Grants:TPS/Hindustanilanguage/Wikimania/2016/Report

Welcome back from Wikimania 2016!

Participant

Hindustanilanguage (Syed Muzammiluddin)

I am active on a number of Wikimedia Projects with several user rights (see User:Hindustanilanguage on Meta), including Wikimedia Commons with maximum number of edits - although my main activity is now focused on Urdu and Hindi Wikipedias. I am also keen on writing community blogposts and leading Wikimedian profiles for Wikimedia Foundation Blog, TranslateWiki contributions, newspaper and media inputs on Wikimedia as well as collaborating with various Wikimedia communities.

This is my second Wikimania

Outcomes

1. Urdu Wikipedia:

Urdu Wikipedia has 15 admins including me. Most of whom have are passive and stopped editing since a long time. A need was felt to assess their continuation as sysops and a policy to this effect is soon to be evolved. Rollback was the only other user right. On the other hand a number of users made constructive edits and outreach and thus qualified for autopatrolled, reviewer, filemover and accountcreator positions, which the community believes should be granted before elevating them to adminship. Prior to Wikimania, two tasks were filed on Phabricator to this effect -- 1 & 2. While accountcreator and filemover rights were granted, reviewers right was put on hold. I initiated discussion on the reasons for not granting reviewer rights on Urdu Wikipedia during this Wikimania, which I hope will be resolved soon.
With the help of James Forrestor, I was able to file tasks for Short URL code, Prioritizing latin numbers on the Phabricator.
I was able to rename some of the terminology (e.g. distinct terms for undo and rollback)
I had first hand experience on the use of abuse filter.
I tried to address some of the issues with templates, notable among them being the need for creation of a separate deletion page discussion on Urdu Wikipedia for the articles nominated for deletion.

2. Hindi Wikipedia:

I am a reviewer, filemover and rollbacker on Hindi Wikipedia. I am also in direct contact over phone, email and social media with some of the active Hindi Wikipedians. In this context, there was a query about the Access to Knowledge Programme of Centre for Internet and Technology in connection with its activities for Hindi Wikipedia and the kind of support it can extend to outreach programmes for the language. I am glad that I was able connect the active Hindi Wikipedian concerned with Sailesh Patnaik from the Access to Knowledge Programme for further information during this Wikimania.

3. Wikimedia Foundation Blog:

As a frequent Blogger for Wikimedia Foundation Blogs, I was looking for opportunities of meeting WMF blog team members.In this connection, I discussed several aspects of Wikimedia Foundation Blogs with Ed Erhart in person and Victor Grigas over the Google hangout during Wikimania.
Wikimania provides an excellent avenue for me to interact with some of my interviewees and I was glad to meet Rich Farmbrough on whom I had written a WMF blog.
I was able to reach out a number of unreached communities such as interacting with Korean Wikipedian or a Wikipedian from Lesotho in Africa.

4. Community Collaborations:

I have made initial discussions with Ukranian and Romanian Wikipedians for collaboration on subjects of mutual interest. Already, Urdu Wikipedians translated Wiki Loves Earth 2015 written by a Ukrannian Wikipedian. Similarly, my blog interview of a leading Urdu Wikipedian was translated into Ukranian by another Ukranian Wikipedian. Also, from my side, I had written an article on Romanian writer Liviu Radu in Urdu and Hindi sometime back, while the article does not have a corresponding entry on the English Wikipedia till date, although Romanian version existed since a long time.

5. Sindhi Wikipedia:

I was able to connect Mehtab Ahmed with a WMF team member on issue of installing new fonts on Sindhi Wikipedia. I came in direct contact with Mehtab as since a posted a WMF blog on his contributions.

6. Malayalam Wikipedia:

I referred to some of the interwiki problems on Malayalam Wikipedia such as this during the Hackathon. I am glad that these issues are now resolved.

7. Gaining more insights:

I gained more insights on Wikidata and Wikimedia Affilitates - especially on Chapters and Thematic Groups as well as know about editing cultures of different communities. In particular, it has given me the idea of exploring the possibility of establishing a user group of birdwatching enthusiasts who could significantly contribute to Wikimedia Commons.

Connections

During this Wikimania, I was able to interact with a number of personalities. While it is difficult to list all names, I am listing a few of them:

WMF Team

Ellie Young
Katherine Maher
Asaf Bartov
James Forrester
Amir E Aharoni
Niharika Kohli
Ed Erhart
Joe Sutherland
James Alexander
James Heilman
Patricio Lorente
Kacie Harold
Tilman Bayer

Interaction with other participants

Full utilization of Hackathon days. I am extremely thankful for the friendly approach of all Hackathon team members for supporting and addressing my technical concerns, especially C. Scott Ananian
All Indian Wikimania attendees.
Individual connections with several individuals from several countries, including Lane Rasberry, Basak, May Hachem, Revi and several other individuals who participated in this Wikimania.
Interaction with people working on diverse projects such as Sara Mörtsell from Wikimini.
First time awareness and interaction with users of Basque and Lesotho Wikipedias.