Centre for Internet and Society

Kannada Wikipedia and its Tenth Anniversary

praskrishna — 2016-01-28T13:14:20Z

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was on RadioCity to talk about Kannada Wikipedia and its tenth anniversary. The programme was aired on November 2, between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.


Above: Dr. U.B. Pavanaja speaking on RadioCity.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/kannada-wikipedia-tenth-anniversary

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗೆ 10, ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ ಸಾಲದು : ಪ್ರೊ .ಜಿವಿ

praskrishna — 2013-11-20T08:54:46Z

A post-event report of the program published in OneindiaKannada on November 17, 2013.

Read about the event published in Oneindia Kannada on November 17 here.

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು, ನ.17: ಕನ್ನಡ ನೆಟ್ಟಿಗರ ಜ್ಞಾನದಾಹವನ್ನು ತಣಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ 10 ವಸಂತಗಳನ್ನು ಪೂರೈಸಿರುವ ಸಂತಸವನ್ನು ನವೆಂಬರ್ 17 ರಂದು ನಗರದ ಬಸವನಗುಡಿಯ ನ್ಯಾಷನಲ್ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಡಾ. ಎಚ್ ನರಸಿಂಹಯ್ಯ ಸಭಾಂಗಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲಾಯಿತು.

ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಸಮಾರಂಭಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅತಿಥಿಗಳಾಗಿದ್ದ ಡಾ. ಯುಆರ್ ಅನಂತಮೂರ್ತಿ ಹಾಗೂ ರವಿ ಹೆಗಡೆ ಅವರು ಕಾರಣಾಂತರದಿಂದ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಕ್ಕೆ ಆಗಮಿಸಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಮತ್ತೊಬ್ಬ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅತಿಥಿಗಳಾದ ನಾಡೋಜ ಪ್ರೊ.ಜಿ. ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ ಅವರು ಸಭೆಯನ್ನು ಉದ್ದೇಶಿಸಿ ಹೀಗೆ ಮಾತನಾಡಿದರು :

'ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ ಸಾಲದು. ನಾಡಿನ ಯುವ ಜನತೆ ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಉತ್ಸುಕರಾಗಿ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಮಾಹಿತಿಯೋಗ್ಯ ತಾಣವಾಗಿ ಮಾರ್ಪಡಿಸಿ' ಎಂದು ನಾಡೋಜ ಪ್ರೊ.ಜಿ. ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ ಯುವಜನತೆಗೆ ಕರೆ ನೀಡಿದರು.

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಬಸವನಗುಡಿಯ ನ್ಯಾಷನಲ್ ಕಾಲೇಜು ಸಭಾಂಗಣದಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅತಿಥಿಯಾಗಿ ಮಾತನಾಡಿದ ಪ್ರೊ.ಜಿ. ವೆಂಕಟಸುಬ್ಬಯ್ಯ ಅವರು, 'ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಹತ್ತು ಪೂರೈಸಿದ ಮಾತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಮುಂದುವರೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎನ್ನುವ ಭಾವನೆ ಬೇಡ. ಪ್ರೀತಿಯಿಂದ ಕಟ್ಟಿದ ಒಂದು ಸಂಸ್ಥೆ ಮುಂದುವರೆಯಬೇಕಾದರೆ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಬಹಳಷ್ಟು ಜನರ ಸಹಕಾರ ಬೇಕು. ಈ ಸಹಕಾರ ಈಗ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಅಗತ್ಯವಿದೆ. ನನಗೆ ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ನೂರು ವರ್ಷವಾಗಿದೆ. ಆದರೂ ನನ್ನಿಂದಾಗುವ ಸಹಾಯವನ್ನು ನೀಡಲು ಸಿದ್ದ. ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ನನ್ನ ಬೆಂಬಲ ಯಾವತ್ತೂ ನಿರಂತರ' ಎಂದರು.

ಇಂದು ಇಂಟರ್ನೆಟ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ವಿಚಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದಂತೆ ಸಾವಿರಾರು ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳು ಸಿಗುತ್ತದೆ.ಇವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಿಖರವಾಗಿರುವ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ತಾಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಗುವುದು ಕಷ್ಟ. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ ಅಯಾ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಧನೆ ಮಾಡಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಸಾಧಕರು ತಮ್ಮ ಕರ್ತವ್ಯವೆಂದು ಭಾವಿಸಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸೇರಿಸುವ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಂದಾಗಬೇಕು' ಎಂದು ವಿಜ್ಞಾನಿ ಅನಂತರಾಮು ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯಪಟ್ಟರು.

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಸಂಪಾದಕ ಯು.ಬಿ. ಪವನಜ ಮಾತನಾಡಿ, 'ಪೆಟ್ರೋಲ್‌ ಉಳಿಸಲು ಕಡಿಮೆ ಪೆಟ್ರೋಲ್‌ ಬಳಸಿ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳುತ್ತೇವೆ. ಆದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಸಲು ಏನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕು ಎಂಬ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗೆ ಉತ್ತರ ಸಿಗುವುದು ಕಷ್ಟ. ಆದರೆ ವಿಶ್ವದ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳು ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದಾಗ ಮಾತ್ರ ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಸಬಹುದು. ಕಥೆ, ಕವನ ಇತ್ಯಾದಿ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಈಗ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯವನ್ನು ಬರೆಯುವ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಾಹಿತಿಗಳ ಅಗತ್ಯವಿದೆ. ಈ ಸಾಹಿತಿಗಳಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಒಂದು ಉತ್ತಮ ವೇದಿಕೆ.ಈ ವೇದಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಉತ್ತಮ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಕೋಶವನ್ನಾಗಿ ರೂಪಿಸಬೇಕಾಗಿದೆ' ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿದರು.

ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕ ಅಭಯ್ ಸಿಂಹ ಮಾತನಾಡಿ. 'ನನ್ನ ಅಜ್ಜ ಜಿ.ಟಿ ನಾರಾಯಣರಾಯರು ಬರೆದಿರುವ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿ ಬರೆದಿರುವ ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಕ್ರಿಯೆಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್‌ ಲೈಸನ್ಸ್‌ನಿಂದಾಗಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಲಭ್ಯವಾಗಿದೆ.ಈ ಲೈಸನ್ಸ್‌ ಮೂಲಕ ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ಮುದ್ರಣಗೊಂಡಿರುವ ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಲೇಖನಗಳು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೇರುವಂತಾಗಬೇಕು' ಎಂದು ಆಶಿಸಿದರು.

ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಅತಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಸಂಪಾದನೆ ಮಾಡಿದ ಲೇಖಕರಿಗೆ ಸ್ಮರಣಿಕೆ ನೀಡಿ ಗೌರವಿಸಲಾಯಿತು. ಬಳಿಕ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊಸ ಲೇಖನ ಸೇರಿಸುವ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಓಂ ಶಿವಪ್ರಕಾಶ ಪ್ರಾತ್ಯಕ್ಷಿಕೆ ನೀಡಿದರು. ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ ವಿಚಾರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕಿರಣ್ ರವಿಕುಮಾರ ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸ ನೀಡಿದರು.

ಎಲ್ಲ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಸುದ್ದಿಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಒನ್ಇಂಡಿಯಾ ನೋಟ. ನಿರಂತರ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಪಡೆಯಲು Facebook ಮತ್ತು Twitter ಮೇಲೆ ಇರಲಿ ಕಣ್ಣು.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/one-india-november-17-2013-kannada-wikipedia-10th-anniversary-celebration-basavanagudi

Stats for March 2016

rahim — 2016-06-07T04:06:03Z

CIS-A2K team closely works with 5 Indian languages, we call as focus language areas. Here are the stats for the month of March 2016.

We generate stats for each of our focus language area month on month, and it has been used for designing and modifying our strategies from time to time. Though these stats were never published publicly, as we get them at stats.wikimedia.org already and publishing here is just repeating it; it was felt that some more metrics can be added and published month on month here at CIS blog. Also, the data here would be for the last month, while it takes two months for data to get updated at stats.wikimedia.org.

Stub articles created :

Kannada - 3/131

Konkani - 9/38

Marathi - 50/176

Odia - 8/89

Telugu - 59/284

In Kannada Wikipedia, about 131 new articles were created and of these only 3 are stub class articles. This is because Kannada Wikipedia is implementing a strict policy on not allowing a stub class article. There is an abuse filter created by one of the admins, Harish MG, which does not allow an editor to submit a smaller article than 1000 bytes. While Konkani showed a good progress in creation of new articles and only 9 of these 38 articles were stub class articles.

Marathi and Odia had a 28% and 9% share of total articles created as stubs respectively, while Telugu has about 21% of total articles created as stubs.

Active editors count has gone up in Kannada with 133 active editors during March 2016 - this could be accounted to the post 13th anniversary activities. Four focused editathons were organised as part of the 13th anniversary celebrations. The number of active editors increased in Konkani too. While in Marathi, Odia and Telugu the number was consistent with the previous months' numbers.

Now. lets look at the editing activity.

Kannada had 3279 edits adding about 86.57 MB of data. Konkani Wikipedia saw 920 edits in all, adding 8.41 MB of data. Marathi Wikipedia had 2926 edits with 68.42 MB of data; Odia Wikipedia added 1106 edits and 15.28 MB of data and Telugu Wikipedia had 8559 edits with 122.17 MB of data.

Having a provision of local image upload, Telugu Wikipedia added 53 images to the project while Marathi, one image was added.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/stats-for-march-2016

Dr. Pavanaja Featured in Vijayavani

praskrishna — 2015-12-15T07:49:55Z

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was invited to the office of Vijayavani, Kannada daily. Vijayavani runs a programme in which a celebrity will be invited to their office and have informal discussions with them. Later a lead article based on that discussions will be generated. The article which featured Dr. Pavanaja was published on November 16, 2015.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/dr-pavanaja-featured-in-vijayavani

Christ University Wikipedia Education Program Internship

manasarao — 2017-12-14T08:55:05Z

The Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge program, in partnership with Christ University, is announcing its annual internship program for the 1200 students enrolled in the Wikipedia Education Program. The Wikipedia Education Program at Christ University, now in its fourth year, is an effort to bring together educators and students to use Wikipedia as an educational implement. CIS-A2K conducts the internship activity for passionate Christ University students to improve the quality of the articles created or edited by their fellow WEP peers. The internship will largely involve improving upon the articles created by their peers as well as gathering community consensus based on which these articles would be moved to the main namespace.

The students will be working on Wikipedia over the course of 21 days in developing upon the content created by Christ University Wikipedia Education Program participants. The fledgling articles currently housed in the individual “sandboxes” of the WEP participants will be improved upon by the interns through addition of detailed content, images and info-boxes.

The students are selected based on three main criteria: fluency of language(written and spoken), knowledge of Wikipedia and its processes, and their personal interest levels. The applications are open from 13 to 17 December, 2017. Interested students can apply here:

https://goo.gl/forms/Ffxh3T3DRZz8Q25F3

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-internship-1

Kannada Wikipedia edit-a-thon for Mechanical Engineering students of Sagara

Ananth Subray — 2016-03-01T13:56:54Z

In Sagara, Karnataka, a Kannada Wikipedia edit-a-thon is being planned to be organised during January 26-27.

Kannada Wikipedia has turned 13 this year. Started in June 2003, the free Kannada-language online encyclopedia is one of the major resources in the language on the Internet. With over 19700 and even with many broader topics like art, literature, politics, science and culture covered in Kannada Wikipedia, there is significantly low content about Mechanical Engineering. Mechanical Engineering enthusiasts of the city are coming together to bridge this gap by creating and enhancing content in Kannada on the internet. Out of the three days, the whole day of the 25th is dedicated for clicking pictures of historical places of the city which will additionally contribute to articles related to the city. The event is being organised by the Kannada Wikimedia community that voluntarily contributes to grow Kannada Wikipedia and several other Kannada Wikimedia projects, and the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge programme. The edit-a-thon will include demonstration and practice sessions of input in Kannada script, basics of Wikipedia editing and its policies and guidelines, searching for references from various journals and notable books, and translation of technical content, and is open to all. Anant Subray, Programme Associate who is the organiser of the event could be contacted at 9739811664 for more information.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/kannada-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-for-mechanical-engineering-students-of-sagara

Using Kannada in technology made easier with smartphones

praskrishna — 2016-11-01T05:19:17Z

With the IT revolution, many believed that the younger generation would prefer to type and communicate in English than Kannada.

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was interviewed by the New Indian Express. The article was published on November 1, 2016.

But U B Pavanaja, a member of Kannada Software Committee and a Kannada Wikipedia administrator, believes with latest technology, the use of Kannada has only been increasing. As the state celebrates Karnataka Rajyotsava today, Ashwini M Sripad spoke to Pavanaja on adapting Kannada language to the latest technology.

Where does Kannada stand when it comes to adopting technology?

Quite good. But not the best. Most tools needed to use Kannada in technology are available now. They are almost perfect.

Has there been any change in the use of Kannada in computer/mobile by youngsters in the last decade?

Yes. Due to the availability of Kannada input methods, and advent of smartphones, many youngsters are now using Kannada on their computers and smartphones. More people are typing in the Kannada script itself.

What should the state government do to popularise Kannada in technology?

A lot needs to be done. There was a committee to look into the standardisation and proper implementation of Kannada in technology. The committee submitted its report. The government implemented some parts of the report. After that nothing has been done. Now the committee does not exist. Standardisation is a continuous process. There must be a permanent committee to look into this. For example, domain names (website names) are available now in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, etc., but not in Kannada. This is due to the fact that no one represents Kannada in meetings of W3C India, an international community to develop web standards.

How is the response to Kannada Wikipedia?

A lot of awareness has been created among people about the existence of Kannada Wikipedia in the last three years. But more needs to be done.

What can be done to improve it further?

At present, the articles are written by enthusiastic Kannadigas who are not really writers. They are doing this out of passion for the language. But well-known Kannada writers don’t edit Kannada Wikipedia. Kannada has a good number science writers, but they are not editing Kannada Wikipedia, which is very badly needed at this time. Also, there is no comprehensive printed encyclopaedia in Kannada for science and technology. The last one came out 18 years ago. Therefore students in Kannada medium schools need a good Kannada encyclopaedia. This requirement can be met by Kannada Wikipedia. But the number and quality of articles is far from sufficient. Writing for Kannada Wikipedia could be made compulsory for degree and post-graduate students to bring in some well-researched articles. Such programmes already do exist in some colleges in the state but we need more.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/new-indian-express-november-1-2016-using-kannada-in-technology-made-easier-with-smartphones

Kannada Wikipedia Education Program at Christ university: Work so far

Ananth Subray — 2016-11-18T02:45:05Z

As you know we are working closely with Christ university in Bengaluru for the Education Programs in Kannada Wikipedia and Kannada Wikisource, we worked on redesigning the programme for this academic year 2016-17 based on the lessons learned from the earlier intervention.

Before beginning this programme, we provided training for campus ambassadors who in turn provided training to the faculty and fellow students. This new design of the programme allowed us to spend more time with the undergraduate students of various disciplines in Arts, Science and Commerce that are part of the programme. And this exercise resulted in improving the quality of the articles created by the students. So far, 218 second-year students in total have created 108 good quality articles in Kannada Wikipedia and 70 start class articles. The latter ones will need further work like adding images and citations. 20 of the articles are stub-start class articles, and 20 more are stubs of poor quality. The articles are still in the user sandboxes for the evaluation work and will soon be moved to the article namespace.

The freshman year students contributed in digitising books on Kannada Wikisource by proofreading about 2000 folios from four books.

How we did things differently this time?

Focus on multiple workshops that were conducted by multiple facilitators to ensure the series does not become monotonous. Facilitators included myself, some of the faculty and the Campus Ambassadors where the latter was useful for more peer-to-peer to learning.
Sessions were made more interactive and were spaced evenly that gave the students go through a learning curve.
Faculty support and engagement that was less last year was increased this year.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/kannada-wikipedia-education-program-at-christ-university-work-so-far

A Kannada Wikipedia Workshop in Mysore

pavanaja — 2013-10-04T04:40:46Z

On Tuesday, August 6, 2013, a day-long Kannada Wikipedia workshop was conducted at the Centre for Proficiency Development and Placement Services (CPDPS), Manasa Gangotri campus, University of Mysore, Karnataka by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.

The main objective of this workshop was to acquaint the participants about Wikipedia and get them a hands-on experience of editing Wikipedia and also encourage them to contribute to the Kannada Wikipedia. The participants were also asked to reflect upon their experiences and perceptions of editing and contributing to Wikipedia, and identify areas in which they could add more value to the existing initiatives.

Most of the previous Kannada Wikipedia workshops have been well covered well by the leading Kannada newspapers like Vijaya Karnataka, Prajavani, etc.

This generated quite some interest in many people and we began getting requests to conduct more Kannada Wikipedia workshops. One such request came from Prof. Niranjana Vanalli, Director of CPDPS, to conduct a Kannada Wikipedia workshop at his centre. The date was finalised for August 6, 2013. This was announced in the leading local newspapers. As a result, nearly 50 persons registered for the workshop.

Above: Dr. Pavanaja conducting the workshop in Mysore

The workshop was inaugurated by Dr. P. Nagabhushan, Chairman of Computer Studies, Dept. of Studies in Computer Science, University of Mysore. He said that Wikipedia could facilitate the growth of Kannada language in this digital era. Prof. Niranjana Vanalli welcomed everyone and also did the role of MC for the inaugural program. The workshop was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. started about half an hour late. Initially there were 22 people and as the day progressed we saw more people joining in for the workshop. In the end there were about 60 participants. Dr. Pavanaja spoke briefly and requested Mysore University to re-release their famous Kannada Encyclopaedia under the Creative Commons license so as to facilitate the growth of Kannada Wikipedia.

The inauguration programme was very well covered by media. The Hindu highlighted my request about releasing encyclopaedias under the Creative Commons license.

After the inauguration, all those who were interested in the hands-on session shifted to the computer lab in the same building. Dr. Pavanaja gave a presentation on Wikipedia, then Kannada Wikipedia, and then spoke about its importance. This was followed by some demos on using Wikipedia and editing Wikipedia. The participants created their usernames in Kannada Wikipedia. Very soon the limit of creating 6 new editors per IP address was reached and the remaining people could not create their usernames. Some participants registered using Dr. Pavanaja’s laptop. The rest of the participants watched the demos and promised to go home and register later. Many people did so and have e-mailed their usernames.

Kiran Ravikumar, a young active Wikipedian from Mysore gave a brief presentation about Creative Commons and how to use it with Wikipedia. He demonstrated uploading some image under Wikimedia Commons and linking it from Wikipedia.

Above: Wikipedian Kiran Ravikumar making his presentation

Some new editors have begun doing wiki editing. We may need to monitor, and nurture these new editors till the time they become well versed.

We would like to thank Prof. Niranjana Vanalli for all the local arrangements, publicity and and making the workshop to happen.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kannada-wikipedia-university-of-mysore

ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಟ್ಟ ಸಸಿಗೆ ಈಗ ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷ

pavanaja — 2013-11-20T09:55:31Z

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja wrote an article highlighting 10 years of Kannada Wikipedia. Kannada Wikipedia started in the year 2003 and now it has completed 10 years. The article highlights the current status of the Kannada Wikipedia vis-a-vis number of articles, number of editors, active editors, and page views per month.

Read the original article published in Kannada Prabha on November 1, 2013. For downloading the article (PDF), click here.

ಕನ್ನಡದ ಮುಕ್ತ ಜ್ಞಾನಕೋಶವಾದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಈಗ ಜನಪ್ರಿಯ

ಯುಗಯುಗಾದಿ ಕಳೆದರೂ ಯುಗಾದಿ ಮರಳಿ ಬರುತಿದೆ ಎಂಬಂತೆ ನವೆಂಬರ್ ಕೂಡ ಮರಳಿ ಬರುತಿದೆ (ಬೇಂದ್ರೆಯವರು ಕ್ಷಮಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ). ಕನ್ನಡದ ಸ್ಥಿತಿಗತಿ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮತ್ತೊಮ್ಮೆ ಲೇಖನಗಳ ಮಹಾಪೂರದ ಸಮಯ. ಪ್ರತಿ ನವೆಂಬರ್‌ಗೆ ಇದನ್ನು ಮತ್ತೆ ಮತ್ತೆ ಓದುವುದು ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ರೂಢಿಯಾಗಿದೆ. ಅಂತೆಯೇ ಮತ್ತೆಮತ್ತೆ ಬರೆಯುವುದು ನಮಗೆ ರೂಢಿಯಾಗಿಬಿಟ್ಟಿದೆ.

ಪೆಟ್ರೋಲ್ ಉಳಿಸಬೇಕಾದರೆ ಪೆಟ್ರೋಲ್ ಬಳಸಬಾರದು. ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಸಬೇಕಾದರೆ...?' ಎಂಬ ಮಾತು ಪ್ರತಿ ನವೆಂಬರ್ ಒಂದರಂದು ಅತ್ತಿಂದಿತ್ತ ಹರಿದಾಡುವ ಒಂದು ಜೋಕ್. ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಯಬೇಕಾದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಬಳಸಬೇಕು. ಇದು ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಒಪ್ಪುವ ಮಾತು. ಕನ್ನಡ ಬಳಸುವುದೆಂದರೆ ನಿತ್ಯದ ವ್ಯವಹಾರಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ಬಳಸುವುದು. ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಶ್ರೀಮಂತಿಗೆ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಭಾಷಣ ಬಿಗಿದು ಮೇಜು ಕುಟ್ಟುವುದರಿಂದ ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಯುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಅದು ಉಳಿಯಬೇಕಾದರೆ ಜನಸಾಮಾನ್ಯರು ಅದನ್ನು ಬಳಸಬೇಕು. ಜನಸಾಮಾನ್ಯರಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಮುಖವಾಗಿ ಬೇಕಾಗಿರುವುದು ಸಾಹಿತಿಗಳು ಬೆನ್ನು ತಟ್ಟಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಸೃಜನಶೀಲ (ಕಥನ) ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯವಲ್ಲ. ಅದು ಬೇಡ ಎಂದಲ್ಲ. ಆದರೆ ಜನಸಾಮಾನ್ಯರಿಗೆ ಅಗತ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಬೇಕಾದುದು ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ. ಒಬ್ಬಾತನಿಗೆ ಹೊಚ್ಚಹೊಸ ನಮೂನೆಯ ಪ್ಲಾಸ್ಮಾ, ಎಲ್‌ಸಿಡಿ ಅಥವಾ ಎಲ್‌ಇಡಿ ಟಿವಿ ಖರೀದಿಸಬೇಕಾಗಿದೆ ಎಂದಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಳ್ಳಿ. ಆತನಿಗೆ ಇವುಗಳ ವ್ಯತ್ಯಾಸ ಗೊತ್ತಿರಬೇಕು. ತನ್ನ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ಇತಿಮಿತಿಯೊಳಗೆ ಯಾವುದು ಉತ್ತಮ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿಯಬೇಕು. ಆತ ಇದನ್ನು ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ತಿಳಿಯುವ ಬಗೆ ಹೇಗೆ? ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಬೇಕು ಒಂದು ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ.

ಈಗ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ವಿಷಯದ ಕಡೆ ಗಮನ ಹರಿಸೋಣ. ಈಗ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮ ಮತ್ತು ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಚರ್ಚೆ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿತರೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ಜ್ಞಾನ ದೊರೆಯುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ನಮ್ಮ ಮಕ್ಕಳನ್ನು ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿಸುತ್ತೇವೆ ಎಂದು ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ತಂದೆತಾಯಂದಿರು ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ಜ್ಞಾನದ ಲಭ್ಯತೆ ತುಂಬಾ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ನಾವು ಒಪ್ಪಲೇಬೇಕು. ಆದರೆ ಈ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗೆ ಪರಿಹಾರ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಭಾಷೆಗೆ ಮೊರೆಹೋಗುವುದಲ್ಲ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ಜ್ಞಾನವನ್ನು ತರುವುದು. ಈ ರೀತಿ ಮಾಡಲು ಸಹಾಯ ಮಾಡುವುದು ಅತಿ ಜನಪ್ರಿಯವಾಗಿರುವ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ಮತ್ತು ಮುಕ್ತ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ.

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಒಂದು ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ಮತ್ತು ಮುಕ್ತ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ. ಇದು 2001ರಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾಯಿತು. ಇದು ಜಗತ್ತಿನ 286 ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿದೆ. ಇನ್ನೂ ಸುಮಾರು 300 ಭಾಷೆಯ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗಳು ತಯಾರಿ ಹಂತದಲ್ಲಿವೆ. ಸುಮಾರು 20ಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಲಭ್ಯ. ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡವೂ ಸೇರಿದೆ. ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಯ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಹಿಂದಿ, ತಮಿಳು, ತೆಲುಗು, ಮಲಯಾಳಂ, ಮರಾಠಿ, ಬೆಂಗಾಳಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗಳು ಕನ್ನಡಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಅಂಕಿ ಅಂಶಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಂದಿವೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ 2003ರಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾಯಿತು. ಅಂದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಈಗ ದಶಮಾನೋತ್ಸವ.

ಎಲ್ಲ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಗಳಂತೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವೂ ಜನರಿಂದ ಜನರಿಗಾಗಿ ಜನರೇ ನಡೆಸುವ ಒಂದು ಮುಕ್ತ ಮತ್ತು ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ. ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಯಾರು ಬೇಕಾದರೂ ಸಂಪಾದಕರಾಗಿ ಲೇಖನ ಸೇರಿಸಬಹುದು. ಇರುವ ಲೇಖನ ತಿದ್ದಬಹುದು. ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬರು ಬರೆದ ಲೇಖನದಲ್ಲಿ ಏನಾದರೂ ತಪ್ಪುಗಳು ಕಂಡುಬಂದರೆ ಅಥವಾ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯ ಕೊರತೆ ಇದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ನಿಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಅದನ್ನು ನೀವೇ ತಿದ್ದಬಹುದು ಮತ್ತು ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸೇರಿಸಬಹುದು. ನಿಮಗೆ ಒಂದು ವಿಷಯದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ತಿಳಿದಿದೆ ಮತ್ತು ಆ ವಿಷಯದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಲೇಖನ ಇಲ್ಲ ಎಂದಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಆ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಒಂದು ಹೊಸ ಲೇಖನವನ್ನು ನೀವೇ ಸೇರಿಸಬಹುದು. ನಿಮ್ಮ ಲೇಖನ ಯಾರೋ ಒಬ್ಬರು ಒಪ್ಪಿದ ನಂತರ ಅದು ಪ್ರಕಟವಾಗುವ ಪರಿಪಾಠ ಇಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನೀವು ಲೇಖನ ಬರೆದು ಪುಟ ಉಳಿಸಿ ಎಂಬುದರ ಮೇಲೆ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿದರೆ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಲೇಖನ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಕ್ಕೆ ಸೇರ್ಪಡೆಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಪ್ರಪಂಚದಾದ್ಯಂತ ಹಬ್ಬಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರಿಗೆ ಅದು ಕ್ಷಣಮಾತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ದೊರೆಯುವಂತಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಆದಾಯರಹಿತ (ನಾನ್ ಪ್ರಾಫಿಟ್) ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯಾದ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯ ಫೌಂಡೇಶನ್‌ನ ನಿಯಂತ್ರಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾರ್ಯನಿರ್ವಹಿಸುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಇದು ಸರ್ಕಾರಿ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯಲ್ಲ, ಸರ್ಕಾರದಿಂದ ಯಾವುದೇ ರೀತಿಯ ಅನುದಾನವನ್ನೂ ಪಡೆಯುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಈ ಯೋಜನೆಗೆ ಅವಶ್ಯಕವಾದ ಬಂಡವಾಳವನ್ನು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ ಬಳಕೆದಾರರಿಂದ ದೇಣಿಗೆಯ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಂಗ್ರಹಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ನಡೆಸಲು ನೀವೂ ಧನಸಹಾಯ ನೀಡಬಹುದು. ಇಂದು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಇಷ್ಟು ಜನಪ್ರಿಯವಾಗಿರುವ ಕಾರಣ ಕೆಲವು ಸರ್ಕಾರಿ ಹಾಗೂ ಕಾರ್ಪೊರೇಟ್ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳು ಕೂಡ ಧನಸಹಾಯ ನೀಡಲು ಮುಂದಾಗಿವೆ.

ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸೇರಿಸುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ನಾವು ತಜ್ಞರೇ ಆಗಿರಬೇಕು ಎನ್ನುವುದು ತಪ್ಪು. ವಾಸ್ತವವಾಗಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದ ಯಾವುದೇ ಬರಹ ಒಬ್ಬನೇ ಲೇಖಕ ಬರೆದುದಲ್ಲ. ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ದೇಶ, ಹಿನ್ನೆಲೆಗಳ ಅನೇಕ ಮಂದಿಯ ಸಹಕಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದು ಪುಟವೂ ರೂಪುಗೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತದೆ. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಒಂದು ಸಹಯೋಗಿ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ. ನಿಮಗೆ ತಿಳಿದಷ್ಟು ನೀವು ಸೇರಿಸಿ. ನೀವು ಬಿಟ್ಟಿರುವುದನ್ನು ವಿಷಯ ತಿಳಿದ ಬೇರೆ ಯಾರಾದರು ಸೇರಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ.

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುವುದರಿಂದ ಯಾವುದೇ ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ಲಾಭವಿಲ್ಲ. ಲೇಖಕರ ಹೆಸರನ್ನೂ ಲೇಖನದ ಕೆಳಗೆ ಬರೆಯುವ ಪರಿಪಾಠವಿಲ್ಲ. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುವುದೆಂದರೆ ನಿಜವಾದ ಸ್ವಾರ್ಥರಹಿತ ಸಮಾಜಸೇವೆ. ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಉಳಿವಿಗೆ ಇದು ಅತೀ ಅಗತ್ಯ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಇಂದೇ ಕೀಲಿಮಣೆ ಮೇಲೆ ಕುಟ್ಟಿ -- kn.wikipedia.org.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kannada-prabha-november-1-2013-dr-ub-pavanaja-10-years-of-kannada-wikipedia

CIS Signs MoU with Mysore University

pavanaja — 2014-05-05T06:29:37Z

CIS-A2K signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Mysore for converting to Unicode and re-releasing their encyclopaedia under Creative Commons License. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja on behalf of the CIS-A2K team signed the MoU.

Registrar and VC Prof. K.S. Rangappa was present on the occasion. The signing of the MoU took place on February 22, 2014. As part of the MoU CIS will convert and upload the encyclopaedia into Kannada Wikisource and then it will be moved to Kannada Wikipedia.


Above: Dr. Pavanaja with Prof. C. Basavaraju and Prof. K.S. Rangappa at Mysore University on occasion of signing the MoU.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/cis-signs-mou-with-mysore-university

University of Mysore Re-releases Kannada Vishwakosha (Encyclopaedia) under Creative Commons Free License

pavanaja — 2014-07-24T07:03:45Z

The University of Mysore and the Centre for Internet and Society co-organized the Open Knowledge Day in Mysore on July 15, 2014. On this occasion Mysore University released six volumes of Kannada Vishwakosha under the Creative Commons (CC) license.

Kannada Vishwakosha brought out by the University of Mysore can easily be termed as the best encyclopaedia in Kannada. It has been modelled after the famous Britannica encyclopaedia. Mysore University Vishwakosha has 14 volumes having a total of 13802 pages. The very first volume was brought out in the year 1969 and the final volume was released in 2004. Many famous Kannada authors, scientists, academicians and stalwarts from other fields have worked on creating this encyclopaedia. The print volumes of the first version of the encyclopaedia are out of stock now. Recently UoM has started revising and reprinting the encyclopaedia. So far 4 volumes have been revised, enhanced and published.

UoM believes in Open Access to Knowledge. It has put up the research outputs from its departments online for free access to the public. UoM has done these as a subscriber to the idea of Budapest Open Access Initiative. The Open Access Institutional Repository, of UoM, covers scholarly publications covering journal articles, conference papers, books, book reviews, presentations, reports and patents ever since UoM was established in 1916. Extending the philosophy of open knowledge to the Kannada encyclopaedia published by UoM becomes a natural extension. UoM is in the verge of celebrating its centenary soon and has taken many initiatives in that direction.

CIS-A2K has been in negotiations with UoM towards releasing of its high quality Kannada Vishwakosha (Kannada Encyclopaedia) under Creative Commons license. CIS and UoM signed a MoU on February 22, 2014. Here is the relevant extract from the MoU: "They will work together to digitize all encyclopaedic publications for which the copyright is owned by UoM, and re-release them under the Creative Common license (CC-BY-SA 3.0). The digitized content will be made available for everyone through free content distribution platforms like Wikipedia and Wikisource. The digitization will be done employing the global standard Unicode so that the content has longevity, is universally portable and is easily searchable. Both parties have joined hands to undertake the above in order to enhance digital literacy in the Kannada language and facilitate collaborative production and free dissemination of knowledge in Kannada to the students, academics, researchers and the wider public. The parties also believe that by reintroducing the knowledge in digital and openly accessible formats could significantly enhance the production of knowledge in Kannada and give a new lease of life to Kannada language in the digital era. The parties will co-design and jointly implement relevant programmes to achieve this objective." As part of this MoU, UoM agreed to release the first six volumes of Kannada Vishwakosha under CC.

Volume numbers 1, 2, 4 and 6 of Kannada Vishwakosha of UoM have been revised and published recently. A project page has been created in Kannada Wikipedia for this project. Kannada Wikipedians joined hands in the project. The project involved extracting the text from the soft copies of the files, converting them into Unicode, extracting articles from these files and uploading them to Kannada Wikisource.

A team of interns from Christ University had a major role to play in this development. These were students from the Wikipedia in Education Program that was conducted in Christ University during the academic period of 2013-14. These students took active part in the current project and uploaded about 1200 articles so far (till July 21, 2014).

Media Coverage

The event attracted very good media coverage. Leading English and Kannada dailies like Andolana Kannada, City Today, Deccan Herald, Hosa Diganta, Kannada Jana Mana, Kannada Prabha, Rajya Dharma, Samyukta Karnataka, The Hindu, The New Indian Express, Udayavani, Vijaya Karnataka, and Vijaya Vani published about this. Scanned versions of the published articles can be downloaded here.

Other Links:

UoM Kannada Vishwakosha conversion project page in Kannada Wikipedia - http://bit.ly/mysoreunivwp
Articles from UoM Kannada Vishwakosha in Kannada Wikisource - http://bit.ly/mysoreuniv
Category UoM Kannada Vishwakosha in Kannada Wikisource - http://bit.ly/mysoreunivws
For pictures from the Open Knowledge Day event in Mysore - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mysore_University_Open_Knowledge_Day

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/university-of-mysore-releases-kannada-vishwakosha-under-cc-license

Converting from nonUnicode (Nudi, Baraha, ...) font encoding to Unicode Kannada

pavanaja — 2016-10-23T15:36:25Z

People have been using computers for typing and printing Kannada text for more than 25 years. Most of the usage of Kannada on computers was limited to the DTP arena.

People made use of packages like PageMaker (Version 6.5 or 7) to type and compose pages. Even now, many people still use these packages for Kannada DTP work. The text entered into these packages is stored as font glyph codes rather than character encodings. Non-Unicode truetype fonts like Nudi, Baraha, ShreeLipi, Akruti, etc, are some of the most popular fonts being used.

The system does not understand these characters as Kannada characters. Any text based operations like search, replace, sorting, spell-check, text-to-speech, etc, are not possible with this kind of text. Employing Unicode for all digitisation works of Kannada text solves this problem. Usage of Unicode for Kannada has become prominent only recently. All websites like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Wikisource, etc, want the text only in Unicode. There is still a large amount of text entered and stored with old non-Unicode font based encodings. These are mostly present in the form of PageMaker files. This blog post explains the process of converting the text present in PageMaker into Kannada Unicode text.

The Kannada and Culture Department of the Government of Karnataka have released Unicode complaint open-type fonts and Unicode based software for Kannada under GPL. These are available for free download on their website (http://kannadasiri.co.in/index/software). Download and
install “Ascii to Unicode Kannada Converter” from this page. This software works only in Windows. Now you are ready to convert the text from PageMaker file into Unicode.

Open the PageMaker file. Select the Text tool depicted by a big “T” shaped icon. Click anywhere in the text area. Select the entire text (Ctrl-A followed by Ctrl-C). Now open Notepad and paste this text into that (press Ctrl-V). The text will appear gibberish in Notepad. Don’t worry about it. Save the file as plain text file (.TXT file). Remember where you have saved the file.

Now run the “Kannada ASCII Unicode Converter” software. In the first textbox enter the name of the ASCII file to be converted (the file you just saved from Notepad). In the bottom textbox enter a filename for the Unicode text file that will be created by the software. Select the default “GOK (Kuvempu Nudi Baraha)”, or other encoding as the case may be, as the encoding from which the text has to be converted. Click on the button written “ಪರಿವರ್ತಿಸಿ”. It will show the progress of conversion.

Once the conversion is complete, it will display an appropriate message to indicate completion of the conversion. If you open the text file created by the software, it will have the text converted into Unicode. This text can be used in Wikisource, Wikipedia, etc.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/converting-from-non-unicode-nudi-baraha-font-encoding-to-unicode-kannada

ನಿರಂಜನರ ಕೃತಿಗಳು CC-BY-SA 4.0 ಪರವಾನಗಿಯೊಂದಿಗೆ ಮರುಪ್ರಕಟಗೊಳ್ಳಲಿವೆ

Omshivaprakash and Tejas Jain — 2014-11-03T15:04:23Z

ಕನ್ನಡ ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವದ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ ನಿರಂಜನರ ಬಹುಪಾಲು ಕೃತಿಗಳು CC-BY-SA 4.0 ಪರವಾನಗಿಯೊಂದಿಗೆ ಮರುಪ್ರಕಟಗೊಳ್ಳಲಿವೆಯೆಂದು ಸಿಐಎಸ್-ಎ೨ಕೆಯ ಸಹಯೋಗದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಳಗವು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಹರ್ಷಿಸುತ್ತದೆ.

The article by Omshivaprakash and Tejas Jain was published in ನನ್ ಮನ on November 1, 2014.

ನಿರಂಜನ (೧೯೨೪-೧೯೯೨) , ಇದು ಕುಳಕುಂದ ಶಿವರಾವ್ ಅವರ ಲೇಖನಾಮ. ಇವರು ೨೦ನೇ ಶತಮಾನದ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಲೇಖಕ ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ರಗತಿಪರ ಚಳವಳಿಯ ಮುಂದಾಳು. ಅವರ ಸುಮಾರು ಐದು ದಶಕಗಳ ಸಂಮೃದ್ಧವಾದ ಕೃತಿಗಳು ಕಾದಂಬರಿ, ಸಣ್ಣ ಕಥೆಗಳು, ನಾಟಕಗಳು, ಜೀವನ ಕಥನಗಳು, ರಾಜಕೀಯ ವ್ಯಾಖ್ಯಾನಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಭಾಷಾಂತರಗಳನ್ನು ಒಳಗೊಂಡಿವೆ. ಅವರು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಾರ್ತಾಪತ್ರಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ನಿಯತಕಾಲಿಕಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಿಯತ ಅಂಕಣಕಾರರಾಗಿದ್ದರು. ಅವರ ಸಾಧನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಯುವಕರಿಗಾಗಿ ೭ ಸಂಪುಟಗಳ ಜ್ಞಾನ ಗಂಗೋತ್ರಿ ಮತ್ತು ೨೫ ಸಂಪುಟಗಳ ಪ್ರಪಂಚದ ಮಹತ್ತರವಾದ ಕಥೆಗಳ ಸಂಕಲನಗಳು ಸೇರಿವೆ.

ನಿರಂಜನರ ಒಟ್ಟು ೫೫ ಕೃತಿಗಳು ಮರುಪ್ರಕಟಗೊಳ್ಳಲಿವೆ. ಇದು CC-BY-SA 4.0 ಪರವಾನಗಿಯೊಂದಿಗೆ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಕಟಗೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿರುವ ಒಬ್ಬನೇ ಲೇಖಕನ ಕೃತಿಗಳ ಅತಿ ದೊಡ್ಡ ಸಂಗ್ರಹವಾಗಿರಬಹುದು. ಇದನ್ನು ಆಚರಿಸಲು ಒಂದು ಔಪಚಾರಿಕ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು, ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟೀವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ ಪಾಮುಖ್ಯತೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಒಂದು ಅಭಿಶಿಕ್ಷಣದ ಜೊತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ೨೦೧೪ನೇ ನವೆಂಬರ್ ತಿಂಗಳಿನ ಮೊದಲ ವಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಡೆಸಲು ಯೋಚಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇವೆ. ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದ ಕರಾರುವಾಕ್ಕಾದ ವಿವರಗಳನ್ನು ಸಧ್ಯದಲ್ಲೇ ಹಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲಾಗುವುದು.ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಳಗ ಮತ್ತು ಸಿಐಎಸ್-ಎ೨ಕೆಯು ನಿಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಸಮಾರಂಭದಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಲು ಸಂತಸಪಡುತ್ತದೆ. ಕೆಳಗಿನ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳು CC-BY-SA 4.0 ಪರವಾನಗಿಯೊಂದಿಗೆ ಮರುಪ್ರಕಟಗೊಳ್ಳಲು ಸಿಐಎಸ್-ಎ೨ಕೆಯ ಸಲಹೆಗಾರರೂ ಆಗಿರುವ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿನಿ ನಿರಂಜನರ ಮಹತ್ತರವಾದ ಆರಂಭಿಕ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ನಾವು ಸ್ಮರಿಸುತ್ತೇವೆ.

ಲೇಖನದ ಕನ್ನಡ ಅನುವಾದ: ತೇಜಸ್ ಜೈನ್

ಚಿತ್ರ, ಇನ್ಫೋಬಾಕ್ಸ್ ಮತ್ತು ಇತರೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಮೂಲ: ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ

About the Authors

OmShivaprakash and Tejas Jain are long time Kannada Wikimedians and enthusiasts of free and open knowledge in Kannada.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kannada-work-released-under-cc-by-sa

55 Works of Iconic Indian writer released under Free Licence to benefit Wikisource

vishnu — 2014-11-14T13:29:48Z

Kannada is a language spoken by 40 million people in Karnataka – one of the four southern states of India.The Kannada Wikimedia community, in collaboration with CIS-A2K, are enthusiastic about having almost all of the works of Niranjana re-licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 on the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava.

The original post was published on Wikimedia Blog.

Niranjana was a prolific Indian author and activist, and wrote more than 60 books over the course of his career. These works will be digitized and made available on Kannada Wikisource, allowing Kannada speakers to freely access the diverse set of works. Niranjana’s works give a rich glimpse into social, political, and cultural history of Karnataka from the 1940s to 1990s; they can be used as a potential resource for creating and improving articles on Kannada Wikipedia.

Niranjana (1924-1992) was the pseudonym of Kulkund Shivarao, a prominent Kannada writer of the 20th century and a leading figure in the Progressive Writers’ Movement in Kannada. His prolific output, across nearly five decades, included novels, short stories, plays, biographies, political commentary, and translations. He was a regular columnist in the Kannada newspapers and magazines. Among his achievements as an editor are Jnana Gangotri, a 7-volume encyclopedia for young people, and a 25-volume compilation of the world’s greatest short stories.

A total of 55 Kannada books by Niranjana are re-licensed. “This is the single largest and most comprehensive individual collection of a writer to be released under CC-BY-SA 4.0 in any of the Indian languages so far,” says Kannada Wikimedian Omshivaprakash. Kannada Wikimedians and CIS-A2K have organized a formal event to celebrate Creative Commons efforts to cultivate free and open knowledge online in Kannada; specifically, Kannada Wikisource. It is important to also acknowledge the great initiative shown by Niranjana’s daughter, Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana (also CIS-A2K Advisor), in getting these works released under CC-BY-SA 4.0 licensing.

Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana says, “[Kannada] Wikisource is an excellent free and open knowledge platform for books in Indian languages and I am happy that my father’s works can now be accessed by [all] Kannadigas across the world. Let these writings have innumerable readers. What more could any author want?”

She is determined to release more work under CC licensing, and says, “[I] will be more than glad to get as many Indian works as possible under a free license as this will ensure that a lot of knowledge produced over the past many decades in India can easily be made accessible to the next generation of seekers of knowledge, who are digital natives.”

“This is the the single largest and most comprehensive individual collection of a writer to be released under CC-BY-SA 4.0 in any of the Indian languages so far,” says Omshivaprakash.

“KannadaWikipediaWorkshop 010″ by Pavanaja, under CC-BY-SA-3.0

Tejas Jain, another Kannada Wikimedian, was quick to co-write a blog in Kannada about this content donation. Jain says, “this is a bold step…and will act as motivation for other Kannada writers to release more content under CC-BY-SA 4.0.” He hopes to see “Kannda Wikisource grow as the comprehensive single digital resource for free Kannada books” and address “the fear of loosing the rich print heritage of Kannada to time.”

Omshivaprakash was surprised to realize that there is no article on such a prominent Kannada writer like Niranjana on English Wikipedia.This led to a Facebook discussion, and User Tito Dutta responded swiftly, but needed help with verifiable resources. Omshivaprakash chipped in with resources and a page on Niranjana (needs your Wiki Love) has now been started on English Wikipedia. While this is not a big achievement, it is a simple example of how the (Indian) English Wikipedians could collaborate with Indic Wikimedians in creating India focused content on English Wikipeida and how social media could be used for off-wiki collaboration by Wikimedians. Incidentally Tito and Omshivaprakash became friends on FB during the WMF’s India Community Consultation 2014 which was held recently in Bangalore.

Tejas Jain “This is a bold step[...]and will act as motivation for other Kannada writers to release more content under CC-BY-SA 4.0″

“Tejas Jain” by Visdaviva , under CC-BY-SA-4.0

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/55-works-of-iconic-indian-writer-released-under-free-licence-to-benefit-wikisource