CIS-A2K
The key mandate of the Access to Knowledge project at CIS (CIS-A2K) is to work towards catalysing the growth of the open knowledge movement in south Asia and in Indic languages. From September 2012, CIS has been actively involved in growing the open knowledge movement in India through a grant received from the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). The current focus of the CIS-A2K team spans over 5 language areas (Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Odia, and Telugu), 2 community strengthening initiatives, and 6 stand-alone Wikimedia projects.

Mission
The mission of CIS-A2K is to catalyze the growth of open knowledge movement in South Asia and in Indic languages. Within the Wikimedia universe CIS-A2K specifically strives to further grow the Indic and English Wikimedia projects and communities by:
- supporting and serving the Indian Wikimedia communities in all possible ways;
- building institutional partnerships;
- bringing more content under free license;
- designing and executing projects with community participation;
- strengthening the Wikimedia volunteers; and
- fostering and enabling an appropriate legal and technological ecosystem.
Work Plans
Work plans and other programme documents can be accessed here:
- Work Plan July 2014 - June 2015
- Work Plan April 2013 - June 2014
- Work Plan 2012 - 2013
- Work Plan 2011 - 2012
- Details of Programs run on English and Indian language Wikipedias since 2011
- Access To Knowledge Announcement and FAQ - 30 July 2012
Activities and Feedback
If you have a general proposal/suggestion for Access to Knowledge team you can write on the requests page. If you have appreciations or feedback on our work, please share it on feedback page.
- Workshops, Meetups, Edit-a-thons and other Events
- Events
- Blog Entries
- Newsletters, Reports, and Bulletins
- IRC
Recent Posts
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Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021/Report — by Nitesh Gill and Tito Dutta — last modified Aug 20, 2021 02:01 PM
- In March 2020, the whole world came to a standstill. What many deemed as a regular ‘flu’ turned out to be the pandemic that brought everyone to their knees. The things that we always did, we could no longer do them. We were all confined to our homes with no choice but to work online. Hanging out with friends, attending weddings, and being a part of the conferences and seminars suddenly became a part of the past. We started using the word unprecedented a lot.
- Bodh: a new tool for Wikidata lexicographical data — by Bodhisattwa Mandal — last modified Jun 28, 2021 01:19 AM
- We are happy to announce that a new tool, named Bodh, has been developed by Jay Prakash, as a CIS-A2K assignment, to add or modify statements for lexemes, senses and forms.
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Research Studies on Indian Language Wikimedia Projects 2019-21 — by Sneha PP — last modified Oct 21, 2022 12:59 PM
- This is a compilation of the final reports from a series of short-term studies undertaken by the CIS-A2K team in 2019-2021, on an array of topics related to Indian language Wikimedia projects. The projects were undertaken by Subodh Kulkarni, Bodhisattwa Mandal, Bhuvana Meenakshi Koteeswaran, Ananth Subray, Satpal Dandiwal and Nitesh Gill, with research oversight and editorial support by Puthiya Purayil Sneha, and internal review by Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Ambika Tandon.
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Wikiorientation at Dr.GR Damodaran College of Science — by Bhuvana Meenakshi — last modified Jan 18, 2020 08:11 AM
- An orientation session on Wikimedia projects was held on 6-7 December 2019 at Dr. GR Damodaran College of Science. This talk was part of the “Hour of Code” event, which is an International event celebrated across the globe to encourage students to develop their knowledge on Computer Science. This event was supported by Open Knowledge movements like Wikimedia, Mozilla, etc.which would help students to share their knowledge in the form of volunteerships and contributions. The highlights of gender gap research and women based projects such as Women in Red were covered as part of a focussed group discussion.
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Wikiorientation at Dr.GR Damodaran College of Science — by Bhuvana Meenakshi — last modified Dec 23, 2019 08:18 AM
- An orientation session on Wikimedia projects was held on 6-7 December 2019 at Dr. GR Damodaran College of Science. This talk was part of the “Hour of Code” event, which is an International event celebrated across the globe to encourage students to develop their knowledge on Computer Science. This event was supported by Open Knowledge movements like Wikimedia, Mozilla, etc.which would help students to share their knowledge in the form of volunteerships and contributions. The highlights of gender gap research and women based projects such as Women in Red were covered as part of a focussed group discussion.
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Project Tiger 2.0 — by Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill — last modified Nov 24, 2019 09:17 AM
- If you think that Indian languages are as important as international languages, like English, then, you are on the same page with this article. If not, then, let me explain, why it is a significant and much bigger issue than you think.
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Project Tiger 2.0 — by Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill — last modified Nov 24, 2019 09:15 AM
- If you think that Indian languages are as important as international languages, like English, then, you are on the same page with this article. If not, then, let me explain, why it is a significant and much bigger issue than you think.
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Project Tiger 2.0 — by Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill — last modified Nov 24, 2019 09:13 AM
- If you think that Indian languages are as important as international languages, like English, then, you are on the same page with this article. If not, then, let me explain, why it is a significant and much bigger issue than you think.
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Project Tiger 2.0 — by Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill — last modified Nov 24, 2019 09:18 AM
- If you think that Indian languages are as important as international languages, like English, then, you are on the same page with this article. If not, then, let me explain, why it is a significant and much bigger issue than you think.
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Analysis on the strategies of Mozilla and Wiki communities on gender gap aspects — by Bhuvana Meenakshi — last modified Oct 03, 2019 11:56 AM
- There is a need for research on how Open Source communities are trying to balance the gender ratio and how they provide the safe space environment to its contributors. With this in mind I have come up with this blog as I am an active contributor of Mozilla since 5 years and also got myself recently introduced to Wikimedia and its sister projects, have interacted with few Indian women contributors in both of these communities and came out with a few observations on how I see them in India and what could be improved in both communities.