This is truly appalling! Sibi, the way you have phrased this and supported your claims is commendable. These mailing lists have often seen serious matters reduced to mud-slinging and personal remarks.
Rohini Lakshané about.me/rohini [image: Rohini Lakshané on about.me] <http://about.me/rohini> 2015-03-03 16:20 GMT+05:30 sibi kanagaraj <civil.si...@gmail.com>: > Hi all , > > This is to bring to the attention of the larger Wikimedia Community about > concerns regarding Abhishek Surywanshi’s ( User profile - > > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ACentralAuth&target=AbhiSuryawanshi > ) wikimedia activities and use of movement funds. > > While edit counts are not the only way to assess the value of a > contributor and people are encourage to do outreach, I am seeing a clear > pattern that he has been *very active consistently only in offline > activities that involve large scale funds.* > > *History of programs or events where he has used or applied to use > movement funds:* > > 1)A Travel and Participation grant request for travel to US from India for > Wikimedia Outreach in US - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:TPS/AbhiSuryawanshi/NASA_LARSS_program > . The community and EC members of Wikimedia India disapproved of this grant > request. > > 2)Wikipedia Summit Pune - > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Summit_Pune . How much > was spent and how? Where is the expenses report? Following failure to abide > by terms regarding financial transactions, *Wikimedia India banned > supporting him financially and passed a resolution regarding this.* ( As > per http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Grants/WikiConnect_Pilot_-_January_2015 > ) > > 3)Various (mostly flight) travel and stay to many different conferences / > meetups across India in the recent past. Community approval for these are > not clearly seen. > *Swatantra conference 2014 > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Requests/Swatantra_2014/Participation#Request_for_Support > (On behalf of which community?) > *India Community Consultation 201 4 - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Community_Consultation_2014#Hindi > (Self-nomination (?) on behalf of Hindi Community where he has made 425 > edits. > Bengali Wikipedia 10 years celebration in Kolkatta during Jan 2015 (On > behalf of which community?) > > > Following are some of his proposed activities that will need a grant made > in near future: > > 1)Wikipedia Summit India in Pune during 2015 - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/WikipediaSummitIndia > > 2)Travel and participation grant request for 1125 US dollars for round > trip travel from Pune to United States for conducting Indic outreach in > United states - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Harvard_India_Conference_and_Wiki_Workshop > > 3)WikiConnect - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiConnect - No > idea about the budget. The pilot he is doing in Nashik *needs 6100 INR > for a cake itself *and reimbursement for 15 days of his stay and food. > > 4)Further outreach in US - > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Indic_Language_Wikipedia_Outreach_in_United_States > > > Some of the concerns: > > 1.He is using and proposes to keep using movement funds in large scale > with questionable impact which are against the learnings already documented > at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation > > 2.He is *using fictitious and misleading titles like Ambassador, > Wikipedia* to establish non-transparent relationships with numerous > organizations in and outside India - > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiConnect/Pilot_Project#mediaviewer/File:Wikipedia_Nashik_Workshop_Participants_January_2015.jpg > . This has the risk of damaging goodwill and brand name for Wikipedia. > > 4)When a current GAC member and former Wikimedia India EC member seeks > details regarding his grant request and reminds the current EC about the > ban, he is hinting legal action against chapter (As per > http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Talk:Grants/WikiConnect_Pilot_-_January_2015 ) > > As a community member, I request the funding agencies in the movement to > take stock of this situation and implement intense scrutiny for funding > requests with proper evaluation of program design and due process for > having community approval by experienced Wikimedians. > > Please donot proceed ahead without community discussion or approval. > > Executive decisions circumventing community approval will never help the > movement. > > > -Sibi Kanagaraj > User:Commons Sibi ( > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ACentralAuth&target=Commons+sibi > ) > > > -- > Disclaimer: The Wikimedia India Chapter (WMIN) is an autonomous entity > with no direct control over the Wikipedia project and other websites hosted > by the Wikimedia Foundation, USA. > > This mail is sent to the members of the Chapter as part of the official > communications between the Chapter, its Director Board and the members. > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "wmin-members" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to wmin-members+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wmin-members. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wmin-members/CADoCDctPPEpVW5LynCCca3vAzCgBc77-nCv%3DWgi5fm6BxMPcuw%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wmin-members/CADoCDctPPEpVW5LynCCca3vAzCgBc77-nCv%3DWgi5fm6BxMPcuw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >
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