So, I have nothing to do with the problem in hands - and I'm not even Indian, by the contrary, I born in the other side of the world - but there is one thing i needed to answer (bold is mine).

Srikanth Lakshmanan said: "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."

I also live in a country with that laissez-faire culture, and I can tell you right away: If we don't try to change that will never change!

It is easy? No, the whole culture stands against us - I don't know how it is in India (I've never been there and I'm still hope I will be invited to the second WCI to finally go to India) - but in Brazil, if you ask them to change something they will start with a "we did this way for years" talk, to the bare minimum.

The good thing is: we are in a very good position to change those things: We are young (at least I am! ;) ) and we are in college - most of us anyway - so WE are the college kids who plan conferences and etc. If we can change things in our own college we would have contributed to change that "Indian reality".

That won't change the experience Sohan and Srikanth had, but will avoid other people to go though what they did.

Again, sorry for the almost completely OT mail,
_____

Béria Lima

 

 Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter livre acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. Ajude-nos a construir esse sonho.











On 28 February 2012 09:48, Srikanth Lakshmanan <srik.lak@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 16:51, Sohan Maheshwar <sohanmaheshwar@gmail.com> 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.html

--
Regards
Srikanth.L

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