[Reader-list] Call for Placements at COSMOS Mumbai

[Shekhar Krishnan]

Dear All:

Please circulate this to interested friends and colleagues. Respond to 
Comet Media Foundation at comet_media at vsnl.com, marking the subject 
line COSMOS placement. All applicants are expected to be resident in 
Mumbai full-time.

Best


Shekhar
_____


CALL for PLACEMENTS for COSMOS: A Space for New Media Practices, Mumbai

Comet Media Foundation (Comet) is an organisation formed in 1985. Our 
activities involve creating knowledge artefacts in film and print, 
distributing ready knowledge materials, conducting workshops and 
conducting resource festivals. Comet’s work has won a number of awards, 
including the Jules Verne Prize of the European Union, an international 
award given for outstanding efforts in science communication.

At present we are working towards setting up a media practice space 
called COSMOS. This we hope will be a part of a movement to get people 
to think more critically about the place of science and technology, 
particularly the role of media, in their lives and to give expression 
to this thinking in the form of new media. In this age when all media 
formats are merging into a common digital language, we see a need for 
media workers who can combine skills hitherto seen as separate 
disciplines, in a creative way.

What will be the education of such media creators, activists and 
researchers, and what will be Comet’s agenda, the concerns we wish to 
imbue these learners with? Apart from being equipped to understand the 
technologies and the environment through which these new forms of 
expression work, their education has to be a process of building 
perspectives that will enable them to think in a cross-disciplinary way 
and to aspire to goals of social equity and justice.

The focus of the COSMOS activity is threefold:
•	training of media designers, makers and researchers with an emphasis 
on science communication, material culture, issues of social change and 
related activism.
•	a media production facility oriented to increasing awareness of 
science engineering and technology (SET) issues.
•	pursuing of linked activities with associate autonomous local units 
of media makers (ALUMs), run by independent film makers, alumni and 
practitioners emerging from the training and production activities of 
this centre and many other centres all over the country.

These three are not sequential but parallel activities, with each 
activity boosting the others as it moves along, involving a somewhat 
uncertain gestation period at the outset. The uncertainty is tied to 
availability of funding, a crucial enabling factor at the start of the 
process.


CALL for PLACEMENTS at COSMOS:

1. Principal Project Manager at COSMOS

To implement this project we need a person initially to be the 
Principal Project Manager. S/he would own all aspects of the project 
including, but not limited to:
•	surveying the current scene in education regarding new media
•	ascertaining the knowledge needs of different groups of potential 
learners
•	guiding the development of courses of differing durations accordingly
•	locating suitable resource persons and resource agencies
•	documenting the process of arriving at different concepts
•	popularising the concept of COSMOS in different fora
•	detailing a project report, time plan and budget for implementation
•	identifying appropriate funding agencies and raising funds
•	liaising with governments (state and central) to obtain support, 
material or otherwise
•	leading a small team to achieve the above

We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a year. We 
are looking for a mid career manager who would take this up as a 
challenge. The person could join us on a sabbatical and if all works 
out, can join full-time. We would expect this person to play a leading 
role in COSMOS, once it is operational – either as the Director, 
leading COSMOS or as a Trustee, guiding the professionals leading 
COSMOS.


2. Proposal Developer at COSMOS

To implement the academic aspect of the project, we need a person who 
would initially be termed as a Proposal Developer working alongside the 
Coordinator. The task of this person would be to understand the 
objectives and interests of potential funders vis-à-vis the COSMOS 
proposal in order to design components which would enable the 
implementation of the plans of COSMOS.

S/he would work on all aspects of the project including, but not 
limited to:
•	ascertaining the knowledge needs of different groups of potential 
learners
•	developing the proposals for funding accordingly
•	identifying appropriate funding agencies
•	liaising with state and central governments and other funding bodies 
to obtain support
•	raising funds
•	documenting the process of seeking and raising funds
•	detailing a project report, time plan and budget for implementation
•	functioning as part of a team to achieve the above

A person with 5-7 years of work experience would be suitable for this 
position. We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a 
year. Subsequently, we would expect this person to play a role in 
COSMOS, once it is operational.


3. Course Content Developer at COSMOS

To implement the academic aspect of the project, we need a person who 
would initially be the Course Content Developer. S/he would work on all 
aspects of the project including, but not limited to:
•	surveying the current scene in education regarding new media
•	ascertaining the knowledge needs of different groups of potential 
learners
•	developing the course contents of various courses of differing 
durations accordingly
•	locating suitable resource persons and resource agencies
•	building relationships with them to create new courses with their 
expertise
•	documenting the process of arriving at different concepts
•	identifying appropriate funding agencies
•	detailing a project report, time plan and budget for implementation
•	liaising with governments (state and central) and other bodies to 
obtain support, material or otherwise
•	functioning as part of a team to achieve the above

A person with 5-7 years of work experience would be suitable for this 
position. We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a 
year. Subsequently, we would expect this person to play a role in 
COSMOS, once it is operational.


4. Researcher-Documentationist at COSMOS

To implement the project, we need a person who would initially be 
termed a Researcher-Documentationist, to work alongside the Principal 
Project Manager. S/he would work on all aspects of the project 
including, but not limited to:
•	conducting correspondence
•	developing and building databases of potential learners, 
institutions, resource persons, funders and others
•	tracking progress of developments outside and within the team to see 
that deadlines and targets are met as planned
•	documenting the process of seeking and raising funds
•	detailing components which would enable the implementation of the 
plans of COSMOS
•	working on the project report, time plan and budget for implementation
•	functioning as part of a team to achieve the above

A person with 2-3 years of work experience would be suitable for this 
position. We expect this initial phase of the project to last about a 
year. Subsequently, we would expect this person to play a role in 
COSMOS, once it is operational.




Please respond with CVs, queries and recommendations at 
comet_media at vsnl.com, marking the subject line COSMOS placement. The 
deadline is tomorrow morning!

Sincerely,

COMET MEDIA FOUNDATION
Topiwala Lane School
Lamington Road
Mumbai 400 007, India

+91.22.2386.9052, +91.22.2382.6674
http://www.cometmedia.org



_____

Shekhar Krishnan
9, Supriya, 2nd Floor
Plot 709, Parsee Colony Road no.4
Dadar, Mumbai 400014
India

http://crit.org.in/members/shekhar