Monday, November 08, 2010

Where and why to have an office; #India and #Brazil

There has been a lot of news in the press about the #Wikimedia Foundation opening an office in India. This is a result of considerations in the strategy project. Both India and Brazil have been selected for having a WMF office.

Tutsa Dancers from Changlang District
 Indians from Arunachal Pradesh

The news that a location is to be selected has generated a lot of media attention in India. Several Wikimedians have come and gone to meet the Indian community and when some 600 people come to welcome Jimmy, the Indian community is clearly alive and well.


Pataxó Indians
By contrast not much is happening in Brazil. For reasons not clear to me, there is a group of active Wikimedians who are not interested in starting up a chapter. As Brazil is recognised as strategic and as the Brazilians themselves are not organising themselves, an office can be the proxy needed to realise the ambitions for Brazil.

The reason for an office in Brazil seems obvious. It is less clear what the added value will be in India. it will be interesting to see how things develop.
Thanks,
      GerardM

4 comments:

Pradeep Mohandas said...

Perhaps, there is a lot happening but maybe not in the English language?

GerardM said...

I know a lot is happening in India in languages other then English. Exactly because of the activities in India I am not so sure why an office is needed.

The situation for Brazil is the opposite.
Thanks,
GerardM

Arman Daneshjoo said...

1. Pictures on your blog are being filtered in Iran and I guess China. Using direct links to secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/wiki/File: ... or uploading them to skydrive.live.com would help

2. please allow me to add you to my wikipedians friend list. (It's actually a co-worker list). I know the value of time and won't bother you without your permissin. but in rare occasions, I really need someone to ask for opinion. Yours might save me 20 hours a week every month. you'll also receive benefits for choosing the right person to be friend with.

If your answer is "OK" please mail armandaneshjoo@live.com

Unknown said...

We have just started some initial work with the Brazilian community to better understand the needs and opportunities for WMF to help catalyze further reach and participation in Brazil.

You can contribute and/or follow the progress on our Meta page:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global/Brazil