Dear Indian Wikimedians,
I pleased to announce a group from the Wikimedia Foundation will be visiting India next
week, staying in Bangalore from Feb 10th through Feb 16th.
The group includes:
1. Garfield Byrd (WMF's Chief of Finance and
Administration)
2. Anasuya Sengupta (WMF's Senior Director of
Grantmaking)
3. Sydney Poore (volunteer member of the Funds
Dissemination Committee [FDC])
and will be joined in India by WMF Trustee Bishakha Datta.
(I had also been intending to come, but
am prevented this time around due to unexpected issues securing a
travelling visa to India.)
WMF staff have been visiting partner organizations and communities over
the past few months, to learn more about their context, achievements and
challenges. More recently, FDC members have been joining them in this effort. Currently, WMF staff and FDC members are visiting Germany.
One purpose of this visit is to
conduct working meetings with the Foundation's two major partners and
grantees in India: the Wikimedia India (WMIN) chapter and the Centre for
Internet and Society (CIS), operating the Access To Knowledge (A2K)
programme.
Additionally, we would like to meet as many
Wikimedians as we can, via a community meetup in Bangalore, and to make
ourselves available over digital channels (at least taking advantage of
being in the same timezone) to community members across India, via open
group discussions over IRC. We are also open to discussion with any
interested smaller groups or individuals, over Skype, Hangout, or
telephone, time permitting.
We greatly regret that logistical issues are
preventing us from visiting other communities in person this time
around, and from attending the Telugu community's 10th anniversary
celebrations in Vijayawada.
Cheers,
Asaf Bartov
--
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation
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