Barry - can you send this to: wikimediaannounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org As well? I'll approve it right away.
Begin forwarded message: > From: Barry Newstead <bnewst...@wikimedia.org> > Date: February 15, 2011 9:01:50 AM PST > To: WMF Staff <st...@lists.wikimedia.org> > Cc: hisham <hisham.mun...@gmail.com> > Subject: [WMF Staff] Announcing Hisham Mundol as consultant for National > Programs, India > Reply-To: WMF Staff Mailing List <st...@lists.wikimedia.org> > > Dear colleagues, > > I am pleased to announce the > appointment of Hisham Mundol as a consultant to the Wikimedia > Foundation to support us in our program initiatives in India. > > As you know, the Wikimedia > Foundation declared India to be a strategic priority during > the strategic planning process [1]. I announced our plans for > the formation of an office in August 2010 and the Wikimedia > Foundation Board of Trustees approved the creation of the > Wikimedia India chapter in June 2010. India is a priority for > the Wikimedia movement as it has a strong and growing > community of Wikimedians building the Indic and English > language projects. It is a country where the Wikimedia > movement can achieve our mission and learn important lessons > for achieving impact elsewhere. The engagement of Hisham will > enable the Wikimedia Foundation to pilot new initiatives aimed > at accelerating the growth of the community in India. I am > very happy we’ve now reached this point. > > As I have mentioned in the > past, we have a lot of momentum in India but we have a long > way to go to achieve our full potential as a movement. > Indians represent 4% of the world’s Internet users today (and > this share is growing), yet they only represent 1.5% of page > edits on Wikipedia. We should be able to rapidly increase this > share - across all projects - and expand readership in a > corresponding fashion. > > Hisham’s title will be > Consultant, India National Programs. He will report to me. > His role will be to design and implement specific pilot > programs that encourage many more Indians to become > contributors to our projects in Indic languages as well as > English. The National Programs initiative will focus on the > following areas in the first year: > Design and implement an > India-wide program to increase Wikimedia’s footprint on > university and college campuses with students and faculty > with the aim of encouraging contributions to Wikimedia > projects > Support the launch and > implementation of community-initiated programs that seek > to increase the editor base for Wikimedia projects > Engage with the > community and chapter to build a strong relationship among > these stakeholder groups and create communications forums > that allow for effective partnerships > > > As a newcomer to the > Wikimedia movement, Hisham’s first task will be to deepen his > understanding of us: our history, goals, values, culture and > mission. To that end, he will be spending the coming weeks > (not months!) in learning mode: Hisham and I will be meeting > with community members in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore on Feb > 23-25 and then Hisham will join community meetings across the > country as they occur. Hisham will also spend time in San > Francisco with the staff of the Wikimedia Foundation, as well > as with other like-minded individuals and organizations and he > will attend the chapter conference in Berlin. > > Hisham will be creating a > workspace on strategy wiki where he will share what he is > learning and develop the core elements of the action plan > going forward. We encourage active community engagement on > this wiki. We aim to move to action quickly and welcome input > and guidance from across the community. > > Hisham was most recently a > consultant with the Public Health Foundation of India (in a > partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). He > designed and implemented large-scale national programs on > HIV/AIDS prevention. He worked to understand the dynamics of > hard-to-reach communities by conducting in-depth, > on-the-ground analysis (ask him to tell you about his > experience talking to drivers while sitting under their > trucks). The programs he designed and implemented sought to > convince people in large numbers - 400 million young people > across the nation - to change very personal behaviours. While > we are not tackling issues of such an intimate nature, we do > aim to convince large numbers of people across the country to > contribute their personal time to Wikimedia projects. During > this assignment, Hisham worked closely with public, private > and community groups (local and international) to work through > the details of the programs and build partnerships for > implementing them at scale. He did so in a manner that used > persuasion rather than power to build support to move things > forward. We think his experience navigating these varied > groups position him well to work in the Wikimedia community. > His earlier career was in marketing and business development > with a number of well-known businesses: Infosys, Accenture, > Cadbury and Unilever. This experience positions him well to > engage with a movement and organization that is global in > nature, in particular to work with a team that is based > halfway around the world. > > We have scheduled an IRC > chat with Hisham and myself for Thursday, February 17 at 22:00 > India Standard Time (16:30 UTC). > > I want to thank everyone who > helped in the selection process that identified Hisham. It was > a five month process in which we made an open call for > consultants (using my visit in September to drum up interest > via conversations with the community and the media) in India > and around the world. We had 197 applicants from a wide range > of professional backgrounds. Egon Zehnder’s India office, > part of a leading global executive search firm, helped screen > candidates and manage the process. Egon Zehnder conducted > indepth interviews with 25 candidates based on the inputs from > Bishakha and I who helped shortlist. I interviewed 12 > candidates via Skype in the first round and then I had the > help of Bishakha Datta and Achal Prabhala to interview the top > seven in person in Bangalore. Our top two candidates met with > Sue and Erik in Delhi and then Hisham met with the entire WMF > leadership team and a broad group of staff members in San > Francisco. > > We are very happy with the > selection of Hisham. We recognize that we did not manage to > hire someone from inside the Wikimedia community or the open > source community. We did look for people with this background > and one of our finalists was a long time open source advocate. > We also engaged with a long time Wikimedian for a role, though > he ultimately decided to withdraw for personal reasons. We > are committed to seeing Hisham integrate himself into the > community quickly and to seeing him add people to his team > from the community. We hope that the community will engage > actively with him to bring him into the fold. Hisham will most > definitely bring fresh perspectives to the movement that will > help us grow and change for the better. > > Please join me in welcoming > Hisham to the Wikimedia movement. > > > [1] http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan/Role_of_the_WMF > [2] > http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2010-August/000850.html > -- > Barry Newstead > Chief Global Development Officer > Wikimedia Foundation > Tel: +1-415-839-6885 x. 6634 > Skype: barry.wikimedia > Twitter: @bazanews > _______________________________________________ > Staff mailing list > st...@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/staff -- Jay Walsh Head of Communications WikimediaFoundation.org blog.wikimedia.org +1 (415) 839 6885 x 609, @jansonw
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