Centre for Internet and Society

"Sau Dhuni Teen" project: Wikipedia workshop in TISS, Mumbai

Abhinav Garule — 2016-06-18T18:08:13Z

A two-day multilingual Wikipedia workshop was organised at the Women's Studies Department of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai during the 22nd through the 24th August. This was one of the outreach events under the scope of the "Sau Dhuni Teen" project that aims at bringing digital content on 100 notable persons, 100 key books, and 100 key concepts relating to women's studies, gender studies, and more broadly, interdisciplinary social sciences, between January 2015 and March 2016.

This event being a women-only event has participation from both students and faculty. 18 participants signed up for the event where 14 of them turned up for the first day and 10 on the second day. As they were introduced to Wikipedia editing for the first time, none has prior Wikipedia editing or even typing (in their own languages) experience. They were oriented with Wikipedia editing where we showed the “How to edit Hindi Wikipedia” video tutorials. Six new articles were created during the event where three articles were edited and enhanced. Helping out one new editor to type out in Assamese script was slightly tough. The future plans to engage with these participants was discussed and we have planned to meet once or twice in a quarter for an edit-a-thon. The event was organised in collaboration with Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education (CILHE).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/sau-dhuni-teen-project-wikipedia-workshop-in-tiss-mumbai

Wikipedia workshop in the theme of “Sau Dhuni Teen” in Pune University

Abhinav Garule — 2016-06-18T18:08:36Z

A two-day Wikipedia workshop was organised in the Srimati Savitribai Phule Pune University on the 20th August 2015. The workshop was focused on enriching Wikipedia with 100 articles related to notable Indian women under the scope of the “Sau Dhuni Teen” project.

To begin with, we announced it in the Marathi Wikipedia village pump prior to the workshop inviting Wikipedians to join. The primary goal of the project was to to introduce Wikipedia as an encyclopaedia for research and a concept to new editors, to promote Marathi Wikipedia and promote the use of Indian languages in Wikipedia.This workshop provided a platform to have an open interaction within the editors, existing as well as new. Interestingly, there was a male:female ratio of 1:10 among the new participants out of which five edited Wikipedia before coming there. Six new accounts were created on that day. Each of the participants created at least one new article which resulted creation of 15 new articles where 28 articles in English, Bangla and Hindi Wikipedias were edited totally. As the participants were new, learning typing using Wikipedia’s native Marathi input method “Aksharantaran” was slightly difficult for some where some found the Google’s input easier. Unavailability of sandboxes (user subpages where users work on a draft Wikipedia article until it is fully ready to be published) in Marathi Wikipedia was a concern as many editors were unsure if their article might be changed and/or deleted during the time when they were editing. During the workshop one good quality article was created and the second one was in progress by the end of the second day. We helped the editors to refer to the existing good quality articles for understanding how to write one.

We are planning to to engage with the participating new editors once or twice in a quarter. The event is being organised in collaboration with Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education (CILHE).

More details of the workshop could be found in the Meta event page.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-workshop-in-the-theme-of-201csou-dhuni-teen201d-in-pune-university

Wikipedia Workshop in the Theme of "Sau Dhuni Teen" in Pune University

garule — 2016-06-18T18:10:43Z

A Wikipedia workshop is being planned to be organised in the Srimati Savitribai Phule Pune University on the 20th August 2015. Under the scope of “Sau Dhuni Teen” project, the workshop is focused on building resources in Indian languages for women's studies on Wikipedia and equip its participants with the rudiments of contributing to Wikipedia, and to introduce it as a concept to them.

The goal of Wikipedia Workshop is to build resources in Indian languages for women's studies on Wikipedia and equip its participants with the rudiments of contributing to Wikipedia, and to introduce it as a concept to them.

Primary goals

To introduce Wikipedia as an encyclopaedia for research and a concept to new editors.
To Promote Marathi Wikipedia Community & promote the use of regional languages in Wikipedia.
To have an open interaction within the editors, existing as well as new.
To spread the awareness of Wikipedia as a powerful tool.

Expected Attendees : 20-30 (only for university research students)

The event is being organised in collaboration with Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education (CILHE).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-workshop-in-theme-of-sou-dhuni-teen-pune-university

Journalism Students of the SDM College Ujire Enrich Karnataka’s Folklore And Folk Art in Kannada Wikipedia

pavanaja — 2015-09-15T09:09:12Z

As part of an ongoing partnership with the Shree Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) College Ujjire, with active support from a few Kannada Wikipedia editors, CIS-A2K began an outreach programme so that the journalism students could help many Kannada readers about Karnataka’s rich folklore and folk art.

Both first year and second year students of Master of Communication and Journalism (MCJ) of SDM College participated in this workshop. Out of 35 participants, 11 were female. Students had discussed already about enhancing Kannada Wikipedia articles on folklore and folk art forms of Karnataka. About 20 new user accounts were created and the students have started creating articles in their user sandboxes which they will later move as articles upon enhancement with vital information. Some of the students chose to find existing articles and add more information to them. Long time Kannada Wikimedian S N Vasanthkn. from Dharmasthala helped as resource person to help the new editors with Wikipedia editing. However, as first timers, many struggled with the encyclopedic way of writing and maintaining neutral point of view. These students will be mentored by Vasanth as he is visiting them every Monday.

More details from the event page.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/journalism-students-of-the-shree-dharmasthala-manjunatheshwara-sdm-college-ujire-enrich-karnataka2019s-folklore-and-folk-art-in-kannada-wikipedia

Wikipedia edit-a-thon in Mangalore to bring Tulu Wikipedia live

pavanaja — 2015-09-15T09:07:24Z

A Wikipedia edit-a-thon was organised in Mangalore, Karnataka this 14th to encourage more Tulu-language speakers to contribute to Tulu Wikipedia. Tulu Wikipedia is is currently in the Incubator but the enthusiastic editor community is putting their best effort to bring it live out of Incubator. This edit-a-thon is one of the many activities the Tulu Wikimedia community has organised.

30 Wikipedia editors participated and created about 89 new articles. Interestingly, 12 of these 30 participants crossed more than 10 edits. Some of the new participants faced problems with using the input methods and the Wiki-markup. It is important to note that because of the lack of addition of Tulu-alphabet code points in the Unicode chart, and the speakers being well conversant in Kannada, they are using Kannada script for Tulu Wikipedia Incubator project. There is a plan to organise a monthly meetup and/or edit-a-thon to continue the momentum these editors have brought in. Tulu Sahitya Academy has kindly supported the event.

More details in the event page (in Tulu).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/wikipedia-edit-a-thon-in-mangalore-to-bring-tulu-wikipedia-live

Talamaddale on August 23

praskrishna — 2015-09-20T15:57:16Z

A talamaddale ‘Karna Chedana’ and ‘Shalya Nirgamana’ will be organised at Abhisheka mandira on the premises of Manjunatha temple at Kadri on August 23 at 2.30 p.m. Yakshagana playback singers Balipa Narayana Bhagawatha and Puttige Raghurama Holla will take part.

Workshop

A three-day workshop on writing for Tulu Wikipedia began at Ramakrishna Pre-University College and Ramakrishna College here on Friday. Speaking on the occasion U.B. Pavanaja, Programme Officer, Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru, and a Wikipedia representative said that if a language was to sustain it should in use continuously and all information should be available in that language. Tulu also should be kept alive using modern tools of technology.

Read the original coverage published by the Hindu on August 16, 2015 here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-hindu-august-23-2015-talamaddale-on-august-23

ಬೆಳ್ತಂಗಡಿ:ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕಾಲಕ್ಕೂ ಲಭ್ಯ ಇರುವ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ಹಾಗೂ ಮುಕ್ತ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ-ಪವನಜ

pavanaja — 2015-09-06T12:09:51Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) has ongoing partnership with SDM College, Ujire. Students of Masters in Communication and Journalism will be writing articles in Kannada Wikipedia. This academic year’s programme was inaugurated on August 12. It was followed by hands-on workshop. SahilOnline has reported this on August 14, 2015.

Read the online entry published by SahilOnline on August 14, 2015.

ಬೆಳ್ತಂಗಡಿ: ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕಾಲಕ್ಕೂ ಲಭ್ಯ ಇರುವ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ಹಾಗೂ ಮುಕ್ತ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶವಾಗಿದೆ. ಉಪಯುಕ್ತ ಬರವಣಿಗೆಗಳ ಕೋಶವನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದ ಇದನ್ನು ಯಾರು ಬೇಕಾದರೂ ಮುಕ್ತವಾಗಿ ಬಳಸಬಹುದು ಎಂದು ಪತ್ರಿಕಾ ಅಂಕಣಕಾರ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಡಾ. ಯು. ಬಿ. ಪವನಜ ಹೇಳಿದರು.
ಅವರು ಗುರುವಾರ ಉಜಿರೆ ಎಸ್.ಡಿ.ಎಮ್. ಸ್ವಾಯತ್ತ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮ ವಿಭಾಗದ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಬರವಣಿಗೆ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ನೀಡಿ ಮಾತನಾಡಿದರು.

2001ರಲ್ಲಿ ಅಮೇರಿಕಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಗೊಂಡ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಪ್ರಪಂಚದ 290 ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಲಭ್ಯ ಇದೆ. ದೇಶದ 20 ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಒಳಗೊಂಡಿದೆ. 2003ರಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಬರವಣಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾಗಿದೆ. ಕೇವಲ 20 ಸಾವಿರ ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಇದೆ. ಬೇರೆ ಭಾಷೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಹೋಲಿಸಿದರೆ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಅನ್ನಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯ ಬರವಣಿಗೆ ಶೈಲಿಯನ್ನು ಸುಧಾರಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಇದೊಂದು ಸುಲಭದ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮ. ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಸಂಶೋಧನಾ ಪ್ರವೃತ್ತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಕೌಶಲ ಬೆಳೆಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕು ಎಂದರು.

ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಬಳಕೆಯಿಂದ ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆ ಮತ್ತು ಶೈಲಿ ಸುಧಾರಣೆಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಂಗ್ರಹದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಕ್ರೋಢೀಕರಣ ಮತ್ತು ಉಲ್ಲೇಖವೂ ಅಗತ್ಯ. ಗೂಗಲ್‍ನಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವುದೇ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಇರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಗುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು ಮಾತ್ರ ಅದು ಸೂಚಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಯಾವುದೇ ಪ್ರಕರಣ ಘಟಿಸಿದ ತಕ್ಷಣ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಅದು ನವೀಕರಣ ಆಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಪತ್ರಕರ್ತರು ನಿರಂತರ ಅಧ್ಯಯನಶೀಲರಾಗಿ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಂಗ್ರಹಿಸಬೇಕು. ಭಾಷೆ ಬಳಸಿದಾಗ ಅದು ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಹಾಗೂ ನಮ್ಮ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ ಉಳಿಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದರು.

ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮ ವಿಭಾಗದ ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥ ಪ್ರೊ. ಭಾಸ್ಕರ ಹೆಗ್ಡೆ ಉಪಸ್ಥಿತರಿದ್ದರು. ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಾದ ಅರಹಂತ ಸ್ವಾಗತಿಸಿ, ಚೇತನ್ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ನಿರ್ವಹಿಸಿದರು.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/sahil-online-august-14-2015

ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಬಳಕೆಯಿಂದ ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆ ಮತ್ತು ಶೈಲಿ ಸುಧಾರಣೆಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ - ಡಾ. ಯು.ಬಿ. ಪವನಜ

pavanaja — 2016-06-18T18:21:44Z

This was published online by mangalorean.com on August 13, 2015.

ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಬರವಣಿಗೆ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ

ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕಾಲಕ್ಕೂ ಲಭ್ಯ ಇರುವ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ಹಾಗೂ ಮುಕ್ತ ವೀಶ್ವಕೋಶವಾಗಿದೆ. ಇದನ್ನು ಯಾರು ಬೇಕಾದರೂ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರವಾಗಿ ಬಳಸಬಹುದು ಎಂದು ಪ್ರಜಾವಾಣಿ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಅಂಕಣಕಾರ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಡಾ. ಯು.ಬಿ. ಪವನಜ ಹೇಳಿದರು.

ಉಜಿರೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಎಸ್.ಡಿ.ಎಮ್. ಸ್ವಾಯತ್ತ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಗುರುವಾರ ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮ ವಿಭಾಗದ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಬರವಣಿಗೆ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ನೀಡಿ ಅವರು ಮಾತನಾಡಿದರು.

ಗೂಗಲ್‍ನಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವುದೇ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಇರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಗುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು ಮಾತ್ರ ಅದು ಸೂಚಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಯಾವುದೇ ಪ್ರಕರಣ ಘಟಿಸಿದ ತಕ್ಷಣ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಅದು ನವೀಕರಣ ಆಗುತ್ತದೆ.

2001ರಲ್ಲಿ ಅಮೇರಿಕಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಗೊಂಡ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಪ್ರಪಂಚನದ 290 ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಲಭ್ಯ ಇದೆ. 2003ರಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಬರವಣಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾಗಿದೆ. ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಸಂಶೋಧನಾ ಪ್ರವೃತ್ತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಕೌಶಲ ಬೆಳೆಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕು ಎಂದು ಸಲಹೆ ನೀಡಿದ ಅವರು ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯಾ ಬಳಕೆಯಿಂದ ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆ ಮತ್ತು ಶೈಲಿ ಸುಧಾರಣೆಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಂಗ್ರಹದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಕ್ರೋಢೀಕರಣ ಮತ್ತು ಉಲ್ಲೇಖವೂ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಎಂದು ಅವರು ಹೇಳಿದರು.

ಪತ್ರಕರ್ತರು ನಿರಂತರ ಅಧ್ಯಯನಶೀಲರಾಗಿ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಂಗ್ರಹಿಸಬೇಕು. ಭಾಷೆ ಬಳಸಿದಾಗ ಅದು ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಹಾಗೂ ನಮ್ಮ ಸಂಸ್ಕøತಿ ಉಳಿಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು ಅವರು ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯಪಟ್ಟರು.

ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮ ವಿಭಾಗದ ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥ ಪ್ರೊ. ಭಾಸ್ಕರ ಹೆಗ್ಡೆ ಉಪಸ್ಥಿತರಿದ್ದರು.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/mangalorean-dotcom-august-13-2015

Kannada Wikipedia workshop at Shree Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) College Ujire, Karnataka

pavanaja — 2016-06-18T18:12:41Z

A Kannada Wikipedia workshop is being planned to be organised in Shree Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) College Ujire on the 13th August 2015. This is going to be part of the several outreach programmes in the institution.

Topics to be discussed:

What, Why & How of Wikipedia
Basics of Wikipedia markup
Kannada Wikipedia
Editing Kannada Wikipedia
What can be added to Kannada Wikipedia and how to add articles

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-at-shree-dharmasthala-manjunatheshwara-sdm-college-ujire-karnataka

Telugu Wikipedia edit-a-thon at Annamacharya library to preserve rare Telugu literature text

rahim — 2016-06-18T18:12:24Z

Telugu Wikipedia Community and the Centre for Internet & Society are conducting the Annamaya Library edit-a-thon on August 6, 2015 at Andhra Loyola College, Vijaywada.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/rare-telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-annamacharya-library-to-come-on-wikisource

Konkani Wikipedia Goes Live After 'Nine Years' of Incubation

subha — 2016-06-18T18:15:05Z

Konkani Wikipedia is the second Wikimedia project after Odia Wikisource that has gone live out of incubation. The project stayed in the incubation for nine long years and the community has gone through a long debate to have a Wikipedia of their own. Here is a blog highlighting three Konkani Wikimedians and an advocate of the Wikipedia movement whose efforts finally paid off.

Read the original blog entry published on Wikimedia Blog on July 15, 2015 here.

The Goan Konkani Wikipedia (available at gom.wikipedia.org) has gone live after spending nine long years in incubation.

An Indo-Aryan language, of the Indo-European family of languages, Konkani is the official language of Goa. It is a minority language in other Indian states, such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, northern Kerala, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu. It is spoken by about 7.4 million people.

Konkani can be written in five different scripts: Devanagari—officially used by the Government of Goa—as well as Latin (locally known as Romi Konkani), Kannada, Malayalam, and Persian. Of these, the Goan Antruz dialect of the language, in the Devanagari script, is considered standard by the Indian constitution.

The Konkani Wikipedia has many heroes, as we see them. Melissa Simoes and Darshan Kandolkar are two of the many long-term contributors who joined during the Konkani Wikipedia @ Goa University program and are still active even after the program formally concluded. Darshan is an assistant professor at the Government College Pernem in Goa. His professor at Goa University, Dr. Madhavi Sardesai—who passed away last year—played a vital role in inspiring him to go for higher studies in Konkani. Darshan realized that there is a lot to be written in Konkani when he was introduced to Wikipedia, and after that, he became dedicated to contributing to the project.

“I would like to bring more students as contributors to our Konkani Wikipedia,” Darshan says. “My aim is to start with my students at Government College Pernem. Being an alumnus of Goa University, I also want my juniors there to join our community and enrich Konkani Wikipedia.”

“I have a dream to start a project for the freedom fighters of Goa and involve a diverse set of people, from students to journalists and columnists. I also want to build partnership with educational institutions so we could engage with the students for a longer run and the existing Konkani community could mentor them,” he continues.

“Being a new Wikipedia project, Konkani Wikipedia needs more quality measures and the articles have to grow to good quality articles with more images and templates, I want to take it to the level of English Wikipedia with both quantitative and qualitative growth in articles!”

The Konkani Wikimedia community has been using social media actively to promote the Konkani Wikipedia project, and to celebrate the successes of its contributors. After Melissa became the top contributor to the project, her fellow editor Luis Gomes congratulated her. That brought Melissa into the spotlight, gaining the attention of editors from the global Wikimedia community. The community is continuing a tradition to rewarding the most prolific contributor of each month as the “Wikipedian of the Month”.

Melissa was introduced to the Wikipedia program at her university where the target for each participating student was to write one article each about a village in Goa. “I wrote my article just for the sake of the marks, but never bothered to think about why I am writing it. After the program was over, I became inactive on Wikipedia.

“After some time, I met Father [Luis Gomes] in parish and then Darshan and Father inspired me to resume editing. Then, it became an addiction and I never stopped even for a day. I would come back from work and sit in front of my computer.

“Now, I am a teacher, and my fellow teachers are mostly women. I would like to introduce the Goan Konkani Wikipedia to them so they could also contribute to Wikipedia,” Melissa says.

As Konkani Wikipedia went live, long term Wikimedian Fredrick Noronha, an early advocate of Konkani Wikipedia, said, “It is a wonderful feeling to see the Goan Konkani Wikipedia live. I would like to congratulate all who have been involved in some or the other way with the making of Konkani Wikipedia live from the days of its inception and incubation.

“I am not a great contributor or even a language expert. I come from a content background and found my interest in Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Creative Commons long ago. But this helped me to associate myself in some way with the Konkani Wikipedia incubator. I am happy that CIS-A2K chipped in to help build a community and help it grow in collaboration with the Goa University.

“Students of the Konkani department in the university are the real heroes to take this effort forward by filling the Wikipedia incubator with more editing activity to which the institutional backing acted as catalyst,” he added.

Fredrick feels there are major challenges that the community now has to start taking measures for: “The macrolanguage is written in multiple scripts. Out of five of the scripts three—Devanagari, Romi/Latin and Kannada—are actively used in printing and publication currently. People using all the scripts should be equally participating in a movement like Wikipedia to take their languages to other native speakers using Wikipedia as a digital tool.

“The second challenge is with the contributors. Goa, being home to majority of the Konkani language speakers, has English education from the primary level. This means many have a great level of technical ability. The technical contributor community here would be of great use to Konkani Wikipedia if tapped,” he adds.

“The technical contributors are eager to contribute but have not been approached in a manner that would interest them. Similarly the Konkani authors who are helping propagate the language to masses have sadly no or very little clue about Wikipedia’s existence in Konkani. This disparity is stopping a massive flow of local encyclopedic content to the Konkani Wikipedia. Unless we tap into the technological and the linguistic groups it will be only a tip of the iceberg.”

Fredrick explains that the the current Konkani Wikipedia community is primarily made up of students of Goa University. “This is both good and bad,” he says. “Having young and enthusiastic students as Wikipedia editors is helping the project to leap forward, which might not have happened if the faculty were targeted instead. There is, however, a great need for diversification.

“The approach to bring in authors in the 60–70 years age group will vary from the approach to bring in, for example, technical people. Our outreach strategies should ultimately fulfill both the literary and technological contributors, so that their work can help us to both grow content and to solve the problem of the multiple scripts, respectively,” Fredrick adds.

The Konkani Wikipedia community is organizing a public seminar on July 18 at Goa University to celebrate the launch of the Konkani Wikipedia and to pay tribute to Dr. Madhavi Sardesai, who always dreamed of the Konkani Wikipedia getting out of incubation.

Video


Wikimedian Darshan Kandolkar shares his experience of contributing to Konkani Wikipedia. Video in Konkani. Video by Wikimedia India, freely licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/konkani-wikipedia-goes-live

Magic words in Wikipedia

tanvir — 2015-09-14T08:37:56Z

The struggle of finding solutions for replacing and retrieving content /words/facts and figures, in this day and age of machines that seem to know everything should ideally be a non-issue. Yet, for many of us who write reports based on the data available at that moment, it is nothing less than a nightmare to come to know that there has been a significant change in the data with which our reports have been written.

How does one mediate between the ever changing nature of data in general and more specifically understand the way a publicly curated knowledge ecology operates (Wikipedia can be taken as an example). It is made clear to us by the various earlier reports¹ that the amount of data exchange and content generation can be astonishingly high when one takes into acount Open Knowledge repositiries such as Wikipedia in the major languages of the world, commons.wikimedia project and other Wikimedia projects.

Our understanding of the available data can often lead us to erroneous conclusions, if one does not account for the constant updating nature of such data. The bigger risk is for a reader/researcher/user to assume that the data quoted in news reports/research or reports as static data (as against the dynamic data discussed here) and form conclusions based on the same. Another catastrophic possibility is to use the data procured in such fashion for planning and evaluation purposes. If one does not acknowledge the possibilty of change of data and plans only with the available data and does not account for the changes under contingency measures the entire planning might be off the mark and might not be successful when executed. Even for the purpose of evaluation, the constant change in data has to be tracked and monitored to appreciate the work/critical evaluation of the nature of the work.

How do we bell the Cat (read as the changing data) if not on the traditional print and digital platforms atleast in the Wikimedia universe? To do this manually is a task that is supremely tasking and prone to high error possibilities. If there is one thing researchers accross subject domains agree it is that no data is always better than wrong data. One must also think of the precious resources that would be spent on this data mining activity, the human hours, the time resources, the physical and infrastructural resources that are consumed in this process of keeping the data feed accurate and updated. I do notdeny the efficacy of systems where data mining is done manually. It is the digital researcher in me who would like to introduce to the readers a tool called 'Magic Words' https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Magic_words used in the Wikimedia universe to plug this problem and offer researchers fewer nightmares regarding the validity of the data.

Magic words offer a one stop solution towards resolving the issues of sourcing, securing and updating our data fields. With this one can be sure that the data fields do not become obsolete and might yield to erronoeus and in worse case contradictory interpretations. If there is a research report which seeks to compare page numbers of Kannada Wikipedia with another Wikimedia project. The traditional way to do this would be to aggregate the number of articles/redirects and publish the same. The reader ends up with a number that is static in nature. Does this mean that this number is permanent, the answer is an easy no because Kannada Wikipedia is by nature and definition a live project that will be changed and added to constantly.

An ordinary reader who does not have the bandwidth to follow the researcher's footsteps in finding out the total number of articles on Kannada Wikipedia will have to be content with the same static number provided even when he knows that the number is no longer accurate. By using the magic word {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} in a report that is written on Meta, the researcher allows the data to update automatically and changes the nature of data from static to dynamic. A classic example for the static data and the dynamic nature of the data using Magic words can be seen at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias (dynamic data represented) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias (static data that needs to be updated manually). The change in the nature of presentation of data also implies that the facts and figures available are not just numbers but indicate factors that have driven the nature of data and influenced the formation of number of pages. Dynamic data allows us to ask interesting questions such as 'what factors contributed to the spike/decline in the number of articles' and learn from these numbers.

It becomes an essential responsibility for the researchers working with digital resources and in digital domains to broaden the scope of their research and also extend its validity to a longer course that would be difficult for quantitative research done with traditional resources and hosted on traditional platforms. Given below is a table of key magic words and its function.

Si. No	Magic Word	Used for	Used in Wikimedia Projects and Local Wiki Projects
1	{{NUMBEROFFILES}}	Number of uploaded files.	Metrics and Government Databases
2	{{NUMBEROFEDITS}}	Number of wiki edits.	Metrics and Student Evaluation
3	{{REVISIONDAY}}	Day edit was made	Metrics and Student Evaluation
4	{{REVISIONSIZE}}	The size (bytes of wikitext) of the current revision of this page	Metrics and Data inflow
5	{{NUMBEROFVIEWS}}	Number of page views.	Metrics and Website Traffic
6	{{REVISIONUSER}}	The username of the user who made the most recent edit to the page, or the current user when previewing an edit.	Metrics and Collaboratively written documents
7	{{NUMBEROFADMINS}}	Number of users in the sysop group.	Metrics and Focus group
8	{{PAGENAME}}	Full page title (including all subpage levels) without the namespace.	Metrics and Info websites

Magic words facility can be employed in many and diverse ways (as of now these are fully operational in the Wikimedia universe) if the Mediawiki software is used to build applications. For eg: Websites, evaluation programmes, databases and other applications.

Reference:

1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Indic_Languages#State_of_Indic_Language_Projects
2. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Magic_words

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/magic-words

Train the Trainer: Running effective outreach activities in India

tanvir — 2015-07-30T15:20:46Z

It is heartening to report that many Wikimedia projects in Indian languages have sustained, and even experienced an upward trend in, editor engagement. However, in terms of content creation, the majority of these projects are still facing grave challenges that put their very existence at risk.


February’s Train the Trainer program—which aims to increase the number of new editors and ‘ambassadors’ for the movement at large—proved a rewarding experience for attendees. Photo by U.B. Pavanaja, freely licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0.

Pageview statistics for Indian-language Wikipedias are pleasantly surprising. Almost all exceed one million unique views every month—but despite these positive readership figures, very few of these readers become actively involved in the project’s communities. There is almost no increase in the number of active and very active editors on a month-to-month basis.

These statistics are alarming. They suggest a very real possibility of volunteer burnout, a dearth of second-generation editors who might continue established work, and, perhaps most importantly, the projects losing their reputation as frequently-updated and reliable encyclopedias.

The most realistic way of dealing with this problem is to bring in new volunteers who will be guided by more experienced users. They would, eventually, fill the shoes of senior Wikimedians and continue to fight for free and open knowledge.

The Centre for Internet and Society – Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K)—a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development—realised as part of its needs-assessment program that although outreach activities are being conducted to attract more volunteers to Wikipedia, they had not been as successful as expected.

To address this problem, CIS-A2K came up with the ‘Train the Trainer’ program (TTT). The program is designed to teach volunteers essential skills and abilities to, in turn, train the general public on all things Wikipedia.

These volunteers, or “trainers,” develop key competencies that will allow them to conduct a successful outreach workshop, such as public speaking, presentation skills, peer-to-peer learning, effective communication, reporting, and followup strategies.

To take part in the TTT program, it is imperative that participants be active Wikipedians. CIS-A2K is angling TTT as both a skill-building initiative amongst Indian-language Wikimedians, as well as a platform where Indian-language Wikipedians can meet and greet each other in-person. This allows participants to interact with Wikimedians from many different communities, to understand their nature of engagement, and share the challenges they have faced and overcome.

The contextual learning and exchange of ideas at these events, similar to editathons, are very special. They help participants feel like they are a part of both their linguistic community and a greater Indian-language community, opening up new opportunities of collaboration, project development, and friendship.

TTT intends to train Indian-language Wikimedians into effective ambassadors of the movement—keen and able to spread the goals and mission of the open knowledge movement. The program also strives to combine best practices from all over the world, taking cues from various chapters, user groups, and thematic organisations. It builds bridges between communities in terms of communication, encouraging partnerships and collaborations that can result in long term rewards.

Link to the original entry on Wikimedia Blog

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/train-the-trainer-running-effective-outreach-activities-in-india

Odia Wikipedia Turning 13 this June 3

subha — 2016-06-18T18:19:22Z

The Odia Wikipedia is turning 13 this June 3. To celebrate this long time of the editor community's tireless effort to make it to the largest Odia-language online encyclopedia an event is being organised in Odisha' capital Bhubaneswar. Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge (CIS-A2K) is proudly sponsoring for this event. Subhashish Panigrahi and Rahmanuddin Shaik are representing CIS at this event.

Over 20 Wikipedians from various corners of India are participating for a public gathering that is planned on June 3 at the Institute of Physics at 5 pm. A day-long internal meetup for the community in the presence of Wikimedia India and CIS-A2K has been planned that focuses on raising consensus for policy and guidelines for Odia Wikipedia, and planning for the activities ahead in the light of successes and learning from failures from the past.

Promotional Banner

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-turning-thirteen

How to do GuerillaGLAM

subha — 2015-05-28T15:30:15Z

A proposal titled How to do GuerrillaGLAM" that I had submitted for the Wikimania 2015 has been accepted. I will be presenting this on July 18.

See the details on Wikipedia page. Click to view the programme schedule.

Submission no. 5008

Title of the submission: How to do GuerillaGLAM

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop): Presentation

Author of the submission: Subhashish Panigrahi

E-mail address: psubhashishgmail.com

Username: psubhashish

Country of origin: India

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.): Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru, India

Personal homepage or blog: psubhashish.com

Abstract

Building partnership with GLAM institutions is a great way of funneling the cultural content acquisition and bringing open access to such valuable data. But it is not that easy given the complications each country has in terms of formal agreement, organizational framework, etc. This presentation will detail about the learning curve of institutional partnership building, leveraging personal contacts in small scale GLAM projects and bringing in several indie-projects to cut implication cost, and execute low-cost models.

During this presentation I will present two case studies of contrasting nature: India's first GLAM project at the National Crafts Museum, New Delhi, and various small-scale collaborative projects. Where the first one would have learning from the six months long project, the second one will draw inspirations from many initiatives that have really no cost or low cost implication and less implementation time involved. At times, institutional collaborations become liabilities and labor intensive with low Return on Investment. Training staff and implementing GLAM projects are not always easy and retaining contributors is a challenge. Alternatively GuerrillaGLAM could be thought of when having a Wikimedian-in-Residence is not feasible. This presentation will be useful for those who can mobilize a small team of volunteers equipped with digital camera, access to local cultural institutions and some level of expertise of curating data. Making documentaries and building narratives based on acquired content to creating learning resources and promotional materials will be another aspect of this presentation. building partnerships with many federal or private institutions also needs sustained long-term engagement and volunteer time is not always enough to devote for a long term GLAM project. This presentation will detail about going the guerrilla way to acquire data from GLAM institutions. This will involve low cost models, leveraging various factors, and getting the most out from cultural institutions where collaboration and long term engagement has high cost and time implications.

Track: GLAM Outreach

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long): 30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/how-to-do-guerilla-glam