Agree and disagree.
Though WCI takes a lot of effort, yes, the results are for all of us to see. A new
incubator has been initiated (Ahirani), there is talk of revival of other Indic pedias
such as Kashmiri, several Photowalks, hackathons, Workshops and Academies have been held
(or are being planned) in the last couple of months, COTM has been revived on en.wiki.
Several people who came as attendees are now active members of the community. These are
just some of the major happenings - When we came up with the idea, we never imagined this
sort of impact. Each community seems to have taken a leaf out of anothers book. No one can
take credit for this, it is just a result of mingling with one another. WCI was ridden
with mistakes and severly short on manpower, but hey - it was our first attempt at
anything like this and Im sure we did a decent job given the circumstances. Im also sure
it is a lesson for the future, the start of a learning curve.
On the other hand, there need to be resources available to do it all over again. So, IMO
if a certain local community anywhere in the country feels it can take it up, yes they
should go ahead with another version in 2012 as hosting it on an annual basis will only
take the event to the next level and give us exposure that no local event can give.
The only advice I can give to communities interested, dont think holding it is a cakewalk,
horrendous things will happen and you will need to deal with them, be prepared to work
your ass off (literally, 16 to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week), have atleast 5 people
working on it full time and 20 people who can give atleast 5 hours a week to begin with
and 10 hours a week in the last couple of months and be ready to face the worst with a
brave face.
We will soon be coming out with our report on WCI 2011 and hope that it would help future
organisers of similar events in their endevours.
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:16:16 +0530
From: ravidreams(a)gmail.com
To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Foundation-l] REMINDER: Wikimania 2013 - invitation to
bid
Hi,
I appreciate the wise decision from Indian Wikipedia community to opt out of Wikimania bid
until next few years.
Even Wikiconference India need not be an annual event considering the amount of human and
financial resources spent on it. What we need is strengthening local communities in each
language and city by means of more meetups, unconferences, outreach, on project activity
and events with specific goals like hackathons.
Ravi
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