There's been some discussion on this list of an Economic Times article
that appeared a few days ago
(
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/internet/Wikipedia-may-soon-op…)
and seeing as I am apparently quoted in the article, I thought I'd
clarify a few things.
On the ET article:
1) I did not in fact speak to the Economic Times - the quotes they've
attributed to me are their own summaries of discussions that I've had
with you and others on this mailing list and on the strategy project
wiki (
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Task_force/India) as well as an
interview with Bridgespan, the consultants who are working with the
Wikimedia Foundation on this strategy exercise
(
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interviews/Achal_Prabhala). A pity
that ET didn't think it necessary to make contact; I could have put them
on to Wikipedians on this list, and if they had spoken to you, I think
it would have made for a more complete article.
On the India chapter:
2) As most of you know, there have been discussions around starting up
an India chapter since about 2004. As you also know, the early
initiatives stalled. In 2008, Jimmy Wales and Sue Gardner visited Kochi,
Bangalore and Chennai - and during that visit, were able to stir up
considerable enthusiasm among Wikipedians to get a chapter going. Since
that time, I have helped a few interested Wikipedians to set up the
infrastructure for a future Indian Wikimedia chapter - a few good people
who were unwise enough to sign up for a long slog through the annals of
bureaucracy, and who were furthermore willing to devote the better part
of 2009 to understanding the minutiae of Indian tax law! (Not to mention
extended - and extremely useful - discussions with the Wikimedia
Chapters Committee).
3) The people who have been involved in the exercise thus far are:
Gautam John (gkjohn at gmail dot com), Anirudh Singh Bhati
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sir_Nicholas_de_Mimsy-Porpington),
Anoop (anoop dot ind at gmail dot com), Arjuna Rao Chavala (arjunaraoc
at googlemail dot com), Arun Ram (arunram25 at gmail dot com), Hari
Prasad Nadig (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:HPN), BalaSundaraRaman
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sundar) and Kiruba Shankar (kiruba at
kiruba dot com). The institution in India which has been helping them,
along with me, is a Bangalore-based organisation that many of you might
already be familiar with: the Centre for Internet and Society
(
www.cis-india.org). CIS is a non-profit that works to broaden the scope
of the internet and related technologies in India; it has been providing
weekly space for Wikipedia meet-ups, as well as some financial
assistance with the actual drafting of registration documents.
4) As you have pointed out, the information on meta is not up to date.
This, in part, is because the folks who have been working so hard on
getting a chapter registered are yet to formulate an acceptable draft of
the bye-laws to share with the broader Wikipedian community. However,
they will soon have that information ready, and welcome your feedback
and suggestions. Starting from the beginning of next week, the meta page
will reflect the current status of chapter development, and a draft of
bye-laws will be available for public comment by anyone interested in
contributing to the process. Meanwhile, and after, please feel free to
contact any of the people listed above for specific information that you
might want.
5) Finally, a word on participation. It hardly needs saying that the
ensuing Indian Wikimedia chapter is an entity that requires - and needs
- the participation of every single Wikipedian who is interested in
contributing time, energy and ideas. The work and administration of the
chapter will be transparent, democratic and open; it will function in
exactly the way you decide it should. I'm looking forward to it, as I am
to seeing your ideas for Wikimedia in India take shape.
Cheers.