TTT referred to Train The Trainer, a training program conducting by the Center for Internet & Society- Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K). In this training program, the experienced members of CIS-A2K are going to train with some work to the volunteers of Wikipedia.
I'm also working for Odia Wikipedia, Odia Wikisource since 2014, but never applied for this training program. Due to some miscommunication, I hadn't applied, but this time I applied and got the chance to attend the program. On 3rd December 2017, Odia Wikisource was celebrating its 3rd anniversary and after that, I applied for the TTT 2018. Within some days, Tito da, the member of CIS-A2K contacted me through Facebook and then send me the confirmation mail.
Finally, the day came and another member of CIS-A2K Gopala Krishna had contacted me to book the tickets. I'm staying in Bangalore, so it's easy for me to reach Mysore, the place where the training program had organized. On the 25th of January, we have to reach the Place.
But, on that day, there was a strike in Karnataka, but fortunately, I got a small vehicle to reach KSR Bengaluru. Due to strike, there was a few traffic and I reached KSR within 45 minutes from Marathahalli. The train hadn't arrived until that time, so I wait there and met 4 other Wikipedians from Marathi wiki and Telugu wiki. Then I met another Wikipedian from the English wiki on the train.
Around 2.00 we reached the Mysore railway station and took a taxi to reach the hotel. Finally, I reached the hotel and met Tanveer and Tito da after 1.5 years and again reintroduced myself to them. And then some members had come, but I haven't known them except Sailesh Patnaik, my friend from Odia Wiki, Dr. Manavpreet Kaur and Satdeep Gill from Panjabi wiki.
At 6.30, we had a formal introduction round and at that time, we got to know each other. Till that time, two of my friends Aliva Sahoo and Prateek Patnaik had reached there and we did some fun also. That introduction round was to know each other and gain some basic ideas about each other. And the work for Day0 finally finished and we have to start the main work for Day1 on next day.
Day1: (26th January 2018)
It's 26th of January and when I reached the lobby, one friend from Panjabi wiki Gurlal Mann asked me to join the flag hosting program organized by the hotel. After that, we all met at the meeting hall and the main work for the TTT started. There was another short introduction round by us all and after that, we were divided into five groups. I got the group 4. In my group, we were Dr. Manavpreet Kaur, Agastya, Guntupalli Rameswaram Sir, Sumit Surai, Tulsi Bhagat and Gopala Krishna.
The first task we got is "Meet-Up". So, we have to define the meetups and the processes, etc. So, we discussed with each other and then draw two different types of Meet up plans for a Project named "Wiki Hates Pollution" suggested by Guntupalli Rameswaram Sir. Sumit da and Agastya had presented that. This work taught me the processes for any plan, which might associate with wiki or not. Before some kind of work, we have to analyze everything as a plan and category them as Prework, Event and Post work.
On this day, the organizers had planned for the sweet table. On that table, the sweets from different states placed and we tested all those as per our choice. There are sweets from Odisha, Bengal, Panjab, Bangladesh, etc. This is the chance to get closer to the popular sweet dishes of any state.
After the lunch break, another friend Rohini had joined and she gives a presentation on the project grants, but I don't have any idea how to apply for a grant. So all the things shared by her jumps over me. Then another friend Kiran had joined there and described some tips for photography we need to follow at the zoo. Satdeep Gill, representative of Wikimedia Foundation India also presents some works of Wikipedia and shown us some amazing videos.
After that, we finished all our sessions and the main work for Day1 closed. And I finished my 100wikidays work for Wikipedia and Wikisource. I wished to go to the Mysore palace but missed the chance to join with Bengal team.
After dinner, we got our favorite Wikipedia T-Shirts from Royson. In that hall, we had planned to play some fun games. So I joined them and play a game named "Mafia". I don't have any idea about that game, but I learned at that time and yes, it's really a fun game. Then we have to leave that room and we again gathered in another room and play the Dumb Charades. I just saw this game on TVs, but never played and for the 1st time, I played that game. And finally, we left around 2.30 am.
Day2: (27th January 2018)
Day 2 was assigned to the field trip where we have to visit the Mysore zoo for the education program. We had planned to go by walk, but at the last moment, went through cabs. We took the 1st group photo at the entrance of the zoo. And in the zoo, a guide named Sneha joined us. That zoo has the unique rule for the plastic bottles to give 10 rupees and take a barcode so that people won't through the plastic bottles inside and at the time of returning they could refund their money from the exit counter by scanning that barcode.
Inside the zoo, Sneha had explained many things about birds, animals, etc. We took almost 4 hours inside the zoo and the director of the zoo gave a presentation about the zoo and their works. But we returned without visiting the reptile section and missed the chance to see the Anaconda. But the time we spent at the zoo was amazing. Before returning from the zoo, we took a group photo with the director and with Sneha.
At the time of returning from the zoo, we took the cab again to reach the hotel and after lunch, again we played the Truth and Dare game, where some did many fun things. At 4.30, we had another session about Diversity presented by Dr. Manavpreet Kaur which was another important section for us. During that, we prepared another small sheet describing the strength we have. This was presented by Agastya and Tulsi Bhagat.
After finishing all the works for Day 2, we celebrated the 14th Wiki Anniversary for Bengal Wikipedia with Subhendu, Pinaki da, Sumit da, and Afifa. Royson, who actually knows as cake Ninja of CIS-A2K cut the cake as per the required amount. After that, we finished our dinner and I went to finish the work for that day in 100wikidays. I was on the 99th day of my 3rd round challenge and didn't have an internet connection. So I borrowed the internet from Gopala Krishna and finished the work.
After that, I joined with Tito da, Sailesh, Krisha Chaitanya, Gopala Krishna, Satdeep, Manav mam, Rupika, Sushma, Puja, Nirajan and played the truth and truth game and made some fun and shared some of our things with others and finally closed all at 3.00am.
Day3: (28th January 2018)
Day 3 was the day for goodbye. But we had to finish some of our work, but before starting our session, I finished my 100th day of the 3rd round of 100wikidays challenge. During the session, we did our last part of Group Activity and prepared another sheet showing our survey. I and Tulsi had presented that. After that, all of us divided with some other group and learned many things about Commons Wikimedia, Support and Security, Wikisource work and Education program. From these four groups, I learned many things about Commons Wikimedia and some good photography tips from Sumit da and Gopal Krishna. Till now I didn't have such knowledge of photography. And learned some measure things from Dr. Manavpreet and Afifa about Support and Security from Wikimedia foundation and yes, it's really important to learn.
Krishna Chaitanya and Tito da also presented some tips and work about IRC, Wikipedia projects with us. So, it would help us to involve with wiki works.
After all these sessions, we finished our lunch and it's time to say goodbye to some people and recorded a feedback video for the TTT. I also gave a feedback video in Odia. After that, we took some photos with some friends and then some left.
In the evening, some of us went to the Mysore Palace, but till we reached there the palace area had been closed, but we saw the lightening view of the palace. After that, we returned to the hotel and had some informal conversations. After dinner, the CIS-A2K team gave me a gift for completing the 100wikidays 3rd time.
Now, it's time to return home. Finally, I returned to Bangalore by a bus with Tito da, Tanveer Bhaiya, Gopala, Pavan Bhaiya and Ananth. At the time of returning, I visited the CIS-A2K office in Domblur and then reached my room by cab around 7.00am.
Things I learned from the TTT:
- Learned about the IRC using Wikipedia.
- Support and Security Knowledge.
- More projects involved in Wikipedia.
- Plans for the meet-up and the survey.
