On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 4:28 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan <srik.lak@gmail.com> wrote:I would also request people not to fork any more new threads on this with same thoughts,CAMPUS AMBASSADOR SETBACK - The Local Community Viewpoint
After the training, Ashwin wrote a note of dissent on the talk page of the CAs at the time:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/India_Campus_Program_Reports
* Need for a project management approach, with deliverables, stages, identification of scaling resources, check-backs, etc was emphasised.
* Attitudes of local college managements and how to function in Pune academic environment were given.
* Intricacies of academic systems in the colleges, universities in Pune were explained.
* Cultural differences between colleges, their goals and priorities, as well as their mutual relations were told.
* We asked an important question - what is the take home for the stake holders? There were adequate take-homes for the CA (a certificate, a T shirt, learning experiences. opportunities in Wikiworld, recognition and some marks for the exam). The participating students were only getting wiki-knowledge and assignment marks. Was that enough to motivate them? There was no formal training for the actual editors.
* Most important of all, what is there in return to the stake holders like colleges? This question is still unanswered. There has to be something for all the stakeholders (CAs, students, college teachers, college management, community, IEP program team) in the program. Right now, only Wikipedia is the ultimate beneficiary. and partly CAs and some students. For a win-win situation, everybody must have something reasonable for take-home.
* We repeatedly emphasised the need for the staff person to be recruited from Pune and function from Pune 24x7, who should preferably be Maharashtrian, and having local contacts, rather than be from Delhi, stationed there and fly in here for a few days a week (as we were told it would be).
* The need for rigorous training of campus ambassadors and formal training for student editors.
The community felt that it was not quite being listened to. Slowly contact with Hisham dwindled. We never came to know except through grape-vine when Hisham was in town. It appeared to us that the community mattered no more and the IEP (India Education Project) was the whole-soul focus. Our contact with local CAs was not encouraged. When a request was made for at least one Pune community member to be on the CA mailing list so that we could be in the loop and available for ready support and advice, it was not agreed.
There was one exception. One of the Pune community members, Prof Radha Misra is running a quiet, efficient IEP in her department and college. The community was invited by her to conduct two wiki-academies in different workshops in her College which were successfully conducted. We thank her for the support to the community.
Reluctantly we came to the conclusion that the local Pune community had no role to play in IEP. We decided to support the initiative passively. Soon the WikiConference planning started and our attention and energies were drawn away.
The Pune Community had a clearer idea of what was involved right in the beginning than the India Programs office. Its decades of experience in academicia (Harshad & Sudhanwa), FOSS (Sudhanwa), industry (Mandar), teaching (Sudhanwa & Ashwin), marketing (Mahitgar), retired marathi expert (J), business (Suhel), armed forces (Ashwin), Wikipedia experience (in en:WP, mr:WP, Commons) and the general management experience and detailed on-site knowledge etc were a very valuable human resource, and these were made available to Hisham. He chose to sip sparingly. Perhaps, just perhaps, if he had drunk deeply - recognised that the miniscule Pune community was a true well-wisher, and had made us a true partner, the outcome may have been different.