Dear All
As you might be aware, we've been have a monthly call between the India Chapter and India Programs team. Since we last updated you, we have had 2 calls and also a face-to-face meeting after WikiConference. Here's an update on these meetings.
I must beforehand apologize for being so late on updating you on these calls / meetings. Shall endeavor to be more on schedule going forward.
Do share your feedback and comments. Do let us know if there are any clarifications we can provide.
Thursday November 9th (Voice Conference) [Arjun, Arun, Naveen, Sudhanwa, Tinu, Asaf & Hisham]
India Programs Update- India Trust has been set up and a formal announcement will be made shortly on this matter.
- India Education Program has encountered significant problems with regard to copy-pasted material. While efforts have been made (including asking for help from Online Ambassadors), in-class sessions from Campus Ambassadors (in almost every single class of the program), asking for intervention from faculty, asking students only to work on sandboxes, etc., the situation remained particularly serious at College of Engineering, Pune. As a result, the program was suspended at this college. It currently runs at 1 class at Symbiosis School of Economics (while the other classes there have concluded their assignments) and at 1 class at SNDT Women's University.
- Specifically, the lessons learnt on the pilot were discussed. These included scale, choice of faculty, choice of classes, inadequate engagement and communication with en-wp community, modifications to Campus Ambassador training going forward, modifications to student training going forward, etc. It was pointed out that a comprehensive and honest learnings exercise would be undertaken.
- Recruitment of additional team members (for Communications and for Team Support) have been delayed because the right candidate was not available.
- The initial work on the Indic Languages initiatives would start off with preliminary discussions and data analysis of the various language projects. This will help to build a picture with both experience and data of the current state, challenges, opportunities and potential of the various projects. Eventually, the objective will be to identify potential pilots and language communities that might be interested in these pilots.
Chapter Update
- Arjun said that as Wikipedia is always evolving with contributions of community, any project needs to be carefully planned and executed to minimize the load on community. We had some experiences with Google Translate project, which received adverse reaction from wikipedian community. Even if Foundation undertakes an initiative, there is a possibility of similar adverse response. He hoped that we can use this experience to improve future project planning.
Sunday November 20th (Face to Face Meeting) [Arjun, Arun, Naveen, Sudhanwa, Tinu, Barry & Hisham]
India Programs Update
- Point of View was shared about the nature of communication and co-operation between the Chapter and India Programs. It was pointed out that all the activities of India Programs have been in line with the publicly available page at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs. The monthly co-ordination calls that the Chapter EC had initaited and that are now being regularly undertaken is useful and must be continued. Chapter EC requested prior information on activities and it was suggested by India Programs (and agreed by Chapter EC) that all important announcements would be sent to the Chapter EC 48 hours before being shared publicly.
- The nature of the work that was happening on Indic Languages initiatives was shared (including the kinds of discussions and how these discussions were being conducted) and that Shiju will shortly start sharing the updates of language discussions with the community.
- The learnings process of the India Education Program was shared - including the fact that data gathering was going to be commenced and that the learnings would inform the next steps of the project. Nitika will shortly update the community about how these learnings were going to be gathered. It was reiterated that the plans going forward would be finalized only after a thorough review of the program was conducted.
- It was proposed to identify potential areas where the Chapter EC and India Programs would work collaboratively.
Chapter Update- Arjun said that it is essential to have clarity on the focus areas of WMF and identify projects where WMF and WMIN could work together. Arun suggested the need for a governance framework for the various activities in India.
- Arjun summarized the focus of Wikimedia India on Wiki academies and Strengthening City/Language SIGs. Preliminary discussions around Regional Conferences, GLAM, Wiki loves monuments and Knowledge Kiosks are in progress.
- He explained how Knowledge Kiosks pilot, where visitors to public libraries can access Wikipedia through tablet computers in the language of their choice can be a great help for reaching out to the population, who can't afford computers and Internet. He suggested that it can be a good collaborative project and requested India programs support. India programs could take care of program management and dealing with Library organizations and vendors. Chapter would help in training library personnel and users in the various pilot locations. Hisham suggested inviting fellowships for such a project. Arjun opined that organizational help is really needed to do such projects. It is agreed to have further discussions on this topic after sharing additional information.
Wednesday November 23rd (Voice Conference) [Arjun, Arun, Naveen, Sudhanwa & Hisham]
India Programs Update- Ambiguity around the two entities "India Programs" and "India Trust" were clarified. India Programs is the team of consultants (currently, Hisham, Shiju & Nitika) who are working as consultants to WMF. Once the funding for the Wikimedia India Program Trust is sorted out (after the appropriate funding has the necessary approvals), these consultants will transition to the Trust. Until then, the Trust is an organisation that has been registered by has no funds available and therefore will not undertake any activities
- An update was shared the the Trust was going to be filing for the necessary taxation related applications (Sections 12A and 80G) as well as FCRA Prior-Permission in the next few days. An update will be shared after these have been done.
- A discussion was made on the Chapter EC proposal for Chapter & India Programs to work together on the Knowledge Kiosks initiative of the Chapter. India Programs indicated their preference not to work on projects that require such intensive effort in infrastructure building (both hardware and connectivity.) It was also recommended that the Chapter carefully consider their involvement in such initiatives especially given the kind of effort that will be required in stuff like procurement.
- It was proposed that the Chapter EC and India Programs work collaboratively on at least 2 broad areas: supporting community outreach & community building (especially volunteer mobilization) as well PR & social media with Chapter EC. Both areas are aspects where India Programs can bring capability to the table and are areas of interest to members of the Chapter EC.
- An update was shared on the meeting with the Ministry of HRD regarding potential collaboration with Aakash tablet. The meeting was extremely positive and holds potential. Hisham will be sharing an update to the community on the next steps on this after some additional discussions.
- It was proposed that a discussion commence that will collaboratively arrive at a draft document that provide clarity to how Chapter EC and the India Trust can work together. This will be in the nature of definition of roles.
- Arjun said that with the kind of resources that the India Programs Trust will have access, it can take up challenging projects like Knowledge Kiosks as it can certainly outsource stuff that can not done by Trust. It is agreed to continue the discussion on this topic.
Best