hey Srikant R,
Too bad you and your friends had this experience. But, don't talk yourself out of giving such academies. Not all academies will be awesome, some will be good - some will be horrible. In all these instances YOU will learn, not only about how to make things happen, situation notwithstanding to the best of your ability. These will be experiences that might help you anywhere from office or client meetings to teaching your kids when you become a father. These Academies will also give you new and fresh perspectives on how percieve Wikipedia.
So, do continue doing WikiAcademies or even go back to teaching one or two of your friends before going back to doing WikiAcademies.
warm regards, Pradeep Handheld
On 28/02/2012, Noopur noopur.raval@gmail.com wrote:
Hey Srikanth R, Too bad this happened but I see this more as an analysis of what went wrong with the fest than what went wrong with the Wiki session. In the past it has happened that we conduct a session only with 4-5 people due to miscommunication and no facilities but at the end of the day, I go back happy thinking that I've spread the word at least to 4-5 people.
To Srikanth L, I think the question regarding outreach is being framed in a wrong light here. The problem seriously is not about "what is the point of spending X hours?". The point is, are we making the most of those hours? Do we as a community need to improve (dumb things down, use better methods) our strategies of communication so that we don't waste a lot of our time and still get results. IMHO, it is way too early to expect 1-2 editors to be recruited out of all such events because *Wikipedia movement is too nascent in India to make immediate sense to people. *So, there will be at least 1-2 years of just conversation before everyone knows that "Wikipedia can be edited". That is why I strongly believe that we need to keep doing these sessions.
Of course, problems will come. Not all people are nice. Maybe we can learn to present better? And, its an experience.
Cheers Noopur
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 6:18 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik.lak@gmail.comwrote:
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 16:51, Sohan Maheshwar sohanmaheshwar@gmail.comwrote:
The organizers cut short our time because of their problems with the internet connection and the fact that they had to shoe-horn a sponsors presentation in the same time slot as ours.
This is bad. You asked for / were given only 1 hour slot? that too with out a lab / proper internet? #fail. What is the point of signing MoU and all for this. Even if this 1 hour / rest of the stuff went well, I wonder if it makes sense for 2 persons to travel for 12+ hours / spend a weekend to talk for 1 hour. Anyone else who feels it makes sense, please enlighten me. Last year we spent 8+ hours on stall, 2.5 hours on the academy part. (Effectiveness is totally another thing)
Also, the fact that i'm a working professional and you are a student should not have anything to do with it. Bottom-line is that the NIT-T organizers should have treated us better. We do not need five-star type accommodation. But some simple courtesy is expected of them. Also,a week prior to the event, Saagar had promised me transport to and from the venue. The fact is that they did not seem to really care too much about the WikiAcademy and treated it like they were doing us a favour.
Courtesy could have been better, but facilities may not always be (Esp in tier 2 cities). So please try and adjust (if you were asked to travel in public transport). Yes, they do/might treat you like they are doing you a favour(I don't see why they would really care), in fact they actually do *some* favour in giving space for us. The interest you (I barely know you btw) and I have towards Wikipedia might not be same any organizer at these events will have. They might have extra interest on swags etc. Most Tech fests are not run/attended by students with noble intentions of learning something technical etc.(At best they learn team work, organizational skills) I said part of the statement about attendees on this list here[1]
In short, when going to a college, keep your expectations to bare minimum be it on the audience / organizers. If something was good, do appreciate, otherwise accept it as reality on Indian conditions. There is nothing to be ashamed / unpatriotic in accepting certain things as Indian reality.
[1] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2012-January/006554.ht...
-- Regards Srikanth.L
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-- Noopur Raval Student Arts and Aesthetics Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Ph: 9650567690