Hi,
* One meaning of burnt out:
"exhausted as a result of longtime stress"
Refer: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/burnt-out
Not only the people who have worked for former Wikimedia India office,
but many from the chapter, people who have worked for the last Wiki
Conference India are tired. Some have unsubscribed from this mailing
list to stay away from politics.
We need to ask the right questions, provide constructive feedback and
dare to oppose when something impacts the community negatively. But,
after all these if we are not able to work together, our approach is
certainly wrong and negative.
Two examples:
- Tamil Wikipedia was highly critical of the Google translation project
but it was also the only community that worked together with them to
make the pilot better. The best practices learned were later found
useful for the Arabic Wikipedia community.
- Tamil Wikipedia and Malayalam Wikipedia chose to opt out of the web
fonts implementation. Some of us even gave the harshest criticism. But,
we were also the only guys who were helping to identify bugs and squash
them with the help of WMF teach team.
* I am as much a part of the community as some others are.
http://toolserver.org/~tparis/pcount/index.php?name=Ravidreams&lang=ta&wiki=wikipedia
The Indian community need not have a unanimous opinion on all issues. I
have the right to express my opinion. I stand by what I said and don't
owe an apology to anyone :)
Let some of us stop pretending to be the saviors of doing everything
right about Wikipedia in India. All this talk of money getting diverted
to CIS is *^%$. There is lot of ground work that needs to be done which
money alone can't do. Are we doing that yet?
There are language communities working on their own Wikipedias. There is
Wikimedia India chapter which is trying to do organizational work for
the whole of India. If you are not part of either, I wonder who you are?
If you are concerned about a third entity like CIS in India, may I ask
what is this fourth unnamed and informal entity which doesn't come under
any of these avenues? Stop trying to hijack the community. A good part
of the community is silently doing productive work outside this mailing
list.
For all those asking for proof, references and citations:
May I ask that you provide a disclaimer that you never applied for
any of the posts in former Wikimedia India office and current A2K
program?
Being an editor in Wikipedia and knowing the community is a plus for
anyone working in these offices. But, it is common sense that not all
the posts in these office can be run by Wikipedians alone. Even if most
of the work can be done by Wikipedians in the chapter, it still needs
professionals with various other skills and experience to do holistic
work. This is how any professional organization can be run. It is the
job of the interview board to find suitable candidates in this context.
The very fact that the hiring process was delayed is an indication that
they took all efforts to find the right people within reach. I am happy
with the credentials of the people in the new team. It is only fair that
we welcome them, try ways to work together with them, evaluate the
progress later, find lessons and keep improvising.
* If you are not happy with the way WMF spends money, stop donating. I
stopped two years before. You can even start a "Don't donate" campaign
so that WMF will take the effort to analyze its operation. Join the
grant reviewing committee and help WMF spend it's money better. If WMF
is bypassing the grants committee, question it through proper channels.
Harassing an organization which got a grant and is yet to start work is
not the right way.
Ravi