Dear Wikimedians,
Hope all of you are doing well. We are writing this email to restart the
conversation to host the next WikiConference India.
As you may remember, some of our fellow Wikimedians started a conversation
regarding the next WCI in 2020 but due to the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic,
it couldn't go on stage. However, we are hoping to reinitiate this
discussion and for that, we need your involvement, suggestions, and support
to help organize a much-needed conference in February-March of 2023.
As you may remember, we have had two national-level conferences in India — the
first one in Mumbai in 2011[1], and the second one in Chandigarh in
2016[2]. Both the conferences had been effective in bringing diverse Indian
communities together for a collective effort. The cross-community
connections made during these conferences led to many collaborations across
the communities and further strengthens our work as a collective movement.
The Community Resources team at the Wikimedia Foundation published Global
Event Strategy[3] which stressed on more and regular regional conferences,
in 2022 conferences are being organized in other regions such as WikiIndaba,
CEE Meeting, North America, Iberocoop, Francophone convention, Wikiarabia,
ESEAP, etc. As a community, it is crucial to have a national
inter-community gathering annually or at least bi-annually. However, we
only had a single conference in the past six years.
The proposed 2023 conference will bring our energies, ideas, learnings, and
hopes together. It will help us in our journey towards better
collaborations, and diversified efforts and reinforce our identity as the
Indian Wikimedia community. This conference will enable us to have better
knowledge about current capacities, and gaps and also to build equitable
leadership. Apart from all these, providing a national-level platform for
Indian Wikimedians to connect, re-connect, and establish their
collaboration itself can be an essential purpose on its own- in the end, it
will empower us all to strategize, plan ahead and collaborate- as a
movement.
We hope we, the Indian Wikimedia Community members, come together in
various capacities and make this a reality. We believe we will take
learnings from earlier attempts, improve processes & use best practices in
conducting this conference purposefully and fruitfully.
Here is a survey form[4] to get your responses on the same notion. We would
like to know if you are interested in participating in a national-level
conference where we can meet and plan our next activities, and purposes,
learn new skills, come to know new ideas, and so on. We can proceed further
only when you respond to us, actively.
Please note: Unfortunately we are working with short timelines since the final
date of proposal submission is 5 September. We request you please fill out
the form by 28th August. After your responses, we can decide if we have the
communities' needs and support for the conference. We plan to reuse the
2020 proposal[5] and remodel it according to the current needs of the
community.
Please note that this organizing is not tied to a single community, we have
formed an initial group of volunteers from different language and technical
communities. For a national conference, we will of course be needing more
volunteers and support. The form linked above has a section to join the
organizing team if you are interested. We have created a Meta-Wiki page[6]
for initial conversations and endorsements to support if you are happy with
the idea of having the next WikiConference India in 2023. Please add your
comments and suggestions to the talk page[7] directly which will be
constantly monitored and updated once every 48 hours.
Look forward to hearing from you and also taking some collective steps
towards having us all together in 2023!
Thanks & Regards,
Nivas, Nitesh, Neechalkaran & Vasanth
Links:
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2011
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016
3.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2018/Reading_material#…
4. https://forms.gle/VMnqcy9Kd9yipGoC8
5.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/WikiConference_India_2020
6.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2023:_Initial_conversa…
7.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WikiConference_India_2023:_Initial_con…
Hello Wikimedians,
I would like to bring to your notice that CIS-A2K has job vacancies open
currently for the post of "Program Manager"
https://cis-india.org/jobs/a2k-programme-manager
We are looking for highly interested candidates ready to work with the
Access to Knowledge program team on programmatic activities and
contributors involving Wikimedia projects.
Deadline: 20 August 2022.
Please send your updated resume, and a cover letter to ajoy(a)cis-india.org
In the subject line clearly mention “A2K Programme Manager Application”.
Please share this across your circles too.
Thanks and Regards,
Jayanta Nath
on behalf of CIS-A2K team.
Hi Everyone,
Hope you are all well and safe! I wanted to take this moment to share two
key updates with you all!
*WIKIMANIA 2022- Register Now!*
<https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration>
I hope you are excited as we are for Wikimania 2022
<https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania> scheduled from the *11th
to 14th of August, 2022.* We are thrilled to announce that the *registrations
for Wikimania 2022* <https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration> are
now open, and would request you all to register yourself and share the same
with anyone who would want to join us for the *festivities.*
Wikimania 2022 will be built around a virtual program, but there'll be many
local in-person gatherings across the world including 5 in South Asia-
*Bengaluru, **Bhubaneswar, Mangalore, Madurai (India)** and Dhaka,
(Bangladesh)*- you can get more details here.
<https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/In-person_events> The virtual
programming for Wikimania 2022 will cater to participants across all
timezones, you can find out more about the program here.
<https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program>
Click here to know more about Wikimania
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania>- Wikimedia movement’s annual
conference celebrating all the free and open knowledge projects made
possible by the volunteer community.
____________________________________
*Introducing the Wikimedia Foundation’s 2023 Annual Plan*
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/07/26/introducing-the-wikimedia-foundations…>
Each year, the Wikimedia Foundation shares an annual plan of its priorities
and activities for the fiscal year, which currently runs from *July 2022 to
June 2023*. The Foundation’s current Annual Plan is now anchored in the two
strategic pillars of our movement strategy: *“knowledge equity”* and
“*knowledge
as a service*” and the *Annual Plan*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Ann…>
is
centered around four main goals.
The process of identifying these goals also included a month of feedback
and ‘two-way planning’ with Foundation staff and volunteers. There were
over *12,000* pageviews of the draft plan on Meta-wiki (4x increase from
last year) with *30+* contributors engaging on the talk page. Over
*750* community
members from all regions of the world (including South Asia) were reached
through conversations that included multilingual support in *15* languages.
You can find an appendix of the feedback we received
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Ann…>
in the final plan. This document is a starting point for what will be a
highly iterative process of doing and learning in the months ahead. We
invite your reflections and questions at any time on Meta.
________________________________
Happy reading and have a great week ahead!
--
Rachit Sharma (he/him)
Snr Global Movement Communications Specialist, South Asia
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
*Registration now OPEN for Wikimania 2022: The Festival Edition! Register
HERE <https://diff.wikimedia.org/wikimania-2022/>!*
Dear Proofreaders,
CIS-A2K is in a process to community survey and being conducted as part of a pilot study to collect baseline data on infrastructural needs of Wikisource platforms in India. The objective of the study is to identify current challenges and knowledge gaps in technological capacity, resources and training on Wikisource platforms in selected languages. Through an analysis of this data, the study aim will provide learnings and recommendations on potential strategies to address these gaps, including through collaborative intervention and training. You may read more about the study here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Research/Study_on_Infrastructural_N…
To design the programs based on the needs of the community and volunteers, we invite your valuable suggestions and thoughts. We would like to improve our working continuously taking into consideration the responses/feedback about the events conducted previously. We request you to go through the various sections in the form and respond.
Google form link - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSemIo2Ioc7vF-ksKNiPv3sYyXsSkfUvo0X…
Please write in detail. We would like to discuss over phone/email also if needed. Contact sneha(a)cis-india.org if you have a question(s) or for further details or detailed comment.
With best wishes,
Jayanta Nath
Centre for Internet & Society
Access to Knowledge Programme (CIS-A2K)
Hello Everyone,
Hope you are doing well and are safe.
As you may know, I work in the Movement Communications team
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Movement_Communications> at
the Wikimedia Foundation as a Senior Movement Communications Specialist
(South Asia). In the last few months I have got the opportunity to get
familiar with many of our community members and look forward to working
closely. (Here is my Meta Page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:RASharma_(WMF)>).
I am thrilled about sharing an incredible update with you- which I am sure
many of us have been waiting for-* Wikimania 2022!*
*Wikimania: The Festival Edition! *will be taking place on *11-14 August,
2022.* Wikimania is the Wikimedia movement’s annual conference celebrating
all the free and open knowledge projects made possible by the volunteer
community. The program will be multilingual, but this time with expanded
language support.
Furthermore, the Wikimania COT has announced the opening of *Affiliate
grants and individual scholarships:*
1. Wikimania 2022 will have a grants program for affiliates to fund the
organizing of Wikimania local events. These events could include local
meetups and watch parties, affiliate led sessions.
2. We are also offering scholarships for individual attendees to enable
their participation in Wikimania 2022. Scholarships can cover things like
childcare, meals, data packages and small hardware purchases.
*Deadline: 3rd June, 2022*
Click Here to know more
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/05/09/wikimania-2022-grants-and-program-sub…>
and
please feel free to reach out if you require any additional information or
support.
Let's bring the Wikimania 2022 Festival to life- together.
Best,
--
Rachit Sharma (he/him)
Snr Global Movement Communications Specialist, South Asia
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
*We help everyone share in the sum of all knowledge. *
*We are the people who keep knowledge free.*