Yes, I talked about both the conferences in my reply, knowing very well that they are not related, but have a common feature of asking huge amount of 80 lakhs rupees, which is also co-incidental. My point was not on the theme of the two conferences, it was on the question if we need to spend this amount of money on conferences.
As you and I had discussion in the private chat, I don't want to repeat myself again. We discussed some points yesterday about where budgets can be cut down. May be we didn't agree, but I made some of my points and you were kind enough to made yours. If we both agreed at some point, I would have discussed in the talk page, for sure.
Conferences are fine and one annual global community conference is needed for good, but when around 80 lakh rupees is spent on even national or thematic conferences in India, where commodities are still cheaper than many other countries, then we need to rethink, if we really need these conferences and re-analyze if there is really the need of hour to spend such huge amount of donation money. Maybe there will be a national conference next year and the same or more amount of money will be requested to spent, which might not be needed. Are we ready and mature enough to open the Pandora's box? May be we are, I am not sure though.
As I said earlier, I find the amount of money overwhelming, when I look back into our community activities which so painstakingly focuses on cost-effectiveness as well as impact, but that's my community perspective, which you don't have to agree with.
For example, the amount of money you are asking for a 3-days conference can be utilized by West Bengal community for nearly 50 years, if we follow our current fund request procedure. I know the two kinds of activities are not comparable, but just saying.
Also, this is my personal decision not to participate in these events. So, nothing to worry about me from your end. I am just one volunteer.
I rest my case. Best wishes for the grant request.
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
(Again, totally as a Wikimedia volunteer)
Hi Bodhi,
Firstly, speaking of "1 crore 60 lakhs rupees" together might not be the best way to look at it. I am not wrong, I am assuming that you are talking about WikiWomen Camp, which is also happening in India. But that is completely unrelated to WikiConference India, I mean in terns of budget, goals and objectives. You might want to separately comment on each of them, if you want to. To clarify the confusion for others, WikiConference India's budget is ₹7,181,212.50 + additional fiscal sponsorship charge of ₹718,121.25 (10% of the budget). The former amount is that which goes into the spending of the conference.
An amount could be spent on several other smaller projects, but every type of program has its own importance. In terms of impact, a conference may not have tangible or numerical metrics to be considered, but it does have impact on communities and India as a whole. Even for this conference, we are trying to make the goals as objective as possible. Components of the conference such as content creation campaign beforehand, and a Mini-Hackathon, will try to ensure that. Also since Capacity development emerged out as the most required need of the hour from the Community Engagement Survey, we have specific evaluation measures to see if it really helped people.
You are most welcome to take your comments on regarding specific budget items or the plan on the talk page, and it can be taken forward from there.
Regards,
KC
Hi Krishna,
Sorry to say, but as a volunteer, I can not find justification of spending 1 crore 60 lakhs rupees on just two conferences happening one after another. The amount is huge and beyond my imagination.
As a volunteer coming from West Bengal community which have always worked on optimal budget and respected donation money, and yet delivered consistent results through impactful projects each year, I find these expenditure out of proportion. This money could have been otherwise spent on several high impact projects for many years.
I cannot say on behalf of my entire community but, personally, from my part, I cannot endorse this. Also, I guess, endorsement or opposition doesn't matter nowadays and these proposals will eventually get approved, in that case, I will not participate in the events in any capacity.
Sorry, if I sound too harsh, but that's only because English is not my native language. I could have better expressed in my mother tongue.
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
(totally as a Wikimedia volunteer)
Hi
Great initiative. It's been 4 years since we all met and shared experiences. This conference will also help us plan our future initiatives.
Best wishes!
Manav
Hello everyone,
According to the timeline of Conference and Event Grants program, community can review from 3 February to 14 February 2020, post that we will start integrating all the received feedback to make modifications to the proposal. Depending on the response of community members, an IRC may be hosted next week, especially if there are many questions/concerns that need to be addressed.
Let me know if you any questions.
Regards,
User:KCVelaga
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