CIS-A2K/IRC/2013 September 5

CIS-A2K organized their first Pan India monthly IRC to receive feedback on their work. We are slowly rolling out the work-plans that was developed with the community collaboration and inputs. Some useful feedback were received on the Meta page specifically on two important aspects, which informed the agenda for this IRC.

Agenda

What more measures can CIS-A2K take to increase community participation?
Pilot Projects - Discussion on possible topics, strategies of execution and community involvement.

IRC details

Channel: #Wikimedia-in
Date: September 5, 2013 (Thursday)
Time: 8-9 pm

Chat log

URL irc://freenode/wikimedia-in Mode +cnt Users 12, 1@, 0%, 0+
Topic This channel is dedicated for community discussions around the Wikimedia movement in India.

wikimedia-in

commonssibi Hi all .. Has the discussion started ?
subha1 Hi commonssibi it is about to be started in another 4 mins
Vishnu Hello all!
Nitika Hello everyone!
subha1 Good evening wikipedians!
commonssibi Good Evening
kiranravikumar Hi n Good evening ...
arjunaraoc hi all
Vishnu Hello
Vishnu Welcome to CIS-A2K first monthly IRC!
Vishnu Based on the feedback we have received from some Wikipedians....
Vishnu would like your feedback on 2 aspects
Vishnu 1) What more measures can CIS-A2K take to increase community participation?
Vishnu 2) Pilot Projects - Discussion on possible topics, strategies of execution and community involvement.
Vishnu commonssibi: Anything you'd like to add?
Vishnu kiranravikumar: ?
Vishnu arjunaraoc: ??
Vishnu So that we could set the agenda for this IRC
commonssibi I think that covers broad areas . We can stick on to it
Vishnu subha1: Nitika you too can suggest if any?
Vishnu commonssibi: great!
commonssibi Agenda set ?
Vishnu Guess so
subha1 Vishnu I think that covers most of the aspects, we could keep the last 45 minutes for other discussions for all the wikipedians
Nitika Nothing from my side. If we have time, maybe towards the end we can talk a bit about Train the Trainer Program: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Events/TTT
subha1 sorry, last 15 mins*
Vishnu ok
Vishnu re. community participation so far CIS-A2K tried to do the following...
Vishnu a) language area plans
Vishnu through f2f discussions
Vishnu online discussions
Vishnu b) mailing list communications
Vishnu c) posting on village pumps about various activities
Vishnu d) meta publication
arjunaraoc Vishnu sounds fine
Vishnu e) social media (mostly FB pages of various language wikipedias)
Vishnu there is 1 criticism that our meta engagement is not prompt
Vishnu which is true
Vishnu we are trying to improve on that aspect
kiranravikumar Vishnu - I think we discussed the other aspect when i met you in CIS.
Vishnu another criticism is that the proposed pilot topic was not done in consultation with the community
Vishnu which is also true to an extent
Vishnu f) CIS-A2K news letter and g) blogs
Vishnu kiranravikumar: which "other aspect"?
kiranravikumar The one where we need to concentrate wrt editors. Workshops for students - Arts background.
Vishnu yep
Vishnu AshLin made a very valid point on Meta
Vishnu He said that CIS-A2K has definitely improved in terms of community interaction and participation... but there is scope to improve.
Vishnu I concur with AshLin to an extent
Vishnu However, it would be useful to hear your suggestions on what else CIS-A2K could do to improve?
Vishnu Also to do differently the things we've done so far?
commonssibi from my observation in Tamil wikipedia , i feel that if a concentrated effort is made in Arts and science college we can make great inroads
Vishnu commonssibi: Ok
kiranravikumar There was plan to record a video - how editing has to be done/etc. and make available for workshops. Any progress in that?
zz|zzz I'm not concerned here, but just out of curiosity the points don't seem to correlate each other!!
AroundTheGlobe hello?
subha1 hello AroundTheGlobe
Nitika kiranravikumar: We have some videos in English, few in Hindi and I'm sure few in other languages too. But we plan to do this as an exercise during Train the trainer (TTT) program. Since we need language competency. We thought (TTT) would be the best time to run this exercise as hopefully Wikipedians from different language projects will join and can help us make these videos.
Vishnu AroundTheGlobe: hi
AroundTheGlobe hi vishnu/subha, sorry was wondering why things went silent after ravis question
kiranravikumar Oh ok. Sounds good to me.
Vishnu Any specific input in terms of how CIS-A2K could improve on community interaction and participation?
subha1 Yes, that sounds like a great idea Ravi, please let us know do you think any interruption from our end would help, like institutional collaborations with such institutions?
Vishnu subha1: is it interruption or intervention??
Vishnu
subha1 sorry, intervention*
Vishnu commonssibi: how are these institutions placed in terms of infra
AroundTheGlobe Vishnu maybe subha1 was thinking he was at an Alcoholics Anon meet
Vishnu
commonssibi The infra would be poor except for some handful of institutions . But , a centralised approach where we can call for interested volunteers to a common place which has infra would help to an extent
Vishnu yep.
commonssibi But it requires loads of ground level work
Vishnu True
Vishnu Can we involve some active Tamil Wikipedians in this?
Vishnu How much effort would be required?
Nitika I agree with commonssibi. We have tried something similar in Goa with Konkani workshops. We slected a common central place for all the participants. We've even had a GLAM session for various librarians and curators at a central place. It works very well but does need too much of co-ordination and time.
Vishnu commonssibi: Probably to create a collective database could be a beginning point?
commonssibi Yes .. My opinion is that , the 10 years of Tamil wikipedia shall have run up events , in places where its possible(here events dont happen , just mobilising) , then it culminates in a workshop .
commonssibi Vishnu : That would be a good way to begin
Vishnu Sounds like a great idea!!
subha1 commonssibi will share the draft page so we could work on putting down lists of such institutions
Vishnu As A2K does not have in-house Tamil competency and also it would be far too expensive to have anyone of us in TN... Could A2K support 2-3 TA Wikipedians to take up this activity?
Vishnu Of course after TA community consultation
Vishnu Also in what way could A2K support these TA wikipedians, if they are interested?
commonssibi Disclaimer : I have made only very few edits in TA wikipedia .
Vishnu commonssibi: can we take this idea up over e-mail for further discussion and action?
commonssibi Sure . Sure
Vishnu Shall we move to point 2? Ideas for Pilots?
Vishnu Any quick suggestions...
Vishnu A2K has been working to put momentum in to "Lilavati's Daughters"
Vishnu Esp in Indian Languaes
Vishnu Any suggestions???
Vishnu Okay
commonssibi I feel that , if english articles are done , then it would be a boost for Indian Languages
Vishnu Telugu WPians have gone ahead and done articles which are not there on EN WP.
commonssibi Accepted ...:) But still , i felt that it could be a boost ..
Vishnu yep
shrini hello all
shrini good to see you all
shrini now only came here
commonssibi How about women politicians .. ?Just a suggestion .. If its like workload would be more we can skip it
Vishnu Many of the EN WPians who have signed up are looking to take this up in Sept. actively
Vishnu shrini: Hi
zz|zzzz could someone tell me wt's cis-a2k?
shrini reading the logs
Vishnu zz|zzzz: Please see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge
zz|zzzz who are you?
Vishnu zz|zzzz: See this https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Visdaviva
commonssibi Sorry Guys . Got to leave. Have a nice discussion
Vishnu commonssibi: thanks.
subha1 Thanks commonssibi, see you again!
zz|zzzz i can't access these pages right now, can you tell me in short, all about these?
Nitika Thanks commonsibi
Vishnu We have got about 10 mins.
commonssibi Vishnu,subha1,Nitika : Thank you .
shrini fine guys
shrini good talk happened here
Vishnu shrini: any specific feedback?
shrini can you explain what do you need from tamil WPiana?
subha1 If any of you want to discuss anything more/want to give us any feedback please share
shrini In chennai, we plan for 10th annversary at IITM
Vishnu shrini: yep heard from Ravi
shrini there will be talks and wordkshops
Vishnu shrini: We'll be there
shrini good
shrini WLM also started
shrini planning for a photowalk
Vishnu Yep
shrini Have to goto archological dept office
Vishnu super!
shrini to get the roadmap/address of the Monuments in chennia
shrini you were talking about Tamil WPians here few min back
shrini what is that?
shrini what kind of help we need?
Vishnu Yes
Vishnu Ravi said that A2K could help in connecting to the right people in media to cover the event and 10 year TA WP celebrations in general.
shrini yes
shrini that will be a great help
Vishnu help with Wikipedia Souvenir, T-shirts, Outreach pamphlets which could distributed during the event
zz|zzzz the page only has links, nothing one could understand! looks bogus, is this a official PAGE ?????????
Vishnu help spread the news among network of academia and other organizations working in FOSS and Open content sphere
Pavanaja zz|zzzz: which page?
zz|zzzz Who could get T-shirts? where could i get T-shirts?
Vishnu zz|zzzz: why don't you check out?
zz|zzzz above links
Vishnu shrini: anything else?
shrini for WLM we can contact the Arts and science colleges which has
shrini visual communication
shrini department
Vishnu sure
shrini which will be given to them as assignment or project
shrini if A2K can give some certificates,
Vishnu how many such depts are there in Chennai?
shrini it will attract more student
subha1 shrini, please mail us (vishnu@cis-india.org) or post on the Request page
Vishnu shrini: surely.
subha1 Thanks everyone for joining for the IRC, I'm copying the chatlogs
shrini sure
shrini thats all from me
shrini thanks for the efforts
shrini please keep these kind of discussions regularly
Vishnu surely.
Pavanaja shrini: sure
Vishnu definitely once in a month.
shrini great
Vishnu Thank you all for joining.
subha1 everyone, the chatlogs are posted here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/IRC/5th_September_2013
Vishnu We look forward to continuous feedback from you.
subha1 the discussion post 9 are not recorded
subha1 but we could discuss more shrini
subha1
shrini
Nitika Thanks Shrini
shrini I have some requirements for commons gallery
shrini http://goinggnu.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/project-idea-nice-web-gallery-for-wikimedia-commons/
shrini can anyone review this and connect me with any php developer?
shrini who can help on this?
Vishnu Checking the link
shrini ok
Vishnu "The current method of displaying images uploaded by a user is not so good." completely agree
Vishnu shrini: the requirement is very clear.
Vishnu Good project to take up.
Vishnu Will check and let you know if there is a PHP hand interested in this
shrini Vishnu: yes
shrini we need it for sure
shrini then only the contributors can showcase their works online
Vishnu shrini: also let know any developments on this from your side
Vishnu shrini: good chatting with you
shrini i dont have time now to spend on php development
shrini i am help up with some other projects
shrini for wiktionary
Vishnu ok
Vishnu is this TA Wiktionary?
Vishnu where is the best place to catch up on your work?
shrini Vishnu: hi
shrini yes
shrini https://github.com/tshrinivasan/
shrini i am helping thagaluzhavan for his automation works
Vishnu Great!!
subha1 shrini please reach out to the WMF guys as well, i just have tweeted about your requirement: https://twitter.com/CISA2K/status/375646151912861696
Vishnu haven't heard further on the TA OCR
shrini subha1: thanks
shrini Vishnu: yes. My hands are help up with tons of tasks
shrini clearing all of them
shrini to find time for OCR
Vishnu shrini: this https://github.com/tshrinivasan/ is awesome work
Vishnu no issues
shrini
shrini Vishnu: not much
shrini have to do even more
shrini Vishnu: If possible, wll try to connect with any other interested in ocr
Vishnu
Vishnu shrini: that will be of great help
shrini sure
Pavanaja IISc has Tamil OCR. I am having discussions with them
Vishnu Pavanaja: What's the recognition rate?
Vishnu Pavanaja: is it Open Source?
Pavanaja Vishnu: for Tamil, it is somewhat good, far better than for Kannada
Vishnu Pavanaja: what is the %age recognition accuracy?
Pavanaja It is not Opensource, but he will allow it to be used for Wikipedia
Vishnu shrini: will it help TA WP and the community?
Pavanaja Vishnu: computationally, almost 95%. Linguistically may be around 80-85%. Depends on the quality of the source
shrini Vishnu: we need to have open source software
shrini for the community development
Vishnu shrini: will the community accept?
shrini we can use it for wikisources
shrini to get content from old digitized books
Vishnu ok
shrini if they can provide free access of the softwaqre,
shrini we can give a try
Vishnu shrini: could you test it's efficacy and suggest if A2K should take this up.
shrini sure
Vishnu even if it is for wikisource
shrini will do
Vishnu shrini: great
shrini Pavanaja: can you help me to get access to the software
shrini mail me on tshrinivasan@gmail.com
Pavanaja shrini: please contact me at pavanaja@cis-india.org for taking this forward
shrini I dont have windows though
shrini hope it will run on linux
Vishnu shrini: Pavanaja Let's take this forward on e-mail then?
Pavanaja shrini: I saw the demo in WIndows
Vishnu Pavanaja:
shrini fine
shrini let us see how it goes
Vishnu sure.
shrini let us try to get free access to software first
shrini how much it costs?
Vishnu shrini: Great discussion!!
Pavanaja The software is free
shrini how much it costs?
shrini Free?
shrini great
Vishnu Pavanaja: you mean for all the TA Wikipedians in the world?
shrini do they give it for public for download?
Vishnu Yes same question I have
Pavanaja shrini: the modalities have to be worked out. we have to sign a MoU first. I have the draft with me
shrini OMG
shrini IISC
shrini is a govt organization
Vishnu Pavanaja: shrini let's test it first
shrini it should give it as open source
shrini let us get the access and try it
shrini first
Vishnu Pavanaja: MoU with IISc will be a miracle if we can do it in the next 3 years
Vishnu shrini: yep
Vishnu ok guys
Pavanaja shrini: may not be possible to get in opensource. will get it for free to use for Wikipedia (no source code)
shrini hmmm
Vishnu let's take this over e-mail.
shrini ok
Vishnu I am off
Vishnu shrini: thanks for joining. good discussion. more over e-mail
Pavanaja Shall we close? I am hungry
shrini ok
shrini bye all
shrini sent mail
Vishnu Bye
Pavanaja bye
shrini bye all
shrini thanks for good conversions
shrini meet you all next month
Vishnu Sure Shrini
subha1 bye everyone, good night!