Centre for Internet and Society

Tenth Anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2013-11-14T10:17:23Z

Kannada Wikipedia has completed 10 years. The Kannada Wikipedia community will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of Kannada Wikpedia on Nov 17, 2013 from 9.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. at H N Multimedia Hall, National College, Basavanagudi, Bangalore. CIS-A2K is a co-sponsor for the program.

The guests of honour will be Dr. U R Ananthamurthy, Prof. G. Venkatasubbiah and Ravi Hegde. There will be speeches by the chief guests from 10.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja. This will be followed by a talk by some Kannada Wikipedians. At the end there will be a edit-a-thon where Wikipedians will add some articles to Kannada Wikipedia.

Register for the event here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/tenth-anniversary-of-kannada-wikipedia

Wikipedia Orientation Programme for the Second Language Students of Christ University

praskrishna — 2013-11-14T05:16:07Z

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team will organize an Orientation Workshop entitled on Wikipedia for the undergraduate language students of the Christ University, Bangalore on November 16, 2013.

Trainers

T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, Access to Knowledge, Centre for Internet Society

Syed Muzammiluddin, Programme Officer, Access to Knowledge, Centre for Internet Society

Dr Pavanaja,Programme Officer, Access to Knowledge, Centre for Internet Society

Interested Participants

The three days of the orientation programme will cover 1200 second language students of the Christ University, Bangalore.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/wikipedia-orientation-programme-for-second-language-students

Indian Govt to Build Machine Translation System for 22 Indic Languages

praskrishna — 2013-12-11T07:14:35Z

National Translation Mission is preparing a Machine Translation System (MTS) to instantly translate texts from vernacular Indian languages to English, reports New Indian Express.

Brindaalakshmi's article was published by Medianaama on November 14, 2013. CIS memorandum of understanding with Goa University is mentioned.

The report states that scientific and technical terminologies are being developed in 69 disciplines of study in 22 languages as part of this project. Apparently, 25,000 to 30,000 lexicons have been identified in each subject to create the MTS.

Speaking at a media event, Prof V Saratchandran Nair, Director of National Translation Mission said that the project is being initiated to help students who have done their schooling in vernacular languages but have to study in English during college. He also added that only Tamil currently has translated materials in all 69 disciplines, while Oriya has it in 49 disciplines. In contrast, there is no science material available in Santhali, Manipuri and Konkani languages.

National Translation Mission is a Government of India initiative that intends to establish translation as an industry and facilitate higher education by making available translated study material for students. The program also trains translators in different languages. Interestingly, the website states that it will not replicate the efforts of other organisations like C-DAC, TDIL that are also involved in creating indic support for computers and services. However, it seeks to build technology to directly translate a sentence typed in English into an Indian language. When we checked, we noticed that the website also offers dictionaries and other resources for translators.

Other efforts to provide indic support: In September 2013, the Goa university had entered into a three year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) for building the Konkani Wikipedia. As part of this partnership, Goa University will be uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopedia. This could be a good start to building a repository of translated works for science in Konkani.

In July 2013, Technology Development for Indian Languages Programme (TDIL) of DeitY (Department of Electronics and IT) had developed Urdu language fonts and keyboard drivers for Windows and Android.

In June 2013, DeitY had also created a repository of fonts for all 22 constitutionally recognized languages through TDIL. These fonts are available as a CD that can be procured from TDIL or the entire suite can also be downloaded from the TDIL website.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/medianama-november-14-2013-brindaalakshmi-indian-govt-to-build-machine-translation-system-for-22-indic-languages

Konkani Vishwakosh Under CC-BY-SA

nitika — 2013-11-30T10:47:20Z

Upon CIS-A2K's explicit request, Goa University has approved the re-release of Konkani Vishwakosh under the Creative Commons License (CC-BY-SA 3.0) to make it freely available to public and giving them the right to share, use and even build upon the work that has already been done. This is a huge step to help preserve Konkani language and culture in digital era and will also feed into building of Konkani Wikipedia.

What is Konkani Vishwakosh?

Konkani Vishwakosh is a four-volume hard copy encyclopedia (3632 pages) published by Goa University; a work of over 14 years. It encompasses all the world information in a nutshell with special emphasis and detailed information on Goa, Konkani, Goan culture, folklore, history, geography, etc. The encyclopaedia is written in Konkani language — a language spoken primarily by people living in Goa and in the neighbouring states on the western coast of India (also known as the Konkan belt) — some pockets in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. The Vishwakosh serves as a primary source of information and is one of the most important documented texts for a community of 2,489,015 Konkani speakers spread across India and worldwide.

What does re-releasing under CC mean?

Upon CIS-A2K's explicit request, Goa University has approved the re-release of Vishwakosh under the Creative Commons License (CC-BY-SA 3.0) to make it freely available to public and giving them the right to share, use and even build upon the work that has already been done.

This is a huge step to help preserve Konkani language and culture in digital era.

Goa University is the first varsity to enter into a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license that will permit copyrighted produced data by an Indian university accessible to internet users and open to modification (wiki), making Goa University a victory of sorts of free information.

MoU: Goa University and the Centre for Internet & Society’s Access to Knowledge Programme (CIS-A2K)

Goa University has entered into a three year MoU with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) for building Konkani Wikipedia. As part of this partnership, Goa University will be uploading four volumes of Konkani encyclopaedia under CC licence on Wikimedia projects and CIS will help with scanning and digitization of the Vishwakosh and using it as a foundation for creating articles on Konkani Wikipedia. CIS India has also called out for volunteers to help digitize Konkani Vishwakosh.

Thick heaps of the four volumes of Konkani Vishwakosh (encyclopaedia), till now available only in hard copy, will now be available for free on the Internet.

Event: Re-release of Konkani Vishwakosh under CC

http://bit.ly/17nPMuV

To celebrate and further the movement of open knowledge and open access, Goa University in collaboration with CIS-A2K organised an event on September 26, 2013 at 10 a.m. at the Goa University Conference Hall. The event had a huge attendance including Dr. Satish Shetye (Vice Chancellor of GU), V.P. Kamat (Registrar of GU), T. Vishnu Vardhan (Programme Director CIS-A2K), close kin of Late. Manoharrai Sardesai (writer of the Encyclopaedia), Tanaji Halarnkar (editor of the Encyclopaedia), Goa University’s staff, faculty and students, members of Konkani speaking community and the press.

During the event, GU Vice-Chancellor Dr. Satish Shetye said, "the Konkani Vishwakosh covers all realms of knowledge like any other encyclopaedia. The Konkani Wikipedia will act as a digitized repository of knowledge for future generations and Konkani speakers across the world. I look forward to the pleasure of going to the internet and clicking away to access a Konkani Wikipedia," he was quoted as having said.

The event was covered by several local and national newspapers:

"Goa University to make available online Konkani Wikipedia, within 6 months", Jagran Josh, September 30, 2013.
Chaudhary, Apurva. "Goa University Partners CIS India To Build Konkani Wikipedia", Medianama, September 30, 2013.
Lobo,Joanna. "For the love of Konkani: Preserving Goa's official language", DNA, September 29, 2013.
Prakash, Kamat."Konkani Wikipedia in the Making", The Hindu, September 29, 2013.
"Konkani Wikipedia from Goa University in 6 months", Times of India, September 27, 2013.
"Goa University announces plan to upload Konkani Encyclopaedia on Wikipedia", Navhind Times, September 27, 2013.
"Konkani Vishwakosh Relaunch Tomorrow". The Hindu, September 25, 2013.
Desouza, Vijay. "Goa University Re-releasing Konkani Encyclopaedia on Sept 26", Times of India, September 24, 2013.

More about the event here: http://bit.ly/1aSufAE

Project: Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Project (KVDP)

http://bit.ly/183USAg

Goa University in collaboration with CIS-A2K is digitizing Konkani Vishwakosh. This is a two month project where CIS-A2K will work with a group of individuals who will help digitize the encyclopaedia in a time bound manner. All 3632 pages of Konkani Vishwakosh will be digitized.

"Professors, students and anyone with expertise or love for Konkani can come forward to help with the project for which training will be provided. Information in the Konkani Vishwakosh will also be updated as per the current developments," said Vishnu Vardhan. Orientation, training, follow-up workshops will also be organised by CIS-A2K. More about the project here: http://bit.ly/HWEMh7

Boost to Konkani Wikipedia

Konkani Vishwakosh could serve as a ready made source of reference for articles on the Konkani Wikipedia, which is in incubation since its inception in 2006. Konkani Wikipedia editors could use content from the Vishwakosh to build articles on Konkani Wikipedia thereby growing Konkani articles not only in numbers but also in its quality.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/konkani-vishwakosh-under-cc-by-sa

Odia Wikipedia Workshop @ IIMC

praskrishna — 2013-11-12T05:13:04Z

The CIS-A2K team is organizing an Odia Wikipedia workshop at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal, Odisha on November 18 and 19, 2013 from 10.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

ଏଥିରେ କଣ କଣ ଶିଖିବାକୁ ମିଳିବ?

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ଉନ୍ନ‌ତ ଅପସନସମୂହ: ବୋଲ୍ଡ, ତେରଛା ଅକ୍ଷର (Italics), ଆଧାର (Reference) ଯୋଗ, ଶିରୋନାମ (Heading) ଯୋଗ ଆଦି
ଆଗାମୀ କର୍ମଶାଳା ଯାଏଁ ପ୍ରତ୍ୟେକ ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀମାନଙ୍କ ନିମନ୍ତେ କାମ ବିତରଣ
ଛାତ୍ରମାନେ କିପରି ଅଭିଜ୍ଞ ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କଠାରୁ ଅନଲାଇନରେ ତ‌ଥା ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ସ‌ହ‌ଯୋଗ ଲୋଡ଼ିବେ

Please find the full details on the Wiki meta-page here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wiki-workshop-iimc-nov-18-19-2013

Documentation and Wikipedia Contribution — A One Day Workshop

praskrishna — 2013-11-12T04:20:37Z

On November 14, the CIS-A2K team is organizing a one day orientation workshop on 'Documentation and Wikipedia Contribution' at the Kalinga Institute of Social Studies (KISS), Bhubaneswar from 10.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ରୁ

ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରସ୍ଥିତ ଆଦିବାସୀ ଆବାସିକ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନ KISS (କଳିଙ୍ଗ ଇନଷ୍ଟିଚୁଟ ଅଫ ସୋସିଆଲ ଷ୍ଟଡିଜ)ଠାରେ ଏଠାକାର ଶିକ୍ଷକ ଓ ସ୍ନାତକୋତ୍ତର ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀମାନେ ଆଦିବାସୀମାନଙ୍କର ଭାଷା, ଚଳଣି ଓ ଜନ‌ଜୀବନ ବାବଦରେ ଅନେକ ଗବେଷଣାଭିତ୍ତିକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଏକାଧିକ ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖିବାର ଏକ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରାଯାଇଛି । ପ୍ରାରମ୍ଭିକ ପର୍ଯ୍ୟାୟରେ ଏହି ନ‌ଥିକରଣ ତିନୋଟି ଭାଷାରେ (ଓଡ଼ିଆ, ଇଂରାଜୀ ଓ ହିନ୍ଦୀ)ରେ କରାଯାଇ KISS ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଯିବ । ଏହି ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସମୂହ ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ ପରିସରରେ ଥିବାରୁ ଏସବୁକୁ ଉଇକିକରଣ କରି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସବୁକୁ ସମୃଦ୍ଧ କରିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ ଏହି ଏହି କର୍ମଶାଳାର ଆୟୋଜନ କରାଯାଇଛି । ନ‌ଭେମ୍ବର ୧୪ (ଗୁରବାର‌) ଦିନ ସକାଳ ୧୧:୦୦ ରେ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠିତ ହେବାକୁ ଥିବା ଏହି କର୍ମଶାଳାରେ ୧୨ ଜଣ ଶିକ୍ଷକ ଓ ୩୨ ଜଣ ସ୍ନାତକୋତ୍ତର ଯୋଗଦେଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା ଓ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବାବଦରେ ତାଲିମ ଗ୍ରହଣ କରିବେ ।

Click to read the full details published on the Wiki meta page here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/documentation-and-wikipedia-contribution

Wikimedia Diversity Conference

praskrishna — 2013-12-02T06:40:02Z

T.Vishnu Vardhan participated in the conference organized by the German Wikipedia community in Berlin (GLS Campus) on November 9 and 10, 2013. He presented on So Many Languages- Challenges and Opportunities for the Wikimedia Movement in India and also led a Round-up session on Geographic diversity and Language pluralism on Wikimedia.

This was published on the meta page of Wikipedia.

Vishnu's presentation can be accessed here.
A brief discussion of the round-up session can be seen here.
All the videos can be watched here.

Video

Wikimedia Diversity Conference 2013: Interview - T Vishnu Vardhan from Wikimedia Deutschland on Vimeo.

Why a Diversity Conference?

Representing the world's knowledge is the mission of the global Wikimedia movement. But we are still in our infancy. Many languages and cultures are not adequately represented in the different Wikimedia projects, many people shy away from participating in our projects and sharing their knowledge with the world. Particularly striking is the low proportion of women. To gain this knowledge and commitment, both to increase the pool of knowledge in the Wikimedia projects and to enable a heterogeneous, colourful, diverse community, is the goal of our work.

Wikimedia Deutschland is planning to make "Diversity" the topic of an international conference in Berlin. Here we will gather to exchange findings, methods, and approaches for incorporating more gender diversity in Wikimedia projects, and for considering gender diversity within the wider context of diversity in general (language, culture, projects, etc).

New technological innovations such as VisualEditor can have an impact on the formation and composition of authorship, and community projects like Teahouse or WikiWomen's Collaborative have been successfully aimed at supporting diverse contributors. Let's gather to share information about what's working and what's not in current initiatives, consider the impact of technical and community developments, and connect in order to turn ideas into action.

Goals of the Conference

Establish a sustainable dialogue with collaborators in Wikimedia Chapters, the Wikimedia Foundation and the international communities to frame the issue of diversity in the context of Wikimedia.

We aim to build a shared understanding of what diversity means for Wikimedia projects and why it is important.
Connect, multiply and create successful initiatives for increasing gender and other types of diversity in Wikimedia.

We aim to turn ideas into action.

Focus of the conference

We are very happy to see all your ideas and it seems that many Wikipedians, Wikimedians and interested people are highly engaged in thinking about many aspects concerning diversity in Wikipedia. This is great!

To help us organize sessions and accomplish our goals of developing a shared understanding and set of actions for improving diversity, we intend to focus this first conference on two aspects of diversity:

Gender diversity - the gender gap, LGBT initiatives
Geographic diversity - the global south, linguistic and economic diversity

We hope that future events will be organized to focus more specifically on other important diversity aspects like age, education, and disabilities.

Timeline

application for scholarships/submission of proposals August 20 - September 20, 2013
official registration August 20 - October 20, 2013
note of acceptance: by October 4, 2013
agenda finalized: end of October 2013
conference: November 9 - November 10, 2013

Background Information

In 2013, Wikimedia Deutschland initiated a research and development project "Diversity for Wikipedia" that develops possible courses of action towards more gender diversity. Within the project, gender diversity guidelines, gender diversity action plans and designs are developed. It will implement specific actions aimed at enhancing a welcoming culture, diversity awareness among Wikipedians and participation of female editors. In a co-operation with Beuth University, digital web-based educational material with a focus on gender topics will be developed.

Within the framework of developing a diversity concept about what diversity in Wikipedia really means, we will organise this conference to further develop our existing approaches and to elaborate on new ideas. By the end of this year, the project will be in an advanced state and we are looking forward to discuss the different worldwide initiatives with the international communities, Wikimedia Chapters and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Contact

Julia Kloppenburg. You can reach Julia via her user page or via e-mail. For general enquiries and questions concerning scholarships you can contact the organising team at: diversity@wikimedia.de Feel free to get in touch!

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/wikimedia-diversity-conference

The Relaunch of Creative Commons India

praskrishna — 2013-12-11T08:12:50Z

Wikimedia India, the Centre for Internet and Society, and Acharya Narendra Dev College invite you to the Relaunch of Creative Commons India in New Delhi on November 12, 2013 with the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr. Shashi Tharoor as the Chief Guest.

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States, devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.

In simple words, Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge and creativity with the world.

Some more facts about Internet licenses

Ever wondered what "Some Rights Reserved" means?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include the right to reproduce, distribute, display, make adaptations, perform, sell and so on. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rightsholder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call "Some Rights Reserved."

Is Creative Commons against copyright?

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rightsholders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

Relaunch

Dr. Savithri Singh, Principal, Acharya Narendra Dev College will be the Master of Ceremony and the Moderator for the sessions:

Time	Detail
16.00 16.30	Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India: Initiatives of MHRD around Openly Licensed Content
16.30 16.45	Question and Answer Session
16.45 17.00	Sam Pitroda (TBC), Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations: Creative Commons and Open Government Data
17.00 17.05	Question and Answer Session
17.05 17.25	Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson, Pratham Books: Creative Commons and Pratham Books Case Study (Including Question and Answer Session)
17.25 17.40	Moksh Juneja, President, Executive Committee, Wikimedia India Chapter: Creative Commons and Wikipedia (Including Question and Answer Session)
17.40 18.00	Lawrence Liang, Co-founder of Alternative Law Forum: Creative Commons and Open Access to Scholarly Journals (Including Question and Answer Session)
18.00	Tea

VIDEO

Registration

Please register here to attend the event: http://ccindia.doattend.com/ Registration is free.
Please carry a soft or hard copy of the confirmation email to the venue.
Seating will be on first come first served basis.

Invite to the Relaunch of Creative Commons India

Link to the meta page on Wiki: http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Events/Creative_Commons_India_launch

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/relaunch-of-creative-commons-india

Kannada Wikipedia and its Tenth Anniversary

praskrishna — 2016-01-28T13:14:20Z

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was on RadioCity to talk about Kannada Wikipedia and its tenth anniversary. The programme was aired on November 2, between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.


Above: Dr. U.B. Pavanaja speaking on RadioCity.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/kannada-wikipedia-tenth-anniversary

Access to Knowledge Bulletin — October 2013

praskrishna — 2014-01-04T12:04:56Z

The Access to Knowledge (Wikipedia) newsletter for the month of October 2013:

Train the Trainer Program
Wikipedians, about 20 of them, from 10 different cities, speaking 8 different languages, joined together for the first ever four days "Train the Trainer Program" organised by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team in Bangalore from October 3 to 6, 2013. CIS-A2K organised the residency training program to build capacities amongst different language Wikimedia communities. A good diversity of Wikipedians from various language communities such as Bengali, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Odia, came over for the event. Two prominent reasons identified for organizing the event were the limitations of a virtual sphere and the limited number of Wikipedians leading outreach activities. Seventeen people participated in the event: http://bit.ly/18hjw0n

► Events Organised
Workshop on Wikipedia in the Indian Undergraduate Language Classrooms (October 1, 203, Christ University, Bangalore). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja conducted the workshop: http://bit.ly/HIiC30.
వికీపీడియా:సమావేశం/బెంగుళూరు/అక్టోబర్ (UTC, Bangalore, October 12, 2013). T. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk: http://bit.ly/1hpmXrt.
Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization (Goa University, October 19-20, 2013). CIS-A2K team conducted the workshop. Thirty-seven people participated in the event: http://bit.ly/1a9m8N2. Nitika Tandon shares a detailed blog post on the re-release of Konkani Vishwakosh under CC License: http://bit.ly/1cm9wBH.
► Event Participated In
Re-sourcing Indian Cinema: Humanities Research, New Archives and Collaborative Knowledge Production (organised by the Centre for Contemporary Studies and the Centre for Study of Culture and Society, October 29, 2013). T. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk on “Let Cinephiles Collaborate: Pleasures and Perils of Indian Film History on Wikipedia”: http://bit.ly/18Obr2P.
► Media Coverage
CIS gave its inputs for the following media coverage:

Mangalore: Konkani writers resolve to form all-India forum at JKS conference (Daijiworld, October 1, 2013): http://bit.ly/1ek8AzW.
Wikipedia in Indian Languages on Mobile Phones (by Megha Prakash, Sci Dev Net, October 15, 2013): http://bit.ly/Hfh7sI.
कोंकणी विश्‍वकोश ‘विकिपीडिया’वर (Navprabha Daily, October 22, 2013). A detailed article about the digitalization of Konkani Vishwakosh: http://bit.ly/18J3YlB.

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 Muzammiluddin Syed, one member Nitika Tandon in Delhi and one Advisor Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana. Archives of our newsletters can be accessed here (http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters). Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications at http://bit.ly/TOcXId.

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

Support Us
Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.

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 donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-october-2013

Wikipedia in Indian Languages on Mobile Phones

praskrishna — 2013-10-25T06:00:28Z

Wikipedia in India's regional languages and accessible over mobile phones is revolutionising the way Internet content is used in this multi-lingual country, say information technology (IT) experts.

This post by Megha Prakash was published in Sci Dev Net on October 15, 2013. T. Vishnu Vardhan is quoted.

"Developing Wikipedia and other content in regional languages is a way forward to bridge the knowledge gap," says T. Vishnu Vardhan, programme director of the Access to Knowledge project at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Bangalore.

In September, CIS signed an agreement with Goa University to train students and foster collaborative content development with Wikipedia libraries and archives in view. A similar agreement was signed in August with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, while a third is due to be signed this month with Christ University, Bangalore.

India's 28 states and seven union territories are organised on a linguistic basis and three of its vernaculars — Hindi, Bengali and Punjabi — rate among the world's ten most widely spoken languages, each with its own script.

With 70 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people and the market flooded with affordable feature phones, the majority of India's 1.2 billion people potentially have access to IT. Current usage, however, is limited to downloading entertainment content and to such applications as mobile banking.

Vardhan tells SciDev.Net that attention is now being paid to developing knowledge repositories in India's regional languages.

M. Sampath Kumar, who heads the Telugu department at the University of Madras in Chennai, says the Telugu Wikipedia is regularly used by students and researchers and is a resource for speakers of the language living abroad but eager to maintain community links.

Kumar tells SciDev.Net that literary content is popular and that there is a future for regional Wikipedia in educating the younger generation and serving as a free repository for traditional knowledge in the vernacular.

Subbiah Arunachalam, a Chennai-based IT consultant, says the effort will benefit non-English speaking rural youth at school and college levels and help bring them on par with their urban counterparts in terms of knowledge.

A programme funded by the Wikimedia Foundation and due to end in June 2014 covers the Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Bengali and Konkani languages. A Hindi version already has 100,000 articles and recorded eight million views.

'Lilavati's Daughters', a book on Indian women scientists published by the Bangalore-based Indian Academy of Sciences, is currently being translated into the regional languages with a view to engaging women content developers and editors.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/sci-dev-net-megha-prakash-wikipedia-in-indian-languages-on-mobile-phones

कोंकणी विश्‍वकोश ‘विकिपीडिया’वर

praskrishna — 2013-10-23T05:11:54Z

News about digitalization of Konkani Vishwakosh, appeared in Navprabha daily on October 22, 2013 on front page.

Click to read the original published in Navprabha on October 22, 2013.

गोवा विद्यापीठाचा प्रकल्प असलेला कोंकणी विश्‍वकोश हा लवकरच विकिपीडिया या ऑनलाइन विश्‍वकोशावर संपूर्ण जगासाठी विनामूल्य उपलब्ध होणार आहे. कोंकणी विश्‍वकोशाच्या डिजिटलायझेशनची प्रक्रिया सुरू झाली असून ती येत्या दोन महिन्यात पूर्ण करण्याची योजना आहे.

क्रिएटिव्ह कॉमन्स लायसन्सखाली कोंकणी विश्‍वकोशाचे पुन:प्रकाशन करण्याचे हल्लीच गोवा विद्यापीठातर्फे जाहीर करण्यात आले होते. अशाप्रकारचा हा देशातील अनोखा प्रयोग ठरेल. यामुळे विश्‍वकोशाचा अभ्यासकांना अधिक मुक्तपणे वापर करता येईल. क्रिएटिव्ह कॉमन्स लायसन्सखाली मूळ मालकाला हक्क राखता येतातच पण वापरकर्त्यांनाही माहितीत भर टाकण्याची, ती अधिक विकसित करण्याची मुभा मिळते.

आता बंगळूरस्थित सीआयएस ही संस्था गोवा विद्यापीठाच्यावतीने कोंकणी विश्‍वकोशाचे चारही खंड डिजिटल माध्यमात परिवर्तीत करून विकिपीडियाद्वारे संपूर्ण विश्‍वात नेण्याचे काम करणार आहे. एकदा हा विश्‍वकोश डिजिटल होऊन विकिपीडिया या ऑनलाईन ज्ञानकोशावर गेल्यानंतर या विकिपीडियावर जगातील इतर भाषांप्रमाणेच कोंकणीतून ज्ञानात्मक मजकूर निर्माण करणे तसेच चटकन संदर्भ उपलब्ध करून देणे अधिक सोपे होणार आहे.

गोवा विद्यापीठासाठी डिजिटलायझेशनचे काम करत असलेल्या सेंटर फॉर इंटरनेट ऍन्ड सोसायटीच्या नितीका टंडन यांनी माहिती देताना सांगितले की, येत्या दोन महिन्यांत विश्‍वकोशाच्या चारही खंडांचे डिजिटलायझेशन पूर्ण करण्याची योजना आहे. त्यासाठी गोवा विद्यापीठातील कोंकणी विभागाच्या विद्यार्थ्यांची तसेच अन्य इच्छुकांची मदत घेतली जाणार आहे.

सीआयएस संस्था विकिपिडीयावर भारतीय भाषांतील मजकूर वाढविण्यासाठी काम करते, अशी माहितीही टंडन यांनी दिली. दिल्ली, पुणे, बेंगलोर येथे असे गट कार्यरत असल्याचे त्या म्हणाल्या. कोंकणी भाषेतून विकिपीडियावर फारच कमी मजकूर उपलब्ध असल्याचे त्यांनी सांगितले. तो वाढविण्यासाठी प्रयत्न करण्यात येत असल्याची माहिती त्यांनी दिली. त्यासाठी हल्लीच गोवा विद्यापीठाच्या कोंकणी विभागातील विद्यार्थ्यांना एक खास कार्यशाळाही घेण्यात आली होती. कोंकणी विश्‍वकोश एकुण चार छापील खंडांत असून या खंडांचे प्रकाशन गोवा विद्यापीठातर्फे ग्रंथरूपात १९९१,१९९७,१९९९ व २००० साली याप्रमाणे झाले होते. पहिल्या दोन खंडांचे संपादन मनोहरराय सरदेसाय यांनी तर खंड तीन व चारचे संपादन डॉ. तानाजी हळर्णकर यांनी केले होते. या चार छापील ग्रंथरूपातील खंडांची पृष्ठसंख्या ८६३, ९३४, ८२४ व १०११ अशी आहे.

दरम्यान, विकिपीडिया संकेतस्थळ हे इंटरनेटवर सर्वाधिक भेट दिले जाणारे चौथ्या क्रमांकाचे संकेतस्थळ आहे.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/navprabha-sameer-janty-october-22-2013-konkani-vishwakosh-wikipedia

Making Wikipedia Better

Pooja Saxena and Nirbheek Chauhan — 2013-10-25T07:30:44Z

It wasn’t something that we set out to do when we started working on The Ballot, but one of the most satisfying unintentional side-effects of the project has been the chance to correct facts and figures, and remove inappropriate content from entries related to India and its politics on Wikipedia.

The first oddity we spotted was way back in August, the day we announced The Ballot to the world. The Hindi word “bewajah” (which means “without reason”) was cropping up all over the wiki entry on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Nirbheek restored this entry. When we were putting together our post about the representation of women in the Lok Sabha, we noticed errors in the census figures on Wikipedia. Once we had extracted the right numbers from the data available on the census portal, not only did we use them in our post, but we also corrected them in the wiki entry. More recently, some missing information in the info-boxes in the entries on a handful of Indian states gave Pooja the opportunity to make her first ever edits!

These, of course, are just the tip of the iceberg. We have a longer list of issues to fix, and an even longer one for potential improvements. If only we could spare more time and involve more collaborators, a real difference could be made to the quality of Wikipedia entries on Indian politics.

We met Subhashish of the Access to Knowledge programme at CIS yesterday and have some great things planned with him for the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

About The Ballot
The Ballot is a visual compendium of information about the world’s largest democracy. Every week till the general elections in 2014, it will publish easily digestible yet relevant nuggets of information about India, its government and its workings, presented as richly illustrated graphs and charts.

About Pareidolic
Pareidolic is a collection of collaborative projects by Nirbheek Chauhan, a software developer, and Pooja Saxena, a typeface designer. Besides their weekly efforts towards The Ballot, Pareidolic also released a free and open source Devanagari to Bharati Braille Converter this year, which is on its way to supporting several other Indian languages.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/making-wikipedia-better

వికీపీడియా:సమావేశం/బెంగుళూరు/అక్టోబర్

praskrishna — 2013-10-14T01:08:24Z

బెంగుళూరులో తెలుగు వికీపీడియన్ల సమావేశం

Click to read the original here

కార్యక్రమ వివరాలు

తేదీ: 12-అక్టోబరు-2013 (రెండవ శనివారం)
సమయం: మధ్యాహ్నం గం: 2.00 నుండి సాయంత్రం గం: 5.00 వరకు
వేదిక: సెంటర్ ఫర్ ఇంటర్నెట్ అండ్ సొసైటీ, నెం. 194, రెండవ సి క్రాస్, దొమ్మలూరు, రెండవ స్టేజీ, బెంగుళూరు - 560071 (ఫోన్: +91 80 4092 6283),గూగుల్ మేప్ తో సహా వివరాలు

చర్చాంశాలు

తెవికీ దశాబ్ది
తెవికీ A2K ప్రణాళిక
వ్యాసాలు ప్రాజెక్టుల ప్రగతిపై చర్చ
వికీఅకాడెమీల నిర్వహణ
కొత్త ప్రాజెక్టుల ఎంపికపై చర్చ
మొదటి పేజీ పై చర్చ

పైవికీపీడియా ప్రస్తావన మరియు ప్రదర్శన

ఈ సందర్భంగా బాట్ ను నడపటంపై ఒక చిన్న ప్రదర్శన. స్లైడులు ఇక్కడ ఉంచుతున్నాను. రహ్మానుద్దీన్ (చర్చ) 12:22, 10 అక్టోబర్ 2013 (UTC)

ఇవీ చూడండి

సమావేశానికి ముందస్తు నమోదు

(నమోదు తప్పనిసరికాదు కాని నిర్వాహకులకు సహాయంగా మరియు ఇతరులకు ప్రోత్సాహంగా వుంటుంది. పైన మార్చు నొక్కి మీ పేరు చేర్చవచ్చు)

తప్పక

రహ్మానుద్దీన్ (చర్చ) 10:35, 3 అక్టోబర్ 2013 (UTC)
ఒక ముఖ్యమైన సమావేశంలో పాల్గొనటానికి కేరళ వెలుతున్నాను కనుక Skype ద్వారా పాలుగొంటాను విష్ణు (చర్చ)07:22, 8 అక్టోబర్ 2013 (UTC)
హైదరాబాదు నుండి Skype ద్వారా పాల్గొంటాను.Rajasekhar1961 (చర్చ) 05:11, 10 అక్టోబర్ 2013 (UTC)
skype ద్వారా ఒక గంట సేపు పాల్గొనగలను.--అర్జున (చర్చ) 05:03, 12 అక్టోబర్ 2013 (UTC)

<పై వరసలో పేరు చేర్చండి లేక సంతకం చేయండి>

స్పందనలు

దసరా పండుగ సందర్భంగా కర్నూలు వెళ్తున్నాను. ఈ మారు సమావేశంలో పాల్గొనలేనందుకు చింతిస్తున్నాను. నవంబరు నెల సమావేశానికి తప్పక హాజరవుతాను. శశి (చర్చ) 16:03, 4 అక్టోబర్ 2013 (UTC)
<పై వరసలో స్పందించండి>

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/telegu-wikipedia-at-utc-october-12-2013

Mangalore: Konkani writers resolve to form all-India forum at JKS conference

praskrishna — 2013-10-14T01:36:04Z

Jagotik Konknni Songhotton (JKS) organized an All-India Konkani Writers’ Conference on Sunday, September 29 at Kalaangann.

This was published in Daijiworld on October 1, 2013. Nitika Tandon is quoted.

As many as 78 Konkani writers from Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and various regions of Karnataka, attended the conference.

The conference was organized with the intention of bringing together writers of all the five scripts of Konkani and also to probe the possibilities of forming an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum.

Roy Castelino, treasurer, JKS, welcomed the gathering. The secretary general of JKS, Eric Ozario, explained the purpose of the conference and the need for forming an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum. Tomazinho Cardozo, ex-speaker of the Goa Assembly and president, JKS, spoke about the injustices done to writers in the Roman script.

Dr Pratap Naik, Konkani activist, spoke of the progress in the writ petition filed in the Goa bench of the Mumbai high court, seeking rectification of the Official Language Act of Goa, to include the Roman script.

Valerian D’Souza, Marcel D’souza and Eric Ozario explained the progress in the writ petition filed in the high court of Karnataka against the Sahitya Akademi, seeking equal treatment to all scripts of Konkani.

Nitika Tandon, programme manager, The Centre for Internet & Society, spoke about Konkani Wikipedia and the need for the participation of the Roman and the Kannada script writers.

The conference resolved to form an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum, which would protect the interest of Konkani literature and Konkani writers of all scripts. An ad-hoc committee was formed to discuss and decide upon the immediate steps to be taken towards the formation of the Forum.

A book compiling short stories written by Kevin D’Mello, Karkala, titled ‘Chondda ani Gorbh’, was also released on the occasion.

Victor Mathias conducted the proceedings of the conference.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/daijiworld-october-14-2013-mangalore-konkani-writers-resolve-to-form-all-india-forum-at-jks-conference