Hi Srikanth,
If you get laughed at doing something voluntarily, just return a friendly
smile, that might in due time be remembered better than any well verbalized
rationale.
If you're looking for some inspiration yourself, here are some thoughts, and
I willfully take the risk of sounding bombastic, which I hope at least puts
a smile on your face :-)
You might be interested to read about Maslow's theory of self-actualization.
I first read about it as a student decades ago, as a metaphor it grabbed me
and it keeps coming back from time to time. Wikipedia tells me there is a
large cultural component in his ideas. For me finding a balance between
different needs always remains a challenge, but certainly it is not
either/or, selfishness or altruism. Even more, how to draw the distinction?
Sometimes altruistic motives will bring you personal rewards, and vice
versa. I'm not sure even much of what I do is altruistic at all, I just have
fun doing it.
John Adams said " I am a revolutionary so my son can be a farmer so his son
can be a poet. ... " We are marching in the front rows of a digital
revolution. [2] Later people will listen to our stories, and envy us, if
they don't already.
If you haven't read Eric Raymond's "The Cathedral & the Bazaar" on
open
source movement, I can heartily recommend it to you. Best section for me was
"Homesteading the Noosphere" [3] [4] which discusses how selfishness and
altruism can both be served at the same time by contributing in a 'gift
economy'.
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Revolution
[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homesteading_the_Noosphere
[4] Essay online:
http://catb.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/homesteading/
Cheers, Erik Zachte
-----Original Message-----
From: wikimediaindia-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikimediaindia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Srikanth
Ramakrishnan
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 6:02 PM
To: Wikimedia India Community list
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] What's in it for me?
Sorry guys, looks like Google chopped off the bottom of my mail again.
What I said was, when I asked my friend to contribute to the Tamil Media
Contest, he told me- when I'm not getting paid for all my photos, why should
I upload? Anyone who's gone thru similar experiences and can help me out?
On 12/16/11, Srikanth Ramakrishnan <rsrikanth05(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Heya all. I just wanted to share this quick mail with
you and get your
feedback. Over the past two years, I've actively been part of Wiki
outreach efforts. Thru meetups, volunteering for the Bangalore
Samskrit academy, trying to convince friends, classmates etc. I've had
a lot of negative experiences with people askin me- What's in it for
me? Mere liye kya hai? Ennaku enna kadaka porthu? I get laughed at
when I say I'm doing gu voluntarily. Infact recently, when I tried to
get a friend to contribute to our
--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan,
Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers Gang, Ukkadam, Coimbatore.
My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05
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--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore
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