Welcome aboard Nikita and Shiju :) On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Hisham Mundol <hmun...@wikimedia.org>wrote:
> Hi Folks, > > I'm really pleased to send out this email welcoming the first 2 new members > of the India Programs team. Just before I introduce them, I thought I'd > share with you the background of their selection. > > *Context* > > As you might be aware, the Foundation had decided to undertake a catalyst > operation in India to promote the growth of the community and projects here. > The team is expected to be a small, nimble 5 person group. We had put out > 2 job postings - for Indic Initiatives and for Participation. (Please > refer: > http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2011-May/003007.html) > We posted them on linkedin and on the Indian FOSS community list as well > as announcing them on various Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. > > The response was wonderful. >110 applications for Indic Initiatives and > nearly 175 applications for Participation. These were short-listed to 10 (3 > for Indic Language and 7 for Participation.) These were a mix of existing & > previous Wikipedians, Wikipedia newbies and open source advocates. > > In June, the shortlisted 10 were interviewed and further down-selected to > 4. These 4 were then further interviewed by a group of other staff members > from the Foundation. I am pleased to inform the community of the final > selected 2. > > *Shiju Alex - Indic Initiatives* > > Most of you already know Shiju. For those who don't, Shiju is a long-time > Wikipedian [User: shijualex] and is active on Malayalam Wikipedia, English > wikiprojects and Wikimedia Commons, as well as Wikisource and offline. He > has been passionately involved with the establishing and building of Indic > language Wikipedias. He's participated in a series of outreach activities > and is also (jointly) undertaking a grant from the Foundation for outreach > across India. He's a regular member of the Bangalore community. > > Shiju is from Palakkad, Kerala and is married with a 2 year old baby. He > currently works as a Senior Technical Writer with ABB in Bangalore. > > Even those of you who know him might not know the following 2 things that I > was lucky to discover during the selection process. Shiju is an MSc in > Physics with a specialisation in Astronomy and Astrophysics - and he retains > a deep interest in anything astronomical. Feel free to quiz him vigorously > on this! He also enjoys trekking and misses his time in Pune where he could > be up & close the gorgeous Sahyadri Hills. > > Shiju is going to lead our work on promoting Indic language projects across > India. The challenges are enormous - from technical constraints to low > levels of awareness of these projects to vibrant but nascent communities. > However, these only point to the massive size of the opportunity for Indic > language projects - which is the joint top-2 strategic priority of the > movement in India. After he joins, he'll collaboratively put together a > plan for Indic language projects and work towards quality execution of > high-impact initiatives. > > Shiju is currently serving out his notice period so will be able to join us > only around September - October. > > *Nitika Tandon - Participation* > > Nitika [User:nitika.t] is relatively newer to the community - and has been > brushing up her editing. She's been immersing herself in the Wikimedia > world and attended community meet-ups as well as reviews of the Wikipedia > India Education Program. She is from Delhi - and is currently based in > Mumbai - where she works as a Strategic Partnerships Manager with Directi. > (If you're not aware, they are one of the most prominent internet domain & > solutions providers in India.) > > Nitika has an MBA and has also worked on research analytics. A fascinating > detail I discovered about a previous assignment of hers - and you must ask > her about it - is how African drums can be used for management coaching! > She also reliably informs me that there are 7 Spanish dance forms and she > instructs in all of them! > > Nitika is going to be working on Participation - which is primarily > focussed on increasing the contributor base of non-Indic language projects, > primarily Wikipedia. One of her first tasks will be to expand the > Wikipedia India Education Program from the Pune pilot to a more national > footprint. She'll also work on other initiatives to promote participation - > and I can foresee Wikimedia Commons being a potential initiative. > > Nitika will join us on August 1st. > > *Introductions* > > I'm going to be scheduling the August Monthly India Programs IRC on > Thursday August 18th to introduce them both to you. Please do join us. > I'll send a reminder closer to the date. Also, needless to say, they'll > be attending a series of community meet-ups over the next months. > > In the meantime, please do join me in welcoming them onboard. I'm really > excited because this means that we will now have the capacity and capability > to dramatically accelerate our activities in India. > > Warmest Regards, > > *Hisham Mundol* > * > * > *** > > Wikimedia <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home> > > India > Programs<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs> > * > * > > skype : hisham.wikimedia > gtalk : hmun...@wikimedia.org > ** > twitter : @mundol > * > > *Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the > sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!* > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > > -- "In every life there comes a time when that dream you dream becomes that thing you do." - my homepage: www.ramshankaryadav.com - my blog : www.mylifeismypassion.com - my virtual card : https://www.mcpvirtualbusinesscard.com/VBCServer/ramshankaryadav/card
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