Centre for Internet and Society

Asian Athletics Championships 2017 Edit-a-thon

Sailesh Patnaik & Jnanaranjan Sahu — 2017-08-01T05:23:47Z

Odia Wikipedians, in conjunction with Indian Athletics Federation and Sports and Youth Services collaborated to document the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships. Hundreds of photos were uploaded and new Wikipedia content added to inform the event’s fans.

The Asian Athletics Championships is an intra-continental sports event organized bi-annually since 1973. The 22nd championship was held in July at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India, where 655 athletes from 41 countries participated in 21 games. The Odia Wikipedia community worked with the event organizers in different ways, to document the event on Wikipedia, by holding edit-a-thons (editing workshops), to improve Wikipedia’s content about the championships and releasing official photos of the event under free Creative Commons licenses.

The original plan was for the Indian city of Ranchi, Jharkhand to host the 2017 athletics, but plans changed 90 days before the event when Bhubaneswar was selected as a venue instead. Preparing the Kalinga Stadium and getting ready for the championships in that short period was a challenge for the organizers. However, the state government of Odisha stepped in to assist, and as part of that freely shared the event website content under Creative Commons licenses.

The local Wikipedia community, along with the WikiTungi project in Bhubaneswar, were invited by R. Vineel Krishna, the State Department’s Director of Sports and Youth Services, to organize an edit-a-thon for the Championships. The scope was to improve Wikipedia’s content about the participating Asian athletes.

Before the event, existing Wikipedia articles provided little information on the biographies and accomplishments of some of the participating athletes. Odia Wikipedians collaborated with the Sports and Youth Services Department of Odisha to bridge the dearth of information.

Edit-a-thon participants gathered at the office of CSM Technologies, an event partner for the championships. Fifteen Wikimedians from Bhubaneswar and Puri WikiTungi, with some CSM staff members and new editors participated in the edit-a-thon.

Kalinga Stadium,, Bhubaneswar/ CC-BY-SA 4.0/ Sailesh Patnaik

The collection includes images of the athletes during their Heats, Semi Finals, Final, and Medal ceremonies of all four days. 127 images are used in 269 pages on Wikipedia in 27 languages, and many articles added their first image from this collection. WikiProject Women in Red used the images in many female athlete articles. The Odia Wikipedia community and the Centre for Internet and Society are also planning to work with the Wikipedia Asian Month competition to use these images to illustrate Wikipedia articles they work on, in their next edition. Victuallers, one of the volunteers of Women in Red project, identified athlete photos from the games website collection and used them to illustrate their articles. He has also created new articles of other participating female athletes.

Arpitha M. of India in action at the 400m hurdles event/ CC-BY-SA 4.0

The event started with a basic Wikipedia orientation session for new participants. There was no Wikipedia article for the championships in Odia language, so participants created it in addition to improving the English Wikipedia article. Along with that, 10 new articles were improved and created on both Odia and English Wikipedia. The 2017 Championships page on the English Wikipedia received over 100,000 views during the championships week.

“Wikipedia has been the one-stop source of knowledge for me,” says Alankar Devta, an edit-a-thon participant. “It has helped me learn a lot and prepare for competitions. This is the first time, I got a chance to take part in any Wikipedia edit-a-thon. Apart from that, the articles about the athletes taking part in this year’s Championships are of great help for the readers who may want to search for the athletes with expectations to find useful information about them.”

Wikimedia community members were offered passes to attend the opening ceremony and take photos. We spent four hours taking photos of the 41 participating teams, athletes and cultural events. All were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Nearly 19% of the photos taken at the opening ceremony are used on Wikipedia articles.

A major outcome of the edit-a-thon was releasing the content and images of the championship’s official website under a Creative Commons license. 286 images from the websites were added to Wikimedia Commons, of which 47.2% are used on Wikipedia in several languages.

“I have worked with the Women in Red project since it started,” says Victuallers. “Over the past two years, we have helped raise the percentage [of female biographies on the English Wikipedia] from 15.5 to 17%. One of the things that hold us back, though, is that women are less likely to have images available. It’s, therefore, amazing to find that a major athletic event has released hundreds of images with a CC BY-SA license. Participating athletes are all notable and women are fairly well represented. I have downloaded over 100 pictures and cropped group photos to create portraits. We’ve been tweeting the new articles and pictures on @WikiWomenInRed and trying to encourage all to “one up” the Odisha people. It’s a great success and we need more people to follow suit.”

With such collaborative spirit from the Government institutes, the Odia community is planning to get more content from Odisha under a free license. The community has also partnered with the Bhubaneswar Development Authority, to run a global edit-a-thon named Bhubaneswar Heritage Editathon, for documenting the culture and heritage monuments of the city.

A version of this blog post appears on the Wikimedia Blog, co-authored by Sailesh Patnaik and Jnanaranjan Sahu.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/asian-athletics-championships-2017

As Odia Wikipedia turns 13, what happens next?

Subhashish Panigrahi and Sailesh Patnaik — 2016-06-18T17:08:41Z

Odia Wikipedia, one of several Indian-language Wikipedia projects, celebrated thirteen years of free knowledge contribution on June 3.

This was originally published on the Wikimedia Blog on August 21. The post was shared on Wikipedia's official Facebook page, and on Twitter handles [1 and 2]

Launched in 2002—just a year after the English Wikipedia was launched—Odia Wikipedia has grown to be the largest content repository in the Odia language available in Unicode on the Internet. With over 8,900 articles and about 17 active editors (also known as “uikiali”) spread across various parts of India and abroad, the project has become more than just an encyclopedia. The voluntary editor community has put its efforts into acquiring valuable content, re-licensing them under Creative Commons (CC) licenses, and building tools for acquiring more encyclopedic content from various sources.

The community has also engaged over 2,500 people through various outreach programs, such as the Wikipedia Education Program. For its thirteenth anniversary, the community released a character-encoding converter that promises to unlock massive amounts of content—from government portals to journals, newspapers and magazines that have their content in various legacy encoding systems other than Unicode. This has been a major roadblock in the search for and reuse of digital content in the Odia language. During our thirteenth anniversary celebrations, the community spent a day assessing community needs, addressing issues, and identifying priority areas to focus on in the future. This was arguably the first time almost the entire community gathered in a physical space. This allowed Odia Wikipedia administrator, and the most active Odia Wikimedian, Mrutyunjaya Kar and I to design a needs assessment survey. Participating Wikimedians were asked to brainstorm various problems they face in two major areas: editing and outreach.

The community has also engaged over 2,500 people through various outreach programs, such as the Wikipedia Education Program. For its thirteenth anniversary, the community released a character-encoding converter that promises to unlock massive amounts of content—from government portals to journals, newspapers and magazines that have their content in various legacy encoding systems other than Unicode. This has been a major roadblock in the search for and reuse of digital content in the Odia language.

During our thirteenth anniversary celebrations, the community spent a day assessing community needs, addressing issues, and identifying priority areas to focus on in the future. This was arguably the first time almost the entire community gathered in a physical space. This allowed Odia Wikipedia administrator, and the most active Odia Wikimedian, Mrutyunjaya Kar and I to design a needs assessment survey. Participating Wikimedians were asked to brainstorm various problems they face in two major areas: editing and outreach.

	Two-fifths of participants said that problems with the rendering of Odia characters in different operating systems, ignorance or lack of more documentation about enabling encoding for Odia, input methods and keyboard layouts, and other font- and keyboard-related issues as the major reason for low readership and contribution on Wikipedia. More than a third instead blamed the lack of good quality content on Wikipedia and the Internet as a whole in the Odia language, in English related to Odia language, and in Odisha on the Internet. A quarter blamed other technical issues, including the lack of mobile input in Odia, for low editorship, while low interest for contributing in Odia language by native language speakers was blamed by eight percent of survey participants.

Two-fifths of participants said that problems with the rendering of Odia characters in different operating systems, ignorance or lack of more documentation about enabling encoding for Odia, input methods and keyboard layouts, and other font- and keyboard-related issues as the major reason for low readership and contribution on Wikipedia.

More than a third instead blamed the lack of good quality content on Wikipedia and the Internet as a whole in the Odia language, in English related to Odia language, and in Odisha on the Internet. A quarter blamed other technical issues, including the lack of mobile input in Odia, for low editorship, while low interest for contributing in Odia language by native language speakers was blamed by eight percent of survey participants.

Aditya Mahar, the second-most active editor on the Odia Wikipedia, feels that the biggest setback for the Odia Wikipedia is a lack of interest in contributing in Odia language. He says many Odia speakers feel that Odia is not needed to acquire and share knowledge.

“Like many others, I have been very eager to learn and share more about my home state and culture,” he says. “That’s why I started to contribute to the Odia Wikipedia, to tell my people about our rich cultural heritage in my language.”

He adds that he is concerned by the way many have been alienating Odia with the excuse of learning English to connect to the rest of the world. “I want my future generation to find everything they want to learn in Odia—from the history of Odisha, our art, architecture, Odia language and people, and our cultural extravaganza,” he says.

Mrutyunjaya Kar, an administrator on the Odia Wikipedia and the most active contributor, feels that Wikipedia is like a marathon and there is a great need for fresh blood in the community. Asked if the community will ever die out, Mrutyunjaya feels that even with a small community, the Odia Wikipedia community is always going to thrive, even if, in the worst case, only one active Wikipedian remains. So, we badly need new users to pass the baton. For him, community support and bonding with the fellow editors is the most important thing to lead a community.

Mrutyunjaya adds that creating many short articles, known as “stubs”, is a necessary evil and essential for a project like the Odia Wikipedia, as they are drafted as a by-product of collaborative editing.

“It takes little longer for a small community like Odia to expand and enhance quality of stubs though,” he says. “Many-a-times, new editors learn about Wikipedia editing while creating stubs. However, all the active Wikipedians agreed during the thirteenth anniversary not to create or promote many stubs.”

Sailesh Patnaik, Odia Wikimedian
Subhashish Panigrahi, Odia Wikimedian and Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge (CIS-A2K)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-foundation-blog-as-odia-wikipedia-turns-13-what-happens-next

Article on Odia Wikipedia in Odiapua

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T02:38:11Z

The article was published in Odiapua on December 1, 2014.

ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର (୨୮ ନଭେମ୍ବର): ବିଶ୍ୱବ୍ୟାପୀ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ବହୁଭାଷୀ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ନିର୍ମାଣରେ ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ ସୃଷ୍ଟି କରିଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ସହ-ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର" ଆଜି ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର ଠାରେ ଉନ୍ମୋଚନ ହୋଇଯାଇଛି । ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ or.wikisource.org ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଏହି ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଦୁଇବର୍ଷ ତଳେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଗବତ ସମେତ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ କବି ଓ ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ଆହୁରି ୩୧ ଗୋଟି ରଚନାରେ ଭରା । ଆଜି ସ୍ଥାନୀୟ ଜୟଦେବ ଭବନରେ ଏକ "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର ସଭା ୨୦୧୪"ରେ ଏହାକୁ ଉନ୍ମୋଚନ କରି ବରିଷ୍ଠ ଭାଷାବିଦ ଦେବୀପ୍ରସନ୍ନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ ଏହା ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବାହାରେ ଥିବା କିମ୍ବା ପାଠାଗାର ଯାଇ ବହି ଆଣି ପଢ଼ିବାର ସୁଯୋଗ ପାଉନଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଖୁବ ଉପଯୋଗୀ ହେବ ମତ ପ୍ରକାଶ କରିଥିଲେ । ଦୈନିକ "ସମ୍ବାଦ"ର ସମ୍ପାଦକ ସୌମ୍ୟରଞ୍ଜନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ ଏଥିରେ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ଅତିଥି ଭାବେ ଯୋଗ ଦେଇ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟକୁ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ମାରକ ନୁହେଁ, ବରଂ ମିତ କରି ଏହାକୁ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ଉନ୍ନତିରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିବା ଉପରେ ଗୁରୁତ୍ୱାରୋପ କରିଥିଲେ । "ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଶା" ଦ୍ୱାରା ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟର ୧୯ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବହି ସେ ଏହି ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଜରିଆରେ ଡିଜିଟାଲକରଣ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ବିତରଣ କରିଥିଲେ । ଆଗକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ସହ ମିଶି ସେ ସମ୍ବାଦ ତଥା ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଓ ସଂସ୍କୃତିଭିତ୍ତିକ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟକ୍ରମ କରିବା ବିଷୟରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଉଲ୍ଲେଖ କରିଥିଲେ । ଏହି ସଭାର ସଭାପତିତ୍ୱ କରି ବିଶିଷ୍ଠ କବି ଓ ଚିନ୍ତକ ଡ ହରପ୍ରସାଦ ଦାସ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ରହିଥିବା ଶୂନ୍ୟସ୍ଥାନ ପୂରଣ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ଯୁବପିଢ଼ିକୁ ଆହ୍ୱାନ ଦେଇଥିଲେ ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହିର ଅଭିଲେଖ କାମର ବିଶାଳ ଶ୍ରେୟ ସବୁବେଳେ ସୃଜନିକାକୁ ଯାଇଥାଏ । ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଉଦ୍ୟମରେ ୧୮୪୦-୧୯୪୦ ଭିତରେ ଛପା ଅନେକ ବହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲକରଣ ଭଳି ଐତିହାସିକ କାମଟିଏ ହୋଇଥିଲା । ଏ କାମକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର ଆଉ ପାଦେ ଆଗେଇ ନେବ ବୋଲି ଆଶା ସଂଚାର ହୋଇଛି । ଏଥିରେ ବହିର ସ୍କାନ ସହିତ ଟାଇପ କରା ଲେଖା (typed text) ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ନାମକ ଏକ ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରୀୟ ମାନକରେ ରହିଥାଏ ଯାହାଫଳରେ ଜଣେ ବହିଟିଏ କମ୍ପୁଟର, ଟାବଲେଟ କି ମୋବାଇଲରେ ପଢ଼ିପାରିବ, ସେଥିରେ ଲେଖା ନେଇ ଆଉ କେଉଁଠି ଉଦ୍ଧୃତି ଦେଇପାରିବ ବା ଛପାଇ ପାରିବ । ସ୍କାନ କରା ବହିଠାରୁ ଏଥିରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ବହିସବୁ ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ ହାଲୁକା ଓ ଏଥିରୁ ପିଡିଏଫ କରି ଜଣେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ବିନା ମଧ୍ୟ ବହି ପଢ଼ିପାରିବ ବୋଲି ସେଣ୍ଟୃ । ଆଗକୁ ବହିର ଲେଖା ଶୁଣିବାର ବାଟ ମଧ୍ୟ ଆସୁଛି । କପିରାଇଟ ନଥିବା ଅନେକ ବିରଳ ବହି, ଭାଗବତ, ମହାଭାରତ ଭଳି ପୋଥିପୁରାଣଠୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ନୂଆ ଅନେକ ବହି ଏଥିରେ ସ୍ଥାନ ପାଇପାରିବ । ପଦ୍ମଶ୍ରୀ ଡ ଦେବୀପ୍ରସନ୍ନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ, ରାମକୃଷ୍ଣ ନନ୍ଦ, ଡ ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ ମହାନ୍ତି, ଡ ସୁବ୍ରତ ପୃଷ୍ଟି ଓ ନିର୍ମଳା କୁମାରୀ ମହାନ୍ତି ଆଦି ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ଅନେକ ଗବେଷଣାଭିତ୍ତିକ ବହିରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ବିନୟ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ, ଭାରତ ମାଝି ଓ ମନୋଜ ପଣ୍ଡାଙ୍କ ସାହିତ୍ୟ କୃତି ତଥା "ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଶା" ଓ "ସମଦୃଷ୍ଟି" ଭଳି ପ୍ରକାଶନ ସଙ୍ଗଠନର ବହିମାନ ସତ୍ୱାଧୀକାରୀଙ୍କ ଉଦାର ଅନୁମତି କ୍ରମେ ଏଥିରେ ସ୍ଥାନୀତ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ସର୍ବାଧିକ ୧୨୦୦ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଥର ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରି ପାହାପାଖି ୪ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବହିକୁ ପୁନଟାଇପ କରିଥିବା ପଙ୍କଜବାଳା ଷଡ଼ଙ୍ଗୀ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବାହାରେ ରହି ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ମହାନ କଳା-ଚଳଣି-ଭାଷା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ ଅଧିକ ଜାଣିବାର ଶ୍ରେଷ୍ଠ ବାଟ ବୋଲି ଅଭିହିତ କରନ୍ତି । ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳି ଓ ବେଙ୍ଗାଳୁରୁର ସେଣ୍ଟର ଫର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଏଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟି ସହାୟତାରେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରର କିସ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନର ୯ ଜଣ ଶିକ୍ଷକ ଓ ପାଖାପାଖି ୫୦ ଜଣ ଛାତ୍ର ଏଯାବତ ୪ଟି ବହି ଟାଇପ କରିସାରିଲେଣି । ପିଲାମାନେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଓ ଏଥିରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା ଶିଖିବା ଭବିଷ୍ୟତରେ ତାଙ୍କ ଚାକିରିରେ ସହାୟକ ହେବ ବୋଲି କହନ୍ତି ଏହାକୁ ପରିଚାଳନା କରୁଥିବା କିସର ଶିକ୍ଷକ ପ୍ରୀତିନନ୍ଦା ରାୟ । ଆଉ କେଉଁଠି ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ଟାଇପ ହୋଇ ନଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଗବତକୁ odia.org ରୁ ଆଣି ତାକୁ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ରୂପାନ୍ତର ୭ ଜଣ ନୂଆ ଉଇକିଆଳି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ସ୍ଥାନୀତ କରିବା ସତରେ ଏକ ଐତିହାସିକ ପଦକ୍ଷେପ । ଆଗକୁ ଆମେ ବିରଳ ପୋଥି ଦୁଷ୍ପ୍ରାପ୍ୟ ଓ ଛପାଯାଉନଥିବା ବହିମାନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବୁ ବୋଲି କହନ୍ତି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ପରିଚାଳକ ମୃତ୍ୟଞ୍ଜୟ କର ।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/odiapua-december-1-2014-article-on-odia-wikipedia

A Seminar on E-publishing of Odia Books

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T02:41:26Z

A seminar was organized by Molybtech Technology Solutions on November 30, 2014 for the betterment of Odia language and writers at Bhanja Kala Mandap.

Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the seminar as a speaker and shared his knowledge with the audience.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/seminar-e-publishing-odia-books

तेसर फ्यूल कॉन्फरेंस आओर मोज़िला हैकाथन संपन्न

praskrishna — 2015-12-15T07:59:47Z

तेसरा फ़्यूल ज़िल्ट कॉन्फरेंस 2015 23 तारिख कए चेन्नई मे संपन्न भेल ।

The article was published by esamaad on November 19, 2015.

भाषाई कंप्यूटिंगक लेल मानक संसाधन बनेबा मे पिछला सात साल स लागल फ़्यूल परियोजना दिस स 2013 मे शुरू करल गेल एहि सम्मेलन क प्रायोजक आओर आयोजक दुनिया क जानल-मानल कंपनी मोज़िला, सी-डैक आओर रेड हैट छल। तीन दिवसीय इ सम्मेलन 20 नवंबर कए आरंभ भेल। एकर उद्घाटन सत्र कए मोज़िला क लोकलाइजेशन ड्राइवर एक्सेल हेच्ट, आईआईटी मद्रास क प्रोफ़ेसर हेमा मूर्ति, आईआईटी मद्रासे क हेमचंद्रण कराह आओर सीडैक क सहायक निदेशक जसजीत सिंह संबोधित केलथि‍। पहि‍ल दिन क सांझक पैनल डिसक्शन मे मोज़िला क पेइंग मो आओर आर्की आ अवाया क जी. करूणाकर आओर फ्यूल प्रोजेक्ट क संस्थापक राजेश रंजन क मॉडरेशन मे खुजल परिचर्चा भेल। पहि‍ल दिन क कार्यक्रम मे कैकटा जानल-मानल भाषाई कंप्यूटिंग पर काज करय बला विद्वान हिस्सा लेलथि‍ ।

तमिलनाडु क स्थानीय भाषाई तकनीकी विशेषज्ञ क अलावा एहि सम्मेलन मे भारत आओर नेपाल क विभिन्न भाषा-भाषाई हिस्सा क करीब पचास स बेसी लोग उपस्थित छलाह। तीन दिवसीय एहि सम्मेलन क पहि‍ल दिन सभ लेल खुलल छल जखनकि अगि‍ला दू दिन मोज़िला लोकलाइजेशन हैकाथन क कार्यक्रम चलल जेकरा लेल सहभागी ख़ास तौर पर आमंत्रित कैल गेल छलाह। लोकलाइजेशन कोनो स्रोत भाषा से स्थानीय भाषा मे कोनो उत्पाद कए बदलबा क पूरा प्रक्रिया कए कहल जाएत छल। एहिक अंतर्गत मोज़िलाक विभिन्न उत्पाद क लोकलाइजेशन यानी स्थानीयकरण क प्रक्रिया, ओहि मे सुधार आओर भविष्य क कार्ययोजना पर विस्तार स चर्चा भेल। पूरा कार्यक्रम क संचालन सी-डैक क तकनीकी अधिकारी चंद्रकांत धूताडमल केलथि‍।

उद्घाटन सत्र क आरंभ करैत फ़्यूल प्रोजेक्ट क संस्थापक राजेश रंजन फ़्यूल प्रोजेक्ट क बारे मे उपस्थित श्रोता क बतेलथि‍ – ओ बतेलथि‍ कि खालि सामुदायिक योगदान आओर कि‍छु संगठनक मदति क बदौलत भाषाई संसाधन क इ प्रोजेक्ट दुनिया क सबसे पैघ खुलल परियोजना बनि‍ गेल छल। मानक तकनीकी शब्दावली, स्टाइल गाइड, ट्रांसलेशन एसेसमेंट मैट्रिक्स सहित कैकटा महत्वपूर्ण संसाधन स लैस इ प्रोजेक्ट विश्वव्यापी भाषाई संदर्भ क बड़का अभिलेख बनि‍ गेल छल। गौरतलब अछि कि दुनिया क क़रीब 60 भाषा क भाषा समुदाय अखैन एहि परिजोयना स जुड़ल छल। मोज़िला क एक्सेल भारत मे बढ़ि‍ रहल इंटरनेट उपयोगकर्ताओं क महत्व कए रेखांकित करैत बतेलथि‍ कि मोज़िला आओर एकर खुलल मूल्य क उपस्थिति कतेक महत्वपूर्ण अछि। हेमा मू्र्ति क‍हलथि‍ कि अखनो भाषाई कंप्यूटिंग क स्थिति बेसी नीक नहि भेल है आओर एहि क्षेत्र मे आरो काज केनाय बाकी अछि। जसजीत सिंह कहलथि‍ कि कि‍छु आओर पैघ कंपनी क संग फ़्यूल क जुड़ाव भेनाय जरूरी अछि आओर उ कंपनी सब कए सामुदायिक रूप से तैयार कैल गेल संसाधन क महत्व कए बुझनाय चाही। समानता क चिह्न आओर डिजिटल मानविकी क विकास पर हेमचंद्रण क वक्तव्य बहुत उम्दा छल। ओ कहलथि‍ कि डिजिटल मानविकी पारंपरिक मानविकी कए हैक कए लेने अछि । ओ कहलथि‍ कि हमरा खाली इंटरफेस स्तरीय लोकलाइजेशन स ऊपर उठबा चाही।

कार्यक्रम मे लिब्रेऑफिस क इटालो विग्नोली, हमारा लिनक्स क विकास तारा, इतिहासकार रविकांत आओर जानल-मानल ब्लॉगर रवि रतलामी सेहो अपन वक्तव्य देलथि‍। भाषाई तकनीक विशेषज्ञ बिराज कर्माकर, प्रवीण ए, शुभाशीष पाणिग्रही, वीथिका मिश्रा, प्रवीण सतपुते, चंदन कुमार, राजू विंदाने सहित कैकटा लोग सेहो अपन वक्तव्य देलथि‍।

मोज़िलाक एक्सेल हेच्ट, पेइंग मो आओर आर्की क दिशा-निर्देश मे अंतिम दू दिन तक विभिन्न भाषा मे काज करय बला लोगक व्यापक परिचर्चा क दौरान कैकटा विषय पर बात भेल आओर उपस्थित लोग मोज़िला क स्वयंसेवी गतिविधियों क भविष्यक कार्ययोजना बनेलथ‍ि।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/esamaad-november-19-2015-third-fuel-conference-completed-in-chennai

30 Books of Odia Author and Historian Jagannath Prasad Das to Come Online on Odia Wikisource

subha — 2016-01-03T11:19:12Z

The article was published in Discover Bhubaneswar, a web portal on Odisha on December 4, 2015.

Odia author and cultural historian Jagannath Prasad Das has recently permitted to re-license under a free license Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0 for 30 volumes of his notable works. The author, popularly known as “J P” or “JP Das” has been honored with Saraswati Samman and Sahitya Academy award for his significant contribution in fiction, historical research of Odisha’s cultural heritage in his books Puri Paintings, Chitra-Pothi and Palm-leaf Miniatures apart from his Odia books “Prathama Purusa” and “Bhabanatha O Anyamane”.

“I made a rather late and hesitant entry into the internet and digital world, but it has since become an integral part of my life. My introduction to digital books was through Srujanika’s digitised version of Purnachandra Odia Bhashakosha – all of 95,00 pages in seven volumes — which was impossible to handle on the writing table. That made me think how wonderful it would be to have all Odia books available on the internet that could be easily accessible to every interested reader”, says Das.

“As a beginning I decided to put my own writings on the internet. Many of our young Odia writers are are quite active on the social media. I hope they will take the initiative to get more and more Odia books available on the internet with the help of Odia Wikisource”, he adds.

This contribution opens up a whole new window to his books being accessible to readers for free online. Recently the scanning of the original books were made by the Bhubaneswar based non-profit and science education research organization Srujanika which will now be made available after converting them into text form.

Apart from Dr Das, many other notable individuals like Padma shree Debi Prasanna Pattanayak, Dr Subrat Prusty, Manoj Panda, Bharat Majhi and organisations like Aama Odisha, Manik Biswanath Smrutinyasa have taken the noble step of sharing their works online with free licenses using Odia Wikisource as a platform.

Odia Wikisource, a sister project of the Odia Wikipedia, is available online at or.wikisource.org. There are over 238 books already and all of the books are either under Public Domain or under the above mentioned Creative Commons Share-Alike license which gives the freedom of accessing the works for free, reuse them and even correct if any mistakes found, of course following the guidelines made by the Wikisource community. Currently about 10 Wikisourcers are actively contributing to digitize books of various genre, ranging from science to fiction to even the Odia classics.

With more authors generously opening up their work online, it feels like they are worried of the books becoming obsolete from the new generation leaving them with no way to learn about their own language and literature. Regional languages like Odia are facing the struggle to selling more books with the growing trend of English-centric education and rat race for jobs. In such a tough situation more popular Odia literary content is certainly going to give a boost to readership and will take the language to more people.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discover-bhubaneswar-30-books-of-odia-author-and-historian-jagannath-prasad-das-to-come-online-on-odia-wikisource

2nd National Language Conference, Bhubaneswar

subha — 2015-04-10T15:23:02Z

Institute of Odia Studies and Research organised 2nd National Language Conference beginning on Monday, March 30, 2015 and ending on April 2, 2015 at the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar. This conference was organised in collaboration with the Department of Tourism and Culture. I presented a paper in Odia language in this conference as part of a panel discussion related to Odia language computing.

I spoke briefly about the issues with Odia being used massively on the Internet and gaining popular with Odia speaking netizens. Odia Wikimedia community and CIS-A2K's efforts has resulted growth in online Odia content. I also shared the potential projects that people could get involved and how collective effort will yield more diversification of the language and its use by today's generation.

The talk is available on Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 license.

Video

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/second-national-language-conference-bhubaneswar