WikiConference India is a national Wikipedia conference organised in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The first WikiConference India conference was held in November 2011, in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, the capital of the Indian state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. It was organised by the

Wikipedia community in partnership with Wikimedia India Chapter with the support of the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...

. The conference is positioned as the annual national flagship event for Wikimedia in India and is open to participation from citizens of all nations. The focus is on matters concerning India on Wikipedia projects and other sister projects in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and other Indian folk languages. WikiConference India 2023 took place in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

from 28 to 30 April 2023. Wikiconference India 2025 is in the planning phase.

2011

WikiConference India aims to provide a common platform for all

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

Wikimedians to interact, share ideas and collaborate. The conference ran from 18 to 20 November 2011 and was held at

Mumbai University University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...

South Mumbai South Mumbai, colloquially SoBo from South Bombay in Indian English, administratively the Mumbai City District, is the city centre and the southernmost precinct of Greater Bombay. It extends from Colaba to Mahalaxmi (Western side), Byculla ...

, the largest talks in the university's historic convocation hall. Me with Jimmy Wales

The conference was inaugurated by a keynote address by

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known as Jimbo Wales, is an American List of Internet entrepreneurs, Internet entrepreneur and former Trader (finance), financial trader. He is a Founders of Wikipedia, co-founder of the non-profi ...

Arnab Goswami Arnab, Arnav or Arnov is a first name popular in India, and means "ocean" in Sanskrit. It also means "rabbit" in Arabic and Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic ...

spoke on "Neutrality" as an invited guest speaker. Barry Newstead spoke on the last day. Tracks showcased at 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 A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of '' hacking'' and ''marathon'') is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 h ...

'', hosted by the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (MACCIA)

Kala Ghoda Kala Ghoda ( IPA:Kāḷā Ghōḍā') is a crescent-shaped art district/neighborhood in Mumbai, India. It hosts several of the city's heritage buildings including museums, art galleries and educational institutions like the Chhatrapati Shiv ...

. Other activities included a city tour and a

Heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...

walk. Wikimedians and non-Wikimedians from all over India and other countries,

staff and co-founder A hundred applicants got scholarships based on their experience and contribution to Wikipedia and other projects. More than 700 people attended the conference.

Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...

Omidyar Network Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over US$1.5billion to no ...

Kalnirnay ''Kalnirnay'' () is a calmanac (Calendar + Almanac) published in India. The almanac gives information about the Panchang, auspicious days, festivals, holidays, sunrise and sunset. It has recipes, stories on health and education, monthly Bhavis ...

, Yebhi.com, were the sponsors; and 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.

2016

The second WikiConference India was held in

Mohali Mohali, officially Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar or Ajitgarh, is a planned city in the Mohali district in Punjab, India, Punjab, India, which is an administrative and a commercial hub lying south-west of Chandigarh. It is the headquarters of the M ...

, a city of

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

State near

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

. The venue of the Conference was CGC Landhran.

Katherine Maher Katherine Roberts Maher ( ; born April 18, 1983) is an American non-profit executive. She has been the chief executive officer (CEO) and president of the National Public Radio since March 2024. Prior to NPR, she was the CEO of Web Summit and ...

, Executive Director of WMF, and Nataliia Tymkiv, Board Member of WMF, attended this conference.

2023

WCI 2023 was a national-level conference that provided a common platform for Wikimedians and stakeholders interested in Indic-language Wikimedia projects and other aspects of the movement in India and a few South Asian regions. This was a space to meet, connect, share stories, learnings, best practices, and challenges, and discuss the future strategy of our region. The conference took place in

from 28 to 30 April 2023.

References

External links

"Wiki Conference India 2011"
at Meta-Wiki, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki
"Wikipedia eyes India for language growth"

Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...

9 November 2011
"WikiConference comes to town"
''

Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' 10 November 2011
"Wiki-world targets India "
''Asia Times'' Online 19 November 2011
"Wikipedia needs inputs in local languages"
''

Business Standard ''Business Standard'' is an Indian English-language daily edition newspaper published by Business Standard Private Limited, also available in Hindi. Founded in 1975, the newspaper covers the Indian economy, infrastructure, international busi ...

'' 18 November 2011 {{Wikimedia Foundation Wikimedia Foundation Wikimedia India Wiki-related conferences Wikipedia Wikipedia in India

2011

2016

2023

See also

References

External links