Reports/September 2012

Dear all,

Greetings from Wikimedia India !

Organisational Updates
The second Annual General body meeting was held on 23 Sep 2012. was released on the occasion.

Elections

Elections were conducted during the AGM. Karthik Nadar Nikita Belavate, Pranav Curumsey, Srikanth Ramakrishnan and Viswa Prabha were declared elected.

Membership: Membership as of 30 Sep, 2012 is 126. M/s Arnion Technologies Pvt Ltd, Ahmedabad became the first institutional member, following the grant of membership on 19 Sep 2012.

Donations: Amount of donations processed during the month is Rs Nil.

Board Meetings: Board did not have in person meetings in September.However AGM was attended by five EC members.

WikiConference 2011 published along with Chapter Audit report during AGM on 23 Sep 2012

Executive Manager EC after an exhaustive search and selection process has appointed Sowmyan Tirumurti as Executive Manager of the organisation. This is the first position to be staffed. Mr Sowmyan has over 40 years of experience in Aerospace, and Computer peripherals industry. He has worked with Indian Space Research Organization, DCM Data Products, ORG Systems, TVS Electronics, and Honeywell Technology Solutions in India. He has held roles related to R&D management, Quality improvement, Cost improvement, Marketing, Sales and service support, Strategy planning, Supply chain management, Contract management, and Compliance monitoring.

After retiring from Honeywell Technology Solutions in 2008, he has explored many web based content delivery methodologies meant for continuing education. He has promoted webcasting at low bandwidth, created a web site for lessons on Six sigma and Hoshin kanri, taught Japanese language through a Youtube channel, and attended Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) on Coursera and Udacity.

Sowmyan joined Wikimedia India on 1st October 2012 as Executive Manager based in Bangalore. His primary role is to support the members and the community in organizing and running the various promotion programs. Sowmyan's photo is at http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Staff

Wiki Loves Monuments
Here are some statistics and updates from India:
 * 16,796 photos have been uploaded from India thanks to Wiki Loves Monuments 2012.
 * There were 2,230 participants from the country, meaning India had by far the most participants.
 * Anupamg, Thamizhpparithi Maari, Sthitaprajna, Darwinacitizen and Vu2sga were the top five contributors from India.
 * Taj Mahal(Indian Monument N-UP-A28-a) is the world wide winner - a monument which was clicked by maximum no of photographers. It was photographed by 114 different users in Wiki Loves Monuments 2012.

Jury round is going on, while the winners and winning photos are expected to be declared by early November.

Community & Special Interest Groups
Events:
 * AGM,23 Sep 2012 See blog post
 * Wiki Academy at IIT, Madras, 6 Oct 2012.

Upcoming Events


 * 50th Bangalore Meetup.
 * New EC induction program is being planned for 13-16th at Bangalore. New office bearer election and induction of new EC members by  outgoing EC members on various aspects of running the organisation and planning for 2012-13 are the expected major outcomes from this meeting.

A round-up of Wikimedia events, academies and initiatives around the nation are updated here.

Media Coverage
No much media coverage this month.

Grants Funded
No grant requests.

We look forward to your continued support and active participation.

Best, On behalf of Wikimedia Chapter (India)

Naveen Francis Secretary