Report on WMIN activities and learnings at Wikimedia Conference 2015
Yohann Varun Thomas and Ravishankar Ayyakkannu participated in the Wikimedia Conference 2015 on behalf of Wikimedia India. Jayanta Nath could not participate as he had health issues at the last moment.
This is a joint report by Yohann and Ravi made regarding activities and learnings at the conference.
Meeting with Wikimedians from Nepal and Bangladesh
Wikimedians from Nepal User group and Bangladesh Chapter participated.
It was agreed to form a a regional collaboration named Wikimedia SAARC including Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and other SAARC countries. This will follow a similar model like Wikimedia CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), Wikimedia Indaba (African countries collaboration) and Wikimedia Iberocoop .
Running a small article writing contest in July 2015 aiming to improve the quality of quantity of most important articles about each country was agreed upon as the first flagship program under this collaboration.
Following were the meetings attended by WMIN during the conference
- Monthly Meeting with WMF
- Quarterly Meeting with CIS-A2K
Wiki Loves Food campaign
The international community was receptive to the theme of Wiki Loves Food. This shows potential for expanding this as an international program in the coming years. WMF ED Lila Tretikov mentioned Wiki Loves Food in her speech as a possible extension of photo contest themes. There was a candy exchange table which we used to promote wikilovesfood.org
Learnings from the conference
Logic models for Program design and evaluation.
Survey design
Board governance
Communications best practices
Reporting & Storytelling
Implementation of Best Practises within WMIN
Undertaking a Survey using the Qualtrics tool
Usage of Global Metrics and other such tools for reporting
Usage of Program Toolkits for Projects
Taking Forward the Wikimedia SAARC collaboration and concentrating on Online Activities
Usage of Icons to improve our storytelling
Preparation of Board Handbook for new Board Members
Usage of Organizational effectiveness Tool
Creating Postcards of Best Pictures from WLF (Open to discussion)
Usage of Best practises for Communications as put here
Other benefits
Wikimedia India representatives took an active part in all discussions and social gatherings giving clear visibility and establishing the presence of a strong chapter from India. This is important in the context that everyone was curious to understand the presence of two organizations (i.e., CIS-A2K) in India and how they work together.
Networking and rapport building with other chapter members, CIS-A2K and WMF staff will help in the longer run.
yohannvt@gmail.com