Hi Mumbai Wikimedians,
Please join the mailing list for Mumbai Wikimedians to help
co-ordinate events and organize meet ups in your city.
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-mum
Yours sincerely,
Anirudh Singh Bhati
B.Com, LL.B. (Hons.), Gujarat National Law University,
Gandhinagar, India.
Handphone: +919328712208
Skype: anirudhsbh
If this email were legal advice, it would be followed by a bill.
Hi Nadig, when you do that, would it be possible to consolidate/redirect
pages so that we don't have too many entry points floating about? I know
you've done a lot of background work in keeping these domains going on
your personal funds; still, to make them work, let's flag this as a
chapter task. Makes it easier for everyone. Cheers,
Achal
Thanks Srikanth: I have substantially added to the page. Please take a
look. And I hope some others might be interested in adding to/refining
this information too?
Once done, I'd suggest we put it out as a standard reference to anyone
interested in us, especially from the media.
The current page is:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India/Wikimedia101
Shiju's suggestion is to move this page (and any other public
non-internal information) to http://wikimedia.in/wiki/Main_Page
and it makes a lot of sense. If you agree, can you just move the whole
thing over - and then send it out for others to use/add to and see?
I think this will be quite useful going forward.
Cheers,
Achal
Further on this, I think it would make sense for someone like Shiju to
add a Wikimedia India project status: How many language Wikipedias in
India exist, and what they are, what other language projects exist, what
the stats say in terms of the number of Indians reading and editing
Wikipedia, projects in need of help (in incubator or otherwise, etc. etc.)
And finally, it will need all of us (or perhaps from the chapter) to
constantly update this page with current information as it happens.
I agree that the press coverage is (and always tends to be) a bit
whacked when it comes to Wikipedia, Wikimedia and India. And it doesn't
help that the explanation is pretty clear but complicated. In a few
months, we will have the Wikimedia Foundation India office, the
Wikimedia India chapter, and of course - as always - the Wikimedia
community in India, not to mention various sub-community groupings. I
can only see more confusion unfortunately.
Perhaps you can set up something on India-meta? An explanation such as
the one just offered (who does what) + something about the difference
between Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects would be very useful for
the press, if kept simple. Then we could point them to this page every
time there's interest - or print it out and distribute it for subsequent
press interactions as well. I'll help, and others will too - I'm sure -
if you get it going.
I'm pleased to inform you all that Tamil Wikipedia has crossed the 25,000
article milestone now. :-)
- Sundar
"That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for
the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted."
- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture
I agree that the press coverage is (and always tends to be) skewed when
it comes to Wikipedia, Wikimedia and India. And it doesn't help that the
explanation is pretty clear but complicated. In a few months, we will
have the Wikimedia Foundation India office, the Wikimedia India chapter,
and of course - as always - the Wikimedia community in India. I can only
see more confusion!
Perhaps you - or others - can set up something on India-meta? An
explanation such as the one just offered (who does what) + something
about the difference between Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects
would be very useful for the press, if kept simple. Then we could point
them to this page every time there's interest - or print it out and
distribute it for subsequent press interactions as well. I'll help, and
others will too - I'm sure - if you get it going.
To add to the recent discussion on this list, perhaps a few
clarifications are in order.
All of you are familiar with yourselves - i.e. us - the community;
people who edit, organise and otherwise help Wikimedia projects move
ahead in interesting and productive ways. Many of those interesting and
productive things happening here are captured in this first edition of
the Wikimedia India Community Newsletter:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_India_Community_Newsletter…
Then there is the chapter. Chapters are "independent organizations
founded to support and promote the Wikimedia projects within a specified
country." (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters). Chapters
are approved by the Chapters Committee, constituted by folks whose
mission is to further Wikimedia, and while affiliated to and recognised
by the Wikimedia Foundation, are yet independent entities which plot
their own course. Chapter efforts in India started up as early as 2004
and critical momentum was achieved from 2008 onwards, the result of
which is that we now have an approved Wikimedia India chapter - awaiting
registration in India as a non-profit organisation (for more see:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India). The Wikimedia India
chapter is currently being registered as a 'society' in Karnataka and
will function as a national organisation. As a 'society' it is required
to have founding 'members' - and in our case, those members are Arun
(President), Sundar (Secretary), Hari (Treasurer), Gautam, Srinivas and
Arjuna. (See:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India/MoA-PostChapComVer).
Once the chapter is recognised as a legal entity within India, these
members will serve as the Executive Committee of the organisation.
Contrary to earlier discussions, the Wikimedia India chapter has never
had 'Directors' or 'Directors (designate)' - it's a society, and
societies have members. On operation, it will, of course, extend
membership widely to anyone who wishes to join. Chapters have a wide
variety of functions, all of which are evolving - for now, a crude
summary of their purpose would be that they allow individuals from
within the community to do more than they could normally do alone,
besides providing the benefits of a formal, organisational setup to
utilise when necessary.
Then we have the Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation based in San
Francisco that is the legal home of all Wikimedia projects. Over the
last few years, the Wikimedia Foundation has grown in staff strength and
capacity, and works to facilitate everything we do as volunteers from
around the world. In the last few months, and on the basis of a
strategic planning exercise
(http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy) the Wikimedia Foundation
decided to actively help a few geographies grow, one of which is India.
The National Country Director job that Barry Newstead (Chief Global
Development Officer) talked about on this list
(http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2010-August/000850.ht…)
is a position that will report to him, which is to say, the staff
employed at the Wikimedia Foundation office in India are exactly that,
and not to be confused with the India chapter - they are a separate
entity, an off-shoot of the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco,
though they will obviously be working closely with both the community
and the chapter. Further clarifications on the Wikimedia Foundation's
office plans in India are available in this email from Barry
(http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2010-August/000849.ht…).
I trust this helps somewhat in understanding the landscape.
Cheers,
Achal
"The information you pointed out is old and has been duly removed. I have
sent out a clarification email to the group that I'm in no way related to
the Wikimedia Board."
but your twitter feed as i can see now http://twitter.com/kiruba announces this book was published last week. strange.
still confused mr kiruba shankar. i am sure you are an honest person but if you are not "director" of wikimedia foundation, then why there are so many links on the web that say you are? please google and see for yourself. i checked to see if you have made edits, and you do not seem to have done anything maybe except for some conflict of interest entries.
just for my personal clarity: you are not a director of wikimedia foundation and never were, you are not associated with wikimedia india, you are not part of the india chapter, you are not a member of the india chapter executive committee and you are not a wikipedia editor.
correct?