Wikiconference

Template:Infobox Convention Wiki Conference India is a conference held in India for users of the Wikimedia projects hosted by the Mumbai community of Wikipedia in partnership with Wikimedia India Chapter with the support of the Wikimedia Foundation. The conference is positioned as the annual national flagship event for Wikimedia in India and is open to participation from all nations. The focus is on matters concerning India on Wikipedia projects and other sister projects in English and other Indian languages.

Overview

WikiConference India aims to provide a common platform for all Indian Wikimedians to interact, share ideas and collaborate. The conference ran from the 18th to 20th November 2011 and was held in Mumbai University in South Mumbai with the largest talks being held in the University's historic convocation hall. The conference was opened by Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikimedia Foundation, who gave a keynote address.

Program and participants

File:Wiki Conference India 2011-Jimmy Wales 5.jpg

Jimmy Wales during Wiki Conference India, 2011 at University Convension Hall, Mumbai

File:Poster Hindi.jpg

Wiki Conference India 2011 Poster in Hindi

The conference had keynote addresses by Jimmy Wales and Barry Newstead on the first and last days respectively. Tracks showcased in the Conference included topics such as Wikipedia Impact, Gender Gap, Indic Language wiki track, MediaWiki Translation Sprint, Institutions and Wikipedia, Fair use Workshop, etc. It also included Editathon and WikiAcademy sessions.

Various sessions on topics such as:

• Free knowledge and free content
• Legal Aspects of Wiki Culture
• Usage of Ajax and Jquery in Wiki
• Wiki Bhasha:Our Experiences with Multilingual Content
• Wiki Women Web:Bridging the Gender Gap
• GLAM (Galleries, libraries, archives and museums) project initiation in indic language wikipedias

Concurrent with the conference was a Hackathon, hosted by the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (MACCIA) Kala Ghoda, South Mumbai. Other activities included a City Tour and a Heritage Walk.

Participants

Wikimedians and non Wikimedians from all over India and from other countries, Wikimedia Foundation staff and founder Jimmy Wales, participated in the conference. Out of 7,000, one hundred applicants got scholarships based on their experience and contribution to Wikipedia and other projects. More than 700 people attended the conference.

Sponsors and partners

Microsoft Research, Ang India Technologies, SarkariNaukri.com, Omidyar Network, Kalnirnay, yebhi.com, were the sponsors; while eRegNow.com, Avignyata Inc., Kores India Ltd., Text100, Digital Signage Networks (DSN) and Panache were the partners.

There was a demonstration outside the conference by protesters against the map used by Wikipedia to show the borders of India.

See also

• WikiSym
• Wikimania

Gallery

• File:Wiki Conference India 2011 Wikipedia.jpg
• File:Wiki Conference India 2011-3.jpg
• File:Wiki Conference India 2011-4.jpg
• File:Wiki Conference India 2011-5.jpg

External links

• "Wiki Conference India 2011" at Meta-Wiki, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

News reports

• "Wikipedia eyes India for language growth" Agence France-Presse 09 November 2011
• "WikiConference comes to town" Times of India 10 November 2011
• "Wiki-world targets India " Asia Times Online 19 November 2011
• "Wikipedia needs inputs in local languages" Business Standard 18 November 2011