Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Spoken Wikipedia

The Spoken Wikipedia Workshop NYC will be held on Saturday July 26, 3:30 - 5:30pm at Brooklyn Public Library - Central Library.

The diverse multilingual communities of New York City can help benefit the world through audio recordings of Wikipedia articles in many languages, especially in the vital domain of health-related articles. Who better to undertake this task than New Yorkers?

When and Where

 * Date: Saturday, July 26, 2014 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. (We start setup in the recording studio at 2:30.)
 * Venue: Brooklyn Public Library - Central Library
 * Find us at: Shelby White and Leon Levy Information Commons (1st floor)
 * Participants: This event is open to everyone! You don't need any Wikipedia editing experience to participate - just a passion for free knowledge. We especially welcome bilingual speakers.  We'll be have an orientation and discussion at the workshop, and we'll be doing recording sessions throughout the event.

What is Spoken Wikipedia?
Our NYC workshop is modeled on the pioneering Spoken Wikipedia event in Pune, India:
 * Wikipedia Club Pune/Spoken Wikipedia Workshops
 * Video of previous Spoken Wikipedia Workshop

Here are some of the many potential benefits of spoken recordings of Wikipedia articles:


 * In developing countries, access to the Internet is one problem and the availability of technology is another. In such a scenario, offline Wikipedia, too, has its limitations. Spoken Wikipedia articles can be used on a mobile device, removing this barrier.
 * Spoken articles have a major accessibility dimension, making Wikipedia content available to those who can understand regional language or English but cannot read it.
 * Users can listen to Wikipedia articles while they perform tasks that exclude reading but not concentration (such as running, or housework), thus making the process more fun.
 * Visually impaired users can make use of screen readers, but they may not be as accurate as a human vocal recording. This is particularly true of articles relating to science, mathematics, linguistics, and other areas commonly requiring unusual or unfamiliar pronunciation, or the use of symbols.
 * Such audio articles are a valuable learning tool for those who are learning English. If a link is given to the version of the page that was recorded, users may listen to the words while reading them.
 * Spoken articles are a valuable learning tool for auditory learners (people who learn most effectively by listening to information delivered orally).
 * Some may find it easier to concentrate on an article while listening to it, especially in an environment with distracting sounds (with the use of headphones).
 * By hearing articles read aloud, readers can catch inconsistencies, redundancies, and awkward phrases not noticed by other editors, thus improving the written version of Wikipedia.

Social events after the workshop
After the workshop, some of us will be going out to a social wiki-dinner at 6pm, and then for the really adventurous to Shakespeare in the Parking Lot's Twelfth Night at 8pm.

Attending
Interested in helping by giving your voice, or otherwise participating? If you like, please add any languages you can contribute in.


 * AbhiSuryawanshi (talk)
 * Pharos (talk) 00:43, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
 * English only for me!  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  02:25, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Most likely attending, though as to what languages I will contribute, that's still up in the air. :P --Sky Harbor (talk) 02:51, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I will be there! Frenezulo (talk) 10:54, 22 July 2014 (UTC)

Regrets

 * Becksguy (talk) 14:28, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
 *  DGG ( talk ) 19:35, 22 July 2014 (UTC) I know by experience that recordings of my voice will not be helpful to anyone.
 * OR drohowa (talk) 19:21, 23 July 2014 (UTC)