*(long email incoming)*
Dear Assamese Wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is organizing a call for
feedback about community selection processes between February 1 and March
14. Below you will find the problem statement and various ideas from the
Board to address it. We are offering multiple channels for questions and
feedback. With the help of a team of community facilitators, we are
organizing multiple conversations with multiple groups in multiple
languages.
During this call for feedback we publish weekly reports and we draft the
final report that will be delivered to the Board. With the help of this
report, the Board will approve the next steps to organize the selection of
six community seats in the upcoming months. Three of these seats are due
for renewal and three are new, recently approved.
*Participate in this call for feedback and help us form a more diverse and
better performing Board of Trustees!*
*Problems:* While the Wikimedia Foundation and the movement have grown
about five times in the past ten years, the Board’s structure and processes
have remained basically the same. As the Board is designed today, we have a
problem of capacity, performance, and lack of representation of the
movement’s diversity. This problem was identified in the Board’s 2019
governance review, along with recommendations for how to address it.
To solve the problem of capacity, we have agreed to increase the Board size
to a maximum of 16 trustees (it was 10). Regarding performance and
diversity, we have approved criteria to evaluate new Board candidates. What
is missing is a process to promote community candidates that represent the
diversity of our movement and have the skills and experience to perform
well on the Board of a complex global organization.
Our current processes to select individual volunteer and affiliate seats
have some limitations. Direct elections tend to favor candidates from the
leading language communities, regardless of how relevant their skills and
experience might be in serving as a Board member, or contributing to the
ability of the Board to perform its specific responsibilities. It is also a
fact that the current processes have favored volunteers from North America
and Western Europe. Meanwhile, our movement has grown larger and more
complex, our technical and strategic needs have increased, and we have new
and more difficult policy challenges around the globe. As well, our
Movement Strategy recommendations urge us to increase our diversity and
promote perspectives from other regions and other social backgrounds.
In the upcoming months, we need to renew three community seats and appoint
three more community members in the new seats. What process can we all
design to promote and choose candidates that represent our movement and are
prepared with the experience, skills, and insight to perform as trustees?
*Ideas:* The Board has discussed several ideas to overcome the problems
mentioned above. Some of these ideas could be taken and combined, and some
discarded. Other ideas coming from the call for feedback could be
considered as well. The ideas are:
1. *Ranked voting system*. Complete the move to a single transferable
vote system, already used to appoint affiliate-selected seats, which is
designed to best capture voters’ preferences.
2. *Quotas*. Explore the possibility of introducing quotas to ensure
certain types of diversity in the Board (details about these quotas to be
discussed in this call for feedback).
3. *Call for types of skills and experiences*. When the Board makes a
new call for candidates, they would specify types of skills and experiences
especially sought.
4. *Vetting of candidates*. Potential candidates would be assessed using
the Trustee Evaluation Form and would be confirmed or not as eligible
candidates.
5. *Board-delegated selection committee*. The community would nominate
candidates that this committee would assess and rank using the Trustee
Evaluation Form. This committee would have community elected members and
Board appointed members.
6. *Community-elected selection committee*. The community would directly
elect the committee members. The committee would assess and rank candidates
using the Trustee Evaluation Form.
7. *Election of confirmed candidates.* The community would vote for
community nominated candidates that have been assessed and ranked using the
Trustee Evaluation Form. The Board would appoint the most voted candidates.
8. *Direct appointment of confirmed candidates*. After the selection
committee produces a ranked list of community nominated candidates, the
Board would appoint the top-ranked candidates directly.
*Call for feedback:* The call for feedback[1] runs from February 1 until
the end of March 14. We are looking for a broad representation of opinions.
We are interested in the reasoning and the feelings behind your opinions.
In a conversation like this one, details are important. We want to support
good conversations where everyone can share and learn from others. We want
to hear from those who understand Wikimedia governance well and are already
active in movement conversations. We also want to hear from people who do
not usually contribute to discussions. Especially those who are active in
their own roles, topics, languages or regions, but usually not in, say, a
call for feedback on Meta.
You can participate by joining the Telegram chat group[2], and giving
feedback on any of the talk pages on Meta-Wiki. We are welcoming the
organisation of conversations in any language and in any channel. If you
want us to organize a conversation or a meeting for your wiki project or
your affiliate, please write to me. I will also reach out to communities
and affiliates to soon have focused group discussions.
An office hour[3] is also happening tomorrow from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm
(IST) to discuss this topic. Access link will be available 15 minutes
before the scheduled time. In case you are not able to make it, please
don't worry, there will be more discussions and meetings in the next few
weeks.
Regards,
Krishna Chaitanya
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…
[2] https://t.me/wmboardgovernancechat
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…
Greetings,
We are still waiting to witness your creative way to celebrate Wikipedia's
20th Birthday celebration, write a poem, sing a song, draw a painting,
click a photograph and more..
For more information, kindly have a look at the event page: *"Wikipedia
20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
The event is still on till 14th February 2021.
We like to thank you for your immense contribution so far to our event
titled *"Wikipedia 20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
To know about already submitted creative work, kindly visit here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_20th_birthday>
Let's all be creative and celebrate Wikipedia20 birthday, *"the way I and
my family feels"*.
If you are interested to contribute please participate. Do feel free to
share the news and ask others to participate.
Namaste,
Rajeeb.
(U:Marajozkee)
Hello friends,
It's only 5 days left for Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021 (WMWM) submissions
to be closed. we have received quite a good response if you had planned to
submit your submission and not yet done. Please hurry up and submit them
before 24-01-2021. For more information, you can visit here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions>.
If you need any sort of help or if you have a concern about your
submissions please feel free to reach out to me.
Regards,
Jayanta Nath
on behalf of Wikimedia Wikimeet 2021 team.
Greetings,
We write to thank you for your immense contribution so far to our event
titled *"Wikipedia 20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
To give more time to participate we have decided to extend the contest for
four additional weeks and continue the celebration.
So the new date is now 14th February 2021.
To know about already submitted creative work, kindly visit here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_20th_birthday>
For more information, kindly have a look at the event page: *"Wikipedia
20th celebration the way I & my family feels"
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20th_celebration_the_way_I_%26_my…>*
Let's all be creative and celebrate Wikipedia20 birthday, *"the way I and
my family feels"*.
If you are interested to contribute please participate. Do feel free to
share the news and ask others to participate.
Namaste,
Rajeeb.
(U:Marajozkee)
Hello everyone,
We are excited to announce that registration for participation has been
opened for Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021, the upcoming online wiki-event
which is to be conducted from 19 – 21 February 2021 during the occasion of
International Mother Language Day. The registration will remain open until
16 February 2021.
You can register yourself here -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Registration
If you have any questions or comments please contact
wmwm(a)cis-india.org Otherwise,
please continue to follow our program and developments on Wikimedia
wikimeet 2021 on meta-wiki.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021
Please help us by forwarding this email to relevant lists!
Jayanta Nath
Greetings from CIS-A2K,
Its been 9 days since the Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021 (WMWM) submissions
started, we have received a good number of submissions. To know about the
current submissions visit here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions#C…>.
WMWM provides a great platform to the Indic communities to share about the
work which they are doing and to seek the help (if required). Assamese
people from India or any part of the world could join this event.
You can choose from the submissions in several formats such as
Presentation, Lightning talk, Panel discussion and Workshops to submit
proposals on any Wikimedia related topics you like, please visit here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions>
.
*About the event:*
WMWM is an upcoming online wiki-event which is to be conducted from 19 – 21
February 2021 during the occasion of International Mother Language Day. To
know more about the event here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021>.
Please feel free to ask me if you need any kind of help in submitting the
submissions.
Thanks and Regards,
*Jayanta Nath*
Wikisource Programme Officer
Access to Knowledge Programme <https://cis-india.org/a2k/cis-a2k>
The Centre for Internet & Society
Hello everyone,
We are excited to announce that submission for session proposals has been
opened for Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021, the upcoming online wiki-event
which is to be conducted from 19 – 21 February 2021 during the occasion of
International Mother Language Day. The submission will remain open until 24
January 2021.
You can submit your session proposals here -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions
A program team has been formed recently from highly experienced Wikimedia
volunteers within and outside India. It is currently under the process of
expansion to include more diversity in the team. The team will evaluate the
submissions, accept, modify or reject them, design and finalise the program
schedule by the end of January 2021. Details about the team will come soon.
We are sure that you will share some of your most inspiring stories and
conduct some really exciting sessions during the event. Best of luck for
your submissions!
Regards,
Jayanta
On behalf of WMWM India 2021
Hi all,
This is to update you all that Wikimedia Wikimeet 2021, the upcoming online
wiki-event which is to be conducted from 19 – 21 February 2021 during the
occasion of International Mother Language Day, will be open for submissions
for session proposals from tomorrow.
You can choose from the several formats of the sessions like Presentation,
Lightning talk, Panel discussion and Workshops to submit proposals on any
Wikimedia related topics you like.
A detailed guideline on how to submit session proposals will be shared very
soon.
Event details: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021
Thanks and Regards,
*ANANTH SUBRAY P V*
Programme Officer
Access to Knowledge Programme <https://cis-india.org/a2k/cis-a2k>
The Centre for Internet & Society
+91-9739811664
Hello everyone!
I'm glad to relay an exciting update from the Inuka team that should be
highly relevant to your community.
List admins, thanks for allowing this message on the list.
Everyone, if you have comments or questions, please direct them to Angie
directly.
Thanks, and be safe -- Elitre (WMF)
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Angie Muigai <amuigai(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2020 at 2:32 PM
Subject: KaiOS phone users can now experience Wikipedia through a dedicated
app!
Hi everyone,
My name is Angie and I work on the Inuka Team at the Wikimedia Foundation
(formerly the "New Readers" team). [1]
I wanted to share that there is now an additional way to browse Wikipedia
in India. As of a few weeks ago, there is a Wikipedia app available on
KaiOS in India, which is provided through Jiophones [2]. Jiophone users can
download and install the Wikipedia app on the JioStore. As of early
October, there have been over 1 million downloads.
This first release is focused on how to make it easier to read Wikipedia on
a phone that does not have a touch screen. The platform supports over 100
languages for reading, and we appreciate that volunteers have fully
translated the Wikipedia app user interface into several Indian languages
already. The app will continue to have updates and reach more countries
over time.
If you (or someone you know) own a Jiophone, please give the app a try by
downloading it from the JioStore. We would like to hear about your
experience with it. Let us know about issues or bugs through the in-app
feedback feature, through the project talk page [3], or through Phabricator
[4].
To enable the app to reach readers in even more Indian languages, we would
greatly appreciate additional translations of the user interface on
Translatewiki.net [5].
To know more about the app and our work, and why we believe this project is
so important to help us reach new users, you can see the main page for the
app [6] and the Questions and Answers page [7]. We welcome your comments,
suggestions, and feedback on the related talk page [3].
Lastly, please, do share this message on other venues of interest for your
fellow community members in India.
Kind regards,
Angie
Lead Product Manager, WMF Inuka team
Wikimedia Foundation
[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Inuka_team
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jio#JioPhone
[3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Wikipedia_for_KaiOS
[4]
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/task/edit/form/1/?tags=kaios-wi…
[5]
https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:MessageGroupStats&group=wik…
[6] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_for_KaiOS
[7] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_for_KaiOS/FAQ
--
*Angie Muigai*
Lead Product Manager
www.wikimediafoundation.org