Namaskara,
This might be some food for thought, and inputs are welcome. India mailing
list is the largest and most widely used Wikimedia mailing list for the
Indian community. Could we have a practice that all grant requests from the
country (or related to) are informed on the Wikimediaindia-l mailing list?
Whether it is a state-level, project-level, language-level etc, or whether
it is a rapid grant, project grant etc it would be good to see the plan
details on this mailing list in advance. It will ensure greater visibility,
and it will also ensure the community's understanding/knowing of each
other's projects.
If we can have a practice like this, we can inform Wikimedia, or CR team or
relevant support structure(s) as an India community practice.
This post is in my personal capacity. Please assume good faith
Regards,
User:Titodutta
Sir, I have been editing in wikipedia and uploading pics on wikimedia. and
use them for my articles.
I'm an editor for kannada language wikipedia.(Radhatanaya)
I'm an editor for english mediam wikipedia. (Ragakuvara)
I have contributed more than 900+ articles for kannada.
For english nearly 10-12 articles. all approved.
This information I have given in my page. Why I have been banned. Please
try to help me. I'm very hardworking and faithful person. I have not done
any adverse work. I was a technical offier (Retired in 2004) in a reknowned
Research organisation for cotton !
Please help me so that I can upload photos and fix them for the articles I
write both in kannada & English
Regards,
-Holalkere rangarao laxmivenkatesh
Mumbai-400084
M : 9004356819
M : 9867606819
Dear Indic Wikimedians,
As mentioned in my previous email on 23 January, the call for feedback
regarding changes to WMF Board’s governance structure and processes, is
going to start on 1 February and will run until March 14. Information about
the same will soon be available at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…
[1].
All through the call for feedback, there will be three rounds of office
hours. The first round will be on 2 February (Tuesday). While there will be
three sessions with the same content (to be inclusive of various time
zones), the most feasible one for India would be from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm
(IST). I will follow-up with actual joining instructions soon. During the
session, we will introduce this call for feedback and will be available for
any questions and comments.
A Telegram chat group[2] to discuss and a channel[3] to receive updates
regarding this have been created. You are welcome to join them.
We are welcoming the organization of conversations in any language and in
any channel. If you want us to organize a conversation or a meeting for
your wiki project or your affiliate, please write to me.
Regards,
Krishna Chaitanya
Links:
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…
[2] https://t.me/wmboardgovernancechat
[3] https://t.me/wmboardgovernanceannounce
Trying to send this message again..
Shani.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Shani Evenstein <shani(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2020 at 01:15
Subject: Looking for community advisors to Board committee on Brand
To: <wikiindaba(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>,
iberocoop(a)lists.wikimedia.org <iberocoop(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, <
Wikimedia-asia-chapters(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, <
wikimediabr-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc: James Heilman <jheilman(a)wikimedia.org>, Raju Narisetti <
rnarisetti(a)wikimedia.org>, Zack McCune <zmccune(a)wikimedia.org>
Dear all,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has convened an ad hoc committee
on the Movement Brand Project. Three trustees were selected to head its
work, in close collaboration with the Brand team - Raju Narisetti, James
Heilman and myself. Seeking to improve the Brand Project process, we are
looking for community advisors to give input from various Wikimedia
movement perspectives. The goal is to re-launch the brand discussions with
a clear and transparent process in March 2021, and to conclude the
conversations with a decision by the end of the fiscal year (July 2021).
We are writing to you today to ask that you nominate 1 member from your
community to join us as advisors to the Brand Committee.
What will advisors do?
The Brand Committee is charged with developing and proposing changes to the
Movement Brand Project process. The committee will produce a proposal that
the full Board of Trustees will review and hopefully agree to adopt, if
aligned. Advisors will support us in recognizing key stakeholder community
perspectives on branding needs, processes and decision-making. They will
provide input and comments on proposed changes to process and offer working
solutions to challenges the committee encounters. Advisors will be able to
share ideas and ask questions to their communities, as needed. The full
process will be vetted and endorsed by advisors before the Board of
Trustees makes its final decision on adopting these proposed changes to
process and decision-making. After the proposed changes to process and
decision-making are adopted, the new process will be launched in March.
What kind of commitment is needed?
Advisors can expect 6-9 hours of activity a month, in January and February
2021, though we will be aiming to launch the joint process with a first
meeting during the second half of December. There will be opportunities to
join committee meetings with Board members & staff, or to watch recordings
of the meetings and provide feedback asynchronously. Documents and
proposals will be shared among advisors for comment, review and
suggestions.
What kind of advisor is the committee seeking?
The Brand Committee is looking for a small set of advisors who are able to
engage thoughtfully on the importance of branding to the Wikimedia
Movement’s 2030 goals. Advisors will be asked to reflect on more than
processes: they will be asked to think about the strategic goals of the
brand names and logos within the movement, and how to equitably structure
decisions around them. Ideal advisors therefore have experience
representing the movement to the public, as well as understand the internal
needs of the movement’s work as something multidimensional and open.
The number of advisors will be between 7 - 9 people, in an effort to
support active participation within the committee, and to keep the process
on track, to “un-pause” in March. By then we strive for a clear sense of a
process with which the broader community will be able to engage.
We have identified 3 main groups we would like advisors from:
-
2 advisors from affiliate leadership (Chairpersons or EDs)
-
2 advisors from the community, specifically, people who participated in
authoring the Community Open Letter on Renaming (COLOR)
-
2 additional advisors from the global south / emerging and
underrepresented communities*
-
1 advisor from AffCom
Please note:
* As the global south / emerging and underrepresented communities include a
variety of different groups, we are actively approaching Wiki Indaba,
ESEAP, IberoCoop, the India lists and the Brazilian community, asking each
to nominate one advisor (if I have missed a group you believe to qualify,
please let me know privately and I’ll be sure to approach them as well).
Out of all applications from these groups, 2 will be chosen to complement
the other 5 representatives (2 from affiliates, 2 from COLOR, 1 from
AffCom). Our goal would be to choose from groups that are not already
represented by other chosen advisors, with a special effort to be as
diverse and inclusive as possible.
* The committee might also directly invite up to 2 additional advisors, as
it sees fit.
How should advisors be nominated and added to the committee?
The committee is requesting all advisor nominations to be sent no later
than *December 12th* (2 weeks from today), as we would like to commence
work immediately, with a first joint meeting in mid-late December (before
the Xmas and New Year holidays). The committee will review applications and
make its final decision on advisors by December 15th.
We are asking your group to determine who will be the person to best
represent your perspective. Please email shani(a)wikimedia.org with your
nominations and include the following details:
-
Subject line: Nomination for the Brand Committee Advisors Task Force
-
Full name
-
Wiki Username
-
Affiliation
-
A short (!) paragraph on why you would like to be part of the process
and how you believe you can contribute.
Thank you all for your participation and contribution to this process!
Shani Evenstein Sigalov,
On Behalf of the Brand Committee,
Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation.
Dear All,
The Access to Knowledge (A2K) team at CIS has been engaged with work on
research on Indian language Wikimedia projects as part of the APG since
2019. This year, following up on our learnings from work so far, we are
undertaking a needs assessment exercise to understand a) the awareness
about research within Indian language Wikimedia communities, and identify
existing projects if any, and b) to gather community inputs on knowledge
gaps and priority areas of focus and the role of research in addressing the
same.
We would therefore request interested community members to respond to the
needs assessment questionnaire here: https://forms.gle/2xGAUBKSVJTK7Wks9
Please respond in any Indian language as suitable. The deadline for this
exercise is February 20, 2021. For any queries do write to us on the
CIS-A2K research talk page here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:CIS-A2K/Research
User:Jayanta (CIS-A2K)
Centre for Internet and Society (CIS)
Access to Knowledge
Dear Indic Wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has discussed and approved some
improvements to the Board’s governance structure and processes, in two
recent meetings on December 9 and January 8. As the governing body for
Wikimedia Foundation, we want to improve our capacity, performance, and
representation of the movement’s diversity. We have amended the Bylaws in
support of that goal.
The new Bylaws incorporate these main changes:
- *Increase of the Board size to a maximum of 16 trustees (it was 10).*
The trustee role is volunteer, unpaid. The Board thinks that more trustees
are needed to adequately cover the many areas of expertise required to
steer the Wikimedia Foundation, a +450 staff organization supporting an
international movement formed by hundreds of projects and communities.
- *Combining community- and affiliate-selected trustees into one
category.* Rather than a specified number of community-selected and a
specified number of affiliate-selected seats, the Board has determined that
8 seats on the 16-seat Board shall be “community-and-affiliate-selected”
seats. These processes are not defined in the Bylaws, and we will discuss
them separately. The Board appoints up to seven seats directly. The status
of Jimmy Wales as Community Founder Trustee remains unchanged. We have not
used the term “community-sourced” that we initially proposed and instead
now call these “communty-and-affiliate-selected” seats.
- *Maintaining a balance between community/affiliate-selected seats and
Board-selected seats.* The Board has added a safeguard to ensure that a
Board-appointed seat cannot be added if it would mean outnumbering the
community-and-affiliate-selected” seats. The Board is committed to ensuring
strong community representation.
Other changes refer to the terms and renewals of trustees, the resignation
of other staff and governance roles before joining the Board, and the
creation of an optional second Vice-Chair role. We have clarified the
Bylaws language in topics like the fiduciary duty of trustees, the CEO’s
role in meetings, the Treasurer’s duties, and the wording around the legal
requirement that the Board make final appointments to the Board - including
where there is a community/affiliate process to nominate candidates.
The Bylaws page on Foundation Wiki
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bylaws>[1] has been updated to
include these revisions (check the diff).
The Trustee Evaluation Form
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Approving_Trustee_Evaluati…>[2]
to aid in evaluating Board candidates, initially presented as “Candidate
rubric”, has been approved by the Board.
We are organizing a multilingual call for feedback
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Boa…>[3]
to discuss the processes to select trustees from the community. The Board
will put forward a series of options for consideration and discussion, each
one intended to meet the goal of strong community processes to select
representatives, and a goal of improved skills, qualifications, and
diversity in the candidates that are ultimately appointed. This call will
start on February 1 and will run until March 14. The Foundation is
preparing a team of facilitators to ensure broad awareness, participation,
and representation across the movement.
The results of this call for feedback will inform the Board's decision
about these processes expected to come in March-April. The Board will meet
to review and approve a final selection pathway. After the pathway is
approved, we plan to start the process to renew the three overdue community
trustee seats and appoint the three new ones.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I will be facilitating the
conversations related to this in the South Asian region during the call
feedback.
Regards,
Krishna Chaitanya
Board Governance Facilitator
Wikimedia Foundation
[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bylaws
[2]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Approving_Trustee_Evaluati…
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Boa…
Hello all,
Tomorrow is the *last date to submit* session proposals for Wikimedia
Wikimeet India 2021, the upcoming online wiki-event which is to be
conducted from 19 – 21 February 2021 during the occasion of International
Mother Language Day.
If you are interested to present, run a workshop or organize a panel
discussion, you can check this link and submit a session proposal.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
On behalf of WMWM India 2021
Hello all,
The *last date to submit* session proposals for Wikimedia Wikimeet India
2021, the upcoming online wiki-event which is to be conducted from 19 – 21
February 2021 during the occasion of International Mother Language Day is
just after 6 days i.e. on *24th January 2021*.
If you are interested to present, run a workshop or organize a panel
discussion, you can check this link and submit a session proposal.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
On behalf of WMWM India 2021