<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><div>cross posting to reach pan-community; apologies if you received it from other mailing lists already</div><div><br></div><div>Hi Folks,</div><div><br></div><div>One of the essential things that India Program needs to constantly work out is keeping the community informed of the work that we are doing - so that this work is clearer but also to help cross-pollinate ideas amongst a wider set of community members who might not have been engaged on specific village pump / talk page discussion or involved in particular activities (e.g. outreach events) or wikiprojects.<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#1562c1"><br></font>We used to have a monthly IRC with the community and India Program. (For those who are not familiar with IRC, it is an Internet messaging system similar to a regular chat room. It's very simple to use and you can join in by clicking on the following link: <a href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wikimedia-office">http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wikimedia-office</a>.) I have been remiss in conducting these for the past few months - and I'd like to make amends by restarting, with a couple of modifications.<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#1562c1"><br></font>a) I'd like to propose fortnightly instead of monthly. (I was wary of doing it any more frequently than monthly earlier because I didn't know if there would be enough on the plate to discuss. I have changed my mind now - because there is too much to discuss to cover in a single monthly session.) I'd like to propose that we do it in the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of every month at 9pm IST (which is GMT + 0530) - THOUGH NOT THIS MONTH - BECAUSE I HAVE MISSED THE TIMELINE. Just for March, we will do it on March 15th and March 29th (both at 9pm IST which is GMT + 0530)<br>b) I'd like to propose that we do it focussed on specific work streams instead of general. The reason I say this is that - as with many community meet-ups, folks will give time to attend a meet-up or participate in an IRC only if there is a topic of relevance to them. To that extent, we could do one IRC on Indic languages and one on Outreach & Communications. I'd start both the IRCs with a re-cap of India Programs activities for the fortnight (or so) prior to the IRC and forward from the IRC - and then we could talk about either Indic langauges or Outreach & Communications.<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#1562c1"><br></font>The March 15th one will be focussed on Indic Languages and the one on March 29th will be on Outreach & Communications. <br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#1562c1"><br></font>Having said that, there is quite a bit of overlap on these topics - so feel free to join both. The more the merrier! Please do also invite anyone who is interested to know more about India Program or - even more importantly - interact with fellow Wikimedians interested in a particular activity to join in. (It's quite a lot of of fun {citation required} - and i've heard a rumour {citation required} that there was actually a romance that started on one of the IRCs...)<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#1562c1"><br></font>As always, the logs will be put up on <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/meetings">meta</a> for the benefit of those who can't attend and for the record.<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#1562c1"><br></font>I'll send a reminder on the day of the session and one 30 minutes before the session.<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#1562c1"><br></font>Thanks<br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#1562c1"><br></font><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">hisham</span></i></span></b></div></div></div></body></html>