Minutes of Wikipedia Mumbai Meetup 14:
Coincidentally, 14 people attended the 14th Mumbai Meetup held at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Bandra earlier today :)
Wikipedia Takes Mumbai 2
Nikita and Karthik mentioned that they have been in touch with some professional photographers who sounded interested in joining in, tentatively on 21 January 2012. Netra said that HT are planning a photowalk on 28 January 2012 as part of their "No TV Day" campaign in association with a local photographer group (whom Mehul had suggested we involve and Nikita has been in touch with). Netra suggested it may be a good idea to try and tie-up with HT - we will be contacting them to see if we can work something out.
Vishal mentioned that Saturday would be a working day for him and he would not be able to make it. Vickram mentioned that any day some people would have a problem with, we cannot keep everyone happy.
Wikimania 2013
Ansuman, Nikita, Karthik and Krutika were strongly in favour of making a bid for Wikimania 2013, Mumbai. Mehul said he would be able to help out with the internet but not much more. Pradeep, Vickram and myself were not so sure. After the WCI experience we felt that a lot more commitment and focus was required from the community since bidding for Wikimania is like bidding for the Olympics, if we botch up, we put the country to shame. Rohini pointed out that another city like (Delhi) or Bangalore could bid. I mentioned that I had brought the topic up with community members across the country and there was consensus that no city is ready to take on something the scale of a Wikimedia as we currently stand.
Pradeep suggested that we should work at the grassroot levels instead, aiming at holding regular events locally for the next year, think of 2014 realistically and involving more people - starting with the photowalk. Everyone agreed to this.
GLAM Initiative
The meeting was given an update of the work done locally with GLAM and that the Department of Archives had been approached and a formal proposal needed to be presented. It was resolved to work on such a proposal and if needed hold a dedicated meetup for the same.
Celebration and Acknowledgement
We celebrated Wikipedia turns 11 with refreshments and cake. The refreshments were sponsored by Mumbai Community member Kundan Amitabh and the cake was sponsored by another Mumbai Community member, Pradeep Mohandas. The community thanks both Kundan and Pradeep for their large hearted gesture.
Revival of Kashmiri Wikipedia
Ansuman mentioned that he is interested in reviving the Kashmiri incubator and has spoken to a few friends who are interested as well. He spoke of how the entire community including himself had to leave their homeland overnight 2 decades ago and are now in danger of loosing their unique cultural identity, being far away from their homeland and Kashmiri Wikipedia could be a way of rejuvenating that identity and keeping it alive.
The meeting was filled with enthusiastic discussions and lasted 3 and a half hours, wrapping up at 6.30pm. It was good to see people who had not been part of the community until WCI 2011 like Ansuman, Nikita, Karthik and Krutika come and attend the meetup and bring a breath of fresh air.
Kind Regards,