I think it's great that there is communication, and I'd like to believe
that the difficulties expressed are not insurmountable.
I would also like to believe that the chapter and community are entirely
capable of working out a collaborative plan together. The chapter
executive committee knows what it is collectively capable of and
interested in, and with serious community input - tacit suggestions as
to what the community would like the chapter to do - the chapter will
have tangible 'wants' to consider. The chapter, it's executive committee
and it's members have a choice in the matter, of course, and it is
likely that they will themselves have ideas, and not want to execute
everything that is suggested - however, those suggestions can be turned
back to the community to carry out.
Discussions oriented towards having some or a large part of the chapter
agenda driven by community input could be a formal part of the
WikiConference 2011; it could also become an annual feature, by, say,
having a day devoted to the exercise every year. I'm unsure of how the
WikiConference in India squares off with the proposed annual chapter
AGM, though I assume that the former could be better used for planning
and discussion, while the latter is best suited for bureaucratic
discussions, elections, and other technical aspects.
To me, it appears like we need to think about a few, specific things:
1) The 2011 WikiConference: are there other communities with proposals
or is the Mumbai/Pune proposal the only feasible one on the table?
2) If so, how will the chapter work with the Mumbai/Pune community to
make a WikiConference happen this year to the satisfaction of everyone
concerned?
3) Once the WikiConference 2011 is decided, how can the community and
chapter evolve a framework by which the chapter's plans are up for
discussion and input?
Cheers,
Achal
On Thursday 09 June 2011 12:31 PM, jayanta nath wrote:
I am full agree with Shiju. We should support
Mumbai/Pune community to
make arrangements for the Wikimedia India conference. Community and
Chapter should help each other.
On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Shiju Alex <shijualexonline(a)gmail.com
<mailto:shijualexonline@gmail.com>> wrote:
In fact all of us know the effort and pain took by Mumbai/Pune
community to make arrangements for the Wikimedia India conference.
They have reached out to almost all community members and asked
for the support. As per the below mail they have reached chapter
also. The response from chapter is also listed below :)
Chapter should support the efforts of Mumbai-Pune community; not
to discourage/derail the great work done by a community.
There are many other points listed by Ashwin in the below mail,
all those need to be discussed.
On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 7:33 AM, Ashwin Baindur
<ashwin.baindur(a)gmail.com <mailto:ashwin.baindur@gmail.com>> wrote:
The national chapter recently informed the community about its
Membership and Community engagement plan -June 2011.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-June/003346.html
In that document, the regulatory framework for conduct of
Wikiconferences was released.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/India_Wiki_Conference_Framework
Shortly thereafter, a clarification was issued.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-June/003378.html
Members of the community must be puzzled at the need for
clarification from the Chapter on the issues of its regulatory
framework when there was no discussion online. This is because
the recent announcement of the framework, in conjunction with
other issues, led to the community believing that the chapter
had forsaken it.
A little history - the idea for a Wikiconference was mooted
way back in March by the Mumbai community and they asked the
Pune community to co-host it to which the Pune community
agreed. As India now has a national chapter, we naturally
asked for their support more than two months ago. For more
than two months they were silent. Yesterday, they responded
saying that the community was invited to submit their
proposal, duly modified as per the said framework, and
resubmit it for consideration with other bids. The cavaliar
treatment of the serious efforts put in to date by the
communities and the contents of the Framework of Regulations
were disturbing to the community.
At the face off it, one may just consider the Regulatory
Framework as just another logical and reasonable document, but
its language, text and subtext upset the community, in light
of Chapter's attitude.
The first and over-riding issue was the type of language used
and its indication of the relation between chapter and
communities. We all know that the Wikimedia Foundation
encourages national chapters so that the community and
creation of knowledge by them is facilitated. However, the
language herein clearly gives a message - that the Indian
chapter is boss and all Indian wikimedian communities are
subservient to it.
While that is a great inequity in itself, the community was
also aggrieved that the framework has been foisted on them
without discussion, without any attempt to get them to
participate and buy in into the plan, without community
consensus and without any consideration of the community's
interests. This feudalistic attitude is considered to be an
anachronism in volunteer driven communities of the 21st
Centuries especially in India. So, no matter whether the
framework is good or bad, sensible or not, the approach to the
community taken by the chapter is to be firmly objected to and
resisted.
The Mumbai & Pune community supports the chapter, and have
defended the chapter on number of occasions in email
discussions. Members of the two communities have
enthusiastically joined the chapter once membership opened. A
member of the Mumbai and a member of the Pune community are
the first two members to join by NEFT and physical cheque. To
the best of my knowledge 24 members from Pune joined the
chapter in response to Arjuna Rao Chavala's appeal for member
ships when he came last month to our Pune meetup.
We earnestly believe that India needs an active, sympathetic,
facilitative and supportive chapter. We look forward to
heartily cooperating with such a chapter - alas, the chapter's
latest tune was nothing of that kind. It seemed to be
indicative of wanting power and to dominate.
The third issue, were the "black" provisions of the framework.
Each of the sentences seemed to imply negative connotations
for the community.
To give you some examples of the "black" provisions -
Example one - Finance
The responsibilities of the Host city team included "Fund
raising", whereas the corresponding responsibility of the
Chapter Team was "Responsible for facilitating financial
operations and accountability for finances for the event".
The message conveyed was that the community was responsible
for raiising funds but only the chapter was allowed to decide
how it was spent. No commitment of raising monetary support
was made by the chapter for the event.
Example two - Logistics
The responsibility for the "Host city team" is mentioned as
being "responsible for City logistics in terms of Venue, local
transportation, stay assistance". However, the city community
was to be given no say in the decision-making i.e.
organisation of the programme, guest list, expenditure etc.
The OC head was to be some person of chapter Executive
Committee. That meant, the community had to do the hard work
but the chapter would take credit. If the conference
succeeded, it was the chapter's moment of glory. Whereas if
the conference failed, the communities would be blamed.
Example three - Venue
After three months of spade work by Mumbai-Pune, when no other
city had shown any inclination to take up the project, the
chapter thanked the city community for the "proposal", came up
with this framework, asks the city to make changes as per the
framework and resubmit it for consideration within two weeks
or so. Then, all proposals/bids would be considered by the
chapter and the decision communicated.
For two months, the community waited with bated breath for the
chapter's response and was floored when it eventually came.
There were no emails of encouragement, no saying "we support
you", no saying "great job guys, lets give it to Mumbai-Pune
this time, next time, cities can bid". The community, not
surprisingly, were forced to construe such a response as lack
of support by the chapter.
So what was to be done? The community was furious at being
treated this way. They could not acquiese to this kind of
'fatwa' type of decision-making by the chapter. It was felt
that if the community accepted this state of affairs this time
around, it would act as a precedent and set the tone for all
future interactions between community and chapter.
So, we indicated to the chapter informally through various
people that this sort of thing just will not do. We were
prepared for a confrontation on matter of principle. However,
thanks to various third party back-of-the-scenes attempts, the
chapter is now beginning to realise this. A member of the
chapter Executive Committee has given a clarification. You can
read it here -
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-June/003378.html
The community's demands are few and equitable.
Firstly, treat us like equals and stakeholders. Amongst us,
chapter will then be first among equals. The community will
not accept any other form of relationship.
The second request is always ask our opinion before issuing
policy especially for a thing like Wikiconference which has
not been conducted before. The chapter must be consultative
and facilitative of the community. The community will not
accept orders by fiat.
Lastly, this present framework will not do. We need a
framework which gives autonomy to the Organising Committee to
successfully pull off an event of this scale and nature. While
organising this Wikiconference, the community is willing to
develop a sensible, practical framework which can be debated
and finalised after the event is over. In this manner best
practices and lessons learnt will be incorporated.
We felt that you as a community member should know what was
going on and what happened and how we responded to it. Our
next step is to list the issues concerning how the
Wikiconference should be conducted and discuss them on the
list. At present, an active discussion on this is going on
between Pune and Mumbai communities off-list. In the meantime,
we invite the chapter to Mumbai where these issues can be
discussed amicably face to face and resolved.
We thank all those who spoke out in favour of the community.
Please write back with your views and support as this concerns
every one of us.
Ashwin Baindur
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--
With Warm Regards,
*Jayanta Nath*
Calcutta,West Bengal
Facebook :http://www.facebook.com/jayantanth
Wikipedia :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jayantanth
আসুন পাইরেসি মুক্ত ভারত গড়ি,সবাই মুক্ত সফ্টওয়ার ব্যবহার করি O:-),অন্যকে
ব্যবহারে উৎসাহিত করি।
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