Wikimedia Bangladesh: a chapter's five-year journey

Dear All,

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Wikimedia Bangladesh (WMBD) has successfully completed its local registration in Bangladesh. Our application for registration was approved by the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies & Firms - Bangladesh on 9th June, 2014 and I have collected the certificate of registration today (10th June, 2014).

Wikimedia Bangladesh has been registered under the Societies Registration Act of Bangladesh & our official name is Wikimedia Bangladesh Foundation.

This announcement from Wikimedia Bangladesh's chapter treasurer, Ali Haidar Khan (also known as Tonmoy), was widely welcomed on the Wikimedia-l email list. The first inklings of the organization formed in 2009, but they only received official local registration from the civil authorities on 10 June 2014. The long road in-between was subject to much persistence, patience, and luck—along with a good deal of worry.

Ali, who is vice-chair of the Wikimedia Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), a credit analyst by profession, and an MBA student, spoke to the Signpost from Bangladesh. This report is based on his interview with us, along with statements from Lane Rasberry (Bluerasberry), who has visited Bangladesh and is currently a Wikimedian-in-residence in New York.

Bluerasberry notes that Bengali is one of the world's most widely spoken languages, with more than 210 million native speakers. In addition to Bangladesh, it is spoken in India, several other Asian countries, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Bluerasberry says that the way that the Bangladeshi chapter managed its registration, without providing the standard bribes or tips to hasten the process, should be a matter of pride for the Bangladeshi chapter and the Bangladeshi government. He believes that by registering without paying tips, the chapter made an important social statement that members of the chapter will be talking about 20 years from now.

The road to becoming a Wikimedia chapter started five years ago in 2009. When Bangladeshi Wikimedians saw that other chapters were forming and doing well, they also wanted to have one in Bangladesh. Their volunteer base was small but they started to increase their offline events, holding meetings that grew to be regular occurrences. They started discussions about becoming a chapter without any knowledge of the complexities of the legal requirements. Around 2009, they also learned that India was in the process of forming a chapter, which further motivated them to want a chapter of their own. Bangladeshi Wikimedians were all volunteers, and didn't know that grants could be applied for from the Wikimedia Foundation to assist them. So, the group prepared to be entirely self-reliant.

At the beginning, the Bangladeshi Wikimedians looked into the possibility of hiring a lawyer to prepare bylaws for the chapter in accordance with Wikimedia Foundation and local regulations. However, writing bylaws that satisfied both sets of regulations proved to be complicated, and it was not easy to find a lawyer who would gain the necessary familiarity with the Foundation's side of the regulations—this could involve significant legal fees.

Ali went on a personal search to identify a law student who was also a Wikimedia volunteer and could help with writing the bylaws, which ultimately did not succeed. In 2010, Bangladeshi Wikimedians decided to write the bylaws themselves, and asked Ali to help. Of the Wikimedians involved in the chapter, only Ali had some existing knowledge of Bangladeshi government agencies. In preparation for creating the chapter, Ali studied Bangladeshi laws, and the bylaws of other Bangladeshi foundations and of existing Wikimedia chapters. Tanvir Rahman and other members of the executive committee helped with this process.

The writing of the bylaws began in early 2011, and took about two months. In April, the bylaws were submitted to the Wikimedia Chapters Committee, which approved them relatively quickly. (The Chapters Committee is now known as the Affiliations Committee, and Tanvir is now a member of the committee.) The approval from the WMF's Board of Trustees came in October 2011.

Gaining local registration was the next step, so the Wikimedians again looked for an attorney who would work at low cost to get the bylaws approved by the local authorities. Several lawyers they approached turned down their requests instantly, saying that registration was difficult—Bangladesh law requires that all nonprofit societies apply for and receive security clearances from the Bangladesh National Security Intelligence (NSI) agency. The lawyers expected their registration requests to fail; only about 5% of the applications to register a "society" in the country are successful.

However, Ali felt that a Bangladeshi "society" was the most appropriate for the group. A "trust" does not allow for direct elections, though the registration requirements are easier to pass. Trusts are often set up by foreign charities with money to distribute, and it is unusual in Bangladesh to have a grassroots formation of a new charitable society with little or no money. A "society" is more difficult to form, but it forms the strongest base for good governance and transparency, and allows for streamlined elections of board members.

Finally, the Wikimedians found a lawyer who was willing to help, but only on condition that the Wikimedians complete the security clearance process on their own. The Wikimedians submitted an application for registration and security clearance in May 2012 and received a case number.

Now began the difficult part: waiting for long periods of time, often with no communication about the status of the application.

In the Memorandum of Association, Ali's house was listed as the office address of Wikimedia Bangladesh. Fortunately, he was home when an NSI officer came for a sudden site visit. The discussion lasted for an hour and a half. The purpose of the interview was to check on whether the group had any connections to terrorism or anti-social activities. After a long discussion, Ali got the officer to understand that the group was working for free knowledge in Bangladesh, and he urged the officer to give a positive report. Two months passed. Ali searched his contacts to see if he knew someone who could tell the Wikimedians about the status of the application.

Eventually he received a phone call. The NSI wanted to have another verification visit. The officer who had conducted the first visit had been transferred, so a new officer needed to start the process from the beginning. The new officer asked for lots of documents such as bylaws, Wikimedia Bangladesh Executive Committee members' CVs, personal statements, and other documents. One day the officer came to Ali's house, but he was at work, so Tanvir went to meet the officer. Tanvir organized the documents the officer requested, handed them over, and answered the officer's questions. The officer told Tanvir that the group might be asked to visit an NSI office to answer additional questions, but that clearance might happen shortly.

Then another long period passed with no contact from security officials. In mid-2013 they received another call. The NSI asked Ali and Tanvir to go to their office and meet with a deputy director, bringing documents and information about the group's members. Unfortunately, the official was out of the office on the day of the appointment, so this required Tanvir and Ali to get another appointment. On the day of the second appointment, they did meet with the deputy director and were asked for additional documents such as a rental agreement for their organization. The deputy director said that the Wikimedians had done a good job and he would make a positive report about the application, but that the process would take a long time.

In the meantime, Ali learned through his work that the brother of one of his clients is an employee of the NSI. Ali explained the situation to the client, and requested a meeting. The client's brother agreed to meet Ali at one point and was impressed that the group was working with Bengali Wikipedia, which has a good reputation and is widely used in Bangladesh. The brother then called the deputy director and asked for an update on the status of the application. He was told that the field report was positive, but needed to be sent to someone else for the final report and approval. Ali repeatedly followed up with the client's brother about the status of the application. Ali said that the slowness of the application might have been bearable had they been apprised of the progress of the application during this long period.

Ali said that he tried to find anyone he knew with a possible link to the NSI. He would explain to them what Wikimedia Bangladesh does, and would request their help. In this process, he learned that one of his MBA classmates who is from the military has an army friend in the NSI. This man was of a higher rank (a joint director) than anyone that had previously been in contact with the Bangladeshi Wikimedians. Ali started following up with the new contact on a regular basis. Around the beginning of 2014, this NSI contact said that the final report was positive and had been sent to the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies & Firms.

Relieved at the news, Ali went back to the attorney who had agreed to help and asked him to contact the registrar's office to verify; but the attorney reported that the registrar's office was unable to locate any clearance document from the NSI. Ali’s contact at the NSI said that the report should have been sent from the Director General’s office by then, whether positive or negative. After all this effort, Ali became worried that the report might have been negative, and he asked the lawyer to check again.

In June 2014, the lawyer informed Ali that the clearance report had been found by the registrar's office in a backlog of documents from several months earlier, meaning that the registration could theoretically be completed within a few days. Yet they faced one final hurdle: when the Bangladeshi Wikimedians had begun the security clearance process two years prior, the cost for registration was minimal. The government had since raised the fee to more than 12 times the original amount.

Wikimedia Bangladesh didn't have enough money from registration fees in its bank account to cover the higher cost. Ali feared that going from person to person to raise the money could take too long, meaning that their hard-earned security clearance might expire, so he paid the shortage out of his own pocket as a loan to the chapter.

The saga ended on 10 June 2014, when Ali collected the certificate of registration from the office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies & Firms.

Ali notes that there are challenges with running a chapter solely on a volunteer basis because people have other commitments to work, family, and study, and among the volunteers only a minority has the experience required to lead activities such as this complex registration process. However, he feels that Wikimedia Bangladesh, though a small volunteer group, now has good expertise to run itself in a professional manner.

Ali emphasized that the biggest problem in the registration process was not knowing the status of the application during the long periods of waiting.

He said that giving tips or "speed money" to government officials to hasten a registration process often happens, and that some organizations obtain their registration in two or three months this way (Bluerasberry estimated the cost at $100–$300 US). Even the chapter member's lawyer advised that speed money would help expedite the process. But Ali said that he and other board members were determined that Wikimedia Bangladesh would operate in the spirit of "selflessness" shown by the volunteers. He frequently had to explain that the Wikimedians wanted to take an "honest" path—even if it took much longer—and that people he spoke with respected that decision, even though it is more difficult to work in Bangladesh without giving tips.

Bluerasberry wrote on Wikimedia-l that not only is Wikimedia Bangladesh among only the 5% who got NGO society registration in Bangladesh, but they are among a group he estimated at 1% to do so without paying anyone a bribe:

2014-06-18

You can't dethrone Thrones

Contribute  —  

Share this

•  E-mail
•  Facebook
•  Twitter
•  LinkedIn
•  Reddit
•  Digg

By Serendipodous

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the 2014 FIFA World Cup was the main draw this week, taking four slots. People appeared desperate to bone up on their trivia; checking not only this year's World Cup, but the last one. Even so, they still couldn't push Game of Thrones from the top ten. It will be interesting to see what happens come next week's season finale.

For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation for any exclusions.

For the week of 8-14 June, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes
1	2014 FIFA World Cup		1,846,098		And it's off! As is custom, hosts Brazil played the opening match against Croatia. Given everything riding on their shoulders (you can't spend $11 billion on a sports event, sparking the rage of a sizeable portion of your population, and finish in the group stage), the team could have been better; they won (they are Brazil, after all) but opened with an own goal and fooled the ref with a rather obvious dive. Still, they did better than Cup-holders Spain, who were beaten 5–1 by the Netherlands in their first game and have since been knocked out, leading to some rather unforgiving headlines in the national papers.
2	Rik Mayall		1,126,482		Topics of purely British interest seldom make the traffic report; as English-speaking nations go, it lacks the numerical heft of the US, or even India. Even if you factor in the countries that share its pop culture, like Australia, you're unlikely to see numbers reach 100 million. So it's a mark of how beloved a comedic icon Rik Mayall was that his sudden and unexpected death on 9 June pushed him to the second spot. Curiosity about the nature of his death likely also played a role; Mayall was only 56, and, while his death is not suspicious, the initial post-mortem was inconclusive. Best known for his roles in 1980s comedy series such as The Young Ones, Blackadder and The New Statesman, his only notable Hollywood credit was the 1991 comedy Drop Dead Fred.
3	FIFA World Cup		1,021,919	File:W.Cup.svg	The broader article on the history of the competition may have been accessed by people looking for the long view, but in truth it was probably more to do with people looking for the more specific article above.
4	Amazon.com		885,652		This article suddenly reappeared in the top 25 a few months ago after a long absence; it's always difficult to determine the reasons for the popularity of website articles (how many are simply misaimed clicks on the Google search list?) but there are at least two possibilities: first, it released its digital media player, Amazon Fire TV on April 2, and second, it is currently embroiled in a dispute with publisher Hachette that could decide whether book publishers even need to exist in the post-digital world.
5	Orange Is the New Black		763,163		The second season of the women-in-prison TV series premièred in its entirety on Netflix on 6 June.
6	2010 FIFA World Cup		626,913		The current World Cup has buoyed interest in the last one, with people doubtless looking for parallels, clues for upcoming matches, or omens. Oddly, Rik Mayall's death may have influenced views; he penned England's anthem for that competition, which has now reached #7 in the UK charts.
7	Game of Thrones		593,650		The World Cup dented this show, but it's not leaving till the finale, and maybe not even then.
8	Game of Thrones (season 4)		571,345		This is the page with the plot synopses for each episode.
9	2014 FIFA World Cup squads		534,001		This is most likely the result of residents of competing countries checking out their opponents.
10	The Fault in Our Stars		504,006		Youtube sensei John Green's romantic tearjerker was already a hit with the cyber-set, but boomed up the bestseller list thanks to the opening of its film adaptation.

Reader comments

2014-06-18

Visiting the city

Contribute  —  

Share this

•  E-mail
•  Facebook
•  Twitter
•  LinkedIn
•  Reddit
•  Digg

By Mabeenot

This week, the Signpost came in from the hinterland to interview members of the Cities WikiProject. Formed in 2002 by Ram-Man, it now boasts 82 featured articles and lists in its scope. We spoke to Student7 and JonRidinger.

What motivated you to join WikiProject Cities? Is there a particular city to which you gravitate?

Student7: Wanted to be sure that Cities standards were maintained. They are pretty good and should be used (IMO) for towns, villages, all agglomerations of people.

JonRidinger: I have always been interested in cities as a general topic. Like Student7, I also wanted to get more city/town articles on some sort of standard, so joining the project allowed me to contribute to other articles, even on towns that I'm not as familiar with.

Are the denizens of some cities more active on Wikipedia than others? What can be done to recruit more editors from the neglected cities?

Student7: Yes. Washington DC has an "owner." He is pretty good but (like most owners) hard to deal with. I left for that reason. Turkish cities outside of Instanbul have weak support. Most additions are WP:SPAMmy. Maybe posting on WikiProject Turkey site to that affect would help (but would need to come from someone either a) well-respected, or b) unknown and neutral.Student7 (talk) 18:42, 7 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

JonRidinger: The larger the city, the more people who are interested and looking at it, and likely to edit. I have tended to avoid larger city articles because of that. Most smaller cities and towns have very few, if any, editors, just because of basic numbers. I'm not sure there's a way to increase numbers for smaller cities. Most people seem to consistently edit town articles they have some kind of connection to (personal or just general interest), so it's a matter of finding editors who have a personal connection (which can have that built-in motivation) to edit these other articles. Could also be a case of having a given state or country WikiProject focus on different regions at varying times in the year, just to make sure the articles are updated and current.

Have you contributed to any of the project's Featured or Good Articles? What unique challenges does WikiProject Cities face when promoting and maintaining its articles at FA and GA status?

Student7: No. I am not interested in FA nor GA. Too much hassle for too little reward = "slightly better article" which then degenerates!  :(

JonRidinger: Yes. I was largely responsible for getting Kent, Ohio to FA status and helped with Stephens City, Virginia too. The issue I faced was burn-out. In many ways I felt like it was arbitrary, and other things I thought were simply being nit-picky. Yes, there were some genuine improvements that were made by going through the process, plus I learned more about what kinds of content to include and how to word things better. Even so, I remember right after I got the Kent, Ohio article through FA, my editing declined significantly and I found myself less motivated.

Like I said earlier, the larger the city, the more editors it's likely to have, especially more anonymous editors. It's really a matter of helping editors to understand what is appropriate info, what isn't, and why. Too many city articles get FA or GA status and then are never updated, or end up with a lot of trivial information in them.

What is the state of Wikipedia's articles about notable neighborhoods, boroughs, precincts, and other internal divisions within cities? Is there a point where a division is too small to warrant an article? Are there any cities too small to warrant an article?

Student7: I don't find divisions that small. If a country has aggregated people, it should be using these Project standards for the article. Village has to be "noticed" to be "notable" I suppose. I have not seen "precinct" articles in US/UK/English speaking countries. Nor would I care too, which violates what I just said! But the precinct is listed within the neighborhood or city.

JonRidinger: I agree with what Student7 said here. For neighborhoods, if it has sources that cover it specifically, can have a decent article, though if it's not a large amount of info, I typically don't see the point in having an article separate from the city article. I simply add it to the appropriate place in the city article and if more information becomes available, then we can evaluate whether it would be appropriate for it to have its own article. For very small villages, I think, for the most part, have notability as long as there is some kind of measure (like a census). If not (like an unincorporated community), it should be mentioned as part of the notable town/city/county it is part of.

Has it been difficult finding references for articles about suburban, exurban, and rural towns? What can be done to ensure that far flung settlements are covered as thoroughly as major metropolitan areas?

Student7: First world, no problem. In the third world we have all sorts of problems. I don't think Wikipedia resources should be wasted on "remedying" this problem. 3rd world doesn't take censuses. When they don't they may not be reliable. They may be out of date. They may not include material that is useful beyond a head count. If the UN has no idea, how can we?

JonRidinger: Not in the city articles I have worked on. Bottom line is there will always be more sources about larger metro areas than rural ones, even in "first world" countries. There will also be far more people both interested and available to edit city articles in these larger metro areas who can find even more printed sources about a given city.

What kinds of photography are typically included in articles about cities? What pictures can the average Wikipedian easily snap on their daily commute or a lazy weekend?

Student7: There are often "specialists" that identify themselves for each subtopic. Like Christhespeller, but for other things. So there are "photo experts". I hate, truly hate galleries because they stop readers from perusing material beyond the gallery and take up too much space. Most large cities have notable landmarks. For villages, rural areas, what can you do? Must emphasize that photographer takes a picture of the city, not the sunset from the city, not the mountains behind the city, not the Washington Monument in the distance (when the article is not DC), etc.

JonRidinger: Most pictures tend to be of buildings or a general city view. Parks and other notable landmarks (like schools) are great things to be included, and especially any building that may be iconic, even just locally. Really, look at each section and think about what kinds of photos would best help illustrate that section. A picture of one of the schools or the library would help the education section, a picture of the downtown/central business district might work well in the economy section, and a picture of city/town hall might be helpful in the government section. When I go to a city article, I want to see what that place looks like. I do agree with avoiding galleries. If you have lots of pictures, great, but use the Commons Category template at the bottom of the page and make sure there's a matching category on Wikimedia Commons. Galleries can quickly overwhelm an article.

Does WikiProject Cities collaborate with any other WikiProjects? What can be done to improve collaboration between Wikipedia's various geography projects?

Student7: Kumioko tried to merge most US Projects under the United States. At least I think she did. Never quite understood what she was up to but seemed to be aimed in the right direction. So USCity should cooperate with that I suppose. Same for other country projects.

JonRidinger: Like I mentioned above, the various geography-based WikiProjects (for a given state or country), can work with Cities to help many of these under-edited city articles. They can also work together to get photos from a broader area. Editors who are members of the geography WikiProjects can post calls for action on those pages just as we do on the cities pages.

What are the most urgent needs of WikiProject Cities? How can a new contributor help today?

Student7: Because I am happy with Cities, I would like a new contributor to contribute someplace else! Sense ownership there?  :) Use the talk page first. Outline for UK Cities should apply everywhere but North America where US City outline should apply. Maybe outlines should be renamed for that reason.

JonRidinger: City articles seem to suffer most from boosterism. New editors need to make sure they know what that is and how to avoid it. We all want our town to look great, but these aren't promotional brochures here. Not only knowing what it is, but helping to remove it is also helpful.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Student7: Editors are doing a great job! But (alas) hardly anyone uses Projects once it has matured (and Cities has). Which is why Kumioko was doing what she did. Post questions and sometimes get no answers. And we're one of the better Projects. While CITIES is active, I normally go to a major article for talking, rather than bother with a Project. Like Talk:Istanbul rather than Project Turkey, for example.

JonRidinger: Again, I agree with Student7 here. Use the Project pages more to communicate and collaborate.

Reader comments

If articles have been updated, you may need to refresh the single-page edition.

Keep up with The Signpost on Twitter, Facebook or Mastodon.

Home

About

Archives

Newsroom

Subscribe

Suggestions