Dear All,
The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is seeking applications for the post of Programme Officer, Pilot Projects for its Access to Knowledge (A2K) Programme. The position will be based in its Bangalore office. Programme Officer will collaboratively work with the A2K Team and would report to the Programme Director, Access to Knowledge at CIS.
Position Summary
As Programme Officer, Pilot Projects, your job will be to drive and support the growth of Indian language Wikipedias and its sister projects. Your primary responsibility will be to design and implement different pilot projects with an aim to create high quality content and cultivate new editors on different language Wikipedias in a time bound manner. One of the main pilots you will be spearheading immediately will be on ‘Indian Performing Arts’. The pilots will be premised on themes and seek to create a multi-lingual repository of knowledge using Wikimedia projects as knowledge platforms. In addition to this you will be anchoring the development and growth of at least one Indian language Wikipedia. You are encouraged to deeply engage with the A2K Work Plan before making the application.
You will work cohesively with the Wikimedia community and the Wikimedia India Chapter to meet specific goals of each language community in India. You will be a part of a small team of 5 to 6 doing high visibility and high impact work.
Responsibilities
Support India-focused initiatives to improve quality of India-relevant content and number of editors on Indian language Wikimedia projects.
Support the growth of Indian language Wikimedia communities and projects by designing and implementing community collaborations and partnerships pilot projects – detailing rationale, aim and objective, execution, evaluation, timeline, resource investment, etc.
Spearhead A2K’s pilot projects.
Identify institutions/groups that have ready-made content/archived material and aggregate available material in respective languages.
Create a network of state institutions, university departments, non-government organisations, academics, artists, researchers and wikipedia community members that will work towards creating a repository of knowledge on specific themes by using Wikimedia projects as a platform.
Conduct initial meetings with the principal investigators from each of the shortlisted institutions and share project idea.
Facilitate Wikimedia community involvement with the core network of institutions and principal investigators to collaboratively participate on specific content/area modules.
Create social media platforms for visibility of these projects and facilitate need-based technical and online support.
Conduct a series of wiki-training workshops for various nodes within the network.
Conduct periodic monitoring and evaluation of the pilot projects in progress.
Generate and document lessons from programme activities that can inform the work of Indian communities and similar programmes in other countries.
Providing ad hoc support to the Wikipedia community on all aspects of Indian languages as may be deemed necessary.
Candidate's Background & Experience
At least two to three years of professional experience with a strong track record of success in high performance organizations.
Prior experience of working with schools of performing arts and/or cultural departments.
A deep understanding of the varied cultural context of India.
Good understanding of the basics of program design and management.
Experience of working in a collaborative community (preferably online).
Strong academic results from highly-regarded university.
Strong understanding of the Internet and the forces that underpin the success of Wikipedia.
Active participation as a Wikimedia volunteer would be an asset, though not a prerequisite (must be prepared to demonstrate knowledge of how Wikipedia works in interviews).
Demonstrated experience working in a global, multi-cultural team environment.
Good writing skills in English and Indic languages and must be fluent in English and at least one Indic language.
Women are strongly encouraged to apply.
Characteristics of the Programme Officer
High level of commitment: The Programme Officer should believe in the values of CIS and Wikimedia projects, exude enthusiasm for the mission and can powerfully embody and communicate the mission.
Intellectual curiosity and flexibility: Must enjoy tackling difficult, ambiguous problems and able to incorporate new knowledge into how one approaches situations and generates solutions, loves learning from others while expanding intellectual horizons.
Open and transparent: Have a high level of integrity and be comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion, open to input and feedback, a proactive and candid communicator who wants people to know what s/he is doing and isn't afraid to bring others in when things are off-track or when you need help and should able to handle criticism in a mature fashion.
Community builder: It is essential that the Programme Officer sees herself/himself as a partner to and supporter of the Wikimedians who have and will continue to be the leaders in building the Wikimedia projects. The Programme Officer must be willing and able to work with a diverse array of people, many of whom come from non-traditional backgrounds and have a fervent commitment to Wikimedia’s community-led nature.
Strong cultural competency: Able to navigate in a global movement and on a global team in addition to navigating the complexity of India.
Partnership developer: Able to initiate, negotiate and operate partnerships that advance the Wikimedia mission in Indic languages and English (as relevant to India) with a wide range of institutions across the public, NGO, universities, philanthropic and private sector.
Willing to travel: The Programme Officer must regularly travel within India to engage with Wikimedia communities and partner with institutions.
Location: The position is based out of the CIS Bangalore office.
Remuneration: Compensation structure will be determined by the level of expertise, experience and current remuneration.
To apply, please send your resume to T. Vishnu Vardhan (vishnu(a)cis-india.org).
You can also find the job posting on our website (http://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-pilot-projects-access-to-knowle…). Please feel free to share this mail with your networks.
Thanks
Nitika Tandon
Program Manager
Access to Knowledge
The Centre for Internet & Society
Dear all,
Apologies for sending across a proprietary format
attachment. Pasting the contents of the newsletter in text format here.
--Access to Knowledge - Bulletin - March '13--
ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE
BULLETIN - MARCH 2013
Wikimedia Foundation, beginning from September 1,
2012, awarded the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) a two-year grant
of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India.
Consequently, Wikimedia Foundation's India Program became the Access to
Knowledge (A2K) program of CIS. In the third issue of our newsletter for
2013, we are pleased to bring you updates from the Indic Wikipedia
Visualisation project, reports of events organised in Goa, and press
coverage of the Kannada Wikipedia Workshop held in Mysore.
The A2K
team consists of four members based in Delhi: T. Vishnu Vardhan, Nitika
Tandon, Subhashish Panigrahi and Noopur Raval, and one member Dr. U.B.
Pavanaja who is working from Bangalore office. Archives of our
newsletters are here.
Wikipedians from various communities can request
for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media,
public relations and communications at http://bit.ly/TOcXId.
# Indic
Wikipedia Visualisation Project
* Visualising Basic Parameters [1]
(by Sajjad Anwar and Sumandro Chattapadhyay, March 26, 2013): Sajjad and
Sumandro bring you a visualisation of the growth of Indic Wikipedia in
this first post on Indic Wikipedia Visualisation project.
# Events
Organised
* Introductory Wikipedia session at BITS Goa [2]
(organised by CIS, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, Goa,
March 7, 2013). The Access to Knowledge team was invited by Nikhil Dixit
from BITS to organise a Wikipedia editing session. Nitika Tandon led the
editing session.
* Kannada Wikipedia Workshop [3] (organised by CIS,
Institution of Engineers, JLB Road, Mysore, March 24, 2013). Dr. U.B.
Pavanaja led the event.
# Events Co-organised
* Wiki Women's Day in
Goa [4] (organised by the Wikimedia India Chapter and CIS, Nirmala
Institute of Education, Panaji, Goa, March 8, 2013). Nitika Tandon
participated in this workshop held on International Working Women's Day,
and shares the developments in this report.
* Wikipedia Workshop for
Kannada Science Writers [5] (organised by Wikimedia Chapter India,
Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishath and CIS, Karnataka Rajya Vijnana
Parishath Conference Hall, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore, March 17,
2013). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja participated in the event.
# Upcoming Event
(Co-organised)
* Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam 2013 [6] (co-organised with
the Telegu Wikipedia community, Hyderabad, April 9 to 11, 2013). Vishnu
Vardhan is participating in this event as a speaker. A public event will
be held on April 11 from 5.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. at Golden Threshold
(Sarojini Naidu's house) in Hyderabad.
# Events Participated In
*
Wikipedia Women's Workshop Bangalore 2013 [7] (organised by Wikimedia
India, Servelots Infotech, Jayanagar, Bangalore, March 8, 2013). The
event was covered by Kannada Prabha [8] on March 9, 2013. Dr. U.B.
Pavanaja participated in the event.
* Wikipedia at Avenir [9]
(organised by the Wikipedia community, Netaji Subhash Engineering
College, Kolkata, West Bengal, March 11, 2013). Dr. T. Vishnu Vardhan
participated in this event.
# Event Report from Other Organisations
Wikipedia Community members helped the Higher Education Innovation and
Research Applications Programme (HEIRA) of CSCS Bangalore organize a
day-long workshop on 'Digital Literacy' at Ahmednagar College,
Ahmednagar, Maharasthra on January 17, 2013. Tanveer Hasan of HEIRA
shares with us the developments in this report [10].
# Media Coverage
* Kannada Wikipedia Workshop, Mysore [11] (Prajavani, March 25,
2013).
*About CIS [12]*
CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore
in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs
different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to
Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. The policy
research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the e-Accessibility
Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities [13] with ITU and G3ict,
and Digital Alternatives with a Cause? [14], Thinkathon Position Papers
[15] and the Digital Natives with a Cause? Report [16] with Hivos, etc.
We have conducted policy research for the Ministry of Communications &
Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry
of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice
and Empowerment, etc., on WIPO Treaties [17], Copyright Bill [18], NIA
Bill [19], etc.
CIS is accredited as an observer at WIPO. CIS staff
participates in the Standing Committee for Copyright and Related Rights
(SCCR) meetings regularly held in Geneva, and participate in the
discussions and comments on them from a public interest perspective. Our
Policy Director, Nirmita Narasimhan won the National Award for
Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities [20] from the Government of
India and also received the NIVH Excellence Award [21].
*Follow us
elsewhere*
* Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter [22]
*
Join the CIS group on Facebook [23]
* Visit us at http://cis-india.org
[24]
*Support Us*
Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on
the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and
Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage,
Bengaluru - 5600 71.
*Request for Collaboration*
We invite
researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and
as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and
improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research
collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at
sunil(a)cis-india.org [25] or Nishant Shah, Director - Research, at
nishant(a)cis-india.org [26]
_CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia
Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation
and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma
Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and
support for most of its projects._
Thank you,
Best,
Noopur Raval
Links:
------
[1]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/indic-wikipedia-visualisation-project-vi…
[2]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wikipedia-session-at-bits-goa
[3]
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/kannada-wikipedia-workshop
[4]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wiki-womens-day-in-goa
[5]
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-workshop-for-kannada-science…
[6]
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/telegu-wiki-mahotsavam-2013
[7]
http://cis-india.org/news/wikipedia-womens-workshop-bangalore-2013
[8]
http://cis-india.org/news/wikipedia-womens-workshop-bangalore-2013
[9]
http://cis-india.org/news/wikipedia-at-avenir
[10]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/ahmednagar-marathi-wikipedia-workshop-re…
[11]
http://cis-india.org/news/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-report-in-prajavani
[12]
http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/
[13]
http://cis-india.org/about/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-hand…
[14]
http://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook
[15]
http://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers
[16]
http://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-…
[17]
http://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disa…
[18]
http://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012
[19]
http://cis-india.org/about/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback…
[20]
http://cis-india.org/about/accessibility/blog/national-award
[21]
http://cis-india.org/about/news/nirmita-nivh-award
[22]
https://twitter.com/cis_india
[23]
http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/
[24]
http://cis-india.org
[25] mailto:sunil@cis-india.org
[26]
mailto:nishant@cis-india.org
Dear All,
It’s with deep regret that I announce the resignation of Noopur Raval as Programme Officer CIS-A2K Team.
The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) would like to thank her for all her valuable contributions to the Wikimedia movement. Noopur has been a great asset to the A2K team. We'd like to thank her for all her leadership and work in the past year around PR, communications, GLAM, outreach and social media. In her formal capacity Noopur has worked to promote Wikimedia movement in India for over a year. We're hoping that she'll continue to be a part of the movement as a treasured volunteer.
It is with warmest regards that CIS wishes her best in all her future endeavors. Please join us as we bid a fond farewell to Noopur and and send her off with hopes for more success and fulfillment. I will personally retain many wonderful memories working with her.
In a day or two CIS-A2K Team will send out an advertisement for the opening of Programme Officer which has been created due to Noopur's departure.
Thanks
Nitika Tandon
Program Manager
Access to Knowledge
The Centre for Internet & Society