The Centre for Internet and Society
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ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ବିଶାଳତମ ଅନଲାଇନ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ଗଢ଼ିବାର ଅଭିଯାନ
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-odia-june-3-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-journey-of-odia-wikipedia-in-last-14-years
<b>ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆକୁ ଆଜି ୧୪ ବର୍ଷ ପୂରିଲା । ଏ ଅବସରରେ ଏହି ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଓ ତାକୁ ଗଢୁଥିବା ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ବାବଦରେ ଏକ ଆଲେଖ ।</b>
<p>This article. that details about the journey of the Odia Wikipedia in the last 14 years appeared in <a class="external-link" href="http://odia.yourstory.com/read/9ce83817a8/-">YourStory Odia</a> on on June 3.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">ଜଣାଶୁଣା ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି, ବିଷୟ, ଘଟଣା, ସ୍ଥାନ ଆଦି ବିଷୟରେ ସଂକ୍ଷେପରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ବା ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷର ପରିକଳ୍ପନା । ତାକୁ ପୁଣି ଇଣ ୍ଟରନେଟର ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ୨୦୦୧ରେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେଲା <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/">ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ (Wikipedia)</a> । ପ୍ରଥମେ ଇଂରାଜୀରେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇ ପରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାକୁ ଏହା ବଢ଼ିଲା । ଆଉ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହବାର ବର୍ଷଟିଏ ପରେ ୨୦୦୨ ମସିହାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ, ଅହମିୟା, ପଞ୍ଜାବୀ ଓ ମାଲାୟାଲାମ ଭାଷାରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେଲା । ପ୍ରଥମ ଚାରୋଟି ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାରେ ତିଆରି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଭିତରୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଗୋଟେ ବୋଲି ଅନେକଙ୍କୁ ଆଜି ବି ଅଜଣା । ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ <a href="https://or.wikipedia.org/">https://or.wikipedia.org</a> ରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପାଖାପାଖି ୯ ବର୍ଷ ଧରି ସକ୍ରିୟ ସମ୍ପାଦନାର ଅଭାବରୁ ୨୦୧୧ ଯାଏ ଏକ ରକମ ନିଷ୍କ୍ରିୟ ହୋଇ ପଡ଼ିରହିଥିଲା । ୨୦୧୧ରେ ଏ ିରେ ଅନେକ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ସମ୍ପାଦକ ବା ଉଇକିଆଳିମାନେ ଯୋଡ଼ିହୋଇ ଲେଖିବା ଆରମ୍ଭ କରିବା ଫଳରେ ଅଧୁନା ଏଥିରେ ୧୦,୬୧୯ ସଂଖ୍ୟକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖାସରିଲାଣି । ଆଉ ନିତି ନୂଆ ନୂଆ ଲେଖା ଏଥିରେ ଯୋଡ଼ିହୋଇ ଚାଲିଛି ।</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">ତେବେ ଜଣେ ସାଧାରଣ ପାଠକ ପାଇଁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ କଣ ରହିଛି ତାହା ଜାଣିବା ବେଶି ଜରୁରୀ । ଜ୍ଞାନ ଆହରଣର ବାଟ ପିଢ଼ିରୁ ପିଢ଼ିକୁ ବଦଳେ । ଆମ ପିଲାବେଳେ ଆମେ କାଁ ଭାଁ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ଓ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ସୁବିଧା ପାଉଥିଲୁ । ଆଉ ସେତେବେଳେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ମିଡ଼ିଅମ ସ୍କୁଲର ପାଠାଗାର କିଛି ଗପ ଉପନ୍ୟାସ ବହି ଭିତରେ ସୀମିତ ଥିଲା । ନୂଆ ବହିଟିଏ ଦେଖିବା ଆଗରୁ କାନ୍ଥରୁ ଚୂନ ଝଡ଼ିପଡୁଥିଲା । ହେଲେ ଏବେ ଘରେ ଘରେ ଏକାଧିକ ମୋବାଇଲ ଆଉ ସେସବୁ ପୁଣି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ସୁବିଧା ଥିବା ସ୍ମାର୍ଟଫୋନ ଆସିଲାଣି । ସ୍କୁଲ ପିଲାଏ ଆଉ କିଛି କରନ୍ତୁ ନ କରନ୍ତୁ କିନ୍ତୁ ଗେମ ଖେଳିବା କି ଫେସବୁକ ଆଦିରେ ସାଙ୍ଗମାନଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଚାଟିଂ ଆଦି କରିବାରେ ପକ ହେଲେଣି । ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ କମ୍ପୁଟରରୁ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ମୋବାଇଲମୁଖୀ ହୋଇଗଲାଣି । ପିଲାଙ୍କଠୁ ବଡ଼ ଯାଏ କାହା ପାଖେ ଆଉ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ବ୍ରିଟାନିକା ଭଳି ଓଜନିଆ ପୋଥି ଦେଇ କିଛି ଖୋଜିବା ପାଇଁ ବେଳ ନାହିଁ । ତେଣୁ ଏଭଳି ପରିସ୍ଥିତିରେ କୌଣସି ବିଷୟକୁ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକାଭିମୁଖୀ କରିବାର ସୁବିଧା ବାଟ ହେଉଛି ସେସବୁକୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବା । ତେବେ ବହି ବା ଜର୍ଣ୍ଣାଲର ବିକଳ୍ପ ନୁହେଁ ବରଂ ବହି ସଙ୍ଗେ ଭିନ୍ନ ଏକ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣର ବାଟ ରୂପରେ ଇଣଟରନେଟ ଅଧିକରୁ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖେ ପହଞ୍ଚିପାରୁଛି ।</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ଆହରଣର ସ୍ଥିତି ଭିନ୍ନ । ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପାଇଁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ଅବସ୍ଥା ଯେତେ ଚିନ୍ତାଜନକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାକୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଅଧିକ ବ୍ୟବହାର ଉପଯୋଗୀ କରିବା ସେତେ ଅଧିକ ଲୋଡ଼ା । ୨୦୧୧ ଜନଗଣନା ତଥ୍ୟ ଅନୁସାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ମାତ୍ର ୧.୪ ଭାଗ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ସୁବିଧା ଥିଲା । ଏହି ପାଞ୍ଚ ବର୍ଷ ଭିତରେ ଏହା ବହୁ ଅଧିକ ବଢ଼ିଥିବ । ହେଲେ ସେ ସଭିଏଁ କଣ ସତରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ବ୍ୟବହାର କରୁଛନ୍ତି ନାଁ ସୀମ ିତ କେତୋଟି ସାଇଟ ଭିତରେ ସୀମିତ । ଅଧିକାଂଶ ତଥାକଥିତ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ବ୍ୟବହାରକାରୀ ଫେସବୁକରେ ସାଙ୍ଗମାନଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଭାବ ଦିଆନିଆ କି ହୁଆଟସଆପରେ ପରିଚିତଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଆଳାପ ଅଥବା ଇଉଟିଉବରୁ ଗୀତ ଶୁଣିବା ବାହାରେ ବେଶୀ କିଛି ଜାଣନ୍ତି ନାହିଁ । ଏହାର ମୁଖ୍ୟ କାରଣ ହେଉଛି ସେମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ସବୁଠୁ ବେଶୀ ପରିଚିତ ଭାଷା ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ବେଶୀ ୱେବସାଇଟ ନାହିଁ । ଖବର ପଢ଼ାଳିଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ନାଁ ଭଲ ଖବର ୱେବସାଇଟଟିଏ ରହିଛି ନାଁ ଗବେଷକଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଆମ ଐତିହ୍ୟ ଓ ପୁରୁଣା ଶିଳ୍ବାବଦରେ ପଢ଼ିବା ପାଇଁ ଆମ ମିଉଜିଅମ ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ସମସ୍ତ କଳାକୃତିର ତଥ୍ୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଦିଆଯାଇଛି । ସେମିତି ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟ ଜାଣିବା ପାଇଁ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ନିହାତି ଦରକାରୀ ବିଷୟ ମଧ୍ୟ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ନାହିଁ । ଏଭଳି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ କେଇଶହ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଭିତରୁ କେବଳ ଗୋଟେ କାଗଜର ଖବରଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜିପାଇହେବ । କାରଣ ବାକି ଖବରକାଗଜର ଲେଖା ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଭଳି ଆନ୍ତର୍ଜାତିକ ମାନକକୁ ନ ଆପଣାଇ ଆକୃତି, ଶ୍ରୀଲିପି ଆଦି ପୁରୁଣାକାଳିଆ ଅଣ-ମାନକ ସଫ୍ଟଓଏରରେ ଲେଖି ଛବି ଭାବେ କିମ୍ବା ପିଡିଏଫ ଡକୁମେଣ୍ଟ ଭାବେ ସେମାନଙ୍କ ସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ । ସେଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଦେଖିବାକୁ ଭିନ୍ନ ନ ଲାଗିଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଗୁଗୁଲ ବା ସର୍ଚ ଇଞ୍ଜିନରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଖୋଜିହୁଏନାହିଁ କିମ୍ବା ମୋବାଇଲ ଆଦିରେ ସଳଖେ ପଢ଼ିହୁଏନାହିଁ ।</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ୧୯୩୦ ମସିହାରେ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ଭାଷାକୋଷ ଭଳି ବିଶାଳ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ରଚନା କାମ ଆଜିଯାଏ ଆଉ କିଛି ହୋଇପାରିନାହିଁ । ଆଧୁନିକ ଟେକନୋଲୋଜି ବ୍ୟବହାର କରି ଏବେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଅତୀତ ସହ ସନ୍ଧିଟିଏ ତିଆରି କରିପାରିବ । ଏହା ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବେ ଅଣ-ଲାଭକାରୀ ଓ ଏଥିରେ ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ନ ଥାଏ । ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖାଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଲେଖୁଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଏ ସଭିଏଁ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ଓ ଲେଖାସବୁ ସେମାନଙ୍କ ସ୍ୱତ୍ୱାଧୀକାରରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ । ତେବେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣ ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟରେ ତିଆରି ହୋଇଥିବାରୁ ଲେଖାସବୁ କପିରାଇଟ ଦେଇ ନ ରୋକିବା ଲାଗି ସେସବୁ କ୍ରିଏଟିଭ କମନ୍ସ ସେଆର-ଏଲାଇକ ଲାଇସେନ୍ସରେ ବିତରିତ । ଫଳରେ ସଭିଏଁ ମାଗଣାରେ ପଢ଼ିପାରିବେ, ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗଗୁଡ଼ିକ ପୁନବ୍ୟବହାର କରିପାରିବେ ଓ ଉଭୟ ଲାଭକାରୀ ଓ ଅଣ ଲାଭକାରୀ କାମରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିପାରିବେ । ଏଥି ସହିତ କୌଣସି ଲେଖାରେ ଭୁଲ ପାଇଲେ ଜଣେ ଲେଖା ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରି ସୁଧାରିପାରିବେ । ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖା ଓ ସମ୍ପାଦନା ପଦ୍ଧତି ଏତେ ଖୋଲା ଯେ ପ୍ରାୟ ସବୁ ଲେଖା ଏକ ନୁହେଁ ଅନେକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ଏକାଠି ଲିଖିତ । ତେବେ ଲେଖାର ମାନରେ ସମତା ରଖିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ କେତେଗୁଡ଼ିଏ ନିୟମାବଳୀ ଅକ୍ରିୟ ସଭ୍ୟମାନେ ମିଶି ତିଆରି କରିଛନ୍ତି । ଏଗୁଡ଼ିକ ୨୯୩ଟି ଭାଷାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ସବୁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପାଇଁ ମୋଟାମୋଟି ଏକା ହେଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍� � ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଉଇକିଆଳିଗଣ ନିଜ ଭାଷା ଓ ସମାଜର ଆବଶ୍ୟକତାକୁ ଆଖିରେ ରଖି ସେଗୁଡ଼ିକୁ ସାମାନ୍ୟ ବଦଳାଇଛନ୍ତି । ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିବିଶେଷଙ୍କ ବାବଦରେ କିମ୍ବା ଘଟଣା ବାବଦରେ ଲିଖିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଏକପାଖିଆ ନ ହୋଇ ନିରପେକ୍ଷ ଭାବେ ଲେଖିବା ଏହି ନିୟମାବଳୀ ମଧ୍ୟରୁ ଏକ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ନିୟମ । ସେହି ଭଳି ନିଜ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ମତ ବଦଳରେ କେବଳ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ତଥ୍ୟ ଲେଖିବା ଆଉ ଏକ ନିୟମ । ସବୁଠାରୁ ମଜାର କଥା ହେଲା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ କୌଣସି ଦେଶ ବା ସଙ୍ଗଠନ ଅଧୀନରେ ନ ଥାଇ ଏହା ଉପରେ ପ୍ରତ ିଟି ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ସମାନ ଅଧିକାର ରହିଛି । ପୁଣି ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଭିତରେ ସେମାନଙ୍କ କାମକୁ ନେଇ ଦାୟିତ୍ୱ ବଣ୍ଟାଯାଇଛି । ବିବାଦ ଉପୁଜିଲେ ବି ସୁଧାରିବାକୁ ରହିଛି କିଛି ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀଙ୍କୁ ନେଇ ତିଆରି କମିଟିମାନ ।</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">ତେବେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଥିବା ସବୁଯାକ ଲେଖାକୁ ଆଖିବୁଜି ଗ୍ରହଣ କରାଯାଇପାରିବ ନାହିଁ । କାରଣ ପ୍ୟାରିସ ଉପରେ ଥିବା ଲେଖାଟି ଶହେ କି ହଜାରେ ଲୋକ ମିଶି ଲେଖିଥିବା ବେଳେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର ଉପରେ ଥିବା ଲେଖାଟି ହାତଗଣତି କେତେ ଜଣ ହୁଏତ ଲେଖିଥିବେ । ଯେଉଁ ଲେଖା ଯେତେ ଅଧିକ ଅଭିଜ୍ଞତା ଥିବା ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ଯେତେ ଘସା ମଜା ହୋଇ ଲେଖାହୋଇଥିବ ସେ ଲେଖା ସେତେ ଉଜ୍ଜଳ ହୋଇ ଚମକୁଥିବ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧିତ ଲେଖାସବୁରୁ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଭଲ ଲେଖା ଖୋଜି ପାଇବା କଷ୍ଟ । ଆଉ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖୁଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ସଂଖ୍ୟା ପାଖାପାଖି ୩୦ ଭିତରେ । ସାଢ଼େ ଚାରିକୋଟି ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ଯଦି ଏତେ କମ ଲୋକ ଏତେ ବଡ଼ କାମର ବୋଝ ଉଠାଉଥିବେ ତେହେଲେ ସବୁ ଲେଖାର ମାନ ଯେ ଏକା ଭଳି ଓ ସବୁ ଲେଖାରେ ଆବଶ୍ୟକୀୟ ସବୁ ତଥ୍ୟ ମିଳିବ ତା'ର ମାନେ ନାହିଁ । ତେଣୁ କେବେ କେବେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ମେଳା ମଉଛବକୁ ଧରି ଲେଖାଳିଏ ମିଶି ଗୋଟେ ବିଷୟରେ ଅଧିକ ଲେଖା ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଗଣ-ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରନ୍ତି । ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ ଚଳଣି ଉପରେ ଲିଖିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସବୁ ନବକଳେବର ସମୟରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଓ ପତ୍ରିକା ଆଦିରୁ ତଥ୍ୟ ସଂଗ୍ରହ କରି ବହୁଭାବେ ଉନ୍ନତ କରାଯାଇଥିଲା । ଏବେ ଏ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସବୁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ବାକି ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସବୁଠାରୁ ଅଧିକ ତଥ୍ୟରେ ଭରା । ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖିବାକୁ ଆଗ୍ରହୀ ଓଡ଼ିଆମାନେ <a href="https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CS"><strong>ଏହି</strong></a> ପୃଷ୍ଠାରେ ଦିଆଯାଇଥିବା ସରଳ ନିର୍ଦ୍ଦେଶ ପଢ଼ି ନିଜେ ମଧ୍ୟ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ସ୍ଥାନ ଓ ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ବିଷୟରେ ଲେଖିପାରିବେ ।</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ହେଉଛି ଏକ ଯାତ୍ରା । ଆଉ ଏ ବାଟ ଅସରନ୍ତି । ଯେତେ ଲେଖିଲେ ବି ସ ରିବନି କିନ୍ତୁ ଏ ଲେଖା ଚାଲିରହିଥିବ । ଆଜି ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ଭିତରେ ଅଳପ ଜଣା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଜଗତର ବାକି ଭାଷାରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ବାକି ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ସଙ୍ଗେ ସମକକ୍ଷ ହୋଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ମଥାକୁ ଟେକି ଧରିବା ପାଇଁ ସପନ ଦେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଲୋଡ଼ା ଅଧିକରୁ ଅଧିକ ହାତ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ଏ ଜୟଯାତ୍ରା ପାଳନ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ପାଳିତ ହେଉଛି ଏକ ସାଧାରଣ ସଭା ଓ ସବିଶେଷ <strong><a href="https://or.wikipedia.org/s/xzj">ଏହି ପୃଷ୍ଠାରେ</a></strong> ପଢ଼ିପାରିବେ<strong> </strong>।</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-odia-june-3-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-journey-of-odia-wikipedia-in-last-14-years'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-odia-june-3-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-journey-of-odia-wikipedia-in-last-14-years</a>
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No publishersubhaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-09T11:58:39ZBlog Entryଅନଲାଇନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ଗଢ଼ା
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samanya-kathan-subhashish-panigrahi-june-5-2016-article-on-journey-of-odia-wikipedia
<b>I wrote this article in Samanya Kathan, an Odia-language portal on June 5, 2016. The article is about the journey of the Odia Wikipedia and was published on the day the contributor community was celebrating the 14th anniversary of the project.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Read the originally published article <a class="external-link" href="http://www.samanyakathan.com/banner_page.php?hid=24">here</a></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">ଜଣାଶୁଣା ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି, ବିଷୟ, ଘଟଣା, ସ୍ଥାନ ଆଦି ବିଷୟରେ ସଂକ୍ଷେପରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ବା ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷର ପରିକଳ୍ପନା। ତାକୁ ପୁଣି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରିବା ପାଇଁ 2001ରେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେଲା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ। ପ୍ରଥମେ ଇଂରାଜୀରେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇ ପରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାକୁ ଏହା ବଢ଼ିଲା। ଆଉ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଉ ଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହବାର ବର୍ଷଟିଏ ପରେ 2002 ମସିହାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ, ଅହମିୟା, ପଞ୍ଜାବୀ ଓ ମାଲାୟାଲାମ ଭାଷାରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେଲା। ପ୍ରଥମ ଚାରୋଟି ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାରେ ତିଆରି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଭିତରୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଗୋଟେ ବୋଲି ଅନେକଙ୍କୁ ଆଜି ବି ଅଜଣା। ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ https://or.wikipedia.org ରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ। ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପାଖାପାଖି 9 ବର୍ଷ ଧରି ସକ୍ରିୟ ସମ୍ପାଦନାର ଅଭାବରୁ 2011 ଯାଏ ଏକ ରକମ ନିଷ୍କ୍ରିୟ ହୋଇ ପଡ଼ିରହିଥିଲା। 2011ରେ ଏଥିରେ ଅନେକ ସ୍ବେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ସମ୍ପାଦକ ବଉଇକିଆଳିମାନେ ଯୋଡ଼ିହୋଇ ଲେଖିବା ଆରମ୍ଭ କରିବା ଫଳରେ ଅଧୁନା ଏଥିରେ 10,619 ସଂଖ୍ୟକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖାସରିଲାଣି। ଆଉ ନିତି ନୂଆ ନୂଆ ଲେଖା ଏଥିରେ ଯୋଡ଼ିହୋଇ ଚାଲିଛି।</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">ତେବେ ଜଣେ ସାଧାରଣ ପାଠକ ପାଇଁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ କ’ଣ ରହିଛି ତାହା ଜାଣିବା ବେଶି ଜରୁରୀ। ଜ୍ଞାନ ଆହରଣର ବାଟ ପିଢ଼ିରୁ ପିଢ଼ିକୁ ବଦଳେ। ଆମ ପିଲାବେଳେ ଆମେ କାଁ ଭାଁ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ଓ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ସୁବିଧା ପାଉଥିଲୁ। ଆଉ ସେତେବେଳେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ମିଡିୟମ ସ୍କୁଲର ପାଠାଗାର କିଛି ଗପ ଉପନ୍ୟାସ ବହି ଭିତରେ ସୀମିତ ଥିଲା। ନୂଆ ବହିଟିଏ ଦେଖିବା ଆଗରୁ କାନ୍ଥରୁ ଚୂନ ଝଡ଼ିପଡୁଥିଲା। ହେଲେ ଏବେ ଘରେଘେ ଏକାଧିକ ମୋବାଇଲ ଆଉ ସେସବୁ ପୁଣି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ସୁବିଧା ଥିବା ସ୍ମାର୍ଟଫୋନ ଆସିଲାଣି। ସ୍କୁଲ ପିଲାଏ ଆଉ କିଛି କରନ୍ତୁ ନ କରନ୍ତୁ କିନ୍ତୁ ଗେମ ଖେଳିବା କି ଫେସବୁକ ଆଦିରେ ସାଙ୍ଗମାନଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଚାଟିଂ ଆଦି କରିବାରେ ପୋକ ହେଲେଣି। ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରୁ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ମୋବାଇଲମୁଖୀ ହୋଇଗଲାଣି। ପିଲାଙ୍କଠୁ ବଡ଼ ଯାଏ କାହା ପାଖେ ଆଉ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ବ୍ରିଟାନିକା ଭଳି ଓଜନିଆ ପୋଥି ଦେଇ କିଛି ଖୋଜିବା ପାଇଁ ବେଳ ନାହିଁ। ତେଣୁ ଏଭଳି ପରିସ୍ଥିତିରେୌଣସି ବିଷୟକୁ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକାଭିମୁଖୀ କରିବାର ସୁବିଧା ବାଟ ହେଉଛି ସେସବୁକୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବା। ତେବେ ଏହା ବହି ବା ଜର୍ଣ୍ଣାଲର ବିକଳ୍ପ ନୁହେଁ। ବରଂ ବହି ସଙ୍ଗେ ଭିନ୍ନ ଏକ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣର ବାଟ ରୂପରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଅଧିକରୁ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖେ ପହଞ୍ଚିପାରୁଛି।</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ଆହରଣର ସ୍ଥିତି ଭିନ୍ନ। ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପାଇଁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ଅବସ୍ଥା ଯେତେ ଚିନ୍ତାଜନକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାକୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଅଧିକ ବ୍ୟବହାର ଉପଯୋଗୀ କରିବା ସେତେ ଅଧିକ ଲୋଡ଼ା। 2011 ଜନଗଣନା ତଥ୍ୟ ଅନୁସାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ମାତ୍ର 1.4 ଭାଗ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ସୁବିଧା ଥିଲା। ଏହି ପାଞ୍ଚ ବର୍ଷ ଭିତରେ ଏହା ବହୁ ଅଧିକ ବଢ଼ିଥିବ। ହେଲେ ସେ ସଭିଏଁ କ’ଣ ସତରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ବ୍ୟବହାର କରୁଛନ୍ତି ନା ସୀମିତ କେତୋଟି ସାଇଟ ଭିତରେ ସୀମିତ। ଅଧିକାଂଶ ତଥାକଥିତ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ବ୍ୟବହାରକାରୀ ଫେସବୁକରେ ସାଙ୍ଗମାନଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଭାବ ଦିଆନିଆ କି ହୁଆଟସଆପରେ ପରିଚିତଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଆଳାପ ଅଥବା ଇଉଟିଉବରୁ ଗୀତ ଶୁଣିବା ବାହାରେ ବେଶୀ କିଛି ଜାଣନ୍ତି ନାହିଁ। ଏହାର ମୁଖ୍ୟ କାରଣ ହେଉଛି ସେମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ସବୁଠୁ ବେଶୀ ପରିଚିତ ଭାଷା ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ବେଶୀ ୱେବସାଇଟ ନାହିଁ। ଖବର ପଢ଼ାଳିଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ନା ଭଲ ଖବର ୱେବସାଇଟଟିଏ ରହିଛି ନା ଗବେଷକଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଆମ ଐତିହ୍ୟ ଓ ପୁରୁଣା ଶିଳ୍ପ ବାବଦରେ ପଢ଼ିବା ପାଇଁ ଆମ ମିଉଜିଅମ ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ସମସ୍ତ କଳାକୃତିର ତଥ୍ୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଦିଆଯାଇଛି। ସେମିତି ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟ ଜାଣିବା ପାଇଁ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ନିହାତି ଦରକାରୀ ବିଷୟ ମଧ୍ୟ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ନାହିଁ। ଏଭଳି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ କେଇଶହ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଭିତରୁ କେବଳ ଗୋଟେ କାଗଜର ଖବରଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଇଣଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜି ପାଇହେବ। କାରଣ ବାକି ଖବରକାଗଜର ଲେଖା ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଭଳି ଆନ୍ତର୍ଜାତିକ ମାନକକୁ ନ ଆପଣାଇ ଆକୃତି, ଶ୍ରୀଲିପି ଆଦି ପୁରୁଣାକାଳିଆ ଅଣ-ମାନକ ସଫ୍ଟଓଏରରେ ଲେଖି ଛବି ଭାବେ କିମ୍ବା ପିଡିଏଫ ଡକୁମେଣ୍ଟ ଭାବେ ସେମାନଙ୍କ ସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ। ସେଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଦେଖିବାକୁ ଭିନ୍ନ ନ ଲାଗିଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଗୁଗୁଲ ବା ସର୍ଚ ଇଞ୍ଜିନରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଖୋଜିହୁଏ ନାହିଁ କିମ୍ବା ମୋବାଇଲ ଆଦିରେ ସଳଖେ ପଢ଼ିହୁଏ ନାହିଁ।</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ 1930 ମସିହାରେ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ଭାଷାକୋଷ ଭଳି ବିଶାଳ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ରଚନା କାମ ଆଜିଯାଏ ଆଉ କିଛି ହୋଇପାରିନାହିଁ। ଆଧୁନିକ ଟେକନୋଲୋଜି ବ୍ ୟବହାର କରି ଏବେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଅତୀତ ସହ ସନ୍ଧିଟିଏ ତିଆରି କରିପାରିବ। ଏହା ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବେ ଅଣ-ଲାଭକାରୀ ଓ ଏଥିରେ ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ନ ଥାଏ। ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖାଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଲେଖୁଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଏ ସଭିଏଁ ସ୍ବେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ଓ ଲେଖାସବୁ ସେମାନଙ୍କ ସତ୍ବାଧକାରରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ। ତେବେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣ ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟରେ ତିଆରି ହୋଇଥିବାରୁ ଲେଖାସବୁ କପିରାଇଟ ଦେଇ ନ ରୋକିବା ଲାଗି ସେସବୁ କ୍ରିଏଟିଭ କମନ୍ସ ସେଆର-ଏଲାଇକ ଲାଇସେନ୍ସରେ ବିତରିତ। ଫଳରେ ସଭିଏଁ ମାଗଣାରେ ପଢ଼ିପାରିବେ , ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗଗୁଡ଼ିକ ପୁନଃବ୍ୟବହାର କରିପାରିବେ ଓ ଉଭୟ ଲାଭକାରୀ ଓ ଅଣଲାଭକାରୀ କାମରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିପାରିବେ। ଏଥି ସହିତ କୌଣସି ଲେଖାରେ ଭୁଲ ପାଇଲେ ଜଣେ ଲେଖା ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରି ସୁଧାରିପାରିବେ। ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖା ଓ ସମ୍ପାଦନା ପଦ୍ଧତି ଏତେ ଖୋଲା ଯେ ପ୍ରାୟ ସବୁ ଲେଖା ଏକ ନୁହେଁ ଅନେକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ଏକାଠି ଲିଖିତ। ତେବେ ଲେଖାର ମାନରେ ସମତା ରଖିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ କେତେଗୁଡ଼ିଏ ନିୟମାବଳୀ ତିଆରି ହୋଇଛି। ଏଗୁଡ଼ିକ 293ଟି ଭାଷାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ସବୁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପାଇଁ ମୋଟାମଟି ଏକା ହେଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଉଇକିଆଳିଗଣ ନିଜ ଭାଷା ଓ ସମାଜର ଆବଶ୍ୟକତାକୁ ଆଖିରେ ରଖି ସେଗୁଡ଼ିକୁ ସାମାନ୍ୟ ବଦଳାଇଛନ୍ତି। ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିବିଶେଷଙ୍କ ବାବଦରେ କିମ୍ବା ଘଟଣା ବାବଦରେ ଲିଖିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଏକପାଖିଆ ନ ହୋଇ ନିରପେକ୍ଷ ଭାବେ ଲେଖିବା ଏହି ନିୟମାବଳୀ ମଧ୍ୟରୁ ଏକ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ନିୟମ। ସେହି ଭଳି ନିଜ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ମତ ବଦଳରେ କେବଳ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ତଥ୍ୟ ଲେଖିବା ଆଉ ଏକ ନିୟମ। ସବୁଠାରୁ ମଜାର କଥା ହେଲା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ କୌଣସି ଦେଶ ବା ସଙ୍ଗଠ ଅଧୀନରେ ନ ଥାଇ ଏହା ଉପରେ ପ୍ରତିଟି ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ସମାନ ଅଧିକାର ରହିଛି। ପୁଣି ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଭିତରେ ସେମାନଙ୍କ କାମକୁ ନେଇ ଦାୟିତ୍ବ ବଣ୍ଟାଯାଇଛି। ବିବାଦ ଉପୁଜିଲେ ବି ସୁଧାରିବାକୁ ରହିଛି କିଛି ସ୍ବେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀଙ୍କୁ ନେଇ ତିଆରି କମିଟିମାନ।</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">ତେବେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଥିବା ସବୁଯାକ ଲେଖାକୁ ଆଖିବୁଜି ଗ୍ରହଣ କରାଯାଇପାରିବ ନାହିଁ। କାରଣ ପ୍ୟାରିସ ଉପରେ ଥିବା ଲେଖାଟି ଶହେ କି ହଜାରେ ଲୋକ ମିଶି ଲେଖିଥିବା ବେଳେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ବର ଉପରେ ଥିବା ଲେଖାଟି ହାତଗଣତି କେତେ ଜଣ ହୁଏତ ଲେଖିଥିବେ। ଯେଉଁ ଲେଖା ଯେତେ ଅଧିକ ଅଭିଜ୍ଞତା ଥିବା ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ଯେତେ ଘସାମଜା ହୋଇ ଲେଖାହୋଇଥିବ ସେ ଲେଖା ସେତେ ଉଜ୍ଜଳ ହୋଇ ଚମକୁଥିବ। ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧିତ ଲେଖାସବୁରୁ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଭଲ ଲେଖା ଖୋଜି ପାଇବା କଷ୍ଟ। ଆଉ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖୁଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ସଂଖ୍ୟା ପାଖାପାଖି 30 ଭିତରେ। ସାଢ଼େ ଚାରିକୋଟି ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ଯଦି ଏତେ କମ ଲୋକ ଏତେ ବଡ଼ କାମର ବୋଝ ଉଠାଉଥିବେ ତେହେଲେ ସବୁ ଲେଖାର ମାନ ଯେ ଏକା ଭଳି ଓ ସବୁ ଲେଖାରେ ଆବଶ୍ୟକ ସବୁ ତଥ୍ୟ ମିଳିବ ତା’ର ମାନେ ନାହିଁ। ତେଣୁ କେବେ କେବେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ମେଳା ମଉଛବକୁ ଧ ରି ଲେଖାଳିଏ ମିଶି ଗୋଟେ ବିଷୟରେ ଅଧିକ ଲେଖା ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଗଣ-ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରନ୍ତି। ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ ଚଳଣି ଉପରେ ଲିଖିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସବୁ ନବକଳେବର ସମୟରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଓ ପତ୍ରିକା ଆଦିରୁ ତଥ୍ୟ ସଂଗ୍ରହ କରି ବହୁଭାବେ ଉନ୍ନତ କରାଯାଇଥିଲା। ଏବେ ଏ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସବୁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ବାକି ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ସବୁଠାରୁ ଅଧିକ ତଥ୍ୟରେ ଭରା। ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖିବାକୁ ଆଗ୍ରହୀ ଓଡ଼ିଆମାନେ https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CS ପୃଷ୍ଠାରେ ଦିଆଯାଇଥିବା ସରଳ ନିର୍ଦ୍ଦେଶ ପଢ଼ି ନିଜେ ମଧ୍ୟ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ସ୍ଥାନ ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ବିଷୟରେ ଲେଖିପାରିବେ।</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ହେଉଛି ଏକ ଯାତ୍ରା। ଆଉ ଏ ବାଟ ଅସରନ୍ତି। ଯେତେ େଖିଲେ ବି ସରିବନି କିନ୍ତୁ ଲେଖା ଚାଲିରହିଥିବ। ଆଜି ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ଭିତରେ ଅଳପ ଜଣା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଜଗତର ବାକି ଭାଷାରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ବାକି ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ସଙ୍ଗେ ସମକକ୍ଷ ହୋଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ମଥାକୁ ଟେକି ଧରିବା ପାଇଁ ସପନ ଦେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଲୋଡ଼ା ଅଧିକରୁ ଅଧିକ ହାତ।</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samanya-kathan-subhashish-panigrahi-june-5-2016-article-on-journey-of-odia-wikipedia'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samanya-kathan-subhashish-panigrahi-june-5-2016-article-on-journey-of-odia-wikipedia</a>
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No publishersubhaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-08T02:51:14ZBlog EntryMay 2016 Newsletter
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2016-newsletter
<b>Welcome to the May 2016 newsletter of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). </b>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Early last year, thanks to the fund raising efforts of a friend of CIS - Suhail Kazi, we received Rs. 1.9 lakhs as donations from 19 individuals. In January this year, we set up an online giving feature on our website which would ease the donation process, but we haven’t got a single donation so far! Today, we are unable to find a single donor who is interested in our Accessibility, Telecom, or RAW programmes. In other words, we need your support. Would you to consider making a small donation to CIS? <strong>Click <a href="http://imojo.in/CISDonations">here</a> to donate.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Previous issues of the newsletters can be <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">accessed here</a>.</p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Highlights</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS along with 20 other organisations <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/accessible-ict-procurement">petitioned the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Information Technology</a> to bring in accessibility considerations within the draft Procurement Bill.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Pavishka Mittal <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/rbi-consultation-paper-on-p2p-lending-legality-and-implications">wrote a blog post</a> on the legality and implications of the Reserve Bank of India's proposed classification of Peer-to-Peer lending companies as non-banking financial institutions.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The sixth section of our extended survey of digital initiatives in the practice of arts and humanities in India is <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/new-modes-and-sites-of-humanities-practice">now online</a>. The final report will be published serially, and will comprise seven sections in total.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/call-for-essays-studying-internet-in-india-2016">invites abstracts for essays that explore how we study the Internet in India today</a>. Please send the abstracts (no more than 200 words) to <a>raw@cis-india.org</a> by <strong>Sunday, June 12, 2016</strong>. CIS will select up to 10 abstracts and announce them on <strong>Monday, June 20, 2016</strong>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS filed RTI applications seeking information from institutes such as <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iim-bangalore">IIM Bangalore</a>; <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-nlu-jodhpur">NLU Jodhpur</a>; <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-nlsiu">NLSIU</a>; <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iit-kanpur">IIT Kanpur</a>; <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iit-kharagpur">IIT Kharagpur</a>; <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-nalsar">NALSAR</a>; <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-nujs">NUJS</a>; <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-delhi-university">Delhi University</a>; and <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iim-ahmedabad">
<div>IIM Ahmedabad.</div>
</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Adya Garg <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/protecting-the-territory-killing-the-map">wrote an article for the Wire</a> in which they analyzed the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016. They argue that the Bill seems to be undoing various economic and humanitarian efforts, and hindering other opportunities offered by maps.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-the-draft-new-icann-bylaws">sent its comments on the Draft New ICANN By-Laws</a> in which it observed that the draft by-laws are overwrought and that rather than producing a broad constitutional document for ICANN the by-laws read like the worst of governmental regulations and create more problems than they solve.</li></ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3><a href="http://cis-india.org/news">CIS in the News</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">CIS gave inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/exercise-to-correct-articles-in-tulu-wikipedia-begins">Exercise to correct articles in Tulu Wikipedia begins</a> (The Hindu; April 28, 2016). This was mirrored on CIS website on May 1, 2016.</li></ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/mathrubhumi-may-1-2016-thiruvananthapuram-to-host-wikipedia-workshop-on-may-4-5">T’puram to host Wikipedia workshop on May 4, 5</a> (Mathrubhumi; May 1, 2016).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-times-of-india-may-5-2016-spread-awareness-through-malayalam-wikipedia">Spread awareness through Malayalam Wikipedia: Gadgil</a> (The Times of India; May 5, 2016).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/new-indian-express-may-6-2016-promoting-online-content-through-wiki-malayalam">Promoting Online Content Through 'Wiki Malayalam'</a> (New Indian Express; May 6, 2016).</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-newsminute-may-6-2016-why-indias-attempt-to-polic-digital-maps-and-satellite-images-is-a-dumb-idea">Why India’s attempt to police digital maps and satellite images is a ‘dumb’ idea </a>(News Minute; May 6, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/economic-times-aman-sharma-neha-alawadhi-may-9-2016-google-apple-and-microsoft-may-need-licence-for-satellite-mapping-in-india">Google, Apple and Microsoft may need licence for satellite mapping in India</a> (Aman Sharma and Neha Alawadhi; Economic Times; May 9, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-businessline-may-10-2016-varun-aggarwal-geospatial-info-regulation-bill-will-hurt-start-ups-small-firms">Geospatial Info Regulation Bill will hurt start-ups, small firms</a> (Varun Aggarwal; Hindu BusinessLine; May 10, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/why-the-new-government-policy-mandating-panic-buttons-on-phones-isn2019t-going-to-protect-women">Why The New Government Policy Mandating Panic Buttons On Phones Isn’t Going To Protect Women</a> (The Ladies Finger; May 14, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/voice-of-america-may-17-2016-anjana-pasricha-india-proposed-map-law-prompts-outcry">India's Proposed Map Law Prompts Outcry</a> (Anjana Pasricha; Voice of America; May 17, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-quint-rohit-pathak-may-21-2016-suckly-attacks-national-stock-exchange-tech-vendor-among-others">Suckfly Attacks National Stock Exchange Tech Vendor, Among Others</a> (Rohit Pathak; The Quint; May 21, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/voice-of-america-may-27-2016-india-seeks-to-limit-use-of-maps-and-satellite-images">India Seeks to Limit Use of Maps and Satellite Images</a> (Anjana Pasricha; Voice of America; May 27, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/the-times-of-india-may-29-2016-how-tech-brings-self-reliance-to-students-with-disabilities">How tech brings self-reliance to students with disabilities</a> (The Times of India; May 29, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">CIS members wrote the following pieces:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/huffington-post-subhashish-panigrahi-january-25-2016-why-its-essential-to-grow-indian-language-wikipedias">Why It's Essential To Grow Indian-Language Wikipedias</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Huffington Post; February 2016). The post was mirrored in <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2016/02/26/why-its-essential-to-grow-indian-language-wikipedias/">Global Voices</a>. The post was translated <a href="https://el.globalvoices.org/2016/05/33834">into Greek</a> by Maria Souli. It was translated <a href="https://es.globalvoices.org/2016/03/26/la-importancia-de-cultivar-las-wikipedias-sobre-los-idiomas-de-la-india/">into Spanish</a> by Daniela Diaz and <a href="https://ru.globalvoices.org/2016/04/20/47945/">into Russian</a> by GV Russian.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-express-april-3-2016-nishant-shah-a-large-byte-of-your-life">A Large Byte of Your Life</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 3, 2016). This was mirrored on the website recently.</li></ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-april-15-2016-a-four-year-action-packed-experience-with-wikipedia">A four year, action-packed experience with Wikipedia</a> (Sailesh Patnaik; Opensource.com; April 15, 2016). This was mirrored on CIS website recently.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-express-nishant-shah-april-17-2016-online-censorship-on-the-rise">Online Censorship on the Rise: Why I Prefer to Save Things Offline</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 17, 2016). This was mirrored on the website recently.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-express-nishant-shah-may-8-2016-facebook-a-platform-with-little-less-sharing-of-personal-information">Facebook: A Platform with Little Less Sharing of Personal Information</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; May 8, 2016). </li></ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-blog-may-9-2016-bangla-translations-odia-womens-history">Wikipedia’s 15th birthday inspires Bangla translators; Odia-language Women’s History Month edit-a-thons</a> (Nahid Sultan and Shailesh Patnaik; Wikimedia Blog; May 9, 2016).</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/identity-of-the-aadhaar-act-supreme-court-and-the-money-bill-question">Identity of the Aadhaar Act: Supreme Court and the Money Bill Question</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Vanya Rakesh; The Wire; May 9, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/criminal-defamation-and-the-supreme-court2019s-loss-of-reputation">Criminal Defamation and the Supreme Court’s Loss of Reputation</a> (Bhairav Acharya; The Wire; May 14, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-wire-may-16-2016-sumandro-chattapadhyay-and-aditya-garg-before-geospatial-bill-a-long-history-of-killing-the-map-in-order-to-protect-the-territory">Before Geospatial Bill: A Long History of Killing the Map in Order to Protect the Territory</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Adya Garg; The Wire; May 16, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/protecting-the-territory-killing-the-map">Protecting the Territory, Killing the Map</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; The Wire; May 17, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/gender-it-rohini-lakshane-may-19-2016-womens-safety-there-is-an-app-for-that">Women's Safety? There is an App for That</a> (Rohini Lakshané; Gender IT.org; May 19, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/b07b23b4db1fb30b28b47b1fb30b47-b13b21b3cb3fb06-b0fb28b38b3eb07b15b4db32b2ab3fb21b3cb3fb06-b09b07b15b3fb2ab3fb21b3cb3fb06-b2cb3fb15b3eb36-b2ab3eb07b01-b0fb15b3eb20b3f-b39b47b32b47-b2ab41b30b40b30-b1bb3eb24b4db30b1bb3eb24b4db30b40">ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ "ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ" ବିକାଶ ପାଇଁ ଏକାଠି ହେଲେ ପୁରୀର ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀ</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; YourStory Odia, May 20, 2016).</li></ul>
<ul></ul>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dna-may-22-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-celebrating-13-years-of-kannada-language-wikipedia">Celebrating 13 Years of the Kannada-language Wikipedia</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; DNA; May 22, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/modi2019s-new-intellectual-property-rights-policy-will-only-benefit-players-with-deep-pockets">Modi’s New Intellectual Property Rights Policy Will Only Benefit Players with Deep Pockets</a> (Anubha Sinha; May 28, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">-------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility & Inclusion</a> <br /> ------------------------------------- <br /> India has an estimated 70 million persons with disabilities who don't have access to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. As part of our endeavour to make available accessible content for persons with disabilities, we are developing a text-to-speech software in 15 languages with support from the Hans Foundation. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►NVDA and eSpeak</p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/May%20Report%202016.pdf" class="external-link">May 2016 Report</a></div>
</li></ul>
<p>►Other</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/accessible-ict-procurement">Accessible ICT Procurement</a> (Pranesh Prakash; May 9, 2016).</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br />Our Access to Knowledge programme currently consists of two projects. The Pervasive Technologies project, conducted under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), aims to conduct research on the complex interplay between low-cost pervasive technologies and intellectual property, in order to encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The Wikipedia project, which is under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Pervasive Technologies</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">CIS gathered information from various educational institutions in response to several RTI applications. All of these have been published as different blog posts:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-jnu">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from JNU</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iit-kharagpur">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from IIT, Kharagpur</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-nalsar">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from NALSAR</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-nujs">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from NUJS</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-delhi-university">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from Delhi University</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iim-ahmedabad">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from IIM, Ahmedabad</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 17, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iim-bangalore">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from IIM, Bangalore</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 21, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-nlu-jodhpur">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from NLU, Jodhpur</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 26, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-nlsiu">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from NLSIU</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 27, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iit-kanpur">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from IIT, Kanpur</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 31, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<p><em>Nisha S. Kumar assisted in the preparation of all these documents.</em></p>
<p>Participation in Event</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/national-conference-on-competition-ipr-in-ict-telecom-mobile-sets">National Confererence on Competition & IPR in ICT, Telecom and Mobile Sets</a> (Organized by CMAI; May 18, 2016; Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi). Rohini Lakshané and Anubha Sinha attended this conference.</li></ul>
<p>Other Blog Entry</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sectoral-innovation-councils-intellectual-property-rights-2013-rti-requests-dipp-responses">Sectoral Innovation Councils on Intellectual Property Rights – RTI Requests + DIPP Responses</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari and Saahil Dama; May 21, 2016).</li></ul>
<p>►Wikipedia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/images-and-links-matter-quality">Images and Links Matter Quality</a> (Rahmanuddin Shaik; May 4, 2016).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/nvvchar-1500-dyk">Indian English Wikipedian Nvvchar completes 1500 Did You Know articles</a> (Tito Dutta; May 9, 2016).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kannada-wikipedias-13-year-old-journey-of-knowledge-sharing">Celebrating the 13th anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; May 19, 2016). Ananth Subray contributed to this blog.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a> <br /><strong> -----------------------------------</strong></p>
<p>As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and IDRC) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on restrictions that the Indian government has placed on freedom of expression online.</p>
<p>►Freedom of Expression</p>
<p><strong>Submission and Comment</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-draft-electronic-health-records-standards">Comments on Draft Electronic Health Records Standards</a> (Amber Sinha; May 28, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-on-the-draft-new-icann-bylaws">Submission by the Centre for Internet and Society on Draft New ICANN By-laws</a> (Pranesh Prakash, Vidushi Marda, Udbhav Tiwari and Swati Muthukumar with inputs from Sunil Abraham; May 30, 2016).</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/criminal-defamation-remains-and-so-does-the-debate">Criminal Defamation Remains and so does the Debate</a> (Japreet Grewal; May 19, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p>►Privacy</p>
<p><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-issues-with-drm">Privacy Issues with DRM</a> (Jalaj Pandey; May 3, 2016).</li></ul>
<p>Event Organized</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/understanding-aadhaar-and-its-new-challenges-may-26-27-2016">Understanding Aadhaar and its New Challenges</a> (Organized by Centre for Studies in Science Policy, JNU and CIS; May 26 - 27, 2016; New Delhi). The event was supported by the Centre for Communication Governance at NLU Delhi, Free Software Movement of India, Knowledge Commons, PEACE, and Center for Advancement of Public Understanding of Science & Technology.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /></strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br /> The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by an emerging need to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It aims to produce local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Announcement</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/call-for-essays-studying-internet-in-india-2016">Call for Essays: Studying Internet in India</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; May 20, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/new-modes-and-sites-of-humanities-practice">New Modes and Sites of Humanities Practice</a> (P.P. Sneha; May 19, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/rbi-consultation-paper-on-p2p-lending-summary">RBI Consultation Paper on P2P Lending: Summary</a> (Pavishka Mittal; May 18, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/rbi-consultation-paper-on-p2p-lending-legality-and-implications">RBI Consultation Paper on P2P Lending: Legality and Implications</a> (Pavishka Mittal; May 23, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/rbi-consultation-paper-on-p2p-lending">RBI Consultation Paper on P2P Lending: Data Security and Privacy Concerns</a> (Vipul Kharbanda; May 31, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br /> The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li> Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a> </li>
<li> Twitter - Access to Knowledge: <a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K">https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a> </li>
<li> Twitter - Information Policy: <a href="https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy">https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy</a></li>
<li> Facebook - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a> </li>
<li> E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: <a>a2k@cis-india.org</a> </li>
<li> E-Mail - Researchers at Work: <a>raw@cis-india.org</a> </li>
<li> List - Researchers at Work: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">► Support Us</p>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Please help us defend consumer and citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru - 5600 71.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">► Request for Collaboration</p>
<div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at <a>tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><em>CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects</em>.</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2016-newsletter'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2016-newsletter</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaNewsletter2016-06-10T19:34:10ZNews Itemଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ବିକାଶ
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samaja-subhashish-panigrahi-june-2-2016-article-on-odia-wikipedia
<b>The article on Odia Wikipedia was published in the Samaja on June 2, 2016.</b>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Samaja_June22016.jpg" alt="Samaja" class="image-inline" title="Samaja" /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samaja-subhashish-panigrahi-june-2-2016-article-on-odia-wikipedia'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samaja-subhashish-panigrahi-june-2-2016-article-on-odia-wikipedia</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-04T04:37:32ZBlog Entryଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: ଏକ ଅଭିଯାନ
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/suryaprava-subhashish-panigrahi-june-3-2016-article-on-odia-wikipedia-14-years-journey
<b>The article which details Odia Wikipedia's 14 year-long journey was published in the Odia newspaper Suryaprava on June 3, 2016.</b>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/SuryapravaJune2.jpg" alt="Suryaprava" class="image-inline" title="Suryaprava" /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/suryaprava-subhashish-panigrahi-june-3-2016-article-on-odia-wikipedia-14-years-journey'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/suryaprava-subhashish-panigrahi-june-3-2016-article-on-odia-wikipedia-14-years-journey</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-04T04:26:38ZBlog EntryDeveloping Open Educational Resources in Indian Languages
https://cis-india.org/openness/developing-open-educational-resources-in-indian-languages
<b>The Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education (CILHE), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), in collaboration with the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) programme at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), has been involved in organising workshops on developing open educational resources (OER) in Indian languages with undergraduate and postgraduate students across various partner institutions. The objective of these workshops is to introduce students to: a) tools of collaborative knowledge production on the Internet, and b) methods for generating new online content in Indian languages.</b>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-6a5cf4f0-34dc-8053-8ba7-e604a4aef120" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">During November 2015 - February 2016, four such workshops have been organised at TISS’ Mumbai and Tuljapur campuses, <a href="http://www.srtt.org/casestudies/Pune_University_Case_Study%20-%202.pdf">Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women's Studies Centre</a> (KSPWSC), Pune University, and at the <a href="http://www.efluniversity.ac.in/">English and Foreign Languages University</a> (EFLU), Hyderabad.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">A one and half day workshop was organised at KSPWSC, Pune during January 22-23, 2016. A total of 20 students attended this workshop along with three faculty members from the Centre. This workshop is a part of CILHE's ongoing and sustained engagement with KSPWSC to generate and strengthen content pertaining to women's studies on the <a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/">Marathi Wikipedia</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Pune</strong><br />On Day 1, after the opening address by Dr. Anagha Tambe from KSPWSC, Sohnee Harshey from CILHE, TISS spoke about the importance of creating open educational resources in Indian languages for social sciences and humanities. She sought responses from participants about the nature of their engagement with their research areas—which languages they used while collecting data, whether they had accessed reading material in languages other than English, and what were their sources of information. All the participants had used languages other than English in their learning process, some had even accessed Indian language Wikipedias, and all of them felt the need for more resources in Indian languages—especially in simpler and more accessible formats. Tanveer Hasan from CIS then spoke about the utility of Wikipedia for knowledge consumers and its immense potential for students to become knowledge producers, especially in the Indian languages.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In order to familiarize the participants with social sciences (specifically women's studies) terminology in Indian languages, an exercise was conducted, wherein they were asked to describe a concept (from a given list) without using the term itself. The idea behind this was to highlight what function a concept performs in a sentence and in the language context, and what assumptions are made while using this concept. This was followed up with another exercise where the participants were encouraged to choose two concepts and explain their denotation and connotation. This was done in order to familiarise them with the web of other concepts in which a concept is located. The concept of ‘labour’ or ‘shram’ (in Marathi) was chosen for discussion.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">On Day 2 of the workshop, Abhinav Garule, Programme Associate with A2K-CIS, introduced the participants to the basics of Wikipedia editing through a hands-on activity. They navigated through both the English and Indian language Wikipedias to see how the edit, talk, and view history functions work, what the key characteristics of a good article are, and how one can read more about a certain topic through interwiki and external links and categories. This was interspersed with recalling the exercises done on the previous day and comparing the critical thinking process involved.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Since one of the simpler ways to populate Indian language Wikipedias is through translation of existing content in English, participants were encouraged to try this with an entry of their choice. They were asked to also list difficulties that they faced in the process of translation. At the end of this exercise, a range of ‘problems’ like lack of appropriate terminology for complex concepts, the dangers of oversimplification, differences between languages in terms of the structure of sentences, and lack of references in Indian languages, were highlighted by the participants. While they were still thinking about these problems, another challenge was put forth for them to look at two conflicting or opposing references for a topic (for example, a movie review, or reporting around an event) and come up with a ‘neutral’ write-up about it. Questions of what constitutes a valid reference, issues of plagiarism, personal opinion, codes of civility on Talk pages formed part of this discussion.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Following this, the participants chose one topic (each) on which they wished to create a Wikipedia article in an Indian language. Most of the participants worked on the Marathi Wikipedia. They worked in groups of 3-4 to edit and create a range of articles including ones on patriarchy, colonialism, masculinity, family, and tribes, among others. A total of 12 entries were created in this workshop. Participants also explored Wikimedia Commons, Meta, and Wikisource as allied repositories. The students have now become active as knowledge producers and will join the existing group of editors at KSPWSC in the wiki-sprints to generate new content every month.</p>
<p><strong>Hyderabad: </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Similar exercises were also conducted during the two-day workshop at EFLU, Hyderabad in February 2016. The participants worked on the Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi Wikipedias. Articles were written on geographical entities like Tamil Eelam and West Godavari district, on academic figures like M.S.S. Pandian and Maxine Berstein, academic and literary works such as My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk and Towards a World of Equals by Susie Tharu, among other topics. Since creating an article from scratch also involved deliberation regarding issues of translation, and the limits of concepts and their meanings in the Indian context, it is hoped that these new editors will find it useful for their own research to think critically about the process of generating content on the Indian language Wikipedias.</p>
<p class="discreet"><em>* Sohnee Harshey works at the</em><em> Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Article edited by Subhashish Panigrahi of CIS-A2K.<br /></em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/developing-open-educational-resources-in-indian-languages'>https://cis-india.org/openness/developing-open-educational-resources-in-indian-languages</a>
</p>
No publisherSohnee Harshey*CIS-A2KMalayalam WikipediaMarathi WikipediaTelugu WikipediaHindi Wikipedia2016-06-10T01:50:22ZBlog EntryCelebrating 13 Years of the Kannada-language Wikipedia
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dna-may-22-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-celebrating-13-years-of-kannada-language-wikipedia
<b>The Kannada-language Wikipedia celebrated its 13th anniversary on February 14 in Mangalore. To celebrate the journey of the project and the community, Kannada Wikipedians gathered at Saint Aloysius College, Mangaluru on May 14. </b>
<p>The article was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report-celebrating-13-years-of-the-kannada-language-wikipedia-2215490">DNA</a> on May 22, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">The larger community including long-time Wikipedians and new members like the students faculty involved in Wikipedia Education Programs gathered to participate in a day long edit-a-thon and chalk out plans for the future. The event was organised by the Kannada Wikimedia community and Dr. Vishwanatha Badikana, Wikipedian and Assistant Professor of Kannada department at St. Aloysius College, who coordinated the event locally.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Prior to the event, four edit-a-thons were organised in four different cities of Karnataka. The local organisers also took the participants through a heritage walk in the village of Pilikula Nisarga Dhama, an open library of the rich cultural heritage of Karnataka. Prior to the event, four edit-a-thons were organised in four different cities of Karnataka. The local organisers also took the participants through a heritage walk in the village of Pilikula Nisarga Dhama, an open library of the rich cultural heritage of Karnataka.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">117 people gathered at the event out of which 96 were active editors of the Kannada Wikipedia to celebrate thirteen years of <strong><a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kannada Wikipedia</a></strong>, arguably the largest online encyclopedia in <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>Kannada</strong> language</a></strong>. Noted Kannada-computing researcher Kinnikambla Padmanabha Rao (widely known as KP Rao) addressed the public event and engaged with the audience about defining Kannada Wikipedia’s large role in widening the language’s presence on the internet. The heritage walk resulted in over 300 image uploads on Wikimedia Commons ranging from the life and culture of coastal Karnataka to select rich heritage of the state. 20 new editors also participated in the event and they were oriented on basics of Wikipedia editing and <strong><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Creative Commons licenses</a></strong>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Much before the event, preparation was begun to organise four different thematic edit-a-thons; <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada_literature" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kannada literature</a></strong> in Mysore, Mechanical Engineering in Sagara, Science-related articles in Bengaluru and article on notable women of the coastal Karnataka region in Mangaluru. Follow up edit-a-thons were organised after the anniversary celebration, based on the same themes in the first three places.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<p>Much before the event, preparation was begun to organise four different thematic edit-a-thons; <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada_literature" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kannada literature</a></strong> in Mysore, Mechanical Engineering in Sagara, Science-related articles in Bengaluru and article on notable women of the coastal Karnataka region in Mangaluru. Follow up edit-a-thons were organised after the anniversary celebration, based on the same themes in the first three places.</p>
<p>Triveni K, one of the participants who is now pursuing her M.Sc at Christ University, called this event a great learning platform for learning core Wikipedia policies in detail. “I’m little occupied for my exams but when it is over, I will be back on Wikipedia”, shares Triveni.</p>
<p>The <strong><a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">first ever edit</a></strong> on Kannada Wikipedia was made on June 12, 2003 with a message saying “Kannada Vishwa Koshakke Suswaagatha!” (meaning ‘Welcome to the Kannada encyclopedia’). However it took over a year, July 12, 2004, before the first article, about a city <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimoga" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shimoga</a></strong>, was created. Over the last decade, Kannada Wikipedia has been a great gamechanger for the<strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kannada language</a></strong> where the Wikipedians have played a great role in making it a household name. <strong><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kannada_Wikipedia_stats_%28December_2015%29.png" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">7,05,199 unique visitors</a></strong> read the articles every month as per the December 2015 statistics. The annual average of active editors for last year was 48, 91 (in February) being the highest, 22 (in May) the lowest and 80 being the count in December 2015. The peaks and valleys also signify that major outreach like <strong><a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University/CUWEP2015_NOVEMBER" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wikipedia Education Program at Christ University, Bengaluru</a></strong> could have boosted the total number of editors during the months when the program was being rolled out. The project since its inception has gone through many ups and downs over time, the major one being a small community to edit and curate such a high level task of creating new articles in Kannada, editing and enriching them with more information and citations, and cleaning up many articles. The biggest hurdle, as <strong><a href="http://www.hpnadig.net/blog/2011/10/22/how-google-irreparably-wounded-kannada-wikipedia/755" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">explained</a></strong> by Wikimedian <strong><a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:HPNadig" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hari Prasad Nadig</a></strong>, has been cleaning up the articles created by paid translations of Google when Kannada Wikipedia along with many other Indian language Wikipedias was used as testing ground for improving <strong><a href="http://translate.google.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Translate</a></strong>, a multilingual machine translation tool. <strong><a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:VASANTH_S.N." rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vasanth SN</a></strong>, a Kannada Wikipedian who has cleaned up over 60 such articles, prefers to use an existing good quality encyclopedia like the 14 volume Kannada Vishwakosha published by Mysore University and <strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/university-of-mysore-releases-kannada-vishwakosha-under-cc-license" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">relicensed</a></strong> under <strong><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CC-BY-SA 3.0</a></strong> by the university, as a resource to create and improve articles.</p>
<p>The 14th anniversary was another milestone in the journey and there are many more to come. You can read more about it <strong><a href="http://kn.wikipedia.org/s/1daf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a></strong> on Kannada Wikipedia.</p>
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<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dna-may-22-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-celebrating-13-years-of-kannada-language-wikipedia'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dna-may-22-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-celebrating-13-years-of-kannada-language-wikipedia</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaKannada WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-18T16:20:37ZBlog EntryCultural institution AKA GLAM for more OER
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/cultural-institution-aka-glam-for-more-oer
<b>The OER conference was held in Edinburgh, Scotland on April 19 and 20, 2016. Subhashish Panigrahi gave a talk at the event organised by the University of Edinburg. </b>
<p>The vision for the conference was to focus on the value proposition of embedding open culture in the context of institutional strategies for learning, teaching and research. The conference was chaired by Melissa Highton, Director of Learning, Teaching and Web Services at the University of Edinburgh, and Lorna Campbell, OER Liaison at the University of Edinburgh and EDINA Digital Education Manager. The OER 16 conference primarily focused on:</p>
<ul>
<li>The strategic advantage of open and creating a culture of openness.</li>
<li>Converging and competing cultures of open knowledge, open source, open content, open practice, open data and open access.</li>
<li>Hacking, making and sharing.</li>
<li>The reputational challenges of openwashing.</li>
<li>Openness and public engagement.</li>
<li>Innovative approaches to opening up cultural heritage collections for education.</li></ul>
<hr />
<p><iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/IwwO926qj1iFvX" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" height="485" width="595"> </iframe></p>
<div><strong> <a title="Subhashish Panigrahi - Cultural Institution aka GLAM for More OER (OER16, 19-20.04.2016)" href="http://www.slideshare.net/CIS_India/subhashish-panigrahi-cultural-institution-aka-glam-for-more-oer-oer16-1920042016" target="_blank">Subhashish Panigrahi - Cultural Institution aka GLAM for More OER (OER16, 19-20.04.2016)</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/CIS_India" target="_blank">The Centre for Internet and Society</a></strong></div>
<hr />
<h3>Resources</h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OER16_-_Presentation_slides_of_Subhashish_Panigrahi.pdf">Presentation slides of the talk</a> </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/Cultural%20institution%20AKA%20GLAM%20for%20more%20OER/1_m28pkox9">Video of the talk</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://open.ed.ac.uk/event/oer16-conference-edinburgh/">More info on University of Edinburg website</a></li></ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/cultural-institution-aka-glam-for-more-oer'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/cultural-institution-aka-glam-for-more-oer</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-09T12:51:46ZNews ItemApril 2016 Newsletter
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2016-newsletter
<b>Welcome to the CIS newsletter for April 2016. The key issues we worked on this month included the Aadhaar Act 2016, Standard Essential Patents, cyber security of smart grids, and involvement of international agencies in the smart cities project in India.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Early last year, thanks to the fund raising efforts of a friend of CIS - Suhail Kazi, we received Rs. 1.9 lakhs as donations from 19 individuals. In January this year, we set up an online giving feature on our website which would ease the donation process, but we haven’t got a single donation so far! This could be because many of you may be under a false impression that CIS is very wealthy and does not need more support. Unfortunately, this is no longer true. Today, we are unable to find a single donor who is interested in our Accessibility, Telecom, or RAW programmes. In other words, we need your support. Would you to consider making a small donation to CIS? <strong>Click <a href="http://imojo.in/CISDonations">here</a> to donate.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here: <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a>.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" />
<table style="text-align: justify;" class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Highlights</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS prepared an <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-project-and-bill-faq">FAQ on the Aadhaar / UIDAI project</a> and the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016. Further, two infographics were produced to highlight on the questions of "<a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/can-the-aadhaar-act-2016-be-classified-as-a-money-bill">Can the Aadhaar Act 2016 be Classified as a Money Bill?</a>" and "<a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/can-matters-dealt-with-in-aadhaar-act-be-objects-of-money-bill">Can the Matters Dealt with in the Aadhaar Act be the Objects of a Money Bill?</a>".</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">NVDA team <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/april-2016-report/view">prepared a report</a> on the progress of the project for the month of April 2016.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS submitted its <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-department-of-industrial-policy-and-promotion-discussion-paper-on-standard-essential-patents-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">comments to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion's Discussion Paper</a> on Standard Essential Patents and their Availability on FRAND Terms. CIS has offered its assistance on other matters aimed at developing a suitable policy framework for SEPs and FRAND in India, and, working towards the sustained innovation, manufacture and availability of mobile technologies in India. A summary of the comments can be <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/summary-of-cis-comments-to-dipp2019s-discussion-paper-on-seps-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">accessed here</a>. Responses to the Discussion Paper is <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/responses-to-the-dipps-discussion-paper-on-seps-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">available here</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rohini Lakshané's paper titled <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patents-and-mobile-devices-in-india-an-empirical-survey">Patents and Mobile Devices in India: An Empirical Survey</a> has been accepted for publication by the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kiran A.B. in a <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/monitoring-sustainable-development-goals-in-india-availability-and-openness-02">blog post has documented the availability and openness of data sets in India</a> that are relevant for monitoring the targets under the SDGs.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Low-cost Aakash tablet and its previous iterations in India have gone through several phases of technological changes and ideological experiments wrote Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Jahnavi Phalkey <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/buying-into-the-aakash-dream">in an article published in the Economic and Political Weekly</a>.</li></ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/news">CIS in the News</a><br /><strong>-----------------------------------</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">CIS gave inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/daily-mail-april-4-2016-afp-india-biometric-database-crosses-billion-member-mark">India's biometric database crosses billion-member mark</a> (AFP and Daily Mail, UK; April 4, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/big-news-network-april-6-2016-claire-lauterbach-panama-papers-and-question-of-privacy">The Panama Papers and the question of privacy</a> (Big News Network; April 6, 2016). This was originally published by Privacyinternational.org.</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-april-8-2016-neha-alawadhi-daunting-task-ahead-for-investigative-agencies-with-whatsapp-end-to-end-encryption">Daunting task ahead for investigative agencies with WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption</a> (Neha Alawadhi; Economic Times; April 8, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-april-10-2016-somesh-jha-pmo-no-to-smart-cards-insists-aadhaar">PMO’s no to smart cards, insists on Aadhaar</a> (Somesh Jha; Hindu; April 10, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-april-10-2016-2014-showed-the-power-of-twitter">2014 showed the power of Twitter, now every Indian politician wants a handle</a> (T.V. Jayan, Smitha Verma,Sonia Sarkar and V. Kumara Swamy; Telegraph; April 10, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-alnoor-peermohamed-april-13-2016-why-is-uidai-cracking-down-on-individuals-that-hoard-aadhaar-data">Why is the UIDAI cracking down on individuals that hoard Aadhaar data?</a> (Alnoor Peermohamed; Business Standard; April 13, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/governance-now-april-19-2016-you-will-need-a-license-to-create-whatsapp-group-in-kashmir">You will need a license to create a WhatsApp group in Kashmir</a> (Governance Now; April 19, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/governance-now-april-23-2016-taru-bhatia-will-facebook-twitter-relocate-servers-to-india">Will Facebook, Twitter relocate servers to India?</a> (Taru Bhatia; Governance Now; April 23, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/dna-amrita-madhukalya-april-23-2016-government-keeps-experts-out-of-cyber-security-discussions">Government keeps experts out of cyber security discussions</a> (Amrita Madhukalya; DNA; April 23, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-raj-shekhar-arun-dev-v-narayan-a-selvaraj-cctv-plays-sherlock">CCTV plays Sherlock</a> (Raj Shekhar, Arun Dev, V Narayan & A Selvaraj with inputs from Sindhu Kannan and Somreet Bhattacharya; The Times of India; April 24, 2016).</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<p>CIS members wrote the following pieces:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Sunil Abraham wrote an <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/frontline-april-15-2016-sunil-abraham-surveillance-project">article in the July 15 edition of Frontline</a> arguing that the Aadhaar project’s technological design and architecture is an unmitigated disaster and no amount of legal fixes in the Act will make it any better. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Amber Sinha wrote an article in The Wire arguing that <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-aadhaar-act-is-not-a-money-bill">the Aaddhaar Act is not a money bill</a>, and the Supreme Court may very well question the decision by the Lok Sabha speaker to classify it as such. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Sumandro Chattapadhyay also wrote on The Wire arguing that "<a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state-doesnt-rest-in-the-aadhaar-system">the last chance for a welfare state doesn’t rest in the Aadhaar system</a>."</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Subhashish Panigrahi's article on the <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-voices-april-27-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-eight-challenges-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome">8 challenges that Indian language Wikipedias have to overcome was published by Global Voices</a>. The article had earlier been published in the Wire.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Elonnai Hickok and Vanya Rakesh co-authored an article on <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dataquest-april-25-2016-vanya-rakesh-and-elonnai-hickok-cyber-security-of-smart-grids-in-india">Cyber Security of Smart Grids in India</a> that was published by Dataquest.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Shyam Ponappa <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-april-6-2016-shyam-ponappa-breakthroughs-needed-for-digital-india">in his monthly column</a> published in the Business Standard tell us that it's time the government accepts that current policies are not enough to bring about Digital India.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">-------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility & Inclusion</a> <br /> ------------------------------------- <br /> India has an estimated 70 million persons with disabilities who don't have access to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. As part of our endeavour to make available accessible content for persons with disabilities, we are developing a text-to-speech software in 15 languages with support from the Hans Foundation. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►NVDA and eSpeak</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/march-2016-report.pdf/view">March 2016 Report</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/april-2016-report" class="internal-link">April 2016 Report</a></li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br />Our Access to Knowledge programme currently consists of two projects. The Pervasive Technologies project, conducted under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), aims to conduct research on the complex interplay between low-cost pervasive technologies and intellectual property, in order to encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The Wikipedia project, which is under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Pervasive Technologies</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Comments</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-department-of-industrial-policy-and-promotion-discussion-paper-on-standard-essential-patents-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">Comments on Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Discussion Paper on Standard Essential Patents and their Availability on Frand Terms</a> (Anubha Sinha, Nehaa Chaudhari and Rohini Lakshané; April 23, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/responses-to-the-dipps-discussion-paper-on-seps-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">Responses to the DIPP's Discussion Paper on SEPs and their Availability on FRAND Terms</a> (Anubha Sinha, Nehaa Chaudhari and Rohini Lakshané; April 23, 2016).</li>
<li>
<div id="_mcePaste"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/summary-of-cis-comments-to-dipp2019s-discussion-paper-on-seps-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">Summary of CIS Comments to DIPP’s Discussion Paper on SEPs and their availability on FRAND terms</a> (Anubha Sinha; April 26, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-congress-2015">Global Congress 2015 - A Collection of Resources</a> (Pervasive Technologies Team; April 1, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/compilation-of-mobile-phone-patent-litigation-cases-in-india">Compilation of Mobile Phone Patent Litigation Cases in India</a> (Rohini Lakshané; updated on April 15, 2016). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/joining-the-dots-in-indias-big-ticket-mobile-phone-patent-litigation">Joining the Dots in India's Big-Ticket Mobile Phone Patent Litigation</a> (Rohini Lakshané; updated on April 29, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-tezpur-university">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from Tezpur University</a> (Karan Tripathi; April 26, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sectoral-innovation-councils-on-intellectual-property-rights-2013-rti-requests-dipp-responses">National IPR Policy Series : Sectoral Innovation Councils on Intellectual Property Rights – RTI Requests + DIPP Responses</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari and Saahil Dama; April 30, 2016). Nisha S. Kumar assisted in compilation of the document.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/fifth-annual-ip-teaching-workshop">Fifth Annual IP Teaching Workshop</a> (Organised by the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition at National Law University Delhi in association with National Academy of Law Teaching, NLU-D; Delhi; March 31 and April 1, 2016). Nehaa Chaudhari was a speaker.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/first-round-table-on-innovation-ip-and-competition">First Round-table on Innovation, IP and Competition</a> (Organized by the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property & Competition (CIIPC) at the National Law University, Delhi; India Habitat Centre; New Delhi; April 1-2, 2016). Nehaa Chaudhari and Anubha Sinha attended the round-table.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/brainstorming-workshop-on-pg-programme-on-media-studies-for-ugc-e-pathshala-programme">Brainstorming Workshop on PG Programme on Media Studies for UGC E-Pathshala Programme</a> (Organized by Jamia Milla Islamia; New Delhi; April 5, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/sensitization-seminar-on-ipr-for-electronics-ict-sectors">Sensitization Seminar on IPR for Electronics & ICT Sectors</a> (Organized by Andhra Pradesh Technology Development & Promotion Centre (APTDC) of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in association with Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY); Vishakhapatnam; April 21, 2016).</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Wikipedia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Work Plan</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-work-plan-july-2016-june-2017">CIS - A2K Work Plan: July 2016 - June 2017</a> (CIS-A2K Team; April 2, 2016): We have revised the work plan template taking into account the changed proposal plan sent out by WMF and in light of the feedback that we have received from FDC assessment during last proposal application. The FDC feedback is taken into account at the level of design, RoI and ensuring quality for all our activities.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Article</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-voices-april-27-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-eight-challenges-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome">Eight Challenges Indian-Language Wikipedias Need to Overcome</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Global Voices; April 21, 2016). <strong> </strong><strong><a href="http://thewire.in/2016/03/17/eight-challenges-that-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome-25062/" target="_blank"><strong>A version of this post</strong></a></strong><strong> was previously published on </strong><strong><a href="http://thewire.in/" target="_blank"><strong>The Wire</strong></a></strong><strong>.</strong></li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Media Coverage</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-telegraph-april-7-2016-anwesha-ambaly-odia-gets-more-space-in-e-world">Odia gets more space in e-world</a> (Anwesha Ambaly; The Telegraph; April 7, 2016).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/exercise-to-correct-articles-in-tulu-wikipedia-begins">Exercise to Correct articles in Tulu Wikipedia begins</a> (Raviprasad Kamila; The Hindu; April 28, 2016).</li></ul>
<p><strong>Event Organized</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/events/tulu-wikipedia-editathon-to-improve-quality-of-articles-in-tulu-wikipedia">Tulu Wikipedia Editathon to Improve Quality of Articles in Tulu Wikipedia</a> (Shri Ramakrishna PU College; Mangaluru; April 26 - 30, 2016).</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><strong>-----------------------------------</strong><br /></span><a style="text-align: justify;" href="http://cis-india.org/openness">Openness<br /></a><span style="text-align: justify;"><strong>-----------------------------------</strong></span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Our work in the Openness programme focuses on open data, especially open government data, open access, open education resources, open knowledge in Indic languages, open media, and open technologies and standards - hardware and software. We approach openness as a cross-cutting principle for knowledge production and distribution, and not as a thing-in-itself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/monitoring-sustainable-development-goals-in-india-availability-and-openness-02">Monitoring Sustainable Development Goals in India: Availability and Openness of Data</a> (Part II) (Kiran A.B.; April 12, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a> <br /><strong> -----------------------------------</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and IDRC) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on restrictions that the Indian government has placed on freedom of expression online.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Cyber Security</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dataquest-april-25-2016-vanya-rakesh-and-elonnai-hickok-cyber-security-of-smart-grids-in-india">Cyber Security of Smart Grids in India</a> (Elonnai Hickok and Vanya Rakesh; April 25, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Big Data</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">Blog Entry</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/rti-on-smart-cities-mission-in-india">RTI regarding Smart Cities Mission in India</a> (Paul Thottan; April 21, 2016).</li></ul>
<br /></div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Privacy</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div><strong>Blog Entries</strong></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-project-and-bill-faq">FAQ on the Aadhaar Project and the Bill</a> (Elonnai Hickok, Vanya Rakesh, and Vipul Kharbanda; April 13, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-act-and-its-non-compliance-with-data-protection-law-in-india">Aadhaar Act and its Non-compliance with Data Protection Law in India</a> (Vanya Rakesh; April 14, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/can-matters-dealt-with-in-aadhaar-act-be-objects-of-money-bill">Can the Matters Dealt with in the Aadhaar Act be the Objects of a Money Bill?</a> (Pooja Saxena; April 24, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Articles</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-quint-march-31-2016-nehaa-chaudhari-will-aadhaar-act-address-indias-dire-need-for-a-privacy-law">Will Aadhaar Act Address India’s Dire Need For a Privacy Law?</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; Quint; March 31, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state-doesnt-rest-in-the-aadhaar-system">The Last Chance for a Welfare State Doesn’t Rest in the Aadhaar System</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; April 19, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-aadhaar-act-is-not-a-money-bill">The Aadhaar Act is Not a Money Bill</a> (Amber Sinha; April 25, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/rightscon-silicon-valley-2016">RightsCon Silicon Valley 2016</a> (Organized by RightsCon; March 31 and April 1, 2016). Elonnai Hickok attended the event.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/panel-discussion-on-uid-aadhar-act-2016-and-its-impact-on-social-security">Panel Discussion on UID/ Aadhar act 2016 and its impact on Social, Security</a> (Organized by Students Christian Movement of India at SCM House; Bangalore; April 25, 2016). Sunil Abraham was a panelist.</li>
<li>The Centre for the Study of Law and Governance (CSLG), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), organised a <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/will-the-magic-number-deliver-aadhaar-cslg-26042016">roundtable discussion on Tuesday, April 26</a>, to discuss the Aadhaar project and Act. Along with Prasanna S, Apar Gupta, and Dr. Chirashree Dasgupta, Sumandro Chattapadhyay was one of the discussants.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/aadhaar-by-numbers">Aadhaar by Numbers</a> (Organized by National Institute of Public Finance and Policy; New Delhi; April 29, 2016). Sunil Abraham was a speaker.</li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /></strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br /> CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources, and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Article</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-april-6-2016-shyam-ponappa-breakthroughs-needed-for-digital-india">Breakthroughs Needed For Digital India</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; April 6, 2016 and Organizing India BlogSpot; April 7, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /></strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br /> The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by an emerging need to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It aims to produce local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Article</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/buying-into-the-aakash-dream">Buying into the Aakash Dream - A Tablet’s Tale of Mass Education</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Jahnavi Phalkey; Economic & Political Weekly; April 23, 2016). </li></ul>
</div>
<p>Announcement</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/jobs/call-for-proposal-big-data-for-development-field-studies">Call for Proposal: Big Data for Development – Initial Field Studies</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; April 29, 2016).</li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul></ul>
</div>
<p><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br /> The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at <a>tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</div>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2016-newsletter'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2016-newsletter</a>
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No publishersunilAccess to KnowledgeTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchers at Work2016-05-10T06:26:09ZPageEight Challenges Indian-Language Wikipedias Need to Overcome
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-voices-april-27-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-eight-challenges-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome
<b>Even after a decade of existence, Indian language Wikipedias are not yet known to many Indian language speakers. Wikipedia, the largest available encyclopedia made in the human history, is what it is today because of the hundreds and thousands of volunteer editors.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The article was published in Global Voices on April 27, 2016. <a href="http://thewire.in/2016/03/17/eight-challenges-that-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome-25062/" target="_blank"><strong><em>A version of this post</em></strong></a><strong><em> was previously published on </em></strong><a href="http://thewire.in/" target="_blank"><strong><em>The Wire</em></strong></a><strong><em>. </em></strong></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">But while native-language Wikipedias are becoming game-changers in other corners of the world, the scenario in India is skewed. Here, from my point of view, are some of the challenges that Indian-language Wikipedias are currently facing.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>1. Language communities</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The language communities of many of the Indian languages are such that many of them do not know how to search for information online, in language typed in their script. Some of these communities even believe that because Google’s home page does not display their script, their language does not exist on the Internet. Google, which starting with<a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-06-22/news/29689671_1_languages-machine-translation-indic" target="_blank"> five Indian languages</a> as options in its interface, now has has nine Indian languages. But this does not stop a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santali_language" target="_blank">Santali</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meithei_language" target="_blank">Manipuri</a> user from searching in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ol_Chiki_(Unicode_block)" target="_blank">Unicode Ol chiki</a> (the script for Santali) or in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meithei_script#Unicode" target="_blank">Unicode Meithei </a>(the script for Manipuri). Google, or any search engine, for that matter, will display anything available in any script on the Internet. But the perceived lack of this very function is keeping many people from connecting to the Internet, and to Wikipedia in particular.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>2. Wikipedia’s editor community</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Wikipedia is written by people like you and me. And everything, from writing to editing, is done by volunteers. And anybody can correct the mistakes and inaccuracies that exist in many Wikipedia articles. While several Indian languages are spoken by millions of people, the Wikipedia editor communities for these languages are very small, with only a<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/subhashish-panigrahi-/when-wikipedia-is-turning_b_9025690.html" target="_blank"> handful editors</a> contributing to editing those language versions of Wikipedia. In January this year, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hindi_Wikipedia_stats_January_2016.png" target="_blank">Hindi Wikipedia</a>, for instance, had only 89 editors, while the total number of Hindi speakers is over 550 million.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>3. Language input on computers</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">A vast majority of people in India <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-01-17/news/30635792_1_indian-languages-indic-computer" target="_blank">do not</a> know<a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector" target="_blank"> how to type</a> in their own language. There is also little documentation instructing users about language input. Even though many <a href="http://mhrd.gov.in/ict_overview">government-run schools</a> in India are seeing a proliferation in computer use and Internet access, native language input and other <a href="http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/Government-Schools-Fail-to-Log-into-Computers/2015/11/17/article3132258.ece" target="_blank">essential training of basic computing</a> are not widely taught in schools in all states. This is unfortunate, as there is a wide variety of free software for native-language input, and the<a href="https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W/W11/W11-3501.pdf"> challenges</a> of typing in Indian languages that existed a few years back are now almost non-existent.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>4. Language input on mobile devices</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With over<a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PressRealease/Document/PR-TeleSubData_Oct_2015.pdf" target="_blank"> 1 billion</a> mobile phone users, India's 15% internet penetration rate will soon start growing at a faster pace. This in turn—along with the tough competition that will compel TSPs to<a href="http://www.mobiletor.com/bsnl-to-drop-3g-internet-rates-by-50-percent-the-tariff-wars-continue/"> lower data charges</a>—will help many Indians get access to the Internet. If these people are not educated about native language input they will be <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/Nz7KxIkmUJdacebMwzzcOJ/English-the-Web-and-digital-caste.html" target="_blank">victims</a> of the <a href="https://books.google.co.in/books?id=8CM68DP6dWcC&lpg=PA234&ots=5SsRhkCvJk&dq=English-centric%20Internet&pg=PA234#v=onepage&q=English-centric%20Internet&f=false" target="_blank">English-centric Internet </a>and fail to enjoy the virtues of the former. Many Indians who have smartphones need full Indian language support, and especially built-in input methods, to be able to contribute to Wikipedia in their own languages.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>5. Scarcity of Indian-language content on the Internet</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/02/13-digital-divide-developing-world-west/west_internet-access.pdf" target="_blank">The relative lack of native language content on the Internet</a> is another major factor in the low adoption of Indian language Wikpedias. According to an Internet and Mobile Association of India survey conducted in 2012, over 6% of the population is left behind with regard to joining the online sphere simply because of a scarcity of content in their languages. Take my home state of Odisha, for instance: while the Kerala state government’s<a href="https://www.keralatourism.org/languages/" target="_blank"> official tourism portal</a> is available in Odia and other Indian languages, at the time of writing the Odisha government’s tourism portal had<a href="http://www.odishatourism.gov.in/" target="_blank"> no information</a> in Odia. It is unfortunate that our languages are neglected largely within our own states.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>6. Incompatibility between new and traditional media standards</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Instead of adopting the <a href="http://unicode.org/faq/indic.html">Unicode</a> standard, many traditional media outlets continue to use non-standard variants of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII" target="_blank">ASCII</a>/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Script_Code_for_Information_Interchange">ISCII</a> script encoding systems Unicode, a global standard, has been available for Indian languages for almost<a href="http://www.unicode.org/Public/reconstructed/1.0.0/UnicodeData.txt"> 25 years</a> now, but most of India's vernacular print media has failed to adopt it. As a result, many popular Indian-language newspapers are unavailable in Unicode on the open Internet.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>7. Lack of Open Access</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The majority of the information published on the Internet, and by the Indian<a href="http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/uploads/Patent_ManualOct_25th_07.pdf" target="_blank"> government</a>, in particular, is copyrighted. This paywalled garden of copyright restrictions restricts access of this information and prevents people from sharing and learning more. Wikipedia, on the other hand, is distributed under a<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License"> Creative Commons Share-Alike license</a> that allows anyone to make use of the content, and even distribute it commercially. Opening up information for the masses under free license regime could make it easily accessible to millions of people.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>8. Failure to cater for people with disabilities</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Many people in India cannot read, speak or write, and the country has over<a href="http://www.entwb.com/public-patients/general-information/deafness" target="_blank"> 60 million people</a> with some form of hearing impairment. There is a desperate need for a high-quality <a href="http://www.nvaccess.org/" target="_blank">text-to-speech</a> and speech-to-text engines for people with physical disabilities. These products also be freely available so that those who cannot afford to buy expensive proprietary software like JAWS can contribute to Wikipedia in their languages. Many of the text-to-speech engines available today for Indian languages sound so mechanical that it is difficult for the average speaker to use them.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-voices-april-27-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-eight-challenges-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-voices-april-27-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-eight-challenges-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaCIS-A2KAccess to Knowledge2016-06-18T17:09:38ZBlog EntryTypography Day 2016
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/typography-day-2016
<b>Typography Day was organized for the 9th time at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore in collaboration with the Industrial Design Centre (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) with support from India Design Association (InDeAs) and Aksharaya.
</b>
<p>Subhashish Panigrahi was a speaker at the event. He along with Pooja Saxena made a presentation on <a class="external-link" href="http://www.slideshare.net/psubhashish/typoday-2016-presentation-by-pooja-saxena-and-subhashish-panigrahi">Bringing Ol Chiki to the Digital World</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p><iframe width="595" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/M9afQdv5t5PW3k"> </iframe></p>
<div><strong> <a title="Typoday 2016: Presentation by Pooja Saxena and Subhashish Panigrahi" href="http://www.slideshare.net/psubhashish/typoday-2016-presentation-by-pooja-saxena-and-subhashish-panigrahi" target="_blank">Typoday 2016: Presentation by Pooja Saxena and Subhashish Panigrahi</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/psubhashish" target="_blank">Subhashish Panigrahi</a></strong></div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/typography-day-2016'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/typography-day-2016</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-04-24T15:16:04ZNews ItemOdia gets more space in e-world
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-telegraph-april-7-2016-anwesha-ambaly-odia-gets-more-space-in-e-world
<b>A survey conducted by the Odia Wikipedia community and the Centre for Internet and Society reveals that the online presence of Odia language is gradually increasing.</b>
<p>The article by Anwesha Ambaly was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160407/jsp/odisha/story_78701.jsp#.VxzS3c5OL4h">published in the Telegraph</a> on April 7, 2016. Subhashish Panigrahi was quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The survey, conducted last month, found nearly 61 per cent online users active on social media to be using the universal web-compatible Unicode font for Odia. Using the Unicode ensures it is searchable, sharable and reusable on the Internet, thus making its presence bigger.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"The survey results show that more people are typing in the native script. And the use is increasing at a fast pace," said Subhashish Panigrahi, the programme officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, adding that there had been a 20 per cent rise in the number of Unicode users for Odia over the past two years.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Most people share quotes, personal opinions and news on social media in Unicode. In the first phase, the survey was conducted among 500 active social media users. More such surveys will be conducted within six months. The survey was conducted on Facebook, Twitter and some other popular social networking sites.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The survey results are particularly significant since the two other fonts used for writing Odia in the computer - Akruti and Sreelipi - are not compatible for use on the Internet.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Based on these survey responses, we will customise several projects so that more people join in this free and collaborative knowledge sharing movement," said Mrutyunjaya Kar, an administrator of the Odia Wikipedia Community.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Unicode font for Odia was introduced in 1991. Earlier, many people were not even aware of its existence in their personal and office computers. Unicode-compliant fonts now come preloaded in all computers across Linux, Windows and Mac operating systems. And many mobile companies also have Unicode fonts installed, especially in systems such as Android 5.0 and later versions."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Medical student Nasim Ali said: "Apple iOS devices have Odia support to the display level where one needs to download apps to type in Odia."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The survey also mentions that around 30.4 per cent use the Latin script to write Odia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, while explaining why there was not much Odia content on the Internet, Kar said: "There is no government initiative to promote Unicode in Odia. There is a need for more initiative to implement Unicode at all levels, such as government websites, web versions of school textbooks, government circulars and other publications."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"We have written several letters to the state government requesting them to start using Unicode while uploading documents in government websites. But, there has been no response or action from the government's side," Kar added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Culture secretary Manoranjan Panigrahi, however, said: "We are taking a lot of initiatives to promote Odia language at the international level. We are trying to make use of technology to make sure that its presence increase on the web platform."</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-telegraph-april-7-2016-anwesha-ambaly-odia-gets-more-space-in-e-world'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-telegraph-april-7-2016-anwesha-ambaly-odia-gets-more-space-in-e-world</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-04-24T14:57:56ZNews ItemBHASHA - Indian Languages Digital Festival
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/bhasha-indian-languages-digital-festival
<b>Subhashish Panigrahi gave a talk at the Bhasha- India Languages Digital Festival a conference organized by news media YourStory, at New Delhi on March 11, 2016. In the panel "The challenges of making regional language content available on the Web and on mobiles" Panigrahi spoke about some of the challenges in growing the Indian-language Wikipedia projects and the communities. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The notes for the talk are below:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Wikipedia, that exists in many Indian languages are not known to masses. I personally did not know about the <a title="w:or:Main page" class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:Main_page">Odia Wikipedia</a> 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, more contributors joined and the project grew up to what it is today. The site now has over 300,000 visitors every month and it is the largest visited site in Odia language on the Internet. This could probably be the same case for your language.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It has been quite challenging in the past to grow the Indian-language Wikipedia projects. There are many challenges and I would talk about eight of them:</p>
<dl style="text-align: justify;"><dt>1. Language communities</dt></dl>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The language communities of many of the Indian languages are such that many of them even do no know how to search any information online in their language typed in their script. Some even share that because Google's home page does not have their script means that their language does not exist on the Internet. There exist a large gap of ignorance.</p>
<dl style="text-align: justify;"><dt>2. Wikipedia's editor community</dt></dl>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Wikipedia, as you all know, is written by people like you and me. And from writing to editing everything happens voluntarily. As many people do not probably know or do not try to learn that they themselves can correct the mistakes and inaccuracy that exist in many Wikipedia articles. The Wikipedia editor communities for several Indian languages are really small. When these languages are spoken by millions of people, only a handful editors contribute in editing the Wikipedia in these languages.</p>
<dl style="text-align: justify;"><dt>3. Language input</dt></dl>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There is a vast majority of people in this country that do not know how to type in their own language.</p>
<dl style="text-align: justify;"><dt>4. Low availability of Indian-language content on the Internet</dt></dl>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There are two stages to the lack of Open Access to information. First, lack of native language content on the Internet bars many to access knowledge. Take the example of my state. When the Kerala government's official tourism portal is available in Odia and other Indian languages, my state, the Odisha government's tourism portal has no information in Odia-language. Our languages are neglected largely in our own states.</p>
<dl style="text-align: justify;"><dt>5. Mismatch of conventional and new media</dt></dl>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Many conventional have still been using 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 about 25 years now.<sup class="reference"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Subhashish_Panigrahi_speaking_at_%22BHASHA-Indian_Languages_Digital_Festival%22,_New_Delhi,_11_March_2016.ogg#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> But many of our traditional media has failed to adopt this. Malayala Manorama, one of the most circulated dailies in Malayalam languages and one of the oldest Indian newspaper still has not started using Unicode on their website. Same is the case for many other newspapers in India.</p>
<dl style="text-align: justify;"><dt>6. Lack of Open Access</dt></dl>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The information produced on the Internet in general and by the government, in particular, are mostly copyrighted. The paywalled garden of copyright restrictions keeps the information closed and stop 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 its content. The idea of opening up information for masses in a free license could make the information reach to millions of people.</p>
<dl style="text-align: justify;"><dt>7. Mobile input</dt></dl>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With over 1 billion people with mobile phones, the 15% internet penetration rate will soon grow meaning lot many Indians will have access to the Internet. If these people are not educated about native language input then they will be victims of the English-centric Internet rather than being able to enjoy the virtue of the same. Many Indians that have smartphones need pre-built input methods to be able to contribute in their own language Wikipedia.</p>
<dl style="text-align: justify;"><dt>8. People with disabilities</dt></dl>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Many cannot read, speak and write. India has over 60 million people with hearing impairment.<sup class="reference"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Subhashish_Panigrahi_speaking_at_%22BHASHA-Indian_Languages_Digital_Festival%22,_New_Delhi,_11_March_2016.ogg#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> There is a need for good quality text to and speech to text engine for these languages. Also, these software products have to be free software so common people, that cannot afford to buy expensive proprietary software like <a title="w:JAWS (screen reader)" class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAWS_(screen_reader)">JAWS</a>, 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 way hard for common speakers to use them.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/bhasha-indian-languages-digital-festival'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/bhasha-indian-languages-digital-festival</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-18T17:14:37ZNews ItemMarch 2016 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march-2016-bulletin
<b>CIS Newsletter for the month of March 2016 is here.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is happy to share its March 2016 newsletter. Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed at <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a>.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" />
<table style="text-align: justify;" class="grid listing">
<tbody>
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<th>Highlights</th>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS published and circulated two press releases on March 11 and 15, 2016, as the Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016: '<a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/press-release-aadhaar-11032016-the-law-cannot-fix-what-technology-has-broken">The Law cannot Fix what Technology has Broken!</a>' and '<a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/press-release-aadhaar-15032016-the-new-bill-makes-aadhaar-compulsory">The New Bill Makes Aadhaar Compulsory!</a>'</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS submitted <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/list-of-recommendations-on-the-aadhaar-bill-2016">an initial list of recommendations to the Members of Parliaments</a> to highlight the aspects of the Bill that require immediate attention. The recommendations were prepared by Amber Sinha, Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Sunil Abraham, and Vanya Rakesh.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In an article titled <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/epw-27-february-2016-hans-varghese-mathews-flaws-in-uidai-process">Flaws in the UIDAI Process published in the Economic and Political Weekly</a>, Hans Varghese Mathews. He stated that the Government of India is engaged upon biometrically identifying the entire population of India. An experiment performed at an early stage of the programme has allowed us to estimate the chance of a false positive: and from that to estimate the proportion of duplicands. For the current population of 1.2 billion the expected proportion of duplicands is 1/121, a ratio which is far too high.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Vipul Kharbanda <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/analysis-of-aadhaar-act-in-context-of-shah-committee-principles">wrote an analysis of Aadhaar Act in the context of Justice A.P. Shah Committee Principles</a>. The analysis has thrown light on the substantial aspects of the Act in relation to privacy concerns which have been raised by a number of experts.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Pooja Saxena and Amber Sinha produced two infographics that 1) <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/aadhaar-bill-2016-evaluated-against-the-national-privacy-principles">evaluate the Aadhaar Bill 2016 against the National Privacy Principles</a>, and 2) <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/vulnerabilities-in-the-uidai-implementation-not-addressed-by-the-aadhaar-bill-2016">highlight the vulnerabilities in the UIDAI implementation process not addressed by the Aadhaar Bill, 2016</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS has initiated the CIS Papers series with a fascinating exploration of <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/papers/ebola-a-big-data-disaster">humanitarian use of big data and its discontents</a> by Sean McDonald, FrontlineSMS, in the context of utilisation of Call Detail Records for public health response during the Ebola crisis in Liberia.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">With the objective to sensitize and impart the skillset in handling NVDA – the Screen Reader and the usage of BookShare Online Library for the print disabled to the Special Educators, Karna Vidya Technology Centre in collaboration with Computer and Internet Society <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-nvda-with-e-speak-and-bookshare-online-library">conducted a one-day workshop</a> on February 27, 2016. 48 special educators participated and benefited from the workshop.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">An article titled 8 Challenges In Growing Indian-Language Wikipedias by Subhashish Panigrahi was first published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/subhashish-panigrahi-/8-of-many-challenges-in-g_b_9457704.html">Huffington Post</a> on March 19, 2016. This was cross-posted in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.medianama.com/2016/03/223-indic-wikipedia-growth-slow-subhashish-panigrahi/">Medianama</a> titled as Multiple key factors preventing Indic Wikipedia growth on March 21, 2016.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS has published a <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/report-of-the-30th-session-of-the-wipo-sccr-by-the-centre-for-internet-society">report on the 30th Session of WIPO-SCCR</a> giving an analysis of the Broadcast Treaty Negotiations and the Negotiations on International Instrument for Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Archives. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Anubha Sinha wrote an essay titled <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digital-asia-hub-the-good-life-in-asias-21-st-century-anubha-sinha-fueling-the-affordable-smartphone-revolution-in-india">Fueling the Affordable Smartphone Revolution in India</a> as part of the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.digitalasiahub.org/thegoodlife/">The Good Life in Asia's Digital 21st Century essay collection</a>. She stated that smartphones have emerged as the exemplar of mankind's quest for shrinking technologies. They embody the realization of a simple premise – that computing devices would do more and cost less. This realization has been responsible for modern society's profound transformations in communication, governance, and knowledge distribution. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rohini Lakshané wrote an analysis of the patent landscape in a research paper titled <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patents-and-mobile-devices-in-india-an-empirical-survey">Patents and Mobile Devices in India: An Empirical Survey</a>. The paper has indicated that although India has the second-largest wireless subscriber base in the world, with more than 150 mobile device vendors, it has, until recently, remained relatively unaffected by the global smartphone wars.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, has constituted a National Expert Committee for developing a draft National Geospatial Policy (NGP) to provide appropriate guidelines for collection, analysis, use, and distribution of geospatial information across India, and to assure data availability, accessibility and quality. A pre-drafting consultation meeting for the NGP was organised in Delhi on February 3, 2016. <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/consultation-on-national-geospatial-policy-03022016">Anubha Sinha attended the meeting</a>. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The glue that allows infrastructures to link and operate efficiently is standards as they make technologies interoperable and efficient tells Vanya Rakesh in a blog entry titled <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/adoption-of-standards-in-smart-cities-way-forward-for-india">Adoption of Standards in Smart Cities - Way Forward for India</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">P.P. Sneha <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/studying-digital-creative-industries-in-india-initial-questions">wrote a blog post </a> which <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/studying-digital-creative-industries-in-india-initial-questions">studies the digital creative industries in India</a> while examining some initial questions. She stated that the term ‘creative industries’ has been around for a while now, but with the advent of the digital, and with interest from different sectors, especially with a focus on policy and economic development, it would be essential to critically examine the discourse around the term, and see where it may be changing to open up new possibilities, particularly for the arts, humanities and design.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS strongly <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-statement-on-sexual-harrasment-at-icann55">condemns the acts of sexual harassment that took place against one of its representatives</a> Padmini Baruah during ICANN 55 in Marrakech. It is completely unacceptable that an event the scale of an ICANN meeting does not have in place a formal redressal system, a neutral point of contact or even a policy for complainants who have been put through the ordeal of sexual harassment. ICANN cannot claim to be inclusive or diverse if it does not formally recognise a specific procedure or recourse under such instances. </li></ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify;">-------------------------------------- <br /><strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility & Inclusion</a></strong> <br /> ------------------------------------- <br /> India has an estimated 70 million persons with disabilities who don't have access to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. As part of our endeavour to make available accessible content for persons with disabilities we are developing a text-to-speech software in 15 languages with support from the Hans Foundation. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►NVDA and eSpeak</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The workshops were conducted earlier but published recently on our website:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-espeak-with-nvda-screen-reader-and-assistive-technology-for-visually-challenged">Report on eSpeak with NVDA Screen Reader and Assistive Technology for Visually Challenged</a> (Organized by National Association for the Blind, New Delhi, Centre for Differently Abled Persons, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, and CIS; January 21, 2016; Tiruchirappalli).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-nvda-with-e-speak-and-bookshare-online-library">Report on NVDA with E-Speak and BookShare Online Library</a> (Organized by Karna Vidya Technology Centre, Computer and Internet Society, and CIS; February 27, 2016; Chennai).</div>
</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a> <br /> ----------------------------------- <br /></strong>As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Pervasive Technologies</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Article</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digital-asia-hub-the-good-life-in-asias-21-st-century-anubha-sinha-fueling-the-affordable-smartphone-revolution-in-india">Fueling the Affordable Smartphone Revolution in India</a> (Anubha Sinha; The Good Life in Asia's 21st Century Essay Collection; March 16, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/report-of-the-30th-session-of-the-wipo-sccr-by-the-centre-for-internet-society">Report of the 30th Session of the WIPO SCCR by the Centre for Internet & Society</a> (edited by Nehaa Chaudhari with assistance from Nisha S.K., Aarushi Bansal, Amulya P., and Saahil Dama; March 16, 2016).</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dataset-patent-landscape-of-mobile-device-technologies-in-india">Dataset: Patent Landscape of Mobile Device Technologies in India</a> (Rohini Lakshané; March 31, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patents-and-mobile-devices-in-india-an-empirical-survey">Patents and Mobile Devices in India: An Empirical Survey </a>(Rohini Lakshané; March 31, 2016)</div>
</li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Wikipedia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).</p>
<p><strong>Articles</strong></p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/the-wire-march-17-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-eight-challenges-that-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome">Eight Challenges That Indian-Language Wikipedias Need to Overcome</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; The Wire; March 17, 2016). A version of the article was also mirrored by <a href="https://opensource.com/life/16/3/8-challenges-improving-indian-language-wikipedias">Opensource.com </a>on March 28, 2016.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/huffington-post-march-19-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-in-growing-indian-language-wikipedias">8 Challenges In Growing Indian-Language Wikipedias</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Huffington Post; March 19, 2016). This was cross-posted in Medianama titled as <a href="http://www.medianama.com/2016/03/223-indic-wikipedia-growth-slow-subhashish-panigrahi/">Multiple key factors preventing Indic Wikipedia growth</a> on March 21, 2016.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-march-28-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-for-improving-indian-language-wikipedias">8 Challenges for Improving Indian Language Wikipedias</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Opensource.com; March 28, 2016). The article was originally published in <a href="http://thewire.in/2016/03/17/eight-challenges-that-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome-25062/">the Wire</a> on March 17, 2016 and later mirrored on <a href="https://opensource.com/life/16/3/8-challenges-improving-indian-language-wikipedias">Opensource.com </a>on March 28, 2016.</li></ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Event</strong></p>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/bhasha-indian-languages-digital-festival">BHASHA-Indian Languages Digital Festival</a> (Organized by news media YourStory; March 11, 2016; New Delhi). Subhashish Panigrahi gave a talk in the panel “The challenges of making regional language content available on the Web and on mobiles.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/8th-iba-international-conference">8th IBA International Conference</a> (Organized by Indus Business Academy; March 24 - 26, 2016; Bangalore). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja gave a talk on Democratizing of Knowledge Access- Case of Regional Language Wikipedia.</li></ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /></strong> <strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness">Openness</a> <br /> -----------------------------------</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Our work in the Openness programme focuses on open data, especially open government data, open access, open education resources, open knowledge in Indic languages, open media, and open technologies and standards - hardware and software. We approach openness as a cross-cutting principle for knowledge production and distribution, and not as a thing-in-itself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Submission</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/consultation-on-national-geospatial-policy-03022016">Consultation on 'National Geospatial Policy' - Notes and Submission</a> (Anubha Sinha; March 29, 2016)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /></strong> <strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a> <br /> -----------------------------------</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">►Big Data</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Article</strong></div>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-wire-march-21-2016-vanya-rakesh-too-clever-by-half-strengthening-indias-smart-cities-plan-with-human-rights-protection">Too Clever By Half: Strengthening India’s Smart Cities Plan with Human Rights Protection</a> (Vanya Rakesh; The Wire; March 22, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entry</strong></div>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/adoption-of-standards-in-smart-cities-way-forward-for-india">Adoption of Standards in Smart Cities - Way Forward for India</a> (Vanya Rakesh; March 19, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<div><br />►Freedom of Expression</div>
<div><strong>Statements</strong></div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sexual-harassment-at-icann">Sexual Harassment at ICANN</a> (Padmini Baruah; March 18, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-statement-on-sexual-harrasment-at-icann55">CIS' Statement on Sexual Harassment at ICANN55 </a>(Vidushi Marda; March 21, 2016).</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<div>►Privacy</div>
<div><strong>Submission</strong></div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/list-of-recommendations-on-the-aadhaar-bill-2016">List of Recommendations on the Aadhaar Bill, 2016 - Letter Submitted to the Members of Parliament </a>(Amber Sinha, Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Sunil Abraham, and Vanya Rakesh; March 16, 2016).</li></ul>
<div><strong>Articles</strong></div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/epw-27-february-2016-hans-varghese-mathews-flaws-in-uidai-process">Flaws in the UIDAI Process</a> (Hans Varghese Mathews; Economic & Political Weekly, Journal, Vol. 51, Issue No. 9, February 27, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/livemint-march-7-2016-pranesh-prakash-aadhaar-still-too-many-problems">Aadhaar: Still Too Many Problems</a> (Pranesh Prakash; Livemint; March 7, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-bill-fails-to-incorporate-suggestions-by-the-standing-committee">Aadhaar Bill fails to incorporate suggestions by the Standing Committee </a>(Amber Sinha; The Wire; March 10, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-amber-sinha-march-10-2016-are-we-losing-right-to-privacy-and-freedom-of-speech-on-indian-internet">Are we Losing the Right to Privacy and Freedom of Speech on Indian Internet?</a> (Amber Sinha; March 10, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-amber-sinha-pranesh-prakash-march-12-2016-privacy-concerns-overshadow-monetary-benefits-of-aadhaar-scheme">Privacy Concerns Overshadow Monetary Benefits of Aadhaar Scheme </a>(Pranesh Prakash and Amber Sinha; Hindustan Times; March 12, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-quint-march-31-2016-nehaa-chaudhari-will-aadhaar-act-address-indias-dire-need-for-a-privacy-law">Will Aadhaar Act Address India’s Dire Need For a Privacy Law?</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; Quint; March 31, 2016).</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Blog Entries</strong></div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/a-comparison-of-the-2016-aadhaar-bill-and-the-2010-nidai-bill">A comparison of the 2016 Aadhaar Bill, and the 2010 NIDAI Bill</a> (Vanya Rakesh; March 9, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-bill-2016-niai-bill-2010-text-comparison">Aadhaar Bill 2016 & NIAI Bill 2010 - Comparing the Texts</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; March 9, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-new-aadhaar-bill-in-plain-english">The New Aadhaar Bill in Plain English</a> (Amber Sinha, Vanya Rakesh and Vipul Kharbanda; March 11, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/an-urgent-need-for-the-right-to-privacy">An Urgent Need for the Right to Privacy</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; March 16, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/press-release-aadhaar-11032016-the-law-cannot-fix-what-technology-has-broken">The Law cannot Fix what Technology has Broken!</a> (Japreet Grewal and Sunil Abraham; March 16, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/press-release-aadhaar-15032016-the-new-bill-makes-aadhaar-compulsory">The New Bill Makes Aadhaar Compulsory!</a> (Amber Sinha; March 16, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/analysis-of-aadhaar-act-in-context-of-shah-committee-principles">Analysis of Aadhaar Act in the Context of A.P. Shah Committee Principles </a>(Vipul Kharbanda; March 17, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/vulnerabilities-in-the-uidai-implementation-not-addressed-by-the-aadhaar-bill-2016">Vulnerabilities in the UIDAI Implementation Not Addressed by the Aadhaar Bill, 2016</a> (Pooja Saxena and Vipul Kharbanda; March 21, 2016).</li></ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/gni-industry-dialogue-learning-session-human-rights-impact-assessments-and-due-diligence-in-the-ict-sector">GNI-Industry Dialogue Learning Session: Human Rights Impact Assessments and Due Diligence in the ICT sector</a> (Organized by Global Network Initiative; March 11, 2016; Washington D.C.). Elonnai Hickok attended the event.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/rightscon-silicon-valley-2016">RightsCon Silicon Valley 2016</a> (Organized by RightsCon; Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, California; March 30 - April 1, 2016).</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<div><strong> </strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /></strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom"><strong>Telecom</strong></a><strong> <br /> ----------------------------------- <br /></strong> CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<ul></ul>
<div><strong>Op-ed</strong></div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/connectivity-lets-apply-what-we-know">Connectivity: Let's Apply What We Know</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; March 2, 2016).</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Submission</strong></div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/trai-consultation-on-differential-pricing-for-data-services">TRAI Consultation on Differential Pricing for Data Services - Post-Open House Discussion Submission</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; March 30, 2016). </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /></strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw"><strong>Researchers at Work</strong></a><strong> <br /> ----------------------------------- <br /></strong> The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by contemporary concerns to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It is interested in producing local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/studying-digital-creative-industries-in-india-initial-questions">Studying Digital Creative Industries in India: Initial Questions</a> (P.P. Sneha; March 17, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">----------------------------------- <br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/news">News & Media Coverage</a> <br /> -----------------------------------</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">CIS gave inputs to the following media coverage:</div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/motherboard-march-4-2016-joseph-cox-crypto-wars-are-global">The Crypto Wars Are Global </a>(Joseph Cox; Motherboard; March 4, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-march-8-2016-shreeja-sen-govt-narrative-on-aadhaar-has-not-changed-in-last-six-years-sunil-abraham">Govt narrative on Aadhaar has not changed in the last six years: Sunil Abraham </a>(Shreeja Sen; Livemint; March 8, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-march-9-2016-shreeja-sen-aadhaar-govt-will-not-compromise-on-national-security">Aadhaar: Govt will not compromise on national security</a> (Shreeja Sen; Livemint; March 9, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/governance-now-march-9-2016-taru-bhatia-hard-to-broad-ban">Hard to broad ban! </a>(Taru Bhatia; Governance Now; March 9, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/scroll.in-anumeha-yadav-march-24-2016-seven-reasons-why-parliament-should-debate-the-aadhaar-bill-and-not-pass-it-in-a-rush">Seven reasons why Parliament should debate the Aadhaar bill </a>(and not pass it in a rush) (Anumeha Yadav; March 11, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-sahil-makkar-march-12-2016-aadhaar-is-actually-surveillance-tech-sunil-abraham">Aadhaar is actually surveillance tech: Sunil Abraham</a> (Sahil Makkar; Business Standard; March 12, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/new-indian-express-march-14-2016-will-only-legal-backing-for-aadhaar-suffice">Will Only Legal Backing For Aadhaar Suffice?</a> (Indian Express; March 14, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/reuters-march-16-2016-sanjeev-miglani-and-manoj-kumar-indias-billion-member-biometric-database-raises-privacy-fears">India's billion-member biometric database raises privacy fears </a>(Sanjeev Miglani and Manoj Kumar; March 16, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/a-scheme-in-india-to-help-the-poor-raises-privacy-concerns">A scheme in India to help the poor raises privacy concerns </a>(John Ribeiro; IDG News Service and CSO; March 16, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/gov-now-pratap-vikram-singh-17032016-why-aadhaar-is-baseless">Pratap Vikram Singh - Why Aadhaar is Baseless?</a> (Governance Now; March 17, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-march-17-2016-aloke-tikku-forget-privacy-aadhaar-bill-gives-too-much-power-to-the-executive">Forget privacy, Aadhaar Bill gives too much power to the executive </a>(Aloke Tikku; Sunil Abraham; March 17, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/voice-of-america-anjana-pasricha-march-18-2016-in-india-biometric-data-storage-sparks-demands-for-privacy-laws">In India, Biometric Data Storage Sparks Demands for Privacy Laws</a> (Anjana Pasricha; Voice of America; March 18, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bangalore-mirror-jayanthi-madhukar-sowmya-rajaram-march-20-2016-dead-and-clicking">Dead and Clicking</a> (Jayanthi Madhukar and Sowmya Rajaram; Bangalore Mirror; March 20, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/tech-dirt-march-22-2016-india-still-trying-to-turn-optional-aadhaar-identification-number-into-mandatory-national-identity-system">India Still Trying To Turn Optional Aadhaar Identification Number Into A Mandatory National Identity System</a> (TechDirt; March 22, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-wire-march-23-2016-reetika-khera-debate-five-aadhaar-myths-that-dont-stand-up-to-scrutiny">Debate: Five Aadhaar Myths that Don’t Stand Up to Scrutiny </a>(Reetika Khera; March 23, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/scroll.in-march-24-2016-rajshekhar-anumeha-yadav-how-the-govt-gains-when-private-companies-use-aadhaar">How the government gains when private companies use Aadhaar</a> (M. Rajshekhar and Anumeha Yadav; March 24, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-march-20-2016-making-aadhaar-mandatory-gamechanger-for-governance">Making Aadhaar Mandatory: Gamechanger For Governance?</a> (NDTV; March 24, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-wire-march-24-2016-icann-sexual-harassment-case-highlights-lack-of-procedure-at-global-internet-body">ICANN Sexual Harassment </a>Case Highlights Lack of Procedure at Global Internet Body (Wire; March 24, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-business-line-march-25-2016-bhavya-dore-securing-internets-future">Securing the internet’s future</a> (Hindu Businessline; March 25, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-march-25-2016-kim-arora-on-google-maps-jnu-top-result-in-search-for-anti-national">On Google Maps, JNU top result in search for 'anti-national'</a> (Kim Arora; The Times of India; March 25, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bangalore-mirror-march-30-2016-kavita-patil-woman-alleges-harassment-at-major-international-conference">Woman Alleges Harassment at Major International Conference </a>(Kavita Patil; Bangalore Mirror; March 30, 2016).</li></ul>
<p><strong>----------------------------------- <br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a> <br /> ----------------------------------- </strong><br /> The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at <a>tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</div>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong> </strong></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><strong> </strong></strong></div>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march-2016-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march-2016-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaNewsletter2016-04-13T08:05:42ZPage8 Challenges In Growing Indian-Language Wikipedias
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/huffington-post-march-19-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-in-growing-indian-language-wikipedias
<b>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. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The article was first published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/subhashish-panigrahi-/8-of-many-challenges-in-g_b_9457704.html">Huffington Post</a> on March 19, 2016. This was cross-posted in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.medianama.com/2016/03/223-indic-wikipedia-growth-slow-subhashish-panigrahi/">Medianama</a> titled as Multiple key factors preventing Indic Wikipedia growth on March 21, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">I personally did not know about the <a href="https://or.wikipedia.org/" target="_hplink">Odia Wikipedia</a> 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 <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Odia_Wikipedia_stats_(January_2016).png" target="_hplink">300,000 visitors</a> 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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Many people do not even know how to search for information online in their own language, typed in its script.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>1. Ignorance of language communities</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout">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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>2.Wikipedia's editor community</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/subhashish-panigrahi-/when-wikipedia-is-turning_b_9025690.html" target="_hplink">handful of editors</a> contribute in editing the Wikipedia in these languages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>3.Language input in computers</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">A vast majority of people in this country <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-01-17/news/30635792_1_indian-languages-indic-computer" target="_hplink">do not</a> know <a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector" target="_hplink">how to type</a> 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 <a href="https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W/W11/W11-3501.pdf" target="_hplink">challenges</a> of typing in Indian language that existed a few years back have almost gone. You just have to look for the right tools.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>4. Language input in mobile devices</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With over <a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PressRealease/Document/PR-TeleSubData_Oct_2015.pdf" target="_hplink">1 billion</a> 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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout">Many Indians that have smartphones need inbuilt input methods to be able to contribute in their own language Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>5. Low availability of Indian-language content on the Internet</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="https://www.keralatourism.org/languages/" target="_hplink">official tourism portal</a> is available in Odia and other Indian languages, the Odisha government's tourism portal has <a href="http://www.odishatourism.gov.in/" target="_hplink">no information</a> in Odia language today. Our languages are neglected in our own states.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>6. Mismatch of conventional and new media</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="http://www.unicode.org/Public/reconstructed/1.0.0/UnicodeData.txt" target="_hplink">25 years</a> now. But many of our traditional media have failed to adopt this. Many popular Indian-language newspapers are yet to become available in Unicode.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>7. Lack of open access</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Most of the information produced on the internet in general and by the <a href="http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/uploads/Patent_ManualOct_25th_07.pdf" target="_hplink">government</a>, 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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License" target="_hplink">Creative Commons Share-Alike license</a> 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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout">Many conventional media houses still use non-standard variants of ASCII/ISCII script encoding systems instead of adopting the Unicode standard.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>8. People with disabilities</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Many people cannot read, speak and write. India has over <a href="http://www.entwb.com/public-patients/general-information/deafness" target="_hplink">60 million people</a> 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.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/huffington-post-march-19-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-in-growing-indian-language-wikipedias'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/huffington-post-march-19-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-in-growing-indian-language-wikipedias</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-06-18T17:11:05ZBlog Entry