Reports/March 2016

=Events=

Setting up of Advisory Council at Wikimedia India

 * The primary objective of setting up an advisory board at Wikimedia India is to receive support, suggestions, guidance, advice and help in achieving chapter’s objective from distinguished individuals having excelled in their respective fields and mission. The advisory board members would provide a non-binding advice to the Executive Committee Members, Wikimedia India Staff and the community comprising of long list of editors across different language groups.
 * The function of the advisory board would be to offer assistance to the chapter with anything from legal advice to management of finances to carry forward the goals of the chapter. Advisory board members would provide the chapter with new knowledge, development of strategic thinking and possible alternatives based on their expertise from different fields.
 * The advisory board would in turn strengthen the executive committee and wikimedia staff to better execute their work, but does not interfere with either the executive committee or wikimedia india staff regarding the disclosure of confidential documents or forceful execution of their advices.
 * Community members volunteered for Advisory Committee including Dhaval, Sripathy, Yann, Bodhisattwa Mandal, Satdeep Gill, Adethya, Karthik Nadar. The long discussion on the appointment process, views and opinions from various community members and Mr. Arun Ramarathnam made it a worth for inputs and amendments to be taken further.

Wikimedia Foundation Affiliate board selection

 * The Wikimedia chapters and thematic organizations select two members for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. We, as the members of Wikimedia India have to accordingly vote for two members for the organisation.
 * Community members poured in their views in the mailing list. Suggestions were rolling in for support to different candidates. Siska Doviana and Jan Ainali were the major names in support for from the community.
 * We request the community members to kindly express their opinions and suggestions for the same. Please visit the links below to find more relevant details


 * About Affiliate Board https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats
 * Nominated Candidates https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016/Nominations
 * Timeline https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016

Featured Wikimedian
Featured Wikimedian for the month of March 2016 - Baljeet Dhaliwal

Baljeet Dhaliwal is a Punjabi Wikimedian currently studying in the ninth grade. Inspired by Charan Gill, father of another Wikimedian Satdeep Gill, Baljeet began editing in mid June 2015 and is now one of the youngest and most active editors of Punjabi Wikipedia. He mostly edits articles related to computers and has created the articles of almost all the basic components of computer in the Punjabi Wikipedia.

A source of inspiration for his fellow Wikimedians, he is often described as a quick learner. Baljeet was one of the most prolific contributors at the Wikipedia Asian Month drive with 42 articles and was honored as a Wikipedia Asian Ambassador. Baljeet says he feels proud to see his mother tongue grow on the internet and vows to contribute more for its growth.

For more details, please visit -

http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Featured_Wikimedian/Archive/2016

=News=


 * Scholarships for Wikimania 2016 have been announced. For more details, please visit Here
 * Katherine Maher takes over as the Intermin Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation effective 14 March 2016 (after Lila Tretikov resigned in Feb 2016). Full announcement can be found at here - 1 and 2


 * The Wikimedia Foundation Individual Engagement Grants (IEG) program is accepting proposals from March 14th to April 12th for new ideas to improve Wikimedia projects IEG Grants. Funds are available (up to $30,000 USD) to support individuals or teams of up to four people to implement promising ideas, whether focused on building a new tool or gadget, organizing a better process on your wiki, researching an important issue, or providing other support for community-building. Ideas from the current Inspire Campaign on content curation and review are very welcome Here

=In the Media=


 * Ashutosh Desai & Savio DSouza (13 March 2016). "13 ways to make your Wikipedia experience better".The Times of India.


 * Prahari (30 March 2016). "Wikipedia – Is it ReallyIndependent?". The Times of India.


 * Biz Carson (13 March 2016). "The first words on Wikipedia were a nerdy programmer in-joke". The Business Insider.


 * "Wikipedia developing speech engine for users". The Times of India. 13 March 2016.


 * Himanshi Dhawan (10 March 2016). "MP tells Lok Sabha Wikipedia killed her, assassinated character".The Times of India.


 * Namrata Sahoo (5 March 2016). "A Bot That Gets Wiki Content to Your Phone". The New Indian Express