia Commons after the end of every month by SPIF. We would like to invite everyone to amplify this initiative and participate in bringing awareness to this cause through the art4good campaign. Best, Praveen Das -- *Praveen Das (he/him/his)* Senior Partnerships Manager - South Asia M: +91 - 8951323603 Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> *Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment and you can help continue to make it a reality: * https://donate.wikimedia.org

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WikimediaIndia-l December 2021