New subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia India Chapter - March 2016 Monthly Report

10 Apr 2016

Greetings from Wikimedia India!

Wikimedia India would like to share the monthly report of March 2016.
Looking forward for your valuable feedback.

*EVENTS*

*SETTING UP OF ADVISORY COUNCIL AT WIKIMEDIA INDIA:*

The primary objective of setting up an advisory board at Wikimedia India is
to receive support, suggestions, guidance, advice and help in achieving
chapter’s objective from distinguished individuals having excelled in their
respective fields and mission. The advisory board members would provide a
non-binding advice to the Executive Committee Members, Wikimedia India
Staff and the community comprising of long list of editors across different
language groups.

The function of the advisory board would be to offer assistance to the
chapter with anything from legal advice to management of finances to carry
forward the goals of the chapter. Advisory board members would provide the
chapter with new knowledge, development of strategic thinking and possible
alternatives based on their expertise from different fields.

The advisory board would in turn strengthen the executive committee and
wikimedia staff to better execute their work, but does not interfere with
either the executive committee or wikimedia india staff regarding the
disclosure of confidential documents or forceful execution of their
advices.

Community members volunteered for Advisory Committee including Dhaval,
Sripathy, Yann, Bodhisattwa Mandal, Satdeep Gill, Adethya, Karthik Nadar.
The long discussion on the appointment process, views and opinions from
various community members and Mr. Arun Ramarathnam made it a worth for
inputs and amendments to be taken further.

*WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION AFFILIATE BOARD SELECTION: *

The Wikimedia chapters and thematic organizations select two members for
the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. We, as the members of Wikimedia
India have to accordingly vote for two members for the organisation.

Community members poured in their views in the mailing list. Suggestions
were rolling in for support to different candidates. Siska Doviana and Jan
Ainali were the major names in support for from the community.

We request the community members to kindly express their opinions and
suggestions for the same. Please visit the links below to find more
relevant details.

 1.) About Affiliate Board
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats

 2.) Nominated Candidates
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016/Nominat…

3.) Timeline
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016

*FEATURED WIKIMEDIAN:*

Featured Wikimedian for the month of March 2016 - *Baljeet Dhaliwal
<https://pa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A8%B5%E0%A8%B0%E0%A8%A4%E0%A9%8B%E0%A8%82%E0%A8%95%E0%A8%BE%E0%A8%B0:Baljeet_Bilaspur>*
.

Baljeet Dhaliwal is a Punjabi Wikimedian currently studying in the ninth
grade. Inspired by Charan Gill, father of another Wikimedian Satdeep Gill,
Baljeet began editing in mid June 2015 and is now one of the youngest and
most active editors of Punjabi Wikipedia. He mostly edits articles related
to computers and has created the articles of almost all the basic
components of computer in the Punjabi Wikipedia.

A source of inspiration for his fellow Wikimedians, he is often described
as a quick learner. Baljeet was one of the most prolific contributors at
the Wikipedia Asian Month drive with 42 articles and was honored as a
Wikipedia Asian Ambassador. Baljeet says he feels proud to see his mother
tongue grow on the internet and vows to contribute more for its growth.

For more details, please visit -

http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Featured_Wikimedian/Archive/2016

*NEWS*

1. Scholarships for Wikimania 2016 have been announced. For more details,
please visit -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Wikimania_scholars#2016_WMF_Wiki…

2. Katherine Maher (https://goo.gl/QwRJTa) takes over as the Intermin
Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation effective 14 March 2016
(after Lila Tretikov resigned in Feb 2016). Full announcement can be found
at https://goo.gl/42NfC8 and https://goo.gl/uFhAzk

3. The Wikimedia Foundation Individual Engagement Grants (IEG) program is
accepting proposals from March 14th to April 12th for new ideas to improve
Wikimedia projects (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG). Funds are
available (up to $30,000 USD) to support individuals or teams of up to four
people to implement promising ideas, whether focused on building a new tool
or gadget, organizing a better process on your wiki, researching an
important issue, or providing other support for community-building.  Ideas
from the current Inspire Campaign on content curation and review are very
welcome. (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Inspire)

*IN THE MEDIA*

1. Ashutosh Desai & Savio DSouza (13 March 2016). "13 ways to make your
Wikipedia experience better".The Times of India.

2. Prahari (30 March 2016). "Wikipedia – Is it ReallyIndependent?
<http://myvoice.opindia.com/2016/03/wikipedia-is-it-really-independent/>".
The Times of India.

3. Biz Carson (13 March 2016). "The first words on Wikipedia were a nerdy
programmer in-joke". The Business Insider.

4. "Wikipedia developing speech engine for users
<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Wikipedia-developing-speech-engine-for-users/articleshow/51382468.cms>".
The Times of India. 13 March 2016.

5. Himanshi Dhawan (10 March 2016). "MP tells Lok Sabha Wikipedia killed
her, assassinated character".The Times of India.

6. Namrata Sahoo (5 March 2016). "A Bot That Gets Wiki Content to Your
Phone". The New Indian Express

Regards,
Priyanka Tiwari