[Wikimediaindia-l] Let's *Talk*

[Anivar Aravind]

On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 4:26 PM, Vickram Crishna
<vvcrishna at radiophony.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>
>> And - to stay with the sandbox metaphor from another thread - if the
>> majority of contributors to a university-based program in India can
>> reach won't be able to contribute at an acceptable quality in WP
>> proper, then perhaps it's also time to think about more aggressive
>> sandboxing of contributions early in the game, at least when we're
>> dealing with a course where we either don't know what to expect, or we
>> _do_ based on experiences like the one to date. Possibly even using an
>> external sandbox.
>>
>
> If I understand it rightly, Erik points out that one of the questions raised
> here is the validity of the University-centric approach to this program.
> Hisham will recall I had queried this approach at a meetup way back when.
> This was before I found that it had a history, being a successful initiative
> in another milieu. I am sure now, with this experience, we can find ways to
> make the program work more effectively here, one possibility (not the only
> one) being shedding the college campus-centric focus, and reaching out more
> widely to people, in order to welcome more people within the contributory
> fold.  As Abhilash points out, this was a pilot, and it is up to us to
> evaluate its learnings and move forward from it, not trash it or its
> participants.
> --
> Vickram

+1 Vickram.

I shared the same concerns on assignment based university centric
model. In addition I had concerns with omitting indic language wiki
contributions from Pune Pilot , which i tried to express in an IRC
meetup.  Lets move forward with the learnings, but with wide
consultations on improved programme plan with the involvement of
communities .

This whole story , reminds me some experience in FOSS domain

When we are volunteering with Free software movement , to spread FOSS
in various campuses,  the first info we used to  provide after any
presentation  while reaching out to a new campus is  sharing
information on how to join in local LUG , or initiate a LUG in
college. During the same time, companies like SUN was appointing
campus ambassadors, and pumping money to promote their open source
initiatives, but in a non-collaborative way,through direct links with
college administration. Many times FOSS Activists have to fight with
this approach of Campus Ambassadors, who does not value the movement
or community to get permission for holding a programme in campus .
But over time,  what sustained is FOSS community initiatives and their
mode of budding new developers .

Anivar