Category: Wikipedia

  • Remote sensing in India

    I wrote an article for The Wire on India’s remote sensing programme, that got published today.

    While writing the article I discovered the orphaned Wikipedia page that was once updated with launches of Indian remote sensing satellites. The article had not been updated for a very long time. The focus now seems to be on the List of Indian satellites launched by the decade. Working on the article helped me get back into Wikipedia editing and helped me discover one of the points that I raised in the article.

  • Remembering Wikipedia days

    Mahafreed wrote on her blog sharing her writing on Wikipedia in The Times of India in 2010 brought back memories from my good days in Wikipedia editing. In the story she shares  my quote too. The original article is here.

    After the early days of Wikipedia editing, things reached a head with the Wikiconference India 2011. Things got subsumed by politics like many other things do in India, if the group is not careful. I left offline activities of Wikipedia and stick to one off editing online. I even changed user ids I used for editing.

    I watched Dr. Heather Ford talking about a similar curve on a TEDx talk. She ends the talk saying that Wikipedia needs people to change it from within and with more people participating in the editing to expose it to more points of view.

  • Has my search for the Yakkara Desam Fort ended?

    While participating in Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 in India, I had come across a feature called the Yakkara Desam Fort in Palakkad District. I came across this feature while compiling the list of monuments from the list provided by the Archaeological Survey of India. The Fort found mention in the list for Kerala as N-KL-6. Search as I might, I could not find mention of this monument anywhere else. Even Wikipedia did not have an article on the said Fort.

    While searching for a place to go around in Kerala, I stumbled on the website of the Town Planning Department, Kerala. Here, I was able to see the fort mentioned again in a document notifying protected monuments in Kerala within town limits. It also contained a link to the drawing of the Fort which can only imply that it is the Yakarra Desam as there is no other fort in the list.  So, I guess that my search for what is the Yakarra Desam fort has ended with conclusive documentary evidence. Case closed?

  • A Federated Wikipedia?

    Matt Mullenweg shared this article by Jon Udell on the ossification in Wikipedia. Being a part of the Wikimedian community from 2010 to about 2014, I have seen this crystalize on Wikipedia and in the world in general.

    Things are a lot worse offline amongst the community – on phone calls, emails and mailing lists. This led to me curtailing offline contributions and contributing edits when I feel like it. Not the best outcome for a community that is trying to retain its members.

  • Twitter Interview with @WeAreWikipedia

    Bishakha Dutta, a Board Member of the Wikimedia a Board Member of the Wikimedia Foundation (which runs the servers that runs projects like Wikipedia) interviewed me during her week as a curator on @WeAreWikipedia. The Twitter interview has now been storify-ed here.

  • GSLV on Wikipedia

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as http://parallelspirals.wordpress.com/. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on December 13, 2013 as per the permalink. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    I began contributing to Wikipedia in 2007 with the idea of improving coverage of Indian space sciences on Wikipedia. I began working on the articles related to the astronomical observatories. This also fell in line with the space popularization work I was involved in at Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) India chapter. In 2009, I also began editing general interest articles on Wikipedia.

    It was only yesterday, after a break of nearly a year or more, that I got back to editing on Wikipedia. I worked on the article of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle or GSLV. The upcoming launch has me nervous and had me interested in the history of the GSLV. I looked to Wikipedia as my first port of call and was frankly, disappointed at the shape in which I found the article. So, I rolled up my sleeves and began working on the article, in true Wikipedian style.

    The history of the GSLV is as interesting as the vehicle itself. It was designed specifically to carry the INSAT class of satellites which weighed in at 2 to 2.5 tons. The Project was started in 1990 as the PSLV took shape and was beginning to move towards a development flight in 1993 to reduce reliance on the US’ Delta and European Ariane launch vehicles which are expensive options. Reading up, there seems to have been confusion on how to proceed with the tricky cryogenic third stage of the vehicle. Both US and Europe refused to share the technology and India had to go to the crumbling Soviet Union for help. US and Europe refused help pointing to the fact that India had not signed the Missile Technology Control Regime. I guess they also tried to offer the technology if India became part of the regime. The Soviet Glavkosmos offered to transfer technology to India in 1991. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia could not stand up to US pressure on falling in line with the MTCR. It finally have India just 7 cryogenic stages and 1 ground mock up instead of 5 stages and transfer of technology. I am happy that India did not become part of MTCR despite immense pressure and need for cryogenic technology. Scientists at ISRO began work on India’s own cryogenic technology in 1994 called the Cryogenic Upper Stage Project.

    Even the 7 cryogenic stages Russia supplied to ISRO held surprise for ISRO. The stage was heavier and there were interface problems. The engine was also not proven on any flight. It took ISRO about 6-7 years to get the stage to fly at all. Hence you see the first flight of the GSLV in 2001.

    Scientists working on the Cryogenic Project were also part of what is now called the ISRO Spy Case. The scientist has alleged that the Case was put together at the behest of foreign interests that were trying to scuttle Indian efforts at building a cryogenic engine.

    Although the learning curve on the GSLV has been huge, I think it will help India build a vehicle that is as versatile as the PSLV is today.

  • Wikipedia: Lessons learnt from GLAM

    This is my last note from the Wikipedia-universe. In my last days there, whilst working on the Conference idea, this was a Wikipedia project that caught my interest. GLAM is an abbreviation that stands for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums. It was an effort from Wikipedia to open and make publicly available some of the knowledge and treasures stored in these cultural institutions.

    My first brush with GLAM was when Liam Wyatt came to India to visit cultural institutions in the country. The trip made me go to the Prince of Wales Museum (now called CSMVS) for the first time since my childhood. I was shocked at the changes that I had seen. What I had imagined as I had seen it had transformed completely. While the Museum was looking for new avenues to explore, I guess this seemed a little too radical for them. While they said they would speak to us, there was not much of a response and our preoccupation with the Conference prevented something more substantial.

    We did get many from Bombay’s cultural world for a talk on the Creative Commons (CC) license. It was a good experience and I think we got to speak to a lot of people about GLAM as a concept. Whether the cultural world embraces the CC licenses and enters a techno-cultural age is something the cultural world must debate. The event helped us understand that the debate was happening and there were multiple views on the subject and some interesting side discussions on specific areas like accessibility as well.

    Something I learned from the space world, was that not all things that you borrow can be directly used in any context. You have to understand local conditions before you adapt a concept for a geographic location. While I was more familiar with the landscape among space enthusiasts, this was not the case with the cultural scene. I had not visited a gallery, archive or museum, ever or in my memorable past. I did visit libraries but I did not engage them in the concepts of openness. I went there mostly as a customer. This made the underlying working layer of these institutions and their quirks invisible to me.

    Once these layers become visible, there are different approaches to each institution – at the level of educating the need for openness and contributing to Wikipedia, helping them enter the technical age, help them participate in techno-cultural debates, engage with various communities and ensure that the cultural institutions become vibrant institutions.

    While Wikipedians seem eager to engage with cultural institutions, sometimes they need to don the role of people opening the cultural sector. They also need to understand the mindset of the cultural institution. There are still spaces that view digitization as the death of the government agency if not reduction in manpower. The original cultural relic does not reduce in importance with its digitization, it becomes more valuable. This needs to be communicated to the cultural institutions. In addition, the importance of preserving the original cultural relic and ensuring an accessible web presence for the cultural institution cannot be stressed enough.

    With these thoughts, I am quite happy to close the doors on the Wikipedia phase of my life :) . Have a great day.

  • WikiConference India 2011 – More Personal Thoughts

    After a long time, User:AroundTheGlobe and I managed to put out the report on WikiConference India 2011. Here’s the announcement on the mailing lists.

    The making of the Report could become a report in itself. Here, I wanted to share a few things that I wanted to say but could not on the Wikipedia Report page since it is a co-authored work. Now, let me contradict myself. Some of the Report does contain accusations and events that User:AroundTheGlobe wanted to put out but I was not comfortable putting out. This made us want to fork the report in two, a private Report and a public one. Further thinking made me feel that this created a potential for a leak and could become a source of more controversy. I, therefore, pushed for a single Report. In exchange, I had to be comfortable against some of these accusations, although I was not completely confident about said accusations. I can only say that there are some undercurrents running through this Report that it could have well done without. The Report, towards the end, was also done a little hastily than I would have.

    I am not sure if it’s totally great to say what’s above along with the Report. I have been debating about it with myself. When I spoke to User:AroundTheGlobe today, he said that he wanted to say the things stated in the Report publicly. It is this conversation that makes me want to put my point of view out in the open. It is, for me, a way to close a chapter – The Wikipedian phase of my life.

    There is a concern that the Report does not provide much for the future organisers of the Conference. I would like to rebut this point to say that that is our main point. Any future Conference must necessarily come out of a request for such a Conference from the Wikimedia Community in India and then be legally led by the Chapter. Until we reach that phase, the Community will not feel ownership of the Conference and will not be able to help the Organizers with 100%. Sengupta had suggested that the Conference be run like a BarCamp, in the run up to the 2011 Conference. I do not think any other conference can be run in a more BarCamp like manner than a Wikipedia conference truly supported by the Community. As I said, we’ve provided all the guidelines we could provide.

    There has been a lot of politicking around this Conference. While it has attracted fresh blood into the Movement, as you pass through certain channels, you become aware of the politics amongst Wikipedians. Many seasoned Wikipedians have experienced this, I believe. It is not all pervasive on Wikipedia. You find it more on the mailing lists and off-list conversations. I have felt this is a bad thing but it is not yet affecting the Movement as such. People have tried to draw me towards these politics and I have fought hard to stay away. I do not know if I have succeded or failed. This is one of the reasons that I quit Wikipedia. It has affected the fun I had when I edit, thinking about some of the fellow editors words. It reduces trust, somehow.

    One of the things that deeply affected me during the Conference in 2011, was the off list conversations and the intrigue. I despised it at a fundamental level but enjoyed it since I was not involved in anything at this scale before. Some of it was forced us on by restrictions on time and some because we felt that it was the only practical way of moving ahead. In the end though, it made me really tired and made me ask myself many questions.

    In the end, things did get enough out of hand, that the only means of escape seemed to me to let Wikipedia go. There are many people who’ve expressed to me, an interest in knowing this politics deeply. I have evaded these questions telling them that I’d write about it someday. Really, I am still not sure of all the connections and anything written with half-knowledge is sometimes more dangerous than anything written with full understanding of the facts.

    Quitting Wikipedia has helped me immensely. People are no longer interested in me and leave me alone. I’ve cancelled my membership. I maintain contact with a few Wikipedians who became friends and hopefully, will remain friends. It has removed negativity, freed up time to work out in a gym and go out to movies and have more fun. More time is now free. I miss some of the things I learned because I edited something on Wikipedia, but it is a small price to pay for my mental well-being.

  • A Note on my Quitting Wikipedia

    I am in Mumbai right now. In my old seat. A seat where I have sat and taken very critical decisions of my life. Not for the past six months. More specifically for this post, not in the past two months.

    I finally posted my intention to quit Wikipedia by hanging my retired sign. I had made several threats of quitting on list and off it, perhaps enough that people still do not take me seriously when I announced my intention to quit. I think some still don’t and keep calling me trying to keep me abreast of goings on in the wikipedia world. I repeat to the person and myself, “I do not care”. I have gone beyond a point where a movement holds my sympathy. All I wanted to really put out there was on this statement on my user page.

    I am hanging on there, more to complete and submit my WCI 2011 Report. I am required to do this.

  • When was the last time you went to a museum?

    Ashwin Baindur shared this on the Wikimedia India List yesterday. He requested comments. This let out a chain reaction of thoughts which led to this blog post.

    I don’t remember when it was I last went to a museum as a child. It was at a time when it was still called Prince of Wales Museum. Hence, it is certainly before the year 2000 when the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India became the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vaastu Sangrahalay. The new branding calls them, “The Museum”. I don’t recollect ever having gone to the Bhau Daji Lad Museum before last year.

    My only recollection of the Museum is going there as “picnic” from school and walking around in a single file whilst having no one to explain what the thing was other than monotonous boards that said, “Toy from the Indus Valley Civilisation” or some such. There was no context. What is so special about this toy in some time long past? Why is it kept in a museum? Why is this Museum interested in this toy? Our classes were huge. Museum staff was little to invisible. There was simply no one there to satiate our curiosity. This was before the Internet became pervasive or affordable. Even the exhibits were just kept on an old table in the room under tube lights. I am amazed that even this excited our curiosity.

    The next time I went to the Museum was when Liam Wyatt came to India for building Wikipedia’s GLAM initiative in 2011. Liam had been working with the British Museum in London to enable content from the Museum to enrich Wikipedia’s articles and photographs while at the same time leading more visitors to both the website of the British Museum as well as to the Museum itself. He was in India to meet Wikipedian community members and cultural institutions in India to see if a similar initiative could be started in India. To Wikipedia, it was clear that this would increase and improve coverage of the Indian sub-continent. To the institutions, this was something new.

    I have been part of several conversations that talk about how to improve the Museums in our country. These were private conversations. I have heard Museum professionals speak about their ideas and the changing notions of what the Museum means in the twenty first century.  These were mainly their professional view points. It did not seem to be laced with feedback from the public on what they expected from the Museum.

    Above all, the Museum is a public space. It is a public space which aims to remind us of our historical heritage, something most of us lose touch with once we pass out of high school. It is a public space that points to the mechanisms by which our culture evolved over the years. It is a public space our youth can get educated. Informally, so that they know the outline without knowing too much in depth but a starting point from which they can find out more. It is a place to discover that there is such a part in our history. If it arouses his curiosity, he can always go home and look up more information on Wikipedia.

    The cultural institutions – galleries, libraries, archives and museums – are today offline spaces where we discover new things. Things we did not know existed. It then intertwines with online spaces, where we share it on social media forums and try to learn more about from Wikipedia. Here, they learn more about books where they can learn more about. These might be found in a local library. Or perhaps in an archive?

    I have felt that an important part of the conversation is missing because we speak from our perceived notions of what Museum might look like based on a visit you made quite a few years ago. So, before you read that article above – or if you’ve already read it – do give it some time. Do go and visit the Museum in your city. You never know, it might have changed, like the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India did. Once you go through the Museum, do tweet/blog/google+/facebook  about it but also write your feedback in that neglected guest’s book kept for our suggestions in the Museum. After you do this, might be a good time to speak about how we can improve cultural spaces in our country.