[Wikimedia-l] Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Request for Transparency Regarding WMF Staff in India

[Yohann Thomas]

Hi everyone

Sorry for the long rant here , but this is a thought of mine, being an
observer of the Indian community activities for many years.. I agree that
this discussion is best said on the Indian mailing list, but since a senior
staff has tried to respond to this query in an official way, i feel it is a
must, that i must add here on the Wikimedia mailing list.

Jayantilal has questioned WMF on a very pressing topic for which the indian
community has been discussing to no avail for more than almost a decade, if
not more ..& has been very heavy on the minds of the community for a long
time.

A few days ago, I came across the WMF India Community Consultation 2014
 blog
post

and was proud of how, as an Indian community, we had achieved so many of
the objectives we had set up. However, today, when I see this thread of
organising the WikiConference India , I feel that this conference, in my
opinion, has made a limited mark on the expectations of the larger Indian
community. If the organizing team had modest objectives, it could have kept
the name Wikiconference Hyderabad. However, keeping the name Wiki
Conference India (WCI), the expectations of the community on a national
level must be met.

A fellow editor from Sri Lanka had even questioned the importance of WCI in
the Asian region on the talk page
,
and an unsatisfactory answer was given by the organizing team. The
objectives have to be very clear on why we are organizing this event, who
do we invite, and on what scale we do this.

If the WMF staff is playing a major role in organizing the
WikiConferenceIndia 23, what are the major objectives it plans to achieve?
Yes, there is a problem of inadequate organic growth of volunteers. Does
WMF think that it can solve this problem by throwing money at it, by
helping to organize the WCI after 7 years, or does it have a concrete
action plan?

WMF might try to reply to the justified doubts , but by redirecting the
query to multiple project pages & links does not help in finding any
solution to the ongoing problems . I think the current situation requires
that after 9 years, another community consultation must be called, where
all stakeholders are invited on an Indian level, and all these pressing
concerns must be discussed.

Regards,
Yohann


On Thu, Jun 15, 2023 at 11:01 PM Belinda Mbambo 
wrote:

> Dear Jayantilal,
>
> The organizers of WikiConference India have already shared
> 
> more details about the event including staff engagement. Others invited
> you
> 
> to follow up on the talk page.
>
> CIS also responded to your question
> 
> on the list. For your thoughts on their proposal, you can follow up on the 
> grant
> page
> .
> Please note decisions about funding are made by the regional funding
> committee
> 
> of volunteers and not by Wikimedia Foundation staff.
>
> For your questions about hiring practices, you can read more here
> .
> If you have a question about existing projects, do feel free to contact
> that project's leads.
>
> Your latest question about scholarships combines affiliate staff and
> contractors with Foundation staff and contractors. To clarify, staff and
> contractors of the Foundation are not eligible for scholarships based on
> their paid work.
>
> Often though, staff and contractors of the Foundation come from the
> community itself and actively contribute to community initiatives as
> volunteers, and represent that work during different conferences.
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> *Belinda Mbambo*
> Senior Manager: Global Movement Communications
> Wikimedia Foundation 
>
>
>
> -- Forwarded message -
> From: Jayantilal Kothari 
> Date: Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 3:58 PM
> Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Request for Transparency Regarding WMF Staff
> in India
>
> Dear Maryana Iskander and Wikimedia Foundation,
>
> I hope I am not disturbing you or have asked you to be in some place which
> I should not have. Please note that my concerns are only in good faith and
> not anything more. Earlier also WMF staff have asked community members to
> res

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Open Letter to Affiliations Committee : Wikimedia India's Demand For A Fair And Transparent Hearing

[Yohann Thomas]

Dear Krill,



Thanks for writing & finally opening up to the community on this topic. Let
me add some more to this, so that the global community can understand the
actual situation Wikimedia India (WMIN) is in now right now, in a more
in-depth way.



Ofcourse, before going forward I need to mention very clearly that the
contents of what, I am writing below, is in my personal capacity as a
volunteer.



While Affcom continues to claim, India Chapter lacks capacity, WMIN would
continue to contest all its reports are in order (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_India#Wikimedia_India
) and let's not forget they are zero-budget.and also self-financed. Your
letter further says that the board had abdicated from communication and
handed over to Abhinav. The board had also previously communicated with the
Affcom on their suspension notice stating it has been on flawed basis and
made in secrecy.  What Abhinav has essentially asked is to put all
information in public domain and let it be for the community to review.
Everyone might not know, but Abhinav has been a board member earlier &
everything has been briefed to him with facts as cited  in previous mail.
Affcom initially in their private mail and now today continue to ignore
facts on transparency and continue to blame change in communication
leadership



Why can't Affcom reply on facts and evidences and also be transparent ?



To make our global audience more aware on the situation of not-for-profits
organisations in India, I would want them to see this article <
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/07/democracies-need-a-little-help-from-their-friends/
>.



There are truckloads of many more such information, on trouble with the
government. Since 2015, not-for profit organisations are under severe
scrutiny and I myself have had police officials doing check up on me at my
work place. Of course, as volunteers , we are ready to undergo these
hardships, for the betterment of the movement. But when we don't receive
basic mutual respect as an organisation from WMF, that's when it becomes
discouraging.



I was communicating with AffCom since we received the suspension notice in
November 2018 and I was also leading the April 2019 Con-call . I honestly
think that the any communication that happens between two individuals or
groups, goes ahead with mutual respect for one another. When we provide
justifications on mail, they don't reply us and ask us to be on Con-Call,
on con-call they hear us but don't take anything in action and our
responses on con-call remain not documented.



I did not see that respect from WMF to WMIN  and I don't blame them,  since
they have the other affiliate Centre of Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) , an
affiliate who has all paid employees , working full time on Wikimedia
projects in India.

If it were any other country,where WMIN was the sole affiliate, our voice
would have been better heard better and we would have been treated better.
Our annual reports were only delayed by 3.5 months due to government
bureaucracy which was delaying submission of our final financial results
(although we don't have enough funds, Chapter is mandated to share its
financial statement).

In the meantime, our quarterly reports were in line and also shared with
the wider community. There are so many affiliates who delay their
submission, so many of those affiliates have an annual budget and also
staff, WMIN had no such comfort but still it received this treatment.



I dont know what is the future of WMIN, but I can say one thing for sure
that as a board member, WMIN has been treated in bad faith by Affiliations
Committee. When thousands of NGOs struggle with a crisis and Affcom comes
up with statements, 'no evidence that the current organization’s leadership
will be able to drive this problem toward resolution”.' Why can't they see
that the same Chapter has been undergoing activities in such hard
circumstances without any funding.



 Affcom should know that even after suspension notice, WMIN is indulging in
programmatic activities and they should know till 13th September they would
find us working & serving our purpose.


Regards,

Yohann Thomas


On Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 3:33 PM Kirill Lokshin 
wrote:

> Dear Wikimedia-l readers,
>
>
> AffCom understands the complexity and sensitivity of the circumstances
> surrounding the decision to de-recognize Wikimedia India as a chapter, and
> we would like to share more information around it. This decision was not
> taken lightly, and only came after consistent warnings, including
> suspensions of the chapter, and continued attempts by AffCom to bring the
> chapter’s activities in line with the requirements for chapter status. We
> understand that volunteers would like more information about this decision
> and past actions that influenced its outcome. We will attempt to provid

[Wikimedia-l] Celebrating Women's Day : Wikimedia India

[Yohann Thomas]

Greetings From Wikimedia India !

Wikimedia India takes the opportunity in wishing all the Women Wikimedians,
A Very Happy Women's Day. Let's join hands and salute all Women's who are
building our open knowledge ecosystems.

Wikimedia India wishes to celebrate the occasion in its own little way
through its program, Featured Wikimedian Of The Month.

Every Month, Wikimedia India celebrates editing by recognising and writing
story for an editor working on Indian language projects. The process is
same like featured article or featured picture.

Today, Friday, 8th March, we wish to do something different. Wikimedia
India is happy to recognise 16  different  Women Wikimedians  working on
different language projects.
Since it's 2019, so we have covered stories for 19 Women Wikimedians
Please find the stories on these Super-Women from India <
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Featured_Wikimedian/Women_Month/2019>.

Also, we have come up with a blog-post on how previously Featured Women
Wikimedians are doing today. Please give it a read <
http://blog.wikimedia.in/2019/03/07/growing-women-leadership-in-india-eyes-from-featured-wikimedian-of-the-month-program/>


We wish to thank User:Netha Hussain and User: Manavpreet Kaur for being the
special guest facilitators for this exercise.

At last, Wishing All Women Wikimedians, A VERY HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY.

Regards,
Yohann Thomas
Wikimedia India <http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Home>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcing launch of Santali Language Wikipedia

[Yohann Thomas]

This is amazing news Haidar..
Congratulations to the Santali language community.. :)

Is there a mailing list for the community?? I need to add it to the WMIN
site, in the section of the Indic language wiki projects..

http://wiki.wikimedia.in/List_of_Indian_language_wiki_projects

Regards,
Yohann



On Wed 8 Aug, 2018, 20:19 Ali Haidar Khan,  wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> We are very pleased to announce the launch of Santali Language Wikipedia (
> https://sat.wikipedia.org). The site has been launched on August 2, 2018
> and, after the import of pages from Wikimedia Incubator and some
> maintenance work, it’s now open for all. Santali Language’s own alphabet,
> Ol Chiki, has been used as the alphabet of this Wikipedia. Santali is
> a language in the Munda subfamily of Austroasiatic languages, spoken by
> around 7.4 million people in South Asia (Bangladesh, India and Nepal).
>
> This is a very special moment for us and has been made possible because of
> the joint effort by Santali Language Wikipedian’s from Bangladesh, India
> and Nepal. Wikimedia Bangladesh and Bangla Wikimedia Community
> congratulates the Santali Language Community for their accomplishment and
> are honored to be a part of this tremendous achievement. Manik Soren, a
> dedicated Santali Wikipedian from Bangladesh, along with some very active
> Santali Language Wikipedians from Bangladesh and India has been
> instrumental in this effort. We would also like to thank Shabab Mustafa,
> President of Wikimedia Bangladesh and Nahid Sultan, a very active steward
> and Secretary of Wikimedia Bangladesh, for coordinating the effort in
> Bangladesh and Odia Wikimedians User Group for coordinating the effort in
> India.
>
> It is worth mentioning that the process of creating a Santali Language
> Wikipedia began in 2012 and, later on, got momentum in February, 2017. Back
> in 2012, Wikimedia Bangladesh organized a Wikipedia meetup and workshop
> with the Santali Language Community in Dinajpur District of Bangladesh with
> the goal of launching a Santali Language Wikipedia. However, that process
> slowed down after some time. Then in September 2017, Wikimedia Bangladesh
> organized another meeting with Santali Language Community in a Dhaka
> Wikipedia meetup where a decision was made to expedite the launch of the
> Wikipedia. Following that discussion, a workshop was organized by Wikimedia
> Bangladesh for Santali Language Wikipedians on December 30, 2017. Santali
> Language Wikipedians from India also participated in that program through
> online discussion. Subsequently, another workshop was organized for Santali
> Language Community in India on March 11, 2018 in collaboration with Odia
> Wikimedians User Group.
>
> After months of work, Santali Language Wikipedia got the approval of
> Language Committee on June 28, 2018 and finally, the Santali Wikipedia site
> was launched on August 2, 2018.
>
> Let us congratulate and welcome the Santali Language Community.
>
>
> Cheers!
>
> Ali Haidar Khan
>
> Executive Committee Member, Wikimedia Bangladesh
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[Wikimedia-l] Winner of Wiki Loves Earth 2016 in India

[Yohann Thomas]

Hello one & all

I am proud to announce the Wiki Loves Earth 2016 in India has finally
shortlisted its top 10 images.
This journey was never easy.. With over 32,000+ images uploaded for the
competition
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_Wiki_Loves_Earth_2016_in_India>
by
6,000+ Contributors, we saw a phenomenal response from India.

All the hardwork put by the Volunteers
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2016_in_India#Organizing_Team>
& the Jury was what that made this competition a success.

You can find all the details regarding our competition here <
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2016_in_India>

Jury Members
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2016_in_India/Jury>

   - Ashish Kothari
   - Santosh Shingare
   - Souradeep Ghosh

Top 10 images as selected by the Jury <
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2016_in_India/Results
>

File:Nirar Anai.jpg <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nirar_Anai.jpg>
This Picture is taken behind Nirar Dam at Valparai, Tamil nadu  overlooking
the beautiful Annamalai R.F division (Indra Gandhi Wildlife Reserve) by
User:JohnJoelraj

File: Grey Horn Bill.jpg
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grey_Horn_Bill.jpg>
Grey horn bill with its favourite fruit by User: Mithan B M

File:Can it or not.jpg
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Can_it_or_not.jpg>
A green Bee-eater trying to catch a bee by User:ARIJIT MONDAL

File:The burning mountain.jpg
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_burning_mountain.jpg>
Mount Kanchenjunga seen from by User:Yoghya

File:A Morning in Chandratal.jpg
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Morning_in_Chandratal.jpg>
A Morning in Chandratal by User:Mahendra Pal Singh

File: Elephas maximus indicusCorbett.jpg
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elephas_maximus_indicusCorbett.jpg>
An Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) taking a dust bath at the
Banks of the Ramganga River in Jim Corbett National park by User:Tanmay
Haldar

File: Demoiselle cranes in Khichan near Bikaner (Rajasthan).jpg
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Demoiselle_cranes_in_Khichan_near_Bikaner_(Rajasthan).jpg>
Beautiful Demoiselle cranes migrate from Mongolia to Khichan near Bikaner
(Rajasthan) by User:ANKITNARANG297

File: Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher (ODKF).jpg
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oriental_Dwarf_Kingfisher_(ODKF).jpg>
Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher at Shiravali by User:P Subramanya C K

File:Changu or Tsomgo Lake.jpg
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Changu_or_Tsomgo_Lake.jpg>
Changu or Tsomgo Lake is at located at the east of Sikkim & at a very high
altitude by User:Sudhanshu Gupta

File:When the big cat turned to my camera!.jpg
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:When_the_big_cat_turned_to_my_camera!.jpg>
Bengal Tiger posing for the camera by User:NIKHIL CHAMARTY

Regards,
Yohann Thomas
President,Wikimedia India
yohan...@wikimedia.in
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wiki Loves the Olympics - Photo contest

[Yohann Thomas]

Dear Rodrigo

Wikimedia India has also launched an edit-a-thon on a similar theme. This
edit-a-thon has a focus on celebrating the Olympics with a focus of Indian
Sportspersons. We plan to create articles on Indian sportspersons in 18
Indic languages..

Edit-a-thon page -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMIN/Events/India_At_Rio_Olympics_2016_Edit-a-thon

What I was thinking here is that in case you get pictures of Indian
athletes, we can include them in the articles created in this edit-a-thon.
Maybe you can create a sub category for Indian athletes..

Thanks
Yohann Thomas
President
Wikimedia India

Yohann Thomas
yohan...@gmail.com

On Fri, Aug 5, 2016 at 9:41 PM, Rodrigo Padula <
rodrigopad...@wikimedia.org.br> wrote:

> Hello guys,
>
> The Wikimedia Community Brazilian Group of Education and Research launched
> today the Wiki Loves the Olympics, a pilot project of an international
> photo contest about the Olympics and Paralympic games.
>
> Important links:
> WLO official site: http://www.wikimedia.org.br/wlo
> WLO on commons:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:
> Wiki_Loves_the_Olympics
> WLO contest page on pt.wiki: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> Wikipédia:WLO/Rio_2016
>
> Social networks:
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wikilovestheolympics
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wltheolympics
>
> Our focus is Brazil, but the contest is open for all the world.
>
> We are fixing some issues during this week but the contest is already open
> for submissions!
>
> In parallel to that initiative, we are running an editing contest in
> cooperation with many countries members of the Iberocoop
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_the_Olympics
>
> We need some help to translate our templates and banners on commons and
> spread that project around our international community.
>
> Templates on commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/
> wiki/Category:Wiki_Loves_the_Olympics_templates
> Central Notice: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_the_
> Olympics/Central_Notice
>
> Comments and help are welcome!
>
> Best regards!
>
> Rodrigo Padula
> Coordenador de Projetos
> Grupo Wikimedia Brasileiro de Educação e Pesquisa
> http://www.wikimedia.org.br
> 21 99326-0558
>
>
>
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