Wikimedia Fellowships/Proposals/GLAM India

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Wikimedia Fellowship proposals

The GLAM India Coordinator proposal for a Wikimedia Fellowship, where the fellow would:

1. Act as a point of contact and initiate GLAM activity with cultural institutions in India.
2. Part of process for appointing GLAM Ambassadors in India

Background

GLAM activities have kicked off in earnest in US and Europe. It is however felt that a country with India with a long cultural history will have significant contributions to offer. Liam Wyatt visited us in India and opened dialogue with cultural institutions in India. Some of these are continuing. However, a need was felt to have a person who can talk to and coordinate with these cultural institutions. The cultural institutions also felt more comfortable speaking with a person with designation/affiliation rather than to volunteers. Hence, the need for a GLAM India Coordinator was felt.

Product, goals, and metrics

The fellowship would be responsible for continuing relationship with cultural institutions with whom we have had dialogue, establishing new relationship with institutions with whom we have no dialogue, appointing GLAM Ambassadors who work with cultural institutions and compiling reports on activity done. The Fellow hopes to focus on the large number of cultural institutions in Mumbai (where the Fellow is based) and New Delhi, the national capital. The Fellow is ready to travel to other towns and cities in India if there is an institution interested.

Methodology

Overview

1. The Fellow would initiate/continue dialogue introducing Wikipedia and clarifying Wikipedia principles with a cultural institution.
2. If the cultural institution agrees to have a GLAM activity in their premises, the Wikimedia community would be contacted (will also include members from language communities other than English).
3. The cultural institution will be encouraged to contribute to improve articles in Wikipedia. These will be areas where the cultural institution has a speciality in or has expertise.
4. The members of the cultural institution would be briefed on the activity and Wikipedia before the activity. This is to help them understand how the Wikimedia community works.
5. Wikimedia members will visit the cultural institution and will be briefed on the topics whose articles need improvement by experts/members from the cultural institution.
6. Wikimedia members will work members/experts from the cultural institution to improve articles on Wikipedia.
7. If during dialogue in step 1, the cultural institution is comfortable with allowing multimedia donation or allows Wikimedians to create such multimedia, this will be done in parallel to when editors will be contributing content.
8. A GLAM Ambassador will be appointed to be point of contact between Wikimedians and the cultural institution.

GLAM Ambassadors

In order to attract people to take up the GLAM Ambassadors responsibility the Fellow would approach cultural institutions and seek help from Wikimedians already present here to become GLAM Ambassadors. The Fellow will also approach liberal arts colleges to seek out students who are interested in working in the cultural institutions and encourage them to become GLAM Ambassadors. The Fellow will also seek the help of local media houses to spread the word and get attention of interested persons in this effort. During all of this, the Fellow will take the help of the local Wikimedia community, if present.

GLAM Ambassadors will be selected for a specific institution based on person's desire to volunteer for the post and comfort level of the cultural institution having the person as an Ambassador.

If the GLAM Ambassador is a new person he/she will be given training in editing Wikipedia, understanding Wikipedia's sister projects and the various associated editing policies. The Fellow would be accessible for follow-up and to answer questions that the Ambassador may have.

Cultural Institution Staff

The Fellow also seeks that the staff at cultural institutions be introduced to the concept of Wikimedia and its use. The Fellow will be available to hold Workshops or WikiAcademies if the cultural institution is interested or even take on a small group of persons who would like to be a part of Wikipedia's community. We want the staff in the various cultural institutions to be inspired to edit Wikipedia and contribute to it's sister projects.

Experimentation

The experiences of GLAM people from other countries will be an inspiration for this project. However, India presents a distinct set of challenges and opportunities. The Fellow will try and implement different pilot programmes to see which ones work best in the country and share best practises with the Wikimedian GLAM community.

Chapter involvement

The Fellow would work with the Wikimedia India Chapter to enable it to take over the co-ordination of the programme. By building a network of GLAM Ambassadors and providing a model that the Chapter can follow and improve upon, the Fellow hopes to keep the Chapter involved in this effort. The Chapter will be given access to materials that enables them to train staff of cultural institutions or GLAM Ambassadors. The Fellow will be available to the Chapter's co-ordinator for any help needed beyond the time period of this fellowship, when feasible.

Community involvement

The Fellow will seek the involvement of the community where possible. The Fellow will also actively seek to enable networking between Wikimedians through GLAM themed meetups. The Fellow hopes to thus build up a community of people who are interested in activities with cultural institutions and who can work with them with help and support of the Chapter.

Goals

• Increase in quality of articles related to Indian culture.
• Increase in number of contributors to articles (for Wikimedia projects) related to Indian culture.
• Ensure continuity in the GLAM Programme beyond the term of this Fellowship

Metrics

The success of the Fellowship can be measured through:

1. The number of cultural institutions with whom connection is established.
2. The increase in quality of articles related to the area of expertise with such cultural institutions.
3. The number of joint community-GLAM editing event organised with the cultural institutions.
4. The number of participants in these editing events.
5. The number of trained staff in the cultural institutions.
6. The number of articles that have emerged from such collaborations.

Reports

The Fellow shall report on the activity done on a Wikipedia GLAM page and collate information on cultural institutions approached. The Fellow has already started this page. The report shall be done during and after collaboration with the cultural institution(s).

Logistics

• Given the nature of the requirements, the Fellow will be working full-time.
• The Fellow is located in Mumbai.
• The Fellow will need to travel to destinations where cultural institutions are located. While many cultural institutions are in Mumbai, there are a few in the national capital and other state capitals.

Fellow(s) responsible for this proposal

Pradeep Mohandas: Pradeep is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering and a Wikipedian editing in the English Wikipedia since 2007. I have worked on articles related to my geographical neighbourhood in Mumbai and articles related to astronomical observatories in India. I have been involved in organising meet ups in Mumbai after September 2010, when the first meetup was held in Mumbai. I was also involved in the team organising the Wikipedia X celebrations in Mumbai, did a Creative Commons licenses workshop for the GLAM institutions and am involved as Treasurer with the WikiConference India 2011, India's first national Wikimedia conference. I am a Wikimedia India chapter member and Chair of City Special Interest Group for Mumbai.

As an undergraduate mechanical engineer at PIIT, New Panvel , I co-founded the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space's India chapter(SEDS-India). Here, I helped organise an international students conference as well as two national level conferences. I also was part of an international collaboration student satellite project called SEDSAT-II. I have helped by advising school level competitions for organisations like Planetary Society, India. I am currently the National Point of Contact, India for the Space Generation Advisory Council, in support of the United Nations Program on Space Applications. I believe this experience will help me with approaching cultural institutions and opening dialogue, working with other Wikimedia volunteers from India interested in GLAM and implementing collaborative projects.

Endorsements

This section is for endorsements by Wikimedia volunteers. Please note that this is not a debate, vote, or poll, but is rather a space for volunteers to describe in detail why they think a fellowship project is of value. If you have concerns or questions rather than an endorsement to make, please use the proposal Talk page. Endorsements by volunteers willing to work in collaboration with a fellowship recipient on a project are highly encouraged.

1. Having worked with Pradeep prior to and during the GLAM CC Workshop in Mumbai, WCI 2011 as well as other Wikimedia events in Mumbai, I can say that he has the capability and commitment required for this sort of job. The scope is enormous. AroundTheGlobe 17:20, 31 July 2011 (UTC)