Centre for Internet and Society

Relevance of Bhagabat Tungi in the evolution of Odia language from Buddha era to digital age

praskrishna — 2014-05-06T07:09:41Z

The Intellects, a Delhi based organisation of Odia intellectuals, and Shree Jagannath Mandir and Odisha Art and Cultural Center co-organized an event in New Delhi on April 20, 2014.

Subhashish Panigrahi participated in this event and gave a talk about "Re-modelling Bhagabata Tungi in the present context of a digital society". About 600 Odias attended the progremme, including Dr Anita Panda, Prof Saudamini Barik, Jayaram Samal, Indubhushan Lenka, Odia Radio founder Sitanshu Mohapatra, journalist Asit Ranjan Mishra, OdishaDiary (www.orissadiary.com) founder Prachee Naik, Rashmi Ranjan Parida, The Intellects members Sangram Dhar, Smrutidhara Rout, Anasuya Sahoo, Aditya Mohanty, Nirmal Dhal, Sanjaya Parida, Pankajamala Sarangi, Premanda Swain, lawyer Sanjeeb Kumar Mohanty and Tarun Samantray.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/relevance-of-bhagabat-tungi-in-evolution-of-odia-language

Report from India: Relicensing books under CC

subha — 2014-05-05T09:13:15Z

My name is Subhashish Panigrahi. I am an educator currently working in the community and communication front at The Centre for Internet and Society’s Access To Knowledge program (CIS-A2K), an India-based catalyst program to grow Indic language communities for Wikipedia and its sister projects. Prior to my work at CIS, I worked for the Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program, a predecessor to the current CIS-A2K project.

Read the original published on Creative Commons Blog on April 18, 2014 here.

While building ties with higher education and research organizations, I also try to get educational and encyclopedic resources licensed under Creative Commons licenses so that communities can use them to enrich Wikimedia projects. Currently, there is a low level of content available across all the Indic languages and the need for Unicode-based content is extremely crucial.

	While negotiating with authors for relicensing their books in Creative Commons license, I started identifying certain motivation areas for any author for such free content donation. Some of the authors, publishers, and copyright holders have started learning about open access to scholarly publications. However, the readers who are likely to buy a hard copy of a book are likely to buy it even when a free, virtual version is available – that’s the idea authors who are skeptical about CC licenses need to understand.

While negotiating with authors for relicensing their books in Creative Commons license, I started identifying certain motivation areas for any author for such free content donation. Some of the authors, publishers, and copyright holders have started learning about open access to scholarly publications. However, the readers who are likely to buy a hard copy of a book are likely to buy it even when a free, virtual version is available – that’s the idea authors who are skeptical about CC licenses need to understand.

Open source book publishing in India has gained much interest and focus, primarily because of the lack of foresight of the possibilities that are tied to the release of books. It was Pratham Books that first came up with the brilliant idea of “One book book in every child’s hand.” The subsequent release of multilingual books under free licenses was the beginning of a new era in Indian publication.

Book publishers should also think of the target readers of print and web media. Releasing content in free licenses doesn’t affect the mainstream print publications. When it comes to books, there is always a scope for reprinting and making money. After negotiations with two authors and getting 13 books about children’s literature, travelogues, popular science, and linguistic and historical research, I am sure the publishing community has not been educated in the right way about providing free access to content.

It generally takes a long time and effort to negotiate with the copyright holders to get the books out with a CC-BY-SA tag. But it is a permanent and a significant value addition for the open knowledge movement. I believe with more online readers and reviewers getting complete access to books, authors gain more respect in the society and popularity which in turn helps them to sell more of the reprints. Two prime fears are keeping many publishers away from releasing their books online for free: the fear of going out of business and the fear of losing ownership of content. But at the same time, some of the publishers are becoming aware of the mass media outreach and winning hearts of many readers by releasing content for free without copyright restrictions.

Case studies:

Release of a four-volume encyclopedia in Konkani

In 2013, Goa University released Konkani Vishwakosh, a Konkani-language encyclopedia in CC-BY-SA 3.0 license that they had published. This is the largest encyclopedia compiled in the language. The book is being digitized on Konkani WikiSource and content from it is being used to enrich the Konkani version of Wikipedia. The project additionally brought about 20 active contributors for digitization.

Release of 11 Odia language books

11 books from Odia author and academic Dr. Jagannath Mohanty were re-released under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license by the “Manik-Biswanath Smrutinyasa,” a trust founded by Dr. Mohanty for literary discussions and upbringing new writers. His wife and trust’s current chairman Allhadmohini Mohanty formally gave written permission to release and digitize these books. The Odia Wikimedia community is planning to involve undergraduate students of an indigenous educational institution, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, to digitize these books. The trust is also reaching out to publishers who published more than 150 of the author’s books to give permission for re-releasing them under a CC license.

Relicensing “Classical Odia” under a free license

The book is heavy and expensive for any normal reader. Enormous copies were sold after Odia was declared as the sixth Indian classical language; however, this did not stop the authors Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak and Subrat Prusty from changing the license term from All Rights Reserved to CC-BY-SA 3.0. 600-plus pages full of historical documents and manuscripts along with many undiscovered areas of Odia language’s literary heritage of more than 2500 years are now going to go on WikiSource and enrich Wikipedia articles apart from being great resource for language researchers.

Relicensing books and conversion of ISCII to Unicode font

Two Odia language books by linguist Subrat Prusty, “Jati, Jagruti O Pragati” and “Bhasa O Jatiyata,” have been relicensed. These are few of those thousand books in those the text are typed with fonts with ISCII standard and not Unicode. ISCII standard fonts have glyphs with Indic characters that are actually replacements of the Latin characters by Indic characters. So, a computer with one particular font not installed will display absurd characters. The publication and printing industries still use these fonts as the desktop publishing software package they use for typeset do not have Unicode engine to render the fonts properly. The conversion from these ISCII fonts to Unicode is a way that is going to be used for digitizaing these books to convert the entire book with searchable Unicode content.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/creative-commons-subhashish-panigrahi-april-18-2014-report-from-india-relicensing-books-under-creative-commons

Odisha Dibasa 2014: 14 Books Re-released under CC License

subha — 2014-04-14T10:57:43Z

Odisha became a separate state in British India on April 1, 1936. Odia, a 2,500 year old language recently gained the status of an Indian classical language. The Odia Wikimedia community celebrated these two occasions on March 29 in Bhubaneswar with a gathering of 70 people.

Originally published on the Wikimedia blog on April 8, 2014. Media coverage of the event can be accessed here.

Linguists, scholars and journalists discussed the state of the Odia language in the digital era, initiatives for its development and steps that can be taken to increase accessibility to books and other educational resources. 14 copyrighted books have been re-licensed under the Creative Commons license and the digitization project on Odia WikiSource was formally initiated by an indigenous educational institute, the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS). Professor Udayanath Sahu from Utkal University, The Odisha Review’s editor Dr. Lenin Mohanty, Odisha Bhaskar’s editor Pradosh Pattnaik, Odia language researcher Subrat Prusty, Dr. Madan Mohan Sahu, Allhadmohini Mohanty, Chairman Manik-Biswanath Smrutinyasa and trust’s secretary Brajamohan Patnaik along with senior members Sarojkanta Choudhury and Shisira Ranjan Dash spoke at the event.

Eleven books from Odia writer Dr. Jagannath Mohanty were re-released under Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license by the “Manik-Biswanath Smrutinyasa” trust, a trust founded by Dr. Mohanty for the development of the Odia language. Allhadmohini Mohanty formally gave written permission to Odia Wikimedia to release and digitize these books.

The community will be training students and a group of six faculty members at KISS who will coordinate the digitization of these books. “Collaborative efforts and open access to knowledge repositories will enrich our language and culture,” said linguist Padmashree Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak as he inagurated the event. Dr. Pattanayak and Odia language researcher Subrat Prusty from the Institute of Odia Studies and Research also re-licensed three books based on their research on Odia language and cultural influence of the language on other societies under the same license. KISS is going to digitize some of these books and make them available on Odia Wikisource.

An OpenType Odia Unicode font, “Odia OT Jagannatha” designed by Sujata Patel from Odialanguage.com was released under the OFL license. This is the first Odia OpenType font that the community actively tested. A new Odia offline input tool called “TypeOdia” by Wikipedian Manoj Sahukar was also released for public distribution. DVDs containing the font, the input tool, Odia language dictionaries, offline Odia Wikipedia in Kiwix, Wikipedia editing guide, ISCII to Unicode font converter, various free and open source software packages and Ubuntu operating system.

Active Odia Wikipedian and Admin Mrutyunjaya Kar gave the inaugural speech. Subhashish Panigrahi from the Center for Internet and Society read the annual report and vision of Odia Wikipedia. Chief guest Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak discussed about the efforts put forth that brought the Odia language as the sixth Indian classical language. A large majority of Odia publications are not available on the internet and readers are devoid of easy accessibility. He further discussed the process of digitization for preserving valuable books that are out of print and the old palm leaf manuscripts. Professor Udayanath Sahu presented on the process, progress and implementation of machine translation project in Utkal University.

Experienced Wikimedians conducted an advanced Wikipedia workshop on the second day of event at KIIT University, Bhubaneswar. It was attended by a majority of the existing Wikimedians from the community including new Wikipedians who signed up for the Odia Wikipedia Education Program at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal. Mrutyunjaya Kar presented on WikiData and various tools for linking and accessing information in multiple languages on various Wikimedia projects. Ansuman Giri discussed advanced technical aspects such as the use of various gadgets, proper categorization, how to use subpages, how to auto-list archive pages, customizing WikiLove feature, user rights modification, including how important it is to cite biographies of living persons with secondary sources, etc. Shitikantha Dash discussed copyright and issues regarding uploading images and other media files on Wikimedia Commons. Dr. Subas Chandra Rout presented on “notability, referencing and creating citations for the notable topics.” Subhashish Panigrahi discussed the work plan for the year, failure of program projects, collective learning and the dos and don’ts of community building.

We hope that more authors will come forward and re-release their books under CC-BY-SA license. The Odia community is excited to see or.wikisource.org go live. A few Wikipedians are even interested in typing their favorite free licensed books to make them available on Wikisource. I believe it’ll be challenging to train the KISS students to type and proof-read the written texts. In the CISA2K’s draft plan, the goal to have the number of editors seems overestimated. The students need to have some knowledge about Wikimedia and how it works in general before they start working. We hope that the books will be digitized properly and in coming days more users will join us in the process as we will have more free books in Odia Wikisource. I appeal to the Odia people to be a part of the Odia Wikimedia community and make Odia Wikisource a successful project, we need all the time you can devote. :-) Ansuman Giri, Odia Wikipedian


A group picture of Odia Wikipedians (by Jnanaranjan Sahu, CC-BY-SA 3.0)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odisha-dibasa-2014

Odia Loves Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2014-04-14T09:56:20Z

Odia is a 2,500 year old language native to the area of Odisha (formerly known as Orissa). The language has recently gained the status of an Indian classical language.

The article by Laura Morris was published in Rising Voices on April 10, 2014. Subhashish's article on Odia Wikipedia is mentioned.

Recently, the Odia Wikimedia community met to celebrate the language's new status in Bhubaneswar.

The following is an excerpt from a recent article on the Wikimedia Foundation blog, by Subhashish Panigrahi, sharing information about the Odia WIki community:

14 copyrighted books have been re-licensed under the Creative Commons license and the digitization project on Odia WikiSource was formally initiated by an indigenous educational institute, the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) [...] KISS is going to digitize some of these books and make them available on Odia Wikisource.

An OpenType Odia Unicode font, “Odia OT Jagannatha” designed by Sujata Patel from Odialanguage.com was released under the OFL license. This is the first Odia OpenType font that the community actively tested.

A new Odia offline input tool called “TypeOdia” by Wikipedian Manoj Sahukar was also released for public distribution. DVDs containing the font, the input tool, Odia language dictionaries, offline Odia Wikipedia in Kiwix, Wikipedia editing guide, ISCII to Unicode font converter, various free and open source software packages and Ubuntu operating system [...]

A large majority of Odia publications are not available on the internet and readers are devoid of easy accessibility. [Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak] discussed the process of digitization for preserving valuable books that are out of print and the old palm leaf manuscripts [...]

The Odia fonts can be downloaded for free. The developers of the font say:

We advocate for the use of Odia language in true spirit, in the domain of day-to-day administration, justice delivery, apart from the field of teaching. Besides, we have undertaken the project for developing Odia lexicon,with inclusion of typical odia version of technical words ,so as to avoid dependence on English language.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/rising-voices-april-10-2014-odia-loves-wikipedia

El idioma oriya ama a Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T05:14:26Z

Este post es de Rising Voices, un proyecto de Global Voices que ayuda a difundir los medios ciudadanos en lugares que normalmente no tienen acceso a ellos.

The following is a Spanish version of the news that was already published in English on Rising Voices. The Russian version can be read here.

El oriya (odia) es una lengua con una antigüedad de 2,500 años nativa de la región de Odisha (antes conocida como Orissa). La lengua obtuvo recientemente el estatus de lengua clásica de la India.

Recientemente, la comunidad Wikimedia Oriya se reunió para celebrar el nuevo estatus de la lengua en Bhubaneswar.

A continuación un extracto de un artículo [en] reciente en el blog de la Fundación Wikimedia, por Subhashish Panigrahi [en], compartiendo información sobre la comunidad Wiki en Oriya:

14 libros con derechos de autor se han relicenciado bajo la licencia Creative Commons y el proyecto de digitalización en Odia WikiSource [or] fue formalmente iniciado por una institución educacional indígena, la Institución Kalinga de Ciencias Sociales (KISS por sus siglas en inglés) [...] La KISS digitalizará algunos de estos libros y los pondrá a disposición en Odia Wikisource.

Una fuente OpenType Unicode en oriya, “Odia OT Jagannatha [en]” diseñada por Sujata Patel de Odialanguage.com [en] fue publicada bajo la licencia OFL. Es la primera fuente OpenType para oriya que la comunidad ha probado activamente.

Una nueva herramienta para la escritura en oriya sin necesidad de estar en línea llamada “TypeOdia” [en], por el wikipedista Manoj Sahukar [or] también se publicó para su distribución. DVD's con la fuente, la herramienta de escritura, diccionarios en la lengua oriya, la Wikipedia oriya fuera de línea en Kiwix, la guía de edición de Wikipedia [en], un convertidor de fuentes ISCII a Unicode, varias paquetes de software libre y de fuente abierta y el sistema operativo Ubuntu [...]

Una gran mayoría de las publicaciones en oriya no se encuentran en Internet y los usuarios carecen de fácil acceso. (El dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak) discutió el proceso de digitalización para preservar libros valiosos que ya no se imprimen y viejos manuscritos en hoja de palma [...]

Las fuentes en oriya pueden ser descargadas gratuitamente [en]. Los desarroladores de la fuente dicen [en]:

Abogamos por el uso de la lengua oriya de verdadero espíritu, en el campo de la administración diaria, en la justicia, además del campo de la educación. Además, hemos tomado el proyecto para desarrollar un léxico en oriyia, incluyendo versiones en oriya típicas de palabras técnicas, para evitar la dependencia de la lengua inglesa.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/rising-voices-april-12-2014-el-idioma-oriya-ama-a-wikipedia

ଓଡ଼ିଅା ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର

subha — 2014-05-06T06:50:02Z

This article was published in Odia magazine "The Kadambini". It covers a brief history of the book digitization initiatives in Odia language, problems with access available content in ISCII standard, scope of Unicode content and Open Access, Odia Wikipedia's further use for public and contribution.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kadambini-april-8-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-odia-language-and-development-in-digital-era

Vachana Sanchaya: Bringing Access to 11th century Kannada Literature

subha — 2014-04-08T01:48:18Z

The blog post throws light on providing access to Vachana Sanchaya, a eleventh century Kannada literature.

The article was published in Open Access Week on April 3, 2014.

During early 11th century a form of spiritual Kannada language poetry in the Indian state of Karnataka called Vachana sahitya became quite popular. It started flourishing in the 12th century by a religious movement called Lingayatha movement. More than 259 Vachana writers, called Vachanakaru, compiled over 11,000 vachanas (verses). 21,000 of these verses in 15 volumes were published by the Government of Karnataka into an online portal called Samagra Vachana Samputa. Two Wikimedians along with two linguists brought these verses on a standalone project called Vachana Sanchaya. Kannada Wikimedians, Pavithra Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash HI along with Kannada linguist O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy converted the font to Unicode to make the verses searchable on this project. The entire collection is now ready to enrich the Kannada WikiSource.

The text in Samagra Vachana Samputa were typed using fonts of ISCII, an Indian character encoding standard. Indic characters generally replace Latin ones inside the font that makes them completely useless when someone does not have the particular font installed in the computer. This is a typical problem with non-Latin fonts, especially Indic typefaces. In case of this particular publication, there were more than 5 ISCII standards which made searching and reusing content completely impossible. Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash started writing scripts to make the Vachanas searchable through an index. This demanded a user friendly platform for the linguistic researchers, students, and the public interested in accessing this literature.

Omshivaprakash worked on designing the architecture for this platform using open source software tools. Hanchagaiah was involved in providing critical hacks for digitization and valuable inputs through suggestions, feedback, and quality assurance.

At present, Vachana Sanchaya project has around 200,000 unique words that were derived from these verses. The public has been using the repository and accessing vachana from Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ profiles. There are thousands of people now who read a Vahana as part of their daily routine. Vachana Sanchaya is not only a gateway for reading the literature, but also a research platform for Kannada language and literature. It has options for researchers to help in reviewing content which in turn will help to add references from research papers.

All of the content is currently available to the public through the OpenData API, and once the reviewing the work is complete, it will be distributed in the public domain through WikiSource. This will open up the system for students, developers, researchers, and anyone interested in building linguistic tools for Kannada and other Indic languages. Users will be able to use our code to digitize any book available in the public domain. Early literature in any language is well-respected, so making it available via an open platform allows for reuse of the content for research, publication, and other documentation work.

Other similar projects could take help from this project and use any part of the processes.

Plans going foward:

To initiate Natural Language Processing (NLP) projects if more researches help to tag words and grow the glossary.
To continue work on subsequent, similar projects for Sarvagnana Vachanagalu and Dāsa Sanchaya (work has begun) and Vyāsa and Muddann (work to be started)
To extend this platform to other the contemporary literature works available in the public domain.

Authored by Pavithra Hanchagaiah, Omshivaprakash HI and Subhashish Panigrahi. Draws inspiration from another article published on Opensource.com under CC-BY-SA 4.0

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/openaccessweek-april-3-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-vachana-sanchaya

୭୯ ବର୍ଷରେ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଓଡ଼ିଶା: ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଏହାର ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର

subha — 2014-05-06T05:18:21Z

This article was published in online Odia magazine "The Amalekha". It covers a brief history of the book digitization initiates in Odia language, problems with access available content in ISCII standard, scope of Unicode content and Open Access, Odia Wikipedia's further use for public and contribution.

ଓଡ଼ିଶା ହେଉଛି ଭାରତର ପ୍ରଥମ ରାଜ୍ୟ ଯାହା ସ୍ୱାଧୀନ ଭାରତରେ ଭାଷା ଭିତ୍ତିରେ ପ୍ରଥମ ରାଜ୍ୟ ହେଲା । ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା, ଯାହାକୁ ଭିତ୍ତି କରି ଓଡ଼ିଶା ଏକ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ରାଜ୍ୟ ହେଲା ତାହା ନିକଟ ଅତୀତରେ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ମାନ୍ୟତା ଲାଭ କରିଛି ନିଜର ୨୦୦୦ ବର୍ଷରୁ ଅଧିକ ବର୍ଷର ଗୌରବଜ୍ଜଳ ଇତିହାସକୁ ଜଗତ ସମ୍ମୁଖରେ ଉନ୍ମୋଚିତ କରି । ତେବେ ଏ ମାନ୍ୟତା ଏକ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ମୂଳ ବାସିନ୍ଦାଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ କେବଳ ଗୋଟିଏ ବିଶେଷ ସୁଯୋଗ ଆଣିଦିଏ-ତାହା ହେଲା ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ନିମନ୍ତେ କେନ୍ଦ୍ର ସରକାରଙ୍କର ୫୦୦ କୋଟିର ଅନୁଦାନ ଯାହା ଭାଷାର ନାନାଦି ସାଧନ ନିର୍ମାଣରେ ସାହାଯ୍ୟ କରେ । ତେବେ ଏକ ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶରେ କେଉଁ କେଉଁ ସାଧନ ଗୁରୁତ୍ତ୍ୱପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭୂମିକା ନିଭାଏ ତାହା ଜାଣିବା ନିତାନ୍ତ ଜରୁରୀ । ଜଗତର ପ୍ରଥମ ପାଞ୍ଚଟି ସବୁଠାରୁ ଅଧିକ କ‌ଥିତ ଭାଷା: ମାଣ୍ଡାରିନ (ଚାଇନିଜ ଭାଷାଗୋଷ୍ଠୀ), ଇଂରାଜୀ, ହିନ୍ଦୁସ୍ଥାନୀ (ହିନ୍ଦୀ, ଉର୍ଦ୍ଦୁ ଆଦି ଭାଷାସମୂହ), ସ୍ପାନିସ ଓ ରୁସିଆନ‌ ଭାଷାମାନ‌ଙ୍କ ସ‌ହ ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ତୁଳନା କଲେ ଆମ ସାମନାରେ ଅନେକ ଅନାଲୋଚିତ ତ‌ଥ୍ୟ ଉନ୍ମୁକ୍ତ ହେବ । ଉପରଲିଖିତ ପାଞ୍ଚୋଟିଯାକ ଭାଷା ଭିତରୁ କେଉଁଟି ବି ମୂଳ ଭାଷା ନୁହେଁ, ଅର୍ଥାତ, ଏ ସବୁଯାକ ଭାଷା ଏକ ମୂଳ ଭାଷାରୁ ବାହାରି ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷା ଦ୍ୱାରା ପ୍ରଭାବିତ ହୋଇ ଏକ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଭାଷା ରୂପେ ଆଧୁନିକ ଦୁନିଆରେ ଜଣାଶୁଣା । ଏମାନଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ସବୁଠାରୁ ପୁରାତନ ଭାଷା ମାଣ୍ଡାରିନ ଭାଷାସମୂହର ମୂଳ ତ‌ତ୍କାଳୀନ କଳିଙ୍ଗ ବା ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଉଚ୍ଚାରଣରେ "କ୍ଳିଙ୍ଗ" ଭାଷାର ଢାଞ୍ଚାରେ ନିର୍ମିତ ଯାହା ପ୍ରମାଣିତ କରେ ଆମ ସାଧବ ପୁଅମାନେ ଦୂରଦେଶକୁ କେବଳ ଆମର ପାଟଲୁଗା ଆଉ ମସଲା ନେଇଯାଇ ନଥିଲେ, ଆମର ଭାଷା, ଚଳଣି, ଧର୍ମର ଅନେକ ଧାରା ଦକ୍ଷିଣ-ପୂର୍ବ ଏସିଆକୁ ନେଇଯାଇଥିଲେ । ତେବେ ଅନେକ ଐତିହାସିକ ତ‌ଥ୍ୟ ଅଭିଲେଖର ଅଭାବରେ ପ୍ରମାଣିତ ହୋଇନ‌ପାରି ଇତିହାସ ଆଢ଼ୁଆଳରେ ରହିଯାଇଛି । ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଭାଷା ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇଁ ବରିଷ୍ଠ ଭାଷାବିଦ ପଦ୍ମଶ୍ରୀ ଦେବୀପ୍ରସନ୍ନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକଙ୍କ ନେତୃତ୍ୱରେ ଯେଉଁ କମିଟି ଗଢ଼ାଯାଇଥିଲା ସେଥିରେ ପ୍ରମାଣସ୍ୱରୂପ କେତେକ ଅଭିଲେଖର ଉପସ୍ଥାପନା କରାଯାଇଛି । କିନ୍ତୁ ଖାରବେଳଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ଖୋଦିତ ଖଣ୍ଡଗିରିର ହାତୀଗୁମ୍ଫା ଶିଳାଲେଖକୁ ବାଦ‌ଦେଲେ ଆଉ କିଛି ପୁରୁଣା ଲେଖ ମିଳିପାରିଲା ନାହିଁ । ତେବେ ଭାଷାଟିଏ ଜଣାଶୁଣା ହେବା ପାଇଁ ଯେ ଏହା ପୁରାତନ ହେବା ଜରୁରୀ ନୁହେଁ ତାହା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସ‌ହିତ ପୃଥିବୀର ୫ଟି ଭାଷାକୁ ତୁଳନା କଲେ ସ୍ପଷ୍ଟ ଜଣାପଡ଼େ । ତେବେ କିଭଳି ଭାବେ ଭାଷା ବିଶ୍ୱସାରା ବ୍ୟାପେ, ଏହା ଚିନ୍ତା କରିବାର ବେଳ ଆସିଛି ।

ଭାଷାଟିଏ ସମୃଦ୍ଧ ହୁଏ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରରୁ । ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷା ସାଧାରଣ ଜୀବନ ସ‌ହ ଯେତେ ଅଙ୍ଗାଙ୍ଗୀ ଭାବେ ଜଡ଼ିତ ସେ ଭାଷା ସେତେ ଅଧିକ ପ୍ରବ‌ହ‌ମାନ । ଭାଷା ବ୍ୟାପେ ଲିଖନ ଓ ପଠନରୁ । ଜଗତର ସମସ୍ତ ଜଣାଶୁଣା ଭାଷାର ସାହିତ୍ୟ କେବଳ ସେହି ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ସୀମିତ ନ‌ଥାଏ, ତାହା ଅନୁଦିତ ହୋଇ ବିଶ୍ୱସାହିତ୍ୟ ସମାଜରେ ପଠିତ ହୁଏ । ସରଳ ଭାଷାରେ କ‌ହିଲେ ଯେତେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସାହିତ୍ୟ, ଓଡ଼ିଶାର କ‌ଥା ବିଶ୍ୱର ବାକି ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କରେ ଲିଖିତ ହେବ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରରେ ସେତେ ପ୍ରସିଦ୍ଧି ଲାଭ କରିବ । ଭାଷାର ନିଅଁ ଦମ୍ଭିଲା ହୁଏ ସରକାରୀ ପ୍ରୋତ୍ସାହ‌ନରୁ । ଯେଉଁ ସମୟରେ ପଶ୍ଚିମ‌ବଙ୍ଗରେ ସରକାରୀଭାବେ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଶିକ୍ଷା, ଇଂରାଜୀରେ ସରକାରୀ ନ‌ଥିପ‌ତ୍ରରେ କାମ କରିବା ଉପରେ ଜୋର ଦିଆଯାଉଥିଲା ସେହି ଏକା ସମୟରେ ବଙ୍ଗଳାଦେଶରେ ବଙ୍ଗଳା ଭାଷାକୁ ସରକାରୀ କଳରେ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ କରି, ଶିକ୍ଷାଦୀକ୍ଷାର ମାଧ୍ୟମ କରିବା କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ ଚାଲିଥିଲା । ଏହି ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନରେ ପ୍ରାଣବଳି ଦେଇଥିଲେ ଅନେକ ଭାଷା ପ୍ରେମୀ ଯାହାଙ୍କ ସ୍ମୃତିରେ ଇଉନେସ୍କୋ ଫେବ୍ରୁଆରି ୧୫କୁ ଅନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀୟ ମାତୃଭାଷା ଦିବସ ଭାବେ ପାଳନ କରେ । ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷା ଯେତେ ସ‌ହଜରେ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖରେ ପ‌ହ‌ଞ୍ଚିପାରେ ସେ ଭାଷା ସେତେ ଅଧିକ ପଠିତ ହୁଏ । ଏ ତିନୋଟି ମୁଖ୍ୟ ପଦଃକ୍ଷେପ ଭିତରୁ ଜଣେ ସାଧାରଣ ପାଠକ ଓ ଲେଖକର ହାତରେ ପ୍ରଥମ ଓ ତୃତୀୟଟି ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବେ ର‌ହିଛି । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଅଧିକ ବ‌ହିପ‌ତ୍ର ପଢ଼ିବା, ତାହାକୁ ଅନ୍ୟଭାଷାରେ ଅନୁବାଦ କରିବା, ନିଜ ଅଞ୍ଚଳର, ଗୋଷ୍ଠୀର ଅନେକ ନିଆରା ପରମ୍ପରା, ଲୋକସାହିତ୍ୟକୁ ବିଶ୍ୱର ବାକି ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖି ଜ୍ଞାନର ବିତରଣ କରିବା ଦ୍ୱାରା ଅନେକ ଅନାଲୋଚିତ ବିଷୟବସ୍ତୁ ଉପରେ ପାଠକର ଆଗ୍ରହ ବଢ଼େ । ଏହା ପରୋକ୍ଷରେ ସାହିତ୍ୟ, ଭାଷା, ପରମ୍ପରା ଓ ପର୍ଯ୍ୟଟନର ବିକାଶର ପ‌ଥ ପ୍ରସାରଣ କରେ । ଭାବନ୍ତୁ, ଯଦି ଭାଷାଟିଏକୁ ଛିଡ଼ା କରାଇବା ପାଇଁ ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ କରୁଥିବା ଯୁବଗୋଷ୍ଠୀଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ଇଂରାଜୀରେ ବଙ୍ଗର ଜନ‌ଜୀବନ ଉପରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ରବୀନ୍ଦ୍ରନାଥଟିଏ ବାହାରି ନ‌ଥାନ୍ତା ତାହେଲେ ଆଜି ବଙ୍ଗଳା ଭାଷା ବିଶ୍ୱର ସ‌ପ୍ତମ କ‌ଥିତ ଭାଷା ଭାବେ ପରିଗଣିତ ହୋଇଥାନ୍ତା କି?

ପୁରୁଣା ବ‌ହିର ଅଭିଲେଖ:

୧୮୧୧ ରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ୧୯୫୦ ମସିହା ମଧ୍ୟରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଅନେକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବ‌ହି ପୁରୁଣା କାଗଜ, ରକ୍ଷଣାବେକ୍ଷଣା ଅଭାବରୁ ନଷ୍ଟ ହେଇଯାଉଥିବା ଲକ୍ଷ କରି ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରର ସୃଜନିକା ଦ୍ୱାରା ସେସବୁ ବ‌ହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ସଂସ୍କରଣ ତିଆରି କାମ କିଛି ବର୍ଷ ତଳେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇଥିଲା । ଏଯାବତ ପାଖାପାଖି ୭୪୦ ଖଣ୍ଡ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବ‌ହି, ପ‌ତ୍ରପ‌ତ୍ରିକା ଆଦି ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂପରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଯାହା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ଇତିହାସରେ ଏଯାବତ ସର୍ବାଧିକ । ନ୍ୟାସନାଲ ଇନଷ୍ଟିଚ୍ୟୁଟ ଅଫ ଟେକନେଲୋଜି (NIT), ରାଉରକେଲା ସ‌ହ‌ଯୋଗରେ ସୃଜନିକା ବ‌ହିସବୁକୁ ସ୍କାନ କରି ପରେ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀମାନଙ୍କ ସ‌ହାୟତାରେ ପିଡ଼ିଏଫ ଫର୍ମାଟରେ ଏହି ବ‌ହି ଓ ପାଣ୍ଡୁଲିପି ଆଦିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ଅଭିଲେଖ ତିଆରି କରିଛନ୍ତି । ଅଧୁନା oaob.nitrkl.ac.in ରେ ୨୪୦ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବ‌ହି ଡାଉନଲୋଡ଼ ପାଇଁ ଖୋଲାରେ ବିତରଣ ହେଉଥିବା ବେଳେ ବାକି ବ‌ହି ସୃଜନିକା ଦ୍ୱାରା ସିଡ଼ି/ଡିଭିଡ଼ି/ପେନ‌ଡ୍ରାଇଭରେ ମିଳୁଛି । ଏହି ବ‌ହି ଭିତରେ ରହିଛି ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ଭାଷାକୋଷ, ୧୮୧୧ରୁ ୧୯୪୨ ଭିତରେ ସଂକଳିତ ପାଖାପାଖି ୨୬ ଗୋଟି ଅଭିଧାନ, ୧୮୫୦ରୁ ୧୯୫୦ ଭିତରର ୧୦୦ ବର୍ଷରେ ଛପାଯାଇଥିବା ଅନେକ ବିଜ୍ଞାନ, ସାହିତ୍ୟ, ଇତିହାସ ଓ ଗବେଷଣାଧର୍ମୀ ବ‌ହି । ୬୧ଟି ପ‌ତ୍ରିକା ଓ ୧୪ଟି ତ‌ତ୍କାଳୀନ ଖବରକାଗଜରୁ ପାଖାପାଖି ୧,୨୦,୦୦୦ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ଡିଜିଟାଲ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ସଂରକ୍ଷିତ କରାଯାଇପାରିଛି । ନିକଟ ଅତୀତରେ ସଂସ୍କୃତି ବିଭାଗ ତରଫରୁ ପୁରାତନ ଅନେକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବ‌ହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ସଂସ୍କରଣ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରାଯାଇଛି । ତେବେ କି କି ବ‌ହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂପ ସରକାରଙ୍କ ତରଫରୁ କରାଯାଉଛି ତାହା ଅଗୋଚରରେ ରହିଛି । ୨୦୦୪ ପରଠାରୁ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସରକାରଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଉତ୍କଳ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ (ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ) ଓ Orissa Review (ଇଂରାଜୀରେ) http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/utkalprasanga/utkalprasanga.htm ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଯେଉଁଥିରେ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧିତ ଅନେକ ଗବେଷଣା ସମ୍ବଳିତ ରଚନା ସ୍ଥାନ ପାଇଛି । orissabigyanacademy.nic.in ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଅନେକ ଉପାଦେୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବିଜ୍ଞାନ ଲେଖା, ବିଶେଷ କରି ବିଜ୍ଞାନ ଦିଗନ୍ତ ପ‌ତ୍ରିକାର ସଂଖ୍ୟାସବୁ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଯାହା ପଢ଼ାଯାଇପାରିବ । ପ୍ରମୁଖ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଓ ପ‌ତ୍ରପ‌ତ୍ରିକାମାନଙ୍କର ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଖବର ଓ ଲେଖାସବୁ ରହିଛି ଯାହା ଭିତରୁ କିଛି ଆର୍କାଇଭ ହୋଇଛି ଆଉ କିଛି ହୋଇନାହିଁ । ତେବେ ଉପରେ ବର୍ଣ୍ଣିତ ସମସ୍ତ ବ‌ହି କେବଳ ପଢ଼ିହେବ । ତାହା ନାଁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଖୋଜିହେବ ନାଁ ଲେଖାକୁ ପୁନ‌ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରିହେବ ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା:

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ପ୍ରଥମ ଛାପାକଳରୁ ଛପା ହେବା ପରଠାରୁ ଆଜିଯାଏ ହୁଏତ ଅସଂଖ୍ୟ ବ‌ହି ଛପାଯାଇଥିବ । ତେବେ ସେସବୁକୁ ଖୋଜିବସିଲେ ସ‌ହଜରେ ମିଳିବ କି? ଏଠାରେ ଆଉ ଏକ ବିରାଟ ଛିଡ଼ାହୁଏ ଆମ ଆଗରେ, ଯାହା ହେଲା ସ‌ହଜଲବ୍ଧ ଅଭିଲେଖ ବା ଆର୍କାଇଭ । ଯଦି ମୋତେ ଗୀତଗୋବିନ୍ଦ କାବ୍ୟର ଏକ ପଙ୍‌କ୍ତି ପଢ଼ିବାର ଅଛି ତାହେଲେ ମୁଁ ଜୟଦେବଙ୍କ ଲିଖିତ ବିରଳ ତାଳପ‌ତ୍ର ପୋଥିଟି ଖୋଜିବି କି? ମୁଁ ପ୍ରଥମେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜିବସିବି ଲାଇବ୍ରେରି ଯିବା ଆଗରୁ । ଆଧୁନିକ ଯୁଗରେ ମଣିଷର ବ‌ହି ସ‌ହ ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧ ଯେତେ ଘୁଞ୍ଚି ଘୁଞ୍ଚି ଯାଉଛି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଉପରେ ନିର୍ଭରଶୀଳତା ସେତେ ବଢ଼ି ବଢ଼ି ଯାଉଛି । ତେବେ ନୂତନ-ପୁରାତନ ବ‌ହିର ସବୁ ପାଠ ଯଦି ସ‌ହଜରେ ମିଳିପାରନ୍ତା ତେବେ ପାଠକଟିଏ ଯେତେବେଳେ ଯାହା ଚାହିଁବ ତାହା ପଢ଼ିପାରିବ । ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷାରେ ଏ ସାଧନ ଯେତେ ଅଧିକ ସେ ଭାଷା ପାଠକ ତିଆରି କରିବାରେ ସେତେ ସଫଳ । ଏ ବିଷୟରେ ଭାବିଲେ ଆମ ମନରେ ଯେଉଁ ପ୍ରଥମ ଭାଷାଟି ଉଙ୍କିମାରେ ତାହା ହେଲା ଇଂରାଜୀ । ଆମେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବା ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବିଷୟରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ କିଛି ଖୋଜିବା ବେଳେ ଯାହା ଗୁଗଲରେ ଟାଇପ କରୁ ସେ ବି ହେଉଛି ଇଂରାଜୀ ଭାଷା । ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ପଢ଼ିବାରେ ଓ ଲେଖିବାରେ ବାଟ ବି ଖୋଲିଛି ତାହା ଉଣା ଅଧିକେ ଅନେକେ ଜାଣି ନ‌ଥିବେ । ସମ୍ବିଧାନ ସ୍ୱିକୃତୀପ୍ରାପ୍ତ ପ୍ରାୟ ସମସ୍ତ ଭାଷା କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରଯୋଗ୍ୟ । ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ଆଜିର ସମୟରେ ଅଧିକାଂଶ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରକାରୀ ମାଇକ୍ରୋସଫ୍ଟ ଉଇଣ୍ଡୋଜର ଅପରେଟିଙ୍ଗ ସିଷ୍ଟମ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରିଥାନ୍ତି । ଉଇଣ୍ଡୋଜ ଭିସ୍ତା ନାମକ ଅପରେଟିଙ୍ଗ ସିଷ୍ଟମର ସସ୍କରଣ ଆସିବା ଯାଏଁ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଲେଖାପଢ଼ା ସମ୍ପୁର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବେ ସମ୍ଭବ ହୋଇପାରୁନ‌ଥଲା । ତେବେ ଭିସ୍ତା ପରଠାରୁ ଏହି ଅସୁବିଧା ଆପାତ‌ତଃ ଦୂର ହେଲା । ଆଜିର ସମୟରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଅପରେଟିଙ୍ଗ ସିଷ୍ଟମ ଯଥା: ମାଇକ୍ରୋସଫ୍ଟ ଉଇଣ୍ଡୋଜ, ଲିନ‌କ୍ସ ଓ ଆପଲ ମ୍ୟାକ ଆଦିରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ପଢ଼ିବା ଓ ଲେଖିବାରେ ବିଶେଷ କିଛି ଅସୁବିଧା ପ୍ରାୟ ନାହିଁ । କିନ୍ତୁ ଯଦି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର ଚିହ୍ନୁଥିବା ଯେକୌଣସି କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରକାରୀକୁ କେହି ପଚାରନ୍ତି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କିଛି ଟାଇପ କରି ଲେଖିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ, ୧୦୦ରୁ ଜଣେ କି ଦୁଇଜଣ ନିଜର କ୍ଷମତା ପ୍ରକାଶ କରିବେ କି ସେ ସନ୍ଦେହର କ‌ଥା । ଏହାର ମୂଳ କାରଣ ହେଲା ସ୍କ୍ୁଲ, କଲେଜ ପଢ଼ାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପିଙ୍ଗ କରିବା କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ କିଛି ତାଲିମ ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀମାନେ ପାଇନ‌ଥାନ୍ତି । ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଯେ ଲେଖିହେବ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଏହାକୁ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଭଳି ସ‌ହଜରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରିହେବ ଏହା ଅନେକ‌ଙ୍କୁ ଆକାଶ କଇଆଁ ଭଳି ଲାଗିବ । ତେବେ ଏହା ଶତକଡ଼ା ଶହେ ସମ୍ବବ । ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଲେଖିବାରେ ଯେଉଁ ମୂଳ ପ୍ରତିବନ୍ଧକଟି ଅଛି ତାହା ହେଲେ ନାନାଦି ଅନ୍ଧବିଶ୍ୱାସ । କେବଳ ବିରାଡ଼ିକୁ ଦେଖି ପଛକୁ ଗାଡ଼ି ନେବା ଅନ୍ଧବିଶ୍ୱାସ ନୁହେଁ, ଭାଷାଶିକ୍ଷଣ କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଅନେକ ନ‌କଲି ଅନ୍ଧବିଶ୍ୱାସ ଅଛି । ତା ଭିତରୁ ପ୍ରଥମଟି ହେଲା ଅନେକେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିବା କ‌ଥା ଆସିଲେ ଭାବି ବସନ୍ତି ଛାପାଖାନାରେ ଛପା ହେଉଥିବା ବ‌ହି ବାବଦରେ । ଆଜି ଡିଜିଟାଲ ପ୍ରକାଶନ (ଡିଟିପି)ର ବ‌ହୁଳତା ଆଗକାଳର ବିଶାଳକାୟ ଛାପାକଳ ସବୁକୁ ଅତୀତକୁ ଠେଲିଦେଇଛି । କିନ୍ତୁ ଆଜି ବି ଆମର ଛପା ପାଇଁ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ହେଉଥିବା ସଫ୍ଟ୍ୱାରଠୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ଲେଖାରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ହେଉଥିବା ଫଣ୍ଟ ବା କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରର ଅକ୍ଷରସଜାଣି ମାନ‌ଧାତା ଅମଳର । ନ‌ବେ ଦଶକର ଶେଷ ଆଡ଼କୁ ଯେଉଁ ISCII (Indian Script Code for Information Interchange) ନାମକ ମାନ‌କର ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇଥିଲା କିଛି ବର୍ଷ ପରେ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ନାମକ ନୂଆ ମାନ‌କ ତାକୁ ଆଜି ବି ଦୂରେଇପାରିନାହିଁ । ଫଳତଃ ଆଜିଯାଏ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଡିଟିପି କରାଯାଇଥିବା ପାଖାପାଖି ସମସ୍ତ ଲେଖା ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ନା ଖୋଜିହେବ ନା ଆଉ କାହା ସଙ୍ଗେ ବାଣ୍ଟି କରିହେବ । କେଇ ଦଶନ୍ଧି ତଳେ ଆପଣଙ୍କ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଫଣ୍ଟ ନ ଥିଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର ବଦଳରେ ଯେଉଁ ଚାରିକୋଣିଆ ଘର ଦେଖିବାକୁ ମିଳୁଥିଲା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଡିଟିପିରେ ଆଜି ବି ଯେଉଁ ଫଣ୍ଟ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ହେଉଛି ସେ ସେଇ ଏକା ଫଳ ଦେବ । ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶରେ ଆଧୁନିକ ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୌଶଳ ବିଶେଷ ଜରୁରୀ ଯାହା ଗତାନୁଗତିକ ଏହି ପ୍ରଚଳିତ ଟାଇପିଙ୍ଗକୁ ଦୂରକୁ ଫିଙ୍ଗିଦେବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିବ। ଦୁଃଖର ବିଷୟ ଆମର ପ୍ରାୟ ସମସ୍ତ ଖବରକାଗଜଙ୍କର ପ୍ରକାଶନ ଏହି ସବୁ ISCII ଫଣ୍ଟରେ ଲେଖାହୋଇଥିବାରୁ ସେସବୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜାଯାଇପାରିବ ନାହିଁ ।

ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ମାଧ୍ୟମ (Unicode standards):

ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଏକ ଆନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀକ ମାନ‌କ ଯାହା ଏକ ଭାଷାକୁ ଅନ୍ୟ ଭାଷାର ସମକକ୍ଷ କରାଇଥାଏ ଓ ଏହା ସଙ୍ଗେ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖାଥିବା ଲେଖାକୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ସ‌ହଜରେ ଖୋଜିହୁଏ, କପି କରି ବାକିମାନଙ୍କ ସ‌ହ ବିତରଣ କରିହୁଏ ଆଉ ସବୁଠାରୁ ବଡ଼ କ‌ଥା ହେଲା ଏହା ପାଇଁ କୌଣସି ଫଣ୍ଟ ଇନଷ୍ଟଲ କରିବାକୁ ପଡ଼େନାହିଁ । ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ବି ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ର ବିକାଶ ହୋଇଛି । ହେଲେ ଆମର ଖବରକାଗଜ ସମେତ ବାକି ସମସ୍ତ ଛାପାଖାନା ଆଜିଯାଏ ପୁରୁଣା ISCII ମାନ‌କରେ କରା‌ଯାଏ । ତେବେ ଛାପାଖାନାସବୁ ଯେ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ର ଉପ‌ଯୋଗୀତା ବୁଝିନାହାନ୍ତି ବା ଆବଶ୍ୟକ‌ତା ଅନୁଭବ କରିନାହାନ୍ତି କିମ୍ବା ନିଜର ଗତାନୁଗତିକ ଧାରାରୁ ବାହାରି କିଛି ଅଲଗା କରିବାକୁ ଇଚ୍ଛୁକ ନୁହ‌ଁନ୍ତି ତାହା ନୁହେଁ, କିନ୍ତୁ ନୂଆ କିଛି ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରିବାକୁ ପଛଘୁଞ୍ଚା ଦେଉଛନ୍ତି । କିଛି ମାସ ତଳେ ସ୍କାଇବସ (Scribus) ସଫ୍ଟ୍ୱାର ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରି ତେଲୁଗୁ ଖବରକାଗଜ "ପ୍ରଜାଶକ୍ତି" ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଫଣ୍ଟରେ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଛପାଇ ଇତିହାସ ତିଆରି କଲା । ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ବି ଏହା ଅସମ୍ଭବ ନୁହେଁ । ତେବେ ଆମ ପାଖରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଥିବା ବ‌ହିଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଯେତେବେଳ ଯାଏଁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ନ କରାଯାଇଛି ସେଯାଏଁ କେହି ସେସବୁକୁ ଲାଇବ୍ରେରି ନ ଯାଇ ପଢ଼ିପାରିବେ ନାହିଁ । ଆଜିର ତାରିଖରେ ୨୫-୩୦ ବର୍ଷ ବୟସରୁ କମ ପ୍ରାୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ହୁଏତ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର ଚିହ୍ନିବାକୁ ବି ହୁଡ଼ିବେ । ଭାଷା କେବଳ ଗପ-କବିତା ରଚନା ଓ ଉପାଧୀ-ସମ୍ମାନ ପ୍ରଦାନରେ ସମୃଦ୍ଧ ହୁଏ ନାହିଁ । ଯଦି ଆମ ଭାଷାର ବଡ଼ବଡ଼ୁଆମାନେ ଭାଷାକୁ ସାଧାରଣ ଜୀବନରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ନ କରିଥାନ୍ତେ ତାହେଲେ ଆମେ ଆଜି ନିଜକୁ ଭାଷା ଭିତ୍ତିରେ ଏକ ରାଜ୍ୟ ଭାବରେ ପରିଚୟ ଦେଉନ‌ଥାନ୍ତୁ । ଆଉ ମଧୁବାବୁ-ଫକୀରମୋହ‌ନ-ଗଙ୍ଗାଧର-ରାଧାନାଥ ପ୍ରମୁଖ ନିଜ ସମୟଠାରୁ ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ ଆଗରେ ଚାଲୁଥିଲେ । ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଲେଖା ଆଜି ମାନ‌କ ଲେଖାର ମୂଳଦୁଆ ଗଢ଼ିଛି । ଆଜି ଆମେ ଯଦି ଆମ ସମୟର ସମତାଳରେ ନ ଚାଲି ଅପ୍ରଚଳିତ ଟେକନୋଲୋଜିକୁ ଆପଣାଇ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ପରେ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ରଚନା କରିଚାଲିବା ତାହା ଭବିଷ୍ୟତର ପିଢ଼ି ନିମନ୍ତେ ଉପଯୋଗୀ ହେବ ତ? ଆମେ ସମସ୍ତେ ଯଦି ଆମ ଚାରିପାଖର ଘଟଣାବଳୀକୁ ଟିକେ ନିରେଖି ଦେଖିବା ତାହେଲେ ଅନେକ ବିଷୟ ଫର୍ଚା ହୋଇ‌ ଦିଶିବ । ସମ‌ଭାବରେ ଦେଖିଲେ ଯେତେବେଳେ ଭାଷାର ପାଠକ ସଂଖ୍ୟା କମି କମି ଯାଉଛି ସେତେବେଳେ ଆଉ କିଛି ବ‌ହି ଛପାଇ, କିଛି କମିଟି ତିଆରି କରିବା ଠାରୁ ସ୍କୁଲ, କଲେଜ ସ୍ତରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶିକ୍ଷାକୁ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ କରି ପିଲାଙ୍କୁ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର, ମଜା ମଜା ଖେଳ ଆଦି ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶିକ୍ଷା ଦେବା ନିତାନ୍ତ ଜରୁରୀ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଭାଷା ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇବା ପରେ ଯେଉଁ ୫୦୦ କୋଟି ଅର୍ଥ ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶରେ ଖର୍ଚ୍ଚ ହେବା ନିମନ୍ତେ ଯୋଜନା ହେଉଛି ଏଥିରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ଓ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଶିକ୍ଷାଦାନ ଏକ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ପଦଃକ୍ଷେପ ହେବା ଉଚିତ । ଆମ ଭାଷାରେ ଏଯାବତ ଲେଖାଯାଇଥିବା ଅନେକ ପୋଥିପୁସ୍ତକ ଅଭିଲେଖାଗାରରେ ଧୀରେ ଧୀରେ କୀଟଙ୍କ ଦାଉରୁ ନଷ୍ଟ ହୋଇଯାଉଛି । ସେସବୁକୁ ସ୍କାନ କରି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ମାଗଣାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇଲେ ତାହା ଅନେକଙ୍କ ଜ୍ଞାନ ପିପାସା ମେଣ୍ଟାଇବ । ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖାଥିବା ପୃଥିବୀର ସର୍ବାଧିକ ତାଳପ‌ତ୍ର ପୋଥି ଅଛି (ଯାହା ୨୦,୦୦୦ ରୁ ଅଧିକ) । ଏଥିରେ ଅନେକ ମୁଖ୍ୟତଃ ରାଜ୍ୟ ସଂଗ୍ରହାଳୟରେ ରଖା‌ଯାଇଛି ଆଉ କିଛି ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ମାଲିକାନାରେ ରହିଛି । ଏହି ସବୁ ପୋଥିର ଲେଖାକୁ ମଧ୍ୟ ସର୍ବସାଧାରଣରେ ଉନ୍ମୋଚନ କରିବାର ମାନସିକ ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନର ଆବଶ୍ୟକ‌ତା ରହିଛି ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: କପିରାଇଟ ନ‌ଥିବା ଏକ ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ, ଯହିଁରେ ସମସ୍ତେ ଲେଖିପାରିବେ

ଏକ ଭାଷାର ଚଳନ୍ତି ଇତିହାସ ହେଲା ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ ବା ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ଯେଉଁଥିରେ ଜଗତର ସମସ୍ତ ଜ୍ଞାନ ସାଇତାହୋଇ ରହିଥାଏ । ଗୋପାଳ ପ୍ରହରାଜ ଓ ବିନୋଦ କାନୁନ‌ଗୋଙ୍କ ପରେ ବିଶେଷ କିଛି ଉଦ୍ୟମ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ ଲିଖନ ପାଇଁ ହୋଇପାରିନ‌ଥିଲା । ଆଧୁନିକ ପାଠକଙ୍କ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ଜ୍ଞାନ ଆହରଣର ଭବିଷ୍ୟତକୁ ଆଖିରେ ରଖି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇଥିଲା ୨୦୦୨ରେ ପ୍ରଥମ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଭାବରେ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ or.wikipedia.org ରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ । ଧରାବନ୍ଧା ହାତଗଣତି ସଂକଳକଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ଏହାର ସମ୍ପାଦନା ନ କରି ଏଥିରେ ସମସ୍ତ ଜନସାଧାରଣଙ୍କୁ ଯୋଡ଼ିବା ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ଆରମ୍ଭ । ଏଯାବତ ୫୩୦୦ରୁ ଅଧିକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖାହୋଇସାରିଛି । ତେବେ ଅଧିକ ଉତ୍ସାହୀ ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ଯୋଗଦାନରେ ଏହି ଭଳି ସାମୁହିକ ଉଦ୍ୟମ ଫଳବତୀ ହୋଇପାରିବ।

ପାଠକ, ସାହିତ୍ୟାନୁରାଗୀ, ଭାଷା ଗବେଷକ, ଭାଷାର କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ବିକାଶ କରୁଥିବା ବିଜ୍ଞାନୀ ଏକ ମଞ୍ଚରେ ଆଲୋଚନା କରି ଭାଷାର ବିଭିନ୍ନ ସାଧନ ନିର୍ଣ୍ଣୟ କରିପାରିଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆର ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଭାଷା ମାନ୍ୟତା ସଫଳ ହେବ । ଯୁବଶକ୍ତିକୁ ବିନିଯୋଗ କରି ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶରେ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ସମସ୍ୟାଗୁଡ଼ିକର ସମାଧାନ କରା‌ଯାଇପାରିବ । ପାଠକର ଆବଶ୍ୟକ‌ତା ଜାଣି ପାଠର ମାଧ୍ୟମ ବଦଳାଇପାରିଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ନିଶ୍ଚିତ ଜଗତର ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ଜଣାଶୁଣା ଭାଷା ଭିତରୁ ଏକ ହେବ ।

ଅଧିକ ପଠନ:

୧. ପୁରୁଣା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବ‌ହି ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂପରେ: oaob.nitrkl.ac.in

୨. ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ, ଏକ ଖୋଲା ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ: or.wikipedia.org

୩. ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା ଉପରେ ଶିକ୍ଷଣ: or.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Typing

୪. ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ସାଧନ (ମାଇକ୍ରୋସଫ୍ଟ ଉଇଣ୍ଡୋଜ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରକାରୀଙ୍କ ନିମନ୍ତେ): bhashaindia.com/ilit/Oriya.aspx

୫. ଗୋପାଳଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ପ୍ରହରାଜଙ୍କ ଭାଷାକୋଷ: http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/praharaj (ଡାଉନଲୋଡ଼ ନିମନ୍ତେ bitly.com/bhashakosha ଦେଖନ୍ତୁ)

ଲେଖକ ପରିଚୟ: ଶୁଭାଶିଷ ପାଣିଗ୍ରାହୀ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ତ‌ଥା ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ଉପରେ କାମକରୁଥିବା ଜଣେ ଗବେଷକ । ସେ ଅଧୁନା ବେଙ୍ଗାଳୁରୁସ୍ଥିତ ସେଣ୍ଟର ଫର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଏଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟିର ଆକସେସ-ଟୁ-ନଲେଜ ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମର ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମ ଅଫିସର ଭାବେ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟରତ । ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ କିଟ ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ, କଳିଙ୍ଗ ଇନଷ୍ଟିଚ୍ୟୁଟ ଅଫ ସୋସିଆଲ ସାଇନ୍ସେସ (କିସ), ଭାରତୀୟ ଜନସଂଚାର ସଂସ୍ଥାନ, ଢେଙ୍କାନାଳ (IIMC) ଆଦି ଅନେକ ଶିକ୍ଷାନୁଷ୍ଠାନରେ ସେ କରି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଶିକ୍ଷାର ବିକାଶ ନିମନ୍ତେ ଗବେଷଣା କରୁଛନ୍ତି । ଭାରତ ଓ ବିଦେଶରେ ସେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଉପରେ ଅନେକ କର୍ମଶାଳା ଓ ଆଲୋଚନାଚକ୍ରରେ ଭାଗ ନେଇ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଭାଷାର ଆବଶ୍ୟକ‌ତା ଉପରେ ଆଲୋଚନା କରିଛନ୍ତି । subhashish@cis-india.org ରେ ତାଙ୍କ ସ‌ହ ଇ-ମେଲରେ ଯୋଗାଯୋଗ କରିପାରିବେ ।

Read the article published in Amalekha here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/subhashish-panigrahi-article-in-amalekha

Odia Wikipedia celebrates Odisha Day, brings 14 copyright-free Odia books and a free Odia font!

praskrishna — 2014-04-08T06:16:15Z

Odisha Day 2014 was celebrated on March 29, 2014. Brokenscooter.com has published a report of the event in its website.

Read the original post here.

The Odia Wikimedia community celebrated “Odisha Day” on 29th March at Jayadev Bhawan. Inaugurating this event, eminent linguist Padmashree Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak said, ‘Collaborative effort and open access to knowledge repositories will enrich our language an culture’. He also discussed about the efforts being laid for bringing Odia language as the sixth Indian classical language. Majority of the Odia publications are not available on the internet and readers are devoid of easily accessible. He discussed about the process of digitization for preserving valuable books that are out of print and the old palm leaf manuscripts.

Odia Wikipedia has been trying to popularize use of Odia language in the Internet since 2002. Available at or.wikipedia.org it is now 6000 articles rich and growing. More than 470,000 visitors visit Odia Wikipedia every month which also gives it the status of the largest Odia encyclopedia on the Internet. To enrich the online encyclopedia and getting more books digitized, Wikipedians organized a two day event at Jayadev Bhawan. Along with Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak, Professor Udayanath Sahu, The Odisha Review’s editor Dr. Lenin Mohanty, Odisha Bhaskar’s editor Pradosh Pattnaik, language researcher Subrat Prusty, Kalinga Institute of Social Science (KISS)’s principal Dr. Madan Mohan Sahu, Manik-Biswanath Smrutinyasa’s chairman Allhadmohini Mohanty along with the trust’s secretary Brajamohan Patnaik and senior members Sarojkanta Choudhury and Shisira Ranjan Dash.

11 books of eminent Odia writer Dr. Jagannath Mohanty were released in Creative Commons 3.0 license that will allow anyone to reuse and even make commercial use of the content with attribution. KISS will be digitizing these books by training their students. Allhadmohini Mohanty formally gave written permission to Odia Wikimedia community for releasing and digitizing these books. Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak and Subrat Prusty from the Institute of Odia Studies and Research also fomally released three books in Creative Commons licenses: Two Odia ones-”Bhasa O Jatiyata” and “Jati, Jagruti O Pragati” and an English book “Classical Odia”. Guests released a DVD containing a new Odia Unicode free font, “Odia OT Jagannatha” designed by Sujata Patel from OdiaLanguage.com, a new Odia input tool, free softwares and offline Wikipedia. It was declared that the Odia WikiSource project will be active soon and would be available at wikisource.org.

Odia Wikipedia administrator Mrutyunjaya Kar gave the inaugural speech and hosted the event. Subhashish Panigrahi from the Centre for Internet and Society read the annual report and shared the vision for the Wikimedia movement. Active Odia Wikipedians Ansuman Giri, Diptiman Panigrahi, Dr. Subas Chandra Rout, Jnanaranjan Sahu, Sasanka Dash, Aditya Mahar and Srikant Kedia coordinated the event.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/brokenscooter-april-4-2014-odia-wikipedia-celebrates-odisha-day-brings-14-copyright-free-odia-books-and-free-odia-font

Odia Wikimedia community has celebrated Odisha day

praskrishna — 2014-04-08T06:21:38Z

Odisha Day 2014 was held on March 29, 2014. A report was published in FullOrissa News on April 2, 2014.

Click to read the original story here.

Odia Wikimedia community has celebrated “Odisha day” today at Jayadev Bhawan. Inaugurating this event eminent linguist Padmashree Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak said, ‘Collaborative effort and open access to knowledge repositories will enrich our language an culture’. He also discussed about the efforts being laid for bringing Odia language as the sixth Indian classical language. Majority of the Odia publications are not available on the internet and readers are devoid of easily accessible. He discussed about the process of digitization for preserving valuable books that are out of print and the old palm leaf manuscripts.

11 books of eminent Odia writer Dr. Jagannath Mohanty were released in Creative Commons 3.0 license that will allow anyone to reuse and even make commercial use of the content with attribution. KISS will be digitizing these books by training their students. Allhadmohini Mohanty formally gave written permission to Odia Wikimedia community for releasing and digitizing these books. Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak and Subrat Prusty from the Institute of Odia Studies and Research also fomally released three books in Creative Commons licenses: Two Odia ones-”Bhasa O Jatiyata” and “Jati, Jagruti O Pragati” and an English book “Classical Odia”. Guests released a DVD containing a new Odia Unicode free font, “Odia OT Jagannatha” designed by Sujata Patel from OdiaLanguage.com, a new Odia input tool, free softwares and offline Wikipedia. It was declared that the Odia WikiSource project will be active soon and would be available at wikisource.org.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/full-odisha-april-2-2014-odia-wikipedia-community-celebrated-odisha-day

Access to Knowledge Bulletin — April 2014

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T05:55:10Z

The Access to Knowledge (Wikipedia) newsletter for the month of April 2014:

CIS Signs MoU with Mysore University

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. As part of the MoU CIS will convert and upload the encyclopaedia into Kannada Wikisource and then it will be moved to Kannada Wikipedia.

Articles

Vachana Sanchaya: Bringing Access to 11th century Kannada Literature (by Subhashish Panigrahi, April 3, 2014).
୭୯ ବର୍ଷରେ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଓଡ଼ିଶା: ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଏହାର ବ୍ୟବହାର (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Amalekha, April 4, 2014).
ଓଡ଼ିଅା ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର (by Subhashish Panigrahi, The Kadambini, April 8, 2014).
Report from India: Relicensing books under CC (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Creative Commons Blog, April 19, 2014).
14 Odia books re-released under Creative Commons license (by Subhashish Panigrahi, DNA, April 26, 2014). The article was edited by Rohini Lakshane.

Events Organized

Tulu Wikipedia Workshop (organized by CIS-A2K, Balmatta Computer Centre, Mangalore, April 5, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.

Konkani Wikipedia Workshop (co-organized by All India Konkani Writers Organization and CIS-A2K, Kalaangann Shaktinagar, April 6, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.
Tulu Wikipedia Editathon (co-organized by Karnataka Theological College and CIS-A2K, Mangalore, April 19, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.

Participation in Events

Wikipedia Session for Trainee Journos (organized by Prajavani, Bangalore, April 28, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja took a session for the trainee journalists of Prajavani Kannada daily on Wikipedia.
World Book Day (organized by Karnataka Publishers’ Association, Indian Institute of World Culture, Basavanagudi, Bangalore, April 23, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was a speaker.
Relevance of Bhagabat Tungi in the evolution of Odia language from Buddha era to digital age (organized by The Intellects, Shree Jagannath Mandir and Odisha Art and Cultural Center, New Delhi, April 24, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.

Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

M'lore: Wikipedia Workshop held for Konkani writers (Daijiworld, April 6, 2014).
Odia Loves Wikipedia (Rising Voices, April 10, 2014). This was also published in Spanish and in Russian.
International Book Day (The Hindu, April 21, 2014).
Books are a bridge between generations (The Deccan Herald, April 23, 2014).
World Book Day Report (Vijaywani, April 23, 2014).
Seminar on Odia Language in New Delhi by the Intellects (Odisha Samachar, April 24, 2014).
Delhi meet focuses on Bhagabat Tungi revival (The Pionee

Wikimedia Foundation has funded A2K to anchor the growth of Wikimedia movement in India. The A2K team consists of six members, four based in Bangalore: T. Vishnu Vardhan, Dr. U.B. Pavanaja, Subhashish Panigrahi and Muzammiluddin Syed, one member Nitika Tandon in Delhi and one Advisor Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana. Archives of our newsletters can be accessed here (http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters). Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications at http://bit.ly/TOcXId.

About CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
CIS group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cis.india
Visit us at: https://cis-india.org

Support Us
Please help us defend consumer / 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.

Request for Collaboration:
We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org

CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.

r, April 26, 2014).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-april-2014

March 2014 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2014-05-30T12:12:33Z

We at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcome you to the third issue of the newsletter (March) for the year 2014.

Highlights

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) published a report on making the 2014 General Elections in India participatory and accessible for voters with disabilities.
CIS also published a report of a test conducted to determine the accessibility of websites of the Election Commission of India, the Parliament and some key political parties in India.
Proceedings of the 26^th session of WIPO-SCCR are brought forth in a 3 part summary. Varun Baliga and Alexandra Bhattacharya of the Third World Network provided their inputs.
The Access to Knowledge team from CIS (CIS-A2K) published a detailed draft work plan. These include 7 language area plans, 3 community strengthening initiatives, 8 stand-alone Wikimedia projects, creating movement resources, publicity, research and documentation, and general support and service to the movement.
CIS received a leaked version of the draft Privacy Bill 2014 that the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India has drafted. Significant changes noted in the current bill when compared to the September 2011 Privacy Bill are analysed in a blog post.
As part of the Making Change project Denisse Albornoz has produced an analysis of the accessibility challenges for digital immigrants and the importance of behavioural science for the design of digital technologies in a blog post.
Dr. Nishant Shah was a panelist at an event on Digital Gender organized by HUMLAB and Umeå Centre for Gender Studies. He blogged about the event in HUMLAB Blog.

Jobs

CIS is seeking applications for the post of Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge): http://bit.ly/1fnydB0. There are two vacancies for this post one in Delhi and one in Bangalore. To apply, please send your resume to Sunil Abraham (sunil@cis-india.org), Nirmita Narasimhan (nirmita@cis-india.org) and Pranesh Prakash (pranesh@cis-india.org) with three writing samples of which at least one demonstrates your analytic skills, and one that shows your ability to simplify complex policy issues.

Accessibility and Inclusion

Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. We have completed compilation of draft chapters for 29 states and 6 union territories. The chapters along with the quarterly reports can be accessed on the project page available at: http://bit.ly/1e1FzgD. The second project is on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed at: http://bit.ly/1hi1EI1.

NVDA

Blog Entry

NVDA e-Speak Text-to-Speech Project Update (March 2014): http://bit.ly/1hAR2OI.

Other Accessibility Updates

Publications

Enabling Elections (by CIS and CLPR, March 24, 2014): http://bit.ly/1qcRdqJ.
Accessibility of Political Parties Websites in India (by CIS March 24, 2014): http://bit.ly/1snN9G3.

Announcement

Constitution of the High Level Advisory Committee on National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility. CIS has been invited to serve on the high level committee on electronic accessibility policy constituted by the Indian government. This was communicated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology: http://bit.ly/1ieuNz3.

Media Coverage

Are Elections Fair to People With Special Needs? (by Papiya Bhattacharya, New Indian Express, April 8, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hrQ7WS.
Enabling Elections (Vijay Karnataka, April 9, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mXFpJM. This was published in Kannada language.

Access to Knowledge

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has funded CIS to do research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property and to use the research outputs to support intellectual property norms that encourage, not inhibit, the proliferation and further development of such technologies as a social good. Further, the Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers and human rights, and critically examines Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, and Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software.

Blog Entries

NGO Profile: Knowledge Ecology International (by Puneeth Nagraj, March 11, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fRFTNd.
004: A License to Share (by Devika Agarwal, March 17, 2014): http://bit.ly/PL85aJ
Broadcast Treaty: An Overview (by Varun Baliga, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e2Pli6.
WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) 26th Session- Consolidated Notes (Part 1 of 3) (by Nehaa Chaudhari, March 18, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fRH3s1.
WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) 26th Session- Consolidated Notes (Part 2 of 3) (by Nehaa Chaudhari, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1imQ3E0.
WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) 26th Session- Consolidated Notes (Part 3 of 3) (by Nehaa Chaudhari, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kfnI8o.
Cultural Interests vs. Modernization: Robert Shapiro on IPR & Innovation in India (by Samantha Cassar, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fRNStF.

Upcoming Event

NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2014 (CIS, Bangalore, April 12 – 13, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mVy8tZ.

Participation in Events

9^th Session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (organized by WIPO, March 3 - 5, 2014, Geneva): http://bit.ly/1ifeS3p. Puneeth Nagraj participated in this event.
2nd International Conference Competition Law - Challenges in the Implementation (organized by ASSOCHAM, New Delhi, March 8, 2014). Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event.
Design!Public (organized by Centre for Knowledge Societies in partnership with in partnership with Grameen Foundation India, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNDP, et.al., New Delhi, March 14, 2014): http://bit.ly/1g1jyNj. Sunil Abraham was a speaker at the event.
Stakeholders meeting to discuss the NCAER Report on "Parallel Imports" (organized by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi, March 26, 2014). Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event: http://bit.ly/1hkyN62.

The following has been done under grant from the Wikimedia Foundation (http://bit.ly/SPqFOl). As part this project (http://bit.ly/X80ELd), we organised 9 workshops in the month of March (http://bit.ly/1hvdUPE), wrote articles for DNA, Opensource.com, Global Voices, Foss Force, etc., and prepared a detailed work plan for July 2014 – June 2015:

Wikipedia

Draft Work Plan

India Access to Knowledge/Draft Work plan July 2014 - June 2015 (by T. Vishnu Vardhan, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hWE2Yh. A detailed work plan for languages like Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Odia and Telugu was prepared by the CIS-A2K team.

Articles / Blog Entries

Open Education Week: Interview with Subhashish Panigrahi (by Noopur Raval, March 14, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e3KwFr.
Open Source Project Brings 11th Century Kannada Verses Online (by Pavithra Hanchagaiah, Omshivaprakash H L and Subhashish Panigrahi, March 19, 2014): http://bit.ly/POf9TW.
Vachana Sanchaya: 11th century Kannada literature to enrich Wikisource (by by Pavithra Hanchagaiah, Omshivaprakash H L and Subhashish Panigrahi, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kgYiaw.
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: ତିନି ବର୍ଷର ସକ୍ରିୟ ଅବଦାନ ୧୦ ବର୍ଷର ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପକୁ ପୁନର୍ଜୀବନ ଦେଲା (by Subhashish Panigrahi, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gB9qa8.
Digitize any Book in the Public Domain (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Opensource.com, March 27, 2014): http://bit.ly/1iqXgDb.

Events Organized

First Urdu Wikipedia Workshop (Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, March 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1ihqPpj. Syed Muzamiluddin conducted the workshop. The event was covered by Taemeer News, Aalami Akhbar, and Firokhabar on March 5, 2014. A video of the event was published by Ruby News.
Telugu Wikipedia Women’s Day (Hyderabad, March 8, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e3NvO8. The event was covered by Andhra Prabha Telugu daily and Andhra Bhoomi.
Wiki Women’s Day (International Center Goa, March 9, 2014): http://bit.ly/MRRJLy. Frederick Noronha conducted the workshop. The event was organized as part of the commemoration of the International Women's Day.
Wikipedia Editathon on India Women's History (Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT), Hyderabad, March 8, 2014). The event was covered by Andhra Prabha and Andhra Bhoomi on March 8, 2014. Syed Muzamiluddin participated in the event.
Kannada Wikipedia Workshop (SDM College, Ujire, March 23, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted a workshop. Renuka Phadnis wrote a report of the event in the Hindu on March 24, 2014: http://bit.ly/1ekkf0m.
Community Capacity Building Workshop (KIIT University, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1haLAaf. Subhashish Panigrahi along with experienced Wikipedians mentored the Odia Wikipedia community about community building strategies and outreach.

Events Co-organized

Kannada Wikipedia Workshop (organized by Kannada Times Sagara and co-sponsored by CIS-A2K, Sagara, March 1-2, 2014). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja conducted a Kannada Wikipedia workshop on March 1, followed a by edit-a-thon on Mar 2, 2014. The event was covered by Suvarna Prabha (March 1, 2014, http://bit.ly/1hjLbTL) and Vijaya Karnataka (March 2, 2014, http://bit.ly/1jmRMLA).
Odisha Day 2014 (organized by CIS-A2K and Odia Wikipedia community, Jayadev Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e6Lwsg. About 70 people participated in the event. The event was featured in the media about 14 times.

Participation in Events

Sessions on Kannada Wikipedia (organized by Tumkur University, March 27, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kB7It8. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted a session on Kannada Wikipedia for students of M.Sc. Library and Information Sciences followed by an advanced Kannada Wikipedia session for students of M.A. Literature.
The Dynamics of Education to Employment Journey: Opportunities and Challenges (organized by KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, February 21-22, 2014). T. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk: http://bit.ly/1ePwqHc.

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Media Coverage

Integrating Urdu with Modern Technology the Need of Hour (Daily Taskeen, March 6, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fZgcH6.
ଓଡ଼ିଶା ଦିବସ: ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଭିତ୍ତିରେ ରାଜ୍ୟ ଗଠନର ୭୯ ବର୍ଷ (Odishan.com, March 27, 2014): http://bit.ly/OvTLCb.
Odia Wikipedia (The Telegraph, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1qihWAb. Subhashish Panigrahi spoke about Odia Wikipedia plan.
Odia Wikimedia community celebrated Odisha day, bringing 14 copyright free Odia books (Odishadiary, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1lJJ4ur.
Odia Wikipedia Brings 14 Copyright Free Odia Books and a Free Odia Font (Odishabarta, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mRHzI2. Subhashish Panigrahi shared the vision of the Wikimedia movement.
‘Digitisation only way to preserve valuable literature for posterity’ (Odisha Sun Times, March 29, 2014): http://bit.ly/1lF3Pok.
Odia Wikipedia to Digitise 14 Books (The Pioneer, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1ec4Rsp.
ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଉଇକିପିଡିଆ ଓ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର: ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପୁସ୍ତକ ଏଣିକି ମୁକ୍ତରେ ମିଳିବ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ (Odishan, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mVfeU1. Subhashish Panigrahi read out the annual report.
Odisha Day 2014 (Odisha Samay, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/1haQtzS.
Odisha Day 2014 (Sambad, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1irzOWf.

Internet Governance

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. As part of our research we bring you an analysis highlighting the differences between the leaked version of the Privacy Bill and the September 2011 Privacy Bill.

Articles

Privacy worries cloud Facebook's WhatsApp Deal (by Sunil Abraham, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1inIU6z.
The Age of Shame (by Dr. Nishant Shah, Indian Express, March 30, 2014): http://bit.ly/PD10ZW.

Blog Entries

Comparison of Section 35(1) of the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill and Section 4 of the Identification Act Revised Statute of Canada (by Elonnai Hickok, March 3, 2014): http://bit.ly/1jmTWuI.
New Standard Operating Procedures for Lawful Interception and Monitoring (by Divij Joshi, March 13, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mRRIo4.
NTIA to give up control of the Internet's root (by Pranesh Prakash, March 18, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hRVA7R.
Net Neutrality and Privacy (by Divij Joshi, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khi1GQ.
European Union Draft Report Admonishes Mass Surveillance, Calls for Stricter Data Protection and Privacy Laws (by Elonnai Hickok, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1h5Hksm.
Leaked Privacy Bill: 2014 vs. 2011 (by Elonnai Hickok, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/QV0Y0w.
Intermediary Liability Resources (by Elonnai Hickok, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hRT8OD. This blog post will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Event Co-organized

Counter Surveillance Panel: DiscoTech & Hackathon (co-organized by CIS, MIT Centre for Civic Media Co-Design Lab, Tactical Technology Collective, Hackteria.org and Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore, March 1, 2014): http://bit.ly/NCGMyH.

Participation in Events

RightsCon Silicon Valley 2014 (organized by RightsCon, San Francisco, March 3 and 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kBluvP. Pranesh Prakash and Malavika Jayaram were speakers at this event.
Internet Governance Round-table (hosted by British High Commission, New Delhi, March 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kBljAJ. Geetha Hariharan participated in the round-table conference.
“The Internet and Controls: A Disturbing Scenario” (organized by Bangalore International Centre, TERI, Bangalore, March 7, 2014): http://bit.ly/QVc2ea. Sunil Abraham chaired and moderated the session.
How to Engage in Broadband Policy and Regulatory Processes (organized by LIRNEasia with the support of the Ford Foundation, Gurgaon, March 9, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fUgUZQ. Sunil Abraham taught Surveillance and Privacy.
International Conference on Cyberlaw & Cybercrime (organized by Cyberlaws.net and Pawan Duggal Associates, New Delhi, March 13, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fUgliD. Sunil Abraham was a panelist.
ICANN and Global Internet Governance: The Road to São Paulo, and Beyond (organized by the NonCommercial Users Constituency and ICANN, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore, March 21, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hjT0J5. Pranesh Prakash was a speaker. Geetha Hariharan participated in the event.
Panel Discussion – Intermediary Liability & Freedom of Expression in India (organized by the Centre for Communication Governance at NLU Delhi in association with the Global Network Initiative, Washington D.C., India International Centre Annex, New Delhi, March 26, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hjRlU1. Bhairav Acharya participated in the event.
Governance issues for private data stores (co-hosted by Harvard Faculty Club and Web Science Trust, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge, March 28, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gBtjOk. Malavika Jayaram was a speaker at this event.
Cyber Dialogue 2014 (organized by the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, March 30 – 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/QZBTSg. Malavika Jayaram participated in the event.

News & Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following recent media coverage:

India: Privacy Bill will likely reflect EU Directive (DataGuidance, March 3, 2014): http://bit.ly/1fUirPp.
India’s ballot battle will also run through Facebook (by Zia Haq, Hindustan Times, March 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1oFyjeM.
‘Mobile’ voters may sway polls (by Avantika Chilkoti, BDlive, March 5, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mTB0HK.
Girls just wanna have... a voice (The Telegraph, March 8, 2014): http://bit.ly/1e3Y57y.
When politics gets social (by Chanpreet Khurana, Livemint, March 11, 2014): http://bit.ly/QVaSPW.
The Internet Will Be Everywhere In 2025, For Better Or Worse (WCAI Cape and Islands NPR, March 12, 2014): http://bit.ly/1qbxkyj.
C-DoT's surveillance system making enemies on internet (by Krishna Bahirwani, DNA, March 21, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mS3q1P.
No to homosexuals, yes to their vote (by Yogesh Pawar, DNA, March 21, 2014): http://bit.ly/1gBwoO9.
India's social media election battle (by Atish Patel, BBC, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khoH7Z.

Digital Humanities

CIS is building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. The clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia:

Blog Entries

Digital Humanities: The Ecto-Parasite (by Anirudh Sridhar, March 12, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khz1Nl.
A Question of Digital Humanities (by Sneha PP, March 20, 2014): http://bit.ly/1mTCtOn.
Structure, Sign and Play in the Digital (by Anirudh Sridhar, March 28, 2014): http://bit.ly/QVgBoL.
Fishing is the New Black: Contemporary Art Imitates the Digital (by Anirudh Sridhar, March 28, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khzChU.
A Queer Digital Humanities Experience (by Ditilekha Sharma, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khzPSj.
The Digital Humanities Discourse: The Knowledge Question on the Wikipedia (by Sohnee Harshey, March 31, 2014): http://bit.ly/1kBocRW.

Participation in Event

Digital Gender: Theory, Methodology and Practice (co-organized by HUMlab and UCGS (Umeå Centre for Gender Studies), Umeå University, March 12 – 14, 2014). Dr. Nishant Shah was a panelist. He blogged about the event in HUMLAB Blog: http://bit.ly/1jmZSUD.

Digital Natives

CIS is doing a research project titled “Making Change”. The project will explore new ways of defining, locating, and understanding change in network societies. Having the thought piece 'Whose Change is it Anyway' as an entry point for discussion and reflection, the project will feature profiles, interviews and responses of change-makers to questions around current mechanisms and practices of change in South Asia and South East Asia:

Making Change Project

Blog Entry

Digital Design: Human Behavior vs. Technology (by Denisse Albornoz, March 4, 2014): http://bit.ly/1hjV4Rn.

Telecom

Shyam Ponappa, a Distinguished Fellow at CIS is a regular columnist with the Business Standard. The articles published on his blog Organizing India Blogspot is mirrored on our website:

Newspaper Column

Extractive Charges on Spectrum & Petroleum (by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, March 5, 2014, Observer India Blogspot, March 6, 2014): http://bit.ly/1khyMSz.

About CIS

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
Visit us at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge
E-mail: a2k@cis-india.org

► Support Us

Please help us defend consumer / 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.

► Request for Collaboration:

We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, IDRC and 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.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march-2014-bulletin

Odia Wikipedia to Digitise 14 Books

praskrishna — 2014-03-31T14:29:43Z

On the occasion of the 79th Odisha Day (Utkal Divas) on April 1, the Odia Wikipedia has decided to take up a new project for digitisation of 11 books of eminent Odia author Dr Jagannath Mohanty.

This article was published in the Pioneer on March 30, 2014. Subhashish Panigrahi is quoted.

According to Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge) of Centre for Internet and Society Bengaluru Subhasis Panigrahi, the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) would take up the digitisation project where KISS students would type them on WikiSource, a sister project of Wikipedia.

These books include children’s literature, travelogues and biographical essays penned by Dr Mohanty.Digitisation of three more books, two in Odia Jati, Jagruti O Pragati (on people and culture of Odisha) and Bhasa O Jatiyata in Odia (based on research on Odia language), and an English book Classical Odia (on the literary heritage of Odia) will be also be inaugurated on this day.

All these digitised books will be made available on the Internet with open access through free licences. More than 5,000 pages will be digitised in these two projects.Several public and private organisations have started making serious efforts after Odia got the classical language status recently.

To discuss the need for many new tools and technological advancement, a seminar will be held at Jayadev Bhawan here on March 29. Prof Udayanath Sahu and writers Asit Mohanty and Dr Lenin Mohanty will discuss about spell check for Odia, use of Odia language in the media and tools for typing in Odia.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/daily-pioneer-state-editions-bhubaneswar-odia-wikipedia-to-digitise-14-books

11th Century Kannada Literature Now on Wikisource

subha — 2014-04-06T05:01:14Z

This blog post by Pavithra Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash HI was edited by Rohini Lakshane for DNA. It was first edited by Subhashish Panigrahi, CIS-A2K on the Wikimedia Foundation blog where it was first published.

Click to read the post republished on DNA on March 30, 2014. The original posted on Wikimedia Blog can be seen here.

In Kannada poetry, Vachana Sahitya is a form of rhythmic writing that evolved in the eleventh century and flourished in the twelevth, as a part of the “Lingayatha” movement. More than 259 Vachanakaras (Vachana writers) have compiled over 11,000 vachanas. 21,000 of these verses, which were published in the 15-volume “Samagra Vachana Samputa” by the government of Karnataka have been digitised. Two Wikimedians, along with a Kannada linguist and author O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy, are involved in the Unicode conversions, corrections and writing preface for these verses. The entire work is now available as a standalone project called “Vachana Sanchaya” and ready to enrich Kannada Wikisource.

This project was started a year ago when Kannada Wikimedian Omshivaprakash was trying to help Professor O.L. Naghabhushana Swamy and Kannada author and publisher Vasudhendra access the vachana (verses) of Vachana Sanchaya. Swamy had trouble using publicly available content on Vachanas since the data was in ASCII standard and searching the text was a huge problem. I (Pavithra Hanchagaiah) started to help gather information about vachanas and document it in Unicode by writing scripts for open source software. Further discussions were made to get thousands of vachanas in the form of a database, so that they could be made easily searchable with an index. This demanded that we build a platform supporting all these activities, which would help the linguistic researchers, students and members of the general public who have an interest in reading and studying Vachana literature. With this idea, Omshivaprakash started designing the model, and his colleague Devaraju started building it. In the meantime I was running various scripts to fix errors in conversion of ASCII text to Unicode, confirming that the data was ready to consume by the modules developed for concordance. We spent weekends and holidays executing this project from home. With the constant feedback and guidance from Mr Swamy and Vasudendra, we learnt how concordance of text is used by researchers and what would make it easier for them to research on Vachana Sahitya. Omshivaprakash worked on the architecture of the platform, decided the infrastructure requirements – free and open source software technologies were used to keep the platform active while managing the entire project. I provided critical hacks for digitization and gave feedback through suggestions.

Working System

Currently, the system has around 200,000 unique words in its repository. Vachana Sanchaya is meant for research rather than just a repository of text on the web. While you search the words on our system, you can see who has used the word in all Vachanas. To make the research more readable, we highlight the text searched in each Vachana that would be displayed. To repeat the search for a specific Vachanakara (poet) you just need to click on his name on the graph on the results page. We have used MediaWiki’s jquery-ime input tool architecture that helped us provide a feature to directly enter Kannada text in Unicode for searches. So just type, and get results!

Public Response

We are glad to see people accessing vachanas from our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ channels. There have been approximately 500,000 pageviews to our site in the first few months of our platform’s public launch. Interestingly, commonly searched Kannada words like “ಕರ್ಮ”(Karma en:Work/Deed) , “ಸತ್ಯ” (Sathya -en:Truthfulness ) and “ನದಿ” (River) have resulted in quick and easy results.

Plans for the Future

Our system is extensible with respect to adding new feature – we have a review desk for researchers to help us with the review of content. Later we will also be adding required references to Vachanas from various research works that have been done around this literature. The content is available to the public through OpenData API and will be distributed as public domain through Wikisource once the review work is complete. This will open up the system for students, developers, researchers and anyone interested in working around building linguistic tools for Kannada and other Indic languages. This system is meant to evolves around other works rather than having to change and re-invent the wheel for more such projects. Vachana Sahitya will further help us to initiate Natural Language Processing (NLP) projects if more researchers get together to tag the words, glossary etc in the coming days. We can also fulfill the need of various language tools like spelling and grammar checker for users through crowd-sourcing the development. The next projects under the “Kannada Sanchaya” are Sarvagnana Vachanagalu and Dāsa Sanchaya which are in the pipeline with initial phases of work underway. Our idea is to extend this platform from Vyasa to Muddanna and possibly the contemporary literature work available in the public domain.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dna-march-30-2014-rohini-lakshane-11th-century-kannada-literature-now-on-wikisource

Community Capacity Building Workshop at KIIT University

praskrishna — 2014-04-08T05:22:17Z

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team is organizing a workshop for community capacity building at KIIT University on March 30, 2014.

Experienced Wikimedians and Subhashish Panigrahi from CIS-A2K mentored the community about community building strategies and outreach. They had a discussion about the further steps with students (graduating batch) of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal who took part in the Odia Wikipedia Education program. Finally there was a discussion on CIS-A2K's Odia language work plan for Wikipedia and WikiSource.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/community-capacity-building-workshop-at-kiit