Centre for Internet and Society

8 Challenges In Growing Indian-Language Wikipedias

praskrishna — 2016-06-18T17:11:05Z

While speaking at BHASHA: Indian Languages Digital Festival, a day-long discourse at New Delhi on Indian languages and their state in new media, especially digital platforms, I touched upon Wikipedia in Indian languages. Most people, in fact, do not even know that Wikipedia exists in many Indian languages.

The article was first published in Huffington Post on March 19, 2016. This was cross-posted in Medianama titled as Multiple key factors preventing Indic Wikipedia growth on March 21, 2016.

I personally did not know about the Odia Wikipedia until 2011 when a friend told me about its existence. Back then the project was completely inactive. And then a couple of friends and I started contributing, and the project grew to what it is today. The site now has more than 300,000 visitors every month and it is the most-visited Odia language site on the internet. Other languages, I believe, could follow a similar trajectory on Wikipedia, but there are several challenges along the way.

Many people do not even know how to search for information online in their own language, typed in its script.

1. Ignorance of language communities

Many people do not even know how to search for information online in their own language, typed in its script. Some even share that because Google's home page does not have their script it means that their language does not exist on the internet. This ignorance perpetuates the gap.

2.Wikipedia's editor community

Wikipedia, as you all know, is written and edited by people like you and me who volunteer their efforts. Many people probably do not know or do not try to learn that they themselves can correct the mistakes and inaccuracies that exist in many Wikipedia articles and become editors. The Wikipedia editor communities for several Indian languages are really small. When these languages are spoken by millions of people, only a handful of editors contribute in editing the Wikipedia in these languages.

3.Language input in computers

A vast majority of people in this country do not know how to type in their own language. There is also little documentation for users to learn about language input. Even though many government-run schools in India are seeing more computers and internet, native language input is not widely. However, there is a lot of free software for language input and the challenges of typing in Indian language that existed a few years back have almost gone. You just have to look for the right tools.

4. Language input in mobile devices

With over 1 billion people with mobile phones, the 15% internet penetration rate will soon grow. This in turn will help a lot many Indians to get access to the internet. If these people are not educated about native language input then they will be unnecessarily constricted by the English-centric internet. Many Indians that have smartphones need inbuilt input methods to be able to contribute in their own language Wikipedia.

Many Indians that have smartphones need inbuilt input methods to be able to contribute in their own language Wikipedia.

5. Low availability of Indian-language content on the Internet

Lack of native language content on the Internet bars many from accessing knowledge. As per the Internet and Mobile Association of India survey conducted in 2012, over 6% of the population is deterred from going online because of lack of content in their languages. Take the example of my state. When the Kerala government's official tourism portal is available in Odia and other Indian languages, the Odisha government's tourism portal has no information in Odia language today. Our languages are neglected in our own states.

6. Mismatch of conventional and new media

Many conventional media houses still use non-standard variants of ASCII/ISCII script encoding systems instead of adopting the Unicode standard. Unicode being a global standard and having the advantage of unifying the world has been available for Indian languages for about 25 years now. But many of our traditional media have failed to adopt this. Many popular Indian-language newspapers are yet to become available in Unicode.

7. Lack of open access

Most of the information produced on the internet in general and by the government, in particular, is copyrighted. The paywalled garden of copyright restrictions keeps the information closed and stops people from sharing and learning more. On the contrary, Wikipedia is available under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license which allows anyone to make use of the content and even distribute commercial copies of it. The idea of opening up information for the masses in a free license could make the information reach millions of people.

Many conventional media houses still use non-standard variants of ASCII/ISCII script encoding systems instead of adopting the Unicode standard.

8. People with disabilities

Many people cannot read, speak and write. India has over 60 million people with hearing impairment. There is a need for a good quality text-to-speech and speech-to-text engine for people with physical disabilities. Also, these software products have to be free so that common people who cannot afford to buy expensive proprietary software like JAWS can contribute to Wikipedia in their language. Many text-to-speech engines that are available today for Indian languages sound so mechanical that it is tough for common speakers to use them.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/huffington-post-march-19-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-in-growing-indian-language-wikipedias

8th IBA International Conference

praskrishna — 2016-04-04T15:32:54Z

The 8th IBA International Conference was organized by Indus Business Academy in Bengaluru from March 24 to 26, 2016. The theme of the conference was Taking India to Greater Heights. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja gave a talk on Democratizing of Knowledge Access- Case of Regional Language Wikipedia.

India’s journey since independence has been eventful. The long struggle against colonialism left Indian private capital in a poor state. The Government intervention was essential and hence there was a need for the public sector. Experiments with socialism and national planning turned out to be a mixed success. The 1991 crisis propelled India towards a market driven economy. Politically, its unpopularity reverted India to a state of socialism once again. The 2014 elections have renewed interest in a market driven economy.

Indian achievements have been sizable. The successful Mars Mission, Agni mission, Green Revolution, White Revolution, IT industry growth all demonstrate the positive achievements that India has made in the last 60 odd years. In recent months, across the world, there is a renewed interest in India.

Yet we can hardly be complacent. The lowering oil prices, conflict in the Middle East, slowdown in Chinese economy, fears of Russian expansionism, decline in European growth, concerns about the state of US economy and rising trends in terrorism have created turbulence across different parts of the world. India cannot be immune to these changes.

India’s response can manifest itself in multiple forms. There could be rapid expansion of defence procurement and preparedness both on external as well as internal fronts. It could involve building alliances with countries aligned strategically to Indi’s interests.

It could manifest through the rapid growth of manufacturing sector. The services sector could move higher in the value chain. The spillovers generated by the establishment of industries could spawn a major entrepreneurial ecosystem.

With the UN approval to celebrate International Yoga Day, India’s soft spiritual power is also rising in the horizon. Indian philosophical and ideological thoughts are getting renewed interest across different parts of the world. Indian talent, youth demographics etc. have literally placed India on the centre stage. No doubt, exciting times are ahead.

This Conference aims to deliberate on such changes and suggest ways and means to leverage this growing interest in India and identify the new perspectives emerging in Business, Management, Leadership and Consciousness as a result of these changes.

The schedule for 8th IBA International Conference can be accessed here. More info on the event here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/8th-iba-international-conference

Otago Southland are the Coolest

praskrishna — 2015-12-15T08:06:13Z

LIANZA Otago Southland are delighted to announce our speaker, Subhashish Panigrahi (@subhapa), from the Centre for Internet and Society’s Access To Knowledge programme, will be tuning in via the interwebs from India to share his vision of Guerilla GLAM, describe case studies of these initiatives in India, as well as touching on the creation of documentaries, learning resources and promotional material from acquired content.

This was published by Library and Information Association of New Zealand. The submission was accepted for Wikimania 2015.

Subha believes “this presentation will be useful for those who can mobilize a small team of volunteers equipped with digital camera, access to local cultural institutions and some level of expertise of curating data.”

Read more about Subha and the abstract for his talk here https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/openotago/2015/10/06/how-to-do-guerilla-glam/

Please share this event with your other GLAM networks!

Event Details

How to do Guerilla GLAM / Subhashish Panigrahi @subhapa <https://twitter.com/subhapa>Tuesday 20 October, 3.00pm NZDT In Dunedin: Conference Room 3, 1st floor University of Otago Central Library, 65 Albany Street, Dunedin<http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/locations/#central>

Online: via Adobe Connect<https://connect.otago.ac.nz/sarah/?launcher=false>. [No software required, just click the link and sign in as a guest. Please ensure you are logged in before 3pm and have read the participant notes on screen] The session will be recorded.

Pre - presentation preparation - entirely optional

If you’re planning on attending Subhashish’s webinar and want to know more about using Wikipedia in your GLAM, you might be interested in watching this first.

This blog post from Alex Stinson<https://twitter.com/sadads> from the Wikimedia Foundation<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home>, entitled "Librarian as Teacher: ways to use Wikipedia"<http://interlibnet.org/2015/10/07/librarian-as-teacher-ways-to-use-wikipedia/>, specifically regarding her discussion about GLAM-wiki
A recording of the September webcast by Phoebe Ayers<http://if%20you%E2%80%99re%20planning%20on%20attending%20subhashish%E2%80%99s%20webinar%20and%20want%20to%20know%20more%20about%20using%20wikipedia%20in%20your%20glam%2C%20you%20might%20be%20interested%20in%20watching%20this%20first./>, a librarian at MIT and former member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees about the basics of editing Wikipedia especially for Librarians.https://join.onstreammedia.com/play/sparc/7087-edit-a-thon-training-09.30

How to do Guerilla GLAM

Open Access Week (19-25 October) is fast approaching and we have a number of events in store – one I’m keen to tell you about now is a webinar we have planned entitled, “How to do Guerilla GLAM”.

Our speaker, Subhashish Panigrahi @subhapa, from the Centre for Internet and Society’s Access To Knowledge programme will be tuning in via the interwebs from India to share his vision, case studies of Guerilla GLAM initiatives in India, as well as touching on the creation of documentaries, learning resources and promotional material from acquired content.

GLAM = Galleries Libraries Archives and Museums
Guerilla Glam = “getting the most out from cultural institutions where collaboration and long term engagement has high cost and time implications.”

Details of the event

How to do Guerilla GLAM / Subhashish Panigrahi @subhapa
Tuesday 20 October, 3.00pm NZDT
Conference Room 3, 1st floor University of Otago Central Library, 65 Albany Street, Dunedin
Or join us via Adobe Connect. [Please ensure you are logged in before 3pm and have read the participant notes on screen]

We will be recording this session and Subha has given permission for us to make the recording and his slides available here on the blog. We encourage participants to ask questions via the chat facility in Adobe Connect, or to tweet questions using #OAWeek #AOASG.

Abstract
Building partnership with galleries, libraries, archives and museums (collectively known as GLAM institutions) is a great way of funneling the cultural content acquisition and bringing open access to such valuable data. But it is not that easy given the complications each country has in terms of formal agreement, organizational framework, etc. This presentation will detail about the learning curve of institutional partnership building, leveraging personal contacts in small scale GLAM projects and bringing in several indie-projects to cut implication cost, and execute low-cost models.

During this presentation I will present two case studies of contrasting nature: India’s first GLAM project at the National Crafts Museum, New Delhi, and various small-scale collaborative projects. Where the first one would have learning from the six months long project, the second one will draw inspirations from many initiatives that have really no cost or low cost implication and less implementation time involved.

At times, institutional collaborations become liabilities and labor intensive with low Return on Investment. Training staff and implementing GLAM projects are not always easy and retaining contributors is a challenge. Alternatively Guerrilla GLAM could be thought of when having a Wikimedian-in-Residence is not feasible. This presentation will be useful for those who can mobilize a small team of volunteers equipped with digital camera, access to local cultural institutions and some level of expertise of curating data.

Making documentaries and building narratives based on acquired content to creating learning resources and promotional materials will be another aspect of this presentation. Building partnerships with many federal or private institutions also needs sustained long-term engagement and volunteer time is not always enough to devote for a long term GLAM project. This presentation will detail about going the guerrilla way to acquire data from GLAM institutions. This will involve low cost models, leveraging various factors, and getting the most out from cultural institutions where collaboration and long term engagement has high cost and time implications.

About Subhashish

Subhashish Panigrahi is an India based educator, author, blogger, Wikimedian, language activist and free knowledge evangelist. Earlier with Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program and currently at the Centre for Internet and Society‘s Access To Knowledge program, Panigrahi works on building partnership with universities, language research and GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive and Museums) organizations for bringing more scholarly and encyclopedic content under free licenses, designing outreach programs for South Asian language Wikipedia/Wikimedia projects and communities.

The other hats he wears are as the Editor for Global Voices Odia, Community Moderator of Opensource.com, and Ambassador for India in OpenGLAM Local, Juror of 2015 American Alliance of Museum Muse Awards, and member of OER 2016 Standing Committee. He has presented in various Indian and international conferences on the free knowledge, GLAM and Open Access movement. Panigrahi has authored of “Rising Voices: Indigenous language Digital Activism” in Digital Activism in Asia Reader and was winner of the 2015 Opensource.com People’s Choice Award. Subhashish is available on Twitter at @subhapa and over email at psubhashishatgmaildotcom for more discussion.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/guerilla-glam

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରର ଆବଶ୍ୟକତା ସମାଜ

praskrishna — 2015-12-15T08:11:10Z

Odia Wikisource, a sister project of Odia Wikipedia and a free online Odia-language library is celebrating its first anniversary in Bhubaneswar tomorrow. Available online at or.wikisource.org, the project finally went live in last year on October 20 after being incubated over two years.

In a nutshell, it not just provides free and open access to readers to access text that are out of copyright or available under free license, but also allows them to contribute in either digitizing copyright-free text or correcting mistakes made by others. All the contributors to the project are volunteers and are fondly called "uikiali" in Odia. These volunteers follow certain guidelines to check through the content digitized by others to make sure there is no copyrighted text posing copyright violation, correct typos and other grammatical mistakes and incorrect attribution. Authors and copyright holders are also encouraged to provide permission in re-licensing their work under free licenses like CC-BY/CC-by-SA licenses so that some of their content becomes available online and fill the large gap of the Odia books online to some extent. "Last year, the Wikimedia community in Odisha did a remarkable job in bringing as many as 141 books from multiple authors relicensed under the above mentioned licenses" said the Centre for Internet and Society's Programme Officer Subhashish Panigrahi. "Where we, as an institution, could play a role in reaching out to many authors and convincing them for a small contribution to the society" added Panigrahi.

Click to read the full story published by Full Odisha on October 25, 2015.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/b13b21b3cb3fb06-b09b07b15b3fb2ab3eb20b3eb17b3eb30b30-b06b2cb36b4db5fb15b24b3e-b38b2eb3eb1c

Odia Wikisource Celebrates 1st Anniversary this 25th October

praskrishna — 2015-12-15T08:10:22Z

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର ୧ମ ଜନ୍ମତିିଥି (Odia Wikisource’s 1st anniversary):

ଆଗାମୀ ୨୫ ତାରିଖ ଦିନ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପାଠାଗାର “ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର”କୁ ବର୍ଷେ ପୂରିବାକୁ ଯାଉଛି । ଏଥି ନିମନ୍ତେ ଆମେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ପାଳୁଛୁ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରର ପ୍ରଥମ ଜନ୍ମତିଥି । ଆଉ ଏ ଉତ୍ସବରେ ଯୋଗଦେବା ଲାଗି ଆପଣଙ୍କୁ ରହିଲା ବିନୀତ ମାଗୁଣି, ଆସିବେ ନିଶ୍ଚେ । ଅଧିକ କିଛି ଜାଣିବାକୁ ଚାହିଁଲେ ଆମ ସହ odiawiki@gmail ରେ ମେଲ ଯୋଗେ ଯୋଗାଯୋଗ କରିପାରିବେ । ଧନ୍ୟବାଦ!

This was published by Bhubaneswar (Buzz) on October 24, 2015.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/bhubaneswarbuzz-odia-wikisource-celebrates-1st-anniversary-this-25th-october

Odia Wikisource to Hold 1st Anniversary

praskrishna — 2015-12-15T08:09:54Z

Odia Wikisource, a sister project of Odia Wikipedia and a free online Odia-language library will celebrate its first anniversary at the Indian Institute of Management of Agricultural Extension (IMAGE), Siripur here on Monday.

Available online at or.wikisource.org, it not just provides readers to free and open access to text that are out of copyright or available under free license, but also allows them to contribute in either digitizing copyright-free text or correcting mistakes made by others.

"Last year the Wikimedia community in Odisha did a remarkable job in bringing as many as 141 books by multiple authors relicensed under free licenses like CC-BY/CC-SA", said Centre for Internet and Society's Programme Officer Subhashish Panigrahi.

Odia Wikisource administrator Mrutyunjaya Kar has invited everyone to join the event.

This was published by Pioneer on October 26, 2015.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/pioneer-october-26-2015-odia-wikisource-to-hold-1st-anniversary

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରର ଆବଶ୍ୟକତା (Need for an Odia-language Wikisource)

subha — 2015-12-15T08:21:59Z

This post is about the Odia library movement and the conventional archival, touch-bases on the problems with dissemination of knowledge with more public domain books that are entering into the "rare and perishing" category, a comparative study of the conventional and new medium--like Wikisource--for book archival. It sheds light on how Wikisource functions as a collaborative platform in engaging with readers for digitizing books that are yet to be digitized.

The op-ed was published in Samaja on October 25, 2015.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samaja-october-25-2015-subhashish-panigrahi-need-for-an-odia-language-wikisource

Mini Train the Trainer 2018

subodh — 2018-03-17T08:51:26Z

A mini train the trainer 2018 (Mini TTT 2018) program was organized by CIS-A2K at Jnana Prabodhini & Bhave High School, Sadashiv Peth, Pune on 24 and 25 February 2018. Total 19 active editors from Marathi community participated. Experienced editors from community were also involved in the program.

The objective of the workshop was to develop personality and leadership skills, boost the outreach activities, build cohesiveness and strong relations within the editors, assess the needs of the community and projects, and evolve progress plan.

The participants profiles and the expected outcomes were decided on the nature of persons. They were divided into following categories and inputs were designed accordingly -

TTT Alumni - 4 people in the group. Interest areas are - History, Culture, Indology, Literature, Gender, Sociology, Health, Arts & Culture, Rural development issues, Wikisource, Sports, People.

They are expected to work as mentors for new editors; Wikipedia pillars; Copyright issues; Should be able to do analysis and evolve improvement measures; Integration of Wikimedia Projects; Work for new developments in Wiki projects; Global engagement programs

Facilitators at Institutional & organisational Partners - 12 people in the group. From - Dayanand College, Solapur ; Soni College, Solapur ; T.C.College, Baramati; BAM University, Aurangabad; Vigyan Ashram, Pabal; Jeevan Jyoti Women Emp. Centre, Velhe; Jnana Prabodhini Women Emp.Department ; Jnana Prabodhini Research Centre, Pune ; Wikisource Internship Program at Garware college, Pune

They are expected to learn advance skills, tools & gadgets for good editing; Wikipedia pillars; Copyright issues; To conduct workshops for student community; Design internships and academic assignments for WEP; To develop thematic groups; Quality improvement; Tracking process and progress using outreach dashboard

Independent new active editors - 4 people in the group. Interest areas are - Language, Biographies,Science, Technology, Development issues, Drama, Films, Music, Finance, Commerce, Tourism, Commons

They are Working on category-wise content generation; Wikipedia pillars; Copyright issues; Building communities of interest; reference tools

Topics covered

Advanced tools and gadgets
Quality issues in Wikipedia
Event planning and reporting
Commons - Copyright, categories
Wikidata
Wikisource - Copyright, OTRS, OCR
Outreach dashboard
Global campaigns

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mini-train-the-trainer-2018

Orientation programme, Wikipedia workshop & Action Plan meeting in PAH Solapur University

subodh — 2019-08-05T15:21:16Z

CIS-A2K representatives visited PAH Solapur University, Solapur (PAHSUS) to finalise the action plan and MoU for the year 2019-20.

The collaborative project was launched with orientation programme and Wikipedia workshop for the selected students and faculty on 18 & 19 July 2019. The detailed discussions with Vice Chancellor, Registrar, Head of the departments, faculty and administrative staff were held to finalise the terms of collaboration, operational framework and action plan for the academic year. The deliberations are given in the following sections.

Collaborative open knowledge creation by PAHSUS and CIS-A2K

The MoU was done because CIS and PAHSUS have found common cause in free and open knowledge generation and dissemination. This MoU stipulates the scope of collaboration between these two entities and terms and conditions of conducting the collaborative activities.

Terms of Collaboration

To promote content generation in Indian language, especially Marathi Wikimedia projects (projects such as Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata etc. https://www.wikimedia.org/) among the institutions under University affiliation.
To organise awareness programs and training workshops to achieve this. For consistent and dedicated efforts, mechanism of subject experts and coordinators will be developed.
To integrate the academic assignments, projects etc. with knowledge building in Wikimedia projects e.g. Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons.
To facilitate content donation in the form of published thesis, University publications to free library - Wikisource. To write well referenced articles based on these research work.
To develop platform in University for outreach programs on Digital knowledge, Language & technologies, FOSS, Unicode etc. To involve other stakeholders in knowledge business like publishers, writers, printers, designers in these programs.
To take lead in accommodating open knowledge concepts, locally relevant content generation practices while designing the courses.

Operational Framework

A core team shall be constituted by representatives of this MoU for realization of the objectives of this MoU.
The core team shall prepare an action plan with specific goals for achieving the objectives of the proposal and the MoU. They shall take into consideration the academic, commercial and legal aspects of this co-operation. The action plan or work plan may be modified or improved during the academic year according to the needs-assessment of the students, and the core team’s analysis.
The proposed action plan shall be reviewed and approved by representatives of both parties.
The core team shall be supported and authorised by the University Administration to take all necessary actions to implement the action plan in an effective, speedy and dynamic manner.
Program expense sharing shall be decided on a case to case basis by the core team.

Some highlights of proposed action plan

Each department of PAHSUS will facilitate creation of 10 Wikipedia articles related to their course by the students. This activity will be taken up in first semester. The articles will be created on user sandbox or on Google Docs. After review, the articles will be moved to Wikipedia mainspace.
The projects on museum, library and archives will be taken up in the second semester by the groups of students. The photos and other media will be uploaded on Wikimedia Commons and other sister projects after analysing encyclopedic quality of these content.
PAHSUS will issue a circular for selected affiliated colleges in Maharashtra to participate actively in free knowledge creation and the Wikimedia movement. The technical support will be arranged by both the parties.
The digitisation of copyright free books in the library will be taken up under ‘Earn & Learn Scheme’. The books will be uploaded in free library - Wikisource.

Orientation Programme

The orientation programme on Wikimedia projects was conducted on 18 July for faculty and students from 4 departments. The objective was to give perspective of content generation in Wiki projects along with academics. Marathi Wikipedian Arvind Bagale shared his Wiki experiences in this session. Around 50 participants attended this session.

Wikipedia Workshop

The Wikipedia workshop for selected students of 3 departments and faculty was organised on 19 July 2019 in the Mass Communication department. Total 15 participants actively contributed to Wikipedia & Commons. Marathi Wikipedian Arvind Bagale facilitated the training process.

Media Coverage

News in Lokmat Newspaper

See the report on Wikipedia page

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-july-19-orientation-programme-wikipedia-workshop-and-action-plan-meeting-in-pah-solapur-university

Wikimedia Workshop on Rivers under Project Jalbodh

subodh — 2019-08-05T15:28:41Z

The Indian National Trust for Art & Heritage Pune Chapter is working with various organisations to preserve the natural heritage places like rivers in Pune district of Maharashtra, India. After the presentation of 'Project Jalbodh' by CIS-A2K in River Dialogue organised by INTACH in April 2018, several organisations shown keen interest in collaboration.

Open knowledge creation workshops were organised at four places by different organisations working on river issues. To sustain these efforts and mobilise the larger community to build knowledge on rivers, INTACH has decided to collaborate with CIS-A2K to develop long-term plan. This was the first workshop to develop structure of the project, decide the stakeholders and follow-up action plan for the future. The two day workshop was conducted on 29 & 30 July at INTACH office in Pune. Total 20 participants from seven organisations actively contributed to Wikimedia projects.

Background

As the water crisis and state of rivers is worsening day by day, the citizen's initiatives are taking more efforts to spread knowledge about it. Centre for Internet & Society representative actively participated in the River Dialogue organised by INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) and SANDRP (South Asian Network of Dams, Rivers and People) on 20–21 April 2018 to introduce the potential of Wikimedia projects to organisations working across Maharashtra state. After this orientation, a follow-up plan is prepared with Prof. Madhav Gadgil in which various groups have expressed their readiness to start content building on water & rivers. Jeevit Nadi organisation took first initiative on 28 May 2018 to train team of activists in open knowledge and Wikimedia Projects. Total 15 activists and researchers from Jeevit Nadi, EcoUniv, Jal Biradari (Tarun Bharat Sangh), Ecological Society, Sagarmitra organisations participated in this workshop.

In the second iteration on 25 July 2018, five participants presented their work, the database and the resources with them. These include photographs, videos, training material and data collected on site. They also worked on category tree and structure of article on river. The media available in the repository were sorted and analysed for uploading. This team has started preparing the database of local issues, maps of rivers and heritage places on the banks for uploading in respective categories.

The third iteration for building content on rivers in Sangli district was organised on 7 December 2018 by Jal Biradari & Tarun Bharat Sangh organisation. In this one day workshop, 11 activists working in Agrani river basin participated. They were trained in basics of Wikipedia editing and uploading on Commons. They worked on category tree of Agrani river basin and structure of articles on water related structures.

The fourth national level iteration was conducted between 22–25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh, Bhikampura, Alwar district, Rajasthan for activists of Jal Jan Jodo Abhiyan from eight states. The 30 participants were trained in this four day workshop. They started contributing in various languages.

In collaboration with CIS-A2K, INTACH Pune Chapter has taken initiative to organise two day workshop to build knowledge on rivers in Pune district with various organisations.

Objectives

Many organisations and communities are working for more than 10 years in water sector in an organised way. They have built cumulative knowledge through action and research with an objective to disseminate it to the masses. Hence the 'Project Jalbodh' is being evolved to integrate this approach with the Wikimedia projects for mutually beneficial impact.Knowledge is to be presented in different forms, aspects and in appealing way. The interests and attention of the seeker should be taken into account. Therefore in many areas, the text is to be blended with media, data, graphs, maps etc to give holistic sense of knowledge. The Wikimedia projects can be explored to get this integration.

Facilitators

Supriya Goturkar-Mahabaleshwarkar, Co-convenor & Coordinator, INTACH PUNE CHAPTER
Marathi Wikimedians - Aaryaa Joshi, Kalyani Kotkar

Event Details

Date : 29 & 30 July 2019
Time : 9.30 am to 5.30 pm
Place : Pune, Maharashtra, India
Venue : INTACH Pune office, Kirloskar compound, Erandwane, Pune
Participants :20

Day 1

Day one started with introductions by members of organisations - Jeevitnadi (Living River Foundation), Sajag Nagrik Manch, Parisar, Centre for Environment & Education, Jnana Prabodhini, Ecological Society and INTACH. Then workshop conveners Supriya & Subodh explained the background and objectives of the workshop. The concept of 'Project Jalbodh' was elaborated. The keynote address was given by Prof. Madhav Gadgil. He delivered upon the genesis of knowledge in human evolution and need of open knowledge for healthy development of the society. He also discussed the integration of citizen science and Wikimedia projects. The brainstorming on mobilisation of community was done after this address with valuable inputs from Prof. Gadgil.

Introduction to major Wikimedia projects was given in next session. The examples of river and water related content were taken for understanding the context. The agenda for the workshop and the details were finalised through discussion on needs. The participants then started with opening accounts on Wiki followed by basic editing skills and rules of Wikipedia & Commons. They searched for various articles, infoboxes, categories and media related to river available in Wiki projects. The extensive interaction on status of the existing content happened to arrive at gap finding and listing the same. From this thought process, the importance of developing structure for river articles was realised. Then various members with their vast experience collaboratively evolved the structure of article on river in Marathi Wikipedia. According to local context, relevant sections and sub-sections were designed. Separate project page defining this structure was created on Marathi Wikipedia under the Wiki Project Jalbodh. This was the crucial activity for the project. After this session, the organisations conducted the analysis of the content developed by them which is to be contributed in Wikimedia projects. The planning of next day was done in the last session.

Day 2

On the second day, the activity started with uploading images on Commons. Along with this, the encyclopedic content available with the organisations was discussed for giving references. The articles were created in the sandboxes by groups on similar themes. The content was created as per the manual of style. Various skills like advanced search options for finding online references, archiving of url's on Wayback machine of Internet Archive were also acquired by the participants. The relevant media repositories were also explored. The category tree for the rivers was also designed. The detailed discussions on building databases, maps and media with community involvement was conducted. In the final session, the roadmap for future activities was prepared. Three model articles on rivers - Mula, Mutha & Pavana - will be completed in the next two months. Follow-up workshops will be conducted bi-monthly which will be hosted by different organisations. The discussion on campaign - Wiki Loves River - developed enthusiasm among the members. The meeting on this theme will be organised in September to plan the campaign.

Read the full report on Wikipedia page

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-july-30-2019-wikimedia-workshop-on-rivers-under-project-jalbodh

Re-licensing Sessions with Authors and Organisations

subodh — 2019-08-05T16:12:42Z

In collaboration with Marathi community, CIS-A2K is getting connected with various authors and organisations willing to re-license their content under CC-By-SA. A2K is facilitating the OTRS process Commons for re-licensing as well as digitisation of the content. The team of trained Wikimedians at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal, District Pune has taken the responsibility of digitising the books and further uploads in Wikimedia projects.

See the information posted on Wikipedia page here

In July, CIS-A2K facilitated the OTRS process of two organisations. Jnana Prabodhini and Saptahik Vivek Hindustan Prakashan Sanstha have released their 6 books and 8 volumes of encyclopedias respectively in CC-By-SA. As the organisations have solely published these books by sponsoring the writers, editors and designers, the authorised signatory of the organisation has to complete the OTRS process. The simple 'How to do' step by step manual was developed to facilitate this process. This process will be replicated by other organisations in near future. These books are valuable & reliable references in Marathi literature.

CIS-A2K conducted three sessions with authors also. In the field of rural development in Maharashtra, thoughts of Late S. G. Majgaonkar are highly regarded. His son Dhananjay Majgaonkar who holds the copyright for his books, completed the OTRS process and released 3 books in CC-By-SA. The books are now on Commons as well as Wikisource project.

Content donation sessions were conducted with Ila Dalwai, daughter of social reformer & writer Late Hamid Dalwai, thinker & writer Hari Narake and grand daughter of Marathi thinker & writer Late Narahar Kurundkar. These persons handed over the books to CIS-A2K for further process. The digitisation of the books has been started at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal.

The links of books uploaded on Commons are given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-july-31-2019-re-licensing-sessions-with-authors-and-organisations

Rejuvenating India’s Rivers the Wiki Way

subodh — 2019-04-01T13:18:33Z

Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an organisation working on rejuvenation of rivers in India, has began documentation of rivers on Wiki, especially to draw attention to and mitigate the crisis of toxic deposits facing more than 40 rivers in India. The work was started by Jal Biradari, TBS’s Maharashtra based group, in Sangli district with the help of the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team of CIS. Here is the report from the first pilot workshop conducted by CIS-A2K during 22-25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh Ashram, in Alwar, Rajasthan.

Events details on Wikimedia meta page

The Workshop

As per a Government of India report 42 rivers in India are polluted with toxic heavy metal deposits in them. To mitigate this crisis Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an organization working on rejuvenation of rivers in India began documentation of rivers on Wiki. The work was started by TBS’s Maharashtra based group Jal Biradari in Sangli district with the help of the Access to Knowledge team of CIS (CIS-A2K).

Realizing the potential of the project TBS decided to integrate this as training module in their capacity building workshops conducted at Bhikampura in Rajasthan. The first pilot workshop was conducted by CIS-A2K during 22-25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh Ashram, Bhikampura, Alwar in Rajasthan for 34 participants from eight states of India. Dr. Rajendra Singh, Maulik Sisodiya and Subodh Kulkarni, CIS-A2K were the facilitators. The objectives behind organizing the workshop was to build an open knowledge resource on water related issues in all Indian languages, document the river basins of India, train volunteers working in the sector to work in Wikimedia projects, open street mapping exercises and photo walks along the river and post free content on Commons and Wikisource projects.

The documentation structure for river basin was decided through participatory process. The participants were divided into 6 groups for working on 6 river basins of Arvari district. The resource material available with TBS in the form of maps, reports, training booklets was used to prepare the schematic maps of each river basin. The water bodies such as ponds, manmade structures like dams were also listed.


Activists during the workshop conducted by TBS in Alwar, Rajasthan in December 2018

After this pre-work, the training on Wikipedia editing started. The participants worked in sandboxes first on their articles. The manual of style, giving offline and online references and categorisation were discussed and practiced on sandboxes. The Commons session started with elaborate discussion on copyrights, licenses and encyclopedic content. The images were uploaded on Commons and used in the articles. The articles in the sandboxes were presented by each working group. Taking into consideration various suggestions, appropriate modifications were done. The finished new articles and the additional content into existing articles were then moved in the main namespace of respective language Wikipedia. TBS has decided to re-license 30 books and training material on river in CC-BY-SA. Participants who attended the workshop have started contributing in various languages.

Participants' Feedback

“Rivers are essential for existence of life in land. Keeping its sanctity and health is very important. The Wikimedia workshop gave an insight on river pollution issues and the importance of reviving them. As Wikipedia is an open platform it can create a larger impact by reaching out to the society.” - Mrityunjay1010

“The wiki-workshop on "Rivers on Wiki" has been my maiden experience in the context of generalizing the knowledge for common good. The workshop gave me a lens to see the usage of Wikipedia in regional languages as a medium for environmental consciousness building as well as conservation. Wikipedia as a means for social audit was also another enriching experience in that workshop.” - Simantabharati

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-rejuvenating-indias-rivers-the-wiki-way

Indic Wikisource Speak: Sushant Savla

jayanta — 2019-04-17T20:09:09Z

Future is bright -- Sushant Savla (User:Sushant_savla) from Gujarati Wikisource community, share his experience & journey.

CIS : Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?Dr Hrishikesh Sen at IWCC2018

Sushant Savla: Sushant Savla (User Name: Sushant_savla) I joined Wikimedia Movement in around 2008. I am associated with Gujarati Wikipedia, Gujarati WikiSource, Graphics Lab on Commons (Illustrations SVG)

CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute to your language Wikisource?

Sushant Savla: We take up a book and work on it till it completes. AS we have limited members and all are having good understanding all work on same project and complete it to the level of Validation. A book is chosen, Scanning is done, If not copyright free OTRS is executed, Index is prepared, OCR is done, Page number allotment is kept on Discussion page of Index page and as per the availability of time the Users take up pages and proofreading starts, Experienced Librarians or Manager of the project carries out validation simultaneously. While this work goes on other team parallely stats scanning other book for next project.

CIS : How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?

Sushant Savla: In the small commmunity of ours all knows about wikisource. However among common people awareness is low.

CIS : We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?

Sushant Savla: Major challenge now is technical support, in conversion of PDF, mobi etc.The Second challenge is Outreach. The third challenge is lack of time in arranging Contest etc. More technical , automated result giving systems are required to hold competition on grand level. The delay in getting OTRS approved is another challenges. Till the time OTRS is approved the enthusiasm of a doner writter fuses off. Speedy process is required. OTRS approver should have time limit.

CIS : What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.

Sushant Savla: As such nothing. But a letter of appreciation sort of thing to author would help. we can print that in certificate format and give them.

CIS : How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?

Sushant Savla: Future is bright, Person Goals : more books , more material, More contributors, Keeping them live on project. Need to motivate users by some interesting events.In wikiconference please increase the number of participants.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-sushant-savla

Indic Wikisource speak : Shubha

jayanta — 2019-04-25T15:30:49Z

As the texts are in the searchable format, many students and research scholars can make use of Wikisource. As we all know, Samskrit is a treasure trove of knowledge. There are many such books that can be uploaded and utilised by the public. For this, we are putting effort to upload more and more books and make our Wikisource a rich one. -- Shubha, a Samskrit Wiki-librarian share her experience

CIS :Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?

Shubha: I am Shubha (user id – same) working as a coordinator for wiki wing of Samskrita Bharati, Bengaluru. I joined Wikimedia movement in July 2011. For the first five years we concentrated on Wikipedia project. Now we are concentrating on wikisource. I personally have worked on sa Wikipedia, sa wikiquote and sa wikisource.

CIS: What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute on your language Wikisource?

Shubha: There are many old books in Samskrit language. We search for pdf files of old books and upload them in wikicommons. Then we do editing on Wikisource. We are having the facility of scanning the books also. Currently, keeping the student group in our mind, we have collected the Samskrit syllabus in various universities of Karnataka. Made a list of the curriculum related books , collected and uploaded the pdf files so that it will be useful for the students.

CIS:How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?

Shubha: Awareness about Samskrit Wikisource can be termed as less. We need to reach the people and create awareness in a big way. So keeping this in mind, we have conducted exhibitions in various Samskrit conventions as well as annual day celebrations in universities. These were useful for the public as well as students. We were successful in conducting a couple of workshops in colleges also.

Q:What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.

Shubha : OCR :- There are many books in Samskrit like dictionaries, Puranas where the text is divided into 2 columns. OCR tool available in the Wikisource cannot perform this task in the correct manner. So updated ocr tool will be a big boon for us. This will help us to upload more such books.

Technical support :- Samskrit wikisourcers are not having enough exposure to technical knowledge. Wikisource tools and gadgets are growing day by day. If we get systematic assistance in this regard, we will be able to increase our efficiency.

Creating awareness :- Awareness can be created in 3 levels. Level one will be an introductory workshop that can be conducted in various educational institutions about the use of wiki. Second level will be to approach student group and teach them the editing the wikisource. Third level will be to contact the Samskrit teachers or lecturers for the proof reading task as it requires Samskrit knowledge.

CIS: How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?

Shubha: As the texts are in the searchable format, many students and research scholars can make use of Wikisource. As we all know, Samskrit is a treasure trove of knowledge. There are many such books that can be uploaded and utilised by the public. For this, we are putting effort to upload more and more books and make our Wikisource a rich one.

CIS: Please share one remarkable work which is available at your domain and you had contributed.

Shubha : Recently, we have uploaded a book named Alankaramanihara, which deals with the figure of speech. This book was published long back and is not in the print now. We happened to come across this and were successful in uploading all the 4 volumes of this book. Now this is available in the Wikisource in the transcluded form.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-shubha

Indic Wikisource speak : Ajit Kumar Tiwari

jayanta — 2019-04-17T20:07:20Z

"Wikisource is going to be as important as Wikipedia because it addresses the issues of citations and references inherently. I will make it as my key pedagogical tool to educate my students and make them a part of this great movement." - Hindi Wiki-librarian Ajit Kumar Tiwari ( अजीत कुमार तिवारी ) share his experience about Hindi Wikisource which approved by Language committee of Wikimedia Foundation Inc , US for separate domain on February 2019.

CIS :Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?

Ajit : I joined the movement in 2012 as a Wikipedian. I am involved in Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wikidata.

CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute on your language Wikisource?

Ajit : I usually upload a book and try to indulge as many editors as possible and distribute the works like header & footer and proofreading to concerned editors.

CIS :How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?

Ajit : Its still in an early state but awareness is spreading rapidly since November 2018. I hope till the end of this year, wikisource will be the next best project in Hindi after Wikipedia.

CIS :We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?

Ajit : Better knowledge and understandings of the copyright acts, proofreading tools and lowering technical gap in the community.

CIS :What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to aurtors or publishers.

Ajit : Copyright is the key concern, however making authors and publishers understand the ethos of Wikisource or free knowledge access is even bigger challenge.

CIS : How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?

Ajit : Wikisource is going to be as important as Wikipedia because it addresses the issues of citations and references inherently. I will make it as my key pedagogical tool to educate my students and make them a part of this great movement.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-ajit-kumar-tiwari