Thank you, Moksh, for the email above.
I would like to add that I have known Karthik for the past few years now
and I trust him to act in a manner that is in the best interests of the
chapter and the community. From what I already know, Karthik has been
interning at Moksh's firm and received a nominal amount as compensation for
the time spent training there. Members of the community who are more
interested in understanding the issue closely, should probably consider
contacting Karthik privately to understand the nature of his professional
relationship with Moksh. Karthik is a long-term member of the community
motivated by nothing more than the labour of love.
Moksh has been very generous with his time and has spent considerable
resources supporting the Wikimedia community in Mumbai. He has also
graciously agreed to become a part of the Executive Committee at a time
when there were not many experienced volunteers willing to commit more time
in terms of supporting the chapter as a part of its board.
Pranav has also been a long-standing member of the Wikimedia community in
India and most of us are acquainted with the work that he has performed as
a part of the organizing team of the WikiConference India 2011 event.
My request to anyone interested in following up on this issue is to perhaps
consider contacting the concerned persons directly and see if they are able
to resolve the issue for you in a manner that is satisfactory.
Kind Regards,
Anirudh Bhati
On 10/04/2013 02:37 PM, Moksh Juneja wrote:
A question came up on this list about some employer-employee relationships
within the chapter board. This is to clarify that the stated relationships
between the said persons have ended/in the process of ending with notice
being served prior to this issue being brought up (certainly not because of
this email and prior to it).
This is not to brag but to state background. I would like to further state
in particular have been extremely generous in supporting Wikipedia
activities in Mumbai for several years now, organising local events,
offering my office for meetups and official purposes, bearing expenses in
some cases, offering pro-bono services through my company and even offering
jobs to several Wikipedians.
Pranav and I were two people instrumental in ensuring the success of our
first national conference 2 years ago. This is something that is yet to be
replicated. Pranav was recently instrumental in our first victory with the
government recently, a major win for the chapter in India to have them
apply a Wikipedia complaint license to open knowledge resources for the
first time ever. Karthik has been one of the lead organisers of the
chapters biggest photo contest, our biggest success of the last financial
year. All of us have been an integral part of several chapter activities
during the last year. In the recent weeks, both Pranav and Karthik have
been involved in preparing our FDC application, spending several hours a
week, into the wee hours of the night on a regular basis apart from
juggling their professional commitments during the day. All of us have been
actively involved in the Wikimedia Conference bid.
All of us were Wikipedians first before anything else, meeting each other
through Wikipedia, having our own independent thinking which remains
unaffected and one common goal as unpaid volunteers working out of love for
the movement as a cause. We assure everyone that there is no COI that may
affect any of our functioning in the EC and performing our duties at the
chapter.
One thing we have learnt from this is that there is a need for a formal
public document that details what COI is and when disclosures need to be
made. We will push for such a document to be created within the EC. At the
same time, we humbly appeal that the community "assume good faith" towards
our efforts and help/support the chapter and movement in India. We are
working towards building greater synergies, understanding and team-building
within the EC leadership, SIG Chairs and key members of the chapter and
volunteers in India in an effort to strengthen our very foundations with a
long term view and we cannot do this without your help and support.
Moksh
On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 3:06 PM, Hari Prasad Nadig <hpnadig(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
Shyamal,
You reminded me of the good old days of Wikipedia - the movement that
wasn't centered around money, but driven by interest and volunteering.
I hope that what you've written about Wikiculture shall be read by many
here and if that is understood by more people in coming days, the Indian
'community' can get a wee bit healthier.
Of late, whenever I switch over to read the conversations on this list,
it is not just intrigue but profound disgust that emerges.
On 25 September 2013 10:03, Shyamal L. <lshyamal(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Apologies for the rant that follows and can be
conveniently skipped by
the busy folks here.
I am quite intrigued by the kinds of discussion on this list and indeed
intrigued by most of the characters that seem to be involved in the
Wikimedia movement in India and how it stands out in contrast to the spirit
of Wikipedia and its sister projects. Whereas the project is more a culture
of giving, most of what we see here seems to be more about merely getting
things for oneself and getting ahead of each other which I suppose is
inspiration drawn from street traffic. Having observed the movement from
the outside, it is my hope that the best values of Wikipedia culture are
imbibed rather than the worst of Indian culture.
* Wikiculture - Deal with issues not the persons raising them - what
matters more than who. Those who actually interact with the *community* (an
earlier thread gave the suggestion that people would get an opportunity to
interact with the *community* only by attending Wikimania) on Wikipedia
will know this aspect. This is a symptom of the fact that hardly anyone out
here is really editing substantially.
* Wikiculture - Think independently and question everything - Wikipedia
achieved a lot and is interesting because it questions(or questioned)
paradigms that are (or were) taken for granted. It uses direct interaction,
direct democracy, rather than representatives. So voting people into
committees / positions that work in private is not the way things are done
here, it is by discussing ideas. Independence requires that you question
any sense of group identity.
* Wikiculture - Forsake cliques, identity traps and recognize
in-out-group dynamics. In particular I think much of the poverty of editing
from India comes from poor research driven by the idea that an "Indian"
needs to represent India-related Wikipedia entries in a (POV) way that
apparently instills pride among fellow-Indians!
* Wikiculture - Wiki is not paper, editors do not need an office, the
best community support is provided on-wiki. So again, why would having
funds for an office, 3 employees visiting that office each day (and adding
to Bangalore's traffic) help the Wikimedia movement? If something needs to
be organized, let leadership be elected on Wiki and let there be an grant
such as IEG on Wiki to support it. I have been quite intrigued by the idea
of Special Interest Groups being defined by many here by the language in
which they edit - one would expect SIGs to be subject dependent - so you
could have astronomers, law experts, literature experts, and so on with
members who work in multiple language mediums. There could be language
specific technical SIGs that work on IME, Unicode etc but what we see here
instead appears more like language chauvinism. Those professing to be
subject matter experts (and really ought to members of specific SIGs) out
here seem to contribute almost nothing to Wikipedia in their claimed area
of expertise - for instance there are quite a number of law experts in the
group and despite that, one finds that the law related articles, even on
the English Wikipedia quite atrocious. With the amount of money being
thrown here one would expect that at least something like the article on
the Indian Copyright Act to be a GA if not an FA (on the English WP).
[...]
The amount being thrown in is certainly huge. And this money was
raised! I'm stumped by the silence of many long time Wikipedians in
voicing their opinion against whatever has been going on in India in the
name of 'Wikimedia movement'. Thanks to you for speaking out.
--
Hari Prasad Nadig
http://twitter.com/hpnadig
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