Centre for Internet and Society

Kannada Wikipedia Workshop in Mangaluru (Coverage in Udayavani)

pavanaja — 2015-09-13T06:17:49Z

As part of its ongoing partnership with St Aloysius College Mangaluru, CIS-A2K co-organized a workshop with the Kannada wikipedia community on Kannada Wikipedia. Udayavani covered this in their edition on July 5.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-july-4-2015-coverage-in-udayavani

Not many contributors for Kannada-centric Wiki page

pavanaja — 2015-09-13T05:42:46Z

Wikipedia, which has over 60,000 contributing editors in India, has only 33 Kannadigas contributing to the Kannada section, said Pavanaja U B, programme manager, The Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru.

The article was published in the Times of India (Mangaluru edition) on July 5, 2015.

At the inaugural of the two-day workshop on 'Kannada Wikipedia' organized for students by the department of Kannada at St Aloysius College on Saturday, he said, "Wikipedia, which has over three crore articles, has 18 lakh editors spread across the world. While there are 33 editors for Kannada, only eight are involved actively," he said, adding that Wikipedia at present has about 20,500 articles in Kannada.

On the objectives of the workshop, Pavanaja said, "We have plans to train 25 Kannada students from St Aloysius College in uploading and updating Kannada articles in Wikipedia. Those 25 students will train 500 more Kannada students in the college and thereby increase the number of articles uploaded to Kannada Wikipedia. It will be a part of their academic assignment."

Pavanaja told students to cross-check each article before uploading to Wikipedia. "Students should adopt a research methodology to prepare articles for Wikipedia. One must study the subject in detail and then upload it to Wikipedia. It does not require scholarly knowledge," he added.

Wikipedia, which is a collaborative encyclopedia, has 23 Indian languages including Kannada and Tulu, he said. "Though Tulu articles were being published from 2007, there were only 135 articles uploaded to Wikipedia. Later, after 2013, many volunteered to upload articles and at present there are more than 800 articles in it. We have plans to increase the number of Tulu articles," he added.

"It is very easy for one to become a Wikipedia editor. Those who want to become the Kannada Wikipedia editor may create a login after opening kn.wikipedia.org and go through the tutorial files. Writing suitable articles for Wikipedia will neither fetch you money, nor name in it. It is selfless social service and necessary for the protection of language," Pavanaja said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-times-of-india-july-5-2015-not-many-contributors-for-kannada-centric-wiki-page

An Article on Kannada Wikipedia

pavanaja — 2014-12-05T01:22:53Z

I wrote an article on Kannada Wikipedia which was published in the Yojana magazine on November 2014 issue.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/yojana-november-2014-pavanaja-article-on-kannada-wikipedia

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

pavanaja — 2016-10-23T15:36:25Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tulu Wikipedia Workshop cum Editathon at Udupi

pavanaja — 2014-10-31T14:54:07Z

A three-day programme was held at Udupi from October 15 to 17, 2014 with an aim to increase the presence of Tulu in the online world. The first day comprised the inauguration programme and a workshop to understand the Wiki markup. The next two days were devoted to the edit-a-thon where participants added articles to Tulu Wikipedia.

The team comprised 18 girls from the Government PU College, Udupi and some other women. The event was organised by Tulu Sahitya Academy and sponsored by MGM College, Udupi and the Regional Research Centre, Udupi. Janaki Brahmavar, Chairperson of Tulu Sahitya Academy, presided over the function. She spoke about the efforts being made to add Tulu in Unicode. Jayakar Shetty, President Tulu Okkoota, expressed his happiness over the fact that it was a batch of about 20 girls who participated in the workshop cum edit-a-thon. There is a grouse that male editors far outnumber females in editing Wikipedia. This could be one instance where only female editors actively added articles to Tulu Wikipedia over three days. The programme was well covered by the print and television media. The good news is that the girls who participated in the edit-a-thon have continued adding articles. As on October 26, 2014, the total number of articles in Tulu Wikipedia has gone up to 574.

Tulu is one of the Dravidian languages spoken primarily by people from the south coast of Karnataka and north coast of Kerala[1]. As per the Census of 2001, there were 1,722,768 Tulu speakers [2]; figures of 2011 census are still not available. There are a lot of Tulu-speaking people residing outside Karnataka and Kerala in Mumbai, Goa and Gulf countries. It is estimated that the total number of Tulu-speaking people is more than 2.5 million. There has been a long-standing demand to include Tulu in the 8^th Schedule of the Constitution of India[3], [4]. Tulu had its own script long ago, it is not in use. Currently, Tulu is written in the Kannada script. Tulu has a vast vocal tradition, and there is a huge collection of knowledge that is transferred across generations orally. Efforts are being made to document this vocal tradition. The history of Tulu literature has already been documented in Kannada. Recently, the Karnataka government introduced Tulu as an optional language for schools in Mangalore and Udupi districts. However, these students don't have many books to read apart from the prescribed textbooks. There are some Tulu books in the creative writing domain, but there is hardly any book of an encyclopaedic nature in Tulu language which the students can refer to. This is where Tulu Wikipedia becomes extremely significant.

Tulu Wikipedia has been in incubation since 2007[5]. Some editing activities in Tulu Wikipedia were carried out during 2007-08. But the initial momentum gradually subsided, and most editors stopped editing. Tulu Wikipedia thereafter went into a dormant status. During the Alvas Vishwa Nudisiri Programme at Moodabidre in December 2013, Dr BA VivekaRai, former vice-chancellor of Kannada University, who was the President of the cultural and literary meet, dwelt at length on the importance of implementing Tulu language in technology. This was followed by a talk by Dr UB Pavanaja, a member of the CIS-A2K team. He continued from where Viveka Rai left off, and talked about bringing world knowledge in Tulu, rejuvenating Tulu Wikipedia, and pressuring the state and Union governments towards including Tulu in the 8^th Schedule of the Constitution.

Subsequently, a workshop on editing Tulu Wikipedia was held at Mangalore on January 19 this year under the leadership and initiative of Dr BA VivekaRai. This was followed by another edit-a-thon at Mangalore on April 5 and another workshop at Udupi on May 25. All these efforts have given a new impetus to Tulu Wikipedia. The number of articles in Tulu Wikipedia was 147 as in March 2014, which went up to 365 in July. The Tulu Sahitya Academy realised the importance and pitched into the effort of making it live.

[1] http://www.ethnologue.com/subgroups/dravidian

[2] http://www.censusindia.gov.in/%28S%28i4hlwuf0ltgmdnejdawhdr45%29%29/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/partb.aspx

[3] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/requests-to-include-38-languages-in-constitution-pending-govt/article58221.ece

[4] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Include-Tulu-in-8th-Schedule-demands-forum/articleshow/38992142.cms

[5] http://tools.wmflabs.org/meta/catanalysis/?title=Wp%2Ftcy&cat=0&wiki=incubatorwiki#overview_edits

Media Coverage

http://www.mangaloretoday.com/newsbriefs/Wikipedia-can-establish-Tulu-in-a-wider-way.html

http://v4news.com/enliven-the-tulu-viki-fidia-first-and-then-add-tulu-to-the-8th-schedule-dr-ug-pavanaja-bangalore-rep-in-udupi/

http://www.mangaloretoday.com/newsbriefs/2-Day-Workshop-on-Tulu-in-internet.html

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/tulu-wikipedia-workshop-cum-editathon-at-udupi

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

pavanaja — 2014-07-24T07:03:45Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

Media Coverage

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

Other Links:

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

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

Aircel & Wikimedia Foundation announce Wikipedia Zero

pavanaja — 2014-07-07T05:58:08Z

Aircel and Wikimedia Foundation came together to announce Wikipedia Zero. As per this, users of Aircel need not pay for data for accessing Wikipedia. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja wrote a report on this in Prajavani.

Click here to read the article published in Prajavani on July 3, 2014.

ಗ್ಯಾಜೆಟ್ ಸುದ್ದಿ

ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಬಳಸುವವರಿಗೆ ಉಚಿತ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ

ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಫೋನ್ ಸೇವೆ ನೀಡುವ ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಕಂಪೆನಿ ಮತ್ತು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುವ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯ ಫೌಂಡೇಶನ್ ಜೊತೆಗೂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ತಮ್ಮ ಸ್ಮಾರ್ಟ್‌ಫೋನ್‌ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿದರೆ ಅವರು ಅಂತರಜಾಲ ಬಳಕೆಗೆ ಹಣ ನೀಡಬೇಕಾಗಿರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಇದು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಳಸುವವರಿಗೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಸುದ್ದಿ. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಝೀರೊ ಎಂಬುದು ಆಫ್ರಿಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾದ ಯೋಜನೆ.

ಇದರ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಸೇವೆ ನೀಡುವ ಕಂಪೆನಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ವೀಕ್ಷಿಸಿದರೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಪ್ರವಾಹಕ್ಕೆ (ಡಾಟಾ) ಹಣ ನೀಡಬೇಕಾಗಿರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಝೀರೊ ಯೋಜನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸದ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಮಾತ್ರ ಭಾಗಿಯಾಗಿದೆ. ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾತ್ರವಲ್ಲದೆ ಇತರೆ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಳಸುವವರಿಗೆ ಇದು ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಸುದ್ದಿ.

See the portion about Wikipedia Zero below:

Click to download the PDF here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/prajavani-july-3-2014-article-on-wikipedia-zero

CIS Signs MoU with Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College

pavanaja — 2014-05-27T10:56:52Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) College on April 21, 2014. On behalf of CIS, Dr. U.B.Pavanaja signed the MoU.

As part of the MoU, CIS and SDM College will work together to introduce "Indian Language Wikipedias in the Indian Under Graduate and Post Graduate Classroom" at the SDM College, Ujire. This will help the students to develop the following skills:

Writing skills (ability to write in an objective fashion;
Digital information literacy skills;
Ability to critically engage with a concept/theme;
Language proficiency skills.

CIS and SDM college will co-design and jointly develop and implement relevant training programs to achieve this.

Click to download the MoU here.

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

CIS Signs MoU with Mysore University

pavanaja — 2014-05-05T06:29:37Z

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

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


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

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

ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಟ್ಟ ಸಸಿಗೆ ಈಗ ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷ

pavanaja — 2013-11-20T09:55:31Z

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

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

ಕನ್ನಡದ ಮುಕ್ತ ಜ್ಞಾನಕೋಶವಾದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಈಗ ಜನಪ್ರಿಯ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Kannada Wikipedia Workshop at Krishnarajapet

pavanaja — 2013-09-05T06:46:39Z

On Sunday, August 11, 2013, a day-long Kannada Wikipedia workshop was conducted at Shyam Computers, Krishnarajapet, Karnataka. The workshop was co-organized by the CIS-A2K team along with Kannada Sahitya Parishat of KR Pet. This report summarizes the proceedings of that workshop and subsequent research into relevant questions flowing from the discussions.

The CIS-A2K team has been getting requests to conduct Kannada Wikipedia workshops from various parts of Karnataka. One such request came from ISRO technician Akash B., who is originally from Krishnarajapet, popularly known as K R Pet, in Mandya Dist of Karnataka. . Shyamesh of Shyam Computers sponsored the venue by lending his cyber centre. The workshop was scheduled for 10.00 a.m. and began a little late at 10.45 a.m.

About 20 participants came together to learn Wikipedia editing. The inauguration was followed by the hands-on workshop. We had some discussions with Akash about the IP address restrictions for registering new users. Usually only 6 persons can register on a day from one IP address. Fortunately, the cyber centre had a dynamic IP. After 6 registrations, we reset the modem so that the remaining participants could register. Akash helped some participants to register the previous day itself.

The participants were quite enthusiastic. We gave a presentation about Wikipedia and Kannada Wikipedia and then gave a demonstration about editing the Wikipedia. After that the participants tried their hands on editing Kannada Wikipedia. Some of the participants who attended the workshop are now editing the Kannada Wikipedia on a daily basis. We hope that they sustain their interest and enhance the quality of Kannada Wikipedia.


A group picture of the participants from the Krishnarajapet workshop. (Picture by Dr. U.B.Pavanaja, CC-BY-SA 3.0)

A special thanks to Kannada Sahitya Parishat, K R Pet, Akash B and Shyam Computers.

Media Coverage

Prajavani, (August 12, 2013)
Suvarna Times of Karnataka (August 12, 2013)
Vijaya Vani (August 12, 2013)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/a-kannada-wikipedia-workshop-at-krishnarajapet

A Kannada Wikipedia Workshop in Mysore

pavanaja — 2013-10-04T04:40:46Z

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

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

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

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

Above: Dr. Pavanaja conducting the workshop in Mysore

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

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

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

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

Above: Wikipedian Kiran Ravikumar making his presentation

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

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

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

A Kannada Wikipedia Workshop at Sagara

pavanaja — 2014-03-25T08:51:36Z

On Sunday, July 28, 2013, a day-long Kannada Wikipedia workshop was conducted at Sagara, Shimoga Dist, Karnataka by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team. In this post, I share with you the happenings from the workshop.

Video

Some months ago, I got a phone call from Chinmaya M Rao from Sagara, Shimoga District requesting me to conduct a Kannada Wikipedia workshop at Sagara. He informed me that there are quite a good number of writers in that area who are interested in adding content to Kannada Wikipedia but don't know how to. Many telephonic discussions followed, many dates were considered, changed, iterated and finally the workshop was organised on Sunday, July 28, 2013. The programme was inaugurated by Shri Kagodu Thimmappa, Speaker of the current Legislative Assembly of Karnataka. Famous Kannada writer Naa D'Souza was the chief guest. Shri G.T. Shridhar Sharma, President of Kannada Times Media World, presided over the function. The programme was jointly organised by CIS and Kannada Times Media World, Sagara.

	Speaking after inaugurating the workshop, Shri Kagodu Thimmappa said "the basic knowledge of technology has become important as one could get ample, accurate information on various topics, and current affairs of the world in a minute all languages, including Kannada. It is the onus of the people of the sate to preserve and promote the use of Kannada language." (Deccan Herald, Shimaga edition, July 30, 2013). Naa D'Souza mentioned how earlier knowledge was the monopoly of some particular sections of the society and how technology has transformed knowledge into an asset of all the people irrespective of caste, race, religion, region and financial status.
Seen above is a picture of Shri Kagodu Thimmappa inagurating the workshop

I then gave a brief introduction to Wikipedia and Kannada Wikipedia. There are many encylopaedias in Kannada but very few are regularly updated. They are seldom digitised. People who add content to Kannada Wikipedia are in search of authentic information. These are available in many encylopaedias brought in by various academies, associations and universities funded by the Government of Karnataka. People of the state have a right on these content. I requested Shri Kagodu Thimmappa to bring them under the Creative Commons License so that the active Kannada Wikipedians can make use of them to add content into Kannada Wikipedia. Shri Kagodu Thimmappa promised to look into this.

After the inauguration, the actual presentation by me started at a cybercafe run by Istam Computers. It was raining heavily. Participants walked for 5 minutes in heavy rain to reach the venue. The presentation went on till lunch time. The place was very congested. One participant, B. V. Ravindranath, who is a practicing Chartered Accountant at Sagara, offered his place to conduct the hands-on workshop. Hence, all participants went to the new venue which was quite comfortable. Participants did the hands-on editing of Wikipedia till 7.30 p.m. Eleven persons participated in the workshop and edited actively. Some were seen editing Kannada Wikipedia regularly after the workshop.
Dr. U.B. Pavanaja is seen sharing a light moment with participants from the workshop in the above picture.

After the inauguration, the actual presentation by me started at a cybercafe run by Istam Computers. It was raining heavily. Participants walked for 5 minutes in heavy rain to reach the venue. The presentation went on till lunch time. The place was very congested. One participant, B. V. Ravindranath, who is a practicing Chartered Accountant at Sagara, offered his place to conduct the hands-on workshop. Hence, all participants went to the new venue which was quite comfortable. Participants did the hands-on editing of Wikipedia till 7.30 p.m. Eleven persons participated in the workshop and edited actively. Some were seen editing Kannada Wikipedia regularly after the workshop.

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja is seen sharing a light moment with participants from the workshop in the above picture.

An active Kannada Wikipedian, B S Chandrashekhar from Sagara, who has more than 4500 edits on Kannada Wikipedia to his credit was felicitated during the inauguration function. He is 79 years old. Despite his old age, he actively paticipated in the workshop till the end and learnt many intricacies which he was otherwise unaware of.

In the end, I would like to personally thank Chinmay Rao and G. T. Shridhar Sharma of Kannada Times who toiled a lot in organising the wokrshop. Also thanks to B. V. Ravindranath, CA, who provided the venue for the hands-on workshop.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/kannada-wiki-workshop-at-sagara

A Kannada Wikipedia Workshop at Hubli

pavanaja — 2013-07-31T09:28:26Z

On Sunday, July 21, 2013, a day-long Kannada Wikipedia workshop was conducted at Hubli by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team. This blog post throws more light on the workshop.

On June 13, 2013, a Kannada news channel, Suvarna News 24x7, telecasted a panel discussion on Kannada Wikipedia. I participated as a panelist in the programme along with M.G. Harish, who is an admin of Kannada Wikipedia. In the panel discussion, the anchor Shetty asked us whether we conduct workshops to help people edit Wikipedia? I said yes, and also confirmed that if people (from whichever place they may hail from) want training on editing Wikipedia then I am willing to travel to that place and do a workshop.

One week after the programme was telecasted, one V S Hiremath called me from Hubli and requested me to conduct a Kannada Wikipedia workshop at Hubli. Many rounds of discussions took place. One condition that I had put forward was that participants should come with their own laptops and internet connections like data cards, dongles, etc., for the workshop. Unfortunately, majority of the people willing to participate in the workshop didn't have laptops albeit having desktops and internet connections in their homes. So we had to make alternative arrangements and the workshop was conducted at the computer lab of KLE Society's Institute of Management Studies and Research. The logistics were arranged by V. S. Hiremath of UNV Associates.

Above is a picture of Dr. U.B. Pavanaja at the inauguration of the workshop.

The programme was scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Due to the monsoon season, it was raining heavily. People started to come in a bit late. Hiremath had scheduled an inauguration and media briefing for the workshop. Dr. Prasad B.Roodagi, Director of IMSR, presided over the function. The inauguration was done by Sheelavantar of Hosa Digantha. Since Dr. Prasad B.Roodagi came almost one hour late, the workshop began late.

The actual hands-on workshop started after the tea-break at 11.30 a.m. People were very eager to learn about editing Wikipedia. There were 22 participants.

Wikipedia has a condition that only 6 new editors can register per day for a given IP address. The lab had static IP address. Once, 6 participants had registered, the remaining couldn't register.

So the rest registered using my laptop during lunch break. I taught them the features of Wikipedia, searching for a topic, posting new articles, formatting, inserting links, images, references, etc. Participants got to know all of these by using their respective sandboxes. Towards the end, I also showed them Kannada Wiktionary, Kannada Wikiquote and Kannada Wikisource.


Above is a group picture of the participants from the workshop.

The results have been positive. About 1-2 persons are adding new content to Kannada Wikipedia. Hope that the remaining participants will also add content over a period of time.

A special thanks to V.S. Hiremath for doing all local arrangements and giving wider publicity. Without his active interest and participation, the workshop wouldn't have happened.

Click here for more pictures from the workshop. Press coverage from leading newspapers like Times of India, Deccan Herald, VijayaVani, HosaDiganta, Vijaya Karnataka, Prajavani, and Samyukta Karnataka can be dowloaded from the zip file below:

Press Coverage (Zip folder, 4.5 Mb)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-at-hubli

A 'Kannada' Wikipedia Workshop for Bloggers

pavanaja — 2013-07-03T10:19:56Z

On Sunday, June 23, 2013, a day-long Kannada Wikipedia workshop was conducted at Suchitra, Bengaluru for Kannada bloggers by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team. This blog post gives a report on the workshop.

There was a demand from Kannada bloggers that they need some orientation on editing Kannada Wikipedia. There were informal talks on this since the last 2-3 months on when and how the event should be organised. CIS-A2K collaborated with Suchitra Film and Cultural Society, Bengaluru and Avadhi. G N Mohan of Avadhi and Prakash Belavadi of Suchitra helped in getting the conference room of Suchitra available for the workshop.

Announcement was made in the KannadaWikipedia group of Facebook. This group has more than 2000 members. One member even sent a message questioning the wisdom of inviting everyone for the workshop. He asked, "can we accommodate all the people if they turn up?" However, I was quite sure that not more than 25 will turn up. The reason being the condition that participants should come with their own laptops and internet connections. As the workshop date neared, more and more people began registering for participation. The number reached 56 on the previous night. I sent a message requesting people to reconfirm the participation as the conference room could accommodate 25 people only. Few people withdrew and only 13 persons reconfirmed.

June 23, being a Sunday, the personnel at Suchitra came to open the room only at 9.50 a.m. Myself and some participants were there at 9.20 a.m. itself. Once everyone settled down, there was an issue with the projector. My ultrabook has only a mini HDMI port. I keep an HDMI-to-VGA converter and have been using it from the last 2-3 workshops. It worked well at those places. But on June 23, it refused to work. I then exchanged my ultrabook with another participant and the presentation and workshop begun. I had sent some tutorial files to all those who confirmed participation. All of them came and surprisingly, there were two more participants, who hadn't confirmed their participation. That accelerated the participation by them. This itself was very encouraging. That means the participants who came that day were really serious of editing Wikipedia.

The workshop was conducted intermixing presentation and hands-on. By evening everyone had learnt how to edit Wikipedia, how to create headings, sub-headings, bulleted lists, text, numbered text, how to insert Wiki links as well as external links, etc. People picked up inserting reference as well quite quickly. Since majority of them were bloggers, they already knew the concepts but wanted to know the Wiki syntax which they picked up by the end of the workshop.

Harish M G, who is an admin with Kannada Wikipedia joined the workshop and helped in clearing many advanced doubts.

The result of the workshop is quite encouraging. Most of them have added contents and edited some existing pages as well. Thanks are due to Suchitra for sponsoring the venue and to Avadhi for co-organising this event.

Additional photos are here - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kannada_Wikipedia_workshop_for_bloggers_at_Suchitra

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-bloggers