Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] What will I achieve as Programme Director A2K

2013-01-04 Thread Nee Davis
Hi Ravi,

Wish you a wonderful 2013!

Appreciate in you taking time to deeply engage with the write-up and for
sharing your thoughts and queries. Some further thoughts and responses
below.

1. Wiki-Panchayat is unnecessary.


 //

 Rationale: Keep four crabs in a box and each one will ensure that no one
 will escape. Where there is a community there is bound to be a dispute.

 Objective: Instituting a community based conflict resolution body,
 especially to avoid edit wars. To be modelled on our good old Panchayt
 system.

 //

 First of all, I do not like the crab metaphor at all. The Wiki community
 is a lot more collaborative and productive one assuming good faith. Edit
 war is a minor problem which I hope every community is already addressing
 adequately. If not, there are successful models to emulate from English
 Wikipedia.


Even I used to not like the metaphor. But after being part of and engaging
with the various communities for about a decade I have slowly come to
appreciate the learning the metaphor gives to understand. It is that a
Community means vibrancy, diversity and plurality. At the same time these
qualities border-line with chaos, conflict and insularity. This is a major
challenge for any community. The best way to deal with it is from within
the community, which is the intent of the proposed Wiki-Panchayat. And yes
if there are successful models from the En-Wiki definitely they could be
adopted. Would appreciate if you could point me to these models. Still if
the metaphor troubles you we can strike it off.

 2. QJS can be seen as micromanaging.

 Earlier this year, there was an attempt by some members of the Tamil
 Wikipedia to do strategic planning for Tamil Wikipedia. But, concerns about
 micromanaging were raised and the effort was dropped later. I am afraid
 that QJS may receive a similar response.


Firstly, it is important to clearly convey to the Community the intent of
the QJS. Its primary intent is to celebrate the collective spirit like the
'fan clubs' we see across India. Once they get this then the rest will
automatically happen. Secondly, definitely before we begin the concerns of
the community should be taken on board about QJS. And as I stated in the
write-up the modalities of QJS should be finalized in consultation with the
respective language communities. Thus it is possible that the QJS of Tamil
Wiki could be different from the QJS of Hindi Wiki. Lastly, in spite of all
this, if some members still express concern, then let us do a trial for at
least a year and then see. I am sure member will agree that it is better to
try and fail than not try at all. Haven't we all believed that Earth is
flat and considered sea voyage profane until we set-out! If documented, do
pass on the concerns raised about Tamil Wikipedia strategic planning. It
will be a useful doc. to further refine the QJS idea.


 3. Many of your plans assume presence of enough core contributors within
 the state being able to spend ample time on offline activities. This is a
 chicken and egg problem. How would you address that?


Yes, you are right Ravi. This is a genuine concern and I do not have any
ready-made answers. However, right now I am working with the tremendous
good faith I have on the Core guys. There are also some ideas up my sleeve
on how to enroll these members into spending time. But I would welcome
suggestions and ideas on this.

 4. Any word of technology partnerships / endeavours regarding Indic
 languages / Indic language Wikipedias?


The more the merrier. All strength to the tech collabs and further
bettering of Wiki UI and fixing bugs. One thing to focus on would be to
build local capacities through an active interface with the core tech team.


 5.

 //1) MOUs with Universities/Research Institutions; 2) Institute 5
 Fellowships (quarterly) for Young Researcher in Residency Programme (YRRP)
 in each focussed language area with 15 new articles and 100 edits in
 respective language Wikipedia and 100 new key words as deliverables. 3)
 Faculty Engagement Programme (FEP), 2 in each language for six-month
 duration, whereby a faculty is provided support to mentor and manage at
 least 5 Young Researchers on an Indian topic; 4) Wiki-Young Researchers
 Workshop//


 How will it be different from the India education program and how would
 you avoid known pit falls?


It is different from the IEP, but is based on some of the learnings of IEP.

Firstly, it targets researchers and not students. There are many benefits
of working with Young Researchers (YR) than students. 1) YRs will be aware
of Copyvios and referencing; 2) Enthusiastic about doing research as it
will anyhow contribute to their own individual projects; 3) YRs are
relatively more open to criticism/feedback; 4) Because of the institutional
structure YRs will have closer interaction and monitoring by Faculty, which
will result in quality content; 5) The writing standards would be
relatively better; 6) YRs will be knowledgeable  (i.e. 

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] What will I achieve as Programme Director A2K

2012-12-22 Thread Nee Davis
Hi Sankarshan,

Thanks for engaging and the revert.

Re. 1: The assignment specifically required that I specify what I would
achieve in the first two months. So tried to specify it where ever
possible. But should you have any specific questions or suggestions on
this, would be happy to listen.

Re. 2: You are very right that there needs to be a measurement of success.
And I think this has been clearly outlined in the A2K Programme Plan. What
I have done was break it down to what ought to be achieved in Year 1 and
based on that designed some key interventions. So the 5x5 WCLs and the
Training programme (listed as Outputs) are more precisely tools to meet the
outcomes of the A2K programme. Thus it is equally important to get the
right bunch of WCL and also have the right Training imparted to them, which
if implemented as planned should achieve the desired results.

Anymore feedback is welcome.

Look forward.


On 22 December 2012 19:05, sankarshan foss.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thank you for writing this up. I've two specific bits of discussion
 around your email and so have snipped it in a form that keeps it as
 relevant as possible.

 On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 9:50 PM, Nee Davis davis...@gmail.com wrote:
  So I felt it is more productive to not delve too much into the ‘what’
  question, but focus more on how can we achieve this? Thus the below plan
 is
  more of an Operational Plan than a vision statement. Further, it is not a
  work-plan as it lacks micro details. What I set out to do below is to
  present an outline of the key tasks and strategies that we could adopt to
  achieve our collective vision in year 1. It should be noted that I have
  deliberately not touched upon some of the activities that are currenly
 being
  deployed.

 I would request a clarification and, extend a suggestion. The first is
 - how did the time-line of 60 days come about ? The rationale behind
 this question is - does 60 days provide adequate time to dial-back,
 correct and move forward ?

 The second is around the need to have some form of measurement of
 success. For each of the areas, it is probably useful to have
 transparent and public measure of success. A trivial question - would
 the ability to on-board 5x5 WCLs be a success or, the preparation of a
 sustainable training program material be a success and so forth.


 --
 sankarshan mukhopadhyay
 https://twitter.com/#!/sankarshan

 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

___
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l


Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] What will I achieve as Programme Director A2K

2012-12-21 Thread Nee Davis
Hi Ravi,

Look forward to your feedback.




On 21 December 2012 23:12, Ravishankar ravidre...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi Nee Davis,

 Thanks for letting us know about your plans.

 I will post my questions once the second candidate also posts her plans.

 Ravi

 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l


___
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l


[Wikimediaindia-l] What will I achieve as Programme Director A2K

2012-12-20 Thread Nee Davis
Let me begin with, what I consider to be, one of the most powerful
statements of the Digital Era and the 21st century.

* *

*Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free
access to the sum of all human knowledge – Jimmy Wales 2004*



Every time I read this statement, it stirs up all the excitement and
enthusiasm I have for Wikipedia. It not just presents a potential vision
but also a) opens up un-ending possibilities across multiple realms; b)
enunciates the largest ever human collaboration across all kinds of
boundaries; c) presents an opportunity that was never possible in the human
history; and d) shows the conception of one of the best democratic
platforms of collective-knowledge-building and free-knowledge-sharing. More
importantly Jimmy Wales’ statement succinctly instructs what needs to be
done as PDA2K. Further, the A2K programme work-plan (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Programme_Plan)
has clearly quantified this into measurable milestones.



So I felt it is more productive to not delve too much into the ‘what’
question, but focus more on *how can we achieve this*? Thus the below plan
is more of an *Operational Plan* than a vision statement. Further, it is
not a work-plan as it lacks micro details. What I set out to do below is to
present an outline of the key tasks and strategies that we could adopt to
achieve our collective vision in year 1. It should be noted that I have
deliberately not touched upon some of the activities that are currenly
being deployed.



*Focus Areas:** *There are a number of Wikimedia projects in Indian
languages and about 20 Indian language wikipedias. Given the current size
of the A2K team and the support available it is prudent to identify focus
areas/projects where deeper impact can be achieved. After a careful
examination of the various Indian languages wikipedias it will be useful to
have the following as the primary focus languages. These would be 1) Hindi;
2) Malayalam; 3) Tamil; 4) Kannada  5) Telugu. Have worked with few
parameters (like current activity, operational convenience, infrastructure,
etc) in making this suggestion and community members are welcome to
question this or offer suggestions.  Further, as a secondary focus, 5 more
languages could be identified in consultation with the Wikimedia India
Chapter (WIC) and other community members. Basically the A2K team will have
to focus 70% of its energies on these 5 languages in order to achieve
long-term tangible impact of creating large user and editor base. This will
allow for speedier implementation of pilots/strategies, provide quick
learning and enable cross-pollination of the success strategies in the
secondary focus areas. In the first two months a game plan will be drawn up
for each of the 5 primary languages in consultation with the WIC and the
community.



*Three Nodes:* I perceive three important nodes for the growth of Indian
Wikimedias and Wikimedia in India. First, the one which we all know is the
Community. The second is what I call Knowledge Collaborators (more about it
below) and the third is the A2K team itself. These should not be seen as
watertight divisions as they often complement each other and work in
collaborative manner



*Node 1 – Community: *Community is our greatest strength. It is important
to start with the learnings and challenges the Wikimedia communities have
faced in each of the 5 primary language areas. Initially a framework will
be developed to capture the community experience of growing their
respective language Wikimedia projects. Following this A2K team will
collate the collective knowledge of the community members and come up with
a SWOT (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis) analysis, which
will be shared with community. Based on this SWOT analysis the A2K team
will work with the respective community to set Goals (focussing on
community expansion and retention) for the next one year. Following this a
detailed work planning exercise will be undertaken. This work-plan will be
reviewed and reworked on a quarterly basis by the community.

*Deliverable in the first 60 days:* 1) Framework/Process for each of the 5
language communities; 2) Collation of collective learning and challenges;
3) SWOT analysis; 4) Goal setting; 5) Commence work-planning exercise



In addition to the regular activities of the Community the following
catalytic community building tools will also be developed and deployed
through the Community in order to amplify the reach and growth of that
respective language Wikimedia project.



*i) Wiki-Community Leadership Programme*

Rationale: Outreach to communities in small cities and towns need a
continuous and consistence engagement.

Objective: Primary role will be community sensitization, mobilization and
expansion and mentoring Grass-root wiki leaders (GWL).

Each of the language community will either nominate or recruit at least 5
Wiki-Community Leaders (WCL), who will be able to 

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Spoken Wikipedia Workshop - 16th December-2012 Pune.

2012-12-13 Thread Nee Davis
Hi Abhishek,

It is a novel effort. Wish the event a big success.

One suggestion.

As many on the list may have heard about the growth of Community Radio in
India. Probably it would be ideal if we tie up with some of these not for
profit entities to tap into their recordings and make them available on the
wikiproject platform. This will not only save the energies of community
members in creating new audio articles but will also provide the CR
stations and the rural communities they target a virtual space and also
expand the wiki-India community.

I would be more than happy to take a lead on this if the community finds it
worthy.

Best


On 14 December 2012 00:00, Abhishek Suryawanshi 
i.abhishek.suryawan...@gmail.com wrote:


 (Similar E-Mail is sent to all Indian Language mailing 
 listshttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Indic_Languages#Indic_Language_Wiki_Projects
 )

 Dear Wikipedia Community,

 We are planning to develop Dengue article on all Indian Languages.
 Wikipedia Club Pune is organizing dedicated workshop on 16th December 2012.

 We would like to invite you participate in Workshop (online or offline as
 per your convenience)

 Article of Dengue will be edited through collaborative editing session,
 and it will be recorded later on as part of Spoken 
 Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia/Indic_Languages


- Venue : PAI International Learning Solutions,Camp,Pune 01
- Date : 16th December 2012 (Sunday)
- Time : 10:30AM to 02:00PM



 *FAQ : *

 *1)Why Dengue Article : *

 A: Dengue fever is common in this session, so it will be helpful to many
 people.

 *2)What about other diseases? *

 A: We will be covering major diseases one by one in upcoming Sunday
 workshops.

 *3)What is Spoken Wikipedia for Indian Languages? *

 The *WikiProject Spoken Indian Language Wikipedia* is a project
 undertaken by Wikipedia Club Pune to give a voice to the Indian community
 and to create a knowledge domain of information related to India and Indian
 languages through audio recordings of the articles (in various native
 languages).

 P.S :
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia/Indic_Languages


 *4)Why (Only) health related articles? *

 As of now - Our first priority is Health related articles on Indian
 Language Wikipedia. After recording articles, we are planning to circulate
 these articles in underprivileged community.

 *5)How I can help? *

 Please add your name to Workshop page to help us.
 *Register* :
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Club_Pune/Spoken_Wikipedia_Workshops


 Kindly do let us know if you have any doubts/queries or suggestions!


 Keep Supporting, Keep Inspiring!



 Best Regards,

 Abhishek Suryawanshi,
 User:AbhiSuryawanshi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AbhiSuryawanshi
 On Behalf of Wikipedia Club Pune


 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l


___
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l


[Wikimediaindia-l] davis...@gmail.com

2012-12-10 Thread Nee Davis
davis...@gmail.com
___
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l


Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Creative Commons turns 10

2012-12-10 Thread Nee Davis
Hi,

Any event planned in Bangalore?


On 11 December 2012 12:23, Pradeep Nair prad2...@yahoo.com wrote:

 Hi Pranav,

 I think the two topics Creative Commons 10 this week and their impending
 visit to India in February, 2013 are getting mixed . I think Shuba is
 referring to the CC 10 celebration meetups if they happen.

 Could you fork a seperate thread for the February events and leave this
 thread for those interested in having meetups related to the Creative
 Commons 10th anniversary event? Thanks.

 Shubha, do feel free to coreect me if I understood it wrongly.

 Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

  --
 * From: * Pranav Curumsey pra...@wikimedia.in;
 * To: * Subhashish Panigrahi subhash...@cis-india.org;
 * Cc: * Wikimedia India Community list 
 wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org;
 * Subject: * Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Creative Commons turns 10
 * Sent: * Tue, Dec 11, 2012 6:18:25 AM

   Hi Subha,

 Thank you for your note. Just to clarify, we are talking of full day
 workshops when the CC Team visit India in February 2012. The 3 workshops
 will have to be on different days as the CC Team intends to attend each of
 them as well as Gnunify in Pune.

 In addition to the above, thanks for your suggestion to hold a video chat
 for Wikipedians from the rest of India, will propose that to be added to
 the schedule.

 On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Subhashish Panigrahi 
 subhash...@cis-india.org wrote:

 Thanks Pradeep for the post!

 Pranav, this could be great if Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi community have
 their meetup at the same time so we could hangout and say hi to each other.
 Could I also request to connect community members with the creative commons
 guys so they can spend some time with the participants over a video chat?

 On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 11:23 AM, Pranav Curumsey pra...@wikimedia.inwrote:

 Hi Arun,

 Since you mentioned this, thought it may be a good idea to let everyone
 know of something in the pipeline. A few days back the chapter was informed
 of an impending visit to India by members of the Creative Commons team from
 San Francisco and the EC was introduced to them.

 We have exchanged a few emails and the chapter will possibly co-host
 some workshops for CC in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi in February 2013,
 possibly involving some other like-minded organisations. There is also talk
 of holding a workshop during Gnunify in Pune. We are still exploring
 different possible themes for these workshops.

 We encourage any members of the community that may be interested in
 helping organise these events to come forward and contact the chapter.

 Kind Regards,
 Pranav


 On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 9:08 AM, Arun Ramarathnam 
 arunra...@gmail.comwrote:

 Thanks for sharing this Pradeep. This is perhaps a good time to do
 Commons focused events in various cities

 regards
 Arun

 Arun Ramarathnam
 Bangalore, India
 www.arunram.net | www.twitter.com/arunram



 On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 9:00 AM, Pradeep Nair prad2...@yahoo.comwrote:

 Hi,

 Creative Commons, the license that Wikipedia and its sister projects
 have been using turns 10 this year.

 Their celebrations - http://10.creativecommons.org/ - last for 10
 days from December 7 to 16. If you have a meetup in that period, perhaps 
 we
 can celebrate.

 Pradeep


 Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l



 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l



 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l




 --
 Best

 Subha



 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l


___
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l