Centre for Internet and Society

Open Access: Students help revive and digitize rare books for Malayalam Wiki Library

praskrishna — 2014-07-28T08:50:07Z

The blog post that quotes Centre for Internet and Society was published in SPICY IP on July 15, 2014.

The New Indian Express reports that in a terrific effort, more than 1000 school students and 234 members of the public across the state of Kerala digitized, proof-read and uploaded more than 150 rare and out-of-copyright Malayalam books as part of a digitization contest organized to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Wiki Source project by the Centre for Internet and Society, the state government run IT@School project, Swanthanthra Malayalam Computing and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi online library.

While these rare books were already in the public domain, the importance of preserving them in an accessible format cannot be emphasised enough. Books published as early as 1772 are now available on Wiki Grandhasala, the Malayalam wiki library to which these digitized copies have been uploaded. As they have been digitized rather than simply scanned, one can also search through them for keywords/phrases. If I’m not mistaken, OCR solutions for Indian languages either do not exist or are not of reliable quality. This would mean that much of the over 13,000 pages were typed out! I understand that these articles will also be used to cross reference wikipedia articles as well.

A big round of applause to all the involved parties for organizing and participating in this great effort at preserving as well as making accessible local literature and culture, that could otherwise be at a risk of getting lost amongst unhelpful copyright laws and/or tarnished or lost physical copies amongst other risks.

(I’m not sure if these overlap but as we reported here, there also seems to be the Kerala State Central Library that makes rare books available as well).

Can this effort be replicated in other states? I know the Panjab Digital Library is another resource that looks to do something similar. Their mission statement includes: to locate, digitize, preserve, collect and make accessible the accumulated wisdom of the Panjab region, without distinction as to script, language, religion, nationality, or other physical condition. There is also the Digital Library of India, hosted by IISC Bangalore, which states that they are trying to digitize all the significant works of mankind! If our readers know of other such databases, please do let us know in the comments.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/spicy-ip-swaraj-paul-barooah-july-15-2014-open-access-students-help-revive-and-digitize-rare-books-for-malayalam-wiki-library

‘ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ’ಕ್ಕೆ ಇನ್ನು ಲೈಸೆನ್ಸ್ ಹಂಗಿಲ್ಲ

praskrishna — 2014-07-14T07:55:12Z

ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯ ಇದೇ ಮೊದಲ ಬಾರಿಗೆ ತನ್ನ ಮೂರು ದಶಕಗಳಷ್ಟು ಹಳೆಯ ‘ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ’ದ ಮೊದಲ ಆರು ಸಂಪುಟಗಳನ್ನು ‘ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ ಲೈಸನ್ಸ್’ನಡಿ (ಮುಕ್ತ ಪರವಾನಗಿ) ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಮಾಡಲಿದೆ

Click to read the original published in Prajavani on July 14, 2014 here.

ಇದಕ್ಕೆಂದೇ ಕಳೆದ ಫೆಬ್ರುವರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯವು ಸಿಐಎಸ್‌ (ಸೆಂಟರ್ ಫಾರ್ ಇಂಟರ್‌ನೆಂಟ್‌ ಅಂಡ್ ಸೊಸೈಟಿ) ನೊಂದಿಗೆ ಒಪ್ಪಂದ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದು, ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶದ ಆರು ಸಂಪುಟಗಳು ಇದೀಗ ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣ ಉಚಿತವಾಗಿ ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲ ಓದುಗರಿಗೆ ಲಭ್ಯವಾಗುತ್ತಿವೆ.

ಇದೇ ರೀತಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯವು ಕೂಡ ತನ್ನ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶಗಳನ್ನು ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಸಮೂಹವು ಕೋರಿದೆ. ಆದರೆ, ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ವಿ.ವಿ ಇನ್ನೂ ಒಪ್ಪಿಗೆ ಸೂಚಿಸಿಲ್ಲ. ಎಲ್ಲ ವಿ.ವಿ., ಅಕಾಡೆಮಿ, ಪರಿಷತ್ತು ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಪರಿಷತ್ತುಗಳು ತಯಾರಿಸಿದ ಮತ್ತು ಸರಕಾರದಿಂದ ಅನುದಾನ ಪಡೆದು ತಯಾರಾದ ಎಲ್ಲ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯಗಳನ್ನು ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ ಪರವಾನಗಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಕು ಎಂಬುದು ಬಹುತೇಕರ ಒತ್ತಾಯವಾಗಿದೆ.

ಜುಲೈ 15ರಂದು ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯದ ಕುವೆಂಪು ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಧ್ಯಯನ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಯುವ ‘ಮುಕ್ತ ಜ್ಞಾನ ದಿನಾಚರಣೆ’ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಕುಲಪತಿ ಡಾ.ಕೆ.ಎಸ್. ರಂಗಪ್ಪ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶವನ್ನು ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಲೋಕಾರ್ಪಣೆ ಮಾಡುವರು.

ಏನಿದು ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ ಲೈಸೆನ್ಸ್?: ಜ್ಞಾನ ಯಾರ ಸ್ವತ್ತೂ ಅಲ್ಲ. ಅದೊಂದು ಮುಕ್ತ ಹಾಗೂ ಸುಲಭದಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ದಕ್ಕುವಂಥದ್ದಾಗಿರಬೇಕು. ಇದಕ್ಕೆಂದೇ ಅವತಾರವೆತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲ ‘ಲೈಸೆನ್ಸ್’ ಎಂಬ ಯಮಪಾಶಕ್ಕೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿ ನರಳುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಎಬೆನ್ ಮೊಗ್ಲೆನ್ ಎಂಬುವರು ‘ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟಿವ್ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ ಲೈಸೆನ್ಸ್’ ಎಂಬ ಹೊಸ ಚಳವಳಿಯನ್ನೇ ಜಾಗತಿಕವಾಗಿ ಹುಟ್ಟು ಹಾಕಿದ್ದು, ಲೈಸೆನ್ಸ್ ಎಂಬ ಪರಿಕಲ್ಪನೆಯನ್ನೇ ತೊಡೆದುಹಾಕಲು ಶ್ರಮಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಇದರಡಿ ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯ ಇದೇ ಮೊದಲ ಬಾರಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾಗೆ ತನ್ನ ಆರು ಸಂಪುಟಗಳನ್ನು ಜಾಗತಿಕ ಶಿಷ್ಟತೆಯಾದ ಯೂನಿಕೋಡ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಕ್ತಗೊಳಿಸಲಿದೆ.

ಏನಿದು ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ?: ದೃಶ್ಯ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮಗಳ ಹಾವಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶಗಳು ಎಂದರೆ ಏನು ಎಂದು ಕೇಳುವ ಯುವಜನರೂ ನಮ್ಮ ನಡುವೆ ಇದ್ದಾರೆ. ಗ್ರಂಥಾಲಯಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ದೂಳು ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತಾ ಎತ್ತರದ ಕಪಾಟುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇಂದಿಗೂ ಇವುಗಳನ್ನು ಕಾಣಬಹುದು. ಜ್ಞಾನದ ವಿವಿಧ ಶಾಖೆಗಳ ವಿವೇಚನೆಯುಳ್ಳ, ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಬಿಡಿ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಅಕರಾದಿಯಾಗಿ ಒಳಗೊಂಡ ಭಂಡಾರವೇ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ.

ಭರತನ ನಾಟ್ಯಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ ಬಹುಶಃ ಪ್ರಪಂಚದ ಮೊದಲ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ. ನಿಜಗುಣ ಶಿವಯೋಗಿಯ ವಿವೇಕ ಚಿಂತಾಮಣಿ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಮೊದಲ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ಎನಿಸಿದೆ. ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್‌ನ ಬ್ರಿಟಾನಿಕಾ ಎನ್‌ಸೈಕ್ಲೋಪೀಡಿಯಾ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ಜಗತ್ತಿನಾದ್ಯಂತ ಹೆಸರುವಾಸಿಯಾಗಿದೆ. 1768–-1771ರ ನಡುವೆ ಮೊದಲ ಬಾರಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಕಟವಾದ ಅದು ವಿಶ್ವದ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಹಳೆಯ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ಕೂಡ ಹೌದು. 1931ರಲ್ಲಿ ಶಿವರಾಮ ಕಾರಂತರು ‘ಬಾಲಪ್ರಪಂಚ’ ಕೋಶವನ್ನು ರಚಿಸಿದ್ದರು. ಎನ್‌ಸೈಕ್ಲೋಪೀಡಿಯಾ ಬ್ರಿಟಾನಿಕ ಮಾದರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿವಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ರಚಿಸುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ1954ರಲ್ಲಿ ಆರಂಭವಾಯಿತು.

ಕುವೆಂಪು ಅವರ ನೇತೃತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿ ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿವಿಯು ಯೋಜನೆ ಸಿದ್ಧಪಡಿಸಿ, ಸರ್ಕಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಸಲ್ಲಿಸಿತು. 1954ರಿಂದ 1968ರವರೆಗೆ ಈ ಯೋಜನೆ ರಾಜ್ಯ ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿ ಇಲಾಖೆಯ ಅಧೀನದಲ್ಲಿತ್ತು. ದೇಜಗೌ ಅವರು ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಧ್ಯಯನ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯ ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕರಾಗಿದ್ದಾಗ ಅಂದಿನ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ವೀರೇಂದ್ರ ಪಾಟೀಲ, ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಸಚಿವ ಕೆ.ವಿ.ಶಂಕರಗೌಡ ಹಾಗೂ ಹಣಕಾಸು ಸಚಿವ ರಾಮಕೃಷ್ಣ ಹೆಗಡೆ ಅವರ ಮೂಲಕ ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿವಿಯ ಶಾಶ್ವತ ಯೋಜನೆಯಾಗಿ ನೆಲೆಗೊಳ್ಳುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡಿದರು.

ಪ್ರೊ.ದೇಜಗೌ ಅವರ ಮಾರ್ಗದರ್ಶನ, ಪ್ರೊ.ಹಾ.ಮಾ. ನಾಯಕ ಅವರ ಸಾರಥ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ಪ್ರಕಟಗೊಂಡಿತು. ಇದೀಗ ಇದನ್ನು ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಕ್ತವಾಗಿ ಹಂಚಲಾಗುತ್ತಿದೆ.ಕೆಲವು ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲ ಕೊಂಡಿಗಳು ಹೀಗಿವೆ, ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿ.ವಿ.

ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ಪರಿವರ್ತನೆ ಯೋಜನೆ - http://bit.ly/mysoreunivwp
ವಿಕಿಸೋರ್ಸ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿ.ವಿ. ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ಲೇಖನಗಳು - http://bit.ly/mysoreuniv

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/prajavani-july-14-2014-four-volumes-of-kannada-encyclopaedia-digitised

Open Knowledge Day at Mysore

praskrishna — 2014-07-14T09:41:39Z

Mysore University along with the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team invites you to an Open Knowledge Day at the University of Mysore on July 15, 2014.

We signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Mysore earlier this year in January to re-release the first six volumes of their Kannada encyclopaedia under Creative Commons (CC) license.

CIS-A2K facilitated extracting the legacy text from the soft-copies, converting them to Unicode, distributing the files among volunteers and Christ University interns and uploading them to Kannada Wikisource. So far about 1200 articles have been added. These articles will feed to articles in Kannada Wikipedia.

To commemorate this, the University of Mysore and CIS-A2K is organizing this event. This will also coincide with the Open Knowledge Festival happening at Berlin from July 15 to 17, 2014.

The invitation for the Mysore program given below:

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/open-knowledge-day-mysore

Four volumes of Kannada Encyclopaedia digitised

praskrishna — 2014-07-14T05:49:48Z

The content is available online under Creative Commons License.

The article by R. Krishna Kumar was published in the Hindu on July 12, 2014, Dr. U.B.Pavanaja is quoted.

Articles from the Kannada Encyclopaedia (Kannada Vishwakosha) of the University of Mysore can now be accessed online under the Creative Commons License. The move to make content of the Kannada Vishwakosha accessible is part of the ongoing effort to enrich Kannada content on Internet.

The University of Mysore is working with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) to digitise encyclopaedic publications for which the copyrights are owned by the varsity, and to re-release them under the Creative Common License.

U.B. Pavanaja of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, who is promoting Kannada content on the Internet, told The Hindu that of the 14 volumes, digitised content of the first four volumes has been uploaded.

And, the CIS is awaiting the release of the revised edition of the other two volumes. “Each volume has about 900 pages and hence over 3,600 pages of the Kannada Vishwakosha can now be accessed. What is significant is that people seeking quality information in Kannada can now access reliable content. It is also subject to editing in real time and hence will remain updated,” according to Mr. Pavanaja. The content was digitised and uploaded with the help of students who were interning with the CIS and included three boys and five girls, said Mr. Pavanaja.

The permission for digitising the content has been accorded for the first six volumes. However, the CIS has sought permission from the varsity for digitising the content of the other volumes, including Subject Encyclopaedia.

The Centre for Internet and Society signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Mysore in February. The varsity issued a certificate to publish the work under the Creative Common License in May.

As per the plan, the digitised content will be made available for everyone through free content distribution platforms like Wikipedia, Wikisource and this is expected to enhance digital literacy in Kannada language while helping in free dissemination of knowledge in Kannada to students, academics, researchers and the general public. As of now, the articles have been uploaded on Wikisource and will shortly be migrated to Wikipedia also.

Besides, the CIS is trying to hold talks with Kannada University, Hampi, on digitising the Janapada Vishwakosha and make it available under the Creative Common License, said Mr. Pavanaja.

Niranjan Vanalli, Director of EMMRC of the University of Mysore, said digitisation of Kannada Vishwakosha has given a new lease of life to publications. “The 14-volume Kannada Vishwakosha was not available to everyone earlier and was confined to research institutions or libraries. But now that the content is available online, it is accessible to all those who are interested. And, what it is more is that most articles, especially those pertaining to history, art and culture, will be of reference quality and that will act as a major boost to the cause of Kannada language,” he added.

Meanwhile, the University of Mysore and CIS will celebrate World Open Knowledge Festival on July 15 at the Kuvempu Institute of Kannada Studies from 11 a.m. to commemorate the event.

Those interested to access the Kannada Vishwakosha online can log on to: http://bit.ly/mysoreuniv

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-july-12-2014-r-krishna-kumar-four-volumes-of-kannada-encyclopaedia-digitised

Wikipedia edit-a-thons to add content on LGBTs

praskrishna — 2014-07-28T06:41:42Z

From Monday, Wikipedia will hold a series of “edit-a-thons” to encourage people to add content to the site about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

The article by Renuka Phadnis was published in the Hindu on July 7, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan gave his inputs.

It is inspired by “Wiki Loves Pride”, a global campaign to expand and improve LGBT-related content across Wikimedia projects. The campaign focuses on the June to October period, when LGBTs around the world celebrate their community.

An “edit-a-thon” is a workshop where people are trained in how to edit the Wikipedia and add content to it, usually focussing on a particular topic.

The aim is to make Wikipedia inclusive and reflect diversity by creating content on the LGBT discourse: history, culture, rights, equal opportunities and Article 377. The focus is also on generating content in regional Indian languages which do not have equivalents for terms such as “gay”, “lesbian” or “bisexual”. The website https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/ Events/Wiki_Loves _Pride_2014 has listed 11 languages.

The edit-a-thon will culminate in two offline events in Bangalore and Delhi on July 19, creating a forum for the community. While anyone can participate in the edit-a-thon, Vishnu, programme director for Access to Knowledge at Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore, which works on improving Indian language Wikipedias and India-related content on Wikipedia, said, “We hope the [LGBT] community takes the lead.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-july-7-2014-renuka-phadnis-wikipedia-edit-a-thons-to-add-content-on-lgbts

State of Odia Language in Computing and Future Steps

subha — 2014-07-28T07:03:46Z

I participated in a "National Level Seminar on, Computer Application and Odia Language" organized by the Institute of Odia Studies and Research in Bhubaneswar on July 6, 2014 as a panelist to discuss about the state of Odia language in computing, work in progress highlighting CIS-A2K's work in the knowledge and education sector and further steps.

I wrote an article on this for the Sovereign. This can be downloaded here. The invitation for the seminar can be viewed here.

କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଓଡିଆ ଭାଷାର ସ୍ଥିତି ଓ ଭବିଷ୍ୟତ ପଦକ୍ଷେପ

ଓଡ଼ିଆ: କାଲି ଓ ଆଜି

କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ବ୍ୟବହାର ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେବାର ଦଶନ୍ଧିଟିଏ ବିତିଯାଇଛି । ଏ ଦଶନ୍ଧିର ଶେଷ ଆଡ଼କୁ ଏହି ବର୍ଷ ଫେବ୍ରୁଆରି ୨୦ ତାରିଖରେ ଉଲ୍ଲେଖନୀୟ ଘଟଣାଟିଏ ଘଟିଲା - ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଷଷ୍ଠ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷା ଭାବେ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇଲା । ସାଧାରଣ ମଣିଷର ମାନସିକତା ଦୋହଲେ ଅଦିନିଆ ଝଡ଼ି କିମ୍ବା ନଈ କୂଳ ଲଙ୍ଘିଲେ । ଏ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇବା ଥିଲା ସେମିତି ମନ-ଦୋହଲେଇବା ଭଳି ଘଟଣାଟିଏ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ପଢ଼ୁଥିବା ପିଲାଙ୍କ ମନରେ ଅଧିକ ଚାକିରି ପାଇବାର ନୂଆ ନୂଆ ଆଶାଟିଏ ଗଜୁରିଲା । ଘରୁ ଫେରିଥିବା ପ୍ରବାସୀ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଦୋକାନୀଟିଏ ବେଙ୍ଗାଳୁରୁ ସହରରେ ଥିବା ତା' ଜଳଖିଆ ଦୋକାନ ଆଗରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ନାମଫଳକଟିଏ ଲଗାଇଲା । ନିର୍ବାଚନରେ ବୋଧେ ପ୍ରଥମଥର ରାଜନୈତିକ ଦଳଟିଏ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟର ଯୋଜନା ନିର୍ବାଚନ ଇସ୍ତାହାରରେ ସାମିଲ କଲା । ଫେସବୁକରେ, ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଅନେକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଏ ଆନନ୍ଦର ଉତ୍ସବ ପାଳନ କଲେ । ତେବେ ଏ ସବୁରି ଆମୋଦ ଭିତରେ ବେଳ ଆସିଛି ଆମ ଏ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ଆଧୁନିକ ଜ୍ଞାନକୌଶଳର ତରାଜୁରେ ତଉଲିବା । ଆମ ଭାଷା ଗୋଟେ ପୁରାତନ ଭାଷା, ଆଉ ତା'ର ମାନେ ନୁହେଁ ଯେ ସେ କେବଳ ହାତୀଗୁମ୍ଫାର କାନ୍ଥରେ କିବା ଗୁଡ଼ହାଣ୍ଡିରେ ଲୁଚିରହିବ ଶିଉଳି ଗହଣରେ । ଭାଷାର ଅତୀତ ଯେତେ ପରିପୁଟ, ତା'ର ଅଧୁନା ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ଉପରେ ନିର୍ଭର କରେ ସେ କେଉଁ ଦିଗରେ ମୁହାଁଇବ - କେବଳ ପୁରାତନ ଭାଷାର ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇ ଜେଜେ ହୋଇ କଣ ଘରେ ବସିରହି ଦିନ ଗଣିବ, ନାଁ ଆଧୁନିକ କୌଶଳକୁ ଆପଣେଇ ଆହୁରି ଅଧିକ ବ୍ୟବହାରରେ ଲାଗିବ । ଏକ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ସବୁଠାରୁ ବଡ଼ ସମ୍ପତ୍ତିଟି ହେଉଛି ତାକୁ ଦୈନନ୍ଦିନ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରୁଥିବା ଲୋକେ, ବିଶେଷ କରି ତା'କୁ ପଠନ ଓ ଲିଖନରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରୁଥିବା ଲୋକେ । ଏ ମୋବାଇଲ, କମ୍ପୁଟର ଓ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ଯୁଗରେ ଆମ ଭାଷା ଯଦି ଇଂରାଜୀ ସହ ତାଳ ମିଳାଇ ଚାଲି ନ ପାରୁଛି ତାହେଲେ ଆଗାମୀ ପିଢ଼ିଟି ଯେ ଆମ ଭାଷାକୁ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ପାଶୋରି ନ ପକାଇବ ତାହା ଲେଖକ ହଲପ କରି କହିପାରେ । ଆମ ଭାଷାର ଆଧୁନିକତାର ସ୍ଥିତି ନିର୍ଦ୍ଧାରଣ କରିବା ଓ ଚଳିତ କାମମାନଙ୍କ ବିଷୟରେ ଜାଣି ଆଗାମୀ ଦିନମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଯୋଜନାର ରୂପରେଖ ତିଆରିବା ବୋଧେ ଏ ବେଳର ପ୍ରଥମ କାମ ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆ କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ଉପଯୋଗୀ ହେଲା ଟିକେ ବିଳମ୍ବରେ, ଏକବିଂଶ ଶତାବ୍ଦୀର କିଛି ବର୍ଷ ଆଗରୁ । ବାକି ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷା ସେତେବେଳକୁ କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ଦେଖିବାକୁ ମିଳିଲାଣି । ପ୍ରାରମ୍ଭିକ କାମ ଥିଲା ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଲେଖିବା ଓ ଆଗର ବ୍ଲକ ଟାଇପିଙ୍ଗ ବଦଳରେ ସହଜରେ ଡିଟିପି କରି ଅଳ୍ପ ସମୟରେ ଛପାଇବା । ସେ ବେଳରେ ସେ ଥିଲା ଗୋଟେ ବିରାଟ ସଫଳତା । ତିଆରି ହୋଇଥିଲା ନାନାଦି ଫଣ୍ଟ (font) । ଫଣ୍ଟ ହେଉଚି କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ଏକ ଲିପିର ଅକ୍ଷର ସଜାଣି । ଆଉ ସବୁ ଫଣ୍ଟ ଦେଖିବାକୁ ଅଲଗା ଅଲଗା । ତେବେ ଆରମ୍ଭରେ ତିଆରି ହୋଇଥିବା ଫଣ୍ଟସବୁ ତିଆରି ହୋଇଥିଲା ଏକା ଢାଞ୍ଚାରେ - ଇଂରାଜୀ ବା ଲାଟିନ ପରିବାରର ଅକ୍ଷରସବୁର ବଦଳରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର ଖଞ୍ଜାଯାଇଥିଲା । ଯାହା ଫଳରେ କିବୋର୍ଡ଼ରେ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଅକ୍ଷରଟିଏ ଟାଇପ କଲେ ଆସୁଥିଲା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର । ତେବେ ଏକାଧିକ ଫଣ୍ଟ ନିର୍ମାତା ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ ମାନକ ତିଆରି କରିବା ଫଳରେ ଅନେକ ଗୁଡ଼ିଏ ମାନକର ଫଣ୍ଟ - ଯେଉଁମାନଙ୍କର ନିଜ ନିଜ ଭିତରେ ତାଳମେଳ ନ ଥିଲା - ତିଆରି ହେବାରେ ଲାଗିଲା । ତେଣୁ ଅମୁକ ଫଣ୍ଟରେ ଲେଖା ପାଠ ସମୁକ ଫଣ୍ଟରେ ପଢ଼ିବା ଦୁରୂହ ହୋଇପଡ଼ିଲା । ତେବେ ଅଧିକାଂଶ ଛାପା ଓ ପ୍ରକାଶନ ସଂସ୍ଥା ଆକୃତି ନାମକ ସଫ୍ଟଓଏରଟିଏ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରୁଥିବାରୁ ଅଲଗା କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ଟାଇପ ହୋଇଥିବା ପାଠ ଭିତରେ ଗୋଟେ ପ୍ରକାର ସମାନତା ଥିଲା । ତେବେ ଏସବୁ ଫଣ୍ଟରେ ଲେଖା ପାଠକୁ ନାଁ ଇମେଲରେ କାହାକୁ ପଠାଇହେଉଥିଲା, ନାଁ ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିହେଉଥିଲା, ନାଁ ଗୁଗଲରେ ଖୋଜି ହେଉଥିଲା । ଏହି ସବୁ ଅସୁବିଧାକୁ ସୁଧାରିବା ପାଇଁ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଫଣ୍ଟ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରାଗଲା । ଏହା ଥିଲା ଅଣ-ଲାଟିନ ଲିପିମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଏକ ବରଦାନ । ଏଥିରେ ସବୁ ଲାଟିନ/ଇଂରାଜୀ ଅକ୍ଷର ସହିତ ସବୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର ମଧ୍ୟ ରହୁଥିଲା । ଆଉ ଏ ଥିଲା ଏକ ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରୀୟ ମାନକ । ଅର୍ଥାତ କେବଳ ଦୁଇଟି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଫଣ୍ଟ ଭିତରେ ସମାନତା ନୁହେଁ, ଓଡ଼ିଆ-ଗୁଜୁରାଟୀ ଭିତରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ସମାନତା ରହିଲା । ତେବେ ଆମର ପ୍ରକାଶନ ସଂସ୍ଥାମାନ ଏହାକୁ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିବା ପାଇଁ ମଙ୍ଗିଲେ ନାହିଁ । କାରଣ ଥିଲା ସେମାନେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରୁଥିବା ଡିଟିପି ସଫ୍ଟଓଏର (ଆଡୋବି ପେଜମେକର, କ୍ୱାର୍କ ଏକ୍ସପ୍ରେସ ଆଦି)ରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ଯୁକ୍ତାକ୍ଷର ଆଦି ଠିକରେ କାମ କରୁନଥିଲା । ଏଣୁ ଲକ୍ଷ ଲକ୍ଷ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ବହିର ମଲାଟ ତଳୁ ବାହାରି କମ୍ପୁଟର ଓ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ପାଠକମାନଙ୍କ ପଢ଼ାହେବାରୁ ବଞ୍ଚିତ ହେଲା । ଏହାର ଗୋଟେ ବାଟ ଥିଲା ଡିଟିପି ପାଇଁ ବ୍ୟବହୃତ ଫଣ୍ଟକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ରୂପାନ୍ତର କରି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବା । ବିଡ଼ମ୍ବନା ଏହିକି ଯେ, ଆମ ଖବରକାଗଜମାନେ ତା' ନ କରି ଆପଣେଇଲେ ଲେଖାକୁ ଛବି କରି ନିଜ ୱେବସାଇଟରେ, ଆଉ ଥୋକେ ଡାଇନାମିକ ଫଣ୍ଟ ନାମକ ଆଉ ଏକ ପନ୍ଥା ଧରିଲେ । ଛବି ହେଲେ ଲେଖା ସବୁ ଯେ ଖୋଜିହେବ ନାହିଁ କିବା ଆଉ କେଉଁ କାମରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିହେବ ନାହିଁ ତାହା କହିବା ବାହୁଲ୍ୟ । ଡାଇନାମିକ ଫଣ୍ଟରେ ମୂଳ ସର୍ଭରରୁ ଫଣ୍ଟଟିଏ ଲୋଡ଼ ହେଇଥାଏ, ଯାହା ଫଳରେ ପାଠକର କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ସେ ଫଣ୍ଟଟି ନ ଥିଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ସେ ପଢ଼ିପାରେ । କିନ୍ତୁ ନାଁ ସେ ଲେଖାକୁ କପି କରି କାମରେ ଲଗାଇହୁଏ ନାଁ ଗୁଗଲ ସର୍ଚରେ ସେ ଆସେ । ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ପ୍ରାୟ ସମସ୍ତ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ପାଠ ଭିତରୁ ଅଧା ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଆସେ ନାହିଁ, ଆଉ ଅଧକ ଆସେ ଏମିତିକା ମୃତ ଫରମାଟରେ ଯେ ତା'କୁ ଆଉ କେହି କାମରେ ଲଗାଇପାରିବେ ନାହିଁ । ଯଦି ପାଠକଟିଏ ନିଜ ମୋବାଇଲ କି କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ଅବାଧରେ ନିଜ ଭାଷା ପଢ଼ିନପାରୁଛି ତାହେଲେ ସେ କେମିତି ଯେ ଭାଷାକୁ ଜାବୁଡ଼ି ଧରିବ ତାହା ଆଲୋଚନାର ବିଷୟ । ପାଠ ବଢ଼ିଲେ ପାଠକମାନଙ୍କୁ ଅଧିକ ପଠନର ସୁଯୋଗ ମିଳିବ, ବିକଳ୍ପ ମିଳିବ ବାଛିବା ପାଇଁ ନିଜ ପସନ୍ଦର ବହିଟିଏ । ଆଉ ତା ଯଦି ହୁଏ ସୁବିଧାରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିହେଉଥିବା ଭଳି ସାଧନରେ ତାହେଲେ ଇଂରାଜୀ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ପଢ଼ୁଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଘରର ପିଲାଟି ବି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ପଢ଼ିବାକୁ ଆଗଭର ହେବ ।

ଉପରେ ବର୍ଣ୍ଣିତ ଅସୁବିଧା - ଅଣ-ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରୁ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼କୁ ଫଣ୍ଟ ରୂପାନ୍ତର କରିବାର ସାଧନଟି ପ୍ରଥମେ ୨୦୧୧ରେ ସୃଜନିକା ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନ ଦ୍ୱାରା ଲୋକମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଖୋଲାରେ ବିତରଣ କରାଯାଇଥିଲା ରେବତୀ ନାମକ କନଭର୍ଟର ଦେଇ । ତେବେ ସେ ସଫ୍ଟଓଏରଟି ମଧ୍ୟ ରକ୍ଷଣାବେକ୍ଷଣା ଅଭାବରୁ ପୁରୁଣା ହୋଇଗଲା ଆଉ ନିକଟ ଅତୀତରେ ଆଉ କିଛି ବନ୍ଧୁଙ୍କ ସହ ମିଶି ଲେଖକ ଏକାଧିକ ଆକୃତି ସାରଳା ଫଣ୍ଟ ତଥା ଶ୍ରୀଲିପି ନାମକ ଆଉ ଏକ ଫଣ୍ଟରୁ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ରୂପାନ୍ତର ପାଇଁ କନଭର୍ଟର ତିଆରି କରିଛନ୍ତି । ଆକୃତି ସାରଳା କନଭର୍ଟରଟି http://bitly.com/akrutiodia ରେ ଓ ଶ୍ରୀଲିପି କନଭର୍ଟରଟି http://bitly.com/shreelipi ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଉଭୟ ଅନଲାଇନ ଓ ଅଫଲାଇନରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ପାଇଁ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ମାଗଣାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ । ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ଭାଷା ହେଲା ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼, ତାକୁ ଆଦରିଲେ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ସ୍ଥିତି ଯେ ନାହିଁରୁ କାହିଁ ହେବ ତାହା କହିବା ଏ ବିବରଣର ଅତିରଞ୍ଜନ ମାତ୍ର ହେବ ।

ଏ ତ ଗଲା ଫଣ୍ଟ-ଜନିତ ଅସୁବିଧା କଥା । ଏବେ ଆମର ବହିସବୁରେ କି କି ପ୍ରତିବନ୍ଧକ ରହିଛି ତାହା ବିଚାରିବା । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଏଯାବତ ଲକ୍ଷାଧିକ ବହି ଲେଖାଯାଇଥିବ । ସେସବୁ ଭିତରୁ କେତେ ଯେ ଉପାଦେୟ ବହି ଅଛି ଆଉ ଅଚିରେ ଏସବୁ ପାଇବାର ବାଟ ଯେ ଅମଡ଼ା ଏକଥାରେ ବୋଧେ ପାଠକେ ଏକମତ ହେବେ । ଆମ ବହିସବୁ ଯଦି ଡିଜିଟାଲ ଲାଇବ୍ରେରି ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଖୋଲାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ହୁଅନ୍ତା ତାହେଲେ ଜ୍ଞାନଲାଭର ପଥ ସୁଗମ ହୋଇପାରନ୍ତା । ବହି ସବୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବାର ସୁବିଧା ବାଟଟିଏ ହେଲା ସେସବୁକୁ ଲେଖା ବା ଟେକ୍ସଟ ରୂପରେ ରଖିବା । ଲେଖାକୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଯୋଗେ ଖୋଜିହେବ, ପୁନର୍ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିହେବ ଆଉ ବିତରଣ ମଧ୍ୟ କରିହେବ । ଆଉ ଏକ ବାଟ ହେଲା ବହିକୁ ସ୍କାନ କରି ପିଡିଏଫ ରୂପରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରିହେବ । ପିଡିଏଫ ବହିସବୁ ପଢ଼ିହେଉଥିଲେ ହେଁ ଖୋଜିବା ଆଉ ପୁନର୍ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିବା ପାଖାପାଖି ଅସମ୍ଭବ । ତେବେ ଡିଟିପି ହୋଇଥିବା ବହିକୁ ଫଣ୍ଟ କନଭର୍ଟର ସାହାଯ୍ୟରେ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ରୂପାନ୍ତର କରିହେବ ଯାହା ବହିକୁ ସ୍କାନ କରି ପିଡିଏଫ ତିଆରିଲେ ହୋଇପାରିବ ନାହିଁ । ନ୍ୟାସନାଲ ଇନଷ୍ଟିଚ୍ୟୁଟ ଅଫ ରାଉରକେଲାର ମିଳିତ ସହଯୋଗରେ ୧୯୫୦ ମସିହା ଯାଏ ଛପା ହୋଇଥିବା ୭୪୦ ଖଣ୍ଡ ଉପାଦେୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହିକୁ ସୃଜନିକା ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନ ତରଫରୁ ସ୍କାନ କରାଯାଇଛି । ଏଥି ମଧ୍ୟରୁ ୨୪୦ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବହି oaob.nitrkl.ac.in ରେ ଡାଉନଲୋଡ଼ ପାଇଁ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ । ତେବେ ବହିସବୁ ପ୍ରକାଶକଙ୍କ ଅନୁମତି ବିନା ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ରଖିବା କପିରାଇଟ ଆଇନର ଉଲ୍ଲଙ୍ଘନ । ନିକଟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ତରଫରୁ ଆୟୋଜିତ "ଓଡ଼ିଶା ଦିବସ ୨୦୧୪" ଅବସରରେ ଭାଷାବିଦ ପଦ୍ମଶ୍ରୀ ଦେବୀପ୍ରସନ୍ନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ ଓ ଭାଷା ଗବେଷକ ସୁବ୍ରତ ପୃଷ୍ଟିଙ୍କ ରଚିତ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ଗବେଷଣା ତଥ୍ୟ ସମ୍ବଳିତ ଏକ ଇଂରାଜୀ ବହି "Classical Odia" ଓ ଶ୍ରୀଯୁକ୍ତ ପୃଷ୍ଟିଙ୍କ ଦୁଇଟି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହି "ଭାଷା ଓ ଜାତୀୟତା" ଏବଂ "ଜାତି, ଜାଗୃତି ଓ ପ୍ରଗତି"କୁ CC-BY-SA ୩.୦ ଲାଇସେନ୍ସରେ ପୁନ-ଲାଇସେନ୍ସ କରିବାର ଅନୁମତି ଦେଲେ । ଏହି ଲାଇସେନ୍ସ ଜଣେ ପାଠକକୁ କେବଳ ବହିଟି ପଢ଼ିବାର ସୁଯୋଗ ଦେଇନଥାଏ, ବରଂ ବହିର ସ୍ରଷ୍ଟାଙ୍କୁ ଶ୍ରେୟ ଦେଇ ବହିର ଲେଖାକୁ ପୁନ-ବ୍ୟବହାର ଓ ବିତରଣ କରିପାରେ । ଏହା ଏକ ଯୁଗାନ୍ତକାରୀ ଓ ଐତିହାସିକ ପଦକ୍ଷେପ । ଯଦି ଆମ ଲେଖକ ଓ ପ୍ରକାଶକ ମାନେ ଏମିତି ଅନୁମତି ଦିଅନ୍ତେ ତେବେ ଅନେକ ଉପାଦେୟ ବହି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ହୋଇ ପାଠକର ପଠନ ଭୋକ ମେଣ୍ଟାନ୍ତା । ଶ୍ରୀଯୁକ୍ତ ପୃଷ୍ଟିଙ୍କ ବହି ଦୁଇଟିର ଲେଖାର ଫଣ୍ଟ ରୂପାନ୍ତର ହୋଇ ଏବେ ତାହା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ହେବ । ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page/Odia ଠାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଏକ ଡିଜିଟାଲ ଲାଇବ୍ରେରି ଯେଉଁଥିରେ କପିରାଇଟର ଜଞ୍ଜାଳରୁ ମୁକ୍ତ ବହିମାନ ପାଠକମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଖୋଲାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ । ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ଆମ ଭାଗବତ, ମହାଭାରତଠାରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ବିଜ୍ଞାନ ଓ ଆଇନର ବହିସବୁ ରଖାଯାଇପାରିବ । ବହୁ ବର୍ଷ ଧରି ଛପା ହୋଇନଥିବା ଅନେକ ଉପାଦେୟ ବହି ଯେ କେବଳ ପାଠକମାନଙ୍କ ଅବାଧ ପଠନର ଦିଗନ୍ତଟିଏ ବିସ୍ତାରିବ ତା' ନୁହେଁ, ବରଂ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ଅଧିକ ପାଠ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ଆଉ ପାଞ୍ଚ ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରୀୟ ଭାଷା ସଙ୍ଗେ କାନ୍ଧ ମିଳାଇ ଛିଡ଼ାହେବାକୁ ଭରସା ଦେବ ।

ଖାଲି ବହି ନୁହେଁ ଆମ ଖବରକାଗଜମାନ ମଧ୍ୟ ହେଲେ ଚଳନ୍ତି ଇତିହାସର ରଥଚକ । ବହି, ପତ୍ରିକା ଆଉ ଖବରକାଗଜରୁ ତଥ୍ୟ ନେଇ ଭରିହେବ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆକୁ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଏକ ଆନ୍ତର୍ଜାତିକ ସଙ୍ଗଠନ ଉଇକିମିଡ଼ିଆର ଅଂଶବିଶେଷ । ଅନେକେ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରୁ ନିତି କେତେ ବିଷୟ ପଢୁଥିବେ, ହେଲେ ଥରେ ବୋଧେ ଭାବି ନଥିବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଥିବା ବାବଦରେ । ୨୦୦୨ରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇ ୨୦୧୧ ଯାଏ ସୁପ୍ତିରେ ଥିଲା ଏହି ଅନଲାଇନ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ । ତେବେ ବେଙ୍ଗାଳୁରୁଠାରେ କେତେଜଣ ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ଉଦ୍ୟମରେ ପୁଣି ତେଜିଲା ଆଉ କିଛି ଉତ୍ସାହୀ ଓଡ଼ିଆ, ଓଡ଼ିଶା ଓ ଭାରତର କୋଣ-ସନୁକୋଣରୁ ଏଥିରେ ଭାଗ ନେବା ଆରମ୍ଭ କଲେ । ମାତ୍ର ୧୫ ଜଣ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ଉଇକିଆଳି (ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ସମ୍ପାଦକ)ଙ୍କ ସମ୍ପାଦିତ ୮,୦୦୦ ରୁ ଅଧିକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗରେ ଭରା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ବିଶାଳତମ ଇନଲାଇନ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ । ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ଭିତ୍ତିକ ଲେଖା ବୋଧେ ଗୋପାଳ ପ୍ରହରାଜଙ୍କ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ଭାଷାକୋଷ ଓ ବିନୋଦ କାନୁନଗୋଙ୍କ ଜ୍ଞାନମଣ୍ଡଳ ପରେ ଆଉ ସାମୁହିକ ଭାବେ ଲେଖାହୋଇନଥିବ । or.wikipedia.orgରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ସମସ୍ତେ ଭାଗନେଇ ନୂଆ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଗଢ଼ିପାରିବେଓ ଆଗରୁ ଥିବା ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗର ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରିପାରିବେ । ଅନେକେ ଯେ ଗୁଗଲରେ ଆଉ ଫେସବୁକରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଆସୁନାହିଁ ବୋଲି ଗୁମାନ କରିବସନ୍ତି ତାକୁ ଆଣିବାର ଗୋଟେ ବାଟ ହେଲା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ନିଜ ଅଞ୍ଚଳ, ପର୍ଯ୍ୟଟନ ସ୍ଥଳ, ନିଜ ପସନ୍ଦରେ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିତ୍ୱ, ଆମର ଇତିହାସ ଓ ଆହୁରି ଅନେକ ବିଷୟରେ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗମାନ ଲେଖିବା ।

ଭବିଷ୍ୟତ ପାଇଁ ପନ୍ଥା:

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂପ: ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ଅଚିରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହି ସବୁକୁ ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂପରେ ଲେଖା ଭାବେ ରଖାଯାଇପାରିବ । ତେବେ ବହି ସବୁର ଲାଇସେନ୍ସକୁ Creative Commons Share-Alike କିମ୍ବା Public Domainରେ ପ୍ରକାଶକ କିମ୍ବା ସତ୍ୱାଧିକାରୀଙ୍କ ଅନୁମତି କ୍ରମେ ବଦଳାଇବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିବ ।
ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଅଧିକ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ କଣ୍ଟେଣ୍ଟ ତିଆରି: ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଏଥିପାଇଁ ଏକ ପ୍ରକୃଷ୍ଠ ସ୍ଥାନ । ଏହା ସମସ୍ତଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଖୋଲାଥିବାରୁ ଅଧିକ ସଂଖ୍ୟକ ଲୋକ ମଧ୍ୟ ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖିପାରିବେ । ଏଥିସହିତ ଖବରକାଗଜ, ପତ୍ରପତ୍ରିକା ଆଦି ମଧ୍ୟ ନିଜର ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ଲେଖାସବୁ ଦେବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିବ ।
ଓପନସୋର୍ସ ସାଧନର ବ୍ୟବହାର: ଅନେକ ଓପନସୋର୍ସ ସଫ୍ଟଓଏର ଏବେ ବ୍ୟବହୃତ ଆଡୋବ ପେଜମେକର ଆଦି ଡିଟିପି ସଫ୍ଟଓଏରର ବିକଳ୍ପ ଭାବେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ହୋଇପାରିବ । ଆକୃତି, ଶ୍ରୀଲିପି ଆଦିର ବଦଳରେ ଡିଟିପି ପାଇଁ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଫଣ୍ଟ ବ୍ୟବହାର କଲେ ଏବେ ଲେଖା ବିତରଣରେ ଯେଉ ବିରାଟ ଖମାଟିଏ ରହିଛି ତାହା କିଛିକାଂଶରେ ଭରିଯିବ । ସୁଖର କଥା ମାଗଣାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଉବଣ୍ଟୁ ଓ ଫେଡୋରା ଭଳି ଓପନସୋର୍ସ ଅପରେଟିଙ୍ଗ ସିଷ୍ଟମ ମାଇକ୍ରୋସଫ୍ଟର ଉଇଣ୍ଡୋଜ XP, ଭିସ୍ତା ଆଦିଠୁ ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ ଅଧିକ ନିରାପଦ ଓ ଭାଇରସ ରହିତ । ବ୍ୟବହାରୀରେ ଏହାକୁ ଆପଣେଇପାରିବେ
ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ ଭାବେ ପାଠ୍ୟକ୍ରମରେ ରଖିବା: ଶିଶୁର ଭାଷା ତା' ବୋଉର ଭାଷା ହେବା ଉଚିତ, ସେଥିପାଇଁ ଏହା ମା'ବୋଲି ମା ମା' ତୁଣ୍ଡର ଭାଷା ବୋଲି ଜଣା । ତଣ୍ଟିଚିପି ପିଲାଟିକୁ ଜନ୍ମ ହେବା ବେଳୁ ଚାକିରି ପାଇଁ ଯୋଗ୍ୟ କରିବାରେ ଯେଉଁ ବୃଥା ପରିଶ୍ରମ ଅଭିଭାବକେ କରୁଛନ୍ତି ତା' ପିଲାଟି ଉପରେ ଜୋର-ଜବରଦସ୍ତି ଏକ ବିଦେଶୀ ଭାଷା ଲଦି ଦେଉଛି । ଏହାର ପ୍ରଭାବରେ ପିଲାର ମାନସିକ ସନ୍ତୁଳନ ବିଗିଡ଼ି ନିଜ ଜାତି, ଅଞ୍ଚଳ, ରାଜ୍ୟ, ଲୋକେ ଆଉ ଏପରିକି ନିଜ ପରିବାର ପ୍ରତି ଛୁଆବେଳୁ ଏକ ପ୍ରକାର ମମତା-ରହିତ ହୋଇଯାଉଛି । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶିକ୍ଷା ଶିଶୁ ଶ୍ରେଣୀରୁ ନେଇ ବିଏ-ବିଏସସି ଯାଏ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ ହେଉ । ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ବାକି ରାଜ୍ୟ ଭଳି ଏକ ଗବେଷଣାମୂଳକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠା ହେଉ । ଏ ଭାଷା ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ ଆଧୁନିକ ପ୍ରେମ କବିତା ଶୁଣିଲାଣି । ଭାଷାର ଅତୀତ, ବର୍ତ୍ତମାନ ଓ ଭବିଷ୍ୟତର ବିଶ୍ଳେଷଣ ଲୋଡ଼ା ।
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ହେଉ ସରକାରୀ ଭାଷା: ଯେତେ ଯାହା ହେଉ ଯଦି ଭାଷାଟିଏ ରାଜଭାଷା ବା ସରକାରୀ କାମରେ ନ ଲାଗିଲା ତାହେଲେ ଭାଷା ପ୍ରତି ଯେତେ ମମତା ଥାଉ, ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକଟିଏ ବ୍ୟାଙ୍କରୁ ଋଣ ଆଣିବା ବେଳେ କଷ୍ଟେମଷ୍ଟେ ଇଂରାଜୀରେ ଲେଖିବ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସରକାରୀ ସ୍ତରରେ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଲକ ହେଲେ ବାହାରୁ ଆସୁଥିବା ଆଇଏଏସ ଅଫିସର ଯେଉଁମାନେ ସରକାରୀ କଳର ମୁଖ୍ୟ, ମଧ୍ୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶିଖିବେ ଓ ଲୋକଙ୍କର ଅସୁବିଧା ବେଶି ବୁଝିବେ । ମଣିଷର ପ୍ରାକୃତିକ ଭାଷା ଯଦି ପଠନ, ଲିଖନ, ସରବରାହ ଓ ଯୋଗାଯୋଗର ଭାଷା ହେଲା ସେ ଭାଷାର ଗତିକୁ ଯେ କେହି ରୋକିପାରିବେ ନାହିଁ ତାହା ଆମ ପାଇଁ ମାଣ୍ଡାରିନ, ଜାପାନୀ, ଥାଇ ଆଦି ଏସୀୟ ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କଠୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ଫରାସୀ, ଜର୍ମାନ, ଋଷିଆନ, ଆରବୀ ଆଦି ଛାମୁଆଁ ଭାଷାସମୂହ ଆମ ଆଗରେ ପ୍ରମାଣ କରିଦେଇଛନ୍ତି । ଆଉ ଇଂରାଜୀକୁ ଆମର ଶତ୍ରୁ ନ ମଣି ତା' କାନ୍ଧରେ ଚଢ଼ି ଆମ୍ବ ପାରିବା କୌଶଳଟି ଏ ସାଧବର ଦାୟାଦ ଜାତିକୁ ଶିଖିବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିବ।

ଲେଖକ ପରିଚିତି:

ଶୁଭାଶିଷ ପାଣିଗ୍ରାହୀ ଜଣେ ଶିକ୍ଷା ଗବେଷକ । ସେ ଉଇକିମିଡିଆ ଫାଉଣ୍ଡେସନରୁ ଅନୁଦାନପ୍ରାପ୍ତ ସେଣ୍ଟର ଫର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଏଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟିର ଆକସେସ ଟୁ ନଲେଜରେ ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମ ଅଧିକାରୀ ଭାବେ କମ୍ପୁଟରରେ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାଶିକ୍ଷା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ କାମ କରୁଛନ୍ତି । ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓ Mozilla ତଥା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଲୋକାଲାଇଜେସନର ମାନକ, ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ ଓ ଶିକ୍ଷାନୁଷ୍ଠାନରେ ଛାତ୍ରମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ସମ୍ପାଦନା ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ, ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରରେ OpenGLAMର ସଦସ୍ୟ ଓ ଭାରତୀୟ ଆମ୍ବାସାଡର ଭାବରେ ଓ OpenEducation ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଅଧିକ ଜ୍ଞାନର ବିତରଣର ସାଧନ ନିର୍ମାଣ, ଉଇକିମାନିଆ ଭଳି ଆନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀୟ ସମ୍ମିଳନୀରେ ଭାଗନେଇ ଏସୀୟ ଭାଷାସମୂହ ପାଇଁ ମିଳିତ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟକ୍ରମ ତଥା ନାଗରିକ ସାମ୍ବାଦିକ ସଙ୍ଗଠନ Global Voicesର ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଲିଙ୍ଗୁଆ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ଭାବେ ସେ ଭାଷା ଗବେଷଣା ଓ ଭାଷାର କମ୍ପୁଟରୀକରଣ ପାଇଁ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ସାଧନ ନିର୍ମାଣରେ ସେ ସକ୍ରିୟ ।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/state-of-odia-language-in-computing-and-future-steps

Aircel & Wikimedia Foundation announce Wikipedia Zero

pavanaja — 2014-07-07T05:58:08Z

Aircel and Wikimedia Foundation came together to announce Wikipedia Zero. As per this, users of Aircel need not pay for data for accessing Wikipedia. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja wrote a report on this in Prajavani.

Click here to read the article published in Prajavani on July 3, 2014.

ಗ್ಯಾಜೆಟ್ ಸುದ್ದಿ

ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಬಳಸುವವರಿಗೆ ಉಚಿತ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ

ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಫೋನ್ ಸೇವೆ ನೀಡುವ ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಕಂಪೆನಿ ಮತ್ತು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುವ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯ ಫೌಂಡೇಶನ್ ಜೊತೆಗೂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ತಮ್ಮ ಸ್ಮಾರ್ಟ್‌ಫೋನ್‌ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿದರೆ ಅವರು ಅಂತರಜಾಲ ಬಳಕೆಗೆ ಹಣ ನೀಡಬೇಕಾಗಿರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಇದು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಳಸುವವರಿಗೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಸುದ್ದಿ. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಝೀರೊ ಎಂಬುದು ಆಫ್ರಿಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾದ ಯೋಜನೆ.

ಇದರ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಸೇವೆ ನೀಡುವ ಕಂಪೆನಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ವೀಕ್ಷಿಸಿದರೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಪ್ರವಾಹಕ್ಕೆ (ಡಾಟಾ) ಹಣ ನೀಡಬೇಕಾಗಿರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಝೀರೊ ಯೋಜನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸದ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಮಾತ್ರ ಭಾಗಿಯಾಗಿದೆ. ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾತ್ರವಲ್ಲದೆ ಇತರೆ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಳಸುವವರಿಗೆ ಇದು ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಸುದ್ದಿ.

See the portion about Wikipedia Zero below:

Click to download the PDF here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/prajavani-july-3-2014-article-on-wikipedia-zero

ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷରସଜ୍ଜା

subha — 2014-07-28T06:02:16Z

This article was published in the Samaja (Odia newspaper) on July 4, 2014.

This is an article "ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷରସଜ୍ଜା" published in The Samaja on July 4, 2014 is about the Akruti Sarala - Unicode Odia converter that fellow Wikipedian Manoj Sahukar and myself worked. Akruti is a modified/extended ISCII encoding based font that is used by many users. This converter could convert them to Unicode so the text could not just be searchable on the Internet but could also be used for posting on Facebook, mail, Wikipedia, blogs and other websites. This has been published today in the editorial page.

Read a scanned version of the published article below:

Read the Samaja paper here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/article-on-akruti-unicode-converter-in-samaja

Access to Knowledge Bulletin — June 2014

praskrishna — 2014-10-04T15:31:04Z

The Access to Knowledge (Wikipedia) newsletter for the month of June 2014:

Telugu Books Re-release Under Creative Commons License

Ten Telugu Books Re-released Under CC-BY-SA 3.0 License (by Rahmanuddin Shaik, June 22, 2014). For the first time in the history of Indian books, 10 Telugu books by a single author were released under Creative Commons license (CC-BY-SA 3.0) on June 22, 2014 at 10 a.m. at Golden Threshold, Abids, Hyderabad.
CIS-A2K has collaborated with Telugu Wikipedians in convincing Indu Gnaana Vedika to re-release 10 of their books under CC-BY-SA 3.0 license which is compatible with Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Unlike the predominant digitization efforts (which only makes scanned images available), these books will be uploaded on Telugu Wikisource and converted into Unicode (searchable) text. This will ensure that these books are freely read, both online and offline in various formats like PDF, epub, mobi, text, etc. This is a major milestone initiative by CIS-A2K to make the sum of all knowledge in Telugu freely available to all Telugus over the internet and is part of its Telugu language area plan.

Article

This Twitter Account Puts a Face to the Unsung Volunteer Editors Behind Wikipedia (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Global Voices, June 18, 2014).

Blog Entries

Twitter weekly Curation WeAreWikipedia brings one Wikipedian Every Week (by Diptiman Panigrahi, June 16, 2014).
Odia Language gets a new Unicode Font Converter (by Subhashish Panigrahi, June 20, 2014).

Events Organized

Kannada Wikipedia Workshop for Kannada Book Lovers (co-organized by Navakarnataka Publications, Bangalore, June 4, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.
Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era (co-organized by Andhra Loyola College and CIS, Vijaywada, June 24-25, 2014).

News and Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era: Coverage in Sakshi (June 25, 2014).
Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era: Coverage in Enadu (June 25, 2014).
Loyola Faculty Enlightened About Open Edn Resources (The New Indian Express, June 25, 2014).

Wikimedia Foundation has funded A2K to anchor the growth of Wikimedia movement in India. The A2K team consists of six members, four based in Bangalore: T. Vishnu Vardhan, Dr. U.B. Pavanaja, Subhashish Panigrahi and Rahmanuddin Shaikh. One team member Nitika Tandon is based in Delhi. We also have one Advisor Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana working with us. Archives of our newsletters can be accessed here. Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications here.

About CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
CIS group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cis.india
Visit us at: https://cis-india.org

Request for Collaboration:

We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-june-2014

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era: Coverage in Sakshi

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T11:31:57Z

Sakshi covered the Vijaywada event on June 25, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan and Rahmanuddin Shaik gave their inputs.

Given below is a scanned version of the coverage published in the district edition:

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/coverage-of-event-in-vijaywada-june-25-2014-sakshi

Loyola Faculty Enlightened About Open Edn Resources

praskrishna — 2014-07-02T04:50:48Z

“The tremendous changes in the digital technology have introduced the newage faculty to certain open and collaborative tools like Wiki, termed as open educational resources (OER),” Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) progarmme director T Vishnu Vardhan has said.

The article published in the New Indian Express on June 25, 2014 can be read here. T. Vishnu Vardhan gave his inputs.

Adressing a two-day national workshop on ‘“Openness of Knowledge in Digital Era’ at Andhra Loyola College here Tuesday, Vishnu Vardhan stressed that within this context of digital era, openness and transparency gained newer significance, which creates a pre-condition for the transformation of society into knowledge society.

Pointing out that many of the websites were offering opportunity to access the information in almost all Indian languages and with everyone making use of Wikipedia as an OER tool, he explained the changes in the digital technology and also introduced the faculty to certain open and collaborative tools like Wikipedia.

Besides to giving a historical overview of the free and open source software movement, mass collaboration on the internet, details about Wikipedia authors and users, the participants were educated about using the simple technological tools like QR code to create increased and seamless access to knowledge using pervasive technologies like mobile phones.

Graduate and postgraduate teaching faculty from various streams partcipated in the workshop meant to discuss and learn new development in the fields of knowledge sharing and access in digital era.

CIS programme officer Rahimanuddin Shaik, jounalist Malladi Kameswara Rao, ALC principal Fr Kishore, college vice-principal Fr Anil kumaralso participated.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-new-indian-express-june-25-2014-loyola-faculty-enlightened-about-open-edn-resources

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era: Coverage in Enadu

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T11:32:16Z

Eenadu covered the event on June 25, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan and Rahmanuddin Shaik are quoted.

A scanned version of the event published in the district edition is below:

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/eenadu-june-25-2014-coverage-of-vijaywada-event

Ten Telugu Books Re-released Under CC-BY-SA 3.0 License

rahim — 2014-07-08T05:29:39Z

For the first time in the history of Indian books, 10 Telugu books by a single author were released under Creative Commons license (CC-BY-SA 3.0) on June 22, 2014 at 10 a.m. at Golden Threshold, Abids, Hyderabad.

The event was organised by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team.

CIS-A2K has collaborated with Telugu Wikipedians in convincing Indu Gnaana Vedika to re-release 10 of their books under CC-BY-SA 3.0 license which is compatible with Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Unlike the predominant digitization efforts (which only makes scanned images available), these books will be uploaded on Telugu Wikisource (www .te .wikisource .org) and converted into Unicode (searchable) text. This will ensure that these books are freely read, both online and offline in various formats like PDF, epub, mobi, text, etc. This is a major milestone initiative by CIS-A2K to make the sum of all knowledge in Telugu freely available to all Telugus over the internet and is part of its Telugu language area plan.

Telugu Wikipedia has been in existence for 10 years and has 57000 articles on various topics. Telugu Wikisource is one of the sister projects of Wikipedia which has more than 9600 pages and 100 books, it is the largest online Unicode book library available today at the service of Telugu people.

The Programme

The event started with invocation by Indu Gnaana Vedika followed by introduction of Chief Guest and Guest of Honour.

The patron of Indu Gnaana Vedika, Sri Sri Sri Prabodhananda Yogeeswarulu presided over as the chief guest and N Rahamthulla, long time wikipedian and Special collector, Srisailam project, Kurnool was the guest of honour.

Addressing the gathering, Prabodhananda emphasised on the importance of availability of knowledge in ones own mother language, and also why knowledge should not be confined to books alone, but should be brought onto various platforms, internet being one among them. This would not only ensure wider reach for the books, but also enable the language to survive in the fast changing era.

Then, a video interview of guest of honour, Rahamthulla was played, where he spoke about creation of new technical jargon in ones own mother language and how Telugu was being used as administrative language in his office among his subordinates.

Rahamthulla also spoke on the practices he brought into in his own office to adopt mother language at work and gave out suggestions that would effectively help all in adoption of mother language at work places with Telugu as an example.

This was followed by Veeven’s talk on “End-User’s perspective of free licenses”, where he spoke about importance of open content, free software and free licenses.

Then, program director of CIS-A2K, T. Vishnu Vardhan spoke about the importance of creative commons licenses in the context of Indian languages in Internet. In his speech, Vishnu informed that there is enormous literature and content available in Indian languages which is unusable because of ignorance of licenses. He listed out guidelines that would help writers to have their work reach millions through releasing it under a free license.

Then, in a formal manner, the copyright holder of the books signed on the documents, specifying that the books are released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. In the tea break that followed, participants enquired experts on free licenses.


Above: Prabodhananda handing over the signed agreement to Vishnu Vardhan (by Rahmanuddin Shaik, CC-BY-SA 3.0 License)

A Wikisource demonstration by Rahmanuddin Shaik was shown followed by Q & A session.

Then there was a panel discussion on “CC licenses” which saw participation from one each of a free license expert, writer and end user. This brought in awareness and more deeper thought into bringing in more literature in Telugu into CC licenses.

An outcome of the event was:

N Rahamthulla promised to re-release his books under CC license.
Mandali Buddhaprasad, Deputy Speaker, Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly, gave permission to release 4 of his books under CC license.
Several other writers have come forward to re-release their books under free licenses.

Given below is the certificate signed by Sri Sri Sri Acharya Yogeeshwarulu giving permission to publish his works under CC-BY-SA 3.0 License:

For additional details of the event, click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/ten-telugu-books-re-released-under-cc-by-sa-license

Odia Language gets a new Unicode Font Converter

subha — 2014-07-02T09:59:31Z

Recently, I worked on designing a font encoding converter with a fellow Wikimedian Manoj Sahukar. We worked by taking the code of a converter that was made three years back and made it work for two fonts AkrutiOriSarala99 and AkrutiOriSarala that are used by the media industry for printing and publishing.

This converter can now convert text typed using a modified ISCII based encoding and help generating Unicode text. Based on this learning from this I created another such converter for one such popular font Shreelipi that is used by Government of Odisha's official documentation including a magazine. The following is a summary of the usability of the converters:

It’s been over a decade since Unicode standard was made available for Odia script. Odia is a language spoken by roughly 33 million people in Eastern India, and is one of the many official languages of India. Since its release, it has been challenging to get more content on Unicode, the reason being many who are used to other non-Unicode standards are not willing to make the move to Unicode. This created the need for a simple converter that could convert text once typed in various non-Unicode fonts to Unicode. This could enrich Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects by converting previously typed content and making it more widely available on the internet. The Odia language recently got such a converter, making it possible to convert two of the most popular fonts among media professionals (AkrutiOriSarala99 and AkrutiOriSarala) into Unicode.

All of the non-Latin scripts came under one umbrella after the rollout of Unicode. Since then, many Unicode compliant fonts have been designed and the open source community has put forth effort to produce good quality fonts. Though contribution to Unicode compliant portals like Wikipedia increased, the publication and printing industries in India were still stuck with the pre-existing ASCII and ISCII standards (Indian font encoding standard based on ASCII). Modified ASCII fonts that were used as typesets for newspapers, books, magazines and other printed documents still exist in these industries. This created a massive amount of content that is not searchable or reproducible because it is not Unicode compliant. The difference in Unicode font is the existence of separate glyphs for the Indic script characters along with the Latin glyphs that are actually replaced by the Indic characters. So, when someone does not have a particular ASCII standard font installed, the typed text looks absurd (see Mojibake), however text typed using one Unicode font could be read using another Unicode font in a different operating system. Most of the ASCII fonts that are used for typing Indic languages are proprietary and many individuals/organizations even use pirated software and fonts. Having massive amounts of content available in multiple standards and little content in Unicode created a large gap for many languages including Odia. Until all of this content gets converted to Unicode to make it searchable, sharable and reusable, then the knowledge base created will remain inaccessible. Some of the Indic languages fortunately have more and more contributors creating Unicode content. There is a need to work on technological development to convert non-Unicode content to Unicode and open it up for people to use.

There are a few different kinds of fonts used by media and publication houses, the most popular one is Akruti. Two other popular standards are LeapOffice and Shreelipi. Akruti software comes bundled with a variety of typefaces and an encoding engine that works well in Adobe Acrobat Creator, the most popular DTP software package. Industry professionals are comfortable using it for its reputation and seamless printing. The problem of migrating content from other standards to Unicode arose when the Odia Wikimedia community started reaching out to these industry professionals. Apparently authors, government employees and other professional were more comfortable using one of the standards mentioned above. All of these people type using either a generic popular standard, Modular, or a universal standard, Inscript. Fortunately, the former is now incorporated into Mediawiki‘s Universal Language Selector (ULS) and the latter is in the process of getting added to ULS. Once this is done, many folks could start contributing to Wikipedia easily. Content that has been typed in various modified ASCII fonts include encyclopedias that could help grow content on Wikisource and Wikiquote. All of these need to be converted to Unicode. The non-profit group Srujanika first initiated a project to build a converter for conversion of two different Akruti fonts: AkrutiOriSarala99 and OR-TT Sarala. The former being outdated and the other being less popular. The Rebati 1 converter which was built by the Srujanika team was not being maintained and was more of an orphan project.
Above: Akruti Sarala - Unicode Odia converter user manual. Image credit: Subhashish Panigrahi, CC-BY-3.0

There are a few different kinds of fonts used by media and publication houses, the most popular one is Akruti. Two other popular standards are LeapOffice and Shreelipi. Akruti software comes bundled with a variety of typefaces and an encoding engine that works well in Adobe Acrobat Creator, the most popular DTP software package. Industry professionals are comfortable using it for its reputation and seamless printing. The problem of migrating content from other standards to Unicode arose when the Odia Wikimedia community started reaching out to these industry professionals. Apparently authors, government employees and other professional were more comfortable using one of the standards mentioned above. All of these people type using either a generic popular standard, Modular, or a universal standard, Inscript. Fortunately, the former is now incorporated into Mediawiki‘s Universal Language Selector (ULS) and the latter is in the process of getting added to ULS. Once this is done, many folks could start contributing to Wikipedia easily.

Content that has been typed in various modified ASCII fonts include encyclopedias that could help grow content on Wikisource and Wikiquote. All of these need to be converted to Unicode. The non-profit group Srujanika first initiated a project to build a converter for conversion of two different Akruti fonts: AkrutiOriSarala99 and OR-TT Sarala. The former being outdated and the other being less popular. The Rebati 1 converter which was built by the Srujanika team was not being maintained and was more of an orphan project.

Above: Akruti Sarala - Unicode Odia converter user manual. Image credit: Subhashish Panigrahi, CC-BY-3.0

Fellow Wikimedian Manoj Sahukar and myself used parts of the “Rebati 1 converter” code and worked on building another converter. The new “Akruti Sarala – Unicode Odia converter” can convert the more popular AkrutiOriSarala font and its predecessor AkrutiOriSarala99, which is still used by some. Odia Wikimedian Mrutyunjaya Kar and journalist Subhransu Panda have helped by reporting broken conjuncts which helps in fixing all problems before publishing. Odia authors and journalists have already started using the font and many of them have regular posts in Odia. We are waiting for more authors to contribute to Wikipedia by converting their work and wikifying it.

Recently a beta version of another Unicode font converter for Shreelipi fonts based on Odia Wikipedian Shitikantha Dash‘s initial code is released. It works with at least 85 % accuracy.

"Even after getting the classical status, Odia language is not being used actively on the internet like some other Indian languages. The main reason behind this is our writing system has not been web-friendly. Most of those in Odisha having typing skills, use modular keyboard and Akruti fonts. Akruti is not web-compatible as we know. There are thousands of articles, literary works, news stories typed in Akruti fonts lying unused (on the internet). Thanks to Subhashish Panigrahi and his associates, they have developed this new font converter that can convert your Akruti text into Unicode. I have checked it. It’s error-free. Now it’s easy for us to write articles online (for Wikipedia and other sites). Yes, we are late entrants as far as use of vernacular languages on the internet is concerned. But this converter will help us to go godspeed. Lets make Odia our language of communication and expression."

The above was originally posted on Wikimedia blog.

Quick Links

Copyright notes: "Akruti Sarala - Unicode converter screenshot mock-up.svg", "Akruti converter user manual (white).svg" by Subhashish Panigrahi , under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odia-language-gets-new-unicode-font-converter

Knowledge and Openness in the Digital Era

praskrishna — 2014-07-04T11:28:34Z

Andhra Loyola College and the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team invite you to a two-day national workshop on knowledge and openness in the digital era.

Instructions for Participants

Each participant 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 June 22, 2014. 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://sh.st/r9zc (click on this link).
Once registered the participants must enroll here http://bit.ly/U4Zxhp using an on-line registration form.
All the participants are expected to do take part in production sprints on Wikipedia. We will choose Telugu Language Wikipedia as a site to do some editing.

For this workshop each participant should come with three full-fledged articles (at least of 1200 words each) 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. Please check www.te.wikipedia.org to see if an article already exists on the topic that you are planning to write. You can even choose the expand the existing article on Telugu Wikipedia with your knowledge.

Suggested topics: a) Concepts/topics that you teach often; b) A famous theorist/thinker in your discipline; c) Any other notable topic that you feel should be in your language Wikipedia.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/knowledge-and-openness-in-digital-era