Centre for Internet and Society

Tulu Wikipedia (Coverage in VijayaVani)

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T16:30:57Z

Media coverage in Vijayavani.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/tulu-wikipedia-coverage-in-vijayavani

Tulu Wikipedia Presentation: Coverage in Kannada Prabha

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T14:46:59Z

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja made a presentation on Tulu Wikipedia at a workshop held in Mangalore on December 14, 2014. This was covered by Kannada Prabha.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/kannada-prabha-december-14-2014-tulu-wikipedia-presentation

Tulu Wikipedia gets some push

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T15:20:04Z

Tulu Wikipedia, which was launched in 2007, is still in incubation stage, according to UB Pavanaja, Programme Officer at the Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society.

The article was published in the Hindu Businessline on December 13, 2014

Speaking at a technical session on ‘Tulu in technology’ as part of Global Tulu Festival in Mangaluru on Saturday, he said that now some push has been given for reviving Tulu Wikipedia.

Workshops on Tulu Wikipedia were conducted in March, April and November this year. The number of Tulu articles in Wikipedia was 135 in January 2014. It has increased to around 750 now, he said.

Referring to the lack of encyclopaedic knowledge in Tulu language, he said there is a need to give push for creating encyclopaedic knowledge in Tulu in such a situation.

Steps should be taken to contribute entries for Tulu Wikipedia regularly to keep it live. Those who work for Tulu Wikipedia should meet regularly to discuss future course of action.

He said that Wikipedia entries in Tulu language can be made under the URL http://bitly.com/tuluwiki

A live Tulu Wikipedia will help bring pressure on the Government to include Tulu in the Eighth Schedule of the India Constitution, he said.

Tulu-speaking people can request for including the Tulu script in Unicode, if there is a live Tulu Wikipedia, he added.

It may be mentioned here that works in Tulu language are prominently written in Kannada script, as Tulu script has not gained acceptability.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/hindu-businessline-december-13-2014-tulu-wikipedia-gets-some-push

Creating Free Software Environment at Andhra Loyola College

rahim — 2015-05-27T00:54:42Z

Andhra Loyola college has signed an MoU with CIS-A2K and as part of it CIS-A2K team has provided a free and open software environment at Andhra Lyola College's Computer Center. Thirty machines have been installed with free software Operating system and some useful applications such as GIMP, Inkscape, firefox, libreoffice, etc.

Principal, Vice-principal, management and faculty at Andhra Loyola College expressed interest in upgrading their lab computers to latest software without having the glitches of piracy issues. The obvious solution to this was to install Linux based free OS like Ubuntu/Debian

Program Director of CIS-A2K advised to have this process done in a pilot manner instead of forced imposition on faculty and students to use a totally new working environment. So, 30 machines from PG lab were selected for this purpose.

These machines were installed with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS edition. In addition to the default available Libre office, firefox and terminal, Tools like Gimp, inkscape, apache web server were also installed.

Each of the faculty and students present at the installation time were evangelized about Free Software and its wise uses in the long term.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/creating-free-software-environment-at-alc

Beyond the Language Tussle

teju — 2014-12-10T14:08:02Z

It might be more productive to see the ongoing Sanskrit versus German controversy as a welcome opportunity to discuss the real and persistent problems of our education system, not all of which have to do with which languages children get to learn.

The Op-ed was published in the Hindu on December 6, 2014.

The ongoing Sanskrit vs. German controversy is being seen by some as the sign of a sinister conspiracy to change educational options, and by others as a much-needed corrective to bring back “Indian culture” into the schools. It might be more productive to see it instead as a welcome opportunity to discuss the real and persistent problems of our education system, not all of which have to do with which languages children get to learn. The attempt to implement the teaching of Sanskrit in schools seems to be supported by a remarkably uninformed view about what sort of language policy we require today. And this is not to say that previous governments had any greater insight into how to handle either the medium of instruction problem or the issue of how many languages to teach and at what level.

Education budget cut

Far more disturbing than the Sanskrit-German debate was the news last week that the new Central government has decided to cut Rs.11,000 crore from the Education budget (The Hindu, “Social sector funds slashed,” Nov. 27). The favouring of physical infrastructure over “the social sector” (health, education, social security, nutrition, etc.) disregards the intangible factors that go into strengthening knowledge bases and the setting up of infrastructure in the first place. One of the implicit casualties of the massive cut in the Education budget is a proposed 12th Plan programme to revitalise Indian language resources in higher education. The rationale for this programme was that generation of knowledge in Indian languages would not only create new intellectual resources but transform the teaching-learning process in positive ways. The access-equity-quality triangle emphasised by policymakers could effectively be strengthened through a focus on Indian languages. Since the default medium of instruction at the tertiary level was actually a local language rather than the “mandatory” English, the deliberate blindness of successive governments to this fact was depriving students across disciplines of good quality resources. This linguistic divide affects the majority of tertiary students in the country. Thus, investing in Indian language materials at the basic and advanced levels is a sustainable (not to mention cost-effective) way by which Indian higher education could be strengthened.

“The long-term objective should be to make the student bilingually proficient, so that he is able to bridge effectively the conceptual worlds of the local and the global.”

We should note here that the emphasis is not on how many languages the student learns but on whether s/he is developing cognitive capabilities. This too has been a serious blind spot in modern Indian education over the decades, right up to the recent May 2014 Supreme Court judgment on the non-enforceability of mother-tongue instruction. The Court invoked the right to freedom of speech and expression in this instance to say that children and parents could choose the language in which the child wanted to be educated. With all respect to the learned judges, one wonders if they sought expert opinion in the matter or merely relied on their common sense. If they had done the former, they might have found out that worldwide research has proved that the most effective teaching and learning happens through the use of the mother tongue. If exposing a child to English at a very young age is dictated by opportunism and a skewed sense of what makes social mobility possible, this choice flies in the face of language and education research as well as the most enlightened pedagogic practices available. If mother tongue or Indian language education is not practical today, it’s because of the enormous lack of good educational resources in those languages, another need that state initiatives have failed to address adequately.

Parallel with China

Since, these days, China is the favourite country of comparison for us, we should pay attention to the fact that students in China start learning English in the fourth standard and for the most part study all their subjects in Mandarin. In my experience, the English fluency of the average Chinese undergraduate ranges from functional knowledge of English to complete proficiency, with an emphasis on reading and writing rather than speaking. Even those with functional knowledge are far more capable of dealing with the world of higher education today than most students I encounter in India. The single most important variable here would have to be that of mother tongue instruction combined with later exposure to a language that gives students access to resources not so readily available in Chinese. It’s a different matter that Internet use is so heavily policed in China. However, every person I know inside and outside the university has figured out how exactly to access the resources they want, which is much more than can be said of Indian students who don’t experience government-imposed firewalls. So, again, is the ability to navigate the digital domain related to language skills or critical skills?

Lack of clarity

The inability to create a systematic curricular exposure to language and critical skills is perhaps what prompts periodic outbursts like the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) directive to replace German in Kendriya Vidyalaya schools with Sanskrit. Combined with this lack of application is what can only be seen as the extraordinarily resilient prejudices about what constitutes “Indian culture.” We routinely tend to forget that this is a modern concept, mobilised by colonialist as well as nationalist perspectives on our society. Lack of clarity about what education is for leads to muddled thinking about what should be done in the space of education. We should not confusedly believe that the primary task of education is to pass on ways of living — we do that in almost every domain of social engagement. The task of education is to foster and strengthen cognitive capacities that can equip students to produce original knowledge on their own terms, for which we are likely to need bilingual and trilingual education. Debating whether we should learn Sanskrit instead of German is a distraction from the real tasks that lie ahead. We need to reorient the language debate to focus not on learning the language (any language) but learning how to think.

Language use analysis

The CBSE circular of June 30, 2014, instructing its affiliated schools to observe ‘Sanskrit Week’, introduced the topic by stating that “Sanskrit and Indian culture are intertwined as most of the indigenous knowledge is available in this language.” It’s shocking to see that people in the business of education are unaware about the fundamental histories of language use in our country, and that mere assertion can pass for accurate information. Apart from the facile collapsing of “culture” onto “knowledge,” the circular’s statement about Sanskrit as the language of indigenous knowledge appears as a sweeping generalisation when you look at it from the point of view of medical, artisanal or performing arts knowledge forms. Even if we stay with just one example, that of indigenous medicine, and even if we stay with the venerable Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a quick overview of the books listed would show that the languages of indigenous knowledge include Persian, Arabic, Urdu and Tamil in addition to Sanskrit. The library currently lists 137 Tamil books on Siddha, for example, with 157 Sanskrit books on Ayurveda. Some of this knowledge is also available in Malayalam, like the important works on vishavaidyam.

Coming to contemporary language use in India, it would be important to note that just as modern Kannada, Marathi or Telugu for example have drawn on Sanskrit to build their vocabulary, they have equally strongly drawn on other languages. Here are some sample Kannada words that reveal the original language coiled inside the present day usage: adalat, vakila, javabu, ambari, gulabi, sipayi, taakathhu, firyadu, bunadi, najooku (Persian/Urdu). This kind of sampling could be replicated for any contemporary Indian language, and an exhaustive mapping exercise might reveal fascinating borrowings and transformations that gesture well beyond language use.

Most of our languages cannot sustain teaching and research in the context of the modern university and its disciplines. We need to create critical vocabularies across several conceptual domains. Students need to learn the ability to distinguish between levels of meaning, to contextualise/translate, and to create new concepts that capture the life of our societies and our institutions. And in doing this, they have to learn to draw on multiple linguistic resources.

Ensuring the entry of Indian language resources into the mainstream of our higher education system is a long-delayed project. By bringing these resources into a national educational structure, we will be (a) expanding the analytical abilities of these languages, and (b) making the curriculum more relevant to the society we live in. The long-term objective should be to make the student bilingually proficient, so that he is able to bridge effectively the conceptual worlds of the local and the global.

(Tejaswini Niranjana is with the Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/the-hindu-december-6-2014-tejaswini-niranjana-beyond-the-language-tussle

AdaCamp Bangalore: "Nothing could be more open and encouraging than this"

praskrishna — 2015-02-12T01:53:43Z

I can say this conference was the most truly touched feminist endeavor I have ever witnessed or thought of. An inspiration to last through. — Rupali Talwatkar.

Rohini Lakshané delivered a session on digital security. For more info see the details on Ada Initiative website

Session on Imposter Syndrome:

Impostor syndrome is a common reaction to doing publicly visible and publicly criticised work like that done in open technology and culture. Impostor Syndrome is the feeling that you aren't actually qualified for the work you are doing and will be discovered as a fraud. It is prevalent among women in open tech/culture, many of whom have been socialised to value other's opinion of their work above their own, and to do things "by the book."
http://adainitiative.org/what-we-do/impostor-syndrome-training/

Session on Open Street Maps:
https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/yAxa2Kwkfm

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/ada-camp-bangalore

Odia Wikipedia: Article in Dhatri

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T01:34:23Z

This article was published in Dhatri on December 1, 2014.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/article-in-dhatri

Odia Wikisource campus project at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences

subha — 2015-08-16T15:42:56Z

The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team organized a closing ceremony, on December 3, to conclude the three months campus project for Odia Wikisource at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Bhubaneswar.

Students who were part of nine teams led by nine faculty members were assessed based on the team performance and the team led by one of the faculties, Nilima Samant, was awarded as the best performer. Similarly Preetinanda Roy, a faculty member, who also happened to be the project coordinator was awarded as the best performer among all. The institute's CEO Dr. Prasanta Kumar Routray felicitated the awardees and all the faculties and students who took part in the project. Other senior members from Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences management also joined.


Odia Wikisource campus project at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) closing ceremony. This is a group photo after the event. Photo by Subhashish Panigrahi (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).

Addressing the audience Dr Routray said, "we are extremely thankful to Subhashish and CIS-A2K for this great support. If these students could learn Odia typing in such a short span and digitize 4 books then we should get more valuable content in their native languages digitized."

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odia-wikisource-campus-project-at-kiss

ICT for Development

praskrishna — 2014-12-28T03:26:03Z

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was a speaker at this event organized by Christ University on December 3, 2014 in Bangalore.

Download the presentation on ICT4D.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/ict-for-development

Article on Odia Wikipedia in Odiapua

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T02:38:11Z

The article was published in Odiapua on December 1, 2014.

ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର (୨୮ ନଭେମ୍ବର): ବିଶ୍ୱବ୍ୟାପୀ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ବହୁଭାଷୀ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ନିର୍ମାଣରେ ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ ସୃଷ୍ଟି କରିଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ସହ-ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର" ଆଜି ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର ଠାରେ ଉନ୍ମୋଚନ ହୋଇଯାଇଛି । ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ or.wikisource.org ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଏହି ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଦୁଇବର୍ଷ ତଳେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଗବତ ସମେତ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ କବି ଓ ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ଆହୁରି ୩୧ ଗୋଟି ରଚନାରେ ଭରା । ଆଜି ସ୍ଥାନୀୟ ଜୟଦେବ ଭବନରେ ଏକ "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର ସଭା ୨୦୧୪"ରେ ଏହାକୁ ଉନ୍ମୋଚନ କରି ବରିଷ୍ଠ ଭାଷାବିଦ ଦେବୀପ୍ରସନ୍ନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ ଏହା ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବାହାରେ ଥିବା କିମ୍ବା ପାଠାଗାର ଯାଇ ବହି ଆଣି ପଢ଼ିବାର ସୁଯୋଗ ପାଉନଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଖୁବ ଉପଯୋଗୀ ହେବ ମତ ପ୍ରକାଶ କରିଥିଲେ । ଦୈନିକ "ସମ୍ବାଦ"ର ସମ୍ପାଦକ ସୌମ୍ୟରଞ୍ଜନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ ଏଥିରେ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ଅତିଥି ଭାବେ ଯୋଗ ଦେଇ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟକୁ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ମାରକ ନୁହେଁ, ବରଂ ମିତ କରି ଏହାକୁ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ଉନ୍ନତିରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିବା ଉପରେ ଗୁରୁତ୍ୱାରୋପ କରିଥିଲେ । "ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଶା" ଦ୍ୱାରା ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟର ୧୯ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବହି ସେ ଏହି ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଜରିଆରେ ଡିଜିଟାଲକରଣ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ବିତରଣ କରିଥିଲେ । ଆଗକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ସହ ମିଶି ସେ ସମ୍ବାଦ ତଥା ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଓ ସଂସ୍କୃତିଭିତ୍ତିକ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟକ୍ରମ କରିବା ବିଷୟରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଉଲ୍ଲେଖ କରିଥିଲେ । ଏହି ସଭାର ସଭାପତିତ୍ୱ କରି ବିଶିଷ୍ଠ କବି ଓ ଚିନ୍ତକ ଡ ହରପ୍ରସାଦ ଦାସ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ରହିଥିବା ଶୂନ୍ୟସ୍ଥାନ ପୂରଣ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ଯୁବପିଢ଼ିକୁ ଆହ୍ୱାନ ଦେଇଥିଲେ ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହିର ଅଭିଲେଖ କାମର ବିଶାଳ ଶ୍ରେୟ ସବୁବେଳେ ସୃଜନିକାକୁ ଯାଇଥାଏ । ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଉଦ୍ୟମରେ ୧୮୪୦-୧୯୪୦ ଭିତରେ ଛପା ଅନେକ ବହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲକରଣ ଭଳି ଐତିହାସିକ କାମଟିଏ ହୋଇଥିଲା । ଏ କାମକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର ଆଉ ପାଦେ ଆଗେଇ ନେବ ବୋଲି ଆଶା ସଂଚାର ହୋଇଛି । ଏଥିରେ ବହିର ସ୍କାନ ସହିତ ଟାଇପ କରା ଲେଖା (typed text) ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ନାମକ ଏକ ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରୀୟ ମାନକରେ ରହିଥାଏ ଯାହାଫଳରେ ଜଣେ ବହିଟିଏ କମ୍ପୁଟର, ଟାବଲେଟ କି ମୋବାଇଲରେ ପଢ଼ିପାରିବ, ସେଥିରେ ଲେଖା ନେଇ ଆଉ କେଉଁଠି ଉଦ୍ଧୃତି ଦେଇପାରିବ ବା ଛପାଇ ପାରିବ । ସ୍କାନ କରା ବହିଠାରୁ ଏଥିରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ବହିସବୁ ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ ହାଲୁକା ଓ ଏଥିରୁ ପିଡିଏଫ କରି ଜଣେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ବିନା ମଧ୍ୟ ବହି ପଢ଼ିପାରିବ ବୋଲି ସେଣ୍ଟୃ । ଆଗକୁ ବହିର ଲେଖା ଶୁଣିବାର ବାଟ ମଧ୍ୟ ଆସୁଛି । କପିରାଇଟ ନଥିବା ଅନେକ ବିରଳ ବହି, ଭାଗବତ, ମହାଭାରତ ଭଳି ପୋଥିପୁରାଣଠୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ନୂଆ ଅନେକ ବହି ଏଥିରେ ସ୍ଥାନ ପାଇପାରିବ । ପଦ୍ମଶ୍ରୀ ଡ ଦେବୀପ୍ରସନ୍ନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ, ରାମକୃଷ୍ଣ ନନ୍ଦ, ଡ ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ ମହାନ୍ତି, ଡ ସୁବ୍ରତ ପୃଷ୍ଟି ଓ ନିର୍ମଳା କୁମାରୀ ମହାନ୍ତି ଆଦି ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ଅନେକ ଗବେଷଣାଭିତ୍ତିକ ବହିରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ବିନୟ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ, ଭାରତ ମାଝି ଓ ମନୋଜ ପଣ୍ଡାଙ୍କ ସାହିତ୍ୟ କୃତି ତଥା "ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଶା" ଓ "ସମଦୃଷ୍ଟି" ଭଳି ପ୍ରକାଶନ ସଙ୍ଗଠନର ବହିମାନ ସତ୍ୱାଧୀକାରୀଙ୍କ ଉଦାର ଅନୁମତି କ୍ରମେ ଏଥିରେ ସ୍ଥାନୀତ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ସର୍ବାଧିକ ୧୨୦୦ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଥର ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରି ପାହାପାଖି ୪ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବହିକୁ ପୁନଟାଇପ କରିଥିବା ପଙ୍କଜବାଳା ଷଡ଼ଙ୍ଗୀ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବାହାରେ ରହି ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ମହାନ କଳା-ଚଳଣି-ଭାଷା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ ଅଧିକ ଜାଣିବାର ଶ୍ରେଷ୍ଠ ବାଟ ବୋଲି ଅଭିହିତ କରନ୍ତି । ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳି ଓ ବେଙ୍ଗାଳୁରୁର ସେଣ୍ଟର ଫର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଏଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟି ସହାୟତାରେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରର କିସ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନର ୯ ଜଣ ଶିକ୍ଷକ ଓ ପାଖାପାଖି ୫୦ ଜଣ ଛାତ୍ର ଏଯାବତ ୪ଟି ବହି ଟାଇପ କରିସାରିଲେଣି । ପିଲାମାନେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଓ ଏଥିରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା ଶିଖିବା ଭବିଷ୍ୟତରେ ତାଙ୍କ ଚାକିରିରେ ସହାୟକ ହେବ ବୋଲି କହନ୍ତି ଏହାକୁ ପରିଚାଳନା କରୁଥିବା କିସର ଶିକ୍ଷକ ପ୍ରୀତିନନ୍ଦା ରାୟ । ଆଉ କେଉଁଠି ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ଟାଇପ ହୋଇ ନଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଗବତକୁ odia.org ରୁ ଆଣି ତାକୁ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ରୂପାନ୍ତର ୭ ଜଣ ନୂଆ ଉଇକିଆଳି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ସ୍ଥାନୀତ କରିବା ସତରେ ଏକ ଐତିହାସିକ ପଦକ୍ଷେପ । ଆଗକୁ ଆମେ ବିରଳ ପୋଥି ଦୁଷ୍ପ୍ରାପ୍ୟ ଓ ଛପାଯାଉନଥିବା ବହିମାନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବୁ ବୋଲି କହନ୍ତି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ପରିଚାଳକ ମୃତ୍ୟଞ୍ଜୟ କର ।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/odiapua-december-1-2014-article-on-odia-wikipedia

A Seminar on E-publishing of Odia Books

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T02:41:26Z

A seminar was organized by Molybtech Technology Solutions on November 30, 2014 for the betterment of Odia language and writers at Bhanja Kala Mandap.

Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the seminar as a speaker and shared his knowledge with the audience.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/seminar-e-publishing-odia-books

Odia books now available online

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T02:16:19Z

Book lovers can now read Odia books online with the launching of the Odia Wikisource, a sister project of Odia Wikipedia, here on Friday.

The article was published in the Pioneer on November 30, 2014

The Odia Wikimedia community, a volunteer community that contributes to Odia Wikipedia and its sister projects, in collaboration with the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) formally launched the facility.

Odia Wikisource houses scores of Odia language books online and is available for free at https://or.wikisource.org. It is not just an online library but it focuses on bringing rare and old books that are out of copyright. Notably, the CIS-A2K, a domain of the CIS, has been instrumental in encouraging many notable authors in the State to change their license terms to Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-by-SA) license, a license that allows public access and ability to reuse the content to expand the knowledge base in Odia language on internet.

Besides, a discussion on setting of a roadmap for Odia book digitization was held on the occasion. Later, a documentary on ‘Odia: Silalekharu Mobile’ was screened followed by an award ceremony.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-pioneer-november-30-2014-odia-books-now-available-online

Odia Wikisource launched in Odisha capital

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T02:53:32Z

After the success of Odia Wikipedia, it is now the turn of Odia Wikisource to bring the best of Odia literature to the people of Odisha in the language they speak.

The article was published in Odisha Sun Times on November 28, 2014.

Having gone through a rigorous assessment process by the Wikimedia language committee and Wikimedia Foundation’s board before being released last month, the Odia Wikisource was formally launched at Jayadev Bhawan on Friday.

Launching the Odia Wikisource, eminent linguist Padhma Shree Dr Debiprasanna

Pattanayak emphasized the importance of such a project in Odia language to make the best of Odia writing available on computer, mobile and tablet to ensure that youngsters take interest in Odia.

“e-books are the key to take Odia to the masses, especially those who are outside Odisha and have no access to libraries,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Editor of leading Odia daily ‘Sambad’ said; “Internet should be treated as a friend of our language rather than as an enemy.”

He announced the relicensing of 19 books published by Ama Odisha under a Creative Commons Share Alike license that will be digitized on Wikisource.

Patnaik evinced keen interest in collaborating with the Odia Wikimedia community in the future for such language and cultural work.

Presiding over the function, noted poet and thinker Dr Haraprasad Das advised the youth for filling the gaps in the Odia language using internet.

“Odia Wikisource is connecting me with my roots, my language and culture”, said Pankajbala Sarangi, who has made the highest of 1200 edits on Odia Wikisource.

The credit for the most extensive work on Odia book digitization, however, goes to Bhubaneswar based non-profit Srujanika that digitized about 740 books.

Started two years ago as an incubator project, the Odia Wikisource is now live on the internet at or.wikisource.org.

The project now houses many precious books including writings of noted authors like Fakir Mohan Senapati, Upendra Bhanj and the entire Odia Bhagabata.

It includes most periodicals that were published between1850-1950. Odia Wikisource will further this work by going one step ahead in digitizing books in the form of text in Unicode so that they appear in a search engine search in Odia language.

It allows readers to read books from computers, mobiles and tablets, even permitting them to print and use the content elsewhere. These books are way lighter than the scanned books. This is making a way for audio books.

Books for which copyright has lapsed and many rare books could be digitized and preserved for the future.

Apart from old and valuable books, books by renowned and contemporary authors like Padma Shree Debiprasanna Pattanayak, Ramakrushna Nanda, Dr Jagannath Mohanty, Dr Subrat Prusty, Bharat Majhi and Nirmala Kumari Mohapata, and many other authors have been taken by the Odia Wikisource team to digitize.

In collaboration with Wikimedians from Bhubaneswar, Bangalore based non-profit Centre for Internet and Society’s Access To Knowledge program was instrumental in training the faculty of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS). “50 students from KISS have digitized 4 books and are continuing to contribute more”, says Preetinanda Roy.

Wikimedians also converted Odia Bhagabata to Unicode by using the source text from Odia.org. “We are aiming to bring more rare books and manuscripts in Odia in the near future,” said Odia Wikimedian Mrutyunjaya Kar.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/odisha-sun-times-november-28-2014-odia-wikisource-launched-in-odisha-capital

‘Tulu Wikipedia’ in incubation stage, 600 articles uploaded, says U.B. Pavanaja

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T03:21:11Z

In all, 600 articles have been uploaded to the Tulu Wikipedia which is still in its incubation stage, according to U.B. Pavanaja, Wikipedia representative and Programme Officer, The Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru.

The article by Ravi Prasad Kamila was published in the Hindu on November 26, 2014. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja gave his inputs.

Speaking at a workshop on writing articles in Tulu, using Kannada script, for Wikipedia at Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management here on Wednesday, he said that since 2007 till this January there were 135 Tulu articles. The remaining 465 articles were added in the last over nine months.

Workshops on writing articles in Tulu for Wikipedia organised in Udupi and Mangaluru had helped in adding more articles.

Mr. Pavananja, originally hailing from Sullia in Dakshina Kannada, said that if Tulu Wikipedia was to be kept alive at least 50 to 60 articles would have to be uploaded a month and it required at least 10 dedicated writers.

If one wants to write articles in Tulu, he or she would have to log on to bilty.com/tuluwiki and later register there like registering while creating a new e-mail id. Later one can write, edit or read articles written in Tulu using Kannada script.

Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy had organised the workshop as a prelude to the three-day ‘Vishwa Tuluvere Parba’ (Global Tulu Festival) scheduled at the college from December 12.

President of the academy M. Janaki Brahmavar requested the participants to write articles about Tulu language and culture and about the coming festival and upload.

One can contact Mr. Pavanaja through pavanaja@gmail.com.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-hindu-november-26-2014-ravi-prasad-kamila-tulu-wikipedia-in-incubation-stage

Nineteen Books Published by Ama Odisha Relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0

subha — 2014-12-07T03:35:46Z

Odisha's most circulated newspaper Sambad has collaborated with CIS-A2K to relicense 19 books published by its sister concern "Ama Odisha".

These books consists of books starting from biographies of notable personalities to historical research. Yesterday Sambad's chairman-editor Soumya Ranjan Patnaik signed a copyright migration document to help the Odia Wikisource community to enrich the project. In an interview to me he expresses, "technology should be used as a tool to take our language to masses". Mr Patnaik is joining "Odia Wikisource Sabha 2014", a launching event of Odia Wikisource co-organized by Odia Wikimedia community and CIS-A2K on November 28, as chief guest.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/nineteen-books-by-ama-odisha-relicensed