DCW/LDSI/Chapter 3

Introduction and background

Leadership is the cornerstone of any successful group, driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and steering teams toward shared goals. In today's dynamic landscape, effective leadership is not merely a desirable trait but an essential component for sustained growth and adaptability. In response to the Movement Strategy recommendation “Invest in Skills and Leadership Development,” the DCW convened an LDSI Program in early April 2023.

The program included a research project aimed at formulating a comprehensive leadership and skills infrastructure plan for the DCW's longer-run growth, sustainability, and institutional partnerships. The research endevours to further the directives outlined in the Movement Strategy Initiatives regarding Leadership Development and Skill Development Infrastructure. Simultaneously, the study aimed tailor specific courses for the DCW’s needs based assessment. Its objectives are multifaceted, seeking to identify and cultivate leadership potential within the broader community of volunteers in close touch with the DCW.

Preliminary Research

The process of preliminary research and various methods used for the data extraction and collection was in the form of stories, conversations, one-on-one meetings, conferences, and workshops. The conversations with various entities from within and outside the movement produced significant insights for the plan. Numerous questions arose in the process of formulating the appropriate methodology for its implementation. It was evident from the outset that qualitative research is essential for this project. Instead of solely focusing on numerical data, multiple efforts were undertaken to collect information on leadership development and skills infrastructure with the intention of unveiling personal narratives. Design thinking served as the methodological framework for the qualitative research (interviews, conversations, readings, workshops, etc.) that was done and collected throughout the course of the plan formation.

Design thinking is a human-centered, iterative problem-solving approach that prioritizes empathy, creativity, and collaboration. It involves understanding the needs and perspectives of end users, defining problems, ideating potential solutions, prototyping, and testing to arrive at innovative and user-friendly solutions. Unlike traditional linear problem-solving methods, design thinking embraces a non-linear process that encourages flexibility and iteration.

Within the context of qualitative research of our project, design thinking serves as a powerful methodology to foster a comprehensive and user-centric approach. The process begins with empathizing with current and potential leaders, understanding their challenges, aspirations, and learning preferences in the movement. This stage involved in-depth interviews with the students, academics, and volunteers emphasizing on the need of such plan and getting feedback from them. Surveys and observations were the other methods used to gather qualitative data.

Methodology

Methodologically, the program integrated a variety of platforms and interactions. Meetings, conferences, and workshops provided direct engagement opportunities, while interviews and surveys offered valuable insights into participants' experiences and perceptions. There have been bi-weekly one-on-one meetings that happened in person for the discussion of various parts of the project and its progress. The monthly Progress Prism meetings that take place in the online mode were also helpful in the formulation of the ideas for the project. DCW Progress Prism is the Deoband Community Wikimedia's engagement call, which focuses on fostering sustainable growth within the affiliate as part of the global Wikimedia movement. Subsequently, while trying to get in touch with people working on the Leadership development and skills infrastructure program, the research scholar and the program Lead had an insightful meeting with Beverly Jiang, the Learning and Development Strategist at the Wikimedia Foundation and also a core member of the Leadership development Working Group. Best stories are usually told face to face, for the successful completion of the first phase of the plan, it was essential to conduct face-to-face interviews with as many individuals as possible. We seized a lot of opportunities that came our way in the form of gatherings, conferences, workshop etc. throughout the plan.

The program also utilizes a data-driven approach, leveraging surveys and Google Forms to collect feedback on various aspects. The findings, while generic in approach, present a nuanced understanding of participants' preferences and areas of improvement. Graphs generated through Google Forms highlight trends, shedding light on what aspects participants appreciate and what they feel might be lacking. There were various surveys especially targeting the Wikimedians and the other survey targeting the Indian Students and teachers.

DCW Conversation Hour

Ever since its standardisation in March 2023, DCW has regularly organised DCW Conversation Hour, for purposes including leadership and capacity development. On the earliest conversations, one of the participants, Omer F. Yalcin, a faculty fellow at the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science (DACSS) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst noted that, It was great learning about offline Wikipedia meetups' dynamics in the March Conversation Hour through Dr. Schwitter's research.

In our belief, conversations play a very dynamic role. In the December 2023 Conversation Hour, Tanveer Hasan, the Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society, observed, "I've been a big admirer of the DCW initiative of bringing people together and creating spaces for discussion it's always wonderful to see people talk and interact and exchange ideas because that seems to be the source of almost all of the communities around the world that are not ingested with capital if you remove Capital the only other important aspect that the community works with is the way that a conversation happens and I'm really glad that DCW is thinking about this uh and has been doing this well".

Such conversations often serve as bridges, according to a Greek Wikimedian. NikosLikomitros observed some aspects of the conversation hour and noted that "it is a very good program that brings well seasoned community members and WMF staff together. It is a very useful program that give useful knowledge about the most significant things who shape the movement. It also ensures direct WMF-Community interaction which is very important for the Wikimedia to go forward."

As such, conversations such as the DCW Conversation Hour are recommended for future growth and sustinability, and on its basis, a solely Urdu language conversation is decided to be dedicated for our Urdu language volunteers subject to our strategic recommendations.

Wiki Club Jamia

Institute of Technology and Science Ghaziabad emphasises the importance of being associated with clubs and societies that are established within a university or a college campus. According to their website, "By taking part in the activities of clubs and societies you'll build long-lasting friendships and connections, meet students from different streams, and gain transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, organization, problem solving and time management. It will also improve your confidence. If you want to go a step further you could become President or Secretary of your club or society to develop your leadership abilities. Having held positions of authority will really impress graduate recruiters." This explicitly establishes the fact that how these clubs foster leadership, academic and other important skills.

Extracurricular Wikimedia organizations lists some of the Wikimedia mission-aligned clubs that exist around the world. As a part of our Leadership Program, we helped establish Wiki Club Jamia on 29 October 2023 at Jamia Millia Islamia, one of the premier universities in India.

Wiki Club Jamia founding members

Recommendations

The CBCS course bundle

The CBCS bundle is a set of courses which we plan our Wiki Club members to go through, and also offer to Muslim minority institutions as additional skill enhancements courses. This bundle is based on the survey and conversations that we had with students and several academicians. The survey received responses from students and teachers coming from a wide range of institions such as Aligarh Muslim University, IIT Kanpur, Al Falah University, DIT University and the Ramjas College. The students that responded to the survey were either enrolled or had graduated from programs in subjects such as Islamic students, Education, Computer Science, Mass Communication and Mathematics.

Our online survey received respondants were 37, among which 48.6% are dissatisfied with the current education system in India. A meagre percentation of 8.1% is satisfied, and 29.7% stay neutral, whilst 13.5% is just satisifed. 86.5% of our respondents had already engaged in skill development programs or courses outside of their regular academic curriculum, and we observed that everyone wanted to participate in any skill enhancement or leadership development program or course if given a chance. The prominent motivations include:

• Enhance career prospects (64.9%)
• Personal interest and passion (64.9%)
• Addressing gaps in the traditionaleducation system (40.5%)
• Keeping up with industry trends (27%)
• It was a requirement of thecourse (5.4%)
• I know I'm made for this. (5.4%)