Centre for Internet and Society

Books are a bridge between generations

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T09:27:05Z

Kannada litterateurs stressed on the importance of books and cultivating the habit of reading on the occasion of ‘World Book Day’ on Wednesday.

The article was published in the Deccan Herald on April 23, 2014. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was a speaker on the occasion.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, writer Narahalli Balasubramanya said “We should ensure children emulate great minds if we want them to be responsible citizens. This is possible only if we make them read good books.

Today, we are increasingly finding ourselves in the company of corrupt people. It is through books that we can interact with great literary figures such as Bendre and Kuvempu.”

The event was jointly organised by Karnataka Publishers Association, Kendra Sahitya Akademi, Karnataka Lekhakiyara Sangha and Indian Institute of World Culture.

Balasubramanya maintained that the Kendra Sahitya Academy sold books at affordable rates and also gave a funding of Rs 400 crore to the book publishers, annually. “But not many people are aware of books entering market and the works don’t reach people,” he added.

A series of Kannada works written by authors were released on the occasion. Writer Dr Siddalingaiah who released the books said “Books are bridges between our minds and our ancestors’ minds. Every home should have a small library.”

‘Pustaka Bhagya’

“The State government has introduced Anna Bhagya, Ksheera Bhagya and other schemes. Similarly, they should also implement Pustaka Bhagya,” said M V Nagaraj Rao of Shrungara Prakashana.

Technical writer in Kannada U B Pavanaja maintained that in Kannada Wikipedia there was dearth of information on Kannada literary works. “There is enough information about English works but not on Kannada novels and literary publications. The Kannada publishers should strive to feed information and synopsis of each work into the Kannada wikipedia,” he added.

Public Library Department celebrated the occasion by holding a book exhibition and essay competition for children at City Central Library premises on Wednesday.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/deccan-herald-april-23-2014-books-are-a-bridge-between-generations

World Book Day (Coverage in Vijayavani)

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T09:40:16Z

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja participated in the event as a speaker. A scanned version of the report is below:

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/vijayavani-april-23-2014-world-book-day

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

praskrishna — 2014-05-06T07:09:41Z

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

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

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

Report from India: Relicensing books under CC

subha — 2014-05-05T09:13:15Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Case studies:

Release of a four-volume encyclopedia in Konkani

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

Release of 11 Odia language books

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

Relicensing “Classical Odia” under a free license

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

Relicensing books and conversion of ISCII to Unicode font

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

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

CIS Signs MoU with Mysore University

pavanaja — 2014-05-05T06:29:37Z

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

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


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

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

El idioma oriya ama a Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T05:14:26Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ଓଡ଼ିଅା ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର

subha — 2014-05-06T06:50:02Z

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

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

NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2014

praskrishna — 2014-04-08T16:49:48Z

As part of the NASA Open Government Plan , the NASA International Space Apps Challenge have brought together citizen scientists, FOSS enthusiasts , Data Scientists, Open Hardware hackers and students throughout the world for collaborative problem solving with a goal of producing relevant open-source solutions to address global needs applicable to both life on Earth and life in Space.

Event Flier

And once again on April 12th and 13th, 2014, the event will be organized by the Centre for Internet and Society, with a special focus on Open Data, Open Science and Citizen Science, in collaboration with Team Indus, one of 3 teams to be selected globally amidst thousands, to launch a moon rover for the Google Lunar X-Prize 2015.

The event shall start on Saturday, 12th of April, with the following morning talks:

Keynote Speaker: Dr.Jayant Murthy, Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, will be addressing the gathering on Open Science, Open Data and Computing within the Indian context.
Title of Talk : Open Data , Open Science and Computing in the Indian Context: 10:30 a.m.
Abstract: As Big Science gets bigger and yields massive amounts of data, we are left with a host of insurmountable problems from the physical - How do we store and access so much data? - to the computational - How do we process the data with increasingly complex models? - to the sociological - How do we change our paradigm so that we efficiently use the data with a limited pool of skilled manpower. I will also touch on some philosophical aspects of this problem - Should all data be free and what are the implications of this on policy and on individuals.
Speaker : Narayan Prasad, Co-Founder, Dhruva Space: 11:30 a.m.
Abstract: Narayan will talk about issues surrounding Open Data, Citizen Science and Governance whilst taking us on a journey of Bangalore based Dhruva Space, one of the world's few start-ups, looking at solutions ranging from small satellite development (CUBESAT, ARDUSAT), near space environmental design, high altitude balloon imaging and internet -- many of these using open source hardware devices like the Arduino.

We will then get into break out sessions to review and sign-up for existing challenges or propose new ones amongst those listed at : https://2014.spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/

The hackathon will end on Sunday, April 13, 2014 by 6 p.m.

Registration is free and you are requested to confirm your participation for the event here : https://2014.spaceappschallenge.org/location/bangalore/

Participants are requested to bring their own laptops.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/nasa-international-space-apps-challenge-2014

Vachana Sanchaya: Bringing Access to 11th century Kannada Literature

subha — 2014-04-08T01:48:18Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Plans going foward:

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

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

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

୭୯ ବର୍ଷରେ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଓଡ଼ିଶା: ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଏହାର ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର

subha — 2014-05-06T05:18:21Z

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

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

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

ପୁରୁଣା ବ‌ହିର ଅଭିଲେଖ:

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

ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା:

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

ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ମାଧ୍ୟମ (Unicode standards):

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

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: କପିରାଇଟ ନ‌ଥିବା ଏକ ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ, ଯହିଁରେ ସମସ୍ତେ ଲେଖିପାରିବେ

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

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

ଅଧିକ ପଠନ:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read the article published in Amalekha here

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

Odia Wikipedia to Digitise 14 Books

praskrishna — 2014-03-31T14:29:43Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Article on Kannada Wikipedian H R Lakshmivenkatesh

praskrishna — 2014-07-03T08:28:04Z

Karnataka Sangha Mumbai published an article on Kannada Wikipedian H.R.Lakshmivenkatesh in its March 2014 edition.

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was instrumental in highlighting this fact and making people of Mumbai come to know about this. The article can be downloaded here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/an-article-on-kannada-wikipedian-hr-lakshmivenkatesh

Odisha Day 2014: Coverage in Sambad

praskrishna — 2014-04-11T12:32:39Z

Odia newspaper Sambad covered the Odisha Day 2014 and published a report on March 31, 2014.


Above: Scanned version of the report published in Sambad on March 31, 2014.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/sambad-march-31-2014-odisha-day-2014

India Access To Knowledge/Draft Work plan July 2014 - June 2015

vishnu — 2014-04-08T09:51:27Z

One of the key mandates of the Access to Knowledge (A2K) programme at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is to work towards catalysing the growth of the open knowledge movement in South-Asia and in Indic languages. CIS has been a steward of the Wikimedia movement in India since December 2008 when Jimmy Wales visited Bangalore. From September 2012 it has been actively involved in growing the movement in India through a grant received from the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). Based on the 18-month experience of working with various Indic Wikimedia communities, CIS-A2K has developed its Work Plan for July 2014 to June 2015.

This was originally published on Wikimedia blog

This work plan consists of 21 plans across 6 verticals. These are:

7 Language Area Plans: CIS-A2K has put in significant efforts in four focus language areas plans during the last year and has been successful in reaching most of its goals. In 2014-15 we will further deepen our engagement in these four language areas (Kannada, Konkani, Odia and Telugu). Further, this experience and the learnings from it will be leveraged to work on three more large Indic language Wikipedia projects, which are Bangla, Hindi and Marathi. We have developed a detailed plan for each of these language areas, which can be seen here.
3 Community Strengthening Initiatives: We propose community strengthening initiatives that will further grow the Indic Wikimedia projects and the associated community, both qualitatively and quantitatively. These initiatives, focussing on building capacity and nurturing leadership in the Indic communities, will ensure that growth is sustained beyond the CIS-A2K program. A detailed plan for each of these initiatives is available here.
8 Stand-alone Wikimedia Projects: These stand-alone projects will have clear deliverables in a limited span of time, and will help us understand how to take up bigger initiatives in the respective language. All the stand-alone projects are more fully described here.
Creating Movement Resources: Once CIS-A2K began actively working with the Indic Wikimedia communities, it soon realized that unlike in English there were not many Wikimedia-related resources available in Indic languages. During the last year we produced some resources which were mostly unplanned outcomes. However, we feel there is an urgent need to create movement resources in Indic languages like a Creative Commons (CC) handbook; a Copyright handbook; training manuals; video tutorials, etc. See our plans for concerted efforts to create resources for strengthening the Wikimedia movement in India and in Indic languages here.
Publicity, Research and Documentation: Many of the Indic Wikimedia projects in spite of being in existence for more than 10 years have not received adequate publicity. Also, the Wikimedia movement in India could benefit from more systematic research and documentation. CIS-A2K will put in more intensive efforts into Publicity, Research and Documentation of the Wikimedia movement in India during this year as per the plans discussed here.
General Support and Service to the Movement: CIS-A2K deeply believes in extending support and service to the Wikimedia volunteer community in India. This has been one of the important aspects of our work so far. We have honoured up to 100 requests of all sizes that we received from the Wikimedia volunteer communities across all Indic languages. This page gives more details about the proposed work.

The work plan includes details of aims, objectives, programme activities and expected outcomes. Most of the language area plans were put together in active consultation with the respective Wikimedia language communities. Various inputs and ideas contributed, opportunities provided, and challenges thrown at the CIS-A2K program during the last year by the Wikimedia communities in India, our institutional partners, Executive Committee (EC) of Wikimedia India Chapter (WMIN) and the Wikimedia Foundation's Grantmaking Team have significantly informed our work plans.

Introduction

Background to CIS-A2K Program

The Wikimedia Foundation approved a grant of ₹26,000,000 to CIS in Bangalore, India to expand their A2K programme in India. The grant was released over a three phase period - first in September 2012 (₹ 11,000,000), second in June 2013 (₹ 7,500,000) and third in December 2014(₹ 7,500,000). The purpose of the grant was to enable the A2K team to work with the Wikimedia community of volunteers in India to expand the Indic Wikimedia projects and associated communities. In addition, the grant was aimed at generating improvements in India-relevant free knowledge in Wikimedia’s English projects, and the wider distribution of Wikimedia’s free knowledge within India.

CIS-A2K created an Annual Work Plan (2013-2014) that is being successfully implemented. Most of the projected outcomes against the plans have already been met. There have also been many unplanned outcomes. CIS-A2K has periodically been sharing its work openly with the Wikimedia community in India, WMIN and WMF's Grantmaking team. See all our reports and newsletters here.

Objective

The objective of the CIS-A2K is to catalyse the growth of open knowledge movement in South Asia and in Indic languages. Within the Wikimedia universe CIS-A2K specifically strives to further grow the Indic and English Wikimedia projects and communities by a) supporting and serving the Wikimedia communities; b) building institutional partnerships; c) bringing more content under free license; d) designing and executing projects with community participation; e) strengthening the Wikimedia volunteers; and f) fostering and enabling an appropriate legal and technological ecosystem.

Context

It is important to understand the two broader contexts in which CIS-A2K program operates, which underpins the implementation of this work plan.

Linguistic Diversity of India: India is known for its linguistic diversity. India is home to several dominant languages and also several small languages which are facing extinction. Due to the large number of languages that exist in India, the country has more than 20 different language Wikipedias. Each Indic Wikimedia language project is different from the others in terms of community structure, speaker base, literacy level, technical knowledge, existing documentation, language corpora and challenges in the cyberspace, etc. Hence, each Indian language has its own strengths and challenges which are quite different from each other.

Since each Indian language is so distinct, we cannot apply a ‘one-size fits all’ approach; hence CIS-A2K early on adopted the strategy of creating a detailed plan for each language. During 2013-14 we chose five (of which only four could be executed) Indic languages for focussed intervention and developed [plans]. This strategy did pay off and we have now decided to work on seven languages. It is important to note that we are cautious about not massively scaling up this strategy and our choice to work on seven language areas is well informed. However, we have planned to execute some stand-alone projects in other Indic languages and will provide need based support to other Indic Wikimedia communities.
Institutional Context: The A2K program is housed at CIS Bangalore. CIS is an almost 6 year old non-profit organisation [with offices in Bengaluru and New Delhi] focussing on interdisciplinary policy and academic research. CIS conducts policy research in the following areas - accessibility, access for knowledge [including free/open source software, open content, open standards, open access and open data], internet governance [including privacy and freedom of speech and expression], telecom [limited to shared backhaul and shared spectrum]. CIS produces academic research focusing on digital natives and digital humanities.

CIS shares the same values as Wikimedia and the free and open source software community. CIS believes Wikimedia's objectives of disseminating free knowledge to each and every individual. There are certain advantages the A2K program has because of its location within CIS. Some of these include: a) opportunity to leverage the strong network CIS has developed with various free culture / openness movement stakeholders in the past 6 years of its existence; b) the advantage of having an office space in a city which is the hub of the openness movement in India; c) readily available administrative and support staff and systems that saves a lot of A2K staff's time; d) cross-pollination of ideas and work done in other CIS programs and vice-versa; e) organisational principles like subsidiarity, war on meta-work, post-facto accountability, and amorphous institutional boundaries give the A2K team members amazing programmatic agility; and f) the right kind of ecosystem for free knowledge work[1] There are also some disadvantages: a) CIS being a non-chapter or Wikimedia volunteer-driven entity faces very valid questions about legitimacy, representation and "voluntary sector" vs. "volunteer" dichotomy; b) a section of the community view CIS-A2K as a competitor to WMIN for financial resources which undermines trust-building and consequently threatens synergies between WMIN and A2K c) CIS has to be conservative about attributing Wikimedia growth and community growth to A2K initiatives as it can be misconstrued as credit-grabbing.[2]

Methodology

Process

This work plan is put together based on an extensive engagement with various stakeholders of Wikimedia movement in India. These include a) some Wikimedia volunteers across Indic Wikimedia projects; b) WMIN Executive Committee; d) Institutional Partners of CIS-A2K; e) a few like-minded advocates of free knowledge; f) A2K Program Adviser Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana; and g) a few of the Wikimedia Foundation staff. Some of the language area plans were shared with that particular language Wikimedia community for feedback over the Wikipedia village pumps, mailing lists and social media groups. Each plan document has a list of contributors who have contributed in developing the plan.

Structure

There are 21 diverse plans within this plan. During the work planning exercise we realized that this diversity is both a good feature and a potential bug. We were concerned about making these plans intelligible. So we have worked very hard to come up with a standard template for all plans. Thus a cursory glance may give the impression that some plans look similar, but they are not. However, you may see repetitions in strategies across plans. Also in some plans we had to deviate from the template. Moreover, it is less productive to compare one sub-plan with another sub-plan as each plan was developed taking into consideration a) specific strengths and opportunities that CIS-A2K program could build on; b) particular needs for support to which we could respond; and c) specific challenges that require localized solutions.

Granularity

This plan is not set in stone and will be periodically (right now quarterly) reviewed and revised if required. The intention of this work plan is to continually ensure better design and better engagement. Thus this "plans within the plan" structure was essential to evolve a sense of granularity of the CIS-A2K team’s work along with micro-level outcome and impact metrics. This will give us the flexibility to amputate a plan, if it fails, without affecting the rest of the plans. We also believe that this granularity in plans will give a focussed direction for the CIS-A2K team and the volunteers who will collaborate with us in the implementation.

Mapping Plan to Budget/Mission Level Transparency

Each plan has an independent budget and is closely mapped on to the implementation plan. An attempt is made to correlate why we are spending a certain amount on a certain activity. Thus all these budgets are very optimally planned and the overall budget is an assimilation. CIS-A2K believes that this will give mission level transparency to our work and provide a clear structure of accountability to the movement.

Annual Work Plan July 2014-June 2015

Language Area Work Plans

CIS-A2K has put in significant efforts in four focus language areas plans during the last year and has been successful in reaching most of the proposed goals. In 2014-15 we will further deepen our engagement in these four language areas (Kannada, Konkani, Odia and Telugu). Further, this experience and the learnings from it will be leveraged to work on three more large Indic Wikipedia projects, which are Bangla, Hindi and Marathi. We have developed a detailed plan for each of these language areas, which is given below.

Some of the key factors that determined the selection of languages areas have included:

Deepening the work. We have decided to continue our work in the language areas chosen last year as we believe that we need to deepen our work to ensure that the momentum we have built will be sustained even after our exit.
Networking of institutions and groups. The A2K team has put together a list of knowledge institutions, groups and individuals with whom it has some connections and believes that it can bring them into the Wikimedia movement. These collaborations will not only result in significant quality-content contributions, but will lead to the diversification and expansion of that particular language Wikimedia community.
Willingness of that particular language community to interact and engage with the A2K team. Though we tried approaching other language communities informally, we were given to understand that they would like to consider engaging with us at a later stage. We respect the community's decision and express our willingness to work with newer language areas in a subsequent phase.
Familiarity of the A2K team members with the language. Each of us are editors/can edit or at least read the discussions in most of the above language Wikipedias. This will give us an insider's perspective of what is happening in that particular language community and the Wikimedia projects.

Community Strengthening Initiatives

CIS-A2K proposes to undertake three community strengthening initiatives that will further grow the Indic Wikimedia projects and the associated community, both qualitatively and quantitatively. These initiatives, focussing on building capacity and nurturing leadership in the Indic communities, will ensure that growth is sustained beyond the CIS-A2K program.

Nurturing Mediawiki and Tech Talent in Indic Communities: Through this initiative CIS-A2K aims to make the Indic Wikimedia communities relatively more self-reliant in addressing minor technical issues through nurturing and building community level technical leadership. This could go a long way in reducing excessive dependency on the Engineering resources and will help the Indic communities in building strong technical liaison with the Media Wiki global community and the WMF Engineer team. The detailed plan is available here.
Wikimedia Train the Trainer Program, CIS-A2K: The program will help build capacity and enable community members to conduct outreach sessions independently or with minimal support to introduce Wikipedia to prospective editors in their respective Indian languages. See here for a detailed design of this initiative.
Wiki-Data India Marathon: Wikidata India Marathon will be a month long travelling event (or a set of events) across India. The primary objective of this marathon will be to introduce Wikidata to various Indic Wikimedia communities and show how it can be used and what benefits it has. For more details see here.

Stand-alone Wikimedia Projects

Many project ideas came up as potential opportunities and as unplanned outcomes of our work during the last year. Based on an internal evaluation and thorough due-diligence we have short-listed some projects that could have high rate of success and learning. We propose to take up 8 such projects as stand-alone Wikimedia projects during this work plan period. These stand-alone projects will have clear deliverables in a limited span of time, and will help us understand how to take up bigger initiatives in the respective language.

Med GLAM Project at Calicut Medical College: The main objective of this project is to create, curate and make openly available images from the Department of Pathology, Calicut Medical College (CMC) for the benefit of medical and para-medical students and staff of CMC specifically and for the larger medical fraternity across the world, using free/open knowledge database Wikimedia Commons.
Wiki Loves Public Art (India): This is a photography competition that seeks to get photographs of works of public art on Wikipedia. The competition is modelled on Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) which has been running successfully since 2010. We plan to execute this in active collaboration with WMIN GLAM SIG.
100 Books on Gujarati Wikisource: The main objective of this project is to add significant content to Gujarati Wikisource using OCR. This project will be executed in collaboration with Gujarati Wikimedia community, WMIN Chapter, Forbes Gujarati Sabha (which will provide access to copyright free Gujarati content to be put up on Gujarati Wikisource) and The Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda.
Urdu Wikipedia Education Program at MANUU: This project aims to roll out Wikipedia Educational Programme aimed at the students of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad.
Odia Wikisource as OER: This project aims to make Odia Wikisource a live project. Towards this three things will be done by CIS-A2K. First, to get a major Odia author's (Dr. Jagannath Mohanty) content re-released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 and to host it on Odia Wikisource. Second, with the help of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences undertake a project whereby the students will type and proof read the books on Odia Wikisource, which could be used as OER across various educational institutions. Third, the digitized children's literature in Odia will be freely distributed across the government schools in an offline form. This project is inspired by the Malayalam Wikimedia community's efforts of introducing Wikisource in schools as part of the IT at Schools program in Kerala.
Making the Tulu Wikipedia Live
Making the Santali Wikipedia Live
Telugu Wiki Bus: This pilot project aims to create massive awareness about Indic Wikimedia projects in smaller cities and towns. This is modelled on the Google bus program and will be implemented in the Telugu speaking region of Andhra Pradesh.

Creating Movement Resources

Once CIS-A2K began actively working with the Indic Wikimedia communities, it soon realized that unlike English there are not many Wikimedia related resources available in Indic languages. During the last year we produced some resources, which were mostly unplanned outcomes. However, we feel that there is an urgent need for concerted efforts to create resources to strengthen the Wikimedia movement in India and in Indic languages. We strongly believe that creating these movement resources will go a long way in growing and strengthening the Wikimedia volunteers beyond the limits of CIS-A2K program. Some of the activities in this plan have a larger fit with the larger institutional work of CIS in the domain of Intellectual Property Rights and Openness.[3] We will collaborate with the legal expertise within CIS in executing some of these activities. A detailed plan of activities under this initiative along with a budget can be seen here.

Publicity, Research and Documentation

Many of the Indic Wikimedia projects in spite of being in existence for more than 10 years have not received adequate publicity. Many of the long time Indic Wikimedia volunteers have, during our interactions, expressed the need to increase the publicity about the Indic Wikimedia projects so that there is increased public awareness. CIS-A2K has left no stone unturned to get print and electronic media publicity for Indic Wikimedia projects and communities duirng 2013-14. Because of our efforts there were about 100 news items the print media[4] and about 10 programs on electronic media[5] in the last year.

Also the Wikimedia movement in India could benefit with more systematic research and documentation. It should be noted that CIS has been doing research about the Wikimedia movement way before the Access to Knowledge program got a grant from Wikimedia Foundation. Researching on various elements of the Wikimedia movement is not something new for CIS and the team will continue its efforts in this direction. In addition to action research, we undertook systematic documentation of the movement during the last year. More intensive efforts will be put in Publicity, Research and Documentation of the Wikimedia movement in India during this year as per the plans discussed here.

General Support and Service to the Movement

CIS-A2K deeply believes in extending support and service to the Wikimedia volunteer community in India. This has been one of the important aspects of our work. We have honoured up to 100 requests of all sizes that we received from the Wikimedia volunteer communities across all Indic languages. Most of these requests are listed here and here. CIS-A2K also receives requests over e-mail and some community members do reach out to us over mobile phones to place requests. In general the quick response time of CIS-A2K to these requests has been appreciated by many of the community members. We would like to continue with our efforts in supporting and serving the Wikimedia community in India and maintain the quick response time. CIS-A2K has actively consulted with the Wikimedia India Chapter (WMIN) before supporting most of the community requests, especially when it involved allocating funds for large community events like Tamil Wikipedia 10th anniversary celebrations. We also ensure that supporting community events is done in a transparent manner. However, we would need to review our methods and further streamline systems of support, which will be worked up on during this year. This page will give more details about the proposed work.

Learning and Evaluation

Based on discussions with the Wikimedia India Chapter EC and with some members of the Wikimeda community, the A2K programme had put together some evaluation tools to assess the impact of its work during the last year. We have included some more metrics for evaluation this year.

Evaluation Tools

Quarterly growth of no. of articles
Quarterly growth of no. of total editors
Quarterly growth of no. of new editors
Quarterly growth of no. of active editors
Quarterly growth of no. of very active editors
No. of page views
No. of articles < 2 KB < 5 KB
No. of new tools/gadgets made available during a time-slice
No. of mentoring interactions
No. of bugs filed and resolved
No. of edits (Article, Other mainspace edits)
Print and electronic media mentions

Reports

We will undertake quarterly and annually review of its work using the above evaluation tools. The team will also report the successes and learnings to the Wikimedia India & the global community. In addition to this the A2K team will actively review progress of each language area plan in collaboration with the respective Wikimedia community. Based on this feedback we will undertake mid-course corrections, should there be a need. This will be openly shared on the respective plan discussion pages on Meta. In addition to this, A2K will continue to publish monthly newsletter informing the larger community of the various activities A2K has undertaken in a certain month and is planning to undertake in the upcoming month. Towards the the end of the grant, A2K will share an impact report encompassing analysis of all year long work done by A2K. To summarize following reports will be published in the year of 2014 - 2015:

Quarterly Report 1 (July 2014 - October 2014)
Quarterly Report 2 (November 2014 - February 2015)
Quarterly Report 3 (March 2015 - June 2015)
Impact Report (July 2014 - June 2015)
Monthly Newsletters

Monthly Review and Learning Sessions

CIS-A2K conducted many weekly learning sessions to critically reflect on the successes and failures of our work internally. We had also used these weekly sessions to learn about new developments (tools, policies, etc) in the Wikimedia universe. However, this could not be sustained for a long period. We will take measures to revive this and make it a monthly exercise, which we will try to record or screen cast on CIS website. Simultaneously we will use this to do a monthly review of the progress of the various plans and discuss about the upcoming month's events.

Budget

As stated above in the methodology section, each of the 21 plans have an independent budget, which is closely mapped on to the implementation plan. Below we have give a concise picture of the budget requirements against the 6 verticals. As part of the WMF's grant to CIS, we have received Rs. 15,000,000.00 or US$ 242,178.00 during the last year. The proposed budget of Rs. 18,406,454.00 or US$ 297.831.00 is about 23 per cent more than the previous year's grant.

Sl. No.	Budget Item	FDC (INR)	FDC (US$)	Other Sources and in kind support (INR)	Other Sources and in kind support (US$)
1	Language Area Plans	Rs. 7,466,440.00	120,813.05338	Rs. 2,100,000.00	33,979.70279
2	Community Strengthening Initiatives	Rs. 2,610,400.00	42,238.3886	Rs. 200,000.00	3,236.16217
3	Stand Alone Wikimedia Projects	Rs. 2,584,300.00	41,816.06949	Rs. 2,495,000.00	40,371.12308
4	Creating Movement Resources	Rs. 1,188,000.00	19,222.80329	Rs. 2,400,000.00	38,833.94605
5	Publicity, Research & Documentation	Rs. 780,000.00	12,621.03247	Rs. 0.00	0.00000
6	General Support and Service to the Movement	Rs. 636,000.00	10,290.99570	Rs. 0.00	0.00000
7	Other Expenses	Rs. 1,468,000.00	23,753.43033	Rs. 2,964,000.00	47,959.92337
	Total before Institutional Development	Rs. 16,733,140.00	270,755.77331	Rs. 10,159,000.00	164,380.85745
8	Institutional Development (10%)	Rs. 1,673,314.00	27,075.57733	Rs. 0.00	0.00000
	TOTAL BUDGET	Rs. 18,406,454.00	297,831.35064	Rs. 10,159,000.00	164,380.85745

Other than item no. 7 and 8 the entire budget will go towards the programmatic implementation of the plans. The staff costs are not separately listed here as we see the CIS-A2K team as a programmatic investment and each of the team member's time is budgeted against a specific activity or plan. We propose to raise Rs. 10,159,000.00 or US$ 163,380.00 other sources and in-kind support towards executing this work plan. A detailed budget analysis is available here. Please See this google spreadsheet which gives a micro level picture of the Budget against each of the planned activity.

Giving Feedback

We appreciate your valuable feedback. However, for the sake of structured engagement by everyone, we request you to consider the following before you share your feedback.

For feedback on the overall A2K Work Plan you can write here.
For feedback on respective Language area plans, please write on the discussion page of the respective language plan.

For Bangla plan here.
For Hindi plan here.
For Kannada plan here.
For Konkani plan here.
For Marathi plan here.
For Odia plan here.
For Telugu plan here.

For feedback on Community Strengthening initiatives, please write on discussion page of the respective project page.
For feedback on Stand-alone Wikimedia Projects, please write on discussion page of the respective project page.
For feedback on Creating Movement Resources, please write here.
For feedback on Publicity, Research and Documentation, please write here.
For feedback on General Support and Service to the Movement, please write here.
Alternatively you could also share your feedback over e-mail at vishnu at cis-india.org. Please use the subject line Feedback on Work Plan.
Should you feel the need to discuss any aspect of the plan before sharing your feedback, please write to us and we can set up a telephone/Skype call.

Notes

[1]. CIS supports the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University through a fellowship and participation on the advisory board; CIS supports the open data community through support for the founders of Data Meet; CIS is supporting venue costs for some of Cyber Security and Privacy Foundation's outreach programmes; CIS has supported the last edition of the Goa Project; CIS allows various groups to use its Bangalore and Delhi offices for meetings such as Null Con Bangalore, Bitcoin Delhi, Arduino, Dojo, Crypto Party and Maker Party communities. In the past, CIS has hosted Inclusive Planet India and Has Geek at its Bangalore office.

[2]. See the discussion in this TechCrunch article. Also see this blog which inspired TechCrunch to do a feature about the growth of Indic Wikipedia projects.

[3]. Openness initiative at CIS

[4]. All the four foucs language areas during the last year's plan received significant print media coverage because of CIS-A2K's efforts. In addition, even the mainstream English print media did stories on indic Wikimedia projects, which was unprecedented.

[5].There were 6 television programs and 1 radio program on Telugu Wikipedia and 2 television programs and 1 radio interview on Kannada Wikipedia.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/india-access-to-knowledge-draft-work-plan-july-2014-june-2015

11th Century Kannada Literature Now on Wikisource

subha — 2014-04-06T05:01:14Z

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

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

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

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

Working System

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

Public Response

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

Plans for the Future

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

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