[Wikimediaindia-l] Noteworthy Wikimedian Recognition

Fri Nov 11 02:34:18 UTC 2011

Hi Ravi,
            I really appreciate your views on the new initiative.  I
thought I may also share on how I view the whole process,... these comments
are my personal views and not necessarily as an Executive Committee Member
of the Wikimedia India chapter.

You had already seen that Wikimania/ Wikimedia Foundation started
"Wikipedian of the Year" this year.

Having said that, this is an humble effort to recognize at least a few of
our really outstanding contributors of the Wikimedia Movement in India.

When we thought about this initiative , we wanted to make sure the process
is very OPEN and TRANSPARENT, although we were fully aware of the very
short time we have in hand before the Wiki-conference. We wanted it to be
selected by a Jury that is highly respected and qualified. We wanted to it
be announced to all in advance so that everybody gets a fair chance. We are
fully aware that there are some good candidates on the chapter EC, jury and
foundation staff. But again, wouldn't it be more transparent and ethical if
we could free the jury on any kind of conflict of interest ?

The result of this doesn't mean that anyone who didn't get the annual
"Noteworthy Wikimedian Recognition" is any less good.
Who knows there are more than one Noteworthy Wikimedians to be recognized ?
Make the selection difficult for the jury !  May be Jury will be forced to
recognize at least a handful of Wikipedians !  :)

There are many reasons of attempting this :
How many of you know all the remarkable contributors in other languages ?
Do you know all the outstanding contributors in your own language Wikipedia
since its creation?

I may know some, you may know some.. Let everybody know them !

Nominate others, recognize their efforts, if you know that they have made
some outstanding contributions to the Movement !

Since this is the first time, the contributions are considered from
2001-2010, because we didn't want of ignore all those who have contributed
from the start of the project. Next year , probably it might be a fixed
time frame like Jan - Dec 2011.

Thank you for listing some of the great contributors of Tamil Wikipedia.
Honestly, I didn't know most of them. And possibly many on the list too ..
That is exactly the intention of this effort. This is just such an effort
to find the real gems of the Wikipedia and recognize them !

Please note that *this is NOT a competition* and the best you can do is  to
nominate all of them.

Being a sysop. b'crat or steward is NOT an achievement or consideration for
noteworthy Wikipedian. The contributions as an individual Wikipedian is
important. It is not even edit counts or even number of articles. Not
everyone is a great article writer, but have contributed in 1001 ways,
 copy editing, vandal fighting, removing copy vio, uploading
images, organizing events , meet-ups and academies, evangelizing Wikimedia
to others, the ways to contribute are countless.

And should we not recognize anyone because we are not sure they are the
only best ? No.
So should we just ignore the contributions of everyone ? No.
Even Nobel Prize is based on nominations . We don't even know if we have
missed lots of deserving people for the Nobel nominations. But still, are
we not giving Nobel Prizes every year?

We may not be able to find all those who have made great contributions,
but at-least we could find some and recognize them. Trust me, it will be a
great motivation and encouraging for them. And an inspiration for lot
others !

Do notice that we had intentionally named it as "Noteworthy Wikimedian" and
not "Best Wikimedian" !

So what could you and everyone do ? Find them, nominate and recognize them.

Just a gentle reminder that the last date of nomination is Nov 13.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/NWR_2011

Regards
Tinu Cherian

On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 6:11 PM, Ravishankar <ravidreams at gmail.com> wrote:

> Arjuna,
>
> I am not very excited with this idea of a jury for picking noteworthy
> Wikimedians.
>
> 1. Many noteworthy Wikimedians are serving in Jury, conference
> activities, chapter and WMF. Omitting them from the recognition will
> not give a real picture to the public.
>
> 2. Having a jury to pick this seems so Un-Wikipediac. Only in extreme
> cases, we have a jury in Wikimedia projects. Usually, the nomination
> and approval is done by the community itself.
>
> 3.There are tens of noteworthy Wikimedians for each Wikipedia. An
> example for Tamil Wikipedia alone at
>
> http://tawp.in/r/1eyn
>
> I can't nominate just one or two as every one's contribution is
> valuable and unique. Not good to have a competition sort of thing and
> upset a lot of people.
>
> 3. What is the point of a citation / certificate in this digital age?
> What is the purpose achieved after the event is over?
>
> I would recommend requesting each language community and project to
> suggest noteworthy contributions with a mini profile and make a audio
> / visual out of it. These people can be interviewed and the content
> can be used in the conference venue and future outreach activities.
> This will be a powerful way to motivate and recognize a lot of people.
>
> Ravi
>
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