Position Summary
As Programme Officer, Pilot Projects,
your job will be to drive and support the growth of Indian language
Wikipedias and its sister projects. Your primary responsibility will be
to design and implement different pilot projects with an aim to create
high quality content and cultivate new editors on different language
Wikipedias in a time bound manner. One of the main pilots you will be
spearheading immediately will be on ‘Indian Performing Arts’. The pilots
will be premised on themes and seek to create a multi-lingual
repository of knowledge using Wikimedia projects as knowledge
platforms. In addition to this you will be anchoring the development and
growth of at least one Indian language Wikipedia. You are encouraged to
deeply engage with the A2K Work Plan before making the application.
You will work cohesively with the
Wikimedia community and the Wikimedia India Chapter to meet specific
goals of each language community in India. You will be a part of a small
team of 5 to 6 doing high visibility and high impact work.
Responsibilities
- Support
India-focused initiatives to improve quality of India-relevant content
and number of editors on Indian language Wikimedia projects.
- Support the growth of Indian language
Wikimedia communities and projects by designing and implementing
community collaborations and partnerships pilot projects – detailing
rationale, aim and objective, execution, evaluation, timeline, resource
investment, etc.
- Spearhead A2K’s pilot projects.
- Identify institutions/groups that have
ready-made content/archived material and aggregate available material
in respective languages.
- Create a network of state
institutions, university departments, non-government organisations,
academics, artists, researchers and wikipedia community members that
will work towards creating a repository of knowledge on specific themes
by using Wikimedia projects as a platform.
- Conduct initial meetings with the principal investigators from each of the shortlisted institutions and share project idea.
- Facilitate Wikimedia community
involvement with the core network of institutions and principal
investigators to collaboratively participate on specific content/area
modules.
- Create social media platforms for visibility of these projects and facilitate need-based technical and online support.
- Conduct a series of wiki-training workshops for various nodes within the network.
- Conduct periodic monitoring and evaluation of the pilot projects in progress.
- Generate and document lessons
from programme activities that can inform the work of Indian
communities and similar programmes in other countries.
- Providing ad hoc support to the Wikipedia community on all aspects of Indian languages as may be deemed necessary.
Candidate's Background & Experience
- At least two to three years of professional experience with a strong track record of success in high performance organizations.
- Prior experience of working with schools of performing arts and/or cultural departments.
- A deep understanding of the varied cultural context of India.
- Good understanding of the basics of program design and management.
- Experience of working in a collaborative community (preferably online).
- Strong academic results from highly-regarded university.
- Strong understanding of the Internet and the forces that underpin the success of Wikipedia.
- Active participation as a Wikimedia
volunteer would be an asset, though not a prerequisite (must be prepared
to demonstrate knowledge of how Wikipedia works in interviews).
- Demonstrated experience working in a global, multi-cultural team environment.
- Good writing skills in English and Indic languages and must be fluent in English and at least one Indic language.
- Women are strongly encouraged to apply.
Characteristics of the Programme Officer
- High level of commitment: The
Programme Officer should believe in the values of CIS and Wikimedia
projects, exude enthusiasm for the mission and can powerfully embody and
communicate the mission.
- Intellectual curiosity and
flexibility: Must enjoy tackling difficult, ambiguous problems and able
to incorporate new knowledge into how one approaches situations and
generates solutions, loves learning from others while expanding
intellectual horizons.
- Open and transparent: Have a high
level of integrity and be comfortable working in a highly transparent
fashion, open to input and feedback, a proactive and candid communicator
who wants people to know what s/he is doing and isn't afraid to bring
others in when things are off-track or when you need help and should
able to handle criticism in a mature fashion.
- Community builder: It is essential
that the Programme Officer sees herself/himself as a partner to and
supporter of the Wikimedians who have and will continue to be the
leaders in building the Wikimedia projects. The Programme Officer must
be willing and able to work with a diverse array of people, many of
whom come from non-traditional backgrounds and have a fervent
commitment to Wikimedia’s community-led nature.
- Strong cultural competency: Able to
navigate in a global movement and on a global team in addition to
navigating the complexity of India.
- Partnership developer: Able to
initiate, negotiate and operate partnerships that advance the Wikimedia
mission in Indic languages and English (as relevant to India) with a
wide range of institutions across the public, NGO, universities,
philanthropic and private sector.
- Willing to travel: The Programme
Officer must regularly travel within India to engage with Wikimedia
communities and partner with institutions.
Location: The position is based out of the CIS Bangalore office.
Remuneration: Compensation structure will be determined by the level of expertise, experience and current remuneration.
To apply, please send your resume to T. Vishnu Vardhan (vishnu@cis-india.org).