Wikimedia Fellowships/Proposals/WikiConference India

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Wikimedia Fellowship proposals

The WikiConference India proposal for a Wikimedia Fellowship, where the fellow would:

1. Act as a point of contact and and conduct the groundwork related to WikiConference India 2011
2. Liaise with multiple community members and ensure deadlines are met

Background

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit and so much more, is the fourth most popular website in India, is available in English and a further 20 Indic languages and is over 20 times the size of Encyclopedia Britannica! The Wikimedia Foundation, which is the global organisation that stewards Wikipedia and allied projects, sees India as as a big growth area for their projects and India now has the distinction of being the only country with a Chapter (a local body of volunteers who functions as evangelists and more) and the Wikimedia Foundation’s its first overseas office in the Delhi-NCR region.

The Indian Wikipedian community has grown exponentially - so much so that Wikipedia’s X anniversary was celebrated in close to 100 cities and towns across India on the 15th January 2011. At this juncture the community has identified a need to coordinate and plan the path ahead for Wikipedia growth in India. What with India being a massive country in terms of both length and breath with varied cultures and traditions there are bound to be differences in opinion but what binds the community at the national level is a shared vision for free and open knowledge. At a time when India’s rich are pledging their billions to charity, ordinary Indians are donating their time to help improve and spread the wealth of knowledge through Wikipedia.

First thought up by the Mumbai Community in March this year things started to crystalise during a Mumbai Community Meetup on 21 April 2011. The community resolved to take the lead and invite communities across India to Mumbai for the First Annual WikiConference India (WCI 2011). A separate invitation was sent to the Pune Community requesting them to co-host the event which they accepted with great zeal. The Mumbai and Pune Communities are co-hosting the event in partnership with Wikimedia Chapter (India).

The event itself will be held at the historic Fort Campus of University of Mumbai with three concurrent tracks being planned over a three day period from 18th to 20th November 2011. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia will attend the event.

Organisers expect 300-400 people to attend from all over India, with a limited number of scholarships offered to cover travel and accommodation costs for those who really want to attend but cannot afford to. Organisers hope to drive greater awareness within India to encourage greater participation and attendance at the conference and, hopefully, to induct them as Wikipedia editors and into the Community.

Product, goals, and metrics

The fellowship would be responsible for preparations related to WCI 2011. Dealing with a variety of aspects and leading from the front, there are 11 sub-heads with approximately 40 volunteers working under all the sub-heads. However, there is a need for someone to coordinate with all these people and do the groundwork for which a full time person is required.

Methodology

1. The Fellow would have continuous dialogue with each Team (While the team will take responsibility for that head, the Fellow will spur them on to achieve their goals through regular communications, chipping in where required etc)
2. The fellow would need to invite persons to attend the event. (Special invitees, persons from the foundation, foreign chapters etc and follow up with them)
3. Various teams have been set up and a many of the teams do not have members from Mumbai. The Fellow would negotiate with service providers on behalf of the conference and different teams where required.
4. Overall project management: coordination and supporting role to various volunteer based teams, namely Finance, Sponsorship and Advertisement, Scholarship Coordination, Speaker Coordination, Conference Planning, Technical and IT, Venues and Logistics, Parties and Fun, Press and Media and Communications and Announcements. A lot of the teams are short staffed and the fellow is already handling a lot of the work on ground.
5. Along with other team members has visited possible venues, negotiated and finalised the venue and accommodations for Scholars, worked on the budget and grants proposal to WMF (for the conference itself), found possible party venues, gone looking for caterers and had tasting sessions, helped write the first press release, finalise Scholarship Terms and Conditions, contacted possible sponsors, get the site notices up, maintain the meta page(s) and helped shortlist possible external speakers among other things. The fellow has already been working on this event on a full time basis for the last couple of months and intends to continue doing so until the end of December 2011.

Goals

• Ensure all preparations with regards to WCI 2011 are completed smoothly.

Metrics

The success of the Fellowship can be measured through:

1. The success of WikiConference India 2011
2. Weekly teleconversation with India Office representative giving an update on work done in the past week. A written report will be submitted upon completion

Logistics

• Given the nature of the requirements, the Fellow will be working full-time.
• The Fellow is located in Mumbai.
• The Fellow will need to deal with local logistics.

Fellow(s) responsible for this proposal

Pranav Curumsey: I am a Wikipedian and have been editing the English Wikipedia since 2006 working on a variety of articles. I completed my schooling at Campion School in Mumbai and my Bachelors in Commerce from H. R. College (University of Mumbai). I thereafter pursued a Masters degree in Business Management at the Strathclyde Business School, Glasgow (UK) graduating in November 2008. My dissertation was with Whyte and Mackay, a leading Glasgow based Scotch Whiskey maker. Upon completing my Masters I embarked upon gaining some working experience with a market research company in London and in Personal Banking with Santander in Glasgow. While in the UK, I helped out with a massive religious event (Maha Vishnu Yagna) in Crawley in August 2009. Over a hundred donors participated in a three day non-violent Hindu sacrifice ritual. I was part of fundraising as well as media/advertising so I had a varied role from door to door promotion to dealing with Television Channels/Newspapers. I gave an interview to BBC Surrey and BBC Sussex on the first day of the three day event which was attended by the Acharya of Ahmedabad (head - Hindu equivalent to Pope). Further, on behalf of the same charity I researched the catalogue of the British Museum for certain information and then negotiated for the release of certain images under permission from the British Museum for use in a new Museum in Ahmedabad, India. I returned to India in late 2010.

Apart from Wikipedia I am an advisor to the Board of Trustees of four Public Charitable Trusts in India. The community mailing list has kept me connected to Wikipedians back home while I was away. Since my return to India, I have been working with with fellow community members in Mumbai and India. Wikipedia X celebrations was my first opportunity to interact with others in Mumbai personally (along with the first Wikipedia takes Mumbai shortly prior to that) and have been involved in various community activities since. When the Indian Chapter opened up membership, I became the first member via the NEFT route. From the inception of the idea to hold a national level WikiConference in India, I have been spear-heading local preparations as Chairperson of the event along with Treasurer Pradeep Mohandas. We have dedicated the last few months to working full time on WikiConference India 2011, handling all the groundwork and liaising with other community members on the Working Group. We feel it is important that atleast one of us continue working full time on this until the actual event as the workload is only going to increase hereon.

Endorsements

This section is for endorsements by Wikimedia volunteers. Please note that this is not a debate, vote, or poll, but is rather a space for volunteers to describe in detail why they think a fellowship project is of value. If you have concerns or questions rather than an endorsement to make, please use the proposal Talk page. Endorsements by volunteers willing to work in collaboration with a fellowship recipient on a project are highly encouraged.

• Having worked with Pranav in the formative stages of the Conference and now working along with him in the planning stages of the Conference leads me to believe that such a fellowship is required. I also strongly endorse Pranav for this fellowship. Prad2609 17:27, 31 July 2011 (UTC)