Biannual review December 2011 - Revision history

Gauravm at 15:09, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T15:09:24Z

Gauravm at 15:00, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T15:00:38Z

Gauravm at 14:55, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T14:55:46Z

Gauravm at 14:53, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T14:53:18Z

Gauravm at 14:51, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T14:51:53Z

Gauravm at 14:33, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T14:33:59Z

Gauravm at 14:01, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T14:01:08Z

Gauravm at 14:00, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T14:00:21Z

Gauravm at 13:55, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T13:55:34Z

Gauravm at 13:52, 31 December 2011

2011-12-31T13:52:52Z

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 ===Platform upgrade===
 * Moved from Siteground as our primary host to Dreamhost. Dreamhost is more reputed, green and has better support. (Gaurav, Alok)
-* Changed the URL of our flagship portal to http://www.biodiversityofindia.org to make the name of the portal more relevant to our mission.
+* Changed the URL of our flagship portal to http://www.biodiversityofindia.org to make the name of the portal more relevant to our mission. "Project Brahma" is now the name of the umbrella project housing three media - the BOI website, our Facebook page and our Twitter account.
 * Upgraded our website from Mediawiki 1.15 to Mediawiki 1.17. This upgrade significantly increases speed of loading web pages and fixes some security issues. (Gaurav, Alok)

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 Dear friends,
-My name is Gaurav Moghe. On behalf of the entire Project Brahma team, I would like to wish you a very happy new year! Please find a few volunteer-made e-cards alongside this message and feel free to share them with your friends.
+On behalf of the entire Project Brahma team, I (Gaurav Moghe) would like to wish you a very happy new year! Please find a few volunteer-made e-cards alongside this message and feel free to share them with your friends.
 I hope you have been keeping track of the new developments at Project Brahma. This page is intended to provide you a review of the things we have been working on the past six months. I hope you will take some to read through, provide feedback and most importantly, contribute to our citizen-driven project. Following are some of the recent developments.

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 ===New sections===
 * We significantly expanded the scope of the two existing sections - [[Division:Plants]] and [[Division:Mammals]]. We decided to focus on ~1000 commercially traded medicinal plants and ~350 mammalian species. We made extensive use of [[w:API|APIs]] from global biodiversity databases to populate species pages on BOI. We are in the process of fine-tuning these species pages.
-* In keeping tune with our mission to document the cultural aspects of India's biodiversity, we started two new sections
+* Keeping in tune with our mission to document the cultural aspects of India's biodiversity, we started two new sections
 : 1) [[Division:Community pages]].
 :: As of today, this section has ~40 articles related to importance of biodiversity in Indian culture. Articles were contributed by Gaurav Moghe, Shwetank Verma, Rajinikanth Mohan, Madhuri Y and Dr. Daya Tilwe. We welcome additional contributions from everyone (See [[Guidelines for writers]]).
@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 ''' Currently, there is a total of {{#ask: [[Category:Biodiversity notes]] OR [[Category:Community pages]]  | format=count }} articles in our database. For the complete list, click on ''further results'' on the bottom right corner of the table above.'''
-* We also created a section called [[Reference Library]]. This includes a listing of all PDFs, books, blogs, government documents, websites, issue-specific news articles etc. related to biodiversity/environment.
+* We also created a section called [[Reference Library]]. This includes a listing of all PDFs, books, blogs, government documents, websites, issue-specific news articles, NGOs etc. related to biodiversity/environment. Registered volunteers can add to these lists themselves.
 ===Communication===

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 Dear friends,
-My name is Gaurav Moghe. On behalf of the entire Project Brahma team, I would like to wish you a very happy new year! Please find a few volunteer-made e-cards near the end of this message and feel free to share them with your friends.
+My name is Gaurav Moghe. On behalf of the entire Project Brahma team, I would like to wish you a very happy new year! Please find a few volunteer-made e-cards alongside this message and feel free to share them with your friends.
 I hope you have been keeping track of the new developments at Project Brahma. This page is intended to provide you a review of the things we have been working on the past six months. I hope you will take some to read through, provide feedback and most importantly, contribute to our citizen-driven project. Following are some of the recent developments.

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 * In keeping tune with our mission to document the cultural aspects of India's biodiversity, we started two new sections
 : 1) [[Division:Community pages]].
-:: As of today, this section has over 30 articles related to importance of biodiversity in Indian culture. Articles were contributed by Gaurav Moghe, Shwetank Verma, Rajinikanth Mohan, Madhuri Y and Dr. Daya Tilwe. We welcome additional contributions from everyone (See [[Guidelines for writers]]).
+:: As of today, this section has ~40 articles related to importance of biodiversity in Indian culture. Articles were contributed by Gaurav Moghe, Shwetank Verma, Rajinikanth Mohan, Madhuri Y and Dr. Daya Tilwe. We welcome additional contributions from everyone (See [[Guidelines for writers]]).
 : 2) [[Division:Videos]].
 :: We collected over 100 videos from over the web - Youtube, Google Videos, Dailymotion, Vimeo - related to environment and biodiversity. Our belief is videos are a powerful way of communicating knowledge. Some people have already provided us feedback that the video library is quite helpful.
 * We also created a section called [[Reference Library]]. This includes a listing of all PDFs, books, blogs, government documents, websites, issue-specific news articles etc. related to biodiversity/environment.
 ===Communication===
 * Our Facebook page has attracted over 180 followers. Each of our posts is seen by over 100 followers. Although this is a tiny number, given we are a small, newborn organization, it is quite encouraging. We hope to double our number of followers in the next six months. (Shwetank Verma)
-* We started an initiative of highlighting the work of different Indian NGOs through our Facebook page. This activity attracted a lot of positive feedback. We were able to reach out to over 15 NGOs through this activity. (Shwetank Verma)
+* We started an initiative of highlighting the work of different Indian NGOs through our Facebook page. This activity attracted a lot of positive feedback and a lot of good work of different NGOs got highlighted. We were able to reach out to over 15 NGOs through this activity. (Shwetank Verma)
 * Our Twitter account is followed by around 60 followers. We plan to increase this number in the coming months.
 ===Current projects===

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 My name is Gaurav Moghe. On behalf of the entire Project Brahma team, I would like to wish you a very happy new year! Please find a few volunteer-made e-cards near the end of this message and feel free to share them with your friends.
-I hope you have been keeping track of the new developments at Project Brahma. This email is intended to provide you a review of the things we have been working on the past six months. I hope you will take some to read through, provide feedback and most importantly, contribute to our citizen-driven project. Following are some of the recent developments.
+I hope you have been keeping track of the new developments at Project Brahma. This page is intended to provide you a review of the things we have been working on the past six months. I hope you will take some to read through, provide feedback and most importantly, contribute to our citizen-driven project. Following are some of the recent developments.
 ==Contributors over the last six months==
@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 * Pradnya Malandkar
 * Madhuri Y
-* Rajinikanth Mohan
+* Dr. Rajinikanth Mohan
-* Daya Tilwe
+* Dr. Daya Tilwe
 ==Major developments==
 ===Platform upgrade===
-* Moved from Siteground as our primary host to Dreamhost. (Gaurav, Alok)
+* Moved from Siteground as our primary host to Dreamhost. Dreamhost is more reputed, green and has better support. (Gaurav, Alok)
 * Changed the URL of our flagship portal to http://www.biodiversityofindia.org to make the name of the portal more relevant to our mission.
-* Upgraded our website to Mediawiki 1.17. This upgrade significantly increases speed of loading web pages and fixes some security issues. (Gaurav, Alok)
+* Upgraded our website from Mediawiki 1.15 to Mediawiki 1.17. This upgrade significantly increases speed of loading web pages and fixes some security issues. (Gaurav, Alok)
 ===New sections===
-* We significantly expanded the scope of the two existing sections - [[Division:Plants]] and [[Division:Mammals]]. We made extensive use of [[w:API|APIs]] from global biodiversity databases to populate species pages on BOI. We are in the process of fine-tuning these species pages.
+* We significantly expanded the scope of the two existing sections - [[Division:Plants]] and [[Division:Mammals]]. We decided to focus on ~1000 commercially traded medicinal plants and ~350 mammalian species. We made extensive use of [[w:API|APIs]] from global biodiversity databases to populate species pages on BOI. We are in the process of fine-tuning these species pages.
 * In keeping tune with our mission to document the cultural aspects of India's biodiversity, we started two new sections
 : 1) [[Division:Community pages]].
-:: As of today, this section has over 30 articles related to importance of biodiversity in Indian culture. Articles were contributed by Gaurav Moghe, Shwetank Verma, Rajinikanth Mohan, Madhuri Y and Daya Tilwe
+:: As of today, this section has over 30 articles related to importance of biodiversity in Indian culture. Articles were contributed by Gaurav Moghe, Shwetank Verma, Rajinikanth Mohan, Madhuri Y and Dr. Daya Tilwe. We welcome additional contributions from everyone (See [[Guidelines for writers]]).
 : 2) [[Division:Videos]].
 :: We collected over 100 videos from over the web - Youtube, Google Videos, Dailymotion, Vimeo - related to environment and biodiversity. Our belief is videos are a powerful way of communicating knowledge. Some people have already provided us feedback that the video library is quite helpful.
 * We also created a section called [[Reference Library]]. This includes a listing of all PDFs, books, blogs, government documents, websites, issue-specific news articles etc. related to biodiversity/environment.
 ===Communication===
@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 * We are writing PHP scripts - Bots - to automate the process of filling in information on the species pages. This would enable easy updating of data and maintaining a higher quality database. (Alok)
 * We are working to finalize a logo for our website. Pradnya Malandkar, a designer working at IITB School of Design, has been taking the lead in creating various mockups.
-* In the coming future, we would be working to develop online learning modules and quizzes related to biodiversity and environment.
+* In the coming future, we would be working to develop online learning modules and quizzes related to biodiversity and environment focused on schools.
 * We are actively seeking funding by writing grant proposals and building up a rainy-day fund. If you are interested in donating anything upwards of $10, please contact '''''shwetankverma at projectbrahma dot org'''''.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Likeboxes}}
 [[File:2011_Ecard_Eucalyptus.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Eucalyptus - Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
 [[File:2011_Ecard_Almond.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Almond - Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
 [[File:2011_Ecard_Amla.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Amla - Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
-[[File:2011_Ecard_Saffron.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Saffron - Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
+[[File:2011_Ecard_Saffron.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Saffron - Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
 Dear friends,

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 __NOTOC__
 {{Likeboxes}}
-[[File:2011_Ecard_Eucalyptus.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
+[[File:2011_Ecard_Eucalyptus.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Eucalyptus - Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
-[[File:2011_Ecard_Almond.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
+[[File:2011_Ecard_Almond.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Almond - Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
-[[File:2011_Ecard_Amla.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
+[[File:2011_Ecard_Amla.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Amla - Happy New Year! - Created by Shwetank Verma]]
 Dear friends,