Sheesh ! Those comments were so harsh and insensitive. May I ask how many outreach events have you co-ordinated & led ?

Give some respect for the volunteers who take out their valuable personal time to travel far and conduct events just for the love and passion for the movement ! It takes lots of sacrifice & dedication to do such stuff which they could have otherwise well spent with the family and friends.

If you are unable to appreciate, least don't demoralize them.

It was just because of his humility that RSrikanth wrote as below "apologizing for all the faults". The truth is by far different. The fact is that the NIT Trichy student organisers this year didn't honour the promises and minimum courtesies/facilities that were expected/guaranteed.

Last year the NITT/Pragyan organizers had approached us for the Wikipedia event and we had one of the best experiences of support and hospitality from them. Me , Srikanth L ( Logicwiki) and Bala/Sodabottle led the event at the college.  The student volunteers were there waiting to receive us at the bus station at 5 AM ! They escorted each of us ( coming from different directions) to the pre-arranged hotel accommodation. They ensured that we were at our comfort and ease. Dedicated taxis ( with volunteer escort) were arranged for our transportation between the town and the college. Food and our other needs were taken care. The Computer lab was arranged for the session and dedicated stall for interacting with the crowd.  Since there was a huge demand, AFAIK, they had to do some kind of written test, to only permit the 100 attendees. Their hospitality and support was awesome and I still cherish them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Tiruchirappalli/Tiruchirappalli1
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tiruchirappalli_Meetup_Feb2011
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-February/002334.html

This year, when we were approached, they asked us to sign an MoU as it was needed as the event was ISO certified. One of the conditions they wanted was a guarantee for swags which we politely refused. The MoU was signed with a bare minimum clause that we will conduct a day of Wikipedia event/workshop. A lot of people were involved in the discussions, Naveen, Nitika , Sohan , Hisham, me and many others. Once we removed the guarantee of swags, it was evident that the organizers were not largely interested. Still we moved ahead to conduct the event, in spite of last time promise that they could allow only a 2 hour slot. Much were promised which weren't fulfilled.

I am extremely thankful to Sohan Maheshwar & RSrikanth for volunteering and traveling ( an overnight journey from Bangalore & Coimbatore to Trichy) in spite of all these hurdles on a precious weekend.

 If "they have screwed up", I have equally screwed up. But I am proud of it. We have done events that were largely successful and the ones that were nothing to talk about.. But it is all part of this game.

I strongly stand behind our volunteers who help the movement. Their time and efforts are very very precious !

I just hope that this one-off incident will not discourage them ( or anyone else)  from further future contributions.

I am grateful to Nitika & Naveen for all those innumerable calls and followups with the organizers and volunteers.

I have strongly communicated our displeasure and disappointment to the organizers and  last heard, they were being blasted from the college authorities and seniors for their mismanagement.

Apologies if I appeared to be a bit rude and harsh. No hard feelings.


Regards
Tinu Cherian




On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 5:55 PM, Sushant R <sushi2cool4u@hotmail.com> wrote:
so u agre? gud. cos u scrwd up n did it big tym.
nxt tym u think of anythin, don kay?
u don hav a lptop, no isssus. get 1. can't afford one? get lost.
v aint got no place 4 ppl lyk u.

Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:39:48 +0530
From: parakara.ghoda@gmail.com

To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] The Great NITT fiasco ...

Heya all.
I guess, I really need to explain something here.
I was wrong when I blamed the organisers of Pragyan for what happened.
The Fiasco, isn't a FIASCO anymore. We've got four users from the event and I'm proud of that.

I believe I have inadvertently caused a flare up which has resulted in a lot of people getting shouted out. Tensions are soaring and I believe I caused it.

As far as Accomodation/Travel is considered, from my POV, what I got was perfect. Saagar had informed me that guesthouses weren't good enough and I took [and still take] his word for it. He slept in the lab so I could sleep in his room.

As for the event, as Sohan pointed out the, delay and internet issues were the only issue. The internet issue was mine in entirety. I didn't mention that, OR mention anything about a lab. That makes it my fault.
The MoU: I admit, I didn't read the MoU at all, both the edited and original versions of it.  Big mistake.
Saagar helped me a LOT, and did whatevr was in his power to change the slot to a weekend to ensure that Sohan could participate.
The lack of time and all was because we, [particularly ME] took time in arriving at a proper decision. For every 10 mails I got from Saagar, Sohan, Nitika, Naveen and Tinu on the matter I sent out only one reply.

I admit, the majority of the goof up was PURELY MY FAULT.

The remaining issus were a direct result of lack of time.

I just feel pathetic that I said whatever I did, because I and several others are now at the receiving end of a lot of people.
At the time of writing the first mail, I was at the receiving end of three people, one in particular called my session a flop show and blamed everything on me, causing me to write that mail.
Now, suddenly I'M  at the recievning end of no less than 16 people.

I feel guilty that the NIT T team, who did their best to make me feel comfortable have been put thru this by me.
I learnt a lot at Pragyan, it was my first tech first, to be honest, and I really enjoyed the guest lecture that I attended, which I feel is specially significant to Wikipedia, which I shall write separately about soon.
Sohan may feel different, but as I said over the phone to Nitika, I and ONLY I am to blame for what I did.

I hope this isn't the end of what I was hoping would be a good partnership. It is quite rare to see the top brains look at Wikipedia from our POV. Most top schools/colleges etc are snobs [it's a stereotype but mostly true in my experience] and these guys seemed genuinely interested in what was being done.

I just feel pathetic at being such a screwup. As stated earlier I have a lot to learn and till then I shall not volunteer for an academy/workshop. I'll merely be a spectator and wait till I mature into someone better. The real world is not so rosy as the Wiki world is.

Regards,
Srikanth.
P.S: I did manage to get a picture of the NITT gate which is now on the Commons. Maybe you guys could use it. It is CCBYSA ofcourse.


--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup onMarch 10th.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore
Aliens invaded Tamil Nadu, left their Spaceship and now it is a Toll Plaza. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IVRCL-Vijayamangalam-Toll-Plaza.JPG


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