Hey Srikanth R,
Too bad this happened but I see this more as an analysis of what went wrong
with the fest than what went wrong with the Wiki session. In the past it
has happened that we conduct a session only with 4-5 people due to
miscommunication and no facilities but at the end of the day, I go back
happy thinking that I've spread the word at least to 4-5 people.
To Srikanth L,
I think the question regarding outreach is being framed in a wrong light
here. The problem seriously is not about "what is the point of spending X
hours?". The point is, are we making the most of those hours? Do we as a
community need to improve (dumb things down, use better methods) our
strategies of communication so that we don't waste a lot of our time and
still get results. IMHO, it is way too early to expect 1-2 editors to be
recruited out of all such events because *Wikipedia movement is too
nascent in India to make immediate sense to people. *So, there will be at
least 1-2 years of just conversation before everyone knows that "Wikipedia
can be edited". That is why I strongly believe that we need to keep doing
these sessions.
Of course, problems will come. Not all people are nice. Maybe we can learn
to present better? And, its an experience.
Cheers
Noopur
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 6:18 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan <srik.lak(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 16:51, Sohan Maheshwar
<sohanmaheshwar(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
The organizers cut short our time because of their problems with the
internet connection and the fact that they had to shoe-horn a sponsors
presentation in the same time slot as ours.
This is bad. You asked for / were given only 1 hour slot? that too with
out a lab / proper internet? #fail. What is the point of signing MoU and
all for this. Even if this 1 hour / rest of the stuff went well, I wonder
if it makes sense for 2 persons to travel for 12+ hours / spend a weekend
to talk for 1 hour. Anyone else who feels it makes sense, please enlighten
me. Last year we spent 8+ hours on stall, 2.5 hours on the academy part.
(Effectiveness is totally another thing)
Also, the fact that i'm a working
professional and you are a student
should not have anything to do with it. Bottom-line is that the NIT-T
organizers should have treated us better. We do not need five-star
type accommodation. But some simple courtesy is expected of them. Also,a
week prior to the event, Saagar had promised me transport to and from the
venue. The fact is that they did not seem to really care too much about the
WikiAcademy and treated it like they were doing us a favour.
Courtesy could have been better, but facilities may not always be (Esp in
tier 2 cities). So please try and adjust (if you were asked to travel in
public transport). Yes, they do/might treat you like they are doing you a
favour(I don't see why they would really care), in fact they actually do
*some* favour in giving space for us. The interest you (I barely know you
btw) and I have towards Wikipedia might not be same any organizer at these
events will have. They might have extra interest on swags etc. Most Tech
fests are not run/attended by students with noble intentions of learning
something technical etc.(At best they learn team work, organizational
skills) I said part of the statement about attendees on this list here[1]
In short, when going to a college, keep your expectations to bare minimum
be it on the audience / organizers. If something was good, do appreciate,
otherwise accept it as reality on Indian conditions. There is nothing to be
ashamed / unpatriotic in accepting certain things as Indian reality.
[1]
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2012-January/006554.h…
--
Regards
Srikanth.L
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Noopur Raval
Student
Arts and Aesthetics
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Ph: 9650567690