[Wikimedia-l] Changes to India Program

[Hari Prasad Nadig]

On 30 July 2012 16:18, Barry Newstead (WMF) <bnewstead at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> As a follow up to Hisham's message, I would like to thank Hisham for his efforts in support of Wikimedia in India.  He has been a great partner to the Wikimedia Foundation team and has worked tirelessly to build the India Program.  He has worked in a challenging environment trying to do work in the Wikimedia movement that hasn’t been done before.  While there have been ups and downs, our work in India has broken new ground for the movement and taught us all valuable lessons that we are applying in India and around the world.  There is an unprecedented level of activity happening in India with promising programs that position the movement for continued growth.
>
[...]

> CIS has committed to sustaining and building upon the work of the India Program. They plan to hire the existing program consultants as staff and will conduct a search for a new programme director. The program team will be based in Delhi. CIS will be sharing their program plans shortly and will want to incorporate community feedback.
>

Barry,

This is all quite unexpected, but bringing in CIS does really seem
like a positive change at this moment for what has been happening in
India.

Through CIS, Sunil has so far extended great support to volunteers in
India, not only for those who were working as volunteers for Wikimedia
but also for volunteers from free software movement, people working on
freedom of expression and several other excellent causes. Having been
part of the founding team of the chapter in India, I did feel that
without Sunil's encouragement, support the chapter would have had more
trouble taking shape given the complexities. So, it does feel like a
good prospect going forward.

To be fair, the India programs has so far been an expensive project
coming at a huge cost and not so great outcome. The big loser has been
the chapter in India. Adding to that is the parity in work pressure as
compared to the remuneration between volunteers who signed up to take
up responsibilities at the chapter and the paid employees of the India
program. Although I resigned from the chapter early last year, I still
feel that much of the pressure has been on the few passionate
volunteers who have been trying to put together a solid foundation for
the chapter.

It is sad to see anyone go, but really does bring back memories when
certain people in-charge weren't responding or were just 'too busy' to
respond to calls from volunteers. However, that is past now and I'm no
longer as active on Wikimedia projects as I used to be. However,
there's still a sense of belonging that I'm pretty sure like me many
other volunteers from India (who may have now gone inactive for a
reason or the other) share - and are looking forward seeing the
brighter side.

Cheers,
-- 
Hari Prasad Nadig
http://twitter.com/hpnadig
http://flickr.com/hpnadig