Agree with Ravi's concerns; i don't think there is any open assessment! i think it'd be better to ask general questions at proposal talk page because users around the world share their concerns there.

AFAIK anyone can review the proposal and ask questions here [1].
Surprised, no one from India has asked a question yet! 
 
CISA2K claims that they're working with Wikimedians and they regularly reach to hundreds of Wikimedians but hardly anyone participates in the on-wiki discussions! 

It also claims that it works with WMIN here [2], but has anyone from WMIN involved in making the corresponding plans/proposals?
Here[3] it's written, "Based on the protocol agreed upon by the WMIN, CIS-A2K will in consultation with WMIN continue to support and serve the Wikimedia communities in India." 
What protocol? How come it's not been out yet? CISA2K needs support from WMIN and Communities in India. At least here in this sentence, CISA2K should write that it will collaborate with WMIN and work with Wikimedia communities in India!!

Here[4], it's mentioned the work it has done; the tiniest things its done are mentioned which we volunteer wouldn't mention! They done it with the help of volunteers yet they try to take the credits and mention on these pages!! There should be a limit on areas where the CISA2K team should be working. Is it still a volunteer organization?
I doubt it! If yes then leave some works to happen eventually by the volunteers. 

You are here to help users, why do you mention that you are helping users! Isn't that obvious? Please don't change the wiki culture!

It seems the requested amount at APG is just a formality. CISA2K is certain that it will get the requested amount. Few projects has already been started. See this[5] / 6].

In the past events, CISA2K has never produced any real exact outcomes after the event as it projected beforehand!!? And if there is any outcome in one or two events, it's because of the volunteers not A2K. But yes they can easily claim as A2K's achievement because it's working officially and there is no way we can measure that.

And there has been no growth at Odia Wikipedia because of A2K, as it claims. The active community is happy because it gets financial support easily for the events!

In the year 2011 and 2012, there was ample participation from Wikimedians in India, now we dont see that. Eventually it's decreasing!!


[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/The_Centre_for_Internet_and_Society/Proposal_form
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/The_Centre_for_Internet_and_Society/Proposal_form#Questions_about_this_form_and_the_relationship_between_CIS_and_Wikimedia
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Draft_Work_plan_July_2014_-_June_2015/General_Support_and_Service_to_the_Movement#Plans_for_July_2014-June_2015
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Draft_Work_plan_July_2014_-_June_2015/General_Support_and_Service_to_the_Movement#Technical_Support_and_Service
[5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Draft_Work_plan_July_2014_-_June_2015/Odia_Wikisource_as_OER
[6] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/08/odisha-dibasa-2014-14-books-released-under-cc-license

Ansuman




On 14 April 2014 13:54, Jayanta Nath <jayantanth@gmail.com> wrote:
+ Ravi 


On Monday, April 14, 2014, Ravishankar <ravidreams@gmail.com> wrote:

(copy of this comment placed at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:India_Access_To_Knowledge/Draft_Work_plan_July_2014_-_June_2015 . We can continue discussing there)

Hi,

Thanks for the elaborate work plan.

1. The way the budget is presented at

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Draft_Work_plan_July_2014_-_June_2015#Budget

is misleading. A good percent of this budget will be spent on staff salary, travel logisitics and other things which will not be there if the work is done by the community. So, this is not the actual cost needed for the desired output but the cost arising because of the involvement of paid professionals.

So besides this way of presenting the budget, there should also be a regular way of presenting budget like how the chapters are asked to submit during FDC application. It can be noted that during the last round of FDC funding application, WMIN faced very strict criterion regarding infrastructure cost, staff salary cost.

2. I have an eerie feeling that the community development work in India is getting outsourced to NGOs like CIS at the cost of crippling budding local chapters like WMIN. The way Hindi Wikipedia seeks help for content management (fixing Google articles) confirms my concern.

3. Where can I find WMF's open assessment of the work done by CIS-A2K in the previous year? How is the cost for the work done justified? If the cost if justified, then the actual communities and the content they have developed on their on own are worth many crores of Indian rupees. But, we face strict guidelines when applying for grants whereas NGOs like CIS don't have that strict criterion.

Ravi


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