Centre for Internet and Society

Bodh: a new tool for Wikidata lexicographical data

Bodhisattwa Mandal — 2021-06-28T01:19:11Z

We are happy to announce that a new tool, named Bodh, has been developed by Jay Prakash, as a CIS-A2K assignment, to add or modify statements for lexemes, senses and forms.

This tool presents lexicographical data in tabular format generated from SPARQL queries or from manual lists. Users can switch whether to work on lexeme proper, sense or form and add or modify statements there.

The idea of this tool was inspired by the one and only Magnus Manske's Tabernacle which helps editors to add or modify statements, labels, descriptions and aliases for Wikidata's entity data.

The tool is going to be documented here. Users of this tool can request for more features or report for bugs using this phabricator project profile.

Happy editing!

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/bodh-a-new-tool-for-wikidata-lexicographical-data

Research Studies on Indian Language Wikimedia Projects 2019-21

sneha — 2022-10-21T12:59:55Z

This is a compilation of the final reports from a series of short-term studies undertaken by the CIS-A2K team in 2019-2021, on an array of topics related to Indian language Wikimedia projects. The projects were undertaken by Subodh Kulkarni, Bodhisattwa Mandal, Bhuvana Meenakshi Koteeswaran, Ananth Subray, Satpal Dandiwal and Nitesh Gill, with research oversight and editorial support by Puthiya Purayil Sneha, and internal review by Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Ambika Tandon.

See the full report on Wikimedia Commons here

Click to download the full report here

Wikipedia and its many sister projects have been rich sites of study for researchers across the world for many years now. The online encyclopedia presents a microcosm of the real world in terms of the dynamics of knowledge production and use, including content and infrastructure, and community interaction among many other things. Research about Wikimedia projects and platforms has been undertaken in various languages, and from multidisciplinary perspectives, as illustrated by the research index on Wikimedia Meta-Wiki, and several important publications over the last several years. Research on Indian languageWikimedia projects and platforms, and on topics related to the sub-continent have also emerged significantly over the last several years.However, as understood in the course of the studies in this compilation as well, awareness about such research within the communities itself remains limited. While there is a lot of important work being undertaken on topics relevant to Indian Wikimedia projects, often by researchers who are Wikimedians themselves, factors such as dissemination beyond academic spaces, and accessibility in terms of language and context seem to also affect their availability to the larger communities, and in terms of implementation of learnings and recommendations.

The six short-term research studies undertaken by the Access to Knowledge team over 2019–2021 were therefore initiated as a pilot, an initial foray into the space of research on Wikimedia projects in India. Based on the recommendations of the Wikimedia Foundation, this work was undertaken primarily to tap into new areas of work, while also drawing upon existing expertise at CIS, and in order to build the capacity of the team. With these broader motivations in mind, the research was structured with the following objectives to:

Identify knowledge gaps, challenges, and opportunities in different aspects of content creation and participation in Indian language Wikimedia projects.
Develop a better understanding of systemic issues such as gender bias in Indian language communities, access to and reuse of cultural content, open learning in multilingual classrooms, and specific experiences of content creation within Wikimedia communities in India and associated initiatives.
Develop recommendations and best practices towards addressing existing challenges and optimising available resources for the larger free knowledge movement.

The studies in this compilation therefore examine different aspects of Wikimedia platforms and projects in India, in close alignment with existing work in the programme. These include the gender gap in Indian Wikimedia communities, creating multilingual and open educational platforms and resources, focus on specific projects such as GLAM and Wikidata, and efforts and challenges with content creation, access and outreach in specific language communities.

Working on these studies has been a learning experience, especially given the diverse contexts in which the projects are located, and the capacities and interests of the researchers themselves. The design of the studies was also therefore developed and modified to build on existing capacities within the team, and its learnings from previous years of working with various language communities. Capacity-building for team members on research design, methods, fieldwork and documentation was mostly done through close individual supervision and collaborative work. The methods used were largely qualitative, and ranged from interviews, literature reviews, data visualisations, focused group discussions and comparative analyses. The effort was also to try and capture the scale and diversity of the nature of work being undertaken in different Indian language communities through these projects. There were several challenges as well, beginning with framing the research questions and project design in a way that they were accessible to a wider community of people who would be engaged in contributing their inputs towards the work. Process-related challenges, such as translation of interview questionnaires into Indian languages revealed several interesting gaps, such as the lack of technical terms related to digitization or open access in these languages. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 led to restrictions on field visits, thus effectively hampering in person conversations and easier access to community members.

There have been several learnings in the course of working on these studies, key among them being questions of awareness, relevance and impact. The lack of existing and easily accessible research (including those outside academic work) on several areas of Wikimedia in the Indian context has been a limitation in many ways, offering little in terms of available knowledge and best practices to work with. The limited awareness about, and imagined relevance of research in the regular work of communities has also been an impediment. As illustrated by learnings from a short research needs assessment carried out earlier this year, few community members were aware of research on Wikimedia projects being undertaken in India, and on a global scale. More importantly, there needs to be a conversation on its relevance to their own work, and to the larger movement. An effective communication strategy for research work, in different Indian languages, would perhaps address some of these gaps. A closely related question is also that of impact. The studies in this collection largely focus on short-term impact, through best practices and recommendations that may be developed through the research studies. While this is definitely a pragmatic approach, often the interest in a problem-solution design may look at research purely from an instrumental lens to identify quick solutions and their implementation, without a critical take on exploring and understanding larger, systemic or structural gaps that may be contributing to the problems itself. Going forward, it would be imperative therefore to identify areas of research, and build processes of research design that may address these challenges. Given the dynamic nature of Wikimedia, its platforms and communities, it is important to identify immediate gaps and possible solutions, but also to speak precisely to this aspect of long-term impact and relevance, to both current areas of work and the growth of the larger movement. We hope the studies in this compilation offer some insights towards these, and many more interesting questions related to research on Wikimedia and the free knowledge movement in India.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/research-studies-on-indian-language-wikimedia-projects

Access to Knowledge 2019–2020 Utilisation Certificate

tito — 2020-09-30T22:15:27Z

Access to Knowledge 2019–2020 WMF APG Utilisation Certificate

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/access-to-knowledge-201920132020-utilisation-certificate

Project Tiger 2.0 utilisation certificate

A2K — 2020-09-23T23:40:44Z

Project Tiger 2.0 utilisation certificate

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/project-tiger-2-0-utilisation-certificate

Wikiorientation at Dr.GR Damodaran College of Science

bhuvana — 2019-12-23T08:18:11Z

An orientation session on Wikimedia projects was held on 6-7 December 2019 at Dr. GR Damodaran College of Science. This talk was part of the “Hour of Code” event, which is an International event celebrated across the globe to encourage students to develop their knowledge on Computer Science. This event was supported by Open Knowledge movements like Wikimedia, Mozilla, etc.which would help students to share their knowledge in the form of volunteerships and contributions. The highlights of gender gap research and women based projects such as Women in Red were covered as part of a focussed group discussion.

Hour of code event

The “Hour of Code” is an International event conducted across the globe to commemorate the birthday of Grace Hopper, a computer scientist. In India 1047 events were officially registered and were conducted region-wise. In Coimbatore, Dr.G.R. Damodaran College of Science initiated the first Hour of Code event in the city. The event was attended by 400-500 students, where 50% of the participants were identified as women, from various departments and 6 Open Source and Knowledge movements’ community members were invited as speakers. Among them were Wikimedia, Mozilla, Google Developers Groups, Facebook Devcircles, Women Tech Makers and School of AI where all the community representatives pitched to the student gathering on how to contribute to these groups. The students were enthusiastic to initiate Open source clubs and also nominate a Point Of Contact with the guidance of the faculty members.

Wiki Orientation

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikiorientation_at_Dr.GR_Damodaran_college_of_arts_and_science,_Coimbatore_-6.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikiorientation_at_Dr.GR_Damodaran_college_of_arts_and_science,_Coimbatore_-7.jpg

I was invited as a Chief Guest for the event to talk to students about how they may contribute to Wikimedia and its projects. I presented to the students the various forms of Wiki which would be of interest to coders and non-coders. This also included discussions on Wikidata, Wikisource, Wikipedia, Wikimedia commons and Wikimedia in Education program. As the participants from the college were mostly from Tamil Nadu, I also emphasised how contribution in Tamil in the Wiki world will be of great help. I discussed with students how contribution to an Open Knowledge movement not only enhances their intellectual stand but also benefits the whole world. Also the founder of Koval labs, Coimbatore was the co-speaker of the day who highlighted about importance of Open source and Computer Science in today's industries.

Bridging Gender Gap

After the orientation, I invited a few participants to a focussed group discussion about my research on “Bridging the Gender gap in Indian Wikipedia languages”.A majority of the participants were women, even though the event was open to all. I discussed the research work and the necessity behind this. Apart from this I introduced the students to various women- focussed wiki-based projects such as Women In Red, WikiLoves Women, Wiki Women for Women Well Being (WWWW) etc. I also asked the attendees to express t in the open discussion session on what are the major issues faced by women in technology taking examples from their own lives.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikiorientation_at_Dr.GR_Damodaran_college_of_arts_and_science,_Coimbatore_-12.jpg

The common and major issues with pursuing a career in technology discussed were the inaccessibility to internet and infrastructure to work at home besides the other household responsibilities. Also the freedom to pursue a career in this field is less and not permissible for longer years in these women's lives.

Key observations/ learnings

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikiorientation_at_Dr.GR_Damodaran_college_of_arts_and_science,_Coimbatore_-9.jpg

The key issues of women working on technology in a structured environment (such as an educational institution in this case).
The possibilities of initiating a WikiClub at the campus.
Almost 60% was interested in non/less coding contributions/subjects.
Discussed the kinds of projects students can contribute to on Wikipedia.

Press coverage about the event can be seen at Desathin Nambikai , The Covai mail news , Prime Time Tamil , Covai news and Updatenews360.com

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikiorientation-at-dr-gr-damodaran-college-of-science

Project Tiger 2.0

Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill — 2019-11-24T09:17:42Z

If you think that Indian languages are as important as international languages, like English, then, you are on the same page with this article. If not, then, let me explain, why it is a significant and much bigger issue than you think.

The blog post by Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill is in multiple languages: English, Punjabi, Hindi and Telugu.

భారతీయ భాషలు కూడా ఆంగ్లం వంటి అంతర్జాతీయ భాషలతో సమానంగా ముఖ్యమైనవి అని మీరు అనుకుంటే ఈ వ్యాసం మీరు తప్పకుండ చదవాలి. ఒక వేళా మీకు అలా అనిపించకపోతే, ఈ విషయం ఎంత ముఖ్యమైనది మరియు పెద్దది అని చెప్తాను చూడండి. ప్రతి రోజు లక్షల మంది వినియోగదారులు అంతర్జాలం నుండి సమాచారాన్ని పొందడానికి ప్రయత్నిస్తుంటారు. భారతదేశంలో, మాతృభాషలో సమాచారాన్ని పొందడానికి ప్రయత్నించే వినియోగదారుల సంఖ్య అధికంగా ఉంది. 2021వ సంవత్సరం నాటికీ, హిందీ వినియోగదారుల సంఖ్య ఆంగ్ల వినియోగదారుల సంఖ్యను అధిగమిస్తుందని మరియు మరికొన్ని భారతీయ భాషలు అంతర్జాలంలో 30% వినియోగదారులను కలిగి ఉంటాయని అధ్యయనం చెబుతుంది. 68% అంతర్జాల వినియోగదారులు ఆంగ్ల భాష సమాచారం కంటే స్థానిక భాషా సమాచారం నమ్మదగినదిగా భావిస్త్తున్నారని పరిశోధన పేర్కొనింది.

ఈ వాస్తవాలు అన్నీ ఉన్నప్పటికీ, భారతీయ భాషలలోని సమాచారాన్ని పొందకుండా వినియోగదారులను పరిమితం చేసే ఒక ప్రధాన కారణం, ఆన్‌లైన్‌లో కనిపించే భారీ జ్ఞాన అంతరం. గూగుల్ యొక్క పరిశోధనా బృందం భారతీయ భాషలలో అంతర్జాలంలో ఎక్కువగా శోధించిన మరియు తప్పిపోయిన అంశాల ఫలితాలను విశ్లేషించినప్పుడు, వారు వికీమీడియా ఫౌండేషన్‌తో భాగస్వామ్యం కావాలని నిర్ణయించుకున్నారు మరియు ప్రాజెక్ట్ టైగర్ అనే పైలట్ ప్రోగ్రామ్‌ను ప్రారంభించారు. దీనిని 2017లో, సెంటర్ ఫర్ ఇంటర్నెట్ అండ్ సొసైటీ - యాక్సిస్ టు నాలెడ్జ్ వారి సహకారంతో భారతీయ వికీమీడియన్లను తమ స్థానిక భాషలో నాణ్యత గల సమాచారమును అభివృద్ధి చేయటంలో ప్రోత్సహించడానికి ప్రారంభించారు.

ప్రాజెక్ట్ టైగర్ అనేది భారత దేశంలో పులులను రక్షించడం కోసం ప్రారంభించిన పర్యావరణ ప్రాజెక్ట్. దానిని స్ఫూర్తిగా తీసుకోని వికీపీడియా యొక్క ప్రాజెక్ట్ టైగర్ భారత దేశపు స్థానిక భాషలను సంరక్షించుకుంటూ స్థానిక భాషా వికీపీడియాలలో నాణ్యమైన సమాచారమును అభివృద్ధి చేయటమే లక్ష్యంగా పెట్టుకుంది. ఈ ప్రాజెక్ట్ రెండు దశల్లో జరుగుతుంది: ప్రాజెక్ట్ టైగర్ 2018 లో భాగంగా గూగుల్, వ్యాసాల రచనలను పెంచడానికి సాంకేతిక సహకారం అవసరమయ్యే అనుభవజ్ఞులైన వికీమీడియన్లకు మరియు ఆశాజనక వికీమీడియన్లకు 50 క్రోమ్‌బుక్‌లు మరియు 100 ఇంటర్నెట్ స్టైపెండ్‌లను అందచేయడం జరిగింది. పంపిణీ పూర్తయిన తర్వాత, కమ్యూనిటీలు గూగుల్ అందించిన జాబితా నుండి కథనాలను సృష్టించడం ప్రారంభించాయి.

2018 లో జరిగిన ప్రాజెక్ట్ టైగర్ యొక్క మొదటి పునరావృతంలో, 12 భారతీయ కమ్యూనిటీలు మార్చి నుండి మేల వరకు 3 నెలలు జరిగిన వ్యాస రచన పోటీలో పాల్గొని, మొత్తం 1,65,774 పేజీ వీక్షణలతో 4,466 వ్యాసాలను సృష్టించాయి! ప్రతి వ్యాసాన్ని సంబంధిత భాషా జ్యూరీ సభ్యుడు పారామితుల ప్రకారం సమీక్షిస్తారు. ఒక వ్యాసం అన్ని ప్రమాణాలకు అనుగుణంగా ఉంటేనే అది అంగీకరించబడుతుంది. ఈ పోటీలో పంజాబీ కమ్యూనిటీ 1320 వ్యాసాలతో విజయం సాధించింది, తమిళ కమ్యూనిటీ 1241 వ్యాసాలతో రెండవ స్థానంలో ఉంది.

ప్రతి కమ్యూనిటీ నుండి మొదటి మూడు స్థానాలలోవచ్చినవిజేతలకు ఇచ్చే నెలవారీ బహుమతులతో పాటు, గెలిచిన మరియు రన్నరప్ కమ్యూనిటీలు పంజాబ్‌లోని అమృత్సర్‌లో 3 రోజుల శిక్షణను పొందారు. ఈ ట్రైనింగ్సెషన్కు యూజర్: అసఫ్ (WMF) నాయకత్వం వహించారు, అక్కడ అతను ఎన్సైక్లోపెడిక్ విలువతో వ్యాసాలు రాయడం గురించి పాల్గొనేవారికి నేర్పించాడు మరియు వికీడేటా మరియు అందులో ఉపయోగించిన సాధనాలను కూడా పరిచయం చేశాడు.

2018 లో ప్రాజెక్ట్ టైగర్ యొక్క భారీ విజయాన్ని చూసిన తరువాత, రెండవ పునరుక్తిని ప్రాజెక్ట్ టైగర్ 2.0 లేదా గ్లో (వికీపీడియాలో పెరుగుతున్న స్థానిక భాషా కంటెంట్) అని ప్రారంభించారు. భారతదేశంతో పాటు మరో రెండు దేశాల్లో ఇది మొదటిసారి నడుస్తోంది. ఇంతకుముందు పాల్గొన్న 12 భాషా సంఘాలతో పాటు, సంతాలి మరియు సంస్కృతం కూడా ఈ సంవత్సరం పోటీలో పాల్గొనడానికి అంగీకరించాయి. కమ్యూనిటీలు వ్రాయడానికి వారి స్వంత కథనాల సమితితో పాటు గూగుల్ ఇచ్చిన జాబితాతో వస్తున్నాయి. ఈ సంవత్సరం, ఈ ప్రాజెక్ట్ అధిక నాణ్యత కలిగిన కథనాలను లక్ష్యంగా పెట్టుకుంది. మరియు అన్నీ కమ్యూనిటీల వారు కూడా అదే విధంగా చేయటానికి కట్టుబడి ఉన్నాయి.

మీరు పోటీలో చేరడానికి ఆసక్తి కలిగి ఉంటే, దయచేసి ఈ లింకును సందర్శించండి

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Growing_Local_Language_Content_on_Wikipedia_(Project_Tiger_2.0)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/project-tiger-2-telugu

Project Tiger 2.0

Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill — 2019-11-24T09:15:06Z

The blog post by Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill is in multiple languages: English, Punjabi, Hindi and Telugu.

अगर आप सोचते हैं कि मूल भाषाएँ भी अंग्रेजी जैसी अंतरराष्ट्रीय भाषाओं जितनी ही महत्वपूर्ण है, तो इस पोस्ट को ज़रूर पढ़िए। यदि आपको ऐसा नही लगता, तो आइए आपको संक्षेप में बताएँ कि यह एक जरूरी और बड़ा मुद्दा है। हर दिन, लाखों उपभोगकर्ता इंटरनेट से जानकारी प्राप्त करने की कोशिश करते हैं। भारत में, बहु-गिनती अपनी मूल भाषा में जानकारी प्राप्त करने वालों की है। आंकड़े बताते हैं कि साल 2021 तक, हिन्दी उपभोगकर्ताओं की गिनती अंग्रेजी उपभोगकर्ताओं की गिनती को पार कर देगी और कुछ ओर भारती भाषाएँ मिलकर भारती भाषा के इंटरनेट उपभोग-कर्ता आधार का 30% बनती है। खोज अनुसार 68% इंटरनेट उपभोगकर्ता स्थानीय सामग्री को अंग्रेजी से ज्यादा भरोसेमंद मानता है।

इन सब तथ्यों के बावजूद, भारतीय भाषा के इंटरनेट उपभोगकर्ताओं के लिए जानकारी प्राप्त करने का दायरा बहुत सीमित है जिस का मुख्य कारण ऑनलाइन मौजूदा ज्ञान की कमी है। इस समस्या का समाधान करने के लिए, गूगल ने विकीमीडिया फ़ाउंडेशन के साथ मिलकर काम का फैसला लिया। गूगल और विकीमीडिया ने मिलकर एक पायलट प्रोजेक्ट शुरू किया जिस का नाम प्राजैकट टाइगर रखा रखा। इस प्रोजेक्ट को भारतीय भाषाओं के विकिपीडियाओं का समर्थन (Supporting Indian language Wikipedias) के नाम से भी जाना जाता है। 2017 में सैंटर फार इंटरनेट एंड सोसाइटी- एक्सिस टू नॉलेज के माध्यम से भारती विकीमिडीअनस के सहयोग के साथ स्थानीय भाषाओं के विकीपीडिया पर उच्च गुणवत्ता की सामग्री को तैयार करना शुरू किया गया।

प्रोजेक्ट टाइगर का नाम भारत में शुरू किए गए 'Save Tiger' प्रोजेक्ट से प्रेरित है। Save Tiger परियोजना का उद्देश्य टाइगर की रक्षा करना था और प्रोजेक्ट टाइगर का लक्ष्य भारतीय भाषाओं को संरक्षित करना और स्थानीय विकिपीडिया पर मूल भाषा में सामग्री तैयार करना है। इस परियोजना को दो चरणों में विभाजित किया गया है। पहले चरण में, गूगल ने 2018 में अनुभवी और सक्रिय विकीमीडिया को 50 क्रामबुक और 100 इंटरनेट सुविधाएँ प्रदान की थी। चयनित विकिमेडियनों को प्रौद्योगिकी सुविधाएँ प्रदान करने के बाद, प्रतियोगिता के लिए गूगल द्वारा उपलब्ध कराए गए लेखों की सूची से और समुदाय द्वारा उत्पादित स्थानीय लेखों की सूची से लेख बनाना शुरू किया।

प्रोजेक्ट टाइगर पहली बार 2018 में आयोजित किया गया था, जिसमें 12 भारतीय समुदाय शामिल थे। इन समुदायों ने मार्च से मई तक 3 महीने के लेख लेखन प्रतियोगिता में अपना योगदान दिया और 4,466 नए लेख बनाए। प्रत्येक समुदाय द्वारा अपनी स्वयं की जूरी चुनी गई थी, जिन्होंने मानदंडों के अनुसार बनाए गए लेखों की समीक्षा की थी। यदि कोई लेख सभी मापदंडों को पूरा करता है, तो उसे स्वीकार किया गया और एक अंक दिया गया। इस प्रतियोगिता में पंजाबी समुदाय ने कुल 1,320 लेखों के साथ प्रतियोगिता में जीत हासिल की, जबकि तमिल समुदाय 1,241 लेखों के साथ दूसरे स्थान पर रहा।

प्रत्येक समुदाय के प्रथम तीन प्रतिभागियों को मासिक पुरस्कार देने के अलावा, विजेता और उप-विजेता समुदायों को अमृतसर, पंजाब में तीन दिन का विकी प्रशिक्षण दिया गया था। इसका नेतृत्व User: Asaf (WMF) द्वारा किया गया जहां उन्होने प्रतिभागियों को लेख लिखने के लिए नियमों से परिचित कराया और विकीडाटा के बारे में बताने के साथ-साथ इसमें इस्तेमाल किए गए टूलों का उपयोग करना भी सिखाया गया।

2018 में प्रोजेक्ट टाइगर की उत्कृष्ट सफलता को देखने के बाद, दूसरी बार प्रोजेक्ट टाइगर का आयोजन किया जा रहा है, जिसका नाम प्रोजेक्ट टाइगर 2.0 या GLOW (GLOW-Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia) है। यह भारत के अलावा पहली बार दो ओर देशों में आयोजित किया जा रहा है। पिछली बार 12 भाषाई समुदायों ने इसमें भाग लिया था। इसके अलावा, इस वर्ष संथाली और संस्कृत भी इस प्रतियोगिता में भाग लेने के लिए सहमत हो गए हैं। समुदाय, जल्द ही, गूगल द्वारा उपलब्ध कराए गए लेखों की सूची और उनके द्वारा बनाई गई स्थानीय सूचियों से लेख बनाना शुरू करेंगे। इस वर्ष, इस परियोजना का उद्देश्य उच्च गुणवत्ता वाले लेख हैं और समुदाय ऐसा करने के लिए प्रतिबद्ध हैं।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/project-tiger-2-hindi

Project Tiger 2.0

Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill — 2019-11-24T09:13:03Z

The blog post by Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill is in multiple languages: English, Punjabi, Hindi and Telugu.

ਜੇਕਰ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਸੋਚਦੇ ਹੋ ਕਿ ਮੂਲ ਭਾਸ਼ਾਵਾਂ ਵੀ ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ੀ ਵਰਗੀਆਂ ਅੰਤਰਰਾਸ਼ਟਰੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾਵਾਂ ਜਿੰਨੀਆਂ ਮਹੱਤਵਪੂਰਣ ਹਨ, ਤਾਂ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਇਸ ਪੋਸਟ ਨੂੰ ਜ਼ਰੂਰ ਪੜ੍ਹੋ। ਜੇ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਇਸ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਲੱਗਦਾ ਹੈ, ਤਾਂ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਸੰਖੇਪ ਵਿਚ ਦੱਸ ਦਈਏ ਕਿ ਇਹ ਇੱਕ ਮਹੱਤਵਪੂਰਣ ਅਤੇ ਵੱਡਾ ਮੁੱਦਾ ਕਿਉਂ ਹੈ। ਹਰ ਰੋਜ਼, ਲੱਖਾਂ ਉਪਭੋਗਤਾ ਇੰਟਰਨੈਟ ਤੋਂ ਜਾਣਕਾਰੀ ਪ੍ਰਾਪਤ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਕੋਸ਼ਿਸ਼ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ। ਭਾਰਤ ਵਿੱਚ, ਆਪਣੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ (ਮੂਲ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ) ਵਿੱਚ ਜਾਣਕਾਰੀ ਪ੍ਰਾਪਤ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਕੋਸ਼ਿਸ਼ ਕਰਨ ਵਾਲਿਆਂ ਦੀ ਬਹੁਤਾਤ ਹੈ। ਅੰਕੜੇ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹਨ ਕਿ ਸਾਲ 2021 ਤੱਕ, ਹਿੰਦੀ ਉਪਭੋਗਤਾਵਾਂ ਦੀ ਗਿਣਤੀ ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ੀ ਉਪਭੋਗਤਾਵਾਂ ਦੀ ਗਿਣਤੀ ਨੂੰ ਪਾਰ ਕਰ ਦੇਵੇਗੀ ਅਤੇ ਕੁਝ ਹੋਰ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾਵਾਂ ਮਿਲਕੇ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਦੇ ਇੰਟਰਨੈਟ ਉਪਭੋਗਤਾ ਅਧਾਰ ਦਾ 30% ਬਣਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ। ਖੋਜ ਇਹ ਵੀ ਕਹਿੰਦੀ ਹੈ ਕਿ 68% ਇੰਟਰਨੈਟ ਉਪਭੋਗਤਾ ਸਥਾਨਕ ਸਮੱਗਰੀ ਨੂੰ ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ੀ ਸਮੱਗਰੀ ਨਾਲੋਂ ਵਧੇਰੇ ਭਰੋਸੇਮੰਦ ਮੰਨਦੇ ਹਨ।

ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਸਾਰੇ ਤੱਥਾਂ ਦੇ ਬਾਵਜੂਦ, ਭਾਰਤੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਦੇ ਇੰਟਰਨੈਟ ਉਪਭੋਗਤਾਵਾਂ ਲਈ ਜਾਣਕਾਰੀ ਤੱਕ ਪਹੁੰਚ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਦਾਇਰਾ ਭੂਤ ਸੀਮਤ ਹੈ ਜਿਸ ਦਾ ਮੁੱਖ ਕਾਰਨ ਆਨਲਾਈਨ ਮੌਜੂਦਾ ਗਿਆਨ ਦਾ ਵੱਡਾ ਪਾੜਾ ਹੈ। ਇਸ ਸਮੱਸਿਆ ਨੂੰ ਪਛਾਣਦਿਆਂ, ਗੂਗਲ ਨੇ ਪਾਇਆ ਕਿ ਸਥਾਨਕ ਭਾਸ਼ਾਵਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਸਮਗਰੀ ਨੂੰ ਉਪਲਬਧ ਕਰਵਾਉਣਾ ਜ਼ਰੂਰੀ ਹੈ ਤਾਂ ਗੂਗਲ ਨੇ ਵਿਕੀਮੀਡੀਆ ਨਾਲ ਮਿਲ ਕੇ ਕੰਮ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਫੈਸਲਾ ਕੀਤਾ। ਗੂਗਲ ਅਤੇ ਵਿਕੀਮੀਡੀਆ ਫਾਉਂਡੇਸ਼ਨ ਨੇ ਪ੍ਰਾਜੈਕਟ ਟਾਈਗਰ ਨਾਮਕ ਇੱਕ ਪਾਇਲਟ ਪ੍ਰੋਗਰਾਮ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਕੀਤਾ। ਇਸ ਨੂੰ, ਭਾਰਤੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾਵਾਂ ਦੇ ਵਿਕੀਪੀਡੀਆ ਦਾ ਸਮਰਥਨ (Supporting Indian language Wikipedias) ਵਜੋਂ ਵੀ ਜਾਣਿਆ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ, 2017 ਵਿਚ ਸੈਂਟਰ ਫਾਰ ਇੰਟਰਨੈਟ ਐਂਡ ਸੁਸਾਇਟੀ - ਐਕਸੈਸ ਟੂ ਨੋਲਜ ਦੇ ਮਾਧਿਅਮ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਵਿਕੀਮੀਡੀਅਨਜ਼ ਦੇ ਸਹਿਯੋਗ ਨਾਲ ਸਥਾਨਕ ਭਾਸ਼ਾਵਾਂ ਦੇ ਵਿਕੀਪੀਡੀਆ 'ਤੇ ਉੱਚ ਪੱਧਰੀ ਸਮੱਗਰੀ ਨੂੰ ਤਿਆਰ ਕਰਨਾ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਕੀਤਾ।https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program

ਪ੍ਰਾਜੈਕਟ ਟਾਈਗਰ ਦਾ ਨਾਂ, ਭਾਰਤ ਦੇ ਵਿਚ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਹੋਏ 'Save Tiger' ਪ੍ਰਾਜੈਕਟ ਤੋਂ ਪ੍ਰੇਰਿਤ ਹੋ ਕੇ ਰੱਖਿਆ ਗਿਆ ਹੈ। ਇਸ ਪ੍ਰਾਜੈਕਟ ਦਾ ਮਕਸਦ ਚਿੱਤਿਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਬਚਾਉਣਾ ਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਪ੍ਰਾਜੈਕਟ ਟਾਈਗਰ ਦਾ ਉਦੇਸ਼ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾਵਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਬਚਾਉਣਾ ਤੇ ਸਥਾਨਕ ਵਿਕੀਪੀਡੀਆ 'ਤੇ ਸਥਾਨਕ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ 'ਚ ਸਮੱਗਰੀ ਨੂੰ ਤਿਆਰ ਕਰਨਾ ਹੈ। ਇਸ ਪ੍ਰੋਜੈਕਟ ਨੂੰ ਦੋ ਪੜਾਵਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਵਿਭਾਜਿਤ ਕੀਤਾ ਗਿਆ ਹੈ। ਪਹਿਲੇ ਪੜਾਅ ਵਿਚ 2018 ਵਿਚ ਗੂਗਲ ਦੁਆਰਾ ਅਨੁਭਵੀ ਅਤੇ ਸਰਗਰਮ ਵਿਕੀਮੀਡੀਅਨਾਂ ਨੂੰ 50 ਕ੍ਰਾਮਬੁੱਕ ਅਤੇ 100 ਇੰਟਰਨੈਟ ਸੁਵਿਧਾਵਾਂ ਪ੍ਰਦਾਨ ਕੀਤੀਆਂ ਜਾਂਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ। ਜਦੋਂ ਇੱਕ ਵਾਰ ਚੁਨਿੰਦਾ ਵਿਕੀਮੀਡੀਅਨਜ਼ ਨੂੰ ਤਕਨਾਲੋਜੀ ਸੰਬੰਧੀ ਸੁਵਿਧਾਵਾਂ ਪ੍ਰਦਾਨ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ ਜਾਂਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ ਤਾਂ ਇਸ ਮੁਕਾਬਲੇ ਦੇ ਭਾਗੀਦਾਰ ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਗੂਗਲ ਦੁਆਰਾ ਪ੍ਰਦਾਨ ਕੀਤੀ ਲੇਖਾਂ ਦੀ ਸੂਚੀ ਅਤੇ ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਦੁਆਰਾ ਬਣਾਈ ਸਥਾਨਕ ਲੇਖਾਂ ਦੀ ਸੂਚੀ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਲੇਖ ਬਣਾਉਣੇ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਕੀਤੇ।

ਪ੍ਰਾਜੈਕਟ ਟਾਈਗਰ ਨੂੰ ਪਹਿਲੀ ਵਾਰ 2018 ਵਿੱਚ ਆਯੋਜਿਤ ਕੀਤਾ ਗਿਆ ਸੀ ਜਿਸ ਵਿਚ 12 ਭਾਰਤੀ ਭਾਈਚਾਰਿਆਂ ਨੇ ਭਾਗ ਲਿਆ ਸੀ। ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਭਾਈਚਾਰਿਆਂ ਨੇ ਮਾਰਚ ਤੋਂ ਮਈ ਦੇ ਦੌਰਾਨ 3 ਮਹੀਨੇ ਦੇ ਲੇਖ ਲਿਖਣ ਮੁਕਾਬਲੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਆਪਣਾ ਯੋਗਦਾਨ ਪਾਇਆ ਅਤੇ 4,466 ਨਵੇਂ ਲੇਖਾਂ ਦਾ ਵਾਧਾ ਕੀਤਾ। ਹਰੇਕ ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਦੀ ਆਪਣੀ ਜਿਊਰੀ ਚੁਣੀ ਗਈ ਸੀ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਲੇਖਾਂ ਦੀ ਮਾਪਦੰਡਾਂ ਅਨੁਸਾਰ ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਕੀਤੀ। ਜੇਕਰ ਕੋਈ ਲੇਖ ਸਾਰੇ ਮਾਪਦੰਡਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਪੂਰਾ ਕਰਦਾ ਸੀ, ਤਾਂ ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਸਵੀਕਾਰ ਕਰ ਇੱਕ ਪੁਆਇੰਟ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਸੀ। ਇਸ ਮੁਕਾਬਲੇ ਵਿਚ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਨੇ ਕੁਲ 1320 ਲੇਖਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਮੁਕਾਬਲਾ ਜਿੱਤਿਆ, ਜਦਕਿ ਤਾਮਿਲ ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਨੇ 1241 ਲੇਖਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਦੂਜਾ ਸਥਾਨ ਹਾਸਿਲ ਕੀਤਾ।

ਹਰੇਕ ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਚੋਟੀ ਦੇ ਤਿੰਨ ਭਾਗੀਦਾਰਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਮਾਸਿਕ ਇਨਾਮ ਦੇਣ ਤੋਂ ਇਲਾਵਾ, ਜੇਤੂ ਅਤੇ ਉਪ-ਜੇਤੂ ਭਾਈਚਾਰਿਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਇਨਾਮ ਵਜੋਂ 3 ਦਿਨਾਂ ਦੀ ਵਿਕੀ ਸੰਬੰਧੀ ਸਿਖਲਾਈ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ, ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿਖੇ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਗਈ। ਇਸ ਦੀ ਅਗਵਾਈ User:Asaf (WMF) ਦੁਆਰਾ ਕੀਤੀ ਗਈ ਜਿੱਥੇ ਉਸਨੇ ਭਾਗੀਦਾਰਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਲੇਖ ਲਿਖਣ ਦੇ ਨਿਯਮਾਂ ਤੋਂ ਜਾਣੂ ਕਰਵਾਇਆ ਅਤੇ ਵਿਕੀਡਾਟਾ ਬਾਰੇ ਤੇ ਇਸ ਵਿੱਚ ਵਰਤੇ ਜਾਣ ਵਾਲੇ ਟੂਲਾਂ ਦੀ ਵਰਤੋਂ ਕਰਨੀ ਆਦਿ ਦੀ ਸਿਖਲਾਈ ਦਿੱਤੀ।

2018 ਵਿੱਚ ਪ੍ਰੋਜੈਕਟ ਟਾਈਗਰ ਦੀ ਬੇਮਿਸਾਲ ਸਫਲਤਾ ਵੇਖਣ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ, ਦੂਸਰੀ ਵਾਰ ਵੀ ਪ੍ਰਾਜੈਕਟ ਟਾਈਗਰ ਆਯੋਜਿਤ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ ਜਿਸ ਨੂੰ ਪ੍ਰੋਜੈਕਟ ਟਾਈਗਰ 2.0 ਜਾਂ ਗਲੋਅ (GLOW -Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia) ਦਾ ਨਾਂ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਗਿਆ ਹੈ। ਇਹ ਪਹਿਲੀ ਵਾਰ ਭਾਰਤ ਤੋਂ ਇਲਾਵਾ ਦੋ ਹੋਰ ਦੇਸ਼ਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਆਯੋਜਿਤ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ। ਇਸ ਵਿਚ ਪਿਛਲੀ ਵਾਰ 12 ਭਾਸ਼ਾਈ ਭਾਈਚਾਰਿਆਂ ਨੇ ਭਾਗ ਲਿਆ ਸੀ, ਇਸ ਤੋਂ ਇਲਾਵਾ, ਇਸ ਸਾਲ ਸੰਥਾਲੀ ਅਤੇ ਸੰਸਕ੍ਰਿਤ ਵੀ ਇਸ ਮੁਕਾਬਲੇ ਵਿਚ ਸ਼ਾਮਲ ਹੋਣ ਲਈ ਰਜ਼ਾਮੰਦ ਹੋਏ ਹਨ। ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਗੂਗਲ ਦੁਆਰਾ ਪ੍ਰਦਾਨ ਕੀਤੀ ਲੇਖਾਂ ਦੀ ਸੂਚੀ ਅਤੇ ਆਪਣੇ ਦੁਆਰਾ ਬਣਾਈ ਸਥਾਨਕ ਸੂਚੀ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਲੇਖ ਬਣਾਉਣਾ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਕਰਣਗੇ। ਇਸ ਸਾਲ, ਪ੍ਰਾਜੈਕਟ ਦਾ ਉਦੇਸ਼ ਉੱਚ ਗੁਣਵੱਤਾ ਵਾਲੇ ਲੇਖ ਹਨ ਅਤੇ ਭਾਈਚਾਰੇ ਵੀ ਅਜਿਹਾ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਵਚਨਬੱਧ ਹਨ।

ਜੇ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਮੁਕਾਬਲੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਸ਼ਾਮਲ ਹੋਣਾ ਚਾਹੁੰਦੇ ਹੋ, ਤਾਂ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਇੱਥੇ ਦੇਖੋ।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/project-tiger-2-punjabi

Project Tiger 2.0

Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill — 2019-11-24T09:18:00Z

The blog post by Suswetha Kolluru and Nitesh Gill is in multiple languages: English, Punjabi, Hindi and Telugu.

Every day, millions of users try to access information from the internet. In India, the number of users who try to access information in their own language (native/Indic language) is mind-boggling. Study says that by the year 2021, the number of Hindi users will surpass that of the English users and a few other indic languages which together form 30% of the Indian languages internet user base. Research also says that 68% of internet users consider local language content to be more reliable than English content.

Despite all these facts, one major reason that is limiting users from accessing information in Indian Languages, is the huge knowledge gap that is found online. When Google’s research team analyzed the results of most searched yet missing topics on the internet in Indian Languages, they decided to partner with the Wikimedia Foundation and started a pilot program called Project Tiger, also known as Supporting Indian language Wikipedias in collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge in 2017 to support Indic Wikimedians in generating high quality content in their local language Wikipedias. Read More.

Project Tiger, as the name suggests, is inspired by, and named after, an environmental project in India, to save tigers. Similarly, Wikipedia’s project Tiger, aims at nurturing locally relevant content on Indic language Wikipedias. This project happens in two phases:The first phase during early 2018 is when Google provided 50 Acer Laptops and 100 Internet stipends to experienced and promising Wikimedians, who needed infrastructure support to increase contributions. Once the distribution is done, communities start creating articles from the list provided by Google. Read More

In the first iteration of Project Tiger held in 2018, 12 Indic communities came forward and took part in the 3 month article writing contest during March-May and created over 4,466 articles with total page views of 1,65,774! Every article is reviewed by the corresponding language jury member against several parameters. Only if an article meets all the criteria, it gets accepted. The Punjabi community won the contest with a whopping 1320 articles followed by the Tamil community with 1241 articles. Read More

Besides the monthly prizes given to the top three contributors from each community, the winner and the runner up communities had a 3-day training session at Amritsar, Punjab. This session was lead by User:Asaf (WMF) where he taught the participants on writing articles with encyclopedic value and also introduced Wikidata and tools used in it. Read More

After witnessing the humongous success of Project Tiger in 2018, the second iteration has been rolled out which is called Project Tiger 2.0 or GLOW (Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia). This is being run in four more countries apart from India for the first time. In addition to the 12 language communities that participated previously, Santali, Punjabi(Shanmukhi script) and Sanskrit also have agreed to join the contest this year. Communities have also come up with their own set of articles to write on, along with the list given by Google. This year, the project aims at articles with high quality and communities are committed to doing the same.

If you are interested in joining, please visit this page.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/suswetha-kolluru-and-nitesh-gill-november-22-2019-project-tiger-2

Analysis on the strategies of Mozilla and Wiki communities on gender gap aspects

bhuvana — 2019-10-03T11:56:37Z

There is a need for research on how Open Source communities are trying to balance the gender ratio and how they provide the safe space environment to its contributors. With this in mind I have come up with this blog as I am an active contributor of Mozilla since 5 years and also got myself recently introduced to Wikimedia and its sister projects, have interacted with few Indian women contributors in both of these communities and came out with a few observations on how I see them in India and what could be improved in both communities.

Opening note

Wikipedia community

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia of articles where many users can edit it freely and it has become so large that you run across it all the time in Google. It is so popular that it is now one of the Top 5 websites in the world! The reason behind the growth is because the articles are simple and useful.

Wikipedians are the contributors who do a communal work to improve the content by editing bits of text and cluster them to the large database. Beyond this there are other sister projects of Wikimedia which interest the audience on whichever they are expertise about. The main motivation for these contributors is their freedom to contribute in their own native language which they are more passionate about. This is a great social cause they are contributing towards.

Mozilla community

Mozilla makes browsers, apps, code and tools that put people before profit. In fact, there’s a non-profit Foundation at the heart of the enterprise.Their mission is to keep the internet open and accessible to all. Hope everyone uses or had at least at some point seen Firefox browser/logo, so this is the prime product of Mozilla. There are various projects to support the Firefox browser and they are mostly Open Source.

Mozillians are the volunteers who contribute in the improvement of these projects thus helping the world to access the internet and the Open web.Mozilla Volunteers are passionate to learn,collaborate and knowledge share among a large world-wide community and the crew is a mix of coder, non-coders, policy makers and anyone who supports Open Web. The point that drives everyone to contribute is that the community creates a vibe to contribute and to create a safe and better experience in accessing the digital world.

WikiProject Women

This a group of editors who aim to improve Wikipedia's coverage of women's topics. It brings Wikipedia users of all genders, sexual orientations, geographic locations, and personal backgrounds together to discuss and collaborate on coverage of women's content across Wikipedia.There are various streams in which women can be part of the larger mission for instance:

Art and Feminism

Women in Red

Wiki loves women

Womoz

Women & Mozilla ("WoMoz") a community composed of members from different Open Source projects.It is mainly dedicated to improving women's visibility and involvement in Free/Open Source and Mozilla, and to increase the number of women contributors. Anyone can participate in this project, regardless of sex, age, job, etc. We are united by the common goal of promoting women's visibility and involvement in open source communities. They also believe that the Internet, FLOSS projects and computing must remain open and participatory. This also means accessible in the same way to all - women and men alike.

It also believe solutions should continuously be proposed in order to improve the visibility of all minorities, who for various reasons might not have equal access to computers or the Internet. This project is an example of this, as it aims at ameliorating women's presence and participation in Mozilla and open source. But currently this group is not very active, except for a few regional contributors where they find massive necessity to focus on the women participation.

Overview of the strategies used for increasing women participation

Methodologies used

Both the communities are great supporters of the Free Softwares and licenses and so the methods that is used in addressing the gender gap issues is as follows:

Conduct gender neutral events like hack-a-thons/ edit-a-thons where the tutor is a woman or there is a large ratio of under represented community in the event.
Host monthly offline/online meetups.
Work on projects which are gender neutral based.
Following up special protocols like CoCs strictly at these events.
Days like “International Women’s Day” and on similar significant occasions some unique events will be hosted and contributors will be appreciated.

Impact on Indian communities

The WikiProject woman and WoMoz programs play a very important role among the Indian communities. Although I do not see a single or uniform progress there is always a good scale-up among the regional communities. For a country like India where there is still necessity for uplifting the presence and awareness of these type of FOSS programs I feel that most of these programs are extensively hosted in urban or developed phases of the country. Recently, the internet access has spread across but then the basic knowledge of contributing to Open Source is still abandoned. The end result and the what the contributors shall get on contributing to these communities must be emphasised more.

Closing note

My study and analysis on these two communities is drawn from personal interest and engagement with these communities since I have been contributing and interacting with the contributors for the last few years. The objective of this post is basically to bring about an awareness on the accessible resources on bridging the digital divide , and how these resources can be modified and taken further for a country like India. The efforts taken to improve the gender neutrality by the above communities is laudable but more light has to be thrown on improving the measures taken to sustain women contributors

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedians

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/

http://www.womoz.org/

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/analysis-on-the-strategies-of-mozilla-and-wiki-communities-on-gender-gap-aspects-1

Call for joining the Free Knowledge movement #Wikipedia #Wikimedia

bhuvana — 2019-08-20T07:15:30Z

Every little drop makes a Mighty ocean! Join us in this Free Knowledge movement where your contributions will be used world-wide.

Access to Knowledge team of the Centre for Internet and Society is the partner of the Wikimedia Foundations and the Wikimedia movement. Our work is to support Wikipedia/ Wikimedia projects in India. We conduct and support a series of skill building initiative such as workshops, meetups, photo walks, contest, edit-a-thon etc. We also attend to build sustainable partnerships with institutions, organizations, groups and communities which support the Wikimedia communities to build and improve the content in Wikipedia and other projects.

Are you an individual or do you represent any organisation, institution, groups or enterprises? You can actually help the ‘Free Knowledge’ movement by donating photos, media, content or archives. Let us tell you how.

Wikipedia is a widely read website in the current world. According to Alexa’s rating, Wikipedia is the 5th most highly rated in the world. Also certainly we can say that after searching your query on Google (or any other search engine you use) you should have found Wikipedia as a preferable suggestion or result. We find it astonishing that all content of Wikipedia and its sister projects are created, modified and maintained by volunteers, here we need your support. There are many articles on Wikipedia which are being read by thousands of people but do not have relevant images. The problem is simple there is not any free image available. On Wikimedia/Wikipedia we take copyright very seriously and cannot use any content unless it is on public domain/ under free license/ copyright owner donates it under free license.

For example, there is an article on 2019 Kerala floods which is read by 2000 unique readers at this moment but we do not have sufficient photo coverage. Similarly, we have an article on a famous writer say, Ruskin Bond here also we do not have many photos on him or his works.

Wikimedia community is an independent community. Community decides by itself the content, its style including the media files to be included after detailed instructions. Although we cannot instruct the community we can provide resources which will definitely be of help for the free knowledge movement.

This article is an open call to “YOU” to support the free knowledge movement and Wikimedia movement by donating useful content. The content might be video, useful photos, database and audio. The content you are donating must be under Creative Commons Share-like content. You must have the copyright of the content under CC licenses,a CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon the work that they (the author) have created. Attributions will be given under every file details.

Think of a world where your content can also be part of the larger free knowledge movement?

This is the overall idea in a nutshell. We are eager to discuss every aspect of the process and your questions in detail. Please feel free to contact Tito Dutta(tito@cis-india.org). Let's schedule a call or meet in person.

[Currently the A2K is conducting a content donation drive and awareness campaign. This blog post was written as a part of this initiative ]

Re-licensing Sessions with Authors and Organisations

subodh — 2019-08-05T16:12:42Z

In collaboration with Marathi community, CIS-A2K is getting connected with various authors and organisations willing to re-license their content under CC-By-SA. A2K is facilitating the OTRS process Commons for re-licensing as well as digitisation of the content. The team of trained Wikimedians at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal, District Pune has taken the responsibility of digitising the books and further uploads in Wikimedia projects.

See the information posted on Wikipedia page here

In July, CIS-A2K facilitated the OTRS process of two organisations. Jnana Prabodhini and Saptahik Vivek Hindustan Prakashan Sanstha have released their 6 books and 8 volumes of encyclopedias respectively in CC-By-SA. As the organisations have solely published these books by sponsoring the writers, editors and designers, the authorised signatory of the organisation has to complete the OTRS process. The simple 'How to do' step by step manual was developed to facilitate this process. This process will be replicated by other organisations in near future. These books are valuable & reliable references in Marathi literature.

CIS-A2K conducted three sessions with authors also. In the field of rural development in Maharashtra, thoughts of Late S. G. Majgaonkar are highly regarded. His son Dhananjay Majgaonkar who holds the copyright for his books, completed the OTRS process and released 3 books in CC-By-SA. The books are now on Commons as well as Wikisource project.

Content donation sessions were conducted with Ila Dalwai, daughter of social reformer & writer Late Hamid Dalwai, thinker & writer Hari Narake and grand daughter of Marathi thinker & writer Late Narahar Kurundkar. These persons handed over the books to CIS-A2K for further process. The digitisation of the books has been started at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal.

The links of books uploaded on Commons are given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-july-31-2019-re-licensing-sessions-with-authors-and-organisations

Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference 2019

subodh — 2019-07-04T02:48:58Z

Christ University in association with the Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) organized a conference, from 20 - 22 June 2019, at Christ University, Bengaluru. Forty-nine Wikimedians from four countries (Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India) participated in the event.

The meta report published on Wikimedia Blog can be accessed here.

CIS-A2K is working with various universities and educational institutions to develop content in Wikimedia projects. One such institutional partner, Christ (deemed to be university) has taken the initiative to organize Wikimedia Education SAARC conference in association with CIS-A2K and Wikipedia & Education User Group. The participants included one member from Sri Lanka, four members from Nepal, seven members from Bangladesh and 37 members from India. In all 14 language communities were represented.

The broad objectives of the conference were:

To know the nature of education programs being conducted.
To share the best practices.
Discuss the challenges like retention and quality.
Explore the methodologies to evaluate & measure the work being done.
Enhancing the community involvement in the education programmes.

The applications for participation and thematic submissions were invited from Wikimedians of SAARC countries. The selection committee comprised of representatives from Wikimedia Foundation and community conducted the scrutiny. The scholarships were provided to 49 selected participants. In all 12 submissions on diverse topics were received from different language communities. Wikimedia Foundation’s Partnerships & Global reach team member Praveen Das, Trust & Safety team member Neha Nair and advisor for this conference Tanveer Hasan were also present for some of the sessions during the conference.

The following report gives a summary of all the deliberations at the conference.

Day 1, 20 June 2019

The inaugural session was graced by chief guest Dr. Ramesh Sharma, an expert in open education and Associate Professor of Instructional Design at Ambedkar University Delhi along with Dr. Anil Pinto Registrar of Christ University who was instrumental in launching Wikipedia in education for the students. The other persons on the dais were Tito Dutta, Program Manager CIS-A2K, Dr. Mallika Krishnaswami, Dr. John Joseph Kennedy, and Dr. Sebastian K A.

In this session the speakers stressed upon the advancement of language, to adopt latest knowledge sharing technologies, innovation in education programmes and collaborations with multifaceted institutions to actualize new ideas. The journey of Christ University regarding the Wikimedia education program during the last six years was also elaborated.

The inaugural session was followed by a session on Code of Conduct and Friendly space policies by the Response Team of CIS-A2K. The objectives, diversity statement, general community guidelines, unacceptable behaviour and process of reporting described in CoC were discussed. To explain the motivation and hierarchy of Wikipedia in Education at Wikimedia movement the following sessions were conducted during the conference.

In the keynote address, Dr. Ramesh Sharma revealed many facets of Open Educational Resources (OER) in the field of academic courses, science, mathematics, music, multimedia etc. He shared many experiences of working with Open Education Resource University (OERU) and appealed for future collaborations. He also deliberated upon some wider topics like Government education policies, licenses and quality improvement framework for OERs. In a remote session with Nichole Saad, Senior Programme Manager (Wikipedia Education Programme) from Wikimedia Foundation, she explained the rationale behind the Education in Wikimedia projects and the execution process.

The session on Wikipedia & Education User Group focused on the global user group that supports the work around Wikimedia and Education in various capacities. One of the Board members of user group, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga gave an introduction to the user group, its background, vision, and objectives. Later the functioning of the group was also explained including the membership process and the governance. The three focus areas of the group were explained in detail — community, resources, and outreach. Later, the participants were briefed on various ways in which they can get involved with the group. These included joining the newly formed working groups for each focus area, taking up membership, and also attending the monthly open meetings held by the group, and share their stories to the broader community. The session ended with a brief upon areas where community members could seek the support of the group, such as mentorship, securing resources, advocacy, etc.

The participants were introduced to each other through their work. Session on sharing of various programmes being conducted, it’s learning, challenges and way ahead were very informative and stimulating. The participants from different language communities explained the present status of the education programmes being conducted with institutions. The challenges like lack of initiative, the paucity of resources, trust in Wikipedia and consistency were discussed collectively. New and innovative ideas that were not tried so far were also put forth by the members making it an interesting session.

The last session of the day one was group work on the theme - ' कल आज और कल ' : Past Present Future. The participants were divided into eight groups. Enthusiasm was very high during discussions on the past, present & future of education programmes with the community. The groups collectively worked on the poster presentations.

Day 2, 21 June 2019

The second day started with an interactive session on the topic - The interesting ways of Introducing Wikimedia projects (Wikidata, Wikisource, etc.) into classrooms. The participants shared their experiences with different entry point events other than Wikipedia. Many felt that Wikipedia is complicated to start with. The community also reacted strongly sometimes due to the quality of the articles. This discussion was followed by promoting planned growth process for bridging the gender gap.

The conference submissions on education projects were presented in two parallel tracks. According to interest, the members attended the various sessions. The highlights of the presentations are given below.

Goals of Wikimedia + Education: Content, Retention, Skills: The session started off by asking participants about why they do an education programme, and what else can we include as the goals for any EduWiki activity. Different approaches for achieving each of these goals, and how each of these goals affects the rest were discussed. This included a quick brainstorming on how communities should collaborate with the EduWiki activities so that it adds value to its goals. Eventually, the presenter along with the participants realized that retention of users should be prioritized over the other two goals to easily reach all the three goals. Caution points regarding assignments like copyvio, reliable references were also discussed. The scale of the activity and scoping student interest are also an important criterion.

Challenges of growing communities : Make Wikipedia trustworthy to educators: In this session, challenges before Bangla Wikipedia were discussed. There is a need to collaborate with institutions and capacity building of editors to improve the quality of articles.

Non-Conventional methods of knowledge expansion by programs involving Wikimedia and Education: The formal approaches like giving compulsory tasks for students will not work in the Wikimedia movement. We can expect better outcomes by adopting non-formal methods like digital skills development and team building through collaborative work.

Wikimedia Program Outreach Mentorship: Proper awareness and detailed planning of resources are the key aspects of outreach programmes.

School Wiki in Kerala: State government education department of Kerala has developed School Wiki with Wikimedians in Kerala. In all 15000 articles of schools have been created with their history, location details, alumni, maps, cultural activities, photos and creative works of students like stories, poems and paintings. The innovative project - Folk encyclopedia is also shaping up. The linkages with Malayalam Wikipedia are being established slowly. As the students are now aware of the Wiki environment, there are chances of getting good editors in future.

Wikipedia in School: State government of Tamil Nadu took the initiative to organise capacity building programme for teachers through the EDUSAT on a mass scale. This Wikipedia training started in 2016 and till now 40,000 teachers are trained. Due to this, teachers became active on Wikipedia.

Retaining Tulu Language and culture: the ways and means: Karavali Wikimedians user group is active in the coastal part of Southern Karnataka and Northern Kerala. It is focusing on the preservation of language and culture. They have started the first physical Wiki library with 650 books. Other innovative activities are ‘Karavali Wikimedians to Home’ and Text-Performance-Documentation and Reconstruction of rare Folk Performing art Sidda Vesha.

VVIT WikiConnect : A Year in review : The coordinators of Wikiclub presented the activities conducted in the last two years. The focus is on capacity building of active students, leadership development, quality of content and retention. According to the scoping of students’ interest, various events were conducted like Edit-a-thons, Photowalks, Wikidata workshop, 1lib1ref session, Wikimedia Strategy Salon, Mini Media Wiki training, Thematic workshops, etc. The user survey was also done to get the feedback of students.

Wikipedia Student Association at Alva's College Moodubidire: The regular Wiki activities have resulted in active Students’ Association at Alva’s College. The major activities are publishing of wall magazine - Wiki Suddi : Mundu and newspaper - Wiki Samachaara, Wikicamp and internship by Department of Journalism.

Wikipedia in Education at Christ University: The coordinator presented the journey of six years programme at Christ. The process of engaging students from day one to the last day of the second semester was explained. The students learn digital skills, language typing, writing articles on the topic of interest and respective stream. From writing in the sandbox, they even progress up to documenting case study on research related to Wikipedia. The structure of monitoring and evaluation systems within the department was elaborated. The community engagement aspect was also discussed in detail. The challenges and the preparations for the next curve of WEP Christ were presented.

In the last session of the day, groups presented their work through posters visualising ‘Past, Present & Future’ of the education programmes. The interaction and loud thinking provided many ideas to be taken further for implementation.

The second day ended with Cultural programme by Christ University students. The vibrant performances of music and dance were enjoyed by the participants.

Day 3, 22 June 2019

The day started with early morning ‘Bird Walk’ at the university campus with rich biodiversity. Seven enthusiasts joined this walk and captured images of 22 different species of birds which is documented on eBird portal.

The last day of the conference started with a remote presentation on OER by Wayne Macintosh (Director OER Foundation, and UNESCO - ICDE Chair in OER). Wayne started with an overview of demand for education vis-a-vis the infrastructure available in the global south. The fundamentals of OERs, OER Foundation and OER University were elaborated. He stressed the need to start at least two OER courses by every Indian University. They can join the OERu network for free to host the courses. The credit system for various micro courses was explained through examples. He also discussed the WikiEducator programme and appealed Wikimedians to join this evolving community as all courses run using media-wiki software. Regulatory issues for universities to adopt OER courses are to be looked into in Indian context. Dr Ramesh Sharma assured to facilitate in this matter.

The next session, ‘Strategy in Wikimedia and Education’ by Pavan Santhosh intended to help participants understand the importance brewing Strategy and figuring out a Big dream in their programs. This session started with demystifying the word strategy. With examples from the Wikimedia movement that participants can relate, the presenter explained how can a Big dream help prioritizing activities and programs. Later in an interactive part of the session, participants came up with ideas to run a strategy process in their programs and communities.

Lively group activity - ‘Revolving cafe’ happened after the strategy session. The activity was planned around five themes - Program and Events Dashboard, Wikidata, Communication & Blogging, GLAM in Education and Support structures (WMF grants and CIS Requests page). As the groups were small, the participants utilised this opportunity to clear doubts through one to one dialogue. The session was mutually beneficial for group leaders as well as participants.

After the cafe activity, Wikimedia Education Staff member Sailesh Patnaik deliberated upon the outreach and communications aspects. He stressed on using social media effectively and give publicity to innovative activities through newsletters. He also explained about upcoming Greenhouse pilot.

The last session, ‘Wikisource in education’ was conducted by Jayanta Nath. He explained how Wikisource activity is complementary to the qualitative growth of Wikipedia. The basics of Wikisource like licenses and workflow were discussed in detail. Various ways to combine the education programme with Wikisource were explored in interaction.

The conference closing ceremony was meaningful with spontaneous feedback from the participants.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-june-22-2019-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-2019

What is Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference?

sailesh — 2019-06-22T09:37:23Z

The Wikimedia Education SAARC conference is on 20th June 2019. A conference for Wikimedians, Wikimedia education leaders, educators and researchers engaged with Open Education and free knowledge movement.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional union of nations in South Asia. Wikimedians belonging to these nations share several common challenges and many of them are emerging communities within the Wikimedia movement. The community members to attend the Wikimedia Education SAARC conference are involved in Indic language Wikimedia projects.

Wikimedia Education SAARC conference will be the first of its kind conference in SAARC countries which will engage Wikimedians, education program leaders, educators and researchers engaged with Open Education and free knowledge movement. We believe that the students of all ages should not only consume the knowledge available on the Internet but also be a part of the larger Open Internet movement, and help in creating open knowledge resources.

The event will be organised in and by the Christ (Deemed to be University) in Bengaluru from 20th June 2019 to 22nd June 2019. CIS-A2K team has been working with the department of languages in this university from 2013, where students of the university are contributing to multiple Wikimedia projects. Our education activity at this university has inspired us to plan this event. To know more about this university, Please see here.

This conference will allow us to understand the different efforts made by the SAARC communities involved in the Wikimedia Education movement. This will help us to create models, templates and documents that can be replicated in by other institutions or programs.

Conference Goals:

To know the Wikimedia Education activities happening in South Asia by different community members/Languages.
Sharing the knowledge and best practices of how to build "trust relationship" with new partners/teachers and how to improve trust in Wikimedia projects.
Challenges on student retention and how to engage them in the broader Wikimedia movement.
The best method to evaluate and measure the quality of the work done by the students.
To introduce tools like the dashboard, not in your language, and other tools which will be useful for the tracking, assessment, allocation of the topics and others.

The program structure for Wikimedia Education SAARC conference has been developed by keeping the general and specific challenges and opportunities in South Asia, and the submission selected from the participants.

Follow the hashtag #EduWikiSAARC19 for more updates.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1

Wikisource Workshop at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal

subodh — 2019-06-23T03:26:53Z

The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) organized a workshop in collaboration with Vigyan Ashram, Pabal on May 25-26, 2019 at Pabal. Total 12 participants attended sessions during this two days workshop. The basic skills in digitisation, uploading on Commons and Wikisource process were imparted in the workshop. Jayanta Nath was the facilitator.

Active members of Wikisource at Vigyan Ashram have expressed their interest in learning advanced skills on VP. Previously, they have scanned & uploaded 50+ books on Commons, OCR'd 10,000+ pages and proofread few pages. This team wants to learn advanced skills in processing scanned books, metadata linking with Wikidata, Wikisource - proofreading & layout skills, tools etc. The institution has also planned to integrate proofreading activity with the Unicode/FOSS training courses, so that the students will be involved in next academic year. The primary objectives of the workshop were:

To impart :

Basic orientation to Wikisource
Understanding of Wikisource work flow
Skills required from scanning to OCR of book
skills for Proof-reading, transclusion methods

Agenda

Introduction to Wikisource - features, scope and future potential
Wikisource work flow - explanation of different stages
Upload tools and Copyrights
OCR4Wikisource and Indic OCR
Proofreading methods and Tools required
Wikisource tools, gadgets
Transclusion methods
Wikidata linkage

Day 1

Day one started with training on Scanning and post processing methods. The expert trainer explained various programmes to clean files & make the pdf of book. He also reviewed the previous work done at Vigyan Ashram and gave important suggestions. All the participants scanned 20 pages and processed them for practise. Then copyright issues and various licenses were discussed with some examples on Commons. The big size books were uploaded by chunkedupload tool. This will be useful in future as it reduces time and space also. After the uploading session, the basics of Wikisource project were explained by Jayanta Nath. He demonstrated proof-reading methods and the related tools, gadgets required. Some scripts for proof-reading are not imported in Marathi Wikisource. The need analysis was done to identify basic minimum templates and gadgets.

The participants learned to make their common.js pages to install the scripts. The hands-on activity was done by distributing the pages of one book for all the members. Day one started with training on Scanning and post processing methods. The expert trainer explained various programmes to clean files & make the pdf of book. He also reviewed the previous work done at Vigyan Ashram and gave important suggestions. All the participants scanned 20 pages and processed them for practise. Then copyright issues and various licenses were discussed with some examples on Commons.

The big size books were uploaded by chunkedupload tool. This will be useful in future as it reduces time and space also.After the uploading session, the basics of Wikisource project were explained by Jayanta Nath. He demonstrated proof-reading methods and the related tools, gadgets required. Some scripts for proof-reading are not imported in Marathi Wikisource. The need analysis was done to identify basic minimum templates and gadgets. The participants learned to make their common.js pages to install the scripts. The hands-on activity was done by distributing the pages of one book for all the members.

Day 2

On the second day, three active Wikimedians and one new member from Pune joined group at Vigyan Ashram. After the recap of first day activity, the review of status of Marathi Wikisource was taken. The practise session for proof-reading & layout of pages continued till lunch break. In the second half, final process of transclusion was explained in detail. The participants also learnt about the various methods for different forms of books. The final layout for reading the books on Wikisource and formats for downloading the books were also discussed.

In the last session, the future plan of Wikisource activity was discussed. The organisation has decided to involve all the trainees in this activity to enhance the skills as well as knowledge. The active community members have planned to spread the awareness about the Wikisource in the society for more content donation and increasing editor base.

Follow-up

Consistent activity for the new trainees is planned with trained team at the institute. Scanning of rare and re-licensed books from libraries is in progress. This activity will be scaled up in near future.

The blog post was originally published on Wikimedia Blog

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-may-26-2019-wikisource-workshop-at-vigyan-ashram

Centre for Internet and Society

Bodh: a new tool for Wikidata lexicographical data

Research Studies on Indian Language Wikimedia Projects 2019-21

Access to Knowledge 2019–2020 Utilisation Certificate

Project Tiger 2.0 utilisation certificate

Wikiorientation at Dr.GR Damodaran College of Science

Project Tiger 2.0

Project Tiger 2.0

Project Tiger 2.0

Project Tiger 2.0

Analysis on the strategies of Mozilla and Wiki communities on gender gap aspects

Call for joining the Free Knowledge movement #Wikipedia #Wikimedia

See also

Re-licensing Sessions with Authors and Organisations

Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference 2019

Day 1, 20 June 2019

Day 2, 21 June 2019

Day 3, 22 June 2019

What is Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference?

Wikisource Workshop at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal

Agenda

Day 1

Day 2

Follow-up