T. Vishnu Vardhan is currently the Program Director for the Access to Knowledge Program at the Centre for Internet and Society. As the Program Director his ambition is to further catalyze the growth of Indian language Wikipedias and open knowledge movement in India. He has more than 12 years experience in various fields cutting across research, technology, project management, policy, teaching and grant administration. He worked at the Sir Ratan Tata Trust for 6 years before taking up the mandate of growing Wikipedias in India. He is a superannuated Ph.D. student at the University of Ulster, UK and has completed his Masters in Media and Cultural studies from EFLU. Vishnu is passionate about teaching and openly sharing whatever little he knows. He has done so at more than 15 Universities and numerous colleges across India and addressed students at the UG, PG and Ph.D levels and also trained many faculty.
As a student and researcher, coming from a small town, he has experienced how knowledge is the most powerful tool for the common man. He deeply believes in Openness and Open Access to knowledge, if we are to grow as a robust ‘Knowledge Society’. Recently he, along with his colleagues, have provided inputs to the draft Open Access policy of the Department of Science and Technology and Department of Bio Technology, Govt. of India. He hopes to contribute to bringing more such systemic changes to create an enabling eco-system for Open Knowledge in India.