Dear Bangalore Wikimedians,
please see the notice below, about the Wikimedia Foundation visit to Bangalore next week. Specifically, we would like to meet as many of you as possible at a meetup, and need your help picking the best time.
Thanks,
Asaf
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Asaf Bartov abartov@wikimedia.org Date: Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 5:02 PM Subject: WMF visit to Bangalore next week To: Wikimedia India Community list wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Cc: Anasuya Sengupta asengupta@wikimedia.org, Garfield Byrd < gbyrd@wikimedia.org>, Bishakha Datta bdatta@wikimedia.org, Sydney Poore < sydney.poore@gmail.com>
Dear Indian Wikimedians,
I pleased to announce a group from the Wikimedia Foundation will be visiting India next week, staying in Bangalore from Feb 10th through Feb 16th.
The group includes: 1. Garfield Byrd (WMF's Chief of Finance and Administration) 2. Anasuya Sengupta (WMF's Senior Director of Grantmaking) 3. Sydney Poore (volunteer member of the Funds Dissemination Committee [FDC]) and will be joined in India by WMF Trustee Bishakha Datta.
(I had also been intending to come, but am prevented this time around due to unexpected issues securing a travelling visa to India.)
WMF staff have been visiting partner organizations and communities over the past few months, to learn more about their context, achievements and challenges. More recently, FDC members have been joining them in this effort. Currently, WMF staff and FDC members are visiting Germany.
One purpose of this visit is to conduct working meetings with the Foundation's two major partners and grantees in India: the Wikimedia India (WMIN) chapter and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), operating the Access To Knowledge (A2K) programme.
Additionally, we would like to meet as many Wikimedians as we can, via a community meetup in Bangalore, and to make ourselves available over digital channels (at least taking advantage of being in the same timezone) to community members across India, via open group discussions over IRC. We are also open to discussion with any interested smaller groups or individuals, over Skype, Hangout, or telephone, time permitting.
We have put up a rough agenda page up on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_India_Visit_Feb_2014
Please feel free to sign up for the meetup or the conversations, and to raise topics you would like to see addressed, on the talk page.
We greatly regret that logistical issues are preventing us from visiting other communities in person this time around, and from attending the Telugu community's 10th anniversary celebrations in Vijayawada.
Cheers,
Asaf Bartov