Centre for Internet and Society

Interviews with App Developers: Open Source, Community, and Contradictions – Part III

samantha — 2015-04-03T08:15:25Z

The following is a third post within a series reporting on interviews conducted with 10 of Bangalore's mobile app developers and other industry stakeholders. Through this research, CIS attempts to understand how the developers interviewed engage with the law within their practice, particularly with respect to IP. Here we examine different attitudes and perspectives towards themes related to open software, as well as contract agreements.

While interviewing 10 of Bangalore's mobile app developers, the conversations that proceeded the immediate responses to our questions posed proved to be the most insightful. Previously, we examined responses surrounding different views on intellectual property rights (IPR) and potential factors influencing these individuals' attitudes and practices within their work. Within these preceding blog posts reporting on our interviews, a prevalent device we have made reference to is the dichotomy across positions that app developers take at polar ends of various spectrums. Here are some examples of the ways we have observed individuals to have opposing standpoints:

To work within a large corporate body	versus for a small startup enterprise
To develop mobile apps as one's own product	versus to develop apps as a service for another
To be familiar with intellectual property	versus to disregard intellectual property
To desire protection for one's intellectual property	versus not to care about protection for one's intellectual property

Contrary to some pro-IPR stances, several of our app developers strongly opposed notions of strict IPR regimes (patents, especially) and advocated on behalf of the open source community. And yet, others expressed their appreciation for open source software (OSS), all the while pursuing their own IP protection—a contradiction?

But is it really so cut and dry? Must an individual represent one side or the other? And if he or she does straddle the line that divides these opposing stances, is it by choice? Or necessity?

And what other dichotomies exist for the mobile app developer?

Open values and open source

Those interviewed who spoke highly of open source software often did so in referring to personal values of openness and the ability to share and use others' code freely within their work. One developer within a nonprofit enterprise explained that he would not want to restrict the future development and utilization of their idea, and would only consider licensing his source code under open source licensing, and not copyright.

Another common claim across developers is their involvement within the developer community, and contributions to open source libraries—and not only as a hobby. Large software development social enterprise, Mahiti, along with other interviewees representing social or nonprofit enterprises exhibited a particular interest in the use of and contributions to open source libraries.

Sreekanth S. Rameshaiah, cofounder and CEO of Mahiti explains that they “require all software to be GNU licensed, unless decided otherwise by the clients.” GNU General Public License (GPL) is considered a free software license—one that allows the licensed works to be freely accessible to all and to be used, copied, and altered as desired—as well as copyleft—in requiring all users of any component of the previous work to license their succeeding work under the same license as well. Some clients for Mahiti, of course, wouldn't find such conditions desirable, if they are ever to profit off or retain full ownership over their products and services.

Open source for future protection

One designer from a services SME enlightened us of a different reason for doing so: to guarantee their ability to use their work again. “Since we use a bunch of templates and things like that, those we license using a non-exclusive license, because we reuse those elements on different bits of code in different projects,” he explains, “so there are bits of it which is used over multiple projects and there are stuff that is built exclusively for the client.”

Here we are given some insight, that perhaps developers do not necessarily license for community values primarily, but for the ability to use their own work across clients. That being said, we begin to wonder what the possibility that open source code may serve as a loophole for work-for-hire contracts, which require the developer to assign all written intellectual property to whoever is commissioning the project. If the code happened to “already be available by open source,” a developer may still be honouring any restrictive agreements with clients, and ensuring their ability to use their code in this future again.

Such a strategy complies with the advice of Jayant Tewari of Out Sourced CFO & Business Advisory Services. Some advice Tewari has for startups is to first and foremost protect themselves by making wiser choices related to code in order to prevent being litigated against by others—such as using an open source equivalent to a piece of code that one does not have the rights to, or instead putting the extra time in to develop it from scratch.

Conflicting perspectives: hypocrisy or realism?

Of those who expressed an interest in the open source movement, not all had said that their products were to be open licensed as well. One developer explicitly stated: “I like the idea of open source, and building upon others' work...but our app is not open source, it's proprietary.” It may be a given, then, that all or most developers within our interview sample rely on open source code within their practice, but not all may contribute their resulting product's source code back.

Vivek Durai, from Humble Paper says that despite the fact that “open source has really taken route... on the smaller levels, people will come to a point when philosophies begin to change the moment you start seeing commercial.”

In our first blog post, we established the tendency for startup app developers to move away from the services model towards a product-oriented business model. If app developers most often contribute back to open source libraries when they do not have any mobile app products of their own to protect, I begin to wonder if we would see any change to the levels of content generation across open source libraries if, hypothetically speaking, all services app development enterprises began to solely develop their own products.

Which brings us to an additional mobile app ecosystem dichotomy:

To license mobile app code as proprietary VS to license mobile app code as open source

As individuals move away from the services model to focus their energy and investments on their own products, I begin to wonder if there is a tendency for them to also move away from the open source model as well...

Although perhaps irrelevant, we also consider the question concerning the reasons mobile app developers moving away from the services model to begin with. In the first part of this series, we heard from industry consultants of the little financial incentive the services sector has to offer, but can that be all there is to it?

Join us in our next post as we look closer at the mobile app ecosystem's business model trends, as well as its startup culture with regards to contracts and copyright.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/interviews-with-app-developers-open-source-community-and-contradictions-iii

Interviews with App Developers: Name of the Game (Part IV)

samantha — 2015-04-03T08:58:27Z

The following is a concluding piece in a series reporting on interviews conducted with 10 of Bangalore's mobile app developers and other industry stakeholders. Within this research, CIS attempts to understand how they engage with the law within their practice, particularly with respect to IP. Here we examine responses given across interviews regarding instances of infringement of IP within their work.

Before commencing our interviews with India's mobile app developers and other industry players, a small series of questions had been devised in hopes of enabling us a glimpse at the facets of the picture of our main interest: those related to intellectual property. What we soon came to find, was that these questions may have too bluntly stated, producing hesitant and wary responses from those interviewed. After breaking this immediate ice, however, we often were given the privilege of hearing from these talented and thoughtful individuals several times over. And it is through this set of questions that the space was created for us to work together to reach an understanding of how different types of players orient themselves within the industry, in relation to their practices, policies, and business relationships, and voice any concerns or questions of their own.

The last of these questions to look at, is arguably the most sensitive in nature, asking whether one has ever had their works infringed upon, or has been accused for infringement upon those of others. In asking this question, we had hoped to gain some insight about occurrences of infringement taking place within the mobile app ecosystem, how this occurs, and in what sort of context.

Preceding conversations revealed differing experiences related to infringement; some experiences common across most, while others limited to one or two individuals. What these experiences, in turn, revealed, is what seems to be polarized stances on the very notion of infringement, reflecting personal histories and differing interests.

But what even is “infringement?” The term may be generally defined as:

infringement

noun

The action of breaking the terms of a law, agreement, etc.; a violation

But what exactly does this mean for a mobile app developer? Having not been previously defined or explained to those interviewed, the term had been used across responses in reference to various instances of infringement, spanning across many areas related to mobile app development. These instances will be looked at to follow.

Mobile app content (i.e. logos, pictures, etc.)
Pirated apps in app stores
“Dummy apps” or imitations of another's app
Breaching app stores user agreement
License agreements of code created by another
Open source licenses
Breaching of terms of agreement for by commissioning clients
Breaching of terms of agreement for by those hired

Not a threat to the threatening

After implying that his enterprise uses components that are owned by another without the proper permission to do so (whether source code or visual components was not specified), one developer simply stated that “no one would come after us—we have no money!” IP Strategy Consultant, Arjun Bala, explained to us that “here, developers do not need to worry about being sued. The big companies do not go after small developers; it depends on how much money they're making.” Bala continues in saying that, “Patent lawsuits can cost something like millions of dollars, so unless they're going to get more back, they wouldn't go throught the trouble of doing so... but that is true even in the US.”

This soon revealed to be a demonstrated theme known across those within the developer ecosystem. Developer, Aravind Krishnaswamy stated that the “startup mentality is to break all of the rules first, then concern themselves with IP as a means of covering their own tracks.” There is a perceivable difference, he says in their motives regulating their behaviours that differ from “I shouldn't do this because I can get caught vs. I shouldn't do this because it's against the law.”

Towards being infringed upon

For those within service agreements, this was generally so due to the fact that one does not own their works and instead assigns ownership to their mobile apps to clients. Rahul of Uncommon explains that any cases of infringement upon their work is unconcerning to his team: “Because once we hand it off [to clients], it's their issue,” he says.

Contrasting to this perspective, however, is the apprehension exhibited by some towards not clearly knowing whether they are incidently infringing upon others people's work. Because of this unknowing, however, others are indifferent. "There's a few people who I think looked at what we're doing and tried to copy some of the features or just the positioning,” Krishnaswamy suspects, “but, ultimately there are some things you can be bothered about as a small company.” He continues in saying that those suspects to be copying you “could have been working on their product independently—it's quite possible.”

Sree of Mahiti, on the other hand is not too concerned about others infringing upon their products or copying them as such is “irrelevant to their business model.” In making their software products open source, Sree explains, that they do not care how people use it, but if he were to come across infringement, he would likely act upon it.

But how can one be indifferent to infringement while licensing under GNU, a perpetual copyleft license?

Name of the game

Perhaps one could even go a step further in arguing that being a developer (a startup developer, especially) necessitates bending the rules at some point. Of all of the bits of open source code used, how many of the licenses are actually considered and complied to in their entirety? As stated by Vivek Durai of Humble Paper: “In a mobile app where you're producing software, you could potentially be violating the terms of OS licenses.” Tewari argues that this actually occurs in pretty much all cases.

“Everyone is in non-compliance. That is a given,” Tewari asserts. However, the distinction he makes is that more corporate players are in non-compliance knowingly than not, where is more SMEs infringe upon others without being aware that they are. Just as well, the degree to which infringement takes place may differ between the two types of industry players: “At the corporate level, where they know they are not in compliance, the degree of non-compliance might be very small or specific, but it still exists.” On the other hand, for startup developers, a substantial amount of their code may not comply with the licenses and agreements they are obliged to—something that could pose problems for them later down the road if left unfixed.

“Everyone is in non-compliance. That is a given... It is similar to asking 'do I know anyone who has never paid a bribe?' My answer is no.”

To put simply, Tewari draws the following comparison “It is similar to asking 'do I know anyone who has never paid a bribe?' My answer is no.” Here, he suggests that non-compliance to legal agreement, although technically unjust, is as tacit to the software sector as bribes are to the justice sector. Although perhaps not a perfect comparison, it definitely helps to put things into perspective.

Mope App Matrix

After speaking with numerous mobile app developers, lawyers, and other community players, it is difficult to say whether our findings have brought clarity to the nature the problem at hand, or if our research has, instead, shed light on additional problems within our realm of vision—at varying heights and depths, cutting across one another to form a matrix of indivisible linkages, or just plain chaos.

In the next of our exercises, we hope to comprehensively illustrate this matrix, by categorizing the different stakeholders across this ecosystem according to their interests and the ways in which they operate, and in turn, affect each other.

We look forward to bringing to completion (even if only to return to later) the first of our stages within this chapter of the Pervasive Technologies Project, which, to recap, had initially been to understand the mobile app ecosystem in light of India's IP regime. But what we are arriving at may be regarded, instead, as an understanding of the ecosystem informed by the stories and experiences of the ecosystem's central organisms: its developers. Perhaps it can only be here, at the intersection of stories—whether complementary or contradictory in nature—where the intricacies of processes deeply-embedded and their implications begin to reveal themselves.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/interviews-with-app-developers-name-of-the-game-part-iv

Internet becomes vernacular with relaunch of e-bhasha

praskrishna — 2015-04-03T05:49:42Z

With the relaunch of e-bhasha as a mission mode project, there is a fresh urgency to create content and technical solutions in Indian languages.

The article by Ankita Lahiri was published in Governance Now on March 23, 2015. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

Computer literacy is often linked to the knowledge of English. With the launch of the e-bhasha project, the government is hoping to make the internet more accessible. The project aims at providing computing tools in Indian languages, thus making government services available to a substantial part of India. These tools were developed more than a decade ago, but sadly remained non-utilised. However, the government has now decided to bring in the e-bhasha project under the umbrella of the national e-governance plan (NeGP) as a mission mode project (MMP).

The project that is being jointly driven by the department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) and technology development for Indian languages (TDIL), will be implemented in all departments across states and promises to provide all government services in 22 scheduled Indian languages. It will also provide a range of technical solutions, browsers and content in local languages. The multilingual aspect will ensure that government services have a wider reach and are accessible to citizens in local languages. The department hopes to get approval for the MMP by early next year.

Although TDIL has been finalised as the nodal implementing agency, the idea is to create a separate body, the centre of excellence (CoE) for localisation of Indian languages that will do the actual implementation on the ground level. Discussing the wing’s role, Swaran Lata, officer-in-charge, human-centred computing division, TDIL, told Governance Now: “We are like the backbone MMP. We will provide tools and solutions that can be used to generate the content in Indian languages. We will also provide standards and guidelines for the electronic governance domain. The final service delivery will be the responsibility of the various departments.”

Elaborating on how this platform can potentially transform the lives of the common citizen, Rajat Moona, director general, centre for development of advanced computing (C-DAC), said, “More people will get connected to government services now. It will bring the government closer to the citizen. The platform will change the way people carry out government services.” C-DAC has been working on local language computing and has been a key player driving the initiative on the technology front.

As an MMP, e-bhasha will have two main components: productisation and capacity building. The first step towards creating the e-bhasha platform will be the productisation. As Rajendra Kumar, joint secretary, DeitY, pointed out, “E-bhasha is all about the use of computing tools in Indic languages. It is about the productisation of these software tools, which means the ultimate utilisation of these tools for the end user.” In order to fully implement the MMP, proper training as to how to implement it at the ground level has to be given. The capacity building module of the MMP aims to train both the government departments as well as their technical teams. The training will be implemented jointly by DeitY and TDIL.

Commenting on the need for capacity building Lata said, “People still don’t have the skills to develop applications in multilingual or bilingual languages.” The training will be given through classroom sessions and various trouble shooting groups. Lata explained that applications will be classified in two groups – new projects and continuing projects. For each group the challenges will be different. For pre-existing applications, the entire application might have to be rewritten since the application as such might not have any provision for local languages. “The localisation of applications will vary according to the existing applications,” she said.

After this, content in these languages will be generated by various institutes and research and development organisations. Explaining that the service delivery framework for the MMP has already been designed, Rajendra Kumar said that the centre will extend total support to all the states in implementing the project.

Where India stands

Work to provide support in the form of tools and content in Indic languages has been going on in the country for more than two decades. C-DAC has been involved in this since 1988. The centre has been working towards developing tools that support Indic languages. Moona said, “We have been supporting Indic languages since 1988, whether it is from left to right or vice versa and languages with multiple fonts, like Konkani.

“As an integral part of the e-bhasha MMP, the centre will provide software tools that will facilitate the citizen in accessing government services in the local languages,” Moona said adding that, “Through the tools, we provide localisation support of government services. We provide government frontend in local languages. That is what the e-bhasha MMP is all about.”

C-DAC has already developed a number of solutions that support the Indic languages including a mobile touch keypad that can be downloaded from its website. Further a screen reader and various templates are also available. “The keyboard is slowly disappearing. We have a touchscreen that supports 27 Indic languages,” Moona said.

One of the key initiatives by TDIL has been in the form of the Sakal Bharti font, a type of open font format (OFF). It is a standard font, applicable to all the 22 schedule languages, irrespective of the platform, programme and language. It allows one to view and edit any document without any loss of data. Similar efforts have also been made by private players in creating the required tools to increase the reach the Indian languages. The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has launched several initiatives, including translating Wikipedia in regional languages and creating screen readers that support indigenous languages.

With the increase in internet penetration and the resulting increase in demand, private players, including digital giants Google and Microsoft, have joined hands to promote content in Indian languages. The initiative called the Indian languages Internet Alliance (ILIA) was launched by Google to cater to the Hindi-speaking population by providing content and solutions. Launched around the same time as the e-bhasha project, the two projects are expected to complement each other.

“It is heartening to see support from the government for this initiative. The initiative would shape the thinking around the government’s e-bhasha initiative and we are happy to partner with the government around the three pillars of e-bhasha: e-governance, e-education and culture,” said a Google spokesperson.

In support of the private initiatives that are coming up, Lata explained that an ecosystem has been built. “What happens is that in areas where it is not commercially beneficial, it has to be the government which steps in first. I think the government has received a wake-up call in terms of both e-governance as well as languages.”

The chicken or the egg?

The resources have been available with the government for the last two decades, yet it is only now that the push for local languages has got the attention it much needed. According to Kumar, while C-DAC has been involved in developing these tools and their language department, GIST, has been around for at least 15 years the implementation in e-governance did not happen.

Lata further elaborated, “It is not the correct perspective to say that the localisation of languages is just a frontend issue. It is an architectural issue and a language solution should enable people to search access and retrieve data in the local languages.”

The surge in the number of users as well as the new government’s heightened interest in electronic governance has created an increased demand. “The push for Indian languages has been there for a long time. Many government websites are bilingual (English and Hindi). However, with the introduction of electronic governance a lot of activities have been happening. The need for Indian languages has become much higher,” Moona said. “It is an evolutionary process. Internet governance is still a new thing in India, it is only after its introduction that the tools and support for local languages has been required.”

Sunil Abraham, executive director, CIS, said, “Creation of Indic content cannot be left to a single government entity. It needs massive effort from all concerned stakeholders. The reason that there is very little Indic content online is because most internet users today either are comfortable using English or don’t have sufficient purchasing power to sustain different business models. As more and more Indians come online, more and more businesses will begin to leverage Indic content. However, focused and enlightened investments by the government would be very useful in helping Indic languages catch up on the internet.”

With Indic languages receiving a push from both the government and private players, it might just be time that the internet really becomes a tool for everyone.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/governance-now-march-23-2015-ankita-lahiri-internet-becomes-vernacular-with-relaunch-of-e-bhasha

Mobile App Developer Series: Terms of Agreement – Part IV

samantha — 2015-04-03T08:26:27Z

The following is Part Four in a series reporting on interviews conducted with 10 of Bangalore's mobile app developers and other industry stakeholders. Through this research, CIS attempts to understand how the developers interviewed engage with the law within their practice, particularly with respect to IP. Here we examine different attitudes and work practices related to contracts agreements and developer culture in the legal realm.

We left off in our blog series considering the reported reasons why one would protect their mobile app by intellectual property means and how they relate back to (or contradict) their values as a mobile app developer in India. Here, we would like to get into more of the nitty gritty of contracts—which clauses are most important to mobile app developers, and what they think of them—followed by a cultural interpretation of the dynamics of this developer community with respect to contracts, and then lastly, a look at copyright, more generally.

Contracts in mobile app developing services

Previously, we shed light on the tendency for mobile app developers, in India particularly, to create mobile apps or mobile app components for clients, often overseas, within a work-for-hire agreement. Within such an agreement, the rights to (or ownership over) one's work is generally handed over to the client the moment the code comes into creation. Simply put, if paid to carry out a particular project, whatever is created within the project belongs to the client.

This is not the only instance where we encounter contract agreements in the mobile app ecosystem, however. For startups where team players are small in number, it is likely that all will have access to any contract agreements entered into with clients. For larger corporate software developer firms, there may be a specialized department for legal-related matters. In such cases, the mobile app developers themselves would seldom lay eyes on the legalese of contracts, for the primary reason being that it doesn't concern them. Instead, the terms of agreement more familiar to them would be those that they obliged to upon working for their employer.

However, after conversing with multiple stakeholders within India's mobile app space, what we came into understanding is that the importance of contract agreements for mobile app developers may be generally underestimated by the developers—both from within the startup to the corporate employer.

Clauses of caution

Within a work-for-hire agreement, it is commonplace for developers to enter into restrictive agreements that obstruct the freedoms of what they can do with the code created for the client. Across interviews with developers in startups and SMEs working for clients, this seemed to be a prevalent problem. Problematic areas proved to be those related to the time periods in which the developer was not allowed to take up future work for competing clients (i.e. the non-compete clause), or could not talk about their work for the client at all (the “quiet period”).

Designer, Rahul Gonsalves explains how these areas of their contracts with clients may impact his team at Uncommon: “The non-compete and the quiet periods are the two bits which are most germane to us, because if I can’t do work for a year in the same area, that impacts my ability to run my company.” Fortunately, Gonsalves says that less frequently are they obliged into quiet periods—in which they would not be able to talk about the work they do for their clients—as this poses an even bigger problem when trying to keep a portfolio for prospective clients, or when writing or speaking on behalf of their experience at conferences.

On several occasions Gonsalves and his team have tried to license their work to clients while retaining ownership... without much luck. “Clients typically do not want a perpetual license, but complete ownership.” Gonsalves goes on in explaining that, “this means they could make a derivative work or use it for another project. Depending on how bad we want the project, we'll work out some middle ground.” But it does not seem to be so easy for he and his SME to do so: “The thing about contracts is it’s all about a sort of differential bargaining power that the two parties have... you’ll have very little control about what happens once you’ve got paid.”

“The thing about contracts is it’s all about a sort of differential bargaining power that the two parties have... you’ll have very little control about what happens once you’ve got paid.”

Contract confusion

To have any sort of bargaining power within a work-for-hire arrangement requires a lot of time for negotiating, and the space for communication to begin with. In many cases, contracts may not even be introduced into a work agreement, leaving a lot of intricacies to the unknown.

“Getting these things down in a legal document is a big deal. It matters,” says Aravind Krishnaswamy of Levitum. The topic came up while speaking about the process of creating the content for one of his startup's apps, which entailed arranging contracts with several third parties involved in. Krishnaswamy and his team did so to ensure that they retained ownership (or co-ownership) over all of the content featured within their app, which features instructional videos on Indian music.

Another developer interviewed, Naveen*, shared with us his experience coming out of college and into employment. Upon joining his first employer, who happened to be a large company, he along with the new “batch” of employees attended a legal session within their training, “but that was Greek and Latin to us then,” he jokes. “We were fresh out of college and had no idea what a software license was... and it was after lunch, so everyone was sleeping.”

Lucky for Naveen, he didn't need to deal with that area too much, as his employer had a legal team to take care of such matters when it came to transactions with clients or third parties. For his current employer, on the other hand, Naveen explained that he could not recall the terms of his employment, as it had been a very long time ago when he signed his employment contract.

Not a contract culture?

Naveen suggests that the problem is one of contract-illiteracy, or simply not having the background knowledge to truly understand the legal facets of the industry, especially as you move away from India's entrepreneurial hubs: “In tier 1 cities, like Bangalore or Chennai, the colleges and students do have some knowledge about open source, licensing and terms, but when you go to tier 2 cities, that's where the problem is.”

But is anyone contract-literate anyway? With the exception of lawyers or legal departments, of course, don't we all have the immediate impulse to click “Next” or sign our signature as soon as we see the words “User Agreements” followed by infinite paragraphs in the smallest font?

However, for the developer in the increasingly-complex mobile app space with numerous parties and transactions involved, terms of contractual agreements may dictate everything from whether one can develop for competing clients, to whether an employee can contribute to open source projects on their own time. Still think that reading those clauses are a waste of time?

We are not arguing that the fact that the developer community seems to be far removed from “contract culture” is in itself a bad thing. As Jayant Tewari of Outsourced CFO & Business Advisory Services asserts: “How mobile app developers regard IP laws—or better yet, disregard—is fine for their sake.” What they must instead learn is to maneuver the landscape to avoid troubles as best as possible.

A good way of going about it, however, may be to begin with the agreements that a developer is already committed to—with clients, employers, and third parties, alike. One should be able to articulate: What is expected of me? Within what limitations? What am I not allowed to do?

Better familiarizing oneself with one's own responsibilities and commitments may be the first step for a mobile app developer to educating him- or herself and become aware of what sort of choices could stir about conflicts in the future, potentially threatening their relationships, reputation, or even livelihood.

But is it even possible to comply to all of the rules of the game?

Within such an overcrowded industry, creation and innovation does not occur in a vacuum, and as a result, many may adjust their own creations as they see fit, according to whatever ways are most convenient and carry out the best function. But at what cost—or more appropriately, what risk?

The next, and final of this blog series will shed light on responses given across interviews to the question of infringement. Here, we intend to connect the dots between the legal practices of mobile app developers and cases of infringement. We hope that after examining such numerous and wide sweeping—yet interconnected—facets of how mobile app developers in India engage with the law within their work, we will be able to comprehensively illustrate the role that these developers play in this economy, and ultimately, pass judgement on the laws that govern this space.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mobile-app-developer-series-terms-of-agreement-iv

Conference on Standards Setting Organisations (SSOs) and FRAND

praskrishna — 2015-04-10T15:07:38Z

Rohini Lakshané participated in this event organised by MHRD Chair on Intellectual Property Rights, Centre for Intellectual Property Rights and Advocacy (CIPRA), National Law School of India University, Bangalore, in association with Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd on March 21 and 22, 2015.

Concept Note

There is a relentless effort among public and private companies to build products that conform to national and international Standards. Among several advantages of standardization, seamless interoperability between devices from several manufacturers play an important role. Standards play an important role in spurring the Innovation culture of a country and contribute to consumer benefits. Members of the Standards Setting Organizations (SSOs) may contribute their inventions/technology while forming a Standard. Needless to say, the members of the SSOs may have chosen to procure patents for their inventions/technology, which are contributed to formation of Standards. Further, one among (i.e., winning technology) the several available technologies may be chosen as a Standard and the patents covering such winning technology is generally termed as “Standard Essential Patents” (SEPs).

Generally, SSOs have their IPR policies to (a) enable disclosure of such SEPs to the SSOs; and (b) ensure that licenses are available to standards implementers to practice such SEPs. A commonly used model or principle to ensure that licenses are available to standards implementers is generally referred to as FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-discriminatory). Even though FRAND is a widely accepted model there have been at least some genuine legal issues related to practice of FRAND in the SSOs. Legal systems, legal fraternity, and the businesses around the world are attempting to resolve these legal issues related to practice of FRAND.

Issues related to practice of FRAND are equally important to India as we are moving up the innovation value chain and embarking on a “Make in India” journey. This Conference is designed to enhance awareness on issues related to practice of FRAND and probable solutions thereof. This Conference is aimed to bring together honourable members of the judiciary, members of the law firms, legal fraternity, law students, and premier educational institutions to increase the awareness on FRAND related issues in SSOs.

Click to download the Programme Schedule

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/conference-on-standards-setting-organisations-and-frand

The perils of not protecting intellectual property for new ventures

praskrishna — 2015-03-20T13:55:55Z

Soothe Healthcare's big dilemma ahead of the launch of its affordable sanitary napkin was whether or not to patent the technology and design.

The article by Evelyn Fok and Shonali Advani was published in the Economic Times on March 20, 2015. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

"At this point, it's not worth the risk-reward," said Sahil Dharia, managing director of the two-year-old startup. "It's an acceptable loss." The startup world has two kinds of entrepreneurs: those who patent their ideas, and those who don't.

Dharia falls in the latter category, and with good reason. He would rather Soothe use its capital to build the brand, Paree, than to fight lawsuits over infringements. In the first group are a small number of hardware product startups following strong intellectual property traditions established abroad, both for legal protection and to be taken seriously by investors.

As a long-term business strategy, protecting a company's intellectual assets has its advantages. For instance, a patent would allow a startup to expand to new geographies quicker by entering into licensing agreements with other firms. But given that acquiring and protecting an intellectual property right is tedious and expensive, it is not an easy decision for startups.

"There is definitely a risk when these businesses accumulate market or technology, when they have huge revenues and are sitting on cash reserves. Competition will use every possible lever against them," said Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bengaluru-based research organization Centre for Internet and Society.

As a startup matures in terms of size and scale, the importance of intellectual property becomes evident, particularly when raising funds. "Having an IP portfolio is valuable if the company is being acquired by a larger company that can leverage and protect the IP," said Sandeep Singhal, co-founder and managing director of Nexus Venture Partners. Nexus has backed product startups such as solar firm d.light and enterprise solutions company Druva, which has registered patents abroad. "While valuation is not determined by IP, we look at a business plan that has proven differentiated IP than without," Singhal said.

"It is like a double-edged sword. Patenting is very expensive, but if somebody else is doing something similar and they patent it, you could be out of business," said Abhishek Latthe, founder of two-year-old Internet of Things company SenseGiz, which filed for two patents last year on product and algorithmic design. The company has sold 20,000 units of its first product, a bluetooth tracking tag, and is in talks to raise capital.

Patent litigation in India is still at a nascent stage, bogged by inefficient and inconsistent courts. "A lot of out-of-court settlements happen, and the compensation that courts are awarding for IPR infringements are still not very high - Rs15 lakh is one of the highest I've seen," said Abhishek Pandurangi, partner at Mumbai-based law firm Khurana & Khurana, which advises startups on IPR.

Taking the longer view, Indian startups -especially those focusing on the US market that is awash with non-practicing entities or so-called "patent trolls" - have taken steps to license their intellectual property, often in focus markets with strong IP regimes such as the United States, Singapore and Europe. Software startups, the bulk of India's startup ecosystem, are divided on the issue. Given the rapid innovation cycle that renders most new technology irrelevant in six months, any effort channeled into protecting intellectual property seems futile.

Besides, many budding startups cannot afford to file a patent. Taking into account attorney and agent costs, registering a patent could cost up to Rs 5 lakh in India and Rs 10 lakh in the United States. The effort can take up to 9 years, or, given that patent decisions highly depend on local policy, "go down the drain," as one IP researcher put it. According to the Indian Patents Act, 1970, mathematical methods, computer programmes and algorithms fall under the category of "Inventions not Patentable," meaning that software innovations cannot be patented in India.

For many entrepreneurs in India, intellectual property is not core to their company's value or business model. They prefer instead to focus on priorities that pay off in the short term - acquiring customers, developing products and raising funds. "There is no reason to patent sometimes," said Jayesh Badani, founder and chief executive of innovator marketplace Ideaken.

The Centre for Internet and Society found that of 93 mobile app developers in India who were surveyed for a study last year, only 20% had acquired patents to protect their products, and 26% were concerned about their work being infringed. Patent grants to Indian applicants grew 45% between 2002 and 2013, compared with 300% for foreign inventions, show data available from the Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trademarks.

Consider the case of Jaydeep Mandal, a 29-year-old inventor who won a national invention award while an engineering student in Calcutta, which paid for him to patent his technology. Today, he is a managing director at four-year-old Aakar Innovations, which spent a year-and-half developing a machine that produces compostable menstrual hygiene products. The company has filed patents in India, Bangladesh and Cambodia.

"I learnt the importance of IPR from day one so I'm concerned, but many entrepreneurs would not know how important it is. That's how many individual innovators lose out," Mandal said. Dharia of Soothe Healthcare has a different take on this. "If I had lots of money I would patent," he said. "But I believe in free markets - people will copy design and that is how the market raises its standards, and it forces me to innovate again."

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-evelyn-fok-shonali-advani-march-20-2015-the-perils-of-not-protecting-intellectual-property-for-new-ventures

Intellectual Property Rights — Open Access for Researchers

nehaa — 2015-03-24T01:22:20Z

In the year 2013, Nehaa Chaudhari had worked on a module on Intellectual Property Rights for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s Open Access Curriculum (Curriculum for Researchers) as part of a project for the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia. UNESCO published the module this year. Nehaa Chaudhari and Varun Baliga were among the Module preparation team. Nehaa Chaudhari was the writer for Units 1, 2 and 3: Understanding Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright and Alternative to a Strict Copyright Regime.

This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution - ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en).

Module Introduction

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are set of rights associated with creations of the human mind. An output of the human mind may be attributed with intellectual property rights. These are like any other property, and the law allows the owner to use the same to economically profit from the intellectual work. Broadly IPR covers laws related to copyrights, patents and trademarks. While laws for these are different in different countries, they follow the international legal instruments. The establishment of the Wold Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has established the significance of IPR for the economic growth of nations in the knowledge economy.

This module has three units, and while the Unit 1 covers the basics of IPR, Unit 2 expands in detail the components of copyright and explains the origins and conventions associated with it. Unit 3 discusses the emergence of liberal licensing of copyrighted work to share human creation in the commons. In the last unit, we discuss the Creative Commons approach to licensing of creative works within the structures of the copyright regime that permits the authors to exercise their rights to share in the way they intend to. Creative Commons provides six different types of licenses, of which the Creative Commons Attribution license is the most widely used in research journals part of the Open Access framework.

At the end of this module, you are expected to be able to:

Understand intellectual property rights and related issues
Explain copyright, authors’ rights, licensing and retention of rights; and
Use the Creative Commons licensing system

Acknowledgements

Nehaa would like to thank Varun Baliga and Anirudh Sridhar for their research and writing support in Unit 1, and Samantha Cassar for Unit 2.

Click to download the PDF containing the Modules. Also read UNESCO’s Open Access (OA) Curriculum is now online

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/unesco-nehaa-chaudhari-march-19-2015-communication-and-information-resources-news-and-in-focus-articles-unesco-open-access-curriculum-is-now-online

Compilation of Mobile Phone Patent Litigation Cases in India

rohini — 2018-02-08T14:41:17Z

This working paper is an attempt to chronicle information about big-ticket lawsuits pertaining to mobile technology patents filed in India. All information presented in this paper has been gathered from publicly available sources. Interns Nayana Dasgupta, Sampada Nayak and Suchisubhra Sarkar (in alphabetical order) provided invaluable research assistance. This paper was first published as a blog post on the CIS website on March 15, 2015. It was periodically updated till October 31, 2017 to reflect new developments in the different lawsuits at the Delhi High Court and the cases with the Competition Commission of India.

Abstract

Nearly three years after litigation over patents and designs associated with big-ticket mobile technology started in the US, the first salvo in the patent wars was fired in India. Sweden-based Ericsson, a provider of communications infrastructure and services, sued home-grown budget smartphone manufacturer Micromax in early 2013. Patent litigation in the arena of mobile phone technology has steadily risen since. Lei Jun, the chairman of China's largest smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has said that facing a patent lawsuit "can be considered a rite of passage for a company that is coming of age". This paper is an attempt to chronicle lawsuits pertaining to mobile technology patents filed in India. The first part of this paper, “Compilation of lawsuits” is an attempt to chronicle the significant developments in big-ticket lawsuits pertaining to mobile technology patents filed in India. The second part, “Commonalities and differences in the lawsuits” is an attempt to join the dots between the developments that were either remarkably common or notably different. All information presented in this paper has been gathered from publicly available sources and is up-to-date till the time of writing (October 31, 2017). This paper has been published as a part of the Pervasive Technologies project at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS).

View paper on SSRN.

Access the court orders and other references in the paper.

Edit logs

Edited, April 2, 2015: To add section "6. Vringo vs. ZTE"

Edited, April 3, 2015: To add section "7. Vringo vs. Asus"

Edited, October 23, 2015: To add sections "8. Ericsson vs. iBall", "9. Ericsson vs. Competition Commission of India", "10. Ericsson vs. Lava". To update "Ericsson vs. Micromax" from “Micromax has challenged……”

Edited, April 15, 2016: To update "9. Ericsson vs Competition Commission of India... In a judgement dated March 30, 2016, the court dismissed all the writ petitions and applications pertaining to the role of the CCI before it and made these observations..."; "8. Ericsson vs iBall"; "10. Ericsson vs. Lava"; and "6. Vringo vs. ZTE".

Edited, April 29, 2016: To update "Ericsson vs. Xiaomi...On April 22, 2016, the Delhi High Court vacated the interim order passed in December 2014..."

Edited, January 13, 2017: To update "Ericsson vs. Gionee... In July 2014..."

Edited, February 8, 2018: To upload copy of working paper.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/compilation-of-mobile-phone-patent-litigation-cases-in-india

GoI body National Mission for Manuscripts has digitised 3 million manuscripts

praskrishna — 2015-04-05T03:20:06Z

Twelve-year-old government body National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) has digitised over thirty lakh manuscripts and 185,88,390 pages in all as of 31 December 2014, Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of State for Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation said in the Rajya Sabha this week. He added that the National Archives of India (NAI) is set to digitise another 1,100,000 historic records. The government has spent over Rs 25 lakhs on digitisation as of January 2015 as compared to ~ Rs 36 lakhs in 2012-13.

The blog post by Sneha Johari was published by Medianama on March 13, 2015.

The NAI has digitised 41 non-priced NAI publications and 484 manuscripts which consist of 106,974 pages, 42 newspapers and printed books (10,346 pages) and 187,878 documents made of 613,413 pages of NAI’s oriental and public records collection.

Digital conservation over micro-film

Sharma said that the government is looking at strengthening the Public Records Act. He added that digitisation would be the preferred form of conservation since it had many advantages over micro-film processing and would provide better access to archives electronically which could be used by scholars, historians and academicians.

The NAI operates two schemes for funding the preservation of documentary heritage. These schemes include funding for preservation and conservation of rare books, old and rare documents, government libraries and museums among others.

The NMM is an organisation under GOI’s Ministry of Culture set up to create a national manuscript resource to enhance access, awareness and use for educational use. It offers courses, workshops and fellowships on Manuscriptology and Palaeography. Sharma said that the Ministry had some proposals to collaborate with foreign countries for digitisation of Indian documents but had not taken those up due to issues of national importance. Some of NMM’s challenges arise from the scale of manuscripts found in India (claimed at ~5 million), languages which cannot be read, in a poor and neglected condition and the lack of scholars who can study these manuscripts.

The NMM has 31 Manuscript Conservation Centres (MCCs) across the country under the NMM. The MCCs include organisations like Manuscript Library, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), Pune, Karnataka State Archives, Bangalore and INTACH Orissa Art Conservation Centre, Bhubaneswar.

The New Indian Express featured a report where Jayadhir Tirumalrao, Professor at the Centre for Dalit and Adivasi Studies and Translation, Hyderabad was among others who developed a script for the tribal language Gondi. The report claims that Gondi language was the only tribal language in India to have its own literature.

Previous digitisation initiatives:

In November 2014, around 55 books written by the Indian author and activist Niranjana in Kannada would be digitized and made available on Kannada Wikisource, allowing Kannada speakers to access these books easily.
In October 2014, the Ministry of Culture launched a national portal for museums. Collections in all museums under its control and those under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will be digitized and presented on this portal.

In July 2014, the Department of Biotechnology and Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the Ministry of Science and Technology released the draft of Open Access Policy. The objective of this policy is to provide unrestricted access to research work funded by the departments. The draft states that since all funds disbursed by DBT and DST are public funds, it is important that the information and knowledge generated through the use of these funds are made publicly available as soon as possible.
In September 2013, Goa University entered into a 3 year MoU with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) for building the Konkani Wikipedia.
In June 2013, Tata Communications Media Services planned to digitize documents of historical and cultural significance such as films and documentaries from the archives of Doordarshan and Films Division of India which go back to 1947 including speeches of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders.
In May 2013, Punjabi Sahitya Akademi Reference Lab scanned and saved around 1,000 manuscripts, stone-printed scripts, poetry books on computer hard discs, adding that the digitized editions will be available across the globe through the internet.

The Indian Government spent Rs 4.5 crores in 2010-11 for digitization and modernization of public libraries.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/medianama-march-13-2015-sneha-johari-goi-body-national-mission-for-manuscripts-has-digitised-3-million-manuscripts

Train the Trainer — Report in Udayavani

praskrishna — 2015-04-04T16:20:49Z

As part of the Train The Trainer program, on Feb 28, all the participants (Wikipedians from all over India) were taken to Janapada Loka, near Ramanagara. There was a report in Udayavani, Ramanagara edition on March 2, 2015 about this event.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/train-the-trainer-event-report-march-2-2015-udayavani-report

Train the Trainer Program

praskrishna — 2015-02-27T02:37:10Z

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) welcomes you to attend the "Train the Trainer Program" in Bangalore.

Train the Trainer (TTT) is a residential training workshop to groom leadership skills among the Indian Wikimedia community members. CIS-A2K is organizing the Wikipedia Train the Trainer Program 2015 (TTT 2015). This is the second iteration of this program. TTT 2015 will be conducted by CIS-A2K during 26 February to 1 March 2015 in Bangalore, India.

Note: All selected participants will be expected to reach the event venue the previous night (i.e. February 25) and leave by the evening of March 1, 2015. The selected participants are requested to kindly confirm their participation by writing to tanveercis-india.org. Registration for TTT 2015 is closed. Please do not register.. Please note that registration does not confirm participation. Selection by CIS-A2K will be final. Before registering here please go through the selection criterion.

Programme Schedule

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Timing	Session	Topics to be Covered	Coordinator / Resource Person

7:30am - 8:30am	Breakfast
8:30am - 9:00am	Registration
9:00am - 10.30am	Welcome & Introduction	Introductions (activity based) Creating name tags for yourself and your friends Energiser/Activity. Meet and greet Wikimedians	T. Vishnu Vardhan (VV) and Tanveer Hasan (TH)
10:30am - 11 am	Why TTT?	Design and Objectives of the TTT	VV
11 am - 11.30 am	☕ Tea/Coffee Break
☼ 11.30 am - 1 pm	Participant presentations	Individual presentation based on pre-work	TTT Participant
1 pm - 2 pm	Lunch
2 pm - 3.30 pm	Participant presentations	Individual presentation based on pre work	TTT Participant
3.30 pm - 4 pm	☕ Tea/Coffee Break
4 pm - 5 pm	Presenting with impact	Effective Communication Forceful Introduction Organizing your speech (Opening, Body Closing) Get to the point (General purpose and specific purpose) Communicate clearly, accurately and vividly Body Language (Stance, Movement, Gestures, Facial expression and eye contact) Vocal Variety (Volume, Pitch, Rate and Quality)	TH
5.30 pm - 6.30 pm	Break
6.30 pm - 8 pm	Parallel Sessions	Personal coaching on Presentation Skills using video recordings of Presentation or Multilingual Edit-a-thon (theme - Jnanpith_Award)	Sunil Abraham(SA) VV TH Rahmanuddin Shaik (RS) Subhashish Panigrahi (SP) U.B. Pavanaja (UBP)
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm	Dinner

Friday, February 26, 2015

Timing	Session	Topics to be Covered	Coordinator / Resource Person

☾ 8 pm - 9 pm	Dinner
☼ 10.30 am - 11 am	Internet research techniques (Session 2)	Information literacy and Internet research techniques for Wikipedia editors slides	LS
9.15 am - 10 am	Internet research techniques (Session 1)	Information literacy and Internet research techniques for Wikipedia editors	LS
8:30 am - 9.15 am	Copyright, CC and Wikimedia	Introduction to Copyright and Creative Commons slides Creative Commons Wikimedia Applications	L. Shyamal (LS)
7:30 am - 8:30 am	Breakfast
7 pm - 8 pm	Parallel sessions	Personal Coaching GLAM Projects Do's and Dont's FOSS Tools Support and Discussion	CIS-A2K Team RL RS
6.30 pm - 7 pm	GLAM Projects in Indic Wikipedia Context	Feasibility, Scalability and Scope	Rohini Lakshane(RL)
6 pm - 6.30 pm	☕ Tea/Coffee Break
5 pm - 6 pm	Essential Foss Tools for Wikimedians	Hands on Session	Rahamanuddin
4.30 pm - 5 pm	Essential FOSS Tools	Demonstration	RS
4 pm - 4.30 pm	☕ Tea/Coffee Break
3.30 pm - 4 pm	Panel Discussion	Importance of NPOV in Indian Languages	Participant Panel (TBD)
2.45 pm - 3.30 pm	Importance of NPOV	NPOV as an essential quality for Wikimedians with English Wikipedia as a case study	NVV Char and Tito Dutta
2 pm - 2.45 pm	Spectogram	Interactive activity to critically discuss the importance of NPOV	SA
11.45 am - 1 pm	DIY	Digitisation Techniques for Wikimedians-Hands on Session	Group Activity
11.30 am - 11.45 am	☕ Tea/Coffee Break
11 am - 11.30 am	DIY	Digitisation Techniques for Wikimedians	Viswa Prabha(VP)
10 am - 10.30 am	☕ Tea/Coffee Break
1 pm - 2 pm	Lunch

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Timing	Session	Topics to be Covered	Coordinator / Resource Person

7 am - 7.30am	Breakfast
7:30am	Departure to Janapada Loka
9 am - 9.30am	Expectations from GLAM Activity	Design,scope and expected outcomes	TH
9.30am - 1 pm	* GLAM Activity	Interviewing Janapada Loka Staff Documentation of Janapada Loka exhibits Resource Collection for Wiki Commons Material collection for GLAM Edit-a-thon	VP RL CIS-A2K
1 pm - 2 pm	Lunch
2 pm - 3.30 pm	Group Activity	GLAM Editathon in Indian Languages	VP and VV
3.30 pm - 4 pm	☕ Tea/Coffee Break
4 pm - 4.30 pm	Panel Discussion	Need and importance of GLAM Activities	TBD
4.30 pm - 5.30 pm	Focused Group Discussion	GLAM Activities to be pursued (Individual and Community)	Participant Groups
5.30 pm - 6.30 pm	Departure to CEO Centre
☾ 8 pm - 9 pm	Dinner at CEO Centre

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Timing	Session	Topics to be Covered	Coordinator / Resource Person

07:30 am - 08:30 am	Breakfast
08:30am - 9.30 am	Media and Social Media Strategies for Wikimedians	Mobilizing mainstream media to cover Wikimedia success stories Best practices of Social Media	Tinu Cherian
9.30am - 10 am	Building Communities for Wikimedia Movement	Introduction to WMIN	Ravishankar Ayyakkannu (RA)and Yohann Thomas (YT)
10am - 10.30 am	Building Communities for Wikimedia Movement	CIS-A2K Trials and Success	VV
☼ 10.30 am - 11:00 am	☕ Tea/Coffee Break
11am - 11.30 am	Group Discussion	Challenges & Opportunities in building an Indian Language Community online	Participant Groups
11.30 pm - 12.30 pm	Participant Presentation	Participant Presentations
12.30 pm - 1 pm	Lunch
1.30 pm - 2 pm	Focused Group Discussion	Road Ahead for GLAM activities in India Languages	Participant Presentations
2.30 pm - 3.30 pm	Participant Presentation	Submission of Outreach and GLAM Draft Plans
3.30 pm - 3.45 pm	Feedback Session
3.45 pm - 4 pm	Closing Remarks
4:00 pm	Departures or Visit to CIS

For any further queries please email—

tanveercis-india.org 09844439247
ajoy cis-india.org 09845492122
vishnucis-india.org 09845207308

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/train-the-trainer-program

Hindi Wiki Community Baithak in Delhi

subha — 2015-02-27T01:34:25Z

Hindi Wikimedians met in New Delhi during February 14 and 15. This was the first meeting of the Hindi community. Subhashish Panigrahi attended the meetup.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/how-the-first-time-face-to-face-interaction-helped-india-hindi-wikipedia-community

Telugu Wikipedia Winter Camp at Andhra Loyola College

rahim — 2015-02-26T02:27:05Z

Students of physics, statistics and Telugu departments of Andhra Loyola College spent 5 days of their Christmas vacation of 2014 to edit and enrich Telugu Wikipedia and Wikisource. They worked on their respective subject areas and came up with more than 100 new articles on Telugu Wikipedia and about 300 pages of Veeresalingam's works were typed on Telugu Wikisource.

CIS-A2K has signed an MoU with Andhra Loyola College to make available free knowledge in Telugu to all Telugus across the globe. In this approoach, a two month camp was organised in the college campus. In continuation to the two month camp, 5 days of students' Christmas vacation were marked as Wiki Winter Camp at Andhra Loyola College. 5 students from each of Physics, Statistics and Telugu showed interest to attend the camp. By the time, camp began, there were not 15 but 41 students from various disciplines who attended the camp.


Students and faculty who attended the camp. Source :Wikimedia Commons

For physics and statistics-department students, first day of the wiki winter camp involved students exploring English and Telugu Wikipedias, glancing through various reference websites such as JSTOR, IEEE Explorer, Google scholar, and their own textbooks in Telugu medium. New entrants created their user accounts on Telugu Wikipedia. Students got an essence of how an article on Wikipedia should look like, what should be there and what not. Few students came up with their own ray diagrams for physics (optics - mirrors) articles, uploaded them to Wkimedia Commons and then put them up in their articles. For some of the students, it was the first time they were typing in Telugu, and they felt very curious and excited. The rest of the three days students added about 103 articles on Telugu Wikipedia on physics, and a 10 articles on statistics. By the end of 5 days camp, faculty and co-ordinator for physics, Dr. Sahaya Bhaskaran expressed happiness at his students' work, he affirmed that one can learn his respective subject only if he understands it in his native language, and if he could reproduce that in his native language, he would remember for long.

For Telugu students the five-day camp was fun typing in works of Kandukuri Veeresaingam. First day, students who were new entrants learnt to type in Telugu, and were introduced to the Wikisource platform. In all, they typed about 300 pages of a compilation of Veeresalingam's works. Sri Kola Sekhar, faculty of Telugu a ALC and co-ordinator for Telugu wiki winter camp said he was confident of making students type entire Veeresalingam works in a year's time.

At the end of the 5 day camp, students were given a review of their work, and students felicitated with certificates.

Convener for the camp, Dr. B. Sivakumari, who is also a Wikipedia co-ordinator for Botany, expressed her gratitude to CIS-A2K team for organising the program.

This event has also contributed in achieving the 60,000+ article count landmark at Telugu Wikipedia and 10,000+ pages landmark at Telugu Wikisource.


Media coverage in Eenadu daily

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/telugu-wikipedia-winter-camp-at-andhra-loyola-college

Our Endangered Languages

subha — 2015-03-10T01:41:37Z

My op-ed (in Odia) about the endangered languages was published in the Samaja this 21st on the International Mother Language Day.

Excerpt

Even though we have hundreds of languages in India, only 22 are recognized as scheduled languages in our constitution. People speaking in the non-scheduled languages deserve all the rights to express their opinion in their native languages and stopping them would be against the freedom of expression. In most cases, the dominant class of a society represses the rest and the languages of minorities fall victim to the political and societal inequality. By UNESCO's survey, 197 Indian languages (which are part of 2471 world endangered languages) are in the verge of extinction. For migration from their original places in search of job, speaking others' languages and living in a hetero-cultural society often make aboriginals forget about their own language and cultural heritage. In this column, I have discussed about many such challenges for aboriginals to retain their native languages and some of the possibilities for external interventions to document and preserve the dying languages.

ଆମ ଦେଶରେ କେଇ ହଜାର ଭାଷା ପ୍ରଚଳିତ, ଯହିଁରୁ କେବଳ ୨୨ଗୋଟି ସମ୍ବିଧାନରେ ପାହିଆଟିଏ ପାଇଛନ୍ତି । ତେବେ ବାକି ଭାଷାମାନ ମଧ୍ୟ ଭାଷା ଓ ସେ ଭାଷାମାନ କହୁଥିବା ଲୋକଙ୍କର ଆମ ଭଳି ନିଜ ଭାଷାରେ ସାହିତ୍ୟ ରଚିବା, ଶାସନ କରିବା କିମ୍ବା ପଢ଼ିବାର ଅଧିକାର ରହିଛି । ସେ ଅଧିକାର ଛଡ଼ାଇନେବା ମାନବିକତାର ବିରୁଦ୍ଧାଚରଣ । ଅଥଚ ବର୍ଷବର୍ଷ ଧରି ଛାମୁଆ ବୋଲାଇ ଭାଷାମାନ ଅଳ୍ପ କଥିତ ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କୁ ଏକ ପ୍ରକାର ଚାପିରଖିଛନ୍ତି । କେତେକ ଭାଷା ଏ ଚାପରୁ ମୁକୁଳି ନିଜ ପତିଆରା ଜାହିର କରିବାବେଳେ ଆଉ କେତେକ ଆମ ଆଖି ଆଗରେ ଜୀବନ୍ତ ସମାଧି ନେଇଛନ୍ତି । ଏଇ କେତେବର୍ଷ ତଳେ "ବୋଆ' ନାମକ ଆଣ୍ଡାମାନୀ ଭାଷାଟି ସେ ଭାଷାର ଶେଷ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀ ବୋଆ ଜୁନିଅରଙ୍କ ଦେହାନ୍ତ ପରେ ଲୋପ ପାଇଗଲା । ମିଳିତ ଜାତିସଂଘର ରିପୋର୍ଟ ଅନୁସାରେ ୧୯୭ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷା ସମେତ ଜଗତର ୨୪୭୧ ଗୋଟି ଭାଷା ଧରାରୁ ଲିଭିବା ଉପରେ । ତେବେ ଏ ଭାଷା ସବୁ ଲିଭିଗଲେ ଏ ଜଗତ କ'ଣ କ'ଣ ନ ହରେଇବ ସତେ? ଭାଷାଟିଏ ଏକ ଜନସମାଜ ଓ ସଭ୍ୟତାର ଦୁଆରମୁହଁ । ଏକ ସମାଜର ଚଳଣି, ଚିନ୍ତା, ଚେତନା, ବିଧି ବ୍ୟବହାର, କଳା-କୌଶଳ ଓ ବାକି ସବୁକିଛି ଭାଷା ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ସେ ସମାଜରେ ଆଗକୁ ବଞ୍ଚେ ଆଉ ସମାଜ ବାହାରକୁ ଯାଏ । ଯା'ର ଭାଷାଟି ଯେଡ଼େ ଦମ୍ଭିଲା, ସେ ବାହାର ସମାଜରେ ସେତେ ପରିଚିତ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିାଠାଗାର ପାଇଁ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରର କିସ୍‍ଠାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ୬୨ଟି ଜନଜାତି ପିଲାଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ମିଶି ତିନି ମାସ ଧରି କାମ କରିବାର ଅନୁଭୂତିରୁ ଲେଖକ ଜୋରଦେଇ କହିାରନ୍ତି ଯେ ଆଦିବାସୀ ବୋଲି ଚିହ୍ନଟ କରାଯାଇଥିବା ସମାଜର ଲୋକ ଅନ୍ୟ ସାଧାରଣ ସମାଜଠାରୁ ବେଶି ବା ସମାନ ଚତୁର, ଚିନ୍ତାଶୀଳ ଓ ଉଚ୍ଚ-ବିଚାରସମ୍ପନ୍ନ । ତେବେ ସେମାନଙ୍କ ସମାଜର ବିକାଶମୁଖୀ ଦିଗଟି ତାଙ୍କ ଭାଷାର ଦମ୍ଭିଲାପଣର ଅଭାବ ସକାଶେ ଯେ ଦୁନିଆ ସାମନାରେ ପହଞ୍ଚିପାରୁ ନାହିଁ, ଏକଥା କହିବା ବାହୁଲ୍ୟ । ୧୯୫୨ ମସିହାର କଥା । ପାକିସ୍ତାନ କବଳରେ ପୂର୍ବବଙ୍ଗଳା । ରାଜନୈତିକ ଚାପରେ ପଞ୍ଜାବୀ, ସିନ୍ଧି ଆଦି ଅନେକ ଭାଷାକୁ ପଦଦଳିତ କରି ନବୀନ ଉର୍ଦ୍ଧୁଭାଷାକୁ ପାକିସ୍ତାନ ନିଜ ଜାତୀୟ ଭାଷା ଘୋଷଣା କଲାବେଳକୁ ପୂର୍ବ ବଙ୍ଗରେ ବଙ୍ଗଳାଭାଷାକୁ ଛାଡ଼ିବାପାଇଁ ସେଠାର ବଙ୍ଗାଳୀଙ୍କ ଭୀଷଣ ଅରାଜି । ବଙ୍ଗଳାଭାଷାକୁ ପୂର୍ବବଙ୍ଗର ଜାତୀୟ ଭାଷା କରିବା ଲାଗି ଢାକା ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ ଓ ମେଡ଼ିକାଲ କଲେଜରେ ପଢ଼ୁଥିବା ଅନେକ ଛାତ୍ରଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ତେଜିଲା ଜନଆନେ୍ଦାଳନ । ଫେବୃୟାରୀ ୨୧ ତାରିଖ ଦିନ ପୁଲିସ ଗୁଳିରେ ଆହୁତି ଦେଇଥିଲେ ଏ ପଢ଼ାଳିଗଣ । ଦାବି ଥିଲା ନିଜ ଭାଷାକୁ ଛାଡ଼ି ବିଦେଶୀ ଉର୍ଦ୍ଧୁ ଭାଷା ଆଦରିବେ ନାହିଁ । ଜଗତରେ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ଏ ପ୍ରାଣବଳି ବିରଳ । ଆଜି ବଙ୍ଗଳାଭାଷା ଜଗତର ୨୦ଟି ଛାମୁଆଁ ଭାଷା ଭିତରେ ଗୋଟିଏ ହେବାପାଇଁ ଏ ଥିଲା ନିଅଁପୋତା । "ଭାଷାସବୁ ଭାଷାଙ୍କୁ ମାରନ୍ତିନି; ଭାଷାଭାଷୀମାନେ ମାରନ୍ତି' କହିଥିଲେ ,ସାଲିକିକ ମୁଫଉଇନ (ଜଣାଶୁଣା ଭାଷାବିଦ୍‍) । ଅନେକ ଡରନ୍ତି ଆଜି ଜିଇଥିବା ୬,୭୦୦ଭାଷା ମରିମରି ଆଉ ଶହେବର୍ଷ ପରେ ୨୦୦ ହୋଇସାରିଥିବ । ଭାଷା ତଳେ ଭାଷାର ସମାଧି ଲଭିବାର ମୂକସାକ୍ଷୀ ନିକଟ ଅତୀତ । ଅନେକ ଭାଷା ରାଜଭାଷା, ରାଜନୈତିକ ପୃଷ୍ଠପୋଷକତା ପାଇଥିବା ଭାଷାର ମଙ୍ଗ ଧରିଥିବା ମୁଣ୍ଡିଆଳମାନଙ୍କ ଅଦଉତିରେ ମୁଣ୍ଡଟେକି ଭବିଷ୍ୟତର ଆଲୋକ ଦେଖିାରିନାହାନ୍ତି । ଅଳପ ଧନ ପାଇଁ ବିକଳମନ ଘର ଛାଡ଼ି ବିଦେଶ ଦାଦନ ଯାଏ । ଆଉ ବିଦେଶର ପାଣି ଲାଗିଗଲେ ନିଜ ଲୋକ, ନିଜ ଭାଷା, ନିଜ ଚଳଣିସବୁ ଇଚ୍ଛାରୁ ହେଉ କି ଅନିଚ୍ଛାରୁ ହେଉ ଦୂରେଇ ଯାଏ । ପିଲାଏ ଅଜା କୋଳେ ବସି ବୁଢ଼ାଚକୁଳି ଖାଇପାରନ୍ତି ନାହିଁ କି ଆଈର ଉଷୁମ ପଣତ ଘୋଡ଼ିହୋଇ ବୁଢ଼ୀ ଅସୁରୁଣୀ ଗପ ଶୁଣିବାକୁ ପାଆନ୍ତି ନାହିଁ । ଆଦିବାସୀ ବୋଲି ସମାଜ ଯେଉଁମାନଙ୍କୁ ଗୋଟେ କଣକୁ ଠେଲିଦେଇଛି ଅୟୁତ କାଳରୁ, ସେମାନେ ଯେ ନାନାଦି ଭାଷାରେ କଥାବାର୍ତ୍ତା କରନ୍ତି ତାହା ଅନେକଙ୍କୁ ଅଗୋଚର । ଭାଷାଟିଏ ଚିରକାଳ ବୋଲି ବା କଥିତ ଭାଷା ହୋଇ ରହେନାହିଁ । ତା'ର ଲିପି ଗଢ଼ା ହୁଏ, ସାହିତ୍ୟ, ଇତିହାସ ଲେଖାହୁଏ, ଲୋକେ ସେ ଭାଷାରେ ପଢ଼ାଲେଖା ଆଉ ଶାସନ କରନ୍ତି । ତେବେ ସବୁ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ରଘୁନାଥ ମୁର୍ମୁମାନେ ଜନମି ନଥା'ନ୍ତି । ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ୬୨ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଆଦିମ ଜନଜାତି, ତାଙ୍କ ତୁଣ୍ଡରେ ୧୫ରୁ ଅଧିକ ନିଆରା ଭାଷା । ତେବେ କେବଳ ସାନ୍ତାଳୀକୁ ଛାଡ଼ି ଆଉ କୌଣସି ଆଦିବାସୀ ଭାଷା ସମ୍ବିଧାନର ୮ମ ପରିଚ୍ଛେଦରେ ସ୍ଥାନ ପାଇନାହିଁ କି ଗୋଟେ ଯୋଡ଼େ ଭାଷାକୁ ଛାଡ଼ି ଆଉ ଭାଷାରେ ବୋଧେ ବହି ଛପା ହୋଇନାହିଁ । ଏଣେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ମୁଖ୍ୟଭାଷା ହୋଇ, ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟମାନ୍ୟତା ଲଭି ସୁଦ୍ଧା ଦମ୍ଭ ଧରି ନିଜର ଶାସନବ୍ୟବସ୍ଥା ଓ ଦମ୍ଭିଲା ମିଡ଼ିଆଟିଏ ନିଜେ ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠା କରିାରିଲା ନାହିଁ । ଦିନ ଥିଲା ଭାଷା-ସାହିତ୍ୟ ଥିଲା ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ବାବଦୂକ । ହେଲେ ବହିର କଳେବରରୁ ବାହାରି ଭାଷା ଶାସନ, ସମ୍ବାଦ ପରିବେଷଣ, ମନୋରଞ୍ଜନର ଅନେକ ମାଧ୍ୟମ, ଗବେଷଣା ଓ ବିଜ୍ଞାନର କଥା ପରିବହନ କରିବା ଆରମ୍ଭିଲା । ଆଉ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ସଜ ତିଆରିବା ଲୋଡ଼ା ପଡ଼ିଲା । ଭାଷାଟି କିରି ସହଜରେ ଛପାରେ, କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ, ମୋବାଇଲରେ ଏବଂ ଆଉ କୌଣସି ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଲେଖାଯାଇପାରିବ ତା'ଲାଗି ଗହନ ମନ-ଚାଷ ଚାଲିଲା । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସମେତ ଅନେକ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାରେ କେବଳ ସାହିତ୍ୟ-ଚାଷ ହୋଇଛି । ଭାଷା- ପ୍ରସାରର ବାକି ସଜତକ ଏ ଯାଏ ଗଢ଼ା ହୋଇନାହିଁ । ଆଜି ସମାଜ ଏତେ ତ୍ୱରିତ୍‍ ଗତିରେ ବଦଳୁଛି ଯେ, କାରିଗରୀ ଜ୍ଞାନରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ସମ୍ବାଦ ଜାଣିବାଯାଏ ସବୁ କିଛି ଆଜିସଜ କାଲିବାସି ହୋଇଯାଉଛି । ଆଉ ଭାଷାଟିଏ ଯଦି ଏ ଗତି ସଙ୍ଗେ ତାଳମିଳାଇ ଚାଲି ନ ପାରେ, ତା'ହେଲେ ସେ ଅଲୋଡ଼ା, ଅଖୋଜା ହୋଇଯାଏ । ଅନେକ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଲୋକେ ତାଙ୍କ ମୋବାଇଲ କି କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ନିଜ ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖିବା ଜାଣନ୍ତି ନାହିଁ । ଫଳରେ ସେମାନେ ଇଂରାଜୀ କିମ୍ବା ବାକି ଜଣାଶୁଣା ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖିବାକୁ ବାଧ୍ୟ ହୁଅନ୍ତି । କିଛିିଢ଼ି ଏଇ ବାଟ ମାଡ଼ିଗଲା ପରେ ନିଜ ଭାଷାଟି ପୂରା ଅମଡ଼ାବାଟ । ଆଉ ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷା ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ଯେତେ ଅଧିକ ବ୍ୟବହାରରେ ଲାଗେ ସେ ଭାଷାର ଖାଦି ସେତେ । ଅନେକ ଆଦିବାସୀ ନିଜ ଗାଁ' ଛାଡ଼ି ସହରରେ ଆସି ବିଶାଳ ଜନସାଗରରେ ମିଶିଗଲାପରେ ନିଜ ମାଟିର ଗନ୍ଧ ତାଙ୍କ ପିନ୍ଧାଲୁଗାରୁ ଯେ ଆଉ ବାହାରୁ ନାହିଁ ଏକଥା କହିବା ବାହୁଲ୍ୟ । ତେବେ ରାଜ୍ୟ ବା ଦେଶରେ ଭିନ୍ନଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଭିତରେ ଭାବ ଦିଆନିଆ ଲାଗି ଏକ ମିଶାମିଶି ଭାଷା ବା "ଲିଙ୍ଗୁଆ ଫ୍ରାଙ୍କା' ମଧ୍ୟ ଲୋଡ଼ା । ଓଡ଼ିଆର ପୁରୁଣା ରୂଟି ଯଦି ଆମେ ଖୋଜି ପାଇବା, ତେବେ ସେ ବତେଇବ ସମଗ୍ର କଳିଙ୍ଗ ଭୂଖଣ୍ଡରେ କଥିତ ଭାଷାର ରୂା ଶାସନର ଭାଷା ଥିଲା ସେ ଭାଷା । ଆଉ କଳିଙ୍ଗ ଲମ୍ବିଥିଲା ଗଙ୍ଗାରୁ ଗୋଦାବରୀଯାଏ । ଏଡ଼େ ବଡ଼ ଭୂଖଣ୍ଡରେ ଲୋକେ ଭିନ୍ନଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାରେ କଥା ହେଉଥିବେ ସତ । ହେଲେ ସେ ସବୁ ଆଞ୍ଚଳିକ ଭାଷାରୁ ଶବ୍ଦ, ବ୍ୟାକରଣ ଆହରି ମିଶା ଭାଷାଟିଏ ଗଢ଼ା ହୋଇଥିଲା । ଆଜି ବାଲେଶ୍ୱରରୁ ରାୟଗଡ଼ା ଯାଏ ଚାଲିଗଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆର ଅନେକ ରୂ ଆଖିରେ ପଡ଼େ । ହେଲେ ଆମେ କ'ଣ ଅହମିୟା ଆଉ ବଙ୍ଗଳା ବୁଝିାରୁନା? ନିଜକୁ ପଚାରିଲେ ଉତ୍ତରଟି ହୁଁ ଆସିବ । ଛତିଶଗଡ଼ି କି ମୈଥିଳୀ ପୁଣି କେତେ ନିଜର ନିଜର ଲାଗେ । ଲେଖକ ବଙ୍ଗଳାଦେଶର ଅନେକଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ-ବଙ୍ଗଳା ମିଶେଇ କଥା ହୋଇଛି । ହେଲେ ବ୍ୟାପକ ଭାବେ ଦେଖିଲେ ବିହାର, ଝାଡ଼ଖଣ୍ଡ, ବଙ୍ଗଳାରୁ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ଆସୁଥିବା ହଜାର ହଜାର ଛାତ୍ର, ନା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶିଖନ୍ତି ନା ନିଜ ଭାଷାରେ ଏଠା ଲୋକଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ କଥା ହୁଅନ୍ତି । ସେମାନେ କଥା ହୁଅନ୍ତି ହିନ୍ଦୀରେ । ଏଇଠି କଥା ଆସେ ଭାଷାର ଖାଦି କଥା । ଆମ ଦେଶରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ, ବଙ୍ଗଳା, ଅହମିୟା ବା ଆଉ କେଉଁ ଭାଷାର ଛାମୁଣିଆ ନାହିଁ । ହେଲେ ରହିଛି ହିନ୍ଦୀ ଭଳି ଏକ ନୂଆ ଭାଷାର । ୪୦ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଭାଷା ହିନ୍ଦୀର ଉପଭାଷା ଭାବେ ଆଜି ଜଣା । ହେଲେ ସେ ଭାଷାସବୁ ନିଆରା, ହିନ୍ଦୀଠାରୁ ମଧ୍ୟ ପୁରୁଣା । ରାଜନୀତିର ବାଜି ଚଳିଲେ କିସ ଅବା ଘଟେ, ତେବେ ସାଲିକିକ ମୁଫଉଇନଙ୍କ ସେଇ ଉକ୍ତିଟି ଏଇଠି ପୁଣି ଆସେ ଯେ ଭାଷା ନୁହେଁ, ଲୋକେ ଭାଷାକୁ ମାରିଦିଅନ୍ତି । ଯଦି ଲୋକେ ନିଜ ଭାଷାକୁ ସାହିତ୍ୟର ଚଉହଦୀରୁ ଶାସନ, ଗଣମାଧ୍ୟମ, ଶିକ୍ଷାଦୀକ୍ଷା, ଧର୍ମ, କଳା, ବିଜ୍ଞାନ ବା ଚାଷବାସ ଯାଏ ଲମ୍ବାଇ ପାରିଥା'ନ୍ତେ, ତା'ହେଲେ ଇତିହାସର ଚକ ଓଲଟା ଗଡ଼ିଥା'ନ୍ତା । ତେବେ ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକେ ଏକାମ ଯେଡ଼େ ଦହଗଞ୍ଜ ହୋଇ କରି ନ ପାରନ୍ତି, ସରକାର ଓ ପାରିବା ଲୋକେ ଏ କାମ ତେଡ଼େ ସୁରୁଖୁରୁରେ କରିାରନ୍ତି । ରାଜନୀତିର ପଶାଖେଳରେ ଜିତାପଟ ହୋଇଥିବା ଲୋକେ କେମିତି ନିଜ ଭାଷାକୁ ନାହିଁରୁ କାହିଁ କରନ୍ତି ତାହା ଇଂରେଜଙ୍କଠାରୁ ଶିଖିବା କଥା । ଆଜି ଇଉନାଇଟେଡ଼ କିଙ୍ଗଡମ୍‍ ସିନା ପତିଆରା ହରାଇ ସାରିଲାଣି, ହେଲେ ପତିଆରା ଥିବାବେଳେ ନୂଆ ଅପ୍ରାକୃତିକ ଭାଷାଟେ ତିଆରି ସେମାନେ ଯେ ସାରା ଦୁନିଆରେ ନିଜ ପତିଆରା ରଖିାରିଲେ ତାହା କ'ଣ କମ୍‍ ବଡ଼ କଥା? ତେବେ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଭାଷା ତିଆରିବା ଥିଲା ଗୋଟେ କଳା, ଲାଟିନ ଅକ୍ଷରରେ ଅନେକ ଇଉରୋପୀୟ ତଥା କିଛି ଓରିଏଣ୍ଟାଲ ଶବ୍ଦ ମିଶାଇ ଏ ଭାଷା ତିଆରିବାବେଳେ ଅନେକ ଦେଶରୁ ମୂଳଶବ୍ଦ ସବୁ ଆହରିଥିଲେ ସେମାନେ । ଆମ ଦେଶରେ ଏ ଯାଏ ଏ କାମଟି ହୋଇପାରିଲା ନାହିଁ । ସଭିଙ୍କୁ ସମ୍ମାନ ଦେଇ ତାଙ୍କ ଭାଷାକୁ କିଛିକିଛି ଆହରି ଭାଷାଟିଏ ତିଆରିଲେ ସିନା ସେ ସବୁରି ତୁଣ୍ଡରେ ପଇଟନ୍ତା । ଖାଲି ଜୋର ଜବରଦସ୍ତି ଗୋଟେ ଭାଷା ପଛରେ ପୁଳାପୁଳା ପଇସା ଖରଚ କଲେ ସେ କି ଜନାଦର ଲଭିବ? ତେବେ ଭାଷା କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ଦୁଇଟି ଜିନିଷ ଜଳଜଳ ଦିଶେ । ଆଜି ଯାହାର କାଟତି ଅଛି ସେ ଯେ କାଲି ରହିବ ତା' କହିବା ଦୁରୂହ । ବ୍ରିଟିଶ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଆଦି ଖୁବ୍‍ କମ୍‍ ଅଞ୍ଚଳରେ କଥିତ । ହେଲେ ସେ ଥିଲା ମୂଳ ଇଂରାଜୀ । ଗବେଷଣା ହେଉଥିଲେ ହେଁ ମୂଳ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀଙ୍କ ତୁଣ୍ଡରେ ବୋଲାଯାଉ ନ ଥିଲେ ଭାଷାଟି ଧୀରେଧୀରେ ମରିଯାଏ । ୨୦୧୦ ମସିହାରେ ବୋଆ ସିନିଅରଙ୍କ ଦେହାନ୍ତ ପରେ ଗ୍ରେଟ ଆଣ୍ଡାମାନୀ ଭାଷାଟି ତାଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ମରଣ ଲଭିବା ଭଳି ଦୁଃଖଦ ଘଟଣା ଏହାର ମୂକସାକ୍ଷୀ । ଆଜି ଅଧିକ ହେଉ କି ଅଳପ, ସବୁରି ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ଲୋଡ଼ା କିଛି ଦରକାରୀ ସଜ । ନିଜ ଭାଷାରେ ମୋବାଇଲ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଲେଖାପଢ଼ାର ସୁବିଧା, ସାରା ଜଗତରେ ଜଣାଶୁଣା ବିଭିନ୍ନ ମନୋରଞ୍ଜନର ସମକକ୍ଷ ଉପାଦାନ, ଆନ୍ତର୍ଜାତିକ ମାନର ପାଠପଢ଼ା ଆଉ ଶେଷରେ ଭାଷାକୁ ଶାସନର ଭାଷା କରିାରିଲେ ଯେ ସେ ଭାଷାରେ ଜୀବନ ଲାଗିବ । ଆଉ ଏ ସାରାଜଗତ ପାଇଁ ଗୋଟେ ନୁହେଁ ଅନେକ ଭାଷା ଲୋଡ଼ା, ନିଜ ମଣିଷଙ୍କ କଥା, ତାଙ୍କ ଚଳଣି ଆଉ ଜନଜୀବନର ଗାଥା ଆଉ କେଉଁ ଭାଷା କି ସରସେ ଲେଖିହେବ?


Above: A scanned version of the article originally published by the Samaja

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/our-endangered-languages