[Foundation-l] Welcome to the India Team! : Shiju & Nitika

[Patricia Pena]

Welcome Shiju and Nitika. We are thrilled to have the both of you around!!!
:)

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 12:17 AM, Hisham Mundol <hmundol at wikimedia.org>wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> I'm really pleased to send out this email welcoming the first 2 new members
> of the India Programs team.  Just before I introduce them, I thought I'd
> share with you the background of their selection.
>
> Context
>
> As you might be aware, the Foundation had decided to undertake a catalyst
> operation in India to promote the growth of the community and projects here.
>  The team is expected to be a small, nimble 5 person group.  We had put out
> 2 job postings - for Indic Initiatives and for Participation.  (Please
> refer:
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-May/003007.html)
>  We posted them on linkedin and on the Indian FOSS community list as well as
> announcing them on various Facebook pages and Twitter feeds.
>
> The response was wonderful.  >110 applications for Indic Initiatives and
> nearly 175 applications for Participation.  These were short-listed to 10 (3
> for Indic Language and 7 for Participation.)  These were a mix of existing &
> previous Wikipedians, Wikipedia newbies and open source advocates.
>
> In June, the shortlisted 10 were interviewed and further down-selected to
> 4.  These 4 were then further interviewed by a group of other staff members
> from the Foundation.  I am pleased to inform the community of the final
> selected 2.
>
> Shiju Alex - Indic Initiatives
>
> Most of you already know Shiju. For those who don't, Shiju is a long-time
> Wikipedian [User: shijualex] and is active on Malayalam Wikipedia, English
> wikiprojects and Wikimedia Commons, as well as Wikisource and offline.  He
> has been passionately involved with the establishing and building of Indic
> language Wikipedias.  He's participated in a series of outreach activities
> and is also (jointly) undertaking a grant from the Foundation for outreach
> across India.  He's a regular member of the Bangalore community.
>
> Shiju is from Palakkad, Kerala and is married with a 2 year old baby.  He
> currently works as a Senior Technical Writer with ABB in Bangalore.
>
> Even those of you who know him might not know the following 2 things that I
> was lucky to discover during the selection process.  Shiju is an MSc in
> Physics with a specialisation in Astronomy and Astrophysics - and he retains
> a deep interest in anything astronomical.  Feel free to quiz him vigorously
> on this!  He also enjoys trekking and misses his time in Pune where he could
> be up & close the gorgeous Sahyadri Hills.
>
> Shiju is going to lead our work on promoting Indic language projects across
> India.  The challenges are enormous - from technical constraints to low
> levels of awareness of these projects to vibrant but nascent communities.
>  However, these only point to the massive size of the opportunity for Indic
> language projects - which is the joint top-2 strategic priority of the
> movement in India.  After he joins, he'll collaboratively put together a
> plan for Indic language projects and work towards quality execution of
> high-impact initiatives.
>
> Shiju is currently serving out his notice period so will be able to join us
> only around September - October.
>
> Nitika Tandon - Participation
>
> Nitika [User:nitika.t] is relatively newer to the community - and has been
> brushing up her editing.  She's been immersing herself in the Wikimedia
> world and attended community meet-ups as well as reviews of the Wikipedia
> India Education Program.  She is from Delhi - and is currently based in
> Mumbai - where she works as a Strategic Partnerships Manager with Directi.
> (If you're not aware, they are one of the most prominent internet domain &
> solutions providers in India.)
>
> Nitika has an MBA and has also worked on research analytics.  A fascinating
> detail I discovered about a previous assignment of hers - and you must ask
> her about it - is how African drums can be used for management coaching!
>  She also reliably informs me that there are 7 Spanish dance forms and she
> instructs in all of them!
>
> Nitika is going to be working on Participation - which is primarily
> focussed on increasing the contributor base of non-Indic language projects,
> primarily Wikipedia.   One of her first tasks will be to expand the
> Wikipedia India Education Program from the Pune pilot to a more national
> footprint.  She'll also work on other initiatives to promote participation -
> and I can foresee Wikimedia Commons being a potential initiative.
>
> Nitika will join us on August 1st.
>
> Introductions
>
> I'm going to be scheduling the August Monthly India Programs IRC on
> Thursday August 18th @ 9pm IST to introduce them both to the community.
>  Please do join us.  Also, needless to say, they'll be attending a series of
> community meet-ups over the next months.
>
> In the meantime, please do join me in welcoming them onboard. I'm really
> excited because this means that we will now have the capacity and capability
> to dramatically accelerate our activities in India.
>
> Warmest Regards,
>
> Hisham Mundol
>
> Wikimedia India Programs
> skype   : hisham.wikimedia
> gtalk           : hmundol at wikimedia.org
> twitter : @mundol
>
> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
> sum of all knowledge.  Help us make it a reality!
>
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-- 
Pats Pena | Community Department Operations Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
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