Volunteers also need to be involved in an interacted session on what
is/was/could be/will be illegal/problematic/controversial.
On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 6:38 AM, Pradeep Mohandas <pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com
wrote:
> hi,
>
> Also another thing to consider that all Wikimedians in India are not
> Chapter members. Can anything initiated by the chapter be used to
> provide 'services' to non-members?
> Also, no matter how much a person or organisation prepares itself,
> threats to Wikimedians come in various ways. I've heard of everything
> from threats to life to threats on Wikipedia/mailing lists. I think,
> we need resources that can be used pan-India and the first line of
> defense is at best each Wikipedian educating themselves on the
> practical nuances and also openly sharing such experiences on the list
> so that many can benefit from the same. The Foundation/Chapter can
> only build minimal defenses on top of this, IMO. What these minimal
> defenses are must be discussed by the Chapter and the Foundation
> individually and together.
>
> Pradeep
> Handheld
>
> PS: Back from a wiki vaccation
>
> On 06/02/2012, Srikanth Ramakrishnan <parakara.ghoda(a)gmail.com
wrote:
> > I agree with you completely.
While I've never been dragged to a Police
> > station, the Coimbatore Police made me delete ALL my photos on the
> camera,
> > and the Bangalore Police took away my memory card.
> > Do we need to send across a letter or something across to the Police?
> >
> > On Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 2:40 AM, <wheredevelsdare(a)hotmail.com
wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I thought Id bring up something thats been at the back of my mind for
> the
> >> last few days. With offline activities increasing in the last couple of
> >> months, it is a good sign for the project overall in India. However, we
> >> sometimes tend to unintentionally ruffle a few feathers (or people
> wanting
> >> to take advantage of the situation pretend that we have). This got me
> >> thinking of what sort of backup we Wikipedians can expect if they get
> into
> >> trouble whiles taking part in volunteer activities? I dont mean getting
> >> caught doing something illegal, I mean any trouble whiles taking part in
> >> or
> >> organising routine activities. I dont mean to scare people, this is
> >> something that is the result of recent happenings. In Mumbai,
> Wikipedians
> >> have had to visit the Police Station twice in the last 3 months.
> >>
> >> First time we had a battery of people including Chapter Secretary Naveen
> >> Francis, WMF Deputy Director Erik Moeller (who literally got off a
> flight
> >> and walked into the cop station), our Legal brain Gautam John, WMF
> Trustee
> >> Bishakha Dutta and WMF Advisor Achal Prabhala among others go down to
> the
> >> police station as a political party threatened to stage a protest at our
> >> event in November 2011.
> >>
> >> Last month, we had another visit to the police station during the
> >> photowalk because a corporate house was paranoid when we took
> photographs
> >> of their headquarters. Hisham, Gautam and Achal were all unavailable,
> >> thankfully Bishakha was and she was able to get a legal opinion from
> some
> >> lawyer friends that what we were doing was totally legal as it was not a
> >> prohibited area. We cannot expect to fall back on such people all the
> >> time,
> >> after all they are here as volunteers as well (well, except for Erik and
> >> Hisham).
> >>
> >> Reiterating, that though we were on the right side of the law, we were
> >> dragged to the police. I am worried what the case would be if a formal
> >> complaint or a case is filed against a Wikipedian (though Im hoping this
> >> will never happen) to trouble or scare him, what assurance does he have
> >> from the organisation? As most Wikipedians are doing volunteer-work in
> >> their spare time, I think its highly important that there is some sort
> of
> >> assurance that they will not be left to fend for themselves if something
> >> unforeseen leaves them personally in a spot of bother. Could someone
> from
> >> India Programs or WM-IN please advice the community of what sort of
> >> back-up
> >> and legal support/insurance the community can expect in the event of
> such
> >> eventualities?
> >>
> >> Kind Regards,
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> >> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> >> To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
> >>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Regards,
> > Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
> > Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on February 12th.
> >
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore
> > Aliens invaded Tamil Nadu, left their Spacship and now it is a Toll
> Plaza.
> >
>
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IVRCL-Vijayamangalam-Toll-Plaza.JPG
> >
>
>
> --
> Pradeep Mohandas
> How Pradeep uses email -
http://goo.gl/6v1I9
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on February 12th.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore
Aliens invaded Tamil Nadu, left their Spacship and now it is a Toll Plaza.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IVRCL-Vijayamangalam-Toll-Plaza.JPG