Are we still stuck in this question? It kept me thinking the whole day yesterday.
On 01/03/2013 04:35 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan wrote:
However, you still haven't answered my question on what benefit a User Group has over Chapter SIG.
Summarizing, the answer could be:
- The Wikimedia movement is organized around projects with high levels of autonomy e.g. MediaWiki or Wikimedia India. For an Indian group focused in MediaWiki it makes sense to align first with MediaWiki, then with Wikimedia India.
- MediaWiki Groups are official for the Wikimedia movement and the MediaWiki community, and all the discussion and documentation is public. Wikimedia India Chapter SIGs are still not official, they have been discussed internally, they apply to India only.
- MediaWiki Groups are open source user groups, a type of casual organization with plenty of references in India and the World. They are all about Getting Things Done. Aspects like membership or planning get resolved with edits in a wiki page. Affiliation to Wikimedia India or any other organization is not required.
But the point that keeps me thinking is why the first response from Wikimedia India chapter to a new group of volunteers seems to be inquiring and resisting more than congratulating and embracing. When the AffCom said they wanted to check with the national chapter I thought it was a polite move and a way to make sure than nothing was wrong locally in Ahmedabad / Gujarat. I didn't expect a full questioning of MediaWiki Groups - or Wikimedia User Groups for that matter.
Since these groups are new, maybe the problem is caused simply by a misunderstanding? Let me clarify some points, just in case:
Wikimedia User Groups are official and well defined at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_User_Groups
MediaWiki Groups are a category of WUG, also official https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Groups
MediaWiki Groups are almost ad-hoc associations, without any legal identity and basically zero bureaucracy once the group is accepted.
While the WUG pages don't make any explicit reference to their relationship with chapters, MediaWiki Groups do have explicit requirements for collaboration with chapters.
From https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Groups :
"You know you need a group when (...) You want to obtain funding from the Wikimedia Foundation or a Wikimedia chapter."
"Local MediaWiki groups collaborate with Wikimedia chapters"
"MediaWiki groups can request support from the Wikimedia Foundation and chapters in various forms:"
"If cash is needed then the default funding sources are Wikimedia chapters and Funds Dissemination Committee."
For all these reasons I really don't see what is the problem. In fact the question posed above could be reverted: has Wikimedia India considered the benefits of adopting the already formalized Wikimedia User Groups and MediaWiki Groups instead of trying to define an Indian specific type of SIG?
But going back to MediaWiki Group Ahmedabad, I hope we get to an agreement sooner than later so Harsh and other MediaWiki promoters in India get out of this uncomfortable position and focus on their local activities.