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Wikimedia foundation in india (a vision from 2011)

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BalaSundaraRaman (Sundar)
BalaSundaraRaman (Sundar)

This is a presentation I made for Wikimedia Foundation in 2011 outlining a vision for their India program.

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Wikimedia Foundation in India Sundar
WikiLove Triangle Chapter WMF Community Wikimedia Projects WWMMFF
Community ? Asynchronous collaboration ? Headless, bottom-up ? Tremendous, unmatched energy ? No individual obligations, right to vanish ? Independent, free thinking, not to be disturbed inside wiki ? Needs support for real-world activities
Chapter ? Think tank ? Outreach front ? Community liaison ? Geographically distributed (eventually) ? Partially synchronised ? Reasonably funded ? Needs staff support ? Members have day jobs ? Can¡¯t commit to external meetings
WMF Office ? Full-time staff members ? Only sufficient as anchors ? Execution must involve community and the chapter ? Can handle external contacts ? Fund-raising ? Lobbying ? Content acquisition ? Need to work with chapter for execution ? e.g., curate content for print or CD versions ? Outreach activities ? Commission projects ? Mediawiki (embrace community members as much as possible) ? Professional services ? Grants route
How? ? India Strategy Wiki as an asynchronous collaboration mechanism ? Mailing lists for wider consultation ? Fortnightly calls with the chapter ? Some community members will be on either side, forming bridges ? Meetups with community members
Goals ? Top-7 and bottom-3 in focus ? Topline has greater promise ? But, bottomline is in critical condition ? Establish many low-cost beachheads ? Seeding is low-cost ? Could trigger organic (slow) growth ? Bootstrap wikis in all Schedule 8 languages ? All have > 1 million speakers ? Beyond that community will take over
Bootstrapping strategy ? Bootstrap Wikis (ref. http://strategy.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title= Proposal:SEO_Market_and_Contributor_Funnel&oldid=74248 ) ? Content-acquisition ? GLAM ? Long literary tradition -> Wikisource ? Lobby government for content ? Targeted promotion in-wiki and off-wiki ? Location ? Affinity ? Other context ? Tech support ? Localisation ? Input-method editors (IME)
Focus areas ? North East India needs to be tapped ? High literacy ? ¡°Unexplored¡± territory ? Bishnupriya Manipuri could be our window to the region ? Other focus areas to be data-driven
Tech challenges ? Input method ? Punjabi Wikipedia split by script ? Eastern wiki uses Gurmukhi ? Western Wiki uses Shahmukhi ? Result: the wiki is disproportionately smaller ? Kashmiri Wikipedia one wiki - two scripts ? Managed to remain as one wiki ? But, no automatic transliteration for readers ? Konkani wiki ¨C three scripts in incubation (http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/gom) ? Saurashtra Wiki
Community efforts ? Malayalam Wikipedia CD ? Tamil Wiki article writing contest ? Wikimedia India Community NewsLetter ¡°Cross-pollination of these ideas happening, needs to be encouraged.¡±
Conclusion ? Huge scope for development in India. ? WikiLove triangle should be understood and leveraged. ? India has needs not comparable with western Wiki projects. ? Even among Indian language wikis, differences are many. ¡°Open-minded, data driven, facilitatory approach necessary¡±

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Wikimedia foundation in india (a vision from 2011)

  • 1. Wikimedia Foundation in India Sundar
  • 2. WikiLove Triangle Chapter WMF Community Wikimedia Projects WWMMFF
  • 3. Community ? Asynchronous collaboration ? Headless, bottom-up ? Tremendous, unmatched energy ? No individual obligations, right to vanish ? Independent, free thinking, not to be disturbed inside wiki ? Needs support for real-world activities
  • 4. Chapter ? Think tank ? Outreach front ? Community liaison ? Geographically distributed (eventually) ? Partially synchronised ? Reasonably funded ? Needs staff support ? Members have day jobs ? Can¡¯t commit to external meetings
  • 5. WMF Office ? Full-time staff members ? Only sufficient as anchors ? Execution must involve community and the chapter ? Can handle external contacts ? Fund-raising ? Lobbying ? Content acquisition ? Need to work with chapter for execution ? e.g., curate content for print or CD versions ? Outreach activities ? Commission projects ? Mediawiki (embrace community members as much as possible) ? Professional services ? Grants route
  • 6. How? ? India Strategy Wiki as an asynchronous collaboration mechanism ? Mailing lists for wider consultation ? Fortnightly calls with the chapter ? Some community members will be on either side, forming bridges ? Meetups with community members
  • 7. Goals ? Top-7 and bottom-3 in focus ? Topline has greater promise ? But, bottomline is in critical condition ? Establish many low-cost beachheads ? Seeding is low-cost ? Could trigger organic (slow) growth ? Bootstrap wikis in all Schedule 8 languages ? All have > 1 million speakers ? Beyond that community will take over
  • 8. Bootstrapping strategy ? Bootstrap Wikis (ref. http://strategy.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title= Proposal:SEO_Market_and_Contributor_Funnel&oldid=74248 ) ? Content-acquisition ? GLAM ? Long literary tradition -> Wikisource ? Lobby government for content ? Targeted promotion in-wiki and off-wiki ? Location ? Affinity ? Other context ? Tech support ? Localisation ? Input-method editors (IME)
  • 9. Focus areas ? North East India needs to be tapped ? High literacy ? ¡°Unexplored¡± territory ? Bishnupriya Manipuri could be our window to the region ? Other focus areas to be data-driven
  • 10. Tech challenges ? Input method ? Punjabi Wikipedia split by script ? Eastern wiki uses Gurmukhi ? Western Wiki uses Shahmukhi ? Result: the wiki is disproportionately smaller ? Kashmiri Wikipedia one wiki - two scripts ? Managed to remain as one wiki ? But, no automatic transliteration for readers ? Konkani wiki ¨C three scripts in incubation (http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/gom) ? Saurashtra Wiki
  • 11. Community efforts ? Malayalam Wikipedia CD ? Tamil Wiki article writing contest ? Wikimedia India Community NewsLetter ¡°Cross-pollination of these ideas happening, needs to be encouraged.¡±
  • 12. Conclusion ? Huge scope for development in India. ? WikiLove triangle should be understood and leveraged. ? India has needs not comparable with western Wiki projects. ? Even among Indian language wikis, differences are many. ¡°Open-minded, data driven, facilitatory approach necessary¡±