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.
Chapter Update
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
hisham