Hello,
WaohI would like to thank everyone for the zakaas explanations, that needed quiet a time
to read with my blurring vision these days. But these explanations raised few more
"Concerns" like
Bragging & Boasting the relationship about the said persons, viz. some international
conference yet to be replicated which happened two years back! Oh the world was gonna end
in 2012, well that's history now too.
As someone stated "offering pro-bono services through my company and even offering
jobs to several Wikipedians."To my opinion offering pro-bono services is always good
may the almighty God bless all those, but adding "through my company" concerns
me a lot. Besides the statement "offering jobs to several Wikipedians",
wouldn't it create the same issue what we are suffering here the "employer -
employee" relationship issue in "my company"?
"...have been involved in preparing our FDC application, spending several hours a
week, into the wee hours of the night on a regular basis apart from juggling their
professional commitments during the day"We all assume good faith behind the generous
efforts though, oh I miss those good old days when everyone was driven by passion and
interest.
And last but not the least, I appreciate my red nosed twin backing up with "..a
nominal amount as compensation for the time spent training there" oh he knows a lot
we presume besides just knowing the exact meaning of nominal amount?Ha well the said
persons are busy as it seems from the statements and it would be too cumbersome to reply
individually to many personal mails, don't you think so?
That's All Folks!
Love,Bludolf From: anirudhsbh(a)gmail.com
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2013 00:54:09 +0700
To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Few concerns
Thank you, Moksh, for the email above.
I would like to add that I have known Karthik for the past few years now and I trust him
to act in a manner that is in the best interests of the chapter and the community. From
what I already know, Karthik has been interning at Moksh's firm and received a nominal
amount as compensation for the time spent training there. Members of the community who
are more interested in understanding the issue closely, should probably consider
contacting Karthik privately to understand the nature of his professional relationship
with Moksh. Karthik is a long-term member of the community motivated by nothing more than
the labour of love.
Moksh has been very generous with his time and has spent considerable resources supporting
the Wikimedia community in Mumbai. He has also graciously agreed to become a part of the
Executive Committee at a time when there were not many experienced volunteers willing to
commit more time in terms of supporting the chapter as a part of its board.
Pranav has also been a long-standing member of the Wikimedia community in India and
most of us are acquainted with the work that he has performed as a part of the organizing
team of the WikiConference India 2011 event.
My request to anyone interested in following up on this issue is to perhaps consider
contacting the concerned persons directly and see if they are able to resolve the issue
for you in a manner that is satisfactory.
Kind Regards,
Anirudh Bhati
On 10/04/2013 02:37 PM, Moksh Juneja
wrote:
A
question came up on this list about some
employer-employee relationships within the chapter
board. This is to clarify that the stated
relationships between the said persons have ended/in
the process of ending with notice being served prior
to this issue being brought up (certainly not because
of this email and prior to it).
This
is not to brag but to state background. I would like
to further state in particular have been extremely
generous in supporting Wikipedia activities in Mumbai
for several years now, organising local events,
offering my office for meetups and official purposes,
bearing expenses in some cases, offering pro-bono
services through my company and even offering jobs to
several Wikipedians.
Pranav
and I were two people instrumental in ensuring the
success of our first national conference 2 years ago.
This is something that is yet to be replicated. Pranav
was recently instrumental in our first victory with
the government recently, a major win for the chapter
in India to have them apply a Wikipedia complaint
license to open knowledge resources for the first time
ever. Karthik has been one of the lead organisers of
the chapters biggest photo contest, our biggest
success of the last financial year. All of us have
been an integral part of several chapter activities
during the last year. In the recent weeks, both Pranav
and Karthik have been involved in preparing our FDC
application, spending several hours a week, into the
wee hours of the night on a regular basis apart from
juggling their professional commitments during the
day. All of us have been actively involved in the
Wikimedia Conference bid.
All
of us were Wikipedians first before anything else,
meeting each other through Wikipedia, having our own
independent thinking which remains unaffected and one
common goal as unpaid volunteers working out of love for
the movement as a cause. We assure everyone that there
is no COI that may affect any of our functioning in the
EC and performing our duties at the chapter.
One
thing we have learnt from this is that there is a need for
a formal public document that details what COI is and when
disclosures need to be made. We will push for such a
document to be created within the EC. At the same time, we
humbly appeal that the community "assume good faith"
towards our efforts and help/support the chapter and
movement in India. We are working towards
building greater synergies, understanding and team-building
within the EC leadership, SIG Chairs and key members of the
chapter and volunteers in India in an effort to strengthen our
very foundations with a long term view and we cannot do this
without your help and support.
Moksh
On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 3:06 PM, Hari
Prasad Nadig <hpnadig(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Shyamal,
You reminded me of the good old days of Wikipedia
- the movement that wasn't centered around money,
but driven by interest and volunteering.
I hope that what you've written about Wikiculture
shall be read by many here and if that is understood
by more people in coming days, the Indian
'community' can get a wee bit healthier.
Of late, whenever I switch over to read the
conversations on this list, it is not just intrigue
but profound disgust that emerges.
On 25 September 2013 10:03, Shyamal L. <lshyamal(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Apologies for the
rant that follows and can be conveniently
skipped by the busy folks here.
I am quite intrigued by the kinds of
discussion on this list and indeed intrigued
by most of the characters that seem to be
involved in the Wikimedia movement in India
and how it stands out in contrast to the
spirit of Wikipedia and its sister projects.
Whereas the project is more a culture of
giving, most of what we see here seems to be
more about merely getting things for oneself
and getting ahead of each other which I
suppose is inspiration drawn from street
traffic. Having observed the movement from
the outside, it is my hope that the best
values of Wikipedia culture are imbibed
rather than the worst of Indian culture.
* Wikiculture - Deal
with issues not the persons raising them -
what matters more than who. Those who
actually interact with the *community* (an
earlier thread gave the suggestion that
people would get an opportunity to interact
with the *community* only by attending
Wikimania) on Wikipedia will know this
aspect. This is a symptom of the fact that
hardly anyone out here is really editing
substantially.
* Wikiculture - Think
independently and question everything -
Wikipedia achieved a lot and is interesting
because it questions(or questioned)
paradigms that are (or were) taken for
granted. It uses direct interaction, direct
democracy, rather than representatives. So
voting people into committees / positions
that work in private is not the way things
are done here, it is by discussing ideas.
Independence requires that you question any
sense of group identity.
* Wikiculture - Forsake cliques, identity
traps and recognize in-out-group dynamics.
In particular I think much of the poverty of
editing from India comes from poor research
driven by the idea that an "Indian" needs
to represent India-related Wikipedia entries
in a (POV) way that apparently instills
pride among fellow-Indians!
* Wikiculture - Wiki is not paper, editors
do not need an office, the best community
support is provided on-wiki. So again, why
would having funds for an office, 3
employees visiting that office each day (and
adding to Bangalore's traffic) help the
Wikimedia movement? If something needs to be
organized, let leadership be elected on Wiki
and let there be an grant such as IEG on
Wiki to support it. I have been quite
intrigued by the idea of Special Interest
Groups being defined by many here by the
language in which they edit - one would
expect SIGs to be subject dependent - so you
could have astronomers, law experts,
literature experts, and so on with members
who work in multiple language mediums. There
could be language specific technical SIGs
that work on IME, Unicode etc but what we
see here instead appears more like language
chauvinism. Those professing to be subject
matter experts (and really ought to members
of specific SIGs) out here seem to
contribute almost nothing to Wikipedia in
their claimed area of expertise - for
instance there are quite a number of law
experts in the group and despite that, one
finds that the law related articles, even on
the English Wikipedia quite atrocious. With
the amount of money being thrown here one
would expect that at least something like
the article on the Indian Copyright Act to
be a GA if not an FA (on the English WP).
[...]
The amount being thrown in is certainly huge.
And this money was raised! I'm stumped by the
silence of many long time Wikipedians in voicing
their opinion against whatever has been going on
in India in the name of 'Wikimedia movement'.
Thanks to you for speaking out.
--
Hari Prasad Nadig
http://twitter.com/hpnadig
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