03 January 2011 - 16 March 2011
The Wikimedia Chapter (or “Wikimedia India”) received formal recognition from the Government of Karnataka on 3 January 2011 under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960. The links to the official registration documents including the Memorandum of Association, Rules and Regulations and Registration Certificate are available as under:
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has approved our request to continue using their office premises as the official address of the chapter till 31 March 2012. They have also agreed to offer space for hosting chapter meetings. We would like to thank the Centre for their kind gesture of support. The office address of the chapter is : No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bangalore - 560071
It is with deep regret that we announce the departure of Hari Prasad HS from the Executive Committee of the Chapter. Hari has tendered his resignation from the Executive Committee citing personal reasons. This was discussed in a meeting held on 12 March 2011. We would like to thank Hari for his contributions towards the establishment of the chapter and have accepted his resignation. We have also requested Hari to extend all support for the transfer of resources including the ownership of the Wikimedia domains and the wikis to the Chapter in a reasonable time frame. Consequently, Gautam John agreed to take up the role of Secretary till the first Annual General Meeting and received unanimous support from the team. The vacancy in the Executive Committee will be filled up during the first AGM.
Permanent Account Number
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A Permanent Account Number (PAN) identifies all legal entities for tax purposes and is required for opening a bank account in the name of the Chapter. The application for PAN was submitted on 22 February 2011. Subsequent to the application, a PAN card was issued by the Department of Income Tax on 12 March 2011.
The Chapter has made an application with the State Bank of India, Jayanagar for opening a savings bank account.
Messrs Nath Associates have been appointed as the statutory auditor for the Financial Year 2010-11 and 2011-12.
The Executive Committee met Barry Newstead (CGDO) and Hisham Mundol, WMF consultant for National Programs (India) on 25 February 2011. We had preliminary discussions on draft projects, funding and communications for effective collaboration. We look forward to working with Hisham Mundol as the India programs evolve.
- The Kannada Wikipedia crossed 10,000 articles milestone and the Kannada Wiktionary project crossed 85,000 entries. — [1]
- The Malayalam Wikipedia crossed the 1 million edits milestone. — [2]
- Erik Zachte released the first statistical report card for Indian Wikimedia projects. — [3]
- Ashwin Baindur and some other volunteers from Pune initiate the WikiPuneri group for contributing to the Wikimedia Commons. — [4]
- Gerard Meijssen blogged about using mobile phones for accessing content in Indian languages. — [5]
- Subhash Panigrahi and Shiju Alex initiated a mailing list for Odia Wikipedia. — [6]
- Pradeep Mohandas discovered a "Wikipedia lesson" in a 7th Standard text book from Maharashtra. — [7]
- A discussion on maps of India and Indian laws pertaining to maps and speech. — [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17]
- Nikhil Sheth created a manual on Wikipedia for Schools Offline Project. — [18]
- Shirish Agarwal blogged about GNUnify 2011. — [19], [20]
- Hisham Mundol invited comments on the draft India Programs page on Meta-wiki. — [21]
- Ashwin Baindur invited volunteers to support him with the Indianized version of Wikipedia for Schools Offline edition. He is currently curating a list of articles appropriate for school children. — [22]
- A discussion on the attempt by the Government of India to regulate bloggers and intermediaries on the internet. — [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29]
- A Tale of Two Workshops by Bala Jeyaraman. — [30]
- Gerard Meijssen reported a request for localization in Saurashtra language which is written in three scripts. — [31], [32]
- Shiju Alex discussed a list of articles every Indic Wikipedia should have. — [33]
Outreach forms the central part of the Chapter’s strategy. We aim to augment volunteer activities around the country by providing organisational support. In the month of January 2011, the Wikimedia community along with other Wikipedia enthusiasts around the country celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Wikipedia project by planning and organising events in over 90 cities across the country. A large number of cities received an excellent response from the general public.
The Indian community of Wikimedians organised and executed many of these events with participation and support from the EC members. We have all been the subject of numerous stories in the media. A list of published news stories is available here.
- Bangalore
- Meetup 25 - 9 January 2011
Meetup 27 - 13 February 2011
Meetup 28 - 17 February 2011
Meetup 29 - 19 February 2011
Meetup 30 - 25 February 2011
Meetup 31 - 13 March 2011
GLAM Bangalore February 2011
Bangalore loves Wikipedia - February 2011
- Kolkata
- Meetup 3 - 12 February 2011
- Mangalore
- Meetup 1 - 29 January 2011
- Mumbai
- Meetup 7 - 13 February 2011
Meetup 8 - 23 February 2011
GLAM Mumbai February 2011
Wikipedia Takes Mumbai January 2011
- New Delhi
- Hindi Wikipedia Workshop - 12 February 2011
GLAM New Delhi February 2011
- Pune
- Meetup 11 - 12 March 2011
Chapter communication
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The Chapter team will endeavor to provide regular updates to the community about its activities. We intend to send future updates using the following channels:
Periodical reports will feature information of interest to the Wikimedia community in India, both in terms of updates on key outcomes from chapter meetings and also to encourage dialogue with community towards membership development, design and execution of outreach programs and special projects.
- Opening up the bank account
- Membership application process
- Community engagement through Special Interest Groups (SIGs) based on geographic location and language.
- Wikimedia Conference 2011, 25-28 March 2011, Berlin, Germany : Arjuna Rao Chavala and Anirudh Bhati are representing the Chapter at this conference.
- OSSCamp Lucknow 11.03, 26-27 March 2011, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh : Inviting expression of interest from Wikimedian volunteers, preferably with but not limited to Mediawiki development experience, travel funding available for two individuals.
- SRISHTI 2011, 01-04 April 2011, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology, Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh : Anirudh Bhati, Arun Ramarathnam and Nikhil Sheth are attending this event.
Thank you for all the feedback received so far. Our priority is to engage the community in the most productive way to further the goals of the Wikimedia movement. This report is a first of its kind and will be published periodically once every two months. Please share your ideas and suggestions by sending us an email.
office [at] wikimedia [dot] in
In case you may wish to contact us individually, feel free to write to us at the email addresses listed below:
Arjuna Rao Chavala, President: arjunaraoc [at] wikimedia [dot] in
Gautam John, Secretary: gkjohn [at] wikimedia [dot] in
Anirudh Bhati, Treasurer: anirudh [at] wikimedia [dot] in
Arun Ramarathnam, Member: arunram [at] wikimedia [dot] in
BalaSundaraRaman Lakshmanan, Member: sundar [at] wikimedia [dot] in
Srinivas Gunta, Member: srinivas [at] wikimedia [dot] in
On behalf of the Wikimedia India Chapter,
Sincerely,
Anirudh Bhati
Treasurer, Wikimedia India Chapter
+91 9328712208
Skype: anirudhsbh
The Wikimedia Chapter is an independent organization registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 India license.
