Wikipedia is a vital, free resource used by millions of people all over the world, including in India. This ubiquitous information repository includes hundreds of thousands of articles in various Indian languages, covering myriad of topics about India and its culture.  Although Wikipedia is an indispensable resource to millions, little is known about how this online encyclopedia is written and who it is written by.  This Sunday, October 31 at 6:30pm, anyone who is interested in learning more about this global public resource is invited to “Meet the Movement:” a talk with Jimmy Wales and members of the Wikimedia community in India.  This talk is an opportunity to learn more about how Wikipedia works and why participation from the people of India is integral to Wikimedia’s global free-knowledge movement.

The iconic leader, who founded Wikipedia in 2001, will give a public talk about the history of Wikipedia and what the free knowledge movement means to India.  For instance, 75 percent of all schools in India have either online or offline access to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, a sister project. Additionally, 94 percent of page views from India are for the English Wikipedia, rather than Indian languages. What does that mean about the importance of Wikipedia in India and the needs of Indian users? Wales will discuss this during his talk and members of Wikimedia India, as well as Wikimedia Foundation Board member, Bishakha Datta, will join Wales for a 30 minute open question and answer session with the audience.

Date: Sunday October 31 Time: 6.30 pm Venue: Sophia Bhabha Hall, Sophia College campus, Bhulabhai Desai Road, Breach Candy, Mumbai 400026

This talk is open to the public on a first-come-first-seated basis.

For more information, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Mumbai/Mumbai3

-- GN