IIITH-OKI/Advance Train The Trainer 2025/Expression of Interest/Submitted/ROHIT SHAW

Basic Information

Wikimedia Username

रोहित साव27

Wikimedia Project(s) you primarily contribute to

Wikipedia
Wikisource
Wiki Commons
Wiki Data
Wiki Books

Active in Wikimedia since (Year)

2019

Your Affiliate or Community Group (if any):

Hindi Wikimedia User Group : Rollbacker since 11 August 2020, Reviewer 28 September 2021 to 17 July 2024
Simple Wikipedia : Rollbacker since 30 November 2023
West Bengal Wikimedians User Group : General Member since 9 September 2023

Languages you work with (on-wiki or off-wiki):

Hindi
English

Have you participated in any Train the Trainer or similar Wikimedia training before? If yes, please mention the name of the event along with the year in which you participated

Are you currently involved in any leadership, facilitation, or mentoring roles within the Wikimedia movement? If yes, briefly describe the imitative and your involvement in it

I have served as an organizer for international competitions such as Wikipedia: Feminism and Folklore 2022 and 2023 on Hindi Wikipedia. Furthermore, I have actively contributed to promoting the open-source digital library Wikisource by demonstrating its methods of use and advocating for its wider adoption in various academic and community programs. I also represent and discuss the progress, challenges, and future aspirations of the Hindi Wikipedia community at events, including the Wikipedia Meetup, Kolkata (September 2023). In addition, I regularly participate in various programs, prepare detailed reports on them, and share these reports with my community to ensure wider awareness and engagement.

Track Preference

Your preferred track during the workshop

Track 2: Micro-Project Design Challenge – From Learning to Action

Which track are you most interested in and why?

I am particularly interested in Track 2 – Micro-Project Design Challenge: From Learning to Action. This track will provide me with valuable opportunities to refine and strengthen my current areas of interest. It will also help me enhance my skills in project planning, especially in the domains of mentoring and outreach, thereby enabling me to design more impactful initiatives.

Tell us about one Wikimedia program, campaign, or initiative you’ve contributed to in a leadership role

What skills or knowledge do you hope to gain from this training?

From this training, I hope to gain the ability to design projects in a more realistic and structured manner. I want to learn how to evaluate the pros and cons of different approaches, make informed trade-offs, and frame clear timelines for implementation. At the same time, I am eager to strengthen my understanding of tools and strategies that can make community initiatives more impactful, particularly in measuring outcomes and assessing long-term impact. Having organized events and collaborated with different Wikimedia communities in the past, I have often felt the need for better methods to align projects with the real needs of my community while also fostering collaboration across diverse languages and regions. Learning from others’ experiences in community engagement will be invaluable. Ultimately, I wish to grow from being an individual contributor to becoming someone who can effectively support, mentor, and guide others within the movement.

Based on your selected track, what is one challenge you have encountered in either evaluating Wikimedia programs or designing impactful projects? Please share your experience relevant to your chosen track.

One of the key challenges I have experienced while working on Wikimedia projects is keeping contributors engaged over the long term. At the beginning, there is usually a lot of enthusiasm—for example, in edit-a-thons where prizes are offered, participation is quite high. But when the focus shifts to quality improvement or purely voluntary edit-a-thons, the numbers often drop sharply. The same happens with workshops—many people sign up in advance, but not all of them actually turn up, which limits the overall impact.

Another difficulty I often face is taking my mini-project ideas beyond the initial concept stage. I sometimes struggle to structure them properly and decide on the right sequence of steps. That’s why I see this track as an opportunity to learn how to design projects in a more systematic way—so that they are not only well-executed but also sustainable and capable of keeping communities engaged over time.

How do you plan to apply what you learn after the event?

After returning from the program, my primary goal will be to share the experiences and learnings with my community in a way that they can be applied and expanded further. To ensure this, I will first prepare a detailed report and publish it on the Village Pump of my community, as I have done after attending some previous programs (example report).

In addition, I will actively share the knowledge and practical activities I gain during this training in future community programs, workshops, and meetings. I also plan to engage with community members at a personal level, making them aware of these learnings and encouraging them to implement them in their own work. If possible, I will further inspire my community to organize a dedicated workshop focused on these insights, so that the benefits of this training can reach a wider group and lead to collective growth.

(Optional) Are you open to mentorship (either receiving or offering it)?