Strategic Planning

Talk:Emerging strategic priorities/ESP 1 key questions

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Since the beginning of the strategic planning process, users of this wiki have been asked to identify questions related to Wikimedia's future direction and to treat it as a brainstorming question (no discussion, just questions). Over the past few months, users have built a Fact base to describe where Wikimedia is today, identified a set of Emerging strategic priorities related to achieving Wikimedia's vision "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge," and defined Task forces that will dive more deeply into making recommendations for how Wikimedia should grow in the future.

Now it's time for users here to move from brainstorming questions to providing input. Please read the questions below and discuss them on the talk pages. Discussions there will inform the work of the task forces and provide guidance as we, together, go about writing the strategic plan for the Wikimedia movement.


The following questions relate to "Expand reach within large, well-connected populations"


What are the underlying causes of Wikimedia's limited take-off in China?


  • China only accept things that are suitable for all ages. Since Wikipedia doesn't censor its content, it is not suitable for people in China (at least the mainland) to view Wikipedia (especially not Chinese Wikipedia).
  • Topics and contents about politics --124.207.228.65 09:23, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • China don't like some negative things about the central government or the party; for instance, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. For Google China, they block those sensitive words to let China government to free them from the GFW. --Morgand536 21:38, 22 October 2009 (UTC+8)

See Regional_Analysis/China#Barriers_to_the_growth_of_Chinese_language_Wikipedias

  • There is steep competition in the Chinese online encyclopedia space from Baidu Baike and Hudong. Both of these online encyclopedias have more than a million articles.
  • In mainland China there is a lack of understanding of the value proposition for participating in Wikipedia. This is due in part to the fact that other are Chinese online encyclopedias pay people to write entries.
  • There is concern amongst some mainland Chinese that participating in Wikipedia could involve them unwittingly in political controversy. Because the political climate is constantly shifting, the topics that are permitted for discussion by the censors changes on a regular basis. Websites based in China automatically censor contributions. Therefore, contributors do not have to worry about whether or not they are discussing politically sensitive topics since the website will automatically remove something that is deemed sensitive. Wikipedia does not provide that protection.
  • Localisation in many of the Chinese language Wikipedias, except for Yue, and Mandarin (both Traditional and Simplified) is very low. This may make it a less inviting environment to work in. Also see Proposal:Translator (Hire a sufficient number of professional translators) and the accompanying talk page for some more input). Siebrand 17:38, 1 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • A lack of content will make the projects less visible - if the content is there, it will get in the search engines. It is possible to use the content from the large Wikipedia's info boxes to create large amounts of new content in the projects of languages spoken in China. This will get more entries in the search engine, more traffic, more contributors, more content, etc. Siebrand 17:38, 1 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • There are some reports that Hudong and Baidu have copied the entire article from Chinese Wikipedia to their sites without proper attribution. OhanaUnitedTalk page 13:40, 3 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • Do you have any links to the reports that you mention, and possibly links to the alledged copyright violations? Siebrand 11:45, 5 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
      • Sure. Take Computex Taipei on Wikipedia and Computerx Taipei on Baidu. First paragraph is copied virtually word-for-word. In fact, an entire page in Chinese Wikipedia is dedicated to listing out all those copyright violations. To facilitate discussion for non-Chinese speakers, I'll quickly summarize what that page contains. Baidu has copied a total of 1466 articles from various languages in Wikipedia. 1441 articles were copied from Chinese Wikipedia, 9 from English Wikipedia, and 16 from Japanese Wikipedia. Of those 1441 articles originally in Chinese Wikipedia, 70 are FAs, 35 are GAs, 90 are DYKs, 9 were copyedited on Baidu after copied from Chinese Wikipedia, and remaining are general articles. An entire list of copyright violations are available on this page (on that page, blue titles are the articles in Chinese Wikipedia while the green titles are their corresponding entries on Baidu). No statistics are available for image copyright violations, but a few of those Baidu articles are reusing Commons image without proper attribution. For example, Litoria caerulea on Chinese Wikipedia and Litoria caerulea on Baidu both contains a comparison of similar tree frog species. It is available at Commons and Baidu has the same image. OhanaUnitedTalk page 19:16, 21 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
How is Wikipedia performing in comparison to Hudong and Baidu?

To what extent, does Wikimedia have unique assets or advantages that would fill needs that competitors cannot?

  • The number of articles of Chinese Wikipedia is much less than Baidu and Hudong. The community, and well-developed software are the advantages of wikipedia.--124.207.228.65 09:23, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • The another advantage of Wikipedia is covered all over the world, and Chinese always think that the things outside are better than inside. Also, Baidu and Hudong are just Q&A oriented, it can't provide something with professional description and further information like Wikimedia does. --Morgand536 21:55, 22 October 2009 (UTC+8)
  • check out the analysis that the China task force is performing Task_force/China_Task_Force/Comparison_with_Baidu_and_Hudong
  • Some users say that they use Wikipedia because there's no censorship here and they can read something prohibited by the government. --Liangent 10:01, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
How should Wikipedia position itself in relation to Hudong and Baidu?

Are there partnership opportunities either with Hudong/Baidu or with others?

  • The wikipedia community, as far as I know, is not willing to cooperate with Hudong and Baidu since the copyright violation there - Wikipedia articles are greatly copied to the websites and CC-BY-SA is not followed. Also, the websites are full of copyrighted contents. --124.207.228.65 09:23, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • Is there a way to add links from Baidu Baike to Wikipedia articles on the same subject? JoshW 01:08, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • I don't think coordinating with Hudong/Baidu is a good thing to Wikipedia, i think Wikipedia is in a higher level, represents the profession and worldwide editing. --Morgand536 22:06, 22 October 2009 (UTC+8)
  • "Many articles in Baidu Baike have been reported to be a duplicated version of Chinese Wikipedia articles, but without any attribution." [1]. How could one promote free culture in a communist country when the other two encyclopedias appear to claim the copyright for their content? I have no idea. --Fasten 12:56, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
What are the priority needs of editors and readers of the Chinese Wikipedia?


  • More user-friendly, Less banning, more spreading and a Wikimedia Mainland China. --124.207.228.65 09:23, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • Chinese Wikipedia should be a place where people of all ages should learn about the world. Unlike English Wikipedia, the idea of making the encyclopedia for all ages should be justified because modern Chinese culture shuns things that are not suitable for all ages.
  • Create special collections of articles. For example "Wikipedia Science Collection", "Wikipedia Art Collection", "Wikipedia Philosophy Collection", "Wikipedia History Collection" etc. There are two major purposes for these new collections: 1. pure academic-related articles are less likely to be blocked. 2. readers/editors with special interests and experts can go to specific "collections" to contribute. by Leopold Wilson & Company, L.P.
  • Editors' privacy should be protected especially strongly, given the government's actions towards dissidents. --Cybercobra 19:13, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
How should Wikimedia deal with censorship and protection of its readers and editors in China?


What should we do to ensure our materials are available to people whose governments impede access to them? #reach

  • Keep the community informed about this censorship. Make the special category: "Files, prohibited in China." About each file, indicate the person or institute that had banned it, with reference. The planet should know, who are censors. In particular, who are censors in China. Domitori 04:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • Instead of blocking Wikipedia altogether, why doesn't Wikimedia just block the Wikipedia articles that are not suitable for China and then allow the rest to flow clearly?
  • Any form of conformity with censorship is unacceptable. Wikipedia should not implement any such features as blocking inappropriate content according to governments overseeing local access. Furthermore, Wikimedia should deny any sort of identification requests made by any government entity, to the extent international laws allows it to. Gaddarca 00:20, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • People automatically blame everything on Chinese government on the complete censorship. But when you look around Wikipedia articles related to China, there are many biased options written by "China-haters". When Wikimedia advocates "universal access to information to all," they should increase neutrality and accuracy of the information by being completely objective. Leopold Wilson & Company, L.P.
  • Perhaps, like Google, we need to concede that China will simply not allow Wikipedia to operate there without some level of censorship, whether applied by ourselves willingly or by the government; perhaps create a way to comply with the censorship requests but (1) very clearly mark the page/section/whatever as censored (2) only censor for users in China; those fluent in Chinese outside of China or those in China who subvert the censorship should see an uncensored version; this will probably require some enhancements to MediaWiki and the addition of PRC-specific servers. Privacy should be a paramount concern and as many servers and much data as possible should remain in the US, out of reach of the Chinese authorities. --Cybercobra 19:10, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • Re: above. Your arguement falls apart when you notice that the Chinese wikipedia has been blocked more often than the English Wikipedia, when the Chinese wikipedia represents substantially more of the Chinese viewpoints in its contents. No. The communist government simply doesn't want their citizen to have free access to knowledge. Giving in to the communists will not help (得寸進尺). Hillgentleman 21:32, 17 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
What 2-4 strategic opportunities for investment in growth and community health would help to propel Wikimedia in China?


  1. Wiki can authorization to website of inside PRC,to use and share contents.
  2. In these days,wiki ZH can visit many common pages normally by usual way,except bad political articles.
  3. So,Wiki can give some subsidies to support Wiki ZH Editor who living inside China,then can have normal editor team ,and keep wiki ZH content growth Stablly.
  4. Wiki ZH Must begin keep copyright work in China.In fact,so much wiki ZH contents had been Infringement copyright inside China.
  5. fanally,notice:BaiDu and HuDong many contents like Wiki ZH.And BaiDu looks is a devil company in some chinese eyes.
-Loadpage 12:16, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
One problem in China: there's no copyright concept for most of the internet users. It's not they don't respect the hard labor of writing, but they just need anonymity to create contents or else there gonna be trouble. I am wondering what is the situation in other authoritarian countries' wikipedia? Could it be possible to analyze the users' on-line behavior of, such as North Korea, Cuba, or so?
-Shangkuanlc 10:45, 4 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
Who is needed to support this strategy (e.g., Wikimedia Foundation, chapters, individual volunteers, external partners), and what do they need to do?


  • Citizen and residents of countries that have relations with China. Domitori 04:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • Wikimedia Mainland China, which is not set up yet. The foundation may also help. --124.207.228.65 09:23, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • The Communist Party over in China needs to relax its stance with Wikipedia and allow users to read and edit Wikipedia articles as long as the editor doesn't have a known criminal background and the topic is acceptable to a mainstream Chinese-speaking audience (we are referring to Chinese Wikipedia, right?)
Is this question in single section for china and India ?Mahitgar 14:22, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
OK Below this is about India.
India is vast contry to cover.My openion is Benglore community has become more active,I would suggest we request benglore wikimedian community to idetify a canvassing persons who can travel to educational institutions across India make some field surveys and canvass for local wikimedia chapters atleast in majior India towns.some one from Wikimedia Foundation visits benglore choose some one and a little expenses of may be travel are shared by wikimedia foundation for atleast hundred vists or so .untill activity takes up to a better level.Mahitgar 05:21, 30 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Well, on what basis we assume that "Bangalore Community has become more active?" Suggestion is good is that someone needs to travel and visit educational and other institutions to promote wiki, but before proposing someone from SOuth to travel all across India, we must consider language barrier faced between south & north. Not everyone in India understand English, and there is no point in approaching institutions which are English medium based, hence best practice would be to suggest local chapters/language versions to visit their local schools. May be based on states/languages.--199.67.203.141 13:00, 4 November 2009 (UTC)Reply


Latest comment: 15 years ago59 comments12 people in discussion
How will Internet use in India change over the next 5 to 10 years?


Yet the no of people using internet in India is very high(compared to other countries) since it is second most populated country in the world and that the no of users is not up to the mark , India is a potential country since having only about 10% of people computer literate ..as the literacy goes up the demand will be more ..and also the localization (the people with the knowledge of a single language) can increase the potential ..also there may be lacking knowledge about the Wiki ..the ubiquity is the next factor that can boost up the usage .. --सरोज कुमार ढकाल 16:36, 18 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
The usage will explode. Not only will improving infrastructre help this, but mobile/cell phone infrastrucure that's far superior to US (and in some cases Europe even) will mean more mobile internet users.
अभय नातू 02:29, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
India has the fourth largest number of Internet users in the world, with 81 million users. India is behind the US (220 million), China (210 million) and Japan (88.1 million). A report here in the Economic Times.[2](Will come back with more figures)
A the end of June’09, India has 14050657 internet subscribers as compared to 13.5 million in March’09 and 11.66 million in June’08. The quarterly growth rate of 3.8 % is slower than the 5.3 % growth rate reported in the preceding quarter. The share of broadband services in the total internet services is increasing with almost 94 % of new internet connections connected between June’08 to June’09 being broadband connections. The broadband subscriber base stands at 6.62 million.

India’s subscriber base for wireless internet services stands at 126.97 million at the end of June’09 as compared to 75.97 million at the end of June’08 resulting in a growth rate of 67%. With wireless subscriber base at around 430 million, the percentage of mobile subscribers with wireless data services comes out to nearly 30 %. TelecomTiger.com Oct 2009 Mahitgar 07:37, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

In India Internet use will be like the mobile use presently in India. As in last five years mobile growth was very high and it's still goin on, same will be with internet.--Lalit82in
Will more non-English speakers gain access to the Internet?
As technology and infrastructure penetrate rural areas, more and more non-English speakers (either by choice or lack thereof) will jump on the internet.
अभय नातू 02:29, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
Yes,Union Government has come up with heavyly subsidised special schemes that take care of all type of costs in very resonable rates.The scheme for rural customers has been launched under the universal obligation service fund (USOF) scheme and the USOF is providing a subsidy of around Rs 4,500 (aprox 100USD) on each PC,". plan for rural customers comes at Rs 1,900 plus taxes and urban customers have to pay Rs 2,999 plus taxes, which will approximately add up to Rs 5,000 in both the cases. The operating charges for broadband in both the plans is Rs 175 and additional costs for high-end plans. Times of India —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mahitgar (talk • contribs) --Fasten 09:33, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

Problem for them is going to be non availability of enough content in local languages. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mahitgar (talk • contribs) --Fasten 09:29, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

Yes, as now the growth will be in rural areas. Where non-English speakers are more. --Lalit82in
Will increase in Internet use come primarily from increases in mobile devices or computers?
More from computers but mobile-users' share will be non-trivial, if not significant.
अभय नातू 02:29, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply

That is true but it is not the only thing it will be on mutiple fronts.

It is due to both reasons, but mobile devise has given more technical access to the people especially in rural areas. --Lalit82in
It is rapidly growing ,couple of Rural parts of Nepal has been connected to the Internet for that the Volunteer Mahabir Pun was awarded Magsaysay(It was personal Effort) ..and FOSS Nepal is constructing E-libraries in Remote underprivileged schools in Bhutan the scenario is similar lots of Students are studying in foreign Universities and the consciousness is growing,those days are not that far all the parts get connected into the global network. सरोज कुमार ढकाल 18:15, 23 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
What form factors and platforms should Wikimedia consider in a highly mobile-use population?


What should we do to ensure our materials are available to the growing number of people who access the internet only through mobile devices? #reach
Still the Bandwidth is very expensive in India ..GPRS or ISP connections,and speed is the second factor , the dominant platforms is Java enabled mobiles,(smart phones,netbooks and noteboooks )often used ..so the design of the system to work in low band width and the speed is more suitable for India .. सरोज कुमार ढकाल 16:49, 18 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
Light-weight, text-only edition. More intelligent caching. ****Podcast-type user-to-user sharing****
अभय नातू 02:31, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply

Not only for mobile access, but simply for rural access, provide a way to access with low bandwidth seems necessary. Image's and animation's volume should be reduced, even if this occurs quality lost. The W3C has recommandations for web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.0) and, consequently, mobile web best pratices (MWBP 1.0)... an AAA level seems realistic to me. -- Eric Schreiner (talk) 12:48, 26 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

You can instruct your browser to load images only on demand; isn't that sufficient? --Fasten 14:27, 26 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
The reasons that lead someone to navigate wiki articles are of different natures: just chek something, deepen a topic, or try to understand some reference, and so on. Between no image at all, and heavy images or animations, is there no solutions ? Furthermore on devices with small screen, having or not some zooming capabilities, high definition isn't useful. Don't forget that, for many people, mobile phone is the unique way to access web content. -- Eric Schreiner (talk) 16:32, 26 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Practically everybody. --Fasten 17:10, 26 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

What use has educational content on a mobile phone? I wouldn't want to read Wikipedia articles even on a small netbook. What difference is there if you read Wikipedia on a large laptop screen using a mobile network? --Fasten 14:27, 26 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

Ah, maybe for the "mobile users", well I recommend the factors 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 --Fasten 15:01, 26 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Probably availability of wiktionary on mobile will help a lot in multilingual country ilke India at all levels and specialy so to all translators can contribute online dictionary will be a good Idea. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mahitgar (talk • contribs) --Fasten 09:25, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
What is the current demand for Wikimedia in India?


What is the demand for enWikipedia?
Literacy is low in Northern part of India , excluding the big cities even though they are literate that does not mean that they are computer literate and more over they use the wiki. Most of them can only speak,read and write in their mother language..English wiki is only in the reach of the privileged population ..empowerment in the local wiki(local language ) is the most to boost up the usage of the wiki ..the high traffic pages need to be translated to the local languages and also the main occupation in India in Agriculture we have to focus how can we make wiki useful even in agriculture and in controlling the often outbreaks of the epidemics .सरोज कुमार ढकाल 17:03, 18 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • Presently, its use is limited to those who used to read in search of knowledge. But that constitute only a tiny fraction of the educated people and people in the education sector.Dineshjk 10:58, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Ok Alexa figures show some intresting facts I will come back on this as time permitsMahitgar 15:06, 23 October 2009 (UTC) 5.7% Wikipedia.org users come from India. But where they go alexa listing does not include any Indian language other than english itself besides .Alexa rating for wikipedia is 9th top most visited among all Indian usage.Meaning from this stat is very clear as of today a huge Indian Population is referring to English Language Wikipedia. Why enough people are not going to local languge wikipedia instead of en wiki the reason is either simply they do not know about existance of local language wiki or still they do not find enough content on local wikis [3] , [4] Mahitgar 08:13, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • In india mainly in the urban cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, chennai, banglore. The demand for wiki en is very high ive have seen loads of people set wiki as thier default search engine on firefox. There are not enough contributers to the other indian projects hence there is not much response...
I have a suggestion that every single page related to Idia should be translated into all indian languages. That way you can attract more traffic.Syler.mi4 04:26, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
What is the demand for South Asian language Wikipedias?
Alexa like figures are not available.Ok I will come back with figures for Marathi Language wikipediaMahitgar 15:06, 23 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
For India the following languages make the top 50 of most spoken languages

in the world: Hindi (3), Bengali (10),Punjabi (15),Marathi (17),Telugu (20),Tamil (28),Urdu (29). Gujarati (34), Kannada (33), Sindhi(37,)Malayalam (39), , Nepali (43), Oriya (42)

The language like Nepali is not only the language of India it is the Official Language of Nepal with significant no of speakers in Bhutan and few speakers in Myanmar ..we can work out together with the people from the other corner of the world so that we can help them and we can help ourselves सरोज कुमार ढकाल 17:09, 18 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
In terms of market(For local language Wikipedias that is minimum potential), Maharashtra ( Read Marathi Language) is seen as the most lucrative market with the state having as many as 1.17 million broadband subscribers. Tamil Nadu(Read Tamil Language) follows Maharashtra with roughly 0.8 million broadband subscribers. Other high performing states include Delhi, Karnataka(Read Kannada language) , Kerala(Read Malyalam Language), Andhra Pradesh(Read Telugu Language), Rajasthan, Gujarat(Read Gujarathi Language), Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh(Read Hindi Language).TelecomTiger.com Oct 2009Fasten 09:55, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

You said,Some people have stated that the slow growth of an Indian language wikipedias is due to people in the India's preference for using English while online

See, here at google trends that people are searching for local langugae fonts.In india eduacational cream opts usually for technical fields and do not have any other option than that of english so they get used to english.But what do the rest do they also do not have option but use roman script favoring net so they end up communicating in their own languge using roman script how so ever they would be uncomfortable with that.

My answer is People are not aware that they can use their own language,how to use their language and they do not have a fair choice, since today they are not assured of availability of all communication and knowledge in their own language,and they are not being represented.

See in Maharashtra state anually some 15,00,000 student apear for 10th standard out of which 12,00,000 are from Marathi Languge Medium [5] (rest of 3,00,000 of english medium what is their level of fluency in english needs study). out of these 15,00,000 only 3,00,000 students are registering for Science faculty[6] which is dominnated by english language the rest 7,50,000 students opt for Arts and commerce studies which are predominantly in Marathi Language.and 4,50,000 lac students are not persuing any studies beyond 10th standard.so they remain Marathi.Since from 10th standard exam results and 11th standard admissions happen to be online so good size of students know what internet is.

So what we need, is real field sample survey studies of students of atleast 11th standard and beyond to understand thier real online preferences,do they know wikipedia,how do they perceive wikipedia and how much local language wikipedias are important to them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mahitgar (talk • contribs) --Fasten 10:00, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

Hindi Language demand is more, but compared to English, there is very less updates. As the people even don't know that Wikipedia can be updated. --Lalit82in

Here is a link to some very interesting market research on Indian Internet users Juxt Online Market Research Online India 2009 topline findings. Based on their survey data they claim that only 13% of online Indians prefer to read in English! Sarah476 22:28, 5 November 2009 (UTC)Reply

What is the potential role for other Wikimedia projects?
There is lot of potential for Wiktionary,Wikibooks, wikisources,Wikiversity have got good scope.Only Wikiquote might remain a minor even in long run in most of south asian languages Mahitgar 12:21, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
How will the demand for Wikimedia in India change in the next five to 10 years?


It will be an exponential curve, with younger people catching on and hanging on to usage, followed by more young people using it. The snowball effect.
अभय नातू 02:33, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
India has huge youth to educate in english and their native languages, youth needs support of wikimedia projects to sharpen their exposure to general knowledge which is very very important for persuing a career in India simillarly India has enoroumous educational challanges in field of continuous adult education.
Indians would need more and more support in self education with the help of open university and correspondance education system where wikimedia projects will come to them as handy tools for their studies.


It is a lot but certain potential is not well understood by the people.Like Lot of Source Material is still to digitised in unicode.Main limitation is easy and expert acceptable OCR.While certain Govt establishments are working seriously on it solution is not immidiately available as of today.
Wikispecies along with local wiki botany projects can help in taking knowledge to masses and Indian Agriculturist.As such one local academia has shown intrest for Marathi Language Wikipedia's Botany Project articles.Ofcourse they do have usability issues with Templates and they requested for front end forms to make entries in wiktionary since that work is enoromous if not OCR at least they should get front end forms ,they requested.
But the whole thing would be dependant on creation and translation of content in local languages.

Mahitgar 12:33, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

Scope is very good, but it is mainly limited to search mostly.
What can be done to encourage participation by Indians on enWikipedia?


Emphasis on offline campaigning. Most people who hear about w: online already can speak/read English. To encourage and tap into the vast market of non-English-speaking Indians, they must be reached via non-traditional avenues, as a significant portion of this market may not even *be* online in the near future.
अभय नातू 02:35, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
for that online campaign is must. As I had observed that people are not aware about it, even a regular internet user. --Lalit82in
First already en wiki has got good Indian readership and many of them have done substantial contribution too.Wikipedia contributing needs attitude for self learning rules of the games and beyond certain percentage of max human population need in person coaching in 'How to do certain thing'
Second aspect is if we speak of en wiki only, it has become too rigid about rules,The strategy of insisting to write rough drafts only in userspace is very self defeating to Idea of collaborative writing.As such I dea of having Sandbox as a namespace and allowing users to leave their writing on sand box for atleast for 4 to six months can help en wikipedia getting more contributory response.Mahitgar 12:49, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
What does enWikipedia need to become more relevant to Indians?


  1. A massive young population in age group 16 to 18 mainly after standard ten eduaction level does a majior change in languge of education from their native dialects to english languge primarily students of science and mathematics stream ,and smallar numbers need to make lingual transition in commerce faculty at the level of postgraduation or some professional cources like chartered accountancy.For middle rung and lower rung these languge transitions are many times painfull with least amount of resources available. Wikipedia projects in english and their native languge wiki projects can become a good tool that helps them bridge their lingual gap.
Summer holidays after 1oth standard are comparatively longer ,If we arrange summer camps (some where in april or may month) for this 16+ age group to introduce wikiprojects they are the real group to benefit out of wikipedia projects and have time in hand to make written contribution to both languge wikipedias.Mahitgar 04:54, 4 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
Besides wikimedia chapters can and need to reach 11th standard teachers in this respect because they are the accademic community who will benefit indirects by having students with better lingual exposure. Give suggessions how to reach up to this teaching group04:54, 4 November 2009 (UTC)
  1. A huge amount of youth apears for goverment competitive exams(even with english languge) are held where subjects about General Knowledge are immensely important. including en wiki and some other wikimedia projects can be helpfull this potential is not accessed yet.
  2. Other than very scholor level knowledge in sciences and engineering avaialability of all other knowledge in local languages is needed ok I will justify very well this wih figure but I need little more time.
  3. en wiki is a via media to get latest translatable knowledge free for local wikipedias; At any point of time in near future local languges page by page translation wont catchup
  4. There are many local and interesting informations about India, but there are not that much online sources. Even someone wants to put it, then I have observed that some westerns object those informations and question the notabilities. So some local local editors/administrators should be given more weightage in such a decisions--Lalit82in
Does Wikipedia is need robust Indian language projects in order to increase their reach in India?


  1. [...] Answer here, please...
  2. Yes, not only is it a need, it is a critical need. One in Six (or more) people in the world will have better accessibility if native languages are supported/developed better. अभय नातू 02:40, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
  3. Does any one have a magic stick that makes one billion people start understanding english within a night,I suppose no one would have. [Yes] very much,In India we have big knowledge divide on one hand we do have top of the world knowledge resources and Indian economy and certain small percentage of population is reaping benefits out of its knowledge which is largely english language dependant, still that benefit will not go beyond 5 crore people.May be we make all our new generation learn and talk only english but that stll leaves a question what about present one billion people who are deprived of knowledge sources because it is available in english. Mahitgar 13:03, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
If so, how can Wikipedia increase participation in Indian language projects?


  1. [...] Answer here, please...
  2. Apart from what's being done, form a task-force, project committee or a focus group to visualize, develop and implement projects more relevant to Indian populace. I would not mind being a part of such steering group. अभय नातू 02:38, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
  3. A massive young population in age group 16 to 18 mainly after standard ten eduaction level does a majior change in languge of education from their native dialects to english languge primarily students of science and mathematics stream ,and smallar numbers need to make lingual transition in commerce faculty at the level of postgraduation or some professional cources like chartered accountancy.For middle rung and lower rung these languge transitions are many times painfull with least amount of resources available. Wikipedia projects in english and their native languge wiki projects can become a good tool that helps them bridge their lingual gap.
Summer holidays after 1oth standard are comparatively longer ,If we arrange summer camps (some where in april or may month) for this 16+ age group to introduce wikiprojects they are the real group to benefit out of wikipedia projects and have time in hand to make written contribution to both languge wikipedias.Mahitgar 04:54, 4 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
Besides wikimedia chapters can and need to reach 11th standard teachers in this respect because they are the accademic community who will benefit indirects by having students with better lingual exposure. Give suggessions how to reach up to this teaching group04:54, 4 November 2009 (UTC)
  1. Through central notice make people aware that even in en wiki they can navigate with their own language.
  2. One of the main task is informing those Indians who are reaching to en wikipedia,about availability Indian Language projects.en wiki needs to become more liberal in allowing to put up templates on relevant articles at top of the article itself about existance of a page in Indian language.Presently if I go on page related Tamilnadu or Tamil language on en wiki as a reader a coincidance need to happen that I see a link to tamil language wikipedia, Rather If we allow some 100 articles relevant for every language wikipedia that they can place a link like a central notice at top of the page readers will immidiately realise that ok they are invited to Tamil or some relevant language wikipedia.
  3. Provide font typing support from mediawiki level itselfMahitgar 05:12, 30 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
How can Wikipedia increase awareness of Indian language Wikipedias?


  1. [...] Answer here, please...
  2. Partnering with local, vernacular newspapers, with information exchange taking place both ways. अभय नातू 02:41, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
  3. We need strategies where by Indian local language media including that of print and electronic takes note of respective Indian language WIkipedia Projects. (en wikipedia benefitted from media support , word of mouth and googles search engine support.)While Indian english langugae media took note of wikipedia developments Indiana Language media excluding few exceptions largely gave a miss to developments of Indian Language wikipedia.
  4. I had taken online survey among Marathi Language wikipedia contributors and almost all of them informed that they do avoid to discuss about wikipedia among their friends and family members that means we need a better strategy to achive better word of mouth.
  5. We can and need to request education ,career and competitive exam related periodicals to take note of how wikipedia can benefit in atleast improving ones general knowledge and exposure there by benefits their career.
  6. We may need to reach to students in summer camps and holiday camps and give them a coaching on how to use wikipedia.
  7. We may benefit from reaching out through local language liabraries and local language book vendors so we can catch seroius readers of local languages and inform them of Marathi Wikipedia.
  8. Then I had submitted a proposal Proposal:Audio/visual Presentation Competition while uptill now it has not generated anticipated support I feel It will help us reach among students in educational institutions itself.Mahitgar 13:27, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
What lessons can be learned from other successful on line Indian language communities?


  1. [...] Answer here, please...
  2. Local language font typing support ; while has been given by some wikipedias like Marathi Wikipedia it is short of giving keyboard layout support view on demand.Providing universal font typing support from mediawiki level itself can benefit
  3. Word of mouth from influencer (Like in case of facebook too).And influencer through co-ordiantion of various subject projects may help bring in more editors and contribution.
  4. We can not keep just beating wikimedia drum only.Rather promote mediawiki software among other sphere of life in CMS in India so people would easily know how a wiki edited secondly it would provide a little revenue for webmasters.We Wikimedia chapter should try and bid for CMS installations for government institutions, Like drupal based sites do provide a small sources of revenue to web master from opensource movement people ,they are working in their favour like influencers in word of mouth.
  5. Drupal based most of local lingo online communities provide for forms to write in and more imformal and relaxed environment for discussion.Mahitgar 13:45, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
What tools and support are necessary to further build the contributor base for Indian language Wikipedias?


  1. Increased inter wikipedia co-operation via embassies and other formal on-wikmedia channels. अभय नातू 02:42, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
    I think the existing tools and resources are sufficient. It is the matter of motivating and diverting the youth to Wiki. Dineshjk 10:58, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    I donot agree with above statement in toto, I beg to differ.(Right now signing out will come back on this later)Mahitgar 15:18, 23 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  2. For further building the contributor base for Indian language Wikipedians tools are not sufficient, as observed by the these language users. Some online language support should be there like the editor for reply/feedback on http://indiagatenews.com/india-news/manomohan-meetin-jiyabao-with-arunachal-victory-in-hand.php/ --Lalit82in
  3. Atleast May be as one sandbox page on same lines as of google docs which autosaves the document and one need not press even an edit button.
  4. May be an Automated template writing tool.
  5. May be browser based easier bots for non technical people.
  6. Very list informed browserbased tool wikedit Firefox Addon Weekedit 1.4.0 owner need to be taken on roll and support him to make that tool available even on internet explorer and request him for multiple intra wikimedia projects controll at one go so that I can creat same name article in wikipedia wiktionary and wikibooks sitting at single window need not adjust controll every time.Mahitgar 14:02, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  7. A browser based or wikibased tool that can suggest apropriate local language word (on right click of mouse menu) against an english word /phrases/sentenses while doing translations.
  8. We need a tool that can give enwikipedia article's text converted in table format with every en para in a cell and corresponding cell in open edit window to feed in translation.Even if this becomes available for say limited number of pages .It will be easier to get better support from reluctant translators secondly it will help create a better corpus for those languges who do not have any machine transaltion support as of the day.
Who is needed to support this strategy (e.g., Wikimedia Foundation, chapters, individual volunteers, external partners), and what do they need to do?


  • Citizen and residents of countries that have relations with China. Domitori 04:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • Wikimedia Mainland China, which is not set up yet. The foundation may also help. --124.207.228.65 09:23, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • The Communist Party over in China needs to relax its stance with Wikipedia and allow users to read and edit Wikipedia articles as long as the editor doesn't have a known criminal background and the topic is acceptable to a mainstream Chinese-speaking audience (we are referring to Chinese Wikipedia, right?)
Is this question in single section for china and India ?Mahitgar 14:22, 29 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
OK Below this is about India.
India is vast contry to cover.My openion is Benglore community has become more active,I would suggest we request benglore wikimedian community to idetify a canvassing persons who can travel to educational institutions across India make some field surveys and canvass for local wikimedia chapters atleast in majior India towns.some one from Wikimedia Foundation visits benglore choose some one and a little expenses of may be travel are shared by wikimedia foundation for atleast hundred vists or so .untill activity takes up to a better level.Mahitgar 05:21, 30 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Well, on what basis we assume that "Bangalore Community has become more active?" Suggestion is good is that someone needs to travel and visit educational and other institutions to promote wiki, but before proposing someone from SOuth to travel all across India, we must consider language barrier faced between south & north. Not everyone in India understand English, and there is no point in approaching institutions which are English medium based, hence best practice would be to suggest local chapters/language versions to visit their local schools. May be based on states/languages.--199.67.203.141 13:00, 4 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
What are the underlying causes of Wikimedia's limited take-off in India?


The reasons of the low speed of wiki progress in India may be one or more of the reasons from my point of view
  • Expensive bandwidth
  • Lack of feeling of contribution
  • Feeling of gain(what can we get by writing in free wiki?)
  • Poverty ... work more but earn less , no free time
  • Lack of tradition of self study ..studying other than text books
  • Spend time in television,movies if free time not the internet
  • Low computer literacy , even literacy
  • Lack of knowledge about the wikis
  • Thinking Internet is the replacement of the telephone, and mail boxes
  • Thinking computer as the high class items ...list goes and goes ..main thing is lack if awareness ..सरोज कुमार ढकाल 17:21, 18 November 2009 (UTC)Reply


  1. The concept of Wikipedia is just that of the olden days philosophy of India सहना ववतु सहनौ भुनक्तु सहवीर्यं कर्वा वहै तेजस्वीना वद्दीतमस्तु Let us prosper together knowledge if free of any ownership. It is like a river that belongs to everyone. Let us join hands together to enhance our knowledge. This philosophy, now prevalent in Western World, is rarely seen among the youth of India. With the time, when youth will realize the need of knowledge without bound, the use of wikipedia will be elevated. Dineshjk 10:55, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply


I will prefer to analyse this differently,See those language wikipedias which are from developed countries/or say financial well of countries like Japan Germany and French language wikis are doing well.
Second is what India's literate elite has contributed is more towards english langugae.
Less word of mouth and so lack of awareness(even less number of controverisies ,even controveries lead to buzz and meda and word of mouth)
Other problems which are discussed earlierMahitgar 14:03, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
If India's literate elite contributes to the English Wikipedia then the solution may be to map an abstract/header in Hindi into the English articles shown in India, at least where a corresponding Hindi article is known. A finer distinction could be made depending on language preferences of the individual user. --Fasten 14:12, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
I do agree Mahitgar 12:34, 1 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
What are the opportunities to expand the penetration of Wikipedia in India?


  1. We should target the university folk and the technocrats working on project outsourced from USA. They will, I am sure, then propagate the use of Wikipedia.Dineshjk 10:58, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    As I mentioned here, awareness is less. Some campaign and advertisements needed.--Lalit82in
  1. I answered this to earlier question 'How can Wikipedia increase awareness of Indian language Wikipedias?' Do I need to repeat the same again is this question different in some way ?Mahitgar 12:38, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
What 2-4 strategic opportunities for investment exist which would propel growth in India?


  1. [...] Answer here, please...
  2. What this 2-4 figures refer to in this question ?
  3. If would have been doing this for earining revenue it would have been far easier in India by floating just a Wiki TV channel and a Wikiversity , but ok that is more in lighter vain,
  4. Provide course literature and material to computer teaching institutions with certification in Mediawiki installation bot making and template writing .The course will do wonders besides send some good bot writer across Indian educational insititutions to arrange lectures on mediawiki how tos
  5. Wikimedia can invest in creating a local chapter which would corrospond with educational institutions in India.


Other questions

Latest comment: 15 years ago50 comments20 people in discussion

Questions here relate to Emerging Strategic Priority 1 that do not directly relate to China and India are transposed from the Key questions page, where their history can be found. Please feel free to add to this list.

How can we reach the people who currently have access to our projects, but don't use them?

#reach

    • I think a social media approach could be useful. Not only calls for contribution on content, but also developing tools for making it easier for anyone to link to wikipedia as people communicate.Paulo Rená 03:05, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • I think, we should not try to reach them. Of one is interested to have the efficient and robust definition, the databases send this colleague to wiki. If one is not interested, there is no need to invite such a gamer into the wiki. Domitori 03:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • We must reach each and every corner of the globe as this is a project that bring welfare to the knowledge society and that too at no cost. Fir reaching out to the targeted group, man to man propagation is the best suggestion that comes to my mind. In India, we fought the illiteracy by the slogan Each one teach one and that worked like charisma. I am sure, if each visitor of wikipedia (mainly the registered users) should be greeted with such message of bringing at least one friend to wikipedia. Dineshjk 10:32, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • Encourage the creation of descriptions in at least two languages (English being one of them)--Sten 21:45, 24 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  2. Why not carry out field survey in educational institute and listen from them first hand ?Mahitgar 12:58, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    How about creating and selling new year and season greeting cards (That would be easy with so many files easily available at commons) and post cards that will support local wikimedia chapters in small way and those people who receive it will reinforce wikipedia image Mahitgar 12:51, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  3. Create large amounts of content based on known facts from large Wikipedia info boxes. This content will be indexed by search engines, and in turn this will lead to more traffic. Siebrand 17:30, 1 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
What should we do to ensure our materials are available to people whose governments impede access to them?

#reach

    • Using out of band methods (i.e. technological measures) is painful but often effective as a means of ensuring access to the content. (Example: Twitter from Iran to get information out) Providing editing via other protocols is more painful. -- ArielGlenn 02:53, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • Qualify those governments as bad. Help the people to change those governments in a legal and constitutional way. Domitori 04:00, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • We should seek assistance of our users having access to other discussion forums/bulletin boards (access of which is allowed in those countries) to launch an awareness programs for the citizens of those countries. Let the social pressure rise from within the society to force the governments allowing the access. Dineshjk 10:32, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  2. Apeal wikipedians from world over and Send roses to their leaders and request them be a rose not a thorn. Mahitgar 13:01, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  3. Another smart idea is to launch antipedia , In countries where censorships are too tight usually media resort to a tactic of criticising what they want to support or say and smart readers read between the lines and information and knowledge still percolates and over criticism is self defeating and is some thing like supporting,SO criticise wikipedia through some anti-wikipedia campaign ourselves and make those criticisms available in those countries. Mahitgar 14:00, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
What should we do to ensure our materials are available to the growing number of people who access the internet only through mobile devices?

#reach

    • A standard app foi smartphones, like a standard icon on everyone, by design on the screen or as a proper button on the device that could link to a Wikipedia search.Paulo Rená 03:07, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • This seems to be very difficult as the resources available to the most advanced mobiles like blackberry are limited too. Better we encourage them with our showcase bringing them to the conventional keyboards.Dineshjk 10:32, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  2. Write software that enables mobiles to edit the pedia. I believe the partnership with Orange is designed to do this. WereSpielChequers 08:18, 27 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  3. We can provide wiki answers , wiktionary, and did you know this through mobile services , Mahitgar 13:06, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  4. With combining all electrocic technology can we not dream a world that provides real time translation to all information and knowledge in this world is that realy difficult ?Mahitgar 13:06, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
No it isn't as simple as you imagine; machine translation is challenging. --Fasten 15:12, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
I know,First of all from day one I always believed that
  1. unknowingly we at various language wikipedias are creating enoromous corpus of info for MT developers.
  2. If today in search engines we are able to show 'did you mean this ?' why similar translator aid wont be possible in near future
  3. Besides I am not ruling out human intervention but more synchronization of various electronic media.Suppose I am visiting far corner country and a shopekeeper does not understand english I will SMS a sentence what I want to speak that may get flashed on TV networks and and some viewer may reply me back,this is just one possible example.
  4. Besides there is much more different technological solutions are available today some day some one will put them together ,
May be all above is not easy and simple , I do agree Mahitgar 12:49, 1 November 2009 (UTC)Reply

Quizzes with video answers

What I imagine to be the more interesting uses of Wikipedia on mobile phones are tests and quizzes and possibly videos. Especially if a test may link to a video that answers the question adolescents may accept it as a game to quiz each other. On the other hand there may be a danger that relying excessively on videos could promote less desirable aspects of youth culture: It may be more difficult for an educator to motivate an adolescent to read if the whole encyclopedia is available as a video collection. --Fasten 15:12, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Atleast one or two interactive games we should have which indirectly trains about how to contribute in a wiki. Mahitgar 12:56, 1 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
You suggest that "this is a very childish type of motivation"? Maybe. Adolescents with mobile phones can be a very childish audience. The question remains whether it is desirable or not. A possible perspective is that adolescents who generally prefer a video version of an article lack sufficient guidance anyway and watching Wikipedia articles is better than watching arbitrary YouTube content. The educator who cannot convince an adolescent to read an article when the adolescent would be willing to watch it should be much more scarce but parents aren't qualified educators, which means they may allow the problem to persist without understanding for possible detrimental effects and that may not be a scarce phenomenon. --Fasten 14:01, 1 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
How do we ensure our materials are protected and preserved in usable form, so they continue to be available forever?

#reach

    • No way. Wiki is vulnerable to lobbing. Some organizations like Rolex or KGB can provide sufficient amount of puppets to block the critical information about their activity. In particular, this applies to pictures. Domitori 04:00, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
      • If lobbing is detected, a sysop can be informed of the issue and lock down the page from those doing edit wars, and accepting changed through the talk page of the article. An alternative is adding an intermediate level of protection that only allows experienced editors to make changes to a page; this slows down lobbing significantly, whether handled through an automated benchmark (e.g. Wikibooks Editor level) or manually. Keeping track of unpatrolled revisions also helps.
    • Wikibooks is designed for this task; once a book is determined to be completed, it can be printed and formed into a permanent paper book. Wikibooks doesn't have a formal implementation yet. If it's needed on a given wiki, it probably would require creating a section on the wiki to handle this. --Sigma 7 04:43, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • Well, if our intentions are good, we should not worry about this. We should never poke into any nations private affairs. We should be concerned only with the pure form of knowledge and information. Let Wiki be the name of prosperity of knowledge for each and everyone. Once we have demarcation on our side, no agency will have bad taste of our knowledge sharing. Dineshjk 10:32, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • Provide a REALLY simple interface for mirroring an entire wiki, like a special page that can I can use to download and import some other wiki (from a URL) into my wiki. Of course after that, you need differential syncing to stay up to date. Content authenticity could be ensured by employing a PKI and signing every change. --Hyrsebrigh 11:30, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  2. create a yearly printout of the entire website, passably by different users to be mailed to a binding company and stored in a wiki-museum and or vault as a permanent copy unsubjectable to revision. By this token, a simple digital printout would provide the same effect at a lower cost, such as saving the backup server tapes once every so often that would provide the same imprint of the website at a fraction of the cost, thus more duplicateable and easier to repeat every year or more often. Short of engraving terabytes of data onto stone in the Sahara, a hard copy is always the best way to preserve information, since this amount of information must basically be digitalised to make any significant revision in content due to the sheer size of the data.
  3. Well I am not a doom sayer but some of the good knowledge needs to be converted in to recitable hymns too so can be preserved in oral tradition too (The way lot of world religious scriptures were preserved over the centuries , far fetched is it ?Mahitgar 13:53, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
How do the projects remain relevant in a web that is increasingly geared toward mobile devices?

#reach4

  1. This question needs clarification. Users that have trouble accessing Wikimedia sites over mobile devices can currently use a mobile portal (which may or may not be acceptable under Wikimedia policy). If this is the case, then you can add a feature to Wikimedia that makes the display easier on Mobiles. If you want to know how users will edit pages on mobile devices, remember that it is much faster to make edits on a desktop computer, especially when it comes to making clean formatting such as tables. If you worry that the current mobile revolution is directing traffic to other sites, it's a different question entirely. In any case, Wikimedia will retain relevancy since it is a central information repository. --Sigma 7 04:43, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  2. As I mentioned earlier, let the the mobile user turn to the conventional keyboard or let the mobile technology develop to attain the maturity to ease the editing on the miniature toy.Dineshjk 10:32, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  3. This is also an answer to "How can we reach the people who currently have access to our projects, but don't use them?" ... although a lot of people use Wikipedia, an encyclopedia is always going to be something of a niche product. GPS-enabled hand-helds that display Wikipedia pages of nearby places are interesting to everyone. I like what User:Aude on en.wp and others are doing with OpenStreetMap. Although Wikipedia won't be interesting as stand-alone GPS-enabled content ... more people are going to want to know what street they're near and where to eat than where the nearest Historic Landmark is ... Wikipedia can be (and already is) an integral part of GPS-enabled services. Dank 02:16, 24 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Commons is effectively useless to people who do not speak English.

The big problem is how do you find your picture among the almost 5 million media files? #quality

    • Provide categories in various languages. Add descriptive subpage in various languages. Indicate, where the image is used. Domitori 04:00, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • I totally agree with Domitori. More and more language specific pages should be made available.Dineshjk 10:32, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • Consider the system of internationally-recognized symbols. Can they be adapted/expanded to create an image-based index? Use images to help locate images. *Possibly* the images associate with portals, for example, could be of use. What else? (In 5 million images many of them *have* to be 'archetypal'!!) Major categories / subcategories would have an associated image. Examples: 1. I want an image of Ankar Wat. Image heirarchy: Buildings>Temples -or- Regions>Asia>SE Asia>Temples. Examples: 2. I want a picture of a recumbent bicycle. Image heirarchy: Transportation>Vehicles>Bicycles. Twang 20:42, 24 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    I like Twang's idea. --Mietchen 22:13, 26 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
  2. Is it not possible to localise categories for all languages through translate wiki ?Mahitgar 13:48, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Would adding a content rating system increase the reach of the WikiMedia project?

While moderation alone works for Wikipedia, smaller wikis need more automated moderation tools as they grow.

    • This is implemented in Wikibooks, and before a recent configuration change, caused some complaints where new editors couldn't see their own edits on the page (specifically, a veteran created a large quantity of stubs that were flagged as the "stable" revision). It goes well beyond tagging pages as stable and also assists in showing the quality of a given page or pages. The only necessary form of content rating is patrolled edits, which cause unreviewed edits to appear as a red exclamation mark in recent changes, which allow patrollers to identify recent edits that weren't yet reviewed; whether you want patrolled edits to be publically visible is another issue, but you will want to have experienced users be able to flag them as such. --Sigma 7 04:25, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    • Also, automated moderation is of use only to combat spam or obvious vandalism. It doesn't replace the need for human moderators, especially when it's possible for critical moderators or personnel to disappear from a given wiki or site. --Sigma 7 04:25, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
How do we increase participation and awareness of projects other than Wikipedia itself?

How do we encourage the participation in and use of non-English Wikipedia projects?

  1. Can we have (and do we want to have) a much more comprehensive system of inter-project content linking? -- ArielGlenn 02:53, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    By making a list of - say 1000 - indispensable articles, and having polyglots translate the best, national versions into other languages--Sten 21:45, 24 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    Wiktionaries can be supported via mobile technology.
    Wiki books and wikiversity can be promoted through multi media and electronic media better.Mahitgar 13:42, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    Botany and Wikispecies projects can and need to be promoted through biology/biotech schools/uni.depts ,agri schools and agri journals.Mahitgar 13:43, 31 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
    Wiki books and wikiversity can be promoted through institutions that cater to continuous adult education, and corrospondance cources.13:46, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
How about - when reading an article in one language, highlight that the same article in another language has more content


  • Use machine-translation to translate the section headings (usually you can see which article has more content from the table of contents, though I realize machine-translation will suck in general)
For people who KNOW more than 1 language
  • have them register their 2-3 preferred languages
  • highlight that articles in other languages have more content
  • prompt them to do a quick translation of a section or two (special box could pop up for this, and you'd go to a special editing screen designed for translation)
    • What about extending the current languages menu to also show the quality of the article in other languages (i.e. articles that are assessed in other languages), instead of only features articles? Somewhat similar to the assessment gadget. Or does the assessment-"system" only works on the English Wikipedia? Van der Hoorn 19:10, 23 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
  • If there are toolboxes, or, even better, semantical data is present (like in SMW), then these can probably be shared across the interwikis through the translation (where the semantic keys are translated through the localization files). QuestPC 07:42, 2 November 2009 (UTC)Reply
What do we do with all the really tiny fiddly wikis which hardly anybody uses?

If we close them, we risk robbing people of an opportunity to use their own language. Should we have a Wiki Task Force dedicated to promotion of the tiny wikis, so that we can help maintain their survival?

  • some kind of achiving solution can be considered for 'retiring' under used projects after a community vote. those projects can be compressed or trimmed or merged with other projects along with another copy stored away for direct download if need be but not actively hosted to minimize the cost.--Theo10011 03:02, 23 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Its not like they're taking up a substantial amount of server space (which is cheap anyway) or bandwidth. As long as there's enough people (like m:SWMT) to keep them free of spam and vandalism and they have some content, I see no reason not to keep them around. Mr.Z-man 19:46, 25 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
In most of cases you will find unavailability of local font typing support
Second need to take localisation of logos on top priority it makes a big psychological differance
Where user potential populations are small reach out to them
See if just a google doc is enough for them than that of a wiki 13:39, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

This page needs an introduction

Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

To quote a popular template at Wikiquote: "This page lacks sufficient introduction or links.... Without such information, it is hard to distinguish this topic from similarly-named topics." ~ Ningauble 14:09, 21 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

Blocking for China

Latest comment: 15 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

From Emerging_strategic_priorities/ESP_1_key_questions:

Q: How should Wikimedia deal with censorship and protection of its readers and editors in China?

A: Instead of blocking Wikipedia altogether, why doesn't Wikimedia just block the Wikipedia articles that are not suitable for China and then allow the rest to flow clearly?


The day that happens will be my last day as a contributor to Wikimedia's projects. -- 77.1.56.27 06:17, 22 October 2009 (UTC)Reply


References

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