IRC office hours/Office hours 2010-08-31

Philippe: Hey everyone

[23:01] GerardM-: Hoi Barry

[23:01] Philippe: So, today we have Barry Newstead (who is playing the role of Sue Gardner)

[23:01] Philippe: Barry is our Chief Global Development Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, and he's going to tell us a little about his plans

[23:01] Philippe: So, I'm going to ask him to introduce himself

[23:01] Philippe: and then we'll chat

[23:02] Bnewstead_: It is a pleasure to join my first IRC office hours. I've been at WMF for a bit over a month now and am excited to hear what areas of interest folks have around Global Dev.

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[23:03] Dragonfly6-7: Bnewstead_ - so what does a GDO *do* ?

[23:03] Bnewstead_: We are starting a number of initiatives and as folks might have seen we are hiring a few key positions in the GD team already.

[23:03] Philippe: Dragonfly6-7 asked a good starting question, I think

[23:04] Philippe: (BTW, i should say that we're not adhering to a strict "QUESTION" format... this is an informal chat, so... you know.... chat)

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[23:05] Bnewstead_: There are a number of activities that we have grouped under GD. Chapter development support to work with our chapters around the world. Catalyst investments to pilot initiatlves where the WMF will invest along side the community in selected countries

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[23:05] sdaugherty: just a side note - I think the various project communities are a bit out of touch with what's going on within the foundation and vice versa, partly by design but partly by being distant from each other. I'd say most wikipedians have no clue what positions exist in the foundation and what role they play.

[23:06] scream: I'm not sure what a "catalyst investment" is and also "pilot initiative", can you expand?

[23:06] Philippe: sdaugherty: Good point. Any suggestions for how to work on that?

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[23:06] Bnewstead_: We are also going to expand efforts around mobile platforms to recognize the realities that many people only access the Internet through mobiles. Plus offline initiatives to get Wikimedia knowledge to those offline

[23:06] scream: sorry for the interrupt

[23:06] sdaugherty: Philippe: offtopic here, but it needs to be discussed at another time.

[23:06] Philippe: sdaugherty: surely

[23:07] Philippe: scream: no problem with interrupts... Barry's a pro, he can handle it

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[23:07] StevenW: Bnewstead: maybe you could explain about the example of the initiative in India, that might give people better context by what you mean re: scream's question?

[23:08] Bnewstead_: Catalyst investments are totally new. We are planning to hire staff selectively to help build communities in a few countries - India, Brazil Middle East/North Africa for starters.

[23:08] lyzzy: Bnewstead_: can you give us some hints, how chapter development will ecpand within the next year

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[23:08] Bnewstead_: Let me tackle India

[23:08] scream: Ok... so WMF outpost offices?

[23:09] • _sj_ imagines Bnewstead shouldering india like Atlas

[23:09] Philippe: I was imagining him tackling the whole country...

[23:09] _sj_: <kerala over one shoulder>

[23:10] Bnewstead_: We are working with the India chapter to figure out ways that WMF can support growth of the projects in this huge and diverse country. We have a job posted now that will be based in India to coordinate activities. We could imagine a range of ways to work to advance the community from oncampus outreach to partnerships with the government to grow Wikimedia.

[23:10] Bnewstead_: On Lyzzy's chapter development q...

[23:10] Philippe: (BTW, yay for Wikimedia-India getting created!)

[23:11] • lyzzy +

[23:11] Theo10011: what the chapter?

[23:11] Philippe: yep

[23:12] GerardM-: communities is not the same as chapter ?

[23:12] Theo10011: really? I thought the registration was still pending

[23:12] Bnewstead_: We see chapters as a vital partner in the work of strengthening Wikimedia. Our chap dev work will focus on three areas: a) helping existing chapters expand capacity; b) helping to form new chapters;

[23:12] scream: So will this be an actual chapter or an actual foundation office?

[23:12] kibble: Theo10011, the registration is still pending, I think, but the chapter has been approved.

[23:12] Bnewstead_: c) creating mutually supporting expectations on how we (WMF and chapters) evaluate our own work, learn and stay accountable to the movement.

[23:13] Theo10011: thanks casey, I know about the approval, I think I am part of that chapter

[23:13] Bnewstead_: GerardM - I meant community. I see the goal as expanding our editor base in India.

[23:13] lyzzy: Bnewstead_: will it cover d) helping new chapters to do the first steps?

[23:15] Bnewstead_: The office in India will be a WMF office, though the chapter might very well have an office too once they are registered and determine their priorities. we see these two as very complementary and working in close partnership

[23:15] Bnewstead_: lyzzy - YES! I really think that it is important to have chapters doing great work, not only "existing"

[23:15] • Philippe is pleased to see so many chapters people here....

[23:16] geniice: Bnewstead_ how long would it take and how much would it cost to get rid of the office?

[23:16] Bnewstead_: We want to use the grant program actively to support chapters.

[23:16] GerardM-: When the editor base is to grow, is there a plan for that ? In particular how to grow the Indian language projects ?

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[23:16] GerardM-: there is also a need to grow the English presence of India !!

[23:16] sdaugherty: Ok. Back to mobile platforms - good topic. The mobile clients I've seen so far don't go very far as for anything other than viewing. What are the chances we'll see editing from mobile devices reach practicality?

[23:16] Bnewstead_: GerardM - I'm not exactly sure we have a "plan" per se.

[23:17] Bnewstead_: We have a lot to learn about how to help growthe editor base in India.

[23:17] geniice: GerardM- growing the english presence in india is a bad idea. Last time it was tried several million people died

[23:17] GerardM-: I happen to have blogged about it today

[23:17] Theo10011: excuse me?

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[23:17] scream: geniice huh?

[23:17] Philippe: geniice: c'mon now.... let's not go there, okay?

[23:17] GerardM-: did not know that you would be around

[23:17] Dragonfly6-7: scream - it's a joke

[23:18] Dragonfly6-7: scream - he means the British Raj

[23:18] Bnewstead_: On the India language projects - I see language diversity as an important goal. Not success in my mind, if we add a bunch of Indian editors to EN:WP.

[23:18] scream: ah

[23:18] Dragonfly6-7: then again, the Raj *did* forbid suttee.

[23:18] Bnewstead_: I'd love to see editing on mobile devices, in fact I think it is a prerequisite to success in many parts of the world.

[23:19] GerardM-: the mobiles in India do mainly latin script ....

[23:19] geniice: Bnewstead_ yes and no not many mobile RS

[23:19] GerardM-: only in the latest version of iphone better Unicode support came along

[23:19] sdaugherty: mobile editing could be a godsend to a project like Wikinews

[23:19] Theo10011: do you have a timeline in my mind, how long till you evaluate the indian movement?

[23:19] Bnewstead_: Will have some technical challenges, but we can figure it out. In fact, I can imagine India being a hub for mobile development on Wikimedia platforms and Kul and I are talking about partnerships that could get us started.

[23:20] Theo10011: I meant when is the focus going to change to Middle-east forexample

[23:20] geniice: well there wasn't untill someone came up with Template:Cite_sign

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[23:20] Philippe: scream actually asked something earlier that we missed, Barry, and sent it to me via IM: does he mean adding actual WMF offices globally... he never did address my followup

[23:20] Bnewstead_: Yes actual WMF offices, though focused on specific activities and might be temporary.

[23:21] Theo10011: do you have a rough timeline?

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[23:21] Bnewstead_: We were thinking a 3 year timeline initially.

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[23:22] Theo10011: so would that mean that Brazil and mid east are going to take a back seat

[23:22] Bnewstead_: Evaluation will be critical - I'd like to analyze everything we do to see if it adds to the strength of the community.

[23:22] scream: The global WMF offices... will be focused on delivering our product to the local communities via chapter development, or fundraising... or equal focus there? Also, will these offices handle other functions, such as WMF tech, should a dev live nearby for example? More generalistic, what sort of staff can we expect at the global WMF offices?

[23:23] GerardM-: when the facts are stacked against local Indian scripts, the numbers will be dismal

[23:23] Bnewstead_: We are going to add Brazil and ME in mid 2011. We are phasing the work, but ultimately they'll work in parallel

[23:23] Theo10011: ok

[23:24] geniice: about the only middle east country wikipedia might just be legal in is isreal

[23:24] Theo10011: thats not true

[23:24] Philippe: geniice: we're just on a "broad-sweeping statement" kick today, aren't we?

[23:24] geniice: true it's probably illegal in isreal

[23:24] Theo10011: there were lots of wikimedians at wikimania from mid-east

[23:24] Bnewstead_: scream - not sure I have a full answer and will vary by location. Initially, the work is focused on program for the local communities. I could imagine tech teams as well to support local/regional needs.

[23:25] Philippe: I think it's also likely those offices would help support chapters in fundraising, but the WMF fundraising operation will mostly stay in San Frnacisco

[23:25] Theo10011: as it should

[23:25] scream: My question of sustainability

[23:25] scream: ah Philippe answered

[23:26] dafer45: Maybe a little late comment on mobile: If we think about other ways than just written contributions to Wikimedias projects, I think their actually are areas where contributions are easier to do with a mobile device... on the mobile front their are not only hurdels to overcome, but also alot of oportunities... think of the ability to automatically submit geotag pictures for example

[23:26] scream: I like the idea.

[23:26] Keegan|Droid: a belated welcome aboard, barry

[23:26] GerardM-: How is software going to go live when the German experience shows that it is hardly happening ?

[23:26] Philippe: Hey dafer45! Long time no see

[23:27] Philippe: GerardM-: I'm not sure I understand....? "the German experience"? Can you be more specific?

[23:27] Bnewstead_: thanks Keegan.

[23:27] Theo10011: I think uploading geotagged images aer a great idea for mobile platform, not sure if mobile editing would take off

[23:27] dafer45: Much too long!

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[23:27] GerardM-: The Germans funded the development of several things.. TIFF support has been ready for many months ... and it is not happening

[23:29] geniice: Tiff thimbnailing you mean?

[23:29] GerardM-: I love to blog about it when it is finally there

[23:29] GerardM-: not only but also

[23:29] lyzzy: GerardM-: that's true. but it is something which has to be discussed with the tech-team

[23:29] Bnewstead_: I'm not up to speed on the German experience. I do think there are good questions about how we build out our developer community to handle the diverse global needs.

[23:29] Abbasjnr: QUESTION: How far has the SA chapter reached in terms of getting approval from ChapCom/The Board?

[23:29] GerardM-: This means that the professional Germans are not part of the team

[23:30] Philippe: GerardM-: let's not over-analyze that. What he's saying is "I don't know"

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[23:30] Bnewstead_: Hi Abbas - I think that the SA chapter is working on their by-laws and figuring out their registration

[23:30] Theo10011: Abbasjnr I think this was in the signpost a week ago, they decided on a 6 month timeline in johannesburg

[23:31] GerardM-: I reacted to lyzzy

[23:31] Bnewstead_: They did a nice job getting the ball rolling with a workshop in August.

[23:31] Philippe: ah, apologies, GerardM-

[23:31] Abbasjnr: ok

[23:31] Abbasjnr: ok, theo

[23:31] diebuche|away: Gerard: Tiff handling seems to be enabled on commons

[23:31] diebuche|away: started a few days ago

[23:31] dami_hun: The South Africans are deciding on the legal form to take up and have the African Commons Project do a draft in the coming week or so

[23:32] dami_hun: they expect to be founded sometime in the first half of 2011

[23:32] lyzzy: GerardM-: that means that code-implementing processes have a bottleneck

[23:32] Abbasjnr: ok

[23:32] Theo10011: with the offices in India, how will you oversee their operation

[23:32] Theo10011: I mean will you be more hand-on and present in india?

[23:33] GerardM-: That is not what I expect

[23:33] Theo10011: or delegate the everyday operations

[23:33] lyzzy: GerardM-: which is known and is going to be solved

[23:33] Bnewstead_: My preference is to have a really strong India team who knows the Indian context. I do plan to be active in supporting them and making sure our work is on track.

[23:34] Bnewstead_: I'll be in India periodically - coming in Sept and likely again in Nov and Jan.

[23:34] Theo10011: I am expecting you

[23:34] GerardM-: <grin> I will be in Bangkok doing something similar

[23:34] Bnewstead_: Once we have the team functioning. I expect they will handle every day ops

[23:34] Bnewstead_: look fwd to seeing you and others Theo10011

[23:35] Abbasjnr: I'm sorry I didn't get it: are you guys planning on setting up an office in india, or what?

[23:35] Philippe: yup

[23:35] scream: For the offices in india... performance metrics?

[23:35] Theo10011: yes

[23:35] Philippe: (FYI, I'll be putting a chat log up on meta)

[23:35] scream: Will there be specific milestones?

[23:35] Bnewstead_: scream - early metrics will focus on their level of activity - how many people they 'reach'

[23:35] Abbasjnr: cool

[23:36] Bnewstead_: Most important metric will be editing activity in India and growth of the Indian language projects. That is what I'll be tracking.

[23:36] scream: So we will have a good eyes on if the office is delivering our product, and we are getting the most bang for our buck?

[23:37] Philippe: BTW, with a "shout out" to the strategy folks here, there is some good baseline data on the region at http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Regional_Analysis/South_Asia

[23:37] Bnewstead_: Yes. We'll analyze closely

[23:38] Abbasjnr: Thanks for the link, Phillipe

[23:38] Philippe: yw

[23:38] Bnewstead_: I'm actually hiring a Senior Research Analyst to design and implement some analyses to asses how the team is doing. When they do an activity, Ill want to see what the effect was on editorship.

[23:38] dami_hun: Abbasjnr: the signpost story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2010-08-16/News_and_notes (there was also a quite good story on the mybroadband.com website by Jan, one of the participants)

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[23:39] dafer45: Any ideas about what "offline initiatives" as mentioned earlier will mean in practice?

[23:39] scream: Can we expect entries on the Wikimedia blog once these offices have reached a particular milestone (new project open, existing project reaches x number of editors/articles)?

[23:39] GerardM-: Both Theo10011 and myself have blogged about it as well ... well worth a read

[23:39] WereSpielChquers: One of the tensions that some Indians raised at Wikimania was between their desire to write an Encycloaedia and Google's desire to have a wikipedia page in major Sth Asian languages for the most popular Bolywood movies and Hollywood stars. How is the foundation handling that tension?

[23:40] Bnewstead_: dafer45 - we have a lot to do on offline as a movement. there has been good work from volunteers here and we hope that will continue as a core.

[23:40] Abbasjnr: I'm looking at it, dami_hun

[23:40] Philippe: scream: I think that our (incredibly overworked) communications team would love help in making sure that we acknowledge those milestones....

[23:40] yann__: Bnewstead_, I am looking to see you either in Bombay or Delhi

[23:41] Bnewstead_: WMF will start by improving technical support for dumps, etc. We also think there are partnerships that we are well positioned to lead with major international orgs or with governments doing ICT rollout.

[23:41] dami_hun: in measuring editor activity I think it will be important not to overlook the English Wikipedia -- India might be the biggest English speaking country in the world and I think there is a great potential in local editorship (especially in countering any local knowledge gaps that are sure to be present on the English Wikipedia - e.g look at : http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/02/wikipedia-known-unknowns-geotagging-k

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[23:42] Theo10011: WereSpielchquers - its the first I heard of such a controversy

[23:42] Bnewstead_: WereSpielChquers - good (and difficult) q. I think the project teams will need to work out approaches.

[23:42] Dragonfly6-7: dami_hun - that's a dead URL

[23:42] Dragonfly6-7: try again, please

[23:42] dami_hun: I swear I am looking at it now

[23:42] Dragonfly6-7: dami_hun - copy-paste into the channel, please

[23:43] dami_hun: you could also try http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/02/wikipedia-known-unknowns-geotagging-knowledge

[23:43] Dragonfly6-7: there we go

[23:43] Dragonfly6-7: because you overfilled the IRC text buffer

[23:43] Bnewstead_: dami_hun - yes, agree. I just saw data that 70% of edits from India are on EN:WP. That is valuable to EN:WP. My hope is that we can get both.

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[23:44] dami_hun: sorry about that, the webchat version doesn't give any such feedback

[23:44] GerardM-: what I am interested in learning is the percentage of those edits that are about India

[23:44] WereSpielChquers: Theo it came up during some translation report backs at Wikimania. Tamil and Bangla in particular. But no-one seems to mind the gooogle.org stuff it was Google.com that caused problems

[23:44] mikelifeguard: Bnewstead_: Aren't data dumps already a priority? They have a something close to whole staff person devoted to them.

[23:44] mikelifeguard: How do you plan to make them even more of a priority?

[23:45] Theo10011: oh I might have missed the translation report then

[23:45] Bnewstead_: GerardM - interesting q. Don't know, but would like to know.

[23:45] sdaugherty: We've got some articles on India-related topics in really poor shape.

[23:45] GerardM-: Pictures from India are language agnostic (largely)

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[23:45] Dragonfly6-7: GerardM- - I don't parse that?

[23:46] Bnewstead_: mikelifeguard - they are a priority already, yes.

[23:46] GerardM-: sdaugherty can you point me tomorrow to some articles about India that are particularly bad ?

[23:46] GerardM-: Dragonfly6-7: I am interested to know to what extend people from India write about India

[23:47] Keegan|Droid: fwiw I was aquainting myself with localized indian language projects and was quite impressed with bangla

[23:47] Bnewstead_: I'm going to quickly get out of my depth, if I go further in the tech stuff. Happy to connect you to our team on this.

[23:47] Dragonfly6-7: GerardM- - I can parse *that*, but I don't see how it connects to your previous sentence

[23:47] GerardM-: http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Group_statistics this is where you find the numbers on localisation

[23:48] Philippe: We have Barry for about another 10 minutes or so....

[23:48] GerardM-: when we get pictures from India, they can be used in any wikipediua

[23:48] Philippe: so if there's anything in particular that you'd like to ask, now would be a good time

[23:48] Jan_eissfeldt: says "he project teams will need to work out approaches" that you intend to change the regular non-interference policy of wmf, summarized by mike godwin mutatis mutandis as "we are not the police man of project content", in behalf of expansion or just guidelines?

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[23:48] Dodoiste: Bnewstead_, new subject: I the WMF planning to improve accessibility for the handicapped ? MediaWiki has a huge number of accessibility issues that nobody is taking care of. People with disabilities are currently expericencing lots of troubles to use Wikimedia.

[23:49] Dodoiste: *Is the

[23:49] Dragonfly6-7: Dodoiste - are you talking about Shorthand Sven ?

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[23:49] Philippe: Dodoiste: While a great question, I'm not sure that it's particularly relevant to Barry's role, is it? Or am I misunderstanding.

[23:49] Theo10011: Jan that might be an important point worth looking into

[23:49] Bnewstead_: Jan_eissfeldt - not going to change our current policy on content.

[23:49] Dodoiste: Dragonfly6-7, just who is Shorthand Sven ?

[23:49] Jan_eissfeldt: thx Bnewstead_

[23:50] Theo10011: theres been quiet a few issues related to content recently

[23:50] WereSpielChquers: GerardM I don't know the percentage, but we get a lot of Indian related articles at EN wiki new page patrol and there are 639 articles in :[:[Wikipedia:WikiProject India/DashBot Unreferenced BLPs]]

[23:50] Theo10011: much tougher laws related to IT coming

[23:50] Dodoiste: Philippe, well, nobody is responsible for that currently. So...

[23:50] Theo10011: that might need looking into

[23:50] Philippe: But the WMF isn't getting paritcularly involved in controlling content, correct? To my knowledge, we remain "hands off" on that.

[23:50] Dragonfly6-7: Dodoiste - Shorthand Sven got banned recently. I don't recall his precise username, but it includes "Sven" and he uses his own private version of shorthand

[23:50] Dragonfly6-7: because he has RSI and can't type properly

[23:51] Philippe: Dodoiste: accessibility sounds squarely like it's within the community and/or technology departments...

[23:51] Dragonfly6-7: and he has thrown several very angry tantra about how the WMF is not being properly accomodating

[23:51] sdaugherty: I think that the foundation's non-interferance approach needs to be reevaluated. Policing content might be a nono, but a more active role in determining policy for individual projects needs to be considered.

[23:51] Theo10011: RIM, Gmail, facebook are all being targetted to allow access and responsibility for the media

[23:51] Philippe: and I'm working to get Zack Exley, the Chief Community Officer, to come on to office hours

[23:51] mikelifeguard: Bnewstead_: It'll be a good day when Danese joins us in this room

[23:51] jamesofur|iphone: Mmm fresh blood

[23:51] mikelifeguard: ♥ jamesofur|iphone

[23:51] Dodoiste: Dragonfly6-7, I'm talking about the 40 millions of people with disabilities in the U.S., and about 300 or 400 millions in the world

[23:51] Philippe: What is this, hazing for C-levels?

[23:52] jamesofur|iphone: I prefer indoctrination

[23:52] Bnewstead_: Happy to encourage Danese as a "main course" Would be fun to watch.

[23:52] jamesofur|iphone: (sp)

[23:52] mikelifeguard: Dragonfly6-7: Tantrums that are mostly correct. It's pretty sad that we can't accommodate him. That said, he does get pretty angry >_>

[23:52] Dodoiste: Dragonfly6-7, Wikipedia is the top 3 favourite website of blind people

[23:52] mikelifeguard: Dodoiste: How do you know?

[23:53] • mikelifeguard prefers data over conclusions

[23:53] Philippe: Dodoiste: If you'll toss me an email, I'll be happy to make sure that we get the question in front of Zack....

[23:53] Dodoiste: mikelifeguard, WebAIM did a survey about it in 2009

[23:53] sdaugherty: In particular, regarding accessibility, I think a lot of that could be forced technologically.

[23:53] Philippe: I can be reached at philippe@wikimedia.org

[23:53] Philippe: So, about five minutes left... anything else about chapters or global development that anyone would like toask?

[23:54] Philippe: toask = to ask

[23:54] Dodoiste: Philippe, awesome. But who is Zack ?

[23:54] Philippe: Zack is the Chief Community Officer... sorry, thought I explained that

[23:54] Theo10011: the Community officer

[23:54] scream: I'm sorry if this has already been adressed...

[23:54] sdaugherty: Specifically, reduce the complexity of formatting that is offered within mediawiki in order to prevent situations that create accessibility concerns.

[23:54] scream: We can expect to see the India office up about when? Also, how are you going about location selection?

[23:55] sdaugherty: and restrict the bulk of complex formatting to templates

[23:55] GerardM-: For the deaf, Steve Levinsly is writing an extension to enable the writing of sign languages

[23:55] Dodoiste: Philippe, will do. Thanks.

[23:55] Philippe: sdaugherty: the User Experience team is doing some interesting work with template folding that might play into this as well

[23:56] Theo10011: I would like to ask Scream's last question too

[23:56] Bnewstead_: Target for India office is Jan/Feb 2011. Would love it to launch on the 10th Anniversary! City is TBD - likely Mumbai or Bangalore, though Theo10011 might make an argument for Delhi...and some have suggested Pune. Will decide within the next month or so.

[23:56] sdaugherty: Philippe: I'd love to see most HTML formatting that is "redundant" with wiki formatting or inconsistant with MOS guidelines on projects simply go away.

[23:56] scream: Are you deciding selection based on population for the most part?

[23:57] scream: For max exposure of our product

[23:57] Abbasjnr: BTW, what do you guys precisely mean when you say "Global South"? Which continents, in particular?

[23:57] Dragonfly6-7: mikelifeguard - I'm quite pleased that you correctly parsed "tantra" as the plural of "tantrum"

[23:57] GerardM-: there are more Indians that will be helped when the issues with Unicode and fonts get solved

[23:57] mikelifeguard: Dragonfly6-7: I can English real good!!

[23:57] GerardM-: and yes we should do something about accessibility as well

[23:58] Bnewstead_: Decision is mostly based on best hub for activity. Ease of travel. Also, fit with the chapter's work, which is largely centered in Bangalore.

[23:58] yann__ is now known as yannf.

[23:58] Theo10011: Scream, if the criteria was educated large metropolitan a.k.a Big cities where english is used mostly- Mumbai and Delhi ahead of any other

[23:58] StevenW: Abbasnr: :[:[North-South divide]]

[23:58] pilif12p is now known as pilif12p|homewor.

[23:58] scream: ah

[23:58] pilif12p|homewor is now known as pilif|homework.

[23:58] Dragonfly6-7: mikelifeguard - to be honest, it's a personal coinage. But hey!

[23:58] GerardM-: Theo10011 you just seem to have invalidated those cities

[23:59] Theo10011: how so?

[23:59] sdaugherty: Bnewstead_: what about trying to actively recruit people to work on specific India related topics?

[23:59] mikelifeguard: Dragonfly6-7: Yes, I know. But being anglophone, I reverse-engineered your word

[23:59] Jan_eissfeldt left the chat room.

[23:59] GerardM-: because Barry thinks that English doing really well and the local languages doing poorly feels like a bad situation

[23:59] Dragonfly6-7: mikelifeguard - good.

[23:59] GerardM-: <grin> and it is

[00:00] Theo10011: Gerard you are assuming there is a divide between language and culture when its anglophones mostly

[00:00] Bnewstead_: Global South - we basically took this from the World Bank and others as an alternative term for the developing world. There is a good definition on EN:WP

[00:00] Philippe: With that, folks, thanks for being here today.... Barry, thanks for joining us for your inaugural office hours. I'll be posting a log shortly, and hope to put out a schedule of upcoming office hours soon!

[00:00] dphelps: Thank you Barry!

[00:00] Philippe: I know Barry would be happy to take further questions by email, or find him around... he's pretty visible.