Hi All
(cross-posting pan-india; apologies if you get this more than once.)
A few of you have reached out and suggested modifications / corrections in the postings. I've made these. Thank you for your inputs.
Please see the revised ones :
Wiki
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Participation_-_India_P…http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Indic_Initiatives_-_Ind…
LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=1592308http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=1592351
Many thanks
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia Foundation India Programs
skype: hisham.wikimedia
gtalk: hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter: @mundol
On May 4, 2011, at 10:06 AM, Hisham Mundol wrote:
> Hi All
>
> I'm writing to inform you that the selection process for 2 of the 4 potential new team members of the India Programs team has started. These have been posted on Office as well as LinkedIn. They can be seen at the at the following locations:
>
> Wiki
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Participation_-_India_P…
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Indic_Initiatives_-_Ind…
>
> LinkedIn
> http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=1592308
> http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=1592351
>
> Can I request a few things.
>
> a) India Programs is extremely keen on having existing Wikimedians on board in the team. I therefore invite and urge anyone from the existing community to respond to either / both of these. As you will make out from the wordings, there is a clear preference for those who are already involved in the community.
> b) Please do forward this mail to anyone you know who you think might be interested. While they may not be from the existing community, you are best placed to know your who would fit into the movement and who might be interested.
> c) Please do broadcast these links on any other mailing lists, bulletin boards, various social networks (twitter, facebook, etc.), etc. so that we can reach more potential candidates / remind potential candidates.
>
> Please do not hesitate to contact me for any clarifications.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Hisham Mundol
> Wikimedia Foundation India Programs
> skype: hisham.wikimedia
>
> gtalk: hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
> twitter: @mundol
>
cross posting to local India lists
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia Foundation India Programs
skype: hisham.wikimedia
gtalk: hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter: @mundol
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Hisham Mundol <hmundol(a)wikimedia.org>
> Date: May 4, 2011 10:06:31 AM GMT+05:30
> To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: India Programs: Team Selection: Call for Talent!
>
> Hi All
>
> I'm writing to inform you that the selection process for 2 of the 4 potential new team members of the India Programs team has started. These have been posted on Office as well as LinkedIn. They can be seen at the at the following locations:
>
> Wiki
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Participation_-_India_P…
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/RFP/Consultant,_Indic_Initiatives_-_Ind…
>
> LinkedIn
> http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=1592308
> http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=1592351
>
> Can I request a few things.
>
> a) India Programs is extremely keen on having existing Wikimedians on board in the team. I therefore invite and urge anyone from the existing community to respond to either / both of these. As you will make out from the wordings, there is a clear preference for those who are already involved in the community.
> b) Please do forward this mail to anyone you know who you think might be interested. While they may not be from the existing community, you are best placed to know your who would fit into the movement and who might be interested.
> c) Please do broadcast these links on any other mailing lists, bulletin boards, various social networks (twitter, facebook, etc.), etc. so that we can reach more potential candidates / remind potential candidates.
>
> Please do not hesitate to contact me for any clarifications.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Hisham Mundol
> Wikimedia Foundation India Programs
> skype: hisham.wikimedia
>
> gtalk: hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
> twitter: @mundol
>
Hi All (cross-posting to make sure I reach as much of India as possible),
As you're aware, we had invited applications for Campus Ambassadors for the upcoming Pune Pilot of the India Campus Program.
The response has been fantastic: we've received ~500 applications/enquiries from across India, ~70 of which were from Pune. This has been really heartening - indicating the desire of many to support the Wikimedia movement. It's also been overwhelming because we need to process all the applications, respond to applicants, etc.!
I think, most critically, it also presents an amazing opportunity for us to introduce new people to Wikimedia projects (especially Wikipedia) - and invite them to join the community. I've interviewed quite a few and there is a recurring theme I hear from many of them. It goes something like, "I've been using Wikipedia for years and years, and I love it. I want to contribute back to it - but I wasn't sure how. Then I saw the banner and decided this was a great way to help." The overwhelming common trait I have noticed in the applicants is that they are bright, well-intentioned and eager to contribute.
Here are some thoughts I had, and I'd love to hear your suggestions/comments on these.
We should respond to every single applicant, and even to those who didn't actually apply but sent emails enquiries (such as "When is the program coming to my city?", etc.) No one should be left behind.
We will prioritise (in terms of sequence of events) the Pune Campus Ambassadors. We need to have a reasonable number available for a training session that we need to conduct before the start of the program. Of the 70 who applied from Pune, we should hopefully get 20-30 Campus Ambassadors.
The important suggestion I had for everyone else (in Pune and beyond) is that we do not "reject" anyone. While some might not become Campus Ambassadors because we don't plan to run the program in their towns/cities right now, or some in Pune might not currently have the desired experience (in teaching and people management), there is no reason that they can't participate in some other roles. Therefore, I don't think we should send any "reject letters" to anyone. No one should be left behind. Instead, we should send them options on how they can participate/learn more about participating. For example:-
i) they could form student clubs in their respective educational establishments
ii) they could form Wikipedia clubs in their workplaces/social groups (as a number of applicants are working professionals, and no longer on campus)
iii) they could become individual editors
For us to try and help realise their potential, here are some thoughts I had:-
i) Invite all the applicants/enquirers to attend the next community meet-ups. This was a suggestion shared by the Pune community. This would give them a chance to interact with the community and understand more about the movement/projects.
ii) Additionally, those who have not been selected as Campus Ambassadors can be reassured by telling them that they can join an "incubation" program. This was a suggestion shared by the Pune community. This would involve them attending meet-ups, learning how to edit, starting to edit - and being supported and hand-held along the way by existing community members. This would help them if they eventually wish to reapply as Campus Ambassadors. Even if they choose not to, they could easily become individual newbie editors.
iii) Invite all applicants/enquirers in a town/city to attend a full-fledged Wiki Academy. This was a suggestion shared by the Mumbai community. This is currently envisaged as a full day session where they are given insights into the movement & projects, taught how to edit, and actually edit articles.
iv) In towns/cities where a full-fledged Wiki Academy is not viable (e.g. if there aren't enough numbers of either participants or volunteers/volunteer time to run a Wiki Academy), then an alternative suggestion is to have a smaller group (3-5) of the applicants /enquirers linked up with a community member who can conduct smaller, shorter groups to explain how to edit and hand-hold them as they edit.
I'd really like to hear your views/comments/suggestions on the ideas listed here.
Also, do let me know which of you would like to volunteer either to help conduct Wiki Academies (point (iii) above) or to manage smaller groups of potential newbies (point (iv) above). Also, it'd be great if we could invite them to your next meet-ups at your respective towns/cities (point (i) above).
Another aspect I'd like to get suggestions from you on is how to manage the process of inviting them to these events. We could, for example, share the contacts of these applicants with the respective communities could reach out and invite them. Alternatively, if you wish this to be done for you, that also can be arranged (though it will put some strain on already stretched resources.)
I look forward to hearing from you. (Please note that we have received applicants from every corner of the country - so please don't assume that the applicants are only from Pune or only from large cities or only interested in English Wikipedia. (They are literally from everywhere, and no one should be left behind!)
Kind Regards,
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia Foundation India Programs
skype: hisham.wikimedia
gtalk: hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter: @mundol
Hi Folks
I am writing to all of you to correct a potential error. As you might be aware, the Wikimedia Foundation has set itself an important objective of supporting the community in India to expand participation. As part of this, India Programs has been set up - and I work for it.
I have put together a plan for India (please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs) - and I had communicated this on the India mailing list. This has generated interest as well as debate and discussion. However, I understand that some of you might not be on that mailing list. I therefore thought I'd correct this by reaching out directly to you and requesting you to have a look at the page and share your comments (on the Talk Page or on this mailing list or directly to me; my contact details are in my signature.) It outines the thinking behind India Programs, key initiatives, milestones, team structure, visit reports, IRC logs, recommendations on office location and some other details. I hope you find it interesting, and I'd love to hear your views / comments / suggestions.
Also, we I have a monthly IRC on India Programs with whoever is interested - on the first Thursday of every month. I'll send out an invite to your mailing list from now on. Do see if you can join in.
I am also going to try and attend as many community meet-ups in as many locations as possible - so I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible, as soon as possible. If you would be kind enough to let me know when the next meeting is planned for and on what schedule (e.g. 2nd Saturday, etc.) then I'll work out how to attend asap.
(Do excuse me if you have received this message through other mailing lists, or it's a bit of a duplication if you are already on the India mailing list.)
Thank You.
Warm Regards,
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia Foundation India Programs
skype: hisham.wikimedia
gtalk: hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter: @mundol
(Apologies for the cross-posting)
FYI. Accommodation is also available. Travel expenses up to Rs.
10,000/- will be reimbursed per participant.
Yours sincerely,
Anirudh Bhati
00 91 9328712208
Skype: anirudhsbh
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anirudh Bhati <anirudhsbh(a)gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 12:58 PM
Subject: OSSCamp 11.03, Lucknow
To: Wikimedia India EC <wikimedia-in-exec(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear Wikimedians,
We have been able to secure travel funding from the organizers for TWO
volunteers representing the Wikimedia community at OSSCamp Lucknow.
If you have some experience as a Wikimedia volunteer (and preferably
but not necessarily some Mediawiki background) and are interested in
participating at the event, please write back to me.
The event is scheduled to be on 26-27 March 2011 which is the last
weekend of this month.
Thanks for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Anirudh Bhati
00 91 9328712208
Skype: anirudhsbh
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Abhinav Upadhyay <er.abhinav.upadhyay(a)gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 10:09 PM
Subject: [Wikimedia-IN-Exec] Invitation for OSSCamp Lucknow
To: wikimedia-in-exec(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Hello to all,
My name is Abhinav Upadhyay, and I am a final year
engineering student from Northern India Engineering College, Lucknow.
My purpose for emailing you is to inform you about about OSSCamp
Lucknow.
We are organizing OSSCamp on 26th and 27th of March in Lucknow.
OSSCamps (http://osscamp.in) are unconferences on opensource projects
and initiatives where people meet and discuss about various open
source tools, technologies and projects. Events like these are a great
source of active learning and sharing our experience and knowledge
with others.
People form all over India are coming to join us for OSScamp, and I
would like to invite you all for it as well. It would be our great
pleasure to learn more about Wikimedia India Chapter, how does it
work, how can we also get involved with it and make it even more
awesome.
I am expecting that you people will join us in great number and share
your knowledge with us by means of some excellent sessions. I believe
that, this will be a great platform for the Wikimedia India Chapter,
as I am sure, a large number of people will be interested in joining
it after learning more about it. It would be great, if you have some
goodies to distribute amongst the participants as it will excite the
participants even more, as well as it will encourage them to attend
your session with more enthusiasm.
I hope to hear a positive reply from the Wikimedia India Chapter.
Those of you, who are willing and interested in coming, please
register on our website:
http://osscamp.in/event/osscamp-lucknow-1103
Thanks & Regards
Abhinav Upadhyay
Hi,
A reporter is doing a story on Indian academicians on Wikipedia.. . If
you know about any academicians / people from the education system who edit
Wikipedia, it would be great help.. Are there anyone in the India mailing
list ?
Please drop *a personal mail to me* with the contact informations ,
if so.
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Tinu Cherian
Hisham ,
Welcome to the world of Wikimedia / Wikipedia ! Looking forward to closely
working with you.
Best wishes !
Regards
Tinu Cherian
On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 6:43 AM, Arjuna Rao Chavala <
arjunaraoc(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi Hisham,
>
> A warm welcome and best wishes.
>
> Cheers
> Arjuna Rao Chavala
> President, Wikimedia Chapter, India
>
> On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 10:40 PM, Barry Newstead <bnewstead(a)wikimedia.org>wrote:
>
>> Dear colleagues, (please feel free to cross-post this to local lists
>> within India)
>>
>> I am pleased to announce the appointment of Hisham Mundol as a consultant
>> to the Wikimedia Foundation to support us in our program initiatives in
>> India.
>>
>> As you know, the Wikimedia Foundation declared India to be a strategic
>> priority during the strategic planning process [1]. I announced our plans
>> for the formation of an office in August 2010 and the Wikimedia Foundation
>> Board of Trustees approved the creation of the Wikimedia India chapter in
>> June 2010. India is a priority for the Wikimedia movement as it has a strong
>> and growing community of Wikimedians building the Indic and English language
>> projects. It is a country where the Wikimedia movement can achieve our
>> mission and learn important lessons for achieving impact elsewhere. The
>> engagement of Hisham will enable the Wikimedia Foundation to pilot new
>> initiatives aimed at accelerating the growth of the community in India. I am
>> very happy we’ve now reached this point.
>>
>> As I have mentioned in the past, we have a lot of momentum in India but we
>> have a long way to go to achieve our full potential as a movement. Indians
>> represent 4% of the world’s Internet users today (and this share is
>> growing), yet they only represent 1.5% of page edits on Wikipedia. We should
>> be able to rapidly increase this share - across all projects - and expand
>> readership in a corresponding fashion.
>>
>> Hisham’s title will be Consultant, India National Programs. He will
>> report to me. His role will be to design and implement specific pilot
>> programs that encourage many more Indians to become contributors to our
>> projects in Indic languages as well as English. The National Programs
>> initiative will focus on the following areas in the first year:
>>
>> -
>>
>> Design and implement an India-wide program to increase Wikimedia’s
>> footprint on university and college campuses with students and faculty with
>> the aim of encouraging contributions to Wikimedia projects
>> -
>>
>> Support the launch and implementation of community-initiated programs
>> that seek to increase the editor base for Wikimedia projects
>> -
>>
>> Engage with the community and chapter to build a strong relationship
>> among these stakeholder groups and create communications forums that allow
>> for effective partnerships
>>
>> As a newcomer to the Wikimedia movement, Hisham’s first task will be to
>> deepen his understanding of us: our history, goals, values, culture and
>> mission. To that end, he will be spending the coming weeks (not months!) in
>> learning mode: Hisham and I will be meeting with community members in
>> Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore on Feb 23-25 and then Hisham will join community
>> meetings across the country as they occur. Hisham will also spend time in
>> San Francisco with the staff of the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as with
>> other like-minded individuals and organizations and he will attend the
>> chapter conference in Berlin.
>>
>> Hisham will be creating a workspace on strategy wiki where he will share
>> what he is learning and develop the core elements of the action plan going
>> forward. We encourage active community engagement on this wiki. We aim to
>> move to action quickly and welcome input and guidance from across the
>> community.
>>
>> Hisham was most recently a consultant with the Public Health Foundation of
>> India (in a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). He
>> designed and implemented large-scale national programs on HIV/AIDS
>> prevention. He worked to understand the dynamics of hard-to-reach
>> communities by conducting in-depth, on-the-ground analysis (ask him to tell
>> you about his experience talking to drivers while sitting under their
>> trucks). The programs he designed and implemented sought to convince people
>> in large numbers - 400 million young people across the nation - to change
>> very personal behaviours. While we are not tackling issues of such an
>> intimate nature, we do aim to convince large numbers of people across the
>> country to contribute their personal time to Wikimedia projects. During
>> this assignment, Hisham worked closely with public, private and community
>> groups (local and international) to work through the details of the programs
>> and build partnerships for implementing them at scale. He did so in a manner
>> that used persuasion rather than power to build support to move things
>> forward. We think his experience navigating these varied groups position
>> him well to work in the Wikimedia community. His earlier career was in
>> marketing and business development with a number of well-known businesses:
>> Infosys, Accenture, Cadbury and Unilever. This experience positions him well
>> to engage with a movement and organization that is global in nature, in
>> particular to work with a team that is based halfway around the world.
>>
>> We have scheduled an IRC chat with Hisham and myself for Thursday,
>> February 17 at 22:00 India Standard Time (16:30 UTC).
>>
>> I want to thank everyone who helped in the selection process that
>> identified Hisham. It was a five month process in which we made an open call
>> for consultants (using my visit in September to drum up interest via
>> conversations with the community and the media) in India and around the
>> world. We had 197 applicants from a wide range of professional backgrounds.
>> Egon Zehnder’s India office, part of a leading global executive search
>> firm, helped screen candidates and manage the process. Egon Zehnder
>> conducted indepth interviews with 25 candidates based on the inputs from
>> Bishakha and I who helped shortlist. I interviewed 12 candidates via Skype
>> in the first round and then I had the help of Bishakha Datta and Achal
>> Prabhala to interview the top seven in person in Bangalore. Our top two
>> candidates met with Sue and Erik in Delhi and then Hisham met with the
>> entire WMF leadership team and a broad group of staff members in San
>> Francisco.
>>
>> We are very happy with the selection of Hisham. We recognize that we did
>> not manage to hire someone from inside the Wikimedia community or the open
>> source community. We did look for people with this background and one of
>> our finalists was a long time open source advocate. We also engaged with a
>> long time Wikimedian for a role, though he ultimately decided to withdraw
>> for personal reasons. We are committed to seeing Hisham integrate himself
>> into the community quickly and to seeing him add people to his team from the
>> community. We hope that the community will engage actively with him to
>> bring him into the fold. Hisham will most definitely bring fresh
>> perspectives to the movement that will help us grow and change for the
>> better.
>>
>> Please join me in welcoming Hisham to the Wikimedia movement.
>>
>> Note: An FAQ will follow shortly.
>>
>> Best,
>> Barry
>> [1] *http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan/Role_of_the_WMF*<http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan/Role_of_the_WMF>
>> [2] *
>> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2010-August/000850.ht…
>> *<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2010-August/000850.ht…>
>>
>> --
>> Barry Newstead
>> Chief Global Development Officer
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> Tel: +1-415-839-6885 x. 6634
>> Skype: barry.wikimedia
>> Twitter: @bazanews
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
>> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
>
>
Hi,
Can we have a Wiki meetup in Hyderabad on Feb 13?
I am a Tamil Wikipedian since 2005 and have relocated to the city recently.
Hope I can be part of the Wiki enthusiasts team here and contribute by all
means.
Thanks,
Ravi
--
1 GB @ 11 USD per year web hosting.
http://milkhost.com/
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CherianTinu Abraham <tinucherian(a)gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 11:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Communication from the Executive Committee
regarding first meeting
To: "Discussion list on Indian language projects of Wikimedia." <
wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hearty congratulations to Arjuna Rao , Hari Prasad & Anirudh Bhati as the
new office bearers of the Wikimedia India chapter. Well deserved & best
wishes for the future.
Having said that, this unexpected announcement leaves me with
several unanswered questions. This has to do nothing with any doubts on
the calibre , integrity & abilities of new office bearers or the rest of the
committee members. I still personally share a very close & cordial relations
with all of the exec comn members, but that doesn't prevent me from asking
lots of questions and concerns as an ordinary Wikimedian like me and it may
be possibly shared by several others in this list.
a) If there was to be a change of the office bearers of the chapter (
decided) on the Jan 22 Exec Comm meeting, why wasn't it announced publicly?
Was there an agenda of election of new office bearers for this meeting or
just happened as a co-incidence ? What were the other decisions taken on
that meeting ? Is there a publicly available minutes of meeting ?
b) How were the new office bearers elected ? Was there an election ? Did the
previous office bearers voluntarily resign and called for a new election?
Was there a vote ? If there was a vote, will it be publicly shared? What was
the need of change of office bearers within few months of chapter approval
or one month of chapter registration ? I thought the term of the executive
committee members and the office bearers was for two years.
I am sorry but I have to say this , IMHO it is not an ethical
and transparent process if the 7 executive members keep electing each other,
each time !!!!
c) There were several discussions on this mailing list on the chapter on Jan
30 th , 2011 [1] [2] ( after the so called meeting) and had mentions of the
current office bearers and none of the executive com members even bothered
to clarify. I remember at least two of the exec members replying to those
threads then.
d) So the new office bearers' elections happened on Jan 22 , 2011 ? And I
wonder what took the chapter several weeks to announce , such a important
change publicly ? Remember this "new election" happened even without a
publicly announced agenda, before the meeting. How many such elections can
we expect during the current term of the committee?
We already had lots of concerns shared by the community for the lack
of transparency by the chapter and these kinds of things will only underline
them.
If this is the way the chapter intends to operate, I am deeply concerned and
worried about its future.
Regards
Tinu Cherian
N.B.
a) To clarify, I don't intend to run for any office positions for the
chapter. But I may have to even think twice to be part of a body which
clearly intends to work without any proper transparency and works
disconnected from the community, which it supposedly represents.
b) I have always supported the chapter previously in the several discussions
earlier, but this announcement put me really worried and hence this mail.
Anyways, my best wishes again for the new office bearers and the chapter.
Hoping the see more transparent and candid efforts from the chapter in
future.