Grants:TPS/Harvinder Chandigarh/Wikimania/2016/Report

Participant

Harvinder Chandigarh

Punjabi Wikipedia

I am active on various Wikimedia projects including Wikimedia Commons. Although I am more active on my native language Punjabi Wikipedia, yet I used to contribute frequently in Hindi, English and Western Punjabi languages as well. I used to contribute to both online and offline activities. In online activities, my main thrust is to contribute maximum primary field based work especially on subjects related to Natural and cultural heritage, environment, art & literature and development. In offline activities I used to contribute in the form of writing articles about Wikipedia movement in vernacular press, organize meetings with writers, journalists, and academic community and government officials. I have been pro active right from joining the movement just around one year back and it was my first and wonderful Wikimania conference participation

Outcome

Option 1: Shared Experience:

After returning from Wikimania I shared my experiences in the following forms:

• I wrote an article about Wikimania-2016 experiences and sent to a leading Punjabi Newspaper “Daily Ajit” having circulation in lakhs. It is likely to be published in near future

• I posted an article about my experiences in my blog [1] and shared it on social media where I am Admin of many groups/pages.I wrote it in my native language Punjabi Language for the benefit of my local community and its English version will also be posted soon.

• I am still sharing my experiences in formal and informal meetings with writers, media persons and my state government where I am working. Some Punjabi writers’ organizations have requested me to give presentation about the experiences of conference, which I am planning in coming weeks

Option 2: Learning Pattern:

• I came to know about GLAM project for first time in the Wikimania- 2016. Earlier I was doing such work in piecemeal and without proper perspective which I can do now in more organized manner with institutional collaboration approach. As a follow up I organized a meeting with director Archive of Punjab Government of my home state to assess the possibilities of replicating the success model of GLAM project of Bulgaria and few other countries which I learned during my participation in Wikiamania

• I learned many new things from Diego Delso in his session on “Improving Photographic Skills of Wikimedians” and I shall utilize it now in my own Wikipedia related photographic work

• A very fruitful meeting was held with Vahidmasrour who explained to me the potential of Education program, which I shall try to follow

• I first time came to know (from displayed material) about the practice of uploading images for important geospatial information .For instance Israel has implemented the success story of “No municipal committee without image”. I shall try to replicate it in my state also

Connections

Wikimania 2016 enabled me to build close connection with many Wikimedians not only from various other countries but from my own country as well. I got many new experiences through formal and informal interaction with them. I got good input from Trank TU (username:TU) and Mike Nicolarji (usename: Taketa), Vietnamese and Netherlands wikimedians respectively. I learned about enriching the content through image uploading from them. These close interactions resulted in strengthening the mutual cooperation for future. Recently Taketa invited me to participate in the cultural heritage event by posting on my talk page. I met Muzammuliuddin Syed (User: Hindustanilanguages) for the first time, though earlier we used to interact on talk page of each other. We shared possibilities and need of integrating East and West Punjab Wikipedia content. Interaction with Muneeb Kiani, a student of Pakistani origin, studying at Milan University, was very fruitful. We shared the possibilities of developing a software for integration of Eastern and western Punjab Wikipedia. Muneeb Kiani, doing PhD in IT in a Milan University, volunteered to provide all support in future for such a project. Detailed discussions were held with Roberto Paci Dalo, a volunteer Radio Boradcasting expert. I suggested to develop a network of Micro and cluster broadcasting model of Wikipedia to supplement the existing macro and national level broadcasting network. It was suggested to start with weather forecasting in first phase for the benefit of ordinary famers. He was convinced by the idea and now we are sharing more information through emails.

I had formal/informal interaction with following Wikipedians/organizers

• All Indian and Bangladesh attendees

• Kaice Herlod

• Maria Cruzc-

• Jaime L.K.Anster

• Diego Delso

• Niharika Kohli

• Roberto Pacidalo

• Chris Schilling

• Trank TU- Vietnam

• Mike Nicolarji- Netherland

• Muzammuliuddin Syed

• Shyamal Lakashminarayan

• Pranayaraj Vangari

• Sailaesh Patnaik

• Wassan.anmol

• Muneeb Kiani- Milan/Pakistan

• Bojana

My participation in Wikimania-2016 changed my whole perspective of viewing things. Some of my ideas were reinforced and many more were added. On the whole, this experience will certainly help me to prepare a future roadmap and actionable plan related to various projects.

Anything else

• Added more than 50 images on Wikimedia Commons [2] that I clicked during the process of Wikimania event .

• Adding these images to many existing articles and creating new articles in languages where I am active

• Few suggestions :

 Generally participants have either “Technical” or “General” type of orientation. Therefore all sessions may be divided in two broad categories – Technical and General. Overlapping of time schedule of same category may be avoided so that the participants can attend them as per their orientation and interest.

 Effort should be made to make presentations at some central or adjoining place.

 Top leadership of the Wikimedia Foundation and other notable experts should formally be introduced during inaugural session from the dais especially for the convenience of new comers.

 Deceased Wikimedians, expired during previous years may be remembered as token of respect for their contribution to the community.

• Link of Italian Press coverage where I was featured: [3]