The House of Joy

It was on the afternoon of 8th March 2013 that I received a call from The Cradle Hospital, Calicut informing that I won the award for the second best essay. I was informed that a Woman's Day Celebration Party is happening in The Cradle Hospital that evening. Now, 8th of March is women's day, and I had elaborate plans for the evening on Wikipedia. Nevertheless, I decided that I must go because I had never celebrated any occasion at a hospital, and the prospect of visiting a hospital with world-class facilities cheered me up. Being a medical student, I am always inclined to observe the functioning of hospitals, and now I have an awesome opportunity to meet some nice doctors and see a world-class hospital!

The hospital is conveniently located on the By-Pass connecting the city to the Airport. I was greeted at the reception, and when I told the receptionist that I had come for the Women's Day celebration, I was asked to wait for a while. I was then greeted by Dr. Vani, an alumnus of my medical college. She informed me that the  celebration would begin in a few minutes, and led us to the Cafe. Dr. Vani made a lasting impression on me by speaking about the patient care facilities in the hospital. We also talked about the schedule of medical students and doctors, which both of us thought were very challenging.

The Cafe resembled the one I saw in the U.S. I was confused as to what to order, and finally settled for an ice cream. Afterwards, I paid a visit to the gift shop and found cute dresses and toys made for babies. The staff at the shop was extremely friendly.

I came to meet Ms. Sunitha Manikandan, the first prize winner for the essay. She is a teacher of English in a leading public school in Kozhikode. We discussed for about half an hour about the content of our essays, which were both about the topic : "Gender Agenda: Changing Momentum."

We were then led to the roomy hall on the top floor of the hospital building. The staff of the hospital, the patients and their relatives were all present! I got introduced to Mr. Laxman, the CEO of the hospital. He was kind enough to introduce me to many of the consultant doctors. The celebrations began with a quick introduction from Ms. Abitha, the counselor of the hospital. Later, in a pleasant chat, she told me that she loves her job at 'The Cradle' because she is flexible to do multiple roles, which she thinks brings the best out of her. I and Ms. Sunita were asked to speak a few words. I was overjoyed to be given an opportunity to speak! In my brief talk, I mentioned that "The Cradle is a house of joy because this is where the doctors give gentle care to the patients to help them ease the tension associated with labour and pregnancy, and to get them their precious baby in full health". I was moved by the way the audience appreciated my speech, all thanks to Dr. Vani who encouraged me to speak!

Next, we had the cake-cutting ceremony. I and Ms. Sunita cut the cake which had poetic verses about women written on it, and it was so informal that Ms. Sunita stuffed the first piece of cake into my mouth! The cake was then cut into pieces and distributed to all attendees.

The cake-cutting. Courtesy : The Cradle facebook page

The fun part was when a quiz contest was conducted. The quiz master would ask questions, and those who answered the question correctly would win a prize! All of us had fun finding the answers, and many of us won prizes too!

At the end of the function, I asked Dr. Laxman if it was okay for me to visit the labour suites and operation theaters of the  hospital. He was quite happy to let me visit the hospital facilities. I walked in to one of the labour suites, and found full-fledged facilities! The reclining bed could at once be converted into a labour coat at the pressing of a button on its handrest. The room was beautifully decorated and clean. There was a television set and a couch. The couch was for the mother and husband of the woman in labour. They would sit along with her and give her emotional support. The soothing music, the ambient temperature and the presence of her near and dear ones was intended to make the labour a smooth process.

I had a glimpse of the operation theatres through the glass shield on its door. Needless to say, it was full fledged with all modern equipment. I also had a look at the baby-room and the intensive care unit. I was impressed by the cutting edge technology and the world class facilities offered by The Cradle. You can have a quick tour of the hospital on Youtube here.

The Cradle also conducted a grant celebration on Mother's day, the 11th of May at Calicut Beach. Unfortunately, I could not attend the function, and sent my mother instead. The memorable moments of the event are collected in a collage here :

Memorable moments. Courtesy: The Cradle, Calicut

* Additional images of the event can be found on Flickr here. 
* My prize-winning essay can be downloaded here.
* You can follow the news from The Cradle Hospital via their facebook page here.

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Cancer: More than touching lives - Saving them

Breaking news about fateful diagnoses is among the most difficult things I did as a medical student. I often encounter a relative or an acquaintance diagnosed with cancer, who walks into my home with diagnostic reports of various kinds and asks if she can live long enough to witness the birth of a grandchild or the wedding of her son. I am still a medical student and I am therefore not expected to give exact figures of survival rates. So, I manage the situation by entering into a cheerful conversation, boosting their confidence and encouraging them to undergo the procedures suggested to them by their oncologist.

I lost my grandpa to lung cancer - six months after the diagnosis was made - in 2010. He was the happiest man on earth when I got qualified to pursue medicine. He frequently reminded me that my purpose in life should be to alleviate pain. By the time he was diagnosed to have lung cancer, he had reached the terminal stage of the disease and all his doctor could do was to prescribe him Morphine to alleviate his physical pain. It was after his death, during the second year of my medical training, that I decided that I should specialize in oncology. I wanted to become a scientist-physician, conducting clinical research and treating patients at the same time; and work in a world-class hospital that employs cutting-edge technology for fighting cancer.

Early diagnosis is the key.
Public Domain, WM Commons

However, I was worried that I will end up in a dull clinic prescribing medicines for patients. I was afraid that I would want to break bad news to cancer patients frequently. When I shared my concern with Jithin Das, a good friend of mine, he gave me an inspiring reply which I cherish even today:

“20 years from now, you will not be sitting in a consultancy room spending most of the time looking at   CT and PET scan reports. 20 years down the lane you will not be administering chemo agents or radiation hoping that it may work. 20 years down the lane you will be working with robots that will make you feel Cyber-Knife is a kids' toy. 20 years down the lane you will not be writing names of whatever available in the market that may best suit the patients- you will be analyzing combinations of mutations of your patients be ordering custom made drugs will cure them, which in effect is a complete process, you identify the problem, you  create his medicine, you administer it, you cure. You will be creating mutations to fight mutations. You will be using viral agents to cure anti-oncogenes to target and kill malignant neoplasm. You will be having an office that looks like control rooms of space craft in science fiction movies.

Genetics is taking a giant leap now, right now, that will change profession of oncology beyond recognition. A lot more is known about genes and how proto oncos turn into oncogenes. A lot more is known now why anti onco genes fail to fix the issue and how to repair these two. You are into an exciting profession, I swear by thunder.Yes, you will be working most of the days and nights. Something you can’t dispense with. But you sure will be enjoying those days and nights. You will not face uncertainty. You will not have a hard time telling some of your patients what metastasis means and all you can do is to give palliative care. You will be part of the integrated generation of doctors, scientists and engineers who are going to finally beat cancer - this is going to happen after several hundred years of painful research about the unknown”.

 This message brightened up my spirits and made me beam with joy. Indian hospitals employ the most modern techniques of treatment of cancer. Apollo Hospitals, one of the leading healthcare providers of India, has various modalities of treatment for the prevention and cure of various forms of cancer – liver transplants, bone marrow transplants and robotic surgical system to name a few. 

Synonymous to cutting-edge technology
Courtesy : Apollo Hospitals

Surviving cancer is no more a miracle. With precise instruments, cutting-edge technology and skilled physicians, survival rates of patients diagnosed with cancer is going up every year. Yuvraj Singh battled against a mediastinal seminoma for more than an year, and finally emerged victorious. He was quoted saying:

“People are aware about my battle with cancer and my resolve to win it, and live a normal life like all. You and We, together, can fight cancer.”

Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple Inc., had a quality life for nearly 10 years after having diagnosed of pancreatic cancer. In fact the best period of his life was during the treatment – he shined both as an innovator and manager during this period and took Apple to heights.

“About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7.30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumour on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for "prepare to die". It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumour. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now”.

Jobs’s story is an incredible example of how modern healthcare touched his life. He lived like a normal man for a long time before he succumbed to death. Lately, it was Angelina Jolie who revealed that she had undergone a prophylactic mastectomy to reduce the risk of getting cancer. Jolie’s choice is profound because it is so serious, and so well and bravely played against the background of the shallow celebrity culture. Jolie’s decision emphasizes that one is no less a woman without her natural breasts, and that one is not just a sum total of her body parts. I applaud her for the choice she made to go public about the mastectomy and inspire millions of women to get tested for genetic mutations and take preventive measures for the same. For cancer, early detection is the key. Jolie wrote in New York Times thus : 

“Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action. For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have options. I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you through this aspect of your life, and to make your own informed choices”.

I read Angelina’s article ‘My Medical Choice’  over and over again. May the medical choices of powerful women like Jolie help women and men from all over the world to line up for the pink ribbon revolution and be aware about the diagnostic and treatment facilities for the same. Detailed description about breast cancer and its treatment facilities are included in the website of Apollo hospital here: http://www.apollohospitals.com/breast_cancer.php

I recommend that all the readers of my blog go through this web page  and be aware about options of breast cancer treatment and prevention. As of now, testing for BRCA mutations and getting silicon breast implants like Angelina did would be a costly affair in India, but the modern healthcare system is so rapidly touching our lives that such cutting-edge technologies become affordable for Indians in the near future.

Breast Cancer Awareness, U.S.A
Public Domain, WM Commons

Yesterday, Theo, a good friend of mine, wrote to me via the Gender gap mailing list in the context of Angelina undergoing mastectomy. A relative of his had passed away last year who had breast cancer and the cancer had metastasized after a mastectomy and several rounds of chemo. He wanted to organize all data related to breast cancer on Wikipedia and beef up the existing articles, and wanted help from knowledgeable writers to do this. I had been a writer on Wikipedia for more than three years (my Wikipedia profile can be seen here), and I am glad that I got hooked up with Theo to do something as worthwhile as writing about breast cancer. Theo’s appealing message can be read here. 

During the discussion on this issue, it was pointed out by John V.  that the ‘Getting tested’  section of the article on BRCA mutation is largely first-world centric. He urged the participants from different parts of the world to document how they would tackle the problem involved – where is the nearest place that the test/procedure can be done, and how frequently do they do the test/procedure as that may be a major consideration in whether you would travel further to receive more experienced care. I being one of the very few medical students writing on Wikipedia, and an Indian by nationality found it my obligation to write about this aspect of treatment from an Indian perspective. I shall spend my spare time to research about the advanced diagnostic technologies in India and help the readers of Wikipedia get empowered with medical information. It is essential that we Indians have reliable and updated information about the various cutting-edge technologies for the treatment of cancers. My job would be to make sure that this kind of knowledge is delivered in a click of the mouse.

As Angelina Jolie said, “Life comes with many challenges. The ones that should not scare us are the ones we can take on and take control of.” 

Let us take control of our lives, empower ourselves with latest diagnostic and treatment modalities, live a life free of cancer and encourage others to do the same.

Thanks to Indiblogger and Apollo Hospitals for inspiring me to write this article. For more information on various cutting-edge technologies available in Apollo Hospitals, go through this link : http://www.apollohospitals.com/cutting-edge.php

I have also written a poem about diagnosing cancer and a semi-fictional story about fighting cancer.

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In black and white

This poem was first published in the college magazine of Government Medical College, Kozhikode in 2012.

CC: Wintery nights in the candlelight
Black and White Girl, Tumblr.

She'd open up lives on canvas :
the infant's inked footprints in black
and the marbled tombstone in white,
the mushroom cloud of the nuclear bomb
all painted in black and white
while they conveyed ideas
dominated by shades of grey.

The picture of her chest snapped by the machine
baking her tissues with a beam of rays
was in black and white, too.
When my white-sleeved hand
held it up against the glowing screen,
I saw cannonballs* piercing her lungs.
The back of my mind wished
it was just another picture 
painted by her.

Truth is not always what we wish for.

*Multiple pulmonary nodules on chest x-ray are known commonly as cannon ball secondaries. Cannon balls indicate poor prognosis.

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Indian WikiWomen celebrate Women’s History Month

This post was first published as a guest post on Wikimedia blog on 24-04-2013. Thanks to Matthew Roth, Global Communication Manager, Wikimedia Foundation for publishing this article on Wikimedia blog.

March 2013 was a busy month for women Wikimedians in India, as we conducted various events, such as edit-a-thons and workshops to celebrate the presence of women in Wikimedia projects. The women Wikimedians, members of the Wikimedia India Chapter and the Access to Knowledge Team, brainstormed about the possible events, which we wanted to conduct to encourage women to participate and to increase the quality of articles related to Indian women in Wikipedias in English and the Indian languages. We decided to conduct the workshops and meetups in various Indian cities, in addition to online edit-a-thons.

Women participants of the Wikipedia Workshop, Bangalore

We created a co-ordination page on English Wikipedia and added suggestions for articles to edit. We invited participants to join the edit-a-thon by spreading the word on mailing lists, social media networks and blogs. The Times of India published a feature about the event, which attracted many newbies to participate in it. We also created separate pages for offline events taking place in parallel, and we added a summary of the events to the main page. The participants of the edit-a-thon signed up on the co-ordination page, where we also added the details and status of Women’s History Month events happening in various Indian language Wikipedias.

The inaugural event took place on International Women’s Day (March 8) at Nirmala Institute of Education, Goa. Out of 100 participants who attended the event, 90 were female. Veteran Wikimedians Rohini and Nitika conducted a basic Wikipedia editing workshop. The event also set off the two-day long online edit-a-thon in which fourteen editors participated. Among those who participated in the program were homemakers, students and professionals. Rohini took charge as the Chairperson of the special interest group (SIG) for Gendergap at the Wikimedia Chapter India on the day of the workshop (March 8). She plans to conduct more workshops for women in the future.

Organizers subsequently held a series of events at two venues in Bengaluru and one in Ernakulam. Experienced Wikimedians Pavithra and Nikita Belavate led the workshops in Bengaluru. The workshop also served as an occasion for editors living in and around Bengaluru to meet. The Ernakulam event was aimed at increasing the participation of women in Malayalam Wikipedia and was led by Wikimedian Ditty Mathew. Around 40 women participated in the three edit-a-thons. A Wikipedia Academy with 9 participants was conducted in Hyderabad. Led by Anupama Srinivas, the last of all events took place on 30 March, 2012, in Chennai.

Nikita, who led the Bangalore event, said she was filled with happiness watching the exuberance in the eyes of women participants who edited and saved their edits live on Wikipedia. “This year’s Women’s History month makes me once again believe in the power of women and honing it by empowering them, Wikiwomenising them,” said Nikita.

Participants of the Bangalore workshop organized by FSMK

Vishnu Vardhan, the Program Director of the Access to Knowledge team, was with the WikiWomen throughout the editathon, connecting people, planning events and urging them to contribute. He encouraged his mother, wife and female cousins to contribute to Wikipedia.

“I wish more of us took the initiative of involving the women in our life to share their knowledge on Wikipedia and truly make the Wikipedias the sum of all human knowledge,” he said. Harriet, one of the key organizers of the women’s day events, believes that the Indian Wikimedia community has gained momentum in favor of bridging the gender gap because of this event. She urged the Indian community to follow this success and to increase the participation of women in the Wikimedia movement. Though she could not attend the events in person, she ensured her participation in the edit-a-thon by arranging the logistics, monitoring the coordination page and suggesting changes.

The events had good participation from men as well. Among the 14 participants who signed up on English Wikipedia, 5 were men. In Malayalam Wikipedia, 18 out of the 26 participants who signed up for the online edit-a-thon were men. Dileep Unnikrishan, a male participant of the edit-a-thon, and a fan of Wikipedia, participated in the Ernakulam event because he was curious to find out how Wikipedia works. With women participants, he edited three articles and found it exciting to “be a part of the movement that has brought about a knowledge revolution in the world. The best thing I noticed about Wiki is that it has a peer-to-peer way of organization, which makes it warm and welcoming to newbies like me,” said Dileep.

The Indian WikiWomen are planning to conduct similar events in the future to increase the participation of women in Wikipedia and its sister projects. We are hopeful we will bridge the gender gap in the Indian Wikimedia community by conducting outreach programs, increasing awareness about free knowledge programs among women and conducting action-oriented events targeting women.

Netha Hussain

• Copyright notes: "WikiWomenWorkshop 010" by Pavanaja, under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons,"Wiki Women's Day, Bangalore" by Nicke.me, under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons

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SMS (Save My Soul)

This poem won the S.Challenge Memorial Poetry Prize, 2012. The award ceremony will happen in Trivandrum Press Club on 12th May 2013. If you would like to attend the function, please leave a comment or mail me directly so that I can send you a copy of the invitation card.

I wrote this poem in one stretch after reading about the Abu Ghraib prison torture.

My uncle Sam is a hefty man.
He has a golden tooth.
You now know why he smiles a little wider.
When I quit the slave’s job
at his firm that buys oil in exchange for food
he held a pistol at my temple
and told me that I have two choices in life-to be killed in a war, 

or to kill in an anti-war.
Since both of them involved exploding my brains,
I escaped through the window.
He sued me, for leaving through the wrong exit.
Dad can’t pay a million for the bail, 
in dollars, with interest compounded.
My peers at jail were charged for nailing bombs
to non-existent walls, for wearing skull caps,
for stealing bread. Even the deputy’s dog torture us here.

Reader, if u r stil human, 
plz tell da policeman
dat i did no crime.

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Outputs from Ada Camp

It has been around eight months since I traveled to the U.S for the first time to attend Ada Camp D.C. Looking back, I find the Ada Camp as one of the most fulfilling experiences I had ever had.

The Ada initiative is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the participation and status of women in open technology and culture. They organize the Ada Camp and other women's hangouts in different cities of the world. The one I attended was the second Ada Camp held in Washington D.C, U.S.A.

I had to appear for my exams soon after the camp, and I was skeptical if I would get a U.S visa. I was the only attendee traveling from India. I would miss my classes at the University for a week, and I knew that catching them up would be hard. Despite all these, I decided that I should attend the Ada Camp anyway. I guess I was lucky, because I got the visa without much hassle. I was granted leave from college. I couldn't believe that I would be flying to join the Ada Campers in Washington D.C!

The Ada Camp brought together more than 100 enthusiastic women from all over the world. The attendees were a diverse mix of individuals, homemakers, mommies, engineers, researchers, students, social media analysts and many other people from different backgrounds. The participants were from different nationalities, but all of them were driven into applying for the Ada Camp because of their sheer love for open source stuff. I met many women who are in many ways similar to me. I could take part in discussions which centered around topics of my liking, which widened my perspective. The notes shared by the participants on etherpad were very useful for future reference. I could learn a wide variety of skills including coding and Karate! Being a student, I was fully unaware of the gender issues at workplace, and Ada camp gave me an opportunity to learn about best practices for working women. The two days of the camp was fully packed up with so much of knowledge that was relevant to me.

With a fellow Ada Camper. Photo by Chit Thiri Maug

While traveling back to India, I was deeply satisfied. I had too many projects in mind, and the potential to work towards accomplishing them - Ada Camp put me in touch with the right people and right resources to get me started. Listening to the success stories of other participants helped me overcome my initial inertia, and stimulated me to work hard towards increasing the participation of women in Wikimedia projects.

It was after the camp that the WikiWomenCollaborative, an initiative to engage women in Wikimedia, was launched. The initiative was launched by a fellow Ada Camper Sarah Stierch. Heather Walls, who designed the Collaborative's page, was also an Ada Camper. Together, we conducted many activities including editing articles, blogging and social networking to bring more women to Wikipedia and help the existing women editors to actively contribute to Wikipedia. Meeting Sarah and Heather in person at the Ada Camp helped me overcome the cultural  and communication barriers and work collaboratively with them. It would not have been possible otherwise because of cultural and communication problems involving communicating solely online.

Ada Camp gave me a taste of coding. I wrote my first code in Python during my training session at Ada Camp. Though it was a small code involving adding numbers, I was so happy to have accomplished a skill! I am not good at coding yet, but the Camp helped me to get over my fear of codes. I have been improving fairly, and I dream of writing a useful code someday. Gathering ideas from the Ada Camp, I successfully conducted a conference in my city  in open space format. I have forgotten the 10 life saving karate moves I mastered during the camp, but I still cherish the learning sessions when we had a lot of fun practicing the moves on each other.

After participating in the Camp, I started spending quality time on Wikipedia on activities that are directly relevant to women. I started writing on Geek Feminism Wiki and got involved in writing blogs about women in open knowledge projects. I could get myself updated on recent issues that concern women from the Ada Camp alumni mailing list. The alumni mailing list also helped me maintain the contacts I made during the Camp. Talking at the Ada Camp increased my confidence in public speaking, and I have given three talks since the Camp.

Now, I have been involved in many open knowledge related activities that involve outreach, mobilizing people, conduct Wikipedia workshops and mobilizing funds. My participation at the Ada Camp enabled me to carry out these activities productively.

Yes, Ada Camp literally changed my life.

1. The third Ada camp is happening in San Francisco, U.S.A in June 2013.If you are a woman or an ally of women involved in open stuff, apply for the Camp here. 
2. My proposal for Wikimania includes the ideas I gathered from Ada Camp D.C. The abstract of the paper can be viewed here.

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Wikimedia India hosts Wikipedia Workshop in Mumbai

This post was first published on Wikimedia blog in November 2012 as a part of WikiWomen's Collaborative. My co-author for this post was Ms. Aditi Vashisht.

Participants at the first Mumbai Wikipedia Workshop for Women

On Sunday, 4 November 2012, Wikimedians from Mumbai, India, conducted a Wikipedia workshop for women atVidyalankar Institute of Technology,Wadala. The event was aimed at introducing women who are not yet editing Wikipedia to the website and teaching them how to edit.

“Lots of women are interested in editing Wikipedia, but sometimes they need to be specially invited to join in,” said Bishakha Datta, one of the primary organizers of the workshop. ”Doing this workshop was a chance to strategically get women to participate by creating an event meant for them, where they could freely ask questions, including basic ones, without feeling silly or stupid.”

Wikipedia editors Krutikaa Jawanjal and Pradeep Mohandas, who facilitated the event, were motivated to conduct a women’s workshop for bridging the gender gap that exists in Wikipedia. A lot of preparations were done ahead of time. Vidyalankar Institute of Technology was found to be the best place to conduct the workshop among all venues investigated by the team of organizers. The volunteers got together to discuss the agenda and the schedule of the event and planned their respective sessions.

Over one hundred participants signed up for to attend on the workshop’s Wikipedia page. A Facebook page was created for the event, where approximately 50 participants registered. Interested participants also emailed Wikipedia’s volunteer customer service group, OTRS. The enthusiasm was so high among the participants that registration had to be closed down a couple of days before the workshop. Some of the interested attendees had experimented with editing Wikipedia, and they had started asking questions to the organizers even before the event was launched! All participants who created an account were sent welcome messages by the organizers.

“The pre-meetup preparations involved more than 50 days of work. Two meetups were conducted for planning the workshop. The whole process involved a lot of hard work, yet it was fun,” said Karthik Nadar, the Secretary of Wikimedia India Chapter.

The workshop was a full day event with a lot of fun activities. More than 70 participants attended. After an introduction by the organizers, the participants were divided into groups and one facilitator was allotted to each group. The facilitator helped their group to create and expand a Wikipedia article by themselves. During the lunch break, the participants were served pav bhaji, an Indian delicacy. The participants moved around and made friends with each other and the organizers during the lunch break.

During the afternoon session, the participants asked to clarify their doubts about editing. Organizers gave a brief introduction about the Wikimedia India Chapter, and they conducted sessions sessions on How to add references to a Wikipedia article and How to upload pictures to Commons. The much awaited results of Wiki Loves Monuments India were declared after the sessions. Organizers also conducted a Wiki-Quiz and the winners were given t-shirts and other Wikimedia goodies!

Conducting the workshop was a memorable experience to the team of organizers. Krutikaa said her best memories included the ones where she had to resolve doubts and answer questions about editing Wikipedia. Wikimedian Rohini Lakshane said that it was thrilling to see the joy on the faces of the participants when their edits went live. She said she is planning to organize more workshops in the future because she thinks that workshops of this kind can make the community grow. For Karthik, the workshop was not about the number of participants, but about the number of people who are excited to edit Wikipedia.

The event was covered by various newspapers and websites. Videos on various aspects of Wikipedia were created during and after the event by a team of journalists. Techgross, an online daily for news-related to technology, reported: “Here is wishing that many more such workshops are held across India, Techgoss is sure there are many takers.”

- Netha Hussain and Aditi Vashist

Copyright notes: "Wikipedia Workshop for Women in Mumbai" by WisecrackSonal, under CC-BY-SA 3.0, from Wikimedia Commons

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Ladies, let's contribute to Wikipedia!

This post first appeared on Forbes website and Women 2.0 website in August 2012.

There is nothing else that changed my life like Wikipedia. It is not just that I “edit” Wikipedia, but I also “celebrate” it.
Editing Wikipedia is a rewarding experience as it helps me gain a new perspective of things. It is also exciting to be able to share the bit of knowledge I know with the millions of knowledge seekers from around the world.

Women and Wikipedia

Like most other tech-related organizations, Wikipedia too cannot boast of high female participation. A recent research points out that only 9% of the editors of English Wikipedia are women.
Wikipedia is sensitive to the gender gap issue and is on its way to close it. The Wikimedia Foundation has set a goal to raise the share of female contributors to 25% by 2015. A WikiWomanCamp was organized this year at Buenos Aires, Argentina for the wiki-women to interact with each other, share their experiences and discuss about gender gap and related issues.

Why so few women edit?

At the WikiWomenCamp, it was pointed out by participants that women do not contribute to Wikipedia because of various socio-cultural factors. Women are traditionally assigned the responsibility of housekeeping and childrearing, which leaves them with very little time to spend for volunteering activities. Women often suffer from lack of confidence and insecurity, which makes them think that those around them are better performers than them.
Women are not clear on why and how to get involved. The specific jargon used in Wikiprojects makes some new users uncomfortable and they eventually quit editing.
There should be a deep cultural change in the tech field to value women’s contributions and make their contributions more visible to the outer world.Sue Gardener, the Executive Director of Wikimedia Foundation says, “Deliberately focus efforts on recruiting women. Don’t assume that general outreach efforts will motivate women. Encourage women to recruit other women”.

We edit!

Why should women edit Wikipedia?

Diversity of opinion is the essence of any encyclopedia. It is important that all articles are written from a neutral point of view, and having equal representation of women editors would increase neutrality and reduce bias. Women scientists, thinkers and those women who excel in traditionally male dominated fields are given lesser biographical coverage on Wikipedia than men involved in these fields.Having more women volunteers will help reduce this skewed coverage and increase the quality of the content of Wikipedia articles.

Getting involved: You too can write on Wikipedia

Anybody can edit Wikipedia. You don’t have to be an expert in the subject to be able to edit any article. You do not have to learn any computer language to be able to edit Wikipedia. If you are interested in any specific subjects, you could join the Wikiproject for the topic to collaborate with editors of similar interests and keep updated about the latest news in the subject. There are mailing lists for many aspects of wiki-editing, including the Gendergap mailing list for increasing the participation of women in Wikiprojects. Most regional languages have Wikipedias of their own, so if you are not comfortable with contributing in English, you could contribute to the language Wikipedia of your choice.
If you have photographs of educational value, you could upload them toWikimedia Commons to permit their usage in Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia has sister projects like Wikinews, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote etc. which also work like Wikipedia.

For more details on how to edit Wikipedia, see this Wikipedia page or contact me!

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Wikipedia: Towards closing the gender gap

This blog post was first published on Huffington Post U.K. For my Wikimania proposal with a similar title, click here.

Most of us know Wikipedia as the free online encyclopedia, written collaboratively by millions of volunteers from around the world. I am one of those writers for the last 3 years. It was by writing articles about medical sciences that I started contributing to Wikipedia. Later, I was intrigued by the enormous volume of information available on Wikipedia, and was curious to find out who actually write them - which made me delve into the editor demographics. It really made me upset when I figured out that only around 9% of the contributors to Wikipedia are women. In fact, I knew that so few women write on Wikipedia, but I hadn't expected the figure to be as low as 9 percent.

Diversity of opinion is the essence of any encyclopedia. Having equal representation from women will bring in wider perspectives, and increase the neutrality of the articles on Wikipedia. With men creating most of the content for Wikipedia, certain subjects might be covered more than a subject that may be of interest to women. Women not writing on Wikipedia mean that certain subjects may not be receiving the attention they rightfully deserve.

WikiWomen!
CC-by-SA, Jaluj

 The Wikimedia Foundation, the not-for-profit organization that hosts Wikipedia, had recognized this problem sooner than I did. The Wikimedia Foundation has launched various programs to bridge the gender gap, and the latest addition to the list is the WikiWomen's Collaborative.

 The WikiWomen's Collaborative was created in September 2012 by women around the world who edit Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, and want to encourage others to do the same. The project was aimed at helping women and transwomen to support one another and engage in programs that help the Wikimedian community to bring in new women editors. A variety of events, like edit-a-thons, interviews and wikiwomen parties were conducted as a part of the collaborative.

In May 2012, a WikiWomenCamp was organized for women in the Wikimedia movement to get together and discuss about the various issues related to being women involved in the Wikimedia community with like-minded women. Over 20 women from different countries participated in the camp to brainstorm solutions for existing problems that concern women, and suggest future plans to collaborate with one another. It is customary to conduct a WikiWomen's luncheon at Wikimania, the global gathering of Wikimedians, exclusively for the women participants.

Organizations like the Ada Initiative, named for the world's first programmer Countess Ada Lovelace, support women working with open knowledge projects like Wikipedia by creating resources for women in open stuff, conducting conferences and advising organizations on supporting women.

Many outreach programs were conducted in women's universities all over the world to encourage students to participate in the Wikimedia movement. The Women's History month edit-a-thons conducted every year, attracts both male and female editors to write biographies of notable women on Wikipedia.

The Wikimedia Foundation has set a goal to raise the share of female contributors to 25% by 2015. Given the good response from the community to various events conducted for women, it is likely that the foundation will achieve its goal within the set time limit.

If you would like to get engaged in various activities for women in Wikipedia, you are welcome to write to me or join us here.

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Women, we can do it: A conversation with Anastasia Lvova

This is the report of my interview with the Russian Wikimedian, Anastasia Lvova. 

This post was first published on Wikimedia blog on 16th October, 2012. The interview was conducted as a part of the activities of WikiWomenCollaborative. 

Anastasia Lvova’s story should be an inspiration to women editing Wikipedia. She started editing Russian Wikipedia in 2007, because she found volunteering very interesting and useful to society. She has been one of the most active editors of Russian Wikipedia since. After writing her first article (certification) and improving her first good article (RFID), she became dedicated to Wikipedia.

Wikimedia editor Anastasia Lvova
CC-by-SA (Lvova)

Lvova’s contributions to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia community are impressive. She runs a bot, which does automated tasks on Wikipedia. It is now active on multiple language Wikipedias. She is also a Toolserver user — where she works on the Connectivity project — and an agent for Wikipedia’s volunteer customer service group, OTRS. She has created more than 2,200 new articles and authored some good and featured articles about Ireland and the arts. She has made as many as 404 edits in a day, 23,777 actions with flagged revision in a month and more than 60,000 edits in all! She was at the lead in organizing Wiki Loves Monuments Russia in 2011. She is an advocate for free knowledge and took part in organizing protests against internet censorship in Russia. A large part of her collection of images on Wikimedia Commons are photos from her foreign trips, because according to Russian law, photos of still-in-copyright buildings are not free.

Outside the Wikimedia network, she is a photographer and writer. She graduated with a degree in management and is currently pursuing her graduate degree in psychology. She maintains a blog where she posts about her activities within and outside Wikipedia. She is also involved in charity and volunteering, and likes spending time writing letters to the elderly and children in orphanages. For her, these hobbies contribute to her activities within Wikipedia, as her hobbies help her create ideas for writing Wikipedia articles.

For Lvova, being a woman editor is a positive. She says that the Russian community is receptive to woman editors, and fellow editors have helped her from time to time. She has met like-minded individuals from the community, and has done collaborative projects with them. She has noticed that the Russian wiki-community sometimes expects feminine behavior from women editors, but she says it’s not really a problem for her. She also noted that in the past, when it was hard for women to teach in universities, they became teachers, fighting against the odds, even disguising themselves as men to be able to teach. Women should be inspired by the past and feel empowered to contribute now, she argued. “Dear women, we can do it, and sharing information has always been our competence,” she said with a smile.

Lvova enjoyed meeting other women editors in Argentina during the WikiWomenCamp, a meeting of women Wikimedians from around the world that took place in May 2012.

“WikiWomenCamp was helpful for me not only because I got new contacts and a new perspective of things, but also because it gave me some courage to work for women’s issues,” Lvova said. She was grateful to receive a grant from Wikimedia Germany to participate in WikipWomenCamp and she has been supported by Wikimedia Poland to attend two Wikimanias and several wikiconferences.

After WikiWomenCamp, Lvova started a project for new woman editors to write articles about notable women on Russian Wikipedia (they have written about 50 articles so far). She said she wishes to be helped by both men and women in her community to bridge the gender gap in Wikipedia. She thinks that this is an issue which has to be dealt with urgently. “Statistics show that around 6 to 23 percent editors are women, but we can’t be sure yet as many women prefer to disguise themselves as men because they think that a man’s opinion would be preferred over a womans,” said Lvova. She, therefore, likes to research about women’s participation in her home wiki.

Her activities on Wikimedia have helped her visit interesting places, but the most rewarding experience for her has been meeting fellow Wikimedians. Through these events she has met new people who have helped her learn fresh ideas for problems, many of which were not raised in local discussions. If you want to say a ‘hi’ to Anastasia, the best place to drop by would be her talk page, where she says she would welcome the discussion.

- Netha Hussain

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Touring Washington D.C in a day!

Visiting places is fun, more so when you are at the capital city of U.S.A. I was invited by Google Inc. to attend the prestigious Ada Camp D.C held in Washington in July 2012. My three day trip was tightly packed, with two days spent at the conference venue and just one day left for sightseeing. There is so much to see at Washington D.C that it is near impossible to see them all in just one day. However, I managed to make the maximum out of my visit, and here are some tips for those who are planning to go to the U.S for sightseeing.

An airplane flying over the Potomac River, Washington D.C

Getting prepared:

•       If you have running shoes, pack them up! The city is seriously obsessed with running! So, join the insanity and do the sightseeing while jogging past your favourite tourist spots! If you are not a big fan of jogging, you could consider taking a bike tour or a bus tour.
•     Camera is a must. Stop at the 19 foot long Lincoln Memorial, the sparkling Hope Diamond at Smithsonian Natural History Museum and the spiky Washington Monument to click a few snaps. I bet those pictures would be your most prized possessions once you reach back home!
•      Get a map of the city. Maps are available for free at tourist spots and most restaurants.

In front of the Washington monument

Good morning!

Step back in time at one of the old fashioned restaurants in Dupont circle to have a scrumptious breakfast. Get a taxi and head to the Lincoln memorial by sunrise. It feels great to watch the Washington monument bathed in gold just after sunrise. Then move to the Potomac River and have a paddle boat ride to view the capital’s best monuments on the banks of the river.

At the Lincoln Memorial

Good afternoon!

The latest food trend in D.C is to follow the city’s food trucks. The trucks offer everything from muffins to sandwiches, so make sure that you enjoy some of the America’s indigenous delicacies. Then march ahead to the Smithsonian group of museums which showcase a wide variety of artifacts, exhibits and videos. The Air and Space museum and the Natural History museum are especially child friendly, so do not forget to take your kids there!

The specimen of the stuffed African Elephant at Smithsonian Natural History Museum 

Exhibits at the Smithsonian Museum

Good evening!

It is evening and you haven’t yet finished strolling through the museums! Now it is time to go to the White House. Though getting an entry pass is hard, one could always get near the gates and pose for a picture near one of its gates. There are plenty of gift shops around, so do not forget to buy stuff for your relatives back home from here!

Good night!

The best place to hang out at night is one of the disco clubs or outdoor movie houses. Pamper your taste buds by eating a caramelized black cod or steamed fish with picklebacks for dinner!

Wikimania evening party in the Library of Congress, D.C

If time permits:

Go to the U.S botanical and zoological gardens. I missed this part, and I can’t yet forgive myself for missing it. This is the best place for kids to appreciate various ecosystems and diversity of the earth.

The locals are extremely friendly. The city has signboards and maps at every nook and corner, so there are no chances for you getting lost. If you are planning to do some heavy shopping, stroll over to Georgetown, where you’ll get plenty of souvenirs.

 

I couldn’t believe that the day ended so quickly! I had a very memorable time at D.C that I felt like not going back home!

PS: Thanks to Dr. Jayakrishnan for pointing out one of the obvious errors in this article. :)

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