<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:14pt">Shahid,<br><br>Please don't see the executive group as an entitlement arising purely out of Wiki contributions. Every Wikipedian puts in volunteer effort to the extent they can, and we don't do it for any special previlege or <span style="font-style: italic;">quid pro quo</span>, do we? <br><br>The members you see here are merely who were known to have expressed a willingness to form a chapter during several meetups during Jimmy and Sue's visits. Achal collected such a list from various sources, sent them a questionnaire to understand both their Wiki credo as well as commitment and other experience required to form and bootstrap such an organisation. There were meetings of such a group and then the founding group crystallised. Yes, it's not the most scientific method, but what would be an
alternative? Is there any other basis to pick a group for this assignment? A wiki vote would only measure the goodwill inside the respective Wiki. But, doesn't the Wikimedia Chapter guideline explicitly outline the need to have people from outside the community, but have the commitment and shared beliefs, if they bring in organisational expertise? Please reflect on these aspects.<br><br>I was part of one earlier attempt to form the India chapter and know of other attempts as well. None of our previous attempts succeeded and we were losing a lot of opportunities to spread Wiki in India. That is why, I agreed to join this kind of a coordinated effort to bootstrap the chapter. This is definitely not the end of the road for the chapter, just the beginning. The views of every committed Wikipedian will be accommodated and they'll have a fair chance to participate in the activities of the chapter. In fact, there are ideas to create city-wise and wiki-wise
special interest groups.<br><br>And, please have a look at the list of people mentioned and say whether we are a bunch of politicians who can't be trusted. We are a committed set of people, who met every month on a weekend, did conference calls almost every week, and brought out this draft meeting Wikimedia Chapters' Committe recommendations and the Indian Law, not an easy task.<br><br>The choice of Bangalore was for two reasons: 1) this is one city which has people from many Indian language Wikipedias and 2) Centre for Internet and Society who's hosting this organisation in the bootstrapping phase is located here. Other than that, this is not Bangalore-centric or English Wiki-centric. There's enough diversity in the group if you care to observe.<br><br>I hope you'll understand the points.<br><br>Regards,<br>Sundar<br><div> </div>"That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth
generally admitted."<br>- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture<div><br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Shahid Akhtar <mohd.shahid_akhtar@rediffmail.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Fri, March 12, 2010 12:47:04 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India Chapter<br></font><br>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">On
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 8:37 PM, Praveen Prakash<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span dir="ltr"><me.praveen@gmail.com></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div><div class="h5">K. Then who is Kiruba Shankar? What
was the election process & criteria? How many people involved in
that? Why all these process were hidden? Why even Hindi not informed?</div></div></div></blockquote></span></span><span>
<br>
</span>This is what I'm wondering about too! I think this process should be more inclusive and transparent!<br><br><span>Who decided the list of founding members (Signatories) mentioned on this page <a target="_blank" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India/MoA#WIKIMEDIA_INDIA">http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India/MoA#WIKIMEDIA_INDIA</a>? And how was this list decided? How come Gautam K John (who is self-admittedly not involved with Wikipedia) was invited to be a founding member, but someone like User:Bhadani was not?</span><br><br>Why is some like HPN who has not made even 100 edits in 2009 and 2010 to
English,
Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedias combined together is at the forefront of
this initiative, but some of the most important contributors from Indic
wikipedias are not even a part of this?<br><br>I'm all for a Wikimedia India chapter, but it should be a group of
all the people who are actually part of the Wikipedia community! It should not
be a bunch of politicians that want to be face of Wikipedia to the Indian media without having made any substantial contributions to Wikipedia.<br><br>Wikimedia India will receive thousands of rupees in donations. We need trusted people who are representative of the pan-India Wikipedia community to handle it.<br>
<br>If this is a group of people who are meeting in Bangalore for wining and dining, this should be named "Wikimedia Bangalore" chapter, not "Wikipedia INDIA" chapter!<br><br><span>Best regards<br>Shahid<br></span><br><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://sigads.rediff.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.rediffmail.com/signatureline.htm@Middle?"><img src="http://sigads.rediff.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_nx.ads/www.rediffmail.com/signatureline.htm@Middle"></a></div></div>
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