Centre for Internet and Society

Mini MediaWiki Training Theni

Ananth — 2019-02-13T02:34:40Z

CIS-A2k is trying to strengthen the MediaWiki movement in India, and over the last six months, the team has collaborated with different Indian Wikimedians and started a project called Indic-TechCom.

Indic-TechCom provides technical support to the Indic Wikimedia community and as of now has supported community members in Indic OCR and Indic Wikisource stats.

To increase the awareness on MediaWiki, Indic TechCom members and CIS-A2K decided to reach out to students with the Computer science background and help them understand how to contribute on MediaWiki. As a pilot project, we reached out to Nadar Saraswathi College of Engineering and Technology and organised a two-day long Mini MediaWiki training for the students on 22nd and 23rd of January 2019.

As part of the training, On Day 1, students were explained about MediaWiki and were introduced to Git, GitHub, Phabricator and Gerrit. We helped them to install MediaWiki software on their system and also helped them to understand the structure of MediaWiki.

In the second day, students were introduced to the extensions and skins, understanding the structure of extension and special pages. We also taught them how to submit patches through Gerrit.

This training had a group of 20 students and 2 faculty members who were supporting the students and guiding them in their native language. The first day of the event started slowly as students were lacking in having the knowledge of Wikimedia and its structure. After setting up the relation of the Wikimedia platform the students were able to understand the use and benefits of MediaWiki. Then the installation of MediaWiki and hosting of own MediaWiki server was done. Seven students were successfully able to install and play with Localsettings.php to get the grip of their sites.

At the end of the sessions, two[1][2] students were able to submit the patch to Gerrit and it was approved by Volker_E (Sr. User Experience Engineer, Wikimedia Foundation).

[1]. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214470

[2]. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214468

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mini-mediawiki-training-theni

Google Gives Wikimedia Millions—Plus Machine Learning Tools

Admin — 2019-02-02T12:52:37Z

Google is pouring an additional $3.1 million into Wikipedia, bringing its total contribution to the free encyclopedia over the past decade to more than $7.5 million, the company announced at the World Economic Forum Tuesday.

The article was published by WIRED on January 22, 2019.

A little over a third of those funds will go toward sustaining current efforts at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia, and the remaining $2 million will focus on long-term viability through the organization’s endowment.

Google will also begin allowing Wikipedia editors to use several of its machine learning tools for free, the tech giant said. What's more, Wikimedia and Google will soon broaden Project Tiger, a joint initiative they launched in 2017 to increase the number of Wikipedia articles written in underrepresented languages in India, and to include 10 new languages in a handful of countries and regions. It will now be called GLOW, Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia.

It’s certainly positive that Google is investing more in Wikipedia, one of the most popular and generally trustworthy online resources in the world. But the decision isn’t altruistic: Supporting Wikipedia is also a shrewd business decision that will likely benefit Google for years to come. Like other tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, and Facebook, Google already uses Wikipedia content in a number of its own products. When you search Google for “Paris,” a “knowledge panel” of information about the city will appear, some of which is sourced from Wikipedia. The company also has used Wikipedia articles to train machine learning algorithms, as well as fight misinformation on YouTube.

Even efforts like GLOW—which will now expand to Indonesia, Mexico, and Nigeria, as well as the Middle East and North Africa—can help Google’s own bottom line. When the initiative first launched in India, Google provided Chromebooks and internet access to editors, while the Centre for Internet and Society and the Wikimedia India Chapter organized a three-month article writing competition that resulted in nearly 4,500 new Wikipedia articles in 12 different Indic languages. Smartphone penetration in India is only around 27 percent; as more people in the country start using Android smartphones and Google Search, those articles will make the tech giant’s products more useful. Wikipedia’s blog post announcing Google’s new investment makes this strategy fairly clear, noting that the company also provided Project Tiger with “insights into popular search topics on Google for which no or limited local language content exists on Wikipedia.”

Google is also providing Wikipedia free access to its Custom Search API and its Cloud Vision API, which will help the encyclopedia’s volunteer editors more easily cite the facts they use. Each time a Wikipedia editor adds a new piece of information to an article, they need to cite the source where they learned it. The Search API will allow them quickly look up sources on the web without having to leave Wikipedia, while the vision tool will let editors automatically digitize books so they can be used to support Wikipedia articles too. Earlier this month, Wikimedia also announced Google Translate was coming to Wikipedia, allowing editors to convert content into 15 additional languages, bringing the total available to 121.

These machine learning tools will absolutely make it easier for Wikipedia to reach people who speak languages currently underrepresented on the web. But the encyclopedia is also the reason many AI programs exist in the first place. For example, Google-owned Jigsaw has used Wikipedia, in part, to train its open source troll-fighting AI. The encyclopedia is also used by hundreds of other AI platforms, particularly because every Wikipedia article is under Creative Commons—meaning it can be reproduced for free without copyright restrictions. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa smart assistants use information from Wikipedia to answer questions, for instance. (Both companies also have donated to the Wikimedia Foundation as well.)

Google’s new investments in Wikipedia, specifically in GLOW, will address a genuine problem. The majority of Wikipedia’s tens of millions of articles are in English or European languages like French, German, and Russian. (There are also lots of articles in Swedish and two versions of Filipino, but most of these pages were created by a prolific bot). As the estimated half of Earth’s population that still lacks an internet connection comes online, it will be important that reliable information is available in the native languages people speak. That doesn’t mean, though, that in helping solve these issues companies like Google—or Facebook—don’t also have something to gain.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/wired-january-22-2019-google-wikipedia-machine-learning-glow-languages

CIS Signs MoU with Odia Virtual Academy

sailesh — 2018-12-20T00:24:44Z

On October 26, 2018, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Odia Virtual Academy (OVA) to work on drafting an open content policy for the state, to promote use of Wikimedia projects by various user types and to ensure sustainability of Wikimedia projects, and to facilitate development of relevant free and open source software projects. This partnership between OVA and CIS will be carried out from December 2018 to November 2019, and we are sharing an overview of the activities and their objectives in this post.

The internet is increasingly significant as a knowledge repository today. Especially relevant in this context is the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which contains information on almost every topic under the sun, across many languages spoken globally, and is used extensively all people to seek information and produce knowledge.

From past one year (since July 2017), The Government of Odisha has been actively participating in the open knowledge movement by publishing the content of their seven websites and eight social media accounts under Creative Commons 4.0 International license. This active collaboration with Government of Odisha and an active Odia Wikimedia community seeking to create and distribute knowledge in Odia language over the internet has resulted in improving 1,200 articles on different Wikimedia projects, and together has received a near about 16 Million page views. Further, the Government of Odisha adopting an open content policy will provide a significant boost in institutionalising creation, sharing, and re-use of open knowledge resources - including government documents, official statistics, open educational resources, and open cultural resources - in Odia language.

Odia Virtual Academy (OVA) is an organisation established by Government of Odisha for development, promotion and popularization of Odia language, literature, and lexicography for general use. It is an organised initiative to encourage expeditious evolution and popularisation of Odia books, magazines, journals, old songs, manuscripts, assembly speeches, and archival records by digitising and providing internet based resources and opportunities for all odia people living across the globe.

On October 26, 2018, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) signed a MoU with the Odia Virtual Academy to work on drafting an open content policy for the state, to promote use of Wikimedia projects by various user types and to ensure sustainability of Wikimedia projects, and to facilitate development of relevant free and open source software projects.

This partnership between OVA and CIS will be carried out from December 2018 to November 2019, and its activities are structured by the following objectives:

Open Content Policy for the Government of Odisha: The open content policy will include guidelines for the use of open licenses and open standards to enable the resource (text, resources or otherwise) publishing entity to share resources in a manner that it can be easily and freely be accessed, shared, and re-used by entities, without asking for prior permission, while ensuring that full attribution to the creator/publisher is provided and the resources are not misused, or the creator/publisher is not misrepresented in the process.
Developing Digital and Open Knowledge Resources in Odia Language: The CIS team will undertake awareness-building, training, and outreach activities to develop Odia language content on Wikimedia ecosystem, as well as to enable content creators from across institutions, with a focus on state government officials at district headquarters and college students. The broad mandate of the digital resource generation workshop is to introduce teachers, students, and interested citizens to tools of collaborative knowledge production on the internet and methods for generating new online content or reintroduce offline content in Odia language.
‘Revive Odia’ Activities: Odia as a language has a long tradition and has been medium of expression for the native speakers of Odisha. While Odia as a language of communication is not under any immediate threat, its role and responsibility as a language of Knowledge needs to be examined carefully. ‘Revive Odia’ activities have a simple objective: To bring Odia under limelight in the digital domain. Wikimedia projects in Odia language are working actively to increase the presence of Odia language on the Internet. If such projects can be supported new projects can be incubated, Odia will emerge as the language of knowledge production and distribution as well.
GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) Partnerships: Wikimedia ecosystem offer several platforms for using the power and opportunities of internet to (digitally) preserve, enable access to, and creative re-use of historical, cultural, and social artefacts, and channel the expertise of local populations to build narratives around these artefacts. The CIS team is particularly interested in initiating engagement with public GLAM institutions at various locations and levels, and work with academic and research community to build scientific metadata of these objects. The metadata will be used to represent the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Odisha in projects such as Wikidata.
Building and Supporting FOSS for Odia Language: To promote and enable usage of Odia language on the web, the CIS team will facilitate development of an Odia font, an input tool, and a spell-check dictionary - all of which will be released as FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) resources.

To undertake these activities, CIS will receive a grant of Rs 20,00,000 (~$28,000) from OVA.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-signs-mou-with-odia-virtual-academy

Aditya 365

pavan — 2018-11-07T02:32:27Z

Telugu Wikimedian Aditya Pakide successfully completed 365 Wiki Commons Days. Aditya started contributing to project after a Facebook comment by A2K community advocate suggesting that the same picture would get more utilization in Commons and a brief training followed.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/aditya-365

Van Bodh Workshop for content development on Forest Resources at Gadchiroli

Admin — 2018-11-06T01:36:39Z

CIS-A2K has collaborated with Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI) to facilitate development of Open knowledge resources on Community Forest Resource and content development in Wikimedia projects with community participation. These contents will become a part of "Van Bodh Knowledge repository".

Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy, Bombay University has formulated and going to start a "Diploma course in Community Resource Management " with the support of TRTI, Pune from 2nd of oct 2018. This is a historic attempt to impart education of the level of a diploma to rural, especially tribal youth without any condition of academic qualification. The course was conducted at Mendha(Lekha) an hamlet in Dhanora taluk of Gadchiroli District. CIS-A2K has collaborated with TRTI to facilitate development of Open knowledge resources on Community Forest Resource and content development in Wikimedia projects with community participation.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/van-bodh-workshop-for-content-development-on-forest-resources-at-gadchiroli

Community Toolkit for Greater Diversity

Admin — 2018-10-30T02:08:31Z

P.P. Sneha participated in a 3 day programme organized by Wikipedia community in Mandrem, Goa from October 5 - 7, 2018. The event was a peer training programmeto strengthen the work in the direction of building greater diversity and inclusion in the Wikimedia community.

Click to see the agenda of the event

More info of the programme can be accessed here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/community-toolkit-for-greater-diversity

Odia Virtual Academy launched

Admin — 2018-10-29T02:27:23Z

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday launched a new web portal of ‘Odia Virtual Academy’ (www.ova.gov.in) to promote the Odia language and literature at the Secretariat here.

The article was published in the New Indian Express on October 27, 2018.

Launching the web portal, the Chief Minister said, “It is a matter of pleasure that the new web portal of the ‘Odia Virtual Academy’ is being dedicated today. Odia language has received the classical status.

A lot of literature has also been created in Odia language. The Academy has taken the responsibility for promotion, preservation and digitisation of the Odia language and literature.” Naveen said the new website will be helpful in the promotion of Odia language at the international level, especially for the Non Resident Odias (NROs). He said youths will also benefit from the Academy.

Three memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed by the State Government with the University of Chicago library, CDAC and Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru to expedite digitisation of Odia literature and development of Odia software. “This will go a long way in enhancing the visibility of Odia language and literature in the digital space,” he said.

So far, as many as 170 books of Odia literature have been placed in the Academy website. The prime objective of the Academy is digitisation of about 2000 rare and copyright free Odia books and establishment of a free digital library, digitisation of various Odia dictionaries available presently for free access, promotion of Odia unicode font faces through standardisation of typing keyboards and making those affordable for public in coming six months and development of primers and uploading those for easy learning.

Besides, the Academy’s purpose is to digitise and preserve Odia lexicon, ancient magazines and journals, traditional music, ancient documents, literature on science and history, folk culture, tribal language and literature, history-oriented essays, speech of great personalities, Sri Jagannath culture, temple and its architecture.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/new-indian-express-october-27-2018-odia-virtual-academy-launched

History of Wikipedia Education programme at Christ (Deemed to be University)

Ananth — 2018-10-29T02:20:14Z

This article gives the insight of Christ Wikipedia Education Program, how students are involved in different capacities in the program and shares the best practices of the Education Program.

This was originally published in Wikimedia Blog

Wikipedia Education programme at CHRIST (Deemed to be University) started as a pilot project in 2013 with a goal of using Wikipedia as a pedagogic tool for the undergraduate students. Both the educators of the WEP and of the university were new to one such approach. Students of five Indian languages--Hindi, Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Urdu--were chosen were enrolled for the program as students opt for these languages as their second language. During the first and second year, almost all the students created new Wikipedia articles where the majority of the articles were below accepted standard. The difficulty in making students learn about input tools in their languages, Wikipedia basics, and wiki markup pushed for creating "how-to" video tutorials in Hindi and Kannada. Working with Urdu was discontinued after the second year because of program staff exit. Slowly, the program was reoriented in a manner that new students learned native language input and markup for the first two semesters by digitizing books on Wikisource and later by editing Wikipedia articles during the next two semesters. This helped better the output by increasing the quality of articles by nearly 30%. From 2015 the program was further improved by helping students get more hands-on training of input, wiki markup by intensive typing during the first semester, a few advanced options like interacting with each other on user talk page during the second semester, moving to Wikipedia editing and developing articles on Wikipedia sandbox during third semester, and finally moving the articles by peer-review from fellow batchmates, faculty and the larger Wikipedia community. The faculty is involved in the development and on-wiki review process ensuring quality.

The program so far has gone to the level of producing about 70% very good quality articles where nearly 0.6% of the articles are of really poor quality. The female to male ratio is surprisingly equal and at times, there are more female students as compared to the male ones. However, there is little concern in integrating the student-Wikimedians to the larger Wikimedia community.

Also, there is little exchange of learning and best practices between cross-language outreach programs across India across several different languages. One of the ways to better this process is making program leaders talk to each other.

To know more about us follow on

Twitter- https://twitter.com/wepchrist

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/ChristWEP/

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/history-of-wikipedia-education-programme-at-christ-deemed-to-be-university

Digital Technology Engaging Pedagogy through Hindi Wikipedia - A Case Study

Dr. George Joseph,Dr. Sebastian K.A, and Kavitha A — 2018-10-28T05:56:25Z

We have published an article in International Journal of English Language, Literature in Humanities. The article is titled "Digital Technology Engaging Pedagogy through Hindi Wikipedia - A Case Study". The authors of the article are Hindi faculty members of Christ University and Ananth Subray from the Centre for Internet & Society provided research assistance.

Abstract

Hindi Wikipedia (Hindi Edition of Wikipedia) in the undergraduate language classroom. Wikipedia or Open Source Learning is a powerful tool in the acquisition of knowledge especiallyin today’s digital context.While many of the European languages have already established afoothold in the digital space, the Indian languages are yet to create a niche for themselves. Even after a decade of its launch,the Hindi Wikipediacould not attire the enabled richness of the English Wikipedia.While there are about fifty lakh articles in English, Hindi Wikipedia has only about a lakh.

This paper is an attempt to show how a whole new concept of productive activity for faculty andstudents can be opened through a study of basics in Indian language computing typing and editing Wikipedia articles.It explains the value of Wikis for teaching and learning as compared to traditional teaching and physical paper assignment model, showing the power of Open Source Learning and Wikipedia.Most importantly, it shows how Wikipedia and Global Peer Review can directly and immediately influence the quality and relevance of Teaching and Learning in classrooms and learning spaces today.This pilot study ofstudents’ use of sources in authoring Wikipedia articles shows, how students processed texts from sources to compose their own texts transforming classrooms from a place of knowledge deliveryto a place of creativity and research.Through Wikipedia, students are being empowered tobecome creative writers, efficient editors and successful researchers. Article creation and editingof articles in Hindi for Wikipedia is bound to transform the students’ ability to interpret, analyze,create new knowledge and develop their Research Aptitude. This article addresses the importance of Digital Learning through Wikipedia as Pedagogy in Christ University’s UG language classrooms and discusses the prospects and possibilities of using Wikipedia as a learning tool through a case study.

Read the peer reviewed article published by the International Journal of English Language, Literature in Humanities, Volume 6, Issue 8, August 2018

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digital-technology-engaging-pedagogy-through-hindi-wikipedia-a-case-study

South India Copyright Workshop

subodh — 2018-11-06T01:25:49Z

A workshop on Copyright was organized by CIS-A2K at Hotel Bhagini Icon in Bengaluru from 19th to 21st October 2018. Seventeen members from 5 language communities (Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Tulu) participated in the workshop. Yann Forget was the master trainer for the workshop.

Before the event participants listed their questions. The workshop participants’ queries covered all aspects of copyright on Commons.

The event began with ‘Lightning talk About Copyrights’ by master trainer Yann. He spoke about copyright, what works be copyrighted, and why doesn’t one gets copyright. The session covered important issues like originality, creativity, Default copyrights of Collective works, Compilation works, newspapers and magazines. Case studies of 2D & 3D works of art (paintings, sculptures), Texts, Pictures & videos were elaborated. Yann also elaborated on some critical cases like recordings of musical concerts, complex geometric figures, dictionary content, mathematical theorems and algorithms.

The workshop also threw light on what is free license, acceptable licenses, CC-BY-SA with attribution and ‘share alike’ license, etc. Various license tags and templates, non-copyright restrictions, etc. were also deliberated upon during the workshop. A hands-on session on translation of important templates in local languages and verifying files on Commons for description, source, categories, license and other details was also done. Participants were also introduced to uploading YouTube videos on Commons. Websites having copyright free content were also discussed.

Yann also discussed various aspects of GODL India license policies. A brief session on process of deletion, un-deletion and OTRS volunteers’ structure was also conducted. On Day 2, an exhaustive session on copyright of pictures from sources such as Flickr, Instagram, Pixabay, Bollywood Hungama, Newspaperarchive, NASA, Government websites etc. was conducted. Participants explored specific categories and found out treasures of free images on web. Important templates like PD-Art, PD-India, PD-1996, Not-PD-US-URAA, PD-UK unknown were explained with proper examples.

The final session was dedicated to Books on Commons. All participating communities were actively involved in digitization and uploading free content on Commons and Wikisource. Nationalization of books by Tamil Nadu state government was taken up for discussion. Tamil Wikipedians spoke about the licensing procedures and problems being faced by community on Commons. Yann stressed on importance of creating Wikidata items for files and categories in Commons with examples.

In the concluding session a follow-up plan was framed with active contribution of all members. The major tasks include - Creating a list of authors with death year details in the respective language to decide public domain/copyright free status in India (Works of Indian authors who died 60 years ago), Translation of important 10 policy pages, 8 templates and 2 category pages in local languages and Preparation of check list for users before uploading any content to Commons. Yann Forget played crucial role in developing clear understanding on important issues. The workshop has definitely created cohesive group of Indic Wikimedians striving to build free content on Commons.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/south-india-copyright-workshop

Christ (DU) students enrolls for 3rd Wikipedia certificate course

Ananth Subray — 2018-09-23T04:04:48Z

Students of Christ (Deemed to be University) enrolled themselves for the third Wikipedia certificate course for the academic year of 2018-19, to understand the usage of Wikimedia projects.

A group of 37 students from Christ University in Bengaluru (Bangalore) India have enrolled themselves for a Wikipedia certificate course for the academic year of 2018-19. As an active step towards enabling the awareness on content editing and contributing skills on Wikipedia in vernacular languages, Christ (Deemed to be University), in collaboration with the CIS-A2K started the certificate this course for students in 2016. The Wikipedia certificate course is conducted after normal working hours for a total of 45 hours and carries 2 credits for the academic records of the University.

The objective of this certificate course is to enable students to acquire skills working along with Wikimedia projects which involve both technically equipping and holistic through its instruction. The course consists of three major components, the first step is an introduction to the concept of Wikipedia, which incorporates the history of online encyclopedias and the evolution of Wikipedia as one of the largest online encyclopedias available on the Internet. It also involves looking for resources for drafting articles on User sandbox and moving articles to the main space. The second step teaches students on how to edit and publish articles on Wikimedia projects, also adding tables and references, and also includes introduction to common templates, wikification of articles, legal aspects, policies, and guidelines, and how to identify vandalism and tackle it. The third step discusses Wikipedia’s notability and social significance, which lets the students understand Wikipedia in a critical and evaluative manner, where topics such as its ethics, existence as a social community, existence as a democratic project, How Wikipedia is used by students, teachers librarians and journalists.

Learning outcomes of the course: Create and edit wiki articles of good quality, with references, illustrations and templates etc, Capacity to teach Wikipedia with peer groups, without any fear. Discuss what is a reasonable source critical approach for using Wikipedia as a reference. Outline the common criticism of Wikipedia's reliability and discuss how the reliability problems can be tackled.

The Wikipedia Certificate Course syllabus can be accessed here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-du-students-enrolls-for-3rd-wikipedia-certificate-course

Wikisource Handbook for Indian Communities

Bodhisattwa Mandal and Ananth Subray P. V. — 2018-09-19T02:18:40Z

Wikisource is one of the trending Wikimedia projects. Many new editors and new books to Indic language Wikisource's get added over a period of time. However, new editors as well as existing editors face numerous problems while working with the content online. The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team, to help the editors, has created this Handbook. CIS invites feedback to the first draft of this Handbook. CIS-A2K will continue to work with the Wikipedia communities to improve their efforts towards developing Wikisource.

Preface

Currently, CIS-A2K is working with five Indian-languages Wikimedia communities (Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Odia, and Telugu) and one focus project area (Wikisource with punjabi community). While working with the above mentioned Indic Wikimedia communities, we noticed that there are many similarities between the issues and challenges faced by these communities. So, we decided to create this “Wikisource Handbook for Indian Communities”.

At first, we went through the Wikisource of each language and noted the status. Then we talked to Indic Wikipedians to know more about the Wikisource related issues that they are facing. We also asked for the feedback on the first draft of this handbook. Our actual work will start after the release of this book, when we’ll work with the communities to improve their efforts towards developing Wikisource.

Click to download the Wikisource Handbook for Indian Communities co-authored by Bodhisattwa Mandal and Ananth Subray P V. with graphics support from Saumya Naidu.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wiki-source-handbook-for-indian-communities

మిసిమి పత్రిక గ్రంథాలయంలో తెలుగు వికీపీడియన్ల కార్యక్రమం

pavan — 2018-08-22T15:11:03Z

తెలుగు నాట లలిత కళలపై రసజ్ఞత పెంపొందించేందుకు దశాబ్దాలుగా పనిచేస్తున్న పత్రికల్లో మిసిమి విశిష్టమైనది.

ప్రపంచ ప్రఖ్యాతి చెందిన కళాకారుల గురించి కావచ్చు, తెలుగునాట మరుగునపడ్డ చిత్రకారుని గురించి కావచ్చు - తెలుగులో లోటుగా ఉన్న ఆసక్తిదాయకమైన. విజ్ఞానదాయకమైన అంశాలపై మిసిమి వెలుగుపరచడం తెలిసిందే. అలాంటి మిసిమి పత్రిక తమ గ్రంథాలయంలో గత దశాబ్ది పాటు అంతర్జాలంలో తెలుగులో స్వేచ్ఛా విజ్ఞాన సృష్టి చేస్తున్న తెలుగు వికీపీడియా హైదరాబాద్ సమావేశానికి, వికీడేటా లేబుల్‌-అ-థాన్‌కి ఆతిథ్యమిచ్చారు. కార్యక్రమాన్ని తెలుగు వికీపీడియా, సీఐఎస్‌-ఎ2కెల తరఫు నుంచి పవన్‌ సంతోష్‌ నిర్వహించగా, మిసిమి వైపు నుంచి సంపాదక మండలి సభ్యుడు కాండ్రేగుల నాగేశ్వరరావు, ప్రధాన సంపాదకుడు వల్లభనేని అశ్వనీకుమార్ సమన్వయపరిచారు. నిర్వహించిన పవన్‌ సంతోష్‌తో పాటు తెలుగు వికీడియన్‌లు ప్రణయ్‌రాజ్‌, రహ్మానుద్దీన్, వీవెన్, అజయ్‌ పాల్గొన్నారు. మిసిమి సంపాదకులు వల్లభనేని అశ్వినీకుమార్, కాండ్రేగుల నాగేశ్వరరావు, మిసిమి రచయితల్లో ఒకరు, ప్రముఖ తెలుగు అనువాదకులు ముక్తవరం పార్థసారధి ఈ సమావేశంలో పాలుపంచుకున్నారు.

మాట్లాడుతున్న పవన్ సంతోష్, చిత్రంలో వీవెన్, వల్లభనేని అశ్వినీకుమార్, అజయ్ బండి, ముక్తవరం పార్ధసారధిలను చూడవచ్చు.

భారత స్వాతంత్ర్య దినోత్సవానికి సంబంధించిన వికీడేటా లేబుల్‌-అ-థాన్‌లో (మారథాన్, ఎడిటథాన్‌లా లేబుల్స్ చేర్చుకుంటూ వెళ్ళడం లేబులథాన్) భాగంగా ఉదయం 10.30 నుంచి సాయంత్రం 5.30 వరకు పాల్గొన్న వికీపీడియన్లు ఐటంలకు లేబుల్స్ చేర్చారు. లేబులథాన్ థీమ్ ప్రకారం - పలు భాషల కేంద్ర సాహిత్య అకాడమీ పురస్కార గ్రహీతలు, భారత స్వాతంత్ర్యోద్యమం గురించి సంఘటనలు, పరిణామాలు, వ్యక్తులు, సంస్థలు, వగైరా ఐటంలకు తెలుగులో లేబుళ్ళు, వివరణలు చేర్చారు. స్వేచ్ఛగా ఉపయోగించుకుని, అభివృద్ధి చేయగల జ్ఞాన గని. వికీపీడియా వాక్యాలు మనుషులు చదవడానికి తేలికైతే వికీడేటా కంప్యూటర్లు చకచకా విశ్లేషించగల స్ట్రక్చర్డ్ డేటా ప్రాజెక్టు. దీనిలో ఒక్కో అంశానికి తెలుగులో పేరును, వివరణను చేరుస్తూ పోవడం అన్నది భావి తెలుగు భాషాభివృద్ధికి ఉపయోగకరం. సాయంత్రం అయ్యేసరికి 280 పైచిలుకు ఐటంలలో వీవెన్, ప్రణయ్, అజయ్, పవన్ సంతోష్‌లు తెలుగు లేబుల్, వివరణలు అభివృద్ధి చేశారు.

వికీడేటా లేబులథాన్లో నిమగ్నమైన సభ్యులు

కార్యక్రమంలో భాగంగా వికీపీడియన్లతో వల్లభనేని అశ్వినీ కుమార్, ముక్తవరం పార్థసారధి పలు అంశాలు చర్చించారు. పవన్ సంతోష్‌ ఈ సందర్భంగా వికీపీడియా నిర్మాణం వెనుక మూలస్తంభాలు, వాటి అమలు, తెలుగు వికీపీడియా స్థితిగతులు వగైరా వివరించారు. ప్రారంభంలో తెలుగు వికీపీడియాలో నెలనెలా ఇరవై నుంచి ముప్పై మిలియన్ల వరకూ పేజీ వ్యూలు ఉంటున్నాయని పవన్, రహ్మాన్ వివరించారు. ప్రధానంగా మొబైల్‌ వేదికగా చదువుతున్న తెలుగువారు తెలుగులోనే సమాచారాన్ని ఆశిస్తున్నారని వివరించారు. (ఇతర బాధ్యతల కారణంగా ఆపైన సమావేశం నుంచి రహ్మాన్ నిష్క్రమించారు) తెలుగు రచయితలు ఎక్కువమంది వివరాలు తెలుగు వికీపీడియాలో దొరకాలని, అందుకు అవసరమైతే డేటా స్థాయిలో తాము సహకరించగలమని వల్లభనేని అశ్వినీకుమార్ పేర్కొనగా తెలుగు వికీపీడియా విషయ ప్రాధాన్యత పరిధిలోని వారికి తెవికీలో వ్యాసాలు సృష్టించడం, మిగిలిన అందరి వివరాలను వేరే వేదికలో సమాచారం అందుబాటులోకి తేవడం చేయవచ్చని వీవెన్ సమాధానమిచ్చారు. ముక్తవరం పార్థసారధి ఉదాహరణ కోసం రచయిత త్రిపుర వ్యాసాన్ని తెరిచి అందులోని సమాచారాన్ని పరిశీలించి ప్రారంభ స్థాయిలో ఉన్నా ఇలా ఎందరో రచయితలు, ఇతర అంశాల గురించి విజ్ఞానాన్ని అందించడం చాలా కీలకమని పేర్కొన్నారు. పార్థసారధి మాట్లాడుతూ ఏ విషయంలోనైనా అత్యున్నత నాణ్యత కోసం అంటూ అసలు పనిచేయకపోవడం కన్నా సాధ్యమైనంత ఉత్తమ నాణ్యతతో పని జరుగుతూండడం మంచిదని తన దృక్పథాన్ని వెల్లడించారు. పవన్ సంతోష్‌ ఒక మంచి వ్యాసాన్ని చూపించి, ఈ స్థాయికి నాణ్యత అభివృద్ధి చేయాలన్న లక్ష్యంతో పనిచేస్తున్న వికీపీడియన్లూ ఉన్నారని తెలిపారు. పవన్ సంతోష్‌ మాట్లాడుతూ మిసిమి వారు నాణ్యమైన వనరులు రూపొందించినవైన చిత్రకళ, సాహిత్యం, సంగీతం, నాట్యం అన్న నాలుగు అంశాలు తీసుకుని, ఈ రంగాల్లో తెలుగువారి గురించి తెలుగు వికీపీడియాలో నాణ్యమైన సమాచారం రూపొందించేందుకు ప్రామాణిక మూలాలను జాబితా వేయడం అందరికీ ఉపయుక్తమని సూచించారు. చర్చల్లో భాగంగా తెలుగు వికీపీడియా గురించి, తెలుగు వికీపీడియాలో అసలు రాయవచ్చన్న సంగతినీ విస్తృతమైన తెలుగు సముదాయానికి ఎలాగోలా తెలియజేయడం వల్ల వాలంటీర్ల సమస్య తీరుతుందని అభిప్రాయాలు వెల్లడయ్యాయి. ప్రణయ్‌రాజ్ వికీపీడియాలో రాయడం వల్ల ఆత్మతృప్తి, నైపుణ్యం లభిస్తుందని అయితే ఇతర మాధ్యమాల్లా వెనువెంటనే పేరు ప్రఖ్యాతులు రావడం సాధ్యం కాదని, అయినా సిద్ధపడి సేవచేస్తున్న వికీపీడియా సముదాయ సభ్యుల సమున్నత వ్యక్తిత్వం కొనియాడారు. అందరికీ తెలుగులో విజ్ఞానం అన్న తెలుగు వికీపీడియా ఉద్దేశాన్ని ప్రతిధ్వనిస్తూ తమ గ్రంథాలయాన్ని వేదికగా ఇచ్చి, చర్చలో పాల్గొన్నందుకు నిర్వాహకుడు పవన్ సంతోష్‌, వికీపీడియా సభ్యులు కృతజ్ఞతలు తెలిపారు. మిసిమి తరఫున విచ్చేసిన సభ్యులు ప్రతిగా ఒకేలాంటి లక్ష్యాలు ఉన్నందున తెలుగు వికీపీడియన్లు చేసే కృషి పట్ల తమకున్న ఉన్నత భావాన్ని వెల్లడించారు.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/c2ec3fc38c3fc2ec3f-c2ac24c4dc30c3fc15-c17c4dc30c02c25c3ec32c2fc02c32c4b-c24c46c32c41c17c41-c35c3fc15c40c2ac40c21c3fc2fc28c4dc32-c15c3ec30c4dc2fc15c4dc30c2ec02

Workshop of Publishers and Writers on Unicode, Open Source and Wikimedia Projects

Admin — 2018-08-11T02:08:53Z

CIS-A2K team organized a workshop on unicode, open source and wikimedia projects at Pune on July 25, 2018.

CIS-A2K has started dialogue with the publishers for the last 6 months regarding FOSS, Open knowledge and content donation to Wikimedia Projects. As a result, various publishers and writers associated with social sector have taken initiative to organise workshops. Parisar, NGO working on environmental issues organised this orientation session for 4 activists, 5 publishers and 6 writers.

The following issues were discussed with demonstrations -

Adoption of Unicode and open source softwares
Make available old reference books, out of print books on web using new technology
Strengthening of Marathi Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wiktionary etc.
Social marketing of literary books
Explore the new medium of e books
To establish a company on lines of Amazon for e-selling of marathi books

Read the event details on Wikimedia Blog

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/workshop-of-publishers-and-writers-on-unicode-open-source-and-wikimedia-projects

Workshop of River activists for building Jal Bodh - Knowledge resource on Water

Admin — 2018-08-11T01:45:18Z

To build knowledge resource on rivers in Pune district, CIS-A2K team organized a workshop in Pune on July 25, 2018.

After the River Dialogue, Jeevit nadi organisation has taken initiative to train their team of activists in open knowledge and Wikimedia Projects. Activists and researchers from Jeevit Nadi, EcoUniv, Jal Biradari, Ecological Society, Sagarmitra organisations participated in the workshop. The groups presented their work, the database and the resources with them. These include photographs, videos, training material and data collected on site. Extensive discussion was made for evolving methodology to integrate in Wikimedia Projects. This was the first iteration in the series of workshops.

The second iteration of building content on rivers in Pune district was organised on 25th July by Jeevit Nadi organisation. In this 4 hour session, 5 participants worked on category tree and structure of article on river. The editing skills for this were imparted. The images and videos available in the repository were analysed for uploading. The categorisation of media was also planned. The issues like maps of rivers and heritage places on the banks were also discussed. This team will prepare the database and organise the media files available for uploading in respective categories. The next iteration is planned in September.

Read the full details on Wikimedia Blog

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/workshop-of-river-activists-for-building-jal-bodh-knowledge-resource-on-water