Hello all,
We hope that you are doing well. We wanted to inform you that A2K has started an internet support program for the Wikimedians in India from 1 June 2021. This will continue till 31 August 2021. It is a part of Project Tiger, this time we have begun with the internet support, writing contest and other things that will follow afterwards.
You can visit the event page ink: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Internet_support_for_Wikimedians_in_India
You may also see the FAQ section: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Internet_support_for_Wikimedians_in_India#F…
For reviewing the applications, there is a committee that will make decisions for the applications. After the committee's response, support will be provided. For more information please visit the event page (linked above). Before applying, please read the criteria and the application procedure. Please go through the page and apply if you find you are eligible for applying. Please also share this information with others as well.
Stay safe, stay connected,
Thanks & Regards,
Jayanta
Dear Wikimedians,
As part of its ongoing program to support Wikimedians in India during the
COVID-19 pandemic, CIS-A2K will provide support with access to counselling
services to community members, in order to address mental health concerns
resulting from the stress and anxiety of coping with the pandemic The A2K
team has collaborated with the Institute of Psychological Health
<https://www.healthymind.org/> to provide the counselling support.
A2K would endeavour to provide support under this component of the
programme as follows :
1) Awareness/Orientation Session on Mental Health and the Pandemic
This session will be organised online and will be open to all Wikimedians
in India looking to understand more about mental health concerns that are
prevalent at the present time, due to pandemic-related anxiety, stress and
trauma. The details of the session will be announced here shortly, with a
link to a separate event page.
2) *Individual *Counselling Sessions
Interested Wikimedians who wish to apply for this support may fill out
this application
form. <https://forms.gle/WXLj2cR4jie6r1pc6>
For more details of this programme, please visit this meta page -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_support_for_Wikimedians/India/COVI…
With best wishes,
Jayanta
On behalf of A2K team,
Centre for Internet & Society - Access to Knowledge Programme
Hello,
The second session of Stay Safe Stay connected, a lightweight interaction
zone for the Wikimedians in India, will take place on Saturday 5 June 2021
at 5 pm to 6:30 pm IST (11:30 am to 1:00 pm UTC). Please see the event page
here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stay_safe,_stay_connected#Session_II
This will be a Wikisource community fraternity meeting where Wikisource
editors can meet and talk to each other. We may speak about the ongoing and
upcoming Wikisource projects, share interesting news and updates around
Wikisource.
Wikisource editors from all around India are expected to be attending the
call. User:VIGNERON, French Wikisource editor, and User:Samwilson, from
English Wikisource, will be attending. If you are a Wikisource editor or
enthusiast, please join this Wikisource community call.
Please fill this short form, if you are interested to attend:
https://forms.gle/e85k84tX4oroKkjx7
For any query, please email wmwm(a)cis-india.org
Stay safe, stay connected.
Regards,
Jayanta
Note:
1) The session will be hosted on Zoom and this session will be recorded.
2) Please feel free to speak in your native language during the call.
That's cool. We'll try to translate.
3) In the open session or during the discussion, you may speak about
your/your community's Wikisource work. If you want to show any page/project
keep the link handy.
Hello,
Hope this email finds you safe in this difficult time. Many people and
Wikimedians have been affected or have suffered a loss. In an effort to
ensure community solidarity where Wikimedians can meet and talk to each
other, we are starting a lightweight interaction zone for the Wikimedians
in India. This interaction zone is named "Stay Safe Stay Connected".
Please see the event page here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stay_safe,_stay_connected
The first talk will be on Saturday, 22 May 2021, 7 pm to 8 pm IST (1:30 pm
to 2:30 pm UTC). Asaf Bartov will be the guest of the session. Asaf is a
familiar name and he has been a mentor to many Wikimedians in India. This
will be a lightweight discussion on general Wiki-topic (note the exact
agenda will be updated on the event page before the event)
We invite you to join the first talk. The session will be hosted on Zoom.
Please fill this short form, if you are interested to attend the first
interactive talk on 22 May 2021
https://forms.gle/e85k84tX4oroKkjx7
Please follow the event page for updates. Stay safe, stay connected!
Regards,
Jayanta
Hello, everyone.
TLDR:
The Board of Trustees’ Community Affairs Committee
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Comm…>
(CAC) is hosting its first office hour on May 13, 2021, at 19:00 UTC (check
for your local time <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1620928828>)!
Now in more details:
What are we announcing?
The CAC is a new Board of Trustees
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees>
committee established to assess, explore and address current and future
community-related efforts. The Committee's Charter
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Affairs_Committee_Charter>
lists its full responsibilities, with the first 3 being a priority for this
coming year.
As part of our commitment to foster better communications with the
Wikimedia Movement Community, and based on feedback received from community
members requesting more availability from the Board of Trustees, the CAC
will be hosting its first Office hours.
When & Where?
The Office hours will be held on May 13 2021, at 19:00 UTC (check for your
local time <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1620928828>) via Zoom. At least
3 Trustees, as well as relevant WMF staff, will be in attendance. The
session will be streamed live and recorded, so those who cannot participate
live will be able to watch later.
How will it work?
The meeting will last for 60 minutes and an additional 30 minutes of an
“open room”. The first 60 minutes will be divided into 45 minutes of
structured Q & A (based on either update from the CAC and questions sent by
the community in advance). The final 15 minutes will be in the “ask us
anything” format, with live participation. We will be monitoring live
YouTube, Wikipedia Weekly Facebook group
<https://www.facebook.com/groups/553393111375191> and the Wikimedia General
Chat Telegram group <https://t.me/WikimediaGeneral> and the talk page on
Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Comm…>.
The structure is meant to enable the CAC to not only update the community
on current matters the Board is working on, but also hear directly from the
community, which will help inform the Committee’s future work.
Setting the agenda with your Questions
In order to be as efficient as possible, and since we anticipate that some
questions will require answers from WMF Staff, we are encouraging community
members to send questions in advance. Please send all questions to
askcac(a)wikimedia.org, by Friday, May 7th (midnight, whatever time zone you
may be in). The office hour agenda will be based on the main topics related
to the questions received. We will share this agenda on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Comm…>
on May 12, including the final names of Trustees in attendance.
How to register?
For security reasons and specifically to avoid Zoombombing
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoombombing>, we will be sending the Zoom
link only to people who have registered in advance close to the meeting. In
order to register, please send an email to askcac(a)wikimedia.org, indicating
your name, username, affiliation if you have any. The title should be:
“Registration for the May 13th CAC Office Hours”.
Please note --
-
This is the first time that the Board is attempting something of the
sort. This is an experiment. We’ll see how it goes - how many people are
interested in attending, timing, translation needs etc -- and make
decisions about future meetings / changes to format accordingly.
-
The session will be moderated based on the Universal Code of Conduct
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct>
-
Universally blocked users will not be allowed in the room, but can still
participate by watching live and sending questions in real-time.
Please help us spread the word by sharing this message with your
local/online communities.
Hoping to see as many of you as possible,
Krishna Chaitanya
Hello Wikimedians,
We are all passing through a very difficult time as the second wave of
COVID-19 has hit hard throughout the country. It is a bitter and hard truth
that many of us have lost our loved ones, close friends, relatives,
neighbours already. Some of us have faced economic difficulties due to loss
of jobs, losses in businesses, huge hospitalization expenses etc.
In the midst of this crisis, a support program has been initiated to
provide some reliefs to our Wikimedia volunteers residing in India. The
program will support the following -
1. Reimbursement of vaccination costs
2. Sending of COVID-19 protection kits
3. Counseling by experts
The support will be provided by CIS-A2K. The vaccination expenses will be
reimbursed as early as April 30, 2021. The COVID-19 protection kits will
get couriered within a week or more, depending on various logistical
factors. The team will try to support the more vulnerable section of the
community first.
Volunteers are requested to fill up this Google Form to request support -
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYcjEeuT7vUxP3NJg7KfIiZaude9IXLyC…
If you do not need this kind of support but you know some volunteers from
your community who are in dire need, you can nominate them too through this
form or mail the support team directly. Affiliate contacts and community
leaders are also kindly requested to help identify the volunteers who need
the support the most.
You can find more details about the support program here -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_support_for_Wikimedians/India
Please read the FAQ subpage too -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_support_for_Wikimedians/India/FAQ
The support team would also like to emphasise that,
a) there might be some delay in sending support as there are lockdowns in
different parts of the country and there is scarcity or non-availability of
different items in the market,
b) there might be some unintentional or unexpected errors from the team, as
this is the first time, this kind of support is being set up for Indian
Wikimedia volunteers and the team does not have prior experience to deal
with this kind of global health situation before.
c) the team members are also facing the same critical situation like
everyone else; there are possibilities that they can become sick sooner or
later, which might hamper the support to some extent.
That's why the team would like to request you to understand the limitations
and assume good faith that any failure to serve sometimes would be due to
situations beyond control.
If you want to contact us directly for any questions, concerns,
suggestions, help etc. you can mail us directly at wmwm(a)cis-india.org .
Let's join hands to overcome this situation.
Regards,
Jayanta
On behalf of the COVID-19 support team
Dear Wikimedians of Nepal,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met last week to decide on a
plan for the 2021 Board elections. The Board Governance Committee created a
proposal based on the report of Call for Feedback about Community Board
Seats
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Boa…>[1].
The
full proposal
<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/83/BGC_Community_Truste…>[2]
is available on Foundation Wiki. The Board wants to thank the more than 800
volunteers that participated in the Call for Feedback in one way or
another. It has been very difficult to decide on every open question
considering the quantity and diversity of opinions received. We hope this
resolution feels sensible to everybody.
The summary of the proposal is as follows:
1. The Board drafts a call for candidates that includes details about
the skills and experience that are currently represented on the Board
(excluding trustees whose terms are expiring) and that the Board would like
the selected trustees to have.
2. The Foundation devotes resources to informing communities of the
trustee selection process and encouraging people from emerging and
underrepresented communities to run as candidates.
3. As part of their self-nomination process, candidates fill out the
trustee evaluation form.
4. The Foundation continues to devote resources to invite communities to
participate in the selection process by engaging candidates during the
campaign period and by voting.
5. Community members vote and their votes are counted using a *proportional
voting system* chosen by the Elections Committee.
6. The Foundation conducts the usual vetting of the selected candidates
(background check and communications review).
7. The Board appoints the selected candidates for whom the vetting
process did not reveal any significant issues.
This proposal does not suggest implementing quotas or hard requirements for
candidate skills or experience for the 2021 round of community trustee
selection. Instead, it relies on the more detailed information from the
Board in the call for feedback, the community outreach efforts, and the
proportional voting system to meet the Board’s needs in terms of skills and
diversity. However, it also contemplates potentially adding or changing
elements to the process for future rounds of trustee selection, based on an
assessment of the effectiveness this first time.
The draft timeline is as follows:
1. April 15: Board meets to consider and approve this proposal
2. April - May: Elections Committee and staff plan the details of the
selection process
3. June 1-2: Board meets and approves the call for candidates
4. June 8 - 29: Call for candidates; candidate outreach
5. June 29 - July 20: Candidates campaign and answer questions;
community outreach
6. July 20 - August 3: Voting; community outreach
7. August 3 - 10: Vote counting and processing
8. August 10 - 24: Foundation vetting of selected candidates
9. August / September: Board appoints selected candidates
Please go through the full proposal[2] for further details, and let me know
if you have any questions. In the upcoming days, the Board elections
facilitation team will share their ideas to support candidates and voters.
Best,
Krishna Chaitanya
[1] Call for Feedback report:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Boa…
[2] Full proposal:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/83/BGC_Community_Truste…
Dear Wikimedians of Nepal,
As part of the Small wiki toolkits (South Asia) initiative, we would like
to announce the third workshop of this year on “Designing responsive main
pages”. The workshop will take place on 30 April (Friday). During this
workshop, we will learn to design main pages of a wiki to be responsive.
This will allow the pages to be mobile-friendly, by adjusting the width and
the height according to various screen sizes.
Participants are expected to have a good understanding of Wikitext/markup
and optionally basic CSS.
Details of the workshop are as follows:
- Date: 30 April (Friday)
- Timings: 18:15 to 19:15 (NPT)
- Meeting link: https://meet.google.com/zfs-qfvj-hts
- to add this to your Google Calendar, please use click here
<https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=NmR2ZHE1bWF1cWQyam4…>
.
If you are interested, please sign-up on the registration page at
https://w.wiki/3CGv.
Note: We are providing modest internet stipends to attend the workshops,
for those who need and wouldn't otherwise be able to attend. More
information on this can be found on the registration page.
Regards,
Small wiki toolkits - South Asia organizers
Dear Wikimedians,
The Community Resilience & Sustainability
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resilience_and_Sustainability>
team at the Wikimedia Foundation is hosting a new office hour led by its
Vice President Maggie Dennis
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mdennis_(WMF)>. Topics within scope
for this call include Movement Strategy coordination (recently transferred
to CR&S), Trust and Safety (and the Universal Code of Conduct), Community
Development, and Human Rights. Come with your questions or feedback, and
let’s talk! You can also send us your questions in advance in any language.
The meeting will be on April 17 (Saturday) at 15:00 UTC (check your local
time <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1618671635>).
You can check all the details on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2020-04-17>. If
you want to participate verbally from the Zoom call, please ask for the
link at answers(a)wikimedia.org, at least an hour in advance of the meeting's
start (please use "Office hour" as the subject line).
Regards,
Krishna Chaitanya