Hi Naveen,
Good idea. However, I may not be online at that time.
Will catch up during tomorrow's meetup.
- Sundar
"That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the
expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted."
- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture
________________________________
From: Naveen Francis <naveenpf(a)gmail.com>
To: wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Sent: Sat, March 13, 2010 7:37:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India Chapter
Can we have a IRC on this topic ?
Proposed time : Today, 8 pm (March 13, 2010),
Join on :
irc://irc.freenode.org/wikimedia-in
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India#IRC
Thanks,
Naveen Francis
On 12 March 2010 13:51, BalaSundaraRaman <sundarbecse(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
Shahid,
Please don't see the executive group as an entitlement arising purely out of Wiki
contributions. Every Wikipedian puts in volunteer effort to the extent they can, and we
don't do it for any special previlege or quid pro quo, do we?
The members you see here are merely who were known to have expressed a willingness to form
a chapter during several meetups during Jimmy and Sue's visits. Achal collected such a
list from various sources, sent them a questionnaire to understand both their Wiki credo
as well as commitment and other experience required to form and bootstrap such an
organisation. There were meetings of such a group and then the founding group
crystallised. Yes, it's not the most scientific method, but what would be an
alternative? Is there any other basis to pick a group for this assignment? A wiki vote
would only measure the goodwill inside the respective Wiki. But, doesn't the Wikimedia
Chapter guideline explicitly outline the need to have people from outside the community,
but have the commitment and shared beliefs, if they bring in organisational expertise?
Please reflect on these aspects.
I was part of one earlier attempt to form the India chapter and know of other attempts as
well. None of our previous attempts succeeded and we were losing a lot of opportunities to
spread Wiki in India. That is why, I agreed to join this kind of a coordinated effort to
bootstrap the chapter. This is definitely not the end of the road for the chapter, just
the beginning. The views of every committed Wikipedian will be accommodated and
they'll have a fair chance to participate in the activities of the chapter. In fact,
there are ideas to create city-wise and wiki-wise
special interest groups.
And, please have a look at the list of people mentioned and say whether we are a bunch of
politicians who can't be trusted. We are a committed set of people, who met every
month on a weekend, did conference calls almost every week, and brought out this draft
meeting Wikimedia Chapters' Committe recommendations and the Indian Law, not an easy
task.
The choice of Bangalore was for two reasons: 1) this is one city which has people from
many Indian language Wikipedias and 2) Centre for Internet and Society who's hosting
this organisation in the bootstrapping phase is located here. Other than that, this is not
Bangalore-centric or English Wiki-centric. There's enough diversity in the group if
you care to observe.
I hope you'll understand the points.
Regards,
Sundar
"That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the
expression of thought, is a truth
generally admitted."
- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture
>
________________________________
From: Shahid Akhtar <mohd.shahid_akhtar(a)rediffmail.com>
To:
wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Sent: Fri, March 12, 2010 12:47:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia
India Chapter
On
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 8:37 PM, Praveen Prakash <me.praveen(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>K. Then who is Kiruba Shankar?
What
> was the election process & criteria? How many people involved in
>that? Why all these process were hidden? Why even Hindi not informed?
This is what I'm wondering about too! I think this process should be more inclusive
and transparent!
Who decided the list of founding members (Signatories) mentioned on this page
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India/MoA#WIKIMEDIA_INDIA? And how was this list
decided? How come Gautam K John (who is self-admittedly not involved with Wikipedia) was
invited to be a founding member, but someone like User:Bhadani was not?
Why is some like HPN who has not made even 100 edits in 2009 and 2010 to
English,
Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedias combined together is at the forefront of
this initiative, but some of the most important contributors from Indic
wikipedias are not even a part of this?
I'm all for a Wikimedia India chapter, but it should be a group of
all the people who are actually part of the Wikipedia community! It should not
be a bunch of politicians that want to be face of Wikipedia to the Indian media without
having made any substantial contributions to Wikipedia.
Wikimedia India will receive thousands of rupees in donations. We need trusted people who
are representative of the pan-India Wikipedia community to handle it.
If this is a group of people who are meeting in Bangalore for wining and dining, this
should be named "Wikimedia Bangalore" chapter, not "Wikipedia INDIA"
chapter!
Best regards
Shahid
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