cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other mailing lists.
Hi Folks,
A few months ago, the Foundation asked Tory Read to travel to India and listen and learn and write about the movement in India. The objective was to harvest experiences and learnings and to have an open discussion around what we could all do to further the movement.
This isn't in the form of a (possibly) long & boring report - but in the form of a story. (Tory's a professional researcher, writer and former journalist.) To put this together, Tory travelled for a couple of weeks across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and across towns in Kerala - attending community meet-ups and meeting up/speaking with a host of individual community members (in these cities and indeed beyond.)
Tory's tale is called, "The India Chronicles", and is available on Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_India_Chronicles_(150dpi).pdf
Do have a read through and do share your views on it - positives and negatives - and do feel free to comment on any aspect of it. It would be wonderful to have an engaging conversation on this.
Warmest Regards,
hisham
cross-posting to reach pan-India; apologies if you have got it from other mailing lists.
hisham
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Hisham Mundol <hmundol(a)wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Press Coverage: Request for Voices & Faces!
> Date: September 12, 2011 3:38:04 PM GMT+05:30
> To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Cc: CherianTinu Abraham <tinucherian(a)gmail.com>, Moka Pantages <mpantages(a)wikimedia.org>
>
> Hi Folks
>
> In the last couple of days, we've had a couple of really insightful, well-written articles on Wikipedia and you, the community.
> http://www.timescrest.com/life/you-cant-copypaste-this-homework-6226
>
> http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110911/jsp/7days/story_14492284.jsp
>
> I want to acknowledge the behind-the-scenes work of Tinu and Moka. (Most of you know Tinu - who's a community member based out of Bangalore. For those of you who don't know, Moka handles Global Communications for the Wikimedia Foundation.) They have worked on making sure that we convey the right messages as well as making the articles as inclusive of as many community members as possible - by covering the stories of as wide a range of editors as possible. The result of their work is the high-quality articles I've referenced above.
>
> We will continue to get requests from the press and I'd love to have them tell the tales of an even larger and more varied group of community members. It'll help to convey the diversity and magic of the community. Can I request you let Tinu and I know (offlist please) if you are willing to be interviewed by journalists in future? Every one of your stories will add emotion to an article - no matter how simple or otherwise your story is.
>
> Also, a practical issue that we are facing is that we don't have enough print-quality images of community meet ups. Can you please add as many high-resolution images of as many community meet ups, outreach events, etc. as you can to Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) so that the press can access it more easily - and they can celebrate the human face of Wikipedia in newspapers and magazines?
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Warm Regards,
>
> hisham
>
Dear Indic wikimedians,
Thank you very much for the welcome messages and for making me feel at home.
Over the past few years I have interacted with many of you for the various
Indic Wiki related activities and we have done many successful projects.
Thank you very much for all those wonderful projects. Now when we are moving
to a different phase of growth of Wikimedia in India, I request more
support from your side.
To get started we shall together develop a plan for Indic language wikis and
design few pilot projects to gain learnings to drive growth. I propose to
develop this plan collaboratively and openly - in true wiki style. This
will include focused Indic language meetups, virtual meetings, desk research
and constantly synthesizing the findings from all of these into learnings.
These learnings will then flow into pilots that we will implement and review
and learn from.
For this purpose, I will be using the following page
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_….
It is very preliminary right now - but will keep updating it. The page will
give you a flavor of the kind of process and methodology I plan to use - and
also give you a hint of the end output. However, I stress that is nothing
more than a stub right now. So please provide your suggestions.
I will be in touch soon and regularly on the next steps and I will keep you
constantly posted on progress - both positive and whenever we face setbacks.
The task is huge. The potential is even more massive. I will need a lot of
your help. I invite and welcome and urge all of you to contribute to this
process - during physical meetups, in virtual meetings, one-on-one
conversations or meetings, on the talk page to the Indic Languages page and
in any and every manner that you can imagine.
As part of the India Programs of WMF, my official ID is shiju(a)wikimedia.org.
You can reach me anytime regarding any WMF's Indic wiki related topic.
Thanks
Shiju
On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 7:23 AM, Hisham <hisham(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Dear All
>
> As I had mentioned in a previous posting (and as was so touchingly welcomed
> by so many of of you), Shiju Alex is joining us to lead our Indic Languages
> initiatives. In this mail (
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-July/003845.html),
> I had indicated that he would join around September-October.
>
> I'm really pleased to inform you that he has now joined India Programs (on
> September 24th.)
>
> Indic Languages is an important priority for us - and Shiju intends to
> start work on this urgently. He'll be in touch shortly on this matter.
>
> Welcome aboard, Shiju!
>
> Warmest Regards,
>
> hisham
>
>