[Wikimediaindia-l] Chapter-Foundation: Co-Ordination Calls / Meeting - Updates & Minutes

Sun Dec 11 05:00:51 UTC 2011

Hi Srikanth R,

Please allow me to share my view.

On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 11:39 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan <
parakara.ghoda at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hisham, I don't understand why the Executive Committee offer to be
> informed 48 HOURS in advance of the community. Isn't Wikipedia a
> community based system? If the chapter or trust is everything then
> what is the community sitting here to do? I know I sound rude, but I
> fail to understand why some people get prior preference. Especially
> after I spend an entire day talking to newcomers telling them that
> everyone in Wiki is equal.
>

I am some times puzzled by assumption  that people have about   Wikipedia
policies for individuals related to editing a wiki page online apply
equally to real world Wikimedia organisations with accountabilties to
various stakeholders including Government.  I am also concerned about  the
assumed separation between community and chapter based on some recent mails
to the India list.

Let me elaborate my thoughts on this.

Chapter members including EC members are part of community and serve
Community and the movement.  It is just the level and structure of
engagement of a person that determines whether he/she is part of  Chapter.
If a person reads Wikipedia, he/she is member of  community. If a person
contributes to Wikipedia, he/she is part of smaller subset of
communitycalled editors. If a person would like to promote Wikipedia
in real world,
he could do as an individual or become a member of chapter,  leverage the
benefits of the legal entity called "Wikimedia chapter", get affiliated
with SIGs  and  contribute.

Chapter IRC is open for everyone. Even membership is open for every Indian
aged above 18. So I would request everyone to treat Chapter as a subset of
community with more focus on growing the movement in real world.

Coming to your specific question about the plan for  sharing public
communications in advance, here is my view. As I understand, Trust is an
independent legal entity contributing to Wikimedia movement in India. So
the coordination calls are a mechanism to share plans and issues so that
the overall effectiveness can be improved.  Advance notice for any public
communication was agreed so that  each entity could provide the other
feedback if any, if such communication were to attribute some things to the
other or lead to confusion in the stakeholders.  It is mutual. I am sorry
the minutes did not reflect the same, though it was discussed and agreed.

Hope the above helps.  I request Hisham to share his view as well.

Cheers

Arjuna Rao Chavala
President, Wikimedia India

>
> On 06/12/2011, Hisham <hisham at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> > Dear All
> >
> > As you might be aware, we've been have a monthly call between the India
> > Chapter and India Programs team.  Since we last updated you, we have had
> 2
> > calls and also a face-to-face meeting after WikiConference.  Here's an
> > update on these meetings.
> >
> > I must beforehand apologize for being so late on updating you on these
> calls
> > / meetings.  Shall endeavor to be more on schedule going forward.
> >
> > Do share your feedback and comments.  Do let us know if there are any
> > clarifications we can provide.
> >
> > Thursday November 9th (Voice Conference) [Arjun, Arun, Naveen, Sudhanwa,
> > Tinu, Asaf & Hisham]
> >
> > India Programs Update
> >
> > India Trust has been set up and a formal announcement will be made
> shortly
> > on this matter.
> > India Education Program has encountered significant problems with regard
> to
> > copy-pasted material.  While efforts have been made (including asking for
> > help from Online Ambassadors), in-class sessions from Campus Ambassadors
> (in
> > almost every single class of the program), asking for intervention from
> > faculty, asking students only to work on sandboxes, etc., the situation
> > remained particularly serious at College of Engineering, Pune. As a
> result,
> > the program was suspended at this college.  It currently runs at 1 class
> at
> > Symbiosis School of Economics (while the other classes there have
> concluded
> > their assignments) and at 1 class at SNDT Women's University.
> > Specifically, the lessons learnt on the pilot were discussed.  These
> > included scale, choice of faculty, choice of classes, inadequate
> engagement
> > and communication with en-wp community, modifications to Campus
> Ambassador
> > training going forward, modifications to student training going forward,
> > etc. It was pointed out that a comprehensive and honest learnings
> exercise
> > would be undertaken.
> > Recruitment of additional team members (for Communications and for Team
> > Support) have been delayed because the right candidate was not available.
> > The initial work on the Indic Languages initiatives would start off with
> > preliminary discussions and data analysis of the various language
> projects.
> > This will help to build a picture with both experience and data of the
> > current state, challenges, opportunities and potential of the various
> > projects.  Eventually, the objective will be to identify potential pilots
> > and language communities that might be interested in these pilots.
> > Chapter Update
> >
> > Arjun said that as Wikipedia is always evolving with contributions of
> > community, any project needs to be carefully planned and executed to
> > minimize the load on community. We had some experiences with Google
> > Translate project, which received adverse reaction from wikipedian
> > community. Even if Foundation undertakes an initiative, there is a
> > possibility of similar adverse response. He hoped that we can use this
> > experience to improve future project planning.
> >
> > Sunday November 20th (Face to Face Meeting) [Arjun, Arun, Naveen,
> Sudhanwa,
> > Tinu, Barry & Hisham]
> >
> > India Programs Update
> >
> > Point of View was shared about the nature of communication and
> co-operation
> > between the Chapter and India Programs.  It was pointed out that all the
> > activities of India Programs have been in line with the publicly
> available
> > page at
> > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs.
>  The
> > monthly co-ordination calls that the Chapter EC had initaited and that
> are
> > now being regularly undertaken is useful and must be continued.  Chapter
> EC
> > requested prior information on activities and it was suggested by India
> > Programs (and agreed by Chapter EC) that all important announcements
> would
> > be sent to the Chapter EC 48 hours before being shared publicly.
> > The nature of the work that was happening on Indic Languages initiatives
> was
> > shared (including the kinds of discussions and how these discussions were
> > being conducted) and that Shiju will shortly start sharing the updates of
> > language discussions with the community.
> > The learnings process of the India Education Program was shared -
> including
> > the fact that data gathering was going to be commenced and that the
> > learnings would inform the next steps of the project.  Nitika will
> shortly
> > update the community about how these learnings were going to be gathered.
> > It was reiterated that the plans going forward would be finalized only
> after
> > a thorough review of the program was conducted.
> > It was proposed to identify potential areas where the Chapter EC and
> India
> > Programs would work collaboratively.
> >
> > Chapter Update
> >
> > Arjun said that it is essential to have clarity on the focus areas of WMF
> > and identify projects where WMF and WMIN could work together. Arun
> suggested
> > the need for a governance framework for the various activities in India.
> > Arjun summarized the focus of Wikimedia India on Wiki academies and
> > Strengthening City/Language SIGs. Preliminary discussions around Regional
> > Conferences, GLAM, Wiki loves monuments and Knowledge Kiosks are in
> > progress.
> > He explained how Knowledge Kiosks pilot, where visitors to public
> libraries
> > can access Wikipedia through tablet computers  in the language of their
> > choice can be a great help for reaching out to the population, who can't
> > afford computers and Internet. He suggested that it can be a good
> > collaborative project and requested India programs support. India
> programs
> > could take care of program management and dealing with Library
> organizations
> > and vendors. Chapter would help in training library personnel and users
> in
> > the various pilot locations. Hisham suggested inviting fellowships for
> such
> > a project.  Arjun opined that  organizational help is really needed to do
> > such projects. It is agreed to have further discussions on this topic
> after
> > sharing additional information.
> > Wednesday November 23rd (Voice Conference) [Arjun, Arun, Naveen,
> Sudhanwa &
> > Hisham]
> >
> > India Programs Update
> > Ambiguity around the two entities "India Programs" and "India Trust" were
> > clarified.  India Programs is the team of consultants (currently, Hisham,
> > Shiju & Nitika) who are working as consultants to WMF.  Once the funding
> for
> > the Wikimedia India Program Trust is sorted out (after the appropriate
> > funding has the necessary approvals), these consultants will transition
> to
> > the Trust.  Until then, the Trust is an organisation that has been
> > registered by has no funds available and therefore will not undertake any
> > activities
> > An update was shared the the Trust was going to be filing for the
> necessary
> > taxation related applications (Sections 12A and 80G) as well as FCRA
> > Prior-Permission in the next few days.  An update will be shared after
> these
> > have been done.
> > A discussion was made on the Chapter EC proposal for Chapter & India
> > Programs to work together on the Knowledge Kiosks initiative of the
> Chapter.
> >  India Programs indicated their preference not to work on projects that
> > require such intensive effort in infrastructure building (both hardware
> and
> > connectivity.)  It was also recommended that the Chapter carefully
> consider
> > their involvement in such initiatives especially given the kind of effort
> > that will be required in stuff like procurement.
> > It was proposed that the Chapter EC and India Programs work
> collaboratively
> > on at least 2 broad areas: supporting community outreach & community
> > building (especially volunteer mobilization) as well PR & social media
> with
> > Chapter EC.  Both areas are aspects where India Programs can bring
> > capability to the table and are areas of interest to members of the
> Chapter
> > EC.
> > An update was shared on the meeting with the Ministry of HRD regarding
> > potential collaboration with Aakash tablet. The meeting was extremely
> > positive and holds potential. Hisham will be sharing an update to the
> > community on the next steps on this after some additional discussions.
> > It was proposed that a discussion commence that will collaboratively
> arrive
> > at a draft document that provide clarity to how Chapter EC and the India
> > Trust can work together.  This will be in the nature of definition of
> roles.
> >
> > Chapter Update
> > Arjun said that with the kind of resources that the India Programs Trust
> > will have access, it can take up challenging projects like Knowledge
> Kiosks
> > as it can certainly outsource stuff that can not done by Trust. It is
> agreed
> > to continue the discussion on this topic.
> > Best
> >
> > hisham
> >
> >
>
> --
> Sent from my mobile device
>
> Regards,
> Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
> Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th.
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> Wikimediaindia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/attachments/20111211/465581db/attachment.htm 