Centre for Internet and Society

Konkani Vishwakosh relaunch tomorrow

praskrishna — 2013-09-25T05:53:33Z

The Goa University in collaboration with Centre for Internet and Societies Access to Knowledge Programme (CIS-A2K) will relaunch its four-volume 3,632-page Konkani Vishwakosh (encyclopaedia) under Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA 3.0. to support the movement of open knowledge and open access on Thursday at 10 a.m. at a function at the conference hall of its administrative building at Taleigao plateau.

The re-release is an initiative by the Goa University to strengthen the Konkani community and language. Information from the Vishwakosh will be used to write the articles on Konkani Wikipedia.

This was originally published in the Hindu on September 25, 2013.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-september-25-2013-konkani-vishwakosh-relaunch-tomorrow

Re-releasing Konkani Vishwakosh & Building Konkani Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2013-09-25T05:48:56Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS-A2K) in partnership with the University of Goa invites you to this event on Thursday, September 26, 2013, 10.00 a.m. The one-hour event will be followed by a press conference.

This was originally published in the Wikipedia page here.

Upon CIS-A2K's explicit request, Goa University has approved the re-release of Konkani Vishwakosh under Creative Commons License (CC‐BY‐SA 3.0) to make it freely available to public and thus preserve Konkani language and culture in the digital era. This encyclopaedia will also serve as one of the main sources of building and writing articles on Konkani Wikipedia (which is currently under incubation).

We'd like you to be a part of this event and help showcase Konkani community and language on a global digital platform such as Konkani Wikipedia.

Please click to see the invite. We look forward to seeing you at the event.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/re-releasing-konkani-vishwakosh-and-building-konkani-wikipedia

Building Knowledge Bases and Platforms via Mass Collaboration on the Internet

praskrishna — 2013-10-14T01:44:56Z

T.Vishnu Vardhan delivered a lecture at the School of Cultural Texts and Records in the Digital Humanities class to students of Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University on September 23, 2013.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/building-knowledge-bases-and-platforms

Wikipedia reaches Classrooms in Hyderabad

syed — 2013-09-20T07:20:54Z

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad organised a one-day workshop on editing Wikipedia in Indian languages. It was attended by participants who formed a small but proactive group of students who eagerly tried to register the first edits on four different Indian language wikipedias.

A Mela for a Mélange of Learners

As a run-up to the TISS Indian Languages Mela (scheduled for September 20 – 21, 2013), the Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education on August 24 conducted a workshop in Hyderabad. CIS-A2K in collaboration with the Wikipedia Hyderabad community had organized this workshop. The objective of the workshop was to inform and educate students on creating articles in any of the Indian languages on Wikipedia. Participants were encouraged to edit in Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, and Marathi, Kannada or any other language of their choice.

A Weekend for the Cause of Knowledge

A total of 20 participants came over for the weekend workshop. Nine participants had Malayalam as their native language. Five people had Telugu as their mother tongue. Four participants were Maharashtrians, and the remaining two were Kannadigas.

Two Sessions

The workshop was divided in two sessions. In the introductory session, participants were introduced to Wikipedia and its unique nature as an editable online encyclopaedia. Participants learnt about adding, modifying and deleting content on the Wikipedia, the various styles of formatting the content including creation of the heading level, sub-headings, etc. In the hands-on-session the participants were exposed to a hands-on practice about the editing features of Wikipedia, Wikimedia syntax, quality articles, new article creation, and Wikipedia’s transliteration tools for Indian languages.

End of the Day Gains

The students got a first-hand exposure to Indian languages wiki editing. Many students were thrilled at the novelty of the universal licensing system application and how it could switch between English and Indian languages. The use of shift key and multiple keys for certain consonants, diphthongs and special characters were particularly quite exciting for students. Students were eager to explore more about creating headings, sub-headings, bold, italics, underlining, bullet formats on Wikipedia. They also tested the online appearance of the Wikipedia code.

The participants were all thrilled on attending this workshop. Anand Kumar said that he was happy to get exposure about Wikipedia. Manomi Nair said that she was glad to be part of this workshop. Haseeb said it was very educative, and finally to sum up in the words of Dheeraj Kumar, an enthusiastic participant from the workshop, “this was an exciting way to explore a new world of knowledge.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-classrooms-hyderabad

e - DIRAP Google+ Hangout: Open Government

Christine Apikul — 2013-09-18T10:43:30Z

The e-DIRAP Hangout on Open Government was held on Thursday, 25 July 2013. It brought together nine professionals from Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines to discuss the wide spectrum of issues surrounding open government.

See the original published in Digital Review Asia here

The idea of open government has been around for hundreds of years but the contemporary use of the term is influenced by the rapid advancement of ICTs and by the open source movement. "Just as open source software allows users to change and contribute to the source code of their software, open government now means government where citizens not only have access to information, documents and proceedings, but can also become participants in a meaningful way."[1] There is now increasing pressure for governments to be more open with their digital documents and processes, and to interact with citizens.

To assess whether your government is open, a good starting point is the Open Government Partnership minimum eligibility criteria that has four key areas:[2]

Fiscal transparency related to open budget system
Access to information, e.g. an access to information law that guarantees the public’s right to information and access to government data.
Disclosures related to elected or senior public officials, e.g. public disclosure of their income and assets.
Citizen engagement.

The panelists discussed open government initiatives in their respective countries, the challenges they face, and open source tools for open government.

Open Government Initiatives

India
The Government of India has decided to use royalty free open standards for all e-government data. The government has also shortlisted a number of open standards. India’s data portal, data.gov.in was recently launched and the number of datasets has been increasing. In January 2013 there were 89 datasets and in half a year,this has increased to over 3,000 datasets. Forty-five government departments are involved in this initiative and six apps have been created. The Planning Commission recently had a hackathon participated by about 1,900 people.

Indonesia
Indonesia is one of the founding governments of the Open Government Partnership.[3] along with the Philippines and six other countries. The emphasis of open government in Indonesia is not only the "supply side" (i.e. government providing access to data and information). It is also looking at generating demand for open government by empowering citizens to access and analyse data and information, voice their concerns and advocate for openness in government. To empower citizens, the Government of Indonesia has a number of projects such as "Satu Layanan"[4] or "One Service", a web portal where citizens can find government information and services; “One Map”, to promote collaboration between different government ministries and agencies, and also civil society in integrating datasets; and "Lapor"[5] that allow citizens to report wrongdoings in public services using SMS, Twitter or through the website.

According to a research study conducted by the World Wide Web Foundation,[6] the Government of Indonesia is working on making public data available. Public data includes social - economic data, development data and census data held by the National Statistic Bureau, as well as information on how the data is obtained and measured.

The research report also found that that there is a low demand from civil society and citizens for open government and open data. Moreover, cooperation between civil society and government in the implementation of open government is not strong enough. Several donors in Indonesia have provided support to develop the capacity of civil society groups that are part of the Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership. Hivos’ Southeast Asia Technology and Transparency Initiative[7] is working with both civil society and government in Indonesia and the Philippines to promote transparency and accountability in public institutions.

Japan
In Japan, the major focus is in the creation and launch of the open data portal this year. How much impact it will make and how it can be measured is a concern, and this is a worldwide challenge.

Malaysia
The Sinar Project[8] in Malaysia promotes transparency, governance and citizen involvement, and uses open source technology to make information accessible to Malaysian citizens. The project has learned that for countries with poor democracy like Malaysia, basic information about government is available but not easily accessible to the public. The government is not familiar with interacting with citizens especially online. Unlike places with advanced statistics and open data, open government in Malaysia is at a nascent stage and is about having information about government representatives online and what bills are being passed in parliament.

Philippines
In the Philippines, President Aquino announced that the Freedom of Information Bill will be a priority bill for Congress this year, but citizens are cynical about the passing of this bill because it has been under consideration for three years. The Office of the President has received support from the World Bank last year for an Open Data Project using CKAN and the open data portal will be at http://data.gov.ph. The Philippine Government Interoperability Framework was convened last week.

PhilHealth or the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation[9] attempted to open up data, however even though there was political will to open up data, this was insufficient. A clear policy framework and change management (particularly, removing the fear of openness among employees) was needed.

Moreover, PhilHealth did not have the capacity and competency to ensure that the health data released, that includes diagnosis and treatment procedures, will not be reverse engineered to identify people. Health data is particularly sensitive due to the social stigma of certain health disorders, for example, those with tuberculosis may be assumed to have HIV/AIDS. When data is opened up, there are security and privacy implications. Developing countries need help and it is important to work together to come up with policies, protocols and algorithms to protect the health privacy of citizens.

Melbourne, Australia
In Melbourne, Australia, local government efforts to engage with citizens more fully through online and offline platforms include experimenting with wiki-based policy development, smart cities initiatives and digital strategies. Through conversations with policymakers, some key themes were identified. First, openness is not the same as participation, and encouraging effective participation is a challenge. Public spaces need to be “programmed” to support participation, and opening up data is not sufficient. It is necessary to develop strategies for outreach to a diverse group and encourage substantive participation particularly from those who are not online and not as competent in data management.

Secondly, because many telecommunications platforms that make data available are privately owned, there is a tension between commercial interest for secrecy and public demand to make data open. It is also a challenge for government to engage with citizens over an infrastructure that is privately owned, e.g. Facebook, Twitter and Google that place constraints on how citizens can be engaged.

Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand with high levels of digital broadband penetration and online users are not part of the Open Government Partnership despite the fact that most of the government departments and data are online. This is because these countries do not meet the minimum eligibility criteria for Open Government Partnership. For instance, they do not have freedom of the press and without it media and civil society cannot make use of the data for reporting for fear of prosecution.

There is also a lack of political will to disclose assets of public officials and procurement decisions.

Challenges
Open data is often associated with open government, but opening up data does not make a government open. Making data open has a set of challenges, but open government also has an important civil society component to create demand for open government and make meaningful use of the open data. There is also a private sector component that needs to be considered, particularly related to the mechanisms public participation over privately owned telecommunications infrastructure.

Challenges are faced at both the supply and demand sides. From the government side, many countries do not have the capacity to interact effectively with citizens. From the citizens’ side, many countries face the low demand for open government. Yet, in the case of Malaysia, even if public demand for open government is high, the missing component is a strong and large enough civil society base that can handle and analyse data independently and question policy. Dealing with the demand when data is open is another challenge. The challenges of opening up data If the original data is not digitized, how do we ensure that it becomes part of open data as defined by the Open Knowledge Foundation.[10] For countries such as Iraq that are simultaneously introducing e-government systems and open government, implementation is hampered by the lack of e-government data standards for specific domains such as human resources management or financial management.

Privacy

Privacy is one of the biggest concerns that the open data and open government movements faces.

Lack of exposure to privacy issues: Some open data activists are not aware that privacy should be an exception in disclosure requirement of government open data policies. If no public interest is served through disclosing personal information then there is no need to infringe upon the rights of individuals.

Privacy only for the individual: There is often a western notion of what constitutes privacy in which people worry about privacy infringement only at the level of the individual. But in India, if the open dataset showed HIV/AIDS prevalence at the village level that could result in stigma and discrimination of particular villages. The privacy problem exists not only at the individual level, but also at the level of family, community and geographical unit.

Underestimating re-identification research: Today we deal with the privacy challenge by using techniques like anonymization and obfuscation, but the problem is that re-identification research is getting more sophisticated and the more datasets that people have access to and are able to overlay upon one another, the more likely it is to re-identify anonymous or obfuscated data. This is an issue that the open data movement should take seriously.

Conflict with the transparency movement: The open data movement has not fully adopted principles from the transparency movement. This can be clearly seen in some countries where freedom of information activists are being killed or assaulted, but open data activists are usually safe because they are focused on analyzing the data that the governments have opened up. The provision of large quantities of data by government may be a distraction strategy that takes away what is important for civil society and democracy. Moreover, open data should not be the means to legitimize and increase the levels of surveillance occurring at the bottom of the pyramid. Instead, we need to encourage more eyes to watch the top of the pyramid because single actions there can have dramatic consequences for public interest.

For public participation in local government, FixMyStreet[11] is an open source software first developed by MySociety in the UK that allows the public to report on issues on a map. MySociety has also developed a number of other tools to help with government’s engagement with citizens.

OpenSpending[12] is used to visualize budget data and how tax money is being spent. This is a useful tool for transparency developed by the Open Knowledge Foundation.

CKAN[13] is an open source data portal platform that many countries have used for their open data portal. This is also an Open Knowledge Foundation project.

The Sunlight Foundation[14] and Code for America[15] are organizations that develop a number of open source tools that can be re-used and adapted by countries in Asia and the Pacific.

A free de-identification software for automated location and removal of protected health information in free text from medical records has been developed by PhysioNet.[16]

The Strategic Alliance Against Impoverishment (SAPA) provides poverty data on their website and maps the location of their projects.[17]

Final Words for the Way Forward

Make open government an election issue and elect officials that are open.

Demands for engagement may conflict with political goals of representatives in terms of the election cycle. Perhaps these open government issues need a third space to insulate them from political forces.

For people interested in implementing technical solutions, it is important to also look into non-technical issues raised by the Open Government Partnership and the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness.[18]

Make data available based on the needs of citizens and provide a platform for citizens’ feedback to inform the kinds of data to open up.

Open government should be relevant to citizens and result in improving the welfare of citizens.

Improve citizens’ data literacy and use open data in decision-making.

Openness is only a means and in the end we need governments that are accountable, that protect the public interest, that protect the weakest members of society, and they are not automatically guaranteed through open government. We should not fetishize the means and forget the ends.

At the top we need political leadership with strong inclination and will, and on the ground we need close coordination between civil society and government so that government does understand what is needed and sense what impact they can make by opening themselves up to their society or to their own operations. In the long term the key is how much the government can transform itself in terms of its own operations, and how much data they can produce in a reusable format and how much data they can use from other agencies to improve their operations.

The core of open government is about partnership between government, civil society and the private sector, and this is not easy.

Panelists

Danny Butt, Research Fellow in Participatory Public Space, University of Melbourne, Australia
Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society, India
Venkatesh Hariharan, Director, Knowledge Commons, India (previously, Head of Public Policy at Google India)
Maryati Abdullah, National Coordinator, Publish What You Pay, Indonesia (also Steering Committee Member of Open Government Partnership)
Yanuar Nugroho, Director and Expert Adviser to the Head of the President's Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight (UKP4), Indonesia – to be confirmed
Tomoaki Watanabe, Executive Research Fellow, Centre for Global Communications, International University of Japan (also Executive Director of Common Sphere - the host of Creative Commons Japan, and Co-founder of Open Knowledge Foundation Japan)
Shita Laksmi, Program Manager, Southeast Asia Technology and Transparency Initiative, Hivos Regional Office Southeast Asia
Alvin B. Marcelo, Co-chair, Asia eHealth Information Network

Moderator: Khairil Yusof, Co-founder, Sinar Project, Malaysia (also e-DIRAP team member)

e-DIRAP Hangout Coordinator: Christine Apikul

[1]. See 20 Basics of Open Government, http://basics.open4m.org/

[2]. http://www.opengovpartnership.org/eligibility

[3]. http://www.opengovpartnership.org

[4]. http://satulayanan.net

[5]. http://lapor.ukp.go.id; See also http://www.techinasia.com/lapor-deeper-indonesias-newest-anticorruption-weapon/

[6]. “Even though the Law on Freedom of Information has been in place for five years and while some ministries and agencies have made data available online, it is often difficult to obtain and make use of the data due to bureaucratic procedures, charging requirements, copyright restrictions or a general reluctance to provide access to government data to external users.” World Wide Web Foundation, Open Government Data: Readiness Assessment Indonesia, 28 June 2013, http://www.webfoundation.org/2013/06/new-research-open-data-in-indonesia/

[7]. http://seatti.org

[8]. http://sinarproject.org

[9]. http://www.philhealth.gov.ph

[10]. http://okfn.org/opendata/

[11]. http://www.fixmystreet.com

[12]. http://openspending.org

[13]. http://ckan.org

[14]. http://sunlightfoundation.com/tools

[15]. http://codeforamerica.org/apps/

[16]. http://www.physionet.org/physiotools/deid/

[17]. http://www.sapa.or.id/

[18]. http://www.openingparliament.org/declaration

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/digital-review-asia-pacific-christine-apikul-e-dirap-google-hangout-open-government

WikipediansSpeak: Piotr Konieczny

subha — 2013-09-18T12:22:36Z

WikipediansSpeak is a video interview show hosted by Subhashish Panigrahi at the Centre of Internet and Society. It brings you series of posts about Wikipedians across the globe. Wikipedians are those voluntary contributors who write Wikipedia articles, correct mistakes made by other wikipedians and share knowledge for free to the world.

Video production: Subhashish Panigrahi, Access To Knowledge Programme (Centre for Internet and Society), CC-BY-SA 3.0

This episode brings you a conversation with Piotr Konieczny, a veteran Wikipedian from Poland. He has contributed to over 514 DYK articles on Wikipedia. Being a sociologist and academician Piotr has always tried to divert attention more students, academicians, researchers, scholars to contribute to Wikipedia. I first met Piotr during WikiSym + OpenSym Conference at Hong Kong and again at Wikimania 2013. It was the beginning of my Wiki-experience of meeting more researchers and scholars who are also Wikipedians. Piotr is now based in Seoul and where he is teaching Informational Sociology at the Hanyang University (한양대학교). His keen interest in using Wikipedia as a teaching tool and Wikipedia’s impact in social movement brings the expanse of diversifying Wikipedia’s outreach to masses. In academia he proposes for Wikipedia Education Programs that converts the users of Wikipedia to contribute who elsewhere use it just as a tool to accessing knowledge. If a small portion of the subject experts start contributing to Wikipedia then there would be a big change in this world.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedians-speak-piotr-konieczny

Indian Languages Mela 2013 in Mumbai

praskrishna — 2013-10-17T05:04:13Z

Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education is organizing The Indian Languages Mela in Mumbai. Tejaswini Niranjana will participate in the event.

The Indian Languages Mela organized by the recently-established CILHE at TISS aims to celebrate the linguistic diversity of our daily experience and show how our cognitive capacities are tied to that diversity.

The CILHE is interested in strengthening Indian-language resources in higher education. It will do so by undertaking research training, incubating research projects, supporting the production of new curricular materials, and providing opportunities to make the teaching-learning experience more diverse.

The programme for the Mela includes a two-part seminar - Interrogating Pedagogic Practice, and Interrogating Translation Practice; an exhibition showcasing Indian-language scripts, visual and sound artefacts, and new digital interfaces; and cultural events involving theatre and music. The theme languages of this year will be Marathi, Gujarati and Hindi, although other languages will be brought in wherever relevant.

As part of the Mela, the CILHE is calling all TISS students (Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Tuljapur campuses) to send in entries for two competitions:

A two- or three-minute audio recording made on any digital device of your choice – the recording could be in a railway station, a bazaar, a street corner, a cafeteria or any other everyday location. Capture an interaction between two or more persons speaking in different languages about any topic. Prepare a poster interpreting what happens in your audio recording. Do remember to add an English translation of the interaction in your recording. Students are encouraged to use free editing software available for both Windows and Linux platforms. Posters can be in English or in any of the three theme languages. Group submissions are encouraged. Submissions over email are accepted.

Creation of a new article on any Indian language Wikipedia (preference will be given this time to Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati entries, but other languages will also be considered). Training workshops on editing Wikipedia will be held at each TISS campus during August 2013. Send us details of your Wikipedia entries and mention your Wikipedia UserName in your email.

Tentative Schedule

September 20

11 am to 5 pm – Exhibition (4^th Floor, Library Building, new section, Main Campus)

2 pm - Inauguration of the Mela by Kiran Nagarkar, eminent Marathi/English author

2.30 to 6.00 pm – Seminar on Interrogating Pedagogic Practice

6.00 pm - Presentation of awards to winners of student competitions

6.45 pm – Introduction to the play

7 pm to 9 pm – Play directed by Sunil Shanbag: Stories in a Song

9 pm - Dinner for invited speakers, TISS faculty and members of the theatre troupe (TISS Guest House)

September 21

11 am to 5 pm – Exhibition (4^th Floor, Library Building, new section, Main Campus)

2 pm to 5.30 pm – Seminar on Interrogating Translation Practice

Also read the report published by IBN here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/indian-languages-mela-2013-mumbai

'Help Konkani Wikipedia come out of incubation'

praskrishna — 2013-09-17T10:10:38Z

The functioning of the free online encyclopedia, ‘Wikipedia,’ is like a true democracy. It is for the people and by the people, said The Centre for Internet and Society Programme Officer (Indian Languages) Pavanaja U B.

The article was published in the Deccan Herald on September 13, 2013. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was quoted.

He was speaking after inaugurating, "Wikipedia Editing Workshop," organised by Aloysius Institute of Management and Information Technology (AIMIT) in association with The Centre for Internet and Society in Mangalore on Friday.

Stressing on the need for more Wikipedia contributors and editors from India, he explained to students the simplicity of creating a account in Wikipedia and editing articles.

Wikipedia has 50 crore unique visitors and three crore are from India. There are 6,000 editors registered from India, of which, around 2000 people edit in Indian vernacular languages, and only 450 are very active, he said.

There are around 98,000 odd articles in Hindi, 14,600 odd articles in Kannada. However, Konkani Wikipedia is in incubation for the last seven years, as there are only 133 articles and very few registered editors. “To get it out of incubation, many should write Konkani articles for Wikipedia,” he said and added that out of 133 Konkani articles in Wikipedia, over 100 are in Devnagari script, 31 in Roman and just two in Kannada script and none in Malayalam.

Pavanaja added that being a contributor and editor of Wikipedia, will be a positive add on to ones resume. "Today's IT companies need logical thinkers and problem solvers. Writing for Wikipedia, enables one to think and research, hence benefiting one’s personally," he said.

He also regretted that some people try to vandalise Wikipedia, with disruptive editing and deleting articles. Though, this will be corrected by other Wikipedia users instantly, it wastes precious time. Everyone benefits from Wikipedia, hence the contributor should have a positive outlook with regard to helping people and sharing knowledge, he said

He further added, that maintaining a neutral point of view, giving significant coverage and writing on notable topics is important. One should give opposing views and no personal views should be reflected, he added.

St Aloysius College Rector Fr Denzil Lobo said that the present generation is lucky to have knowledge at their finger tips, and they should make the best use of it.

AIMIT Director Rev Fr Pradeep Sequeira, Wikpedia Volunteer Harriet Vidhyasagar among others were present.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/deccan-herald-september-13-2013-help-konkani-wikipedia-come-out-of-incubation

Recap on Konkani Wikipedia Workshop

subha — 2013-09-12T10:22:44Z

Konkani as a language has seen geographical, political and religious conflicts. Being the official language of Goa and spoken widely in the Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra it is still trying to strengthen its base. Recently CIS-A2K in collaboration with Goa University organized a four-day workshop for MA, Konkani language students.

Subhashish Panigrahi's blog post was published in Startup Goa Blog on September 9, 2013.

This workshop involved 38 students creating 43 new articles on Konkani Wikipedia which is in incubation. We’re hoping that these efforts will contribute towards bringing this 7 year old project out of incubation to a live Wikipedia project.

Before any language, Wikipedia shapes up as a live project where an incubation process is involved. A community of volunteers (known as Wikipedians) gradually grow to sustain this Wikipedia in incubation with active contribution.The Konkani Wikipedia incubator started way back in 2006. But because of many reasons it could not take off and is still in incubation. One of the major reasons has been the issue with multiple script usage. Because of the political and religious reasons Konkani has multiple writing and verbal standards and also written in multiple scripts; Devanagari and Roman (known as Romi as well) in Goa where Devanagari is the official script, Kannada in the Konkani speaking regions of Karnataka (Mangalore region primarily), Malayalam in Kerala (Kochin region) and in Perso-Arabic script by part of the Konkani speaking population. The largest script usage for Konkani is in Devanagari. Goa University is world’s first University to have a masters program in Konkani language where the writing standard is in Goan Konkani (Language code: Gom) which is written in Devanagari. During the interaction with the faculty members; Prof. Madhavi Sardesai and Head of the department Dr. Priyadarshini Tadkodar, it was found that the students were very enthusiastic to contribute to their language. The students were introduced to Konkani Wikipedia and they showed interest in taking part in a workshop to learn Wikipedia editing. This was the beginning of something new after a long time. Four out of thirty eight students volunteered to coordinate the workshop on the ground. They discussed about the workshop and the prerequisites; going through the list of articles on Konkani Wikipedia, writing a unique article by collecting resources and creating their usernames on Wikipedia before attending the workshop. All of the students including four coordinators came with at least 2 pages of written content before the workshop.

Day 1: Building the Blocks

It was 10 in the morning, a big LED panel in the audio visual room of the Krishnadas Shama State Central Library, Goa was displaying the word cloud containing words like Wikipedia, Openness, Education, Open Knowledge, Global Collaboration. Soon the room was filled with 20 MA students from the Konkani department of Goa University. Prior to the workshop there was an interaction with the students in the presence of the Head of the department Dr. Priyadarshini and Prof. Dr. Madhavi Sardesai and from the Konkani department. Four of the students Supriya Kankumbikar, Fr. Luis Gomes, Vaishali Parab and John Noronha volunteered to coordinate the workshop. With their help, a majority of students signed up and created their user accounts before the first workshop. Some roughwork went on to plan for a whole day workshop.

Introduce Yourself

To start with the first day, there was an “Adjective Name” activity. It was fun to know how people judge themselves with adjective. Then there was a discussion about articles students planned to write. Few of them were not sure if the articles like social issues and biography of a writer could fit into the Wikipedia framework.

Editing time

Article titles were decided and everyone was ready with their homework write ups and books for adding sources. The next big thing was typing in Devanagari. Only four to five of them knew typing. Students came forward to try out typing. There was a glow of triumph after they typed correctly using “Transliteration” layout. The editing session began. It worked well. Students managed to type with only a little typos.


Photo: Subhashish Panigrahi, CC-BY-SA 3.0

There was an activity break with a game called “Tumi Kashi Asat” (means How are you doing in Konkani). According to the game rules, the host has to make some body movements and ask “Tumi Kashi Asat” and bending forward. The participants have to move their body in the reverse way and answer “Ami bari ashat” (I’m doing good). This replaced the caffeine intake for the four days and kept all of us alive.

Rat and frog game

“Rat race” is a game where participants sit on chairs and one of them is made to stand in the center. The rat makes others run and replace each others seats and one among the participants becomes a rat. This rat race brought back the old childhood memories and for a moment everyone forgot their age. At the end of it students sat down to take a deep breath and were taught some of the basic wiki-codes (bold, Italics and adding references). Editing session went on until the rest of the day.

Day 2: Climbing Up the Ladder

The agenda for the day was to tell the students about the advanced options and ensure addition of more citations. Citations on Wikipedia are very essential for readers to validate the facts. But bringing this to the students who just had started typing in their language a day before was not that easy. The second day was spent giving small breaks during the editing session for small activities. Running, jumping and shouting fueled the students to be happy editors and not burdened. By the end of the first two days 22 students created 24 articles (About 42 pages of written content). Everyone clapped for their friends, they were welcomed into the Konkani Wikipedia community and were shown the facebook group they could join and be more connected before thanking and saying bye for the day with the promise of more fun for the next workshop.

Day 3: Fresh Batch, New Start


Photo: Subhashish Panigrahi, CC-BY-SA 3.0

16 new students from the MA course were welcomed. Four student-coordinators and one from the first batch of students joined the funday. The entire day was spent with lots of fun, creating articles and basic know how about Wiki-codes. Half the students in this batch knew typing in Devanagari Inscript. The students were then paired with those who knew Inscript and thanks to the Fedora Devanagari keyboard layout. All of the students created their first articles.

Day 4: No Need to Say Good Bye!

Seeing the newspaper coverage about the workshop featuring some of their friends was a delight for the new wikipedians after two long days. Few of them came forward to share their experience about the workshop and their vision for the Konkani language.

At the end of four days all of them bid farewell. These were the foundation days and the biggest editing rally Konkani Wikipedia Incubator has seen in the last seven years with this milestone that the students had created.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/start-up-goa-blog-september-10-2013-subhashish-panigrahi-recap-on-konkani-wikipedia-workshop

Kannada Wikipedia Workshop at SDM

praskrishna — 2013-09-12T06:16:36Z

The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, SDM College, Ujire is holding a wiki workshop on September 15, 2013. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja from CIS-A2K team is participating in this workshop.

The workshop is being held to teach post-graduate students studying Journalism and Mass Communication on contributing and editing Wikipedia. The students will be particularly trained to edit Kannada Wikipedia.

More about SDM College, Ujire here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/kannada-wiki-workshop-sdm

Konkani Wikipedia workshop at AIMIT, St Aloysius College

praskrishna — 2013-09-12T06:09:42Z

St. Aloysius College is organizing a Konkani Wikipedia workshop at AIMIT, St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Beeri, Mangalore on September 13, 2013. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja from the CIS-A2K team will participate in the event.

The workshop is aimed at people who want to edit Konkani Wikipedia using Kannada script. Konkani Wikipedia is in incubator at present. Konkani speaking people want to bring this out of incubator. Adding enough content to the Konkani Wikipedia will enable that. Those interested in adding content to Konkani Wikipedia will be trained in the workshop. This will be a full day event.

Click to read about St.Aloysius Institute of Management

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/konkani-wiki-workshop-aimit-september-13-2013

ଅବସର ପରର ଦ୍ବିତୀୟ ଜୀବନ, ଅବସର ପରେ ସକ୍ରିୟ ଭାବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖାଲେଖି ଜାରୀ ରଖିଥିବା ଜଣେ ଡାକ୍ତରଙ୍କ ସ‌ହ ଭାବାଲୋଚନା

subha — 2013-09-13T08:38:01Z

This is a column about Dr. Subas Chandra Rout, a noteworthy wikipedian who started contributing to Wikipedia articles on Odia Wikipedia related to medical science after retiring as an Orthopedic Specialist-Assistant Professor of a Medical college.

This guest column by Subhashish Panigrahi was published by Odiapua on September 10, 2013.

(ଶୁଭାଶିଷ ପାଣିଗ୍ରାହୀ)
ଅଧିକାଂଶ ସମୟରେ ଦେଖାଯାଏ ଯେ ଅବସର ପରେ ଚାକିରୀରେ ଥିବା ଲୋକେ ସ୍ଥାଣୁ ହୋଇପଡ଼ନ୍ତି୤ ଅବସର ସମୟ ବିତେ ଟିଭି ଦେଖିବାରେ କିମ୍ବା ଛୋଟ ମୋଟ ଘର କାମ କରିବାରେ୤ ତେବେ ଜୀବନର ଅଧାରୁ ଅଧିକ ସମୟ ଯାହାର କଟିଥିବ ନିଜ ବୃତ୍ତି-ବେଉସା ପାଇଁ ଅବସର ପରେ ତା' ବିନା ବଞ୍ଚିବା କଷ୍ଟକର ହେଉନ‌ଥିବ କି? ଏ ପ୍ରଶ୍ନଟିର ଉତ୍ତର ଦେବା ଆହୁରି କଷ୍ଟ୤ ଅବସରର ଅର୍ଥ ଦୈନନ୍ଦିନ କାମରୁ ବିରତି ନେଇ ସାମାଜିକ, ପାରିବାରିକ ଓ ଜଞ୍ଜାଳହୀନ ଚାକିରୀରୁ ବିରାମ ନେବା୤ ତେବେ ଅନେକଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଏ ବିରାମର ମାନେ କିଛି ନ ଥାଏ୤ ଢିଙ୍କି ସ୍ବର୍ଗକୁ ଗଲେ ବି ଧାନ କୁଟିବା ଭଳି କିଛି ଲୋକ ଅବସର ପରେ ନିଜର ଜ୍ଞାନର ପରିସରକୁ ଆହୁରି ପରିବ୍ୟାପ୍ତ କରାନ୍ତି୤ ଚାକିରୀର ବ୍ୟସ୍ତତା ଭିତରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣର ସୁଯୋଗଟିକ‌କ ଯେଉଁ କେବେ କେବେ ହାତଛଡ଼ା ହେଇଯାଉଥିବ ତାକୁ ବଢ଼ାନ୍ତି୤ ପୁରା ସମ‌ୟକୁ ବିନି‌ଯୋଗ କରନ୍ତି ଅଧିକ ପଢ଼ିବା ଓ ଅଧିକ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣ କରିବାରେ୤ ଏମିତି ଜଣେ ଡାକ୍ତର ଡା ସୁବାସ ଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ରାଉତ୤ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ଅବସ୍ଥାପିତ ଡା. ରାଉତ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସରକାରଙ୍କ ଅଧୀନରେ ଅନେକ କାଳ କାମ କରିବା ପରେ ଅବସର ନେଇସାରିଛନ୍ତି୤ ସେ କିଛି କାଳ କିମ୍ସ କଲେଜରେ ସ‌ହକାରୀ ପ୍ରଫେସର ଭାବେ ମଧ୍ୟ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ କରିଛନ୍ତି୤ ତାଙ୍କର ଅବସର ସମୟ ବିତୁଥିଲା ବ‌ହି ପଢ଼ାରେ ଓ କବୀରଙ୍କ ଦୋହାବଳୀକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିବାରେ୤ ଏହି ପଢ଼ାପଢ଼ି-ଲେଖାଲେଖି ଭିତରେ ଥରେ ତାଙ୍କ ଆଖିରେ ପଡ଼ିଲା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ଫେସବୁକ ଗ୍ରୁପ୤ ସେଠି ଦେଖିଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ନାନାଦି ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଜଣେ ପ୍ରମୁଖ ସଭ୍ୟ ମୃତ୍ୟୁଞ୍ଜୟ କରଙ୍କର ଆମନ୍ତ୍ରଣ୤ ଜିଜ୍ଞାସୁ ଡାକ୍ତର ମନ ପଚାରିବସିଲା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ କଣ, ସେଥିରେ ଜଣେ ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକର ଭୂମିକା କଣ, କିପରି ଜଣେ ସେଥିରେ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗମାନ ଲେଖିପାରିବ୤ ମୃତ୍ୟୁଞ୍ଜୟ ଓ ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ସଭ୍ୟଙ୍କ ଆଦର ଓ ସମ୍ମାନ ତାଙ୍କୁ ଆଗଭର କରାଇଲା ଅଧିକ ଜାଣିବା ପାଇଁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବାବଦରେ୤ ନୂଆ ନୁଆ ଜିନିଷ ଶିଖିବାକୁ ମିଳୁଥାଏ୤ ପ୍ରଥମେ ସେ ଏକ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଉଇକିକଥାରେ ନୂଆ ନୂଆ ଅସୁବିଧାକୁ ସାମ୍ନା କରିବା ଭିତରେ ଡା. ରାଉତ ଆରମ୍ଭ କଲେ ନିଜ ସାରାଜୀବନର ସାଇତା ଚିକିତ୍ସା ବିଜ୍ଞାନ ସମ୍ପର୍କିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖିବା୤ ଆରମ୍ଭରେ ଅସୁବିଧା ହେଉଥିଲା ୟୁନିକୋଡ଼ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଲେଖିବାରେ୤ ପରେ ଧୀରେ ଧୀରେ ଅଧିକ ଲେଖୁ ଲେଖୁ ବାଟ ହୁଡ଼ୁଥିବା ଲୋକଟି ପାଲଟିଗଲା ପଟୁ ଲେଖାଳୀ୤ ୪୨ ଟି ନୂଆ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ତିଆରିଥିବା ଓ ଅନେକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗକୁ ଶତାଧିକ ଥର ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରିଥିବା ଡା. ରାଉତ କହନ୍ତି, 'ବାକି ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ଶ୍ରଦ୍ଧା, ସମ୍ମାନ ଓ ସହଯୋଗ ପାଇଁ ମୁଁ ଆଜି ମୋର ପୁରା ଅବସର ଜୀବନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଲେଖିବାରେ ବିନିଯୋଗ କରିଦେଇଛି୤' ଅଗଷ୍ଟ ୭ ରୁ ୧୧ ଯାଏଁ ହଂକଂଠାରେ ଜଗତର ୨୮୬ ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଭାଷାରେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରୁଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ସମାବେଶ "ଉଇକିମାନିଆ ୨୦୧୩"ରେଯୋଗଦାନ କରିଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ଜଣେ ମାତ୍ର ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଥିଲା ଏ ଲେଖକ୤ ସେଠାରେ ଡା ସୁବାସ ରାଉତଙ୍କ ଭଳି ଆହୁରି କେତେ ଜଣ ବୟୋଜ୍ୟେଷ୍ଠ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ସମ୍ପାଦକଙ୍କ ସହ ଭେଟିବାର ସୁଯୋଗ ମିଳିଥିଲା୤ ଆଗାମୀ ଉଇକିମାନିଆ ଯାହା ଲଣ୍ଡନରେ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠିତ ହେଉଛି ସେଥିରେ ଅଂଶଗ୍ରହଣ କରିବାକୁ ଆଗ୍ରହୀ ଡା. ରାଉତ୤ ସେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ଥିବା ବାକି ଯୁବ ସମ୍ପାଦକଙ୍କୁ ଏକାଠି କରି ଅଧିକରୁ ଅଧିକ ସଚେତନତା ତଥା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରିବା ବାବଦରେ କର୍ମଶାଳାର ଆୟୋଜନ କରୁଛନ୍ତି୤ ସହଜରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଚ୍ଚାରଣକୁ ନେଇ "ଲେଖନୀ" ନାମରେ ଏକ କି-ବୋର୍ଡ଼ ଲେଆଉଟ ଆମେମାନେ ତିଆରି କରିଥିଲୁ ଯାହା ସହାୟତାରେ କୌଣସି ବି ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରିପାରିବ୤ ଏଥିରେ ଥିବା ନାନାଦି ଅସୁବିଧାକୁ ଜଣାଇବାରେ ଡା. ରାଉତଙ୍କ ଅବଦାନ କିଛି କମ ନୁହେଁ୤ ଏହା ନିର୍ଭୁଲ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଟାଇପିଂରେ ସହାୟକ ହେଉଛି୤ ଚାକିରୀ ପରର ଅବସର ଜୀବନ ତାଙ୍କର କଟୁଛି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଡାକ୍ତରୀ ବିଷୟ ସମ୍ପର୍କିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ସମ୍ପାଦନା ଓ କିଛି ମାତ୍ରାରେ କବୀର ଦୋହାର ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅନୁବାଦ କରିବାରେ୤ ବିଳମ୍ବରେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବାବଦରେ ଜାଣିଲେ ବୋଲି କହି ମନ ଉଣା କରି ସେ କହନ୍ତି, “ଆଗରୁ ଜାଣିଥିଲେ ହୁଏତ ଆହୁରି କେତେ ଗୁଡ଼ିଏ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗରେ ଲେଖିପାରିଥାନ୍ତି"୤ ନିଜର କୁନି ନାତୁଣୀ ସହିତ ଟିକେ ଖେଳିବା ବ୍ୟତୀତ ବାକି ସମୟ ସେ ଏମିତି ଜଣେ ସ୍ୱର୍େଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ଭାବରେ ଓଡିଆରେ ଜ୍ଞାନର ବିତରଣର ସବୁଠୁ ବିଶାଳ ମାଧ୍ୟମ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ସମ୍ପାଦନାରେ ସମୟ କାଟିବେ ବୋଲି କହନ୍ତି ଡା ସୁବାସ ଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ରାଉତ୤

ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ବାବଦରେ: ସୁଭାସିସ ପାଣିଗ୍ରାହୀ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ସ‌ହିତ ୩ ବର୍ଷ ଧରି ଜଡ଼ିତ ଅଛନ୍ତି୤ ଅତୀତରେ ସେ ଉଇକିମିଡ଼ିଆ ଫାଉଣ୍ଡେସନରେ କମ୍ୟୁନିଟି ଓ ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମ ସ‌ପୋର୍ଟ କନସଲଟାଣ୍ଟ ଭାବେ କାମ କରିଛନ୍ତି୤ ଅଧୁନା ସେ ବାଙ୍ଗାଲୋରଠାରେ ସେଣ୍ଟର ଫର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଏଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟିର ଆକ୍ସେସ ଟୁ ନଲେଜରେ ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମ ଅଫିସର ଭାବରେ ଅବସ୍ଥାପିତ୤ ସେଠାରେ ସେ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ସେଥିରେ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖୁଥିବା ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ସମ୍ପାଦକମାନଙ୍କର ବିକାଶ ନିମନ୍ତେ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟରତ୤ ଟେକ୍ନୋଲୋଜି କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ବିକାଶ ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରୀକରଣ ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ ତାଙ୍କର ଅନେକ ଲେଖା ନାନାଦି ସମ୍ବାଦପ୍ତ୍ର ଓ ପ‌ତ୍ରପ‌ତ୍ରିକାରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ୤ ତାଙ୍କୁ subhashshish@cis-india.orgରେ ଇ-ମେଲ ଯୋଗେ ଯୋଗାଯୋଗ କରା‌ଯାଇପାରିବ୤

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odiapua-subhashish-sep-10-odia-wikipedian-subas-rout

Selection of Programme Officer — Pilot Projects, CIS-A2K

nitika — 2013-10-30T06:07:24Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) opened applications for the post of Programme Officer, Pilot Projects for its Access to Knowledge (A2K) Programme on 17th April 2013. The vacancy and call for applications was shared on all Indian language mailing lists, city mailing lists as well as Village Pumps.

Last date of submitting applications was 30th April which was later extended for another week. By the first week of May we had received 35 applications.

First level of shortlisting
Applicants were given an assignment where they had to write at least one new article on their respective language Wikipedia projects (though we encouraged them to write more than one article if they liked). Asking them to write new articles on Wikipedia was a way to assess their seriousness and level of commitment towards this job. Applicants who failed to submit their written assignment were outright rejected in this level. Amongst the ones that did complete the assignment were assessed on the basis of their relevant work experience and skills that matched requirements of the job profile. CIS-A2K assessed these applicants on different parameters such as:

Exposure to digital domain
Exposure in community driven projects
Exposure of working with schools of performing arts or cultural departments
Prior experience of working in multi-cultural environment
Prior experience in program design and management
Exposure to Wikimedia projects and community
Technical work experience

In this level, 9 applicants were rejected due to failure of completing the assignment and 1 applicant pulled out. Out of the remaining 25 applicants, CIS-A2K shortlisted 15.

Second level of shortlisting
Vishnu and Nitika conducted one hour Skype interviews with each of the shortlisted candidates. CIS-A2K tried to assess candidates on their:

Understanding and passion for Wikimedia movement and projects

Level of understanding of the job profile

Level of understanding of open source, open access, open standards.

Clarity of thinking and communication skills

Ability to work with teams and communities

Experience / understanding of community mobilisation & outreach

Skills in project management

Comfort with working in unstructured environments

Ability to learn new things and approach unfamiliar situations

Personal passions and interests

On the basis of Skype conversations, CIS-A2K shortlisted 6 candidates out of 15 for the next level.

Third level of shortlisting
At this stage one more applicant pulled out and remaining 5 were called for personal interviews to our Bangalore office. All participants were requested to come prepared to present on the topic of 'Performing Arts and Wikipedia' for 10 mins. Each interview lasted for approximately an hour. Towards the closure of the day all participants were requested to gather where each one of them showcased their presentations. This further led to an interesting group discussion.

CIS-A2K had requested Wikimedia India to select someone from the Chapter who could be involved in the selection process and we're glad that Sowmyan Tirumurti, Executive Manager of Wikimedia Chapter could join us for a little while on the day of personal interviews.

Final Selection
Based on all the parameters and levels of interviews, CIS-A2K decided to extend the offer to Syed Muzammiluddin for the position of Programme Officer - Pilot Projects. Muzammil's experience, skills and interest matched our requirements the best and we look forward to a long and successful relationship with him.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/selection-of-programme-officer-pilot-projects-a2k

Digital Resources in Telugu: A Workshop for Research Scholars

praskrishna — 2013-09-12T10:30:45Z

The Department of Cultural Studies, English and Foreign Languages University and the CIS-A2K invite you to a workshop for research scholars on September 13, 2013.

Note to Participant:
As you may know, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, and is the 5th most-visited website in the world! It's completely free to use and re-use, it has no advertising, and is available in more than 286 different languages - including 20+ Indian languages. Wikipedia articles are written by ordinary people who volunteer to share their knowledge with the world.

What students gain from Wikipedia editing:
It improves writing skills. Wikipedia provides students a platform to hone their writing skills. Writing on Wikipedia enhances critical thinking and the ability to see all sides of a story. Students will find this incredibility useful in both their personal and professional lives while evaluating the pros and cons of different situations, projects, assignments etc. Wikipedia editing also strengthens research skills. A Wikipedia editor has to provide credible references by looking up books, journals and online materials. Writing on Wikipedia is good practice for those who will also work on a thesis or a research project.

Your articles will be read by thousands of people across the globe. If you edit a Wikipedia article, it is there *forever* and the audience can be any number from the 500 million who read Wikipedia every month!

It teaches students how to collaborate! Editing Wikipedia is magical. You add some content and someone from some other part of the class or school or town or country or somewhere else in the world adds a little bit more and makes the contribution that much better. Wikipedia helps one learn how to work productively with other people, even those you don’t know and may never actually meet.

The workshop will cover the following:

Essential Information Literacy for Researcher in Digital Era
Changing trends in knowledge production post digital turn
What exactly is Wikipedia and how does it work?
How do I edit Wikipedia?
What can I edit?
How can I input text in Indian languages?
How do I insert images?
How do I find and add references?
Do’s and Don’ts

Schedule:
10 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. (Discussion and demonstration)
2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. (Practical session)

Important Instructions for Interested Participants

Each student attending the workshop should register themselves on Wikipedia. Please note that once you register on a Wikipedia project, you can use that 'Username' (i.e. same log-in details) across all Wikipedias and Wikimedia platforms. This should be done by September 12, 2013 (before the workshop commences). Please note that you will not be able to register more than 5 Usernames from a single IP address within 24 hours (a security feature of Wikipedia). This tutorial will help you with Registration on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial/Registration
Once registered the students must furnish their details on the google doc. I have already entered my data just as sample. Please circulate this link to all the students at the earliest. This should be done by September 12, 2013 before the commencement of the Workshop https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AshSF7ZKRBR5dEY0N0tlZTcxRDktSHdaOERWeGhuRUE&usp=sharing
All the students are expected to do editing on Wikipedia. We will choose Telugu Wikipedia as a site to do some editing. Please be assured that we will also show how to use English Wikipedia. For this workshop each student should come up with one article at least in Telugu. This should be typed and be available in a soft copy form and could be carried in a thumb drive or any other storage media which should be easily accessible to them during the training programme. If you are not able to type, please bring the write-up in your note book. Check if the topic you are writing on is already available on Telugu Wikipedia (www.te.wikipedia.org).

Suggested topics: a) About a key Theorist in your field of research; b) About a critical concept that you use in your Research; c) Your Research Object; d) Any other notable topic that you feel should be in your language Wikipedia.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/digital-resources-in-telugu

Wikipedia Training in Telugu for Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad

praskrishna — 2013-09-06T05:51:49Z

CIS-A2K is conducting a Wikipedia training programme in Telugu for the faculty of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Open University (Dr. BRAOU) in Hyderabad on September 5 and 6, 2013.

This is done as part of the "ICT and eContent" workshop organized by the Centre for Staff Training and Development of Dr. BRAOU for their faculty. T. Vishnu Vardhan Program Director, CIS-A2K has been invited to teach a module on "Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era" as part of which this Wikipedia training programme was also organized.

Details in Telugu originally published in the metapage on Wikipedia is reproduced below:

వికీపీడియా:శిక్షణ శిబిరం/హైదరాబాద్/హైదరాబాద్2

--14.139.86.130 05:32, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)పరాంకుశం వెంకట రమణ==తేదీ - స్థలం== సెప్టెంబరు, 5 2013; డాక్టర్ బి.ఆర్. అంబేద్కర్ సార్వత్రిక విశ్వవిద్యాలయం

సమయం
పొ. 10.00 నుండి మ. 1.00 వరకు

నిర్వహణ సంస్థ/లు

CISA2K డాక్టర్ బి.ఆర్. అంబేద్కర్ సార్వత్రిక విశ్వవిద్యాలయం, హైదరబాద్ వారి సంస్థాగత భాగస్వామ్యంతో. ఈ శిబిరం Centre for Staff Training and Development (Dr. BRAOU) వారు 10 రోజులపాటు విశ్వవిద్యాలయం యొక్క ఉపాధ్యాయుల కొరకు నిర్వహించిన ‘ICT and e-Content Development’ Workshop లో భాగంగా నిర్వహించబడినది.

నిర్వాహకులు

విష్ణు (చర్చ)

--Elkasudharani (చర్చ) 05:37, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)==Dr.BRAOU లోని కార్యక్రమ సంధానకర్తలు==

ఘంటా చక్రపాణి (డైరెక్టర్, Centre for Staff Training and Development, డాక్టర్ బి.ఆర్. అంబేద్కర్ సార్వత్రిక విశ్వవిద్యాలయం)

--14.139.86.130 05:35, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

శిక్షణ శిబిరానికి హజరైన సభ్యులు

--Pallavisudheer (చర్చ) 05:31, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

సరోజ --Drgsaroja (చర్చ) 05:27, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Rajani nellutla (చర్చ) 05:29, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Kiranmayi.ys (చర్చ) 05:30, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Vasuvaddanam (చర్చ) 05:31, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

--Gpushpa (చర్చ) 05:32, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC) --Drgsaroja (చర్చ) 05:34, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

--Boju srinivas (చర్చ) 05:36, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Shridhevie (చర్చ) 05:37, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

పై వరసలో పేరు చేర్చండి లేక సంతకం చేయండి>

--[[--14.139.86.130 05:35, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)]]
--Elkasudharani (చర్చ) 05:37, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)
--Pvramana24 (చర్చ) 05:37, 6 సెప్టెంబర్ 2013 (UTC)

నివేదిక

చిత్రమాలిక

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-training-in-telugu-for-b-r-ambedkar-open-university