Centre for Internet and Society

Free Knowledge and Indian Government Work

tito — 2017-06-28T10:02:00Z

Indian Government works are not available under free and open licenses. On the other hand a large number countries such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Macedonia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Venezuela etc. have adopted the Creative Commons and other free licenses. The works by the US Federal Government automatically go into public domain. This article promotes the idea that the Government works should be freely licensed, wherever possible and applicable.

Part 1: Free Knowledge

Free knowledge movement is a worldwide movement that creates and tries to get works under free and open licenses. It claims that knowledge is a common human property, and must be easily, freely accessible.

While discussing the topic "Access to knowledge: a basic human right", American scientist and researcher Jack Andraka feels:

Access to knowledge is, you know, a basic human right. Knowledge should not be commoditized; it wants to be free.

The Open Definition defines the term “Open Knowledge” in Open Definition 2.0 as:

"Knowledge is open if anyone is free to access, use, modify, and share it — subject, at most, to measures that preserve provenance and openness."

All open content must be a) available under free licenses, b) accessible as a whole, and c) should be in open format (see more details)

A big name in the world of free content is (of course) Wikipedia, where you can use, share, remix content from the site under the Creative Commons licenses. There are many organizations, networks and groups working to get more and more content under free and open licenses such as Creative Commons (text, audio, video, image), Free and Open Source Software or FOSS (software), Open design principle (machine, engineering), Open Access (academic works) etc.

Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights suggests that education should be free. Right to information is also a human right and Article 27 of the declaration states:

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

These are just not possible unless knowledge /information is easily and preferably freely accessible to everyone without restrictions. If the first barrier is accessibility, i.e, not having enough digital content or information or content behind paywall, then the second barrier is its openness. Just having access to some web pages is not enough, it also requires rights like free using, sharing, remixing, Unrestricted content can be utilized in the best way.

Part 2: Indian Government Work

Indian Government websites are not freely licensed. In section 2(k) of Indian Copyright Act, 1957 the meaning of “Government work” is explained:

"Government work" means a work which is made or published by or under the direction or control of—
(i) the Government or any department of the Government;
(ii) any Legislature in India;
. . .

Read Indian Copyright Act, section 2(c) here.

Indian Copyright Act section 17(d) informs about the “First owner of copyright” of a Government work:

in the case of a Government work, Government shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be the first owner of the copyright therein;

Read section 17(d) here.

Section 28 is about “Term of copyright in Government works”. It states:

In the case of Government work, where Government is the first owner of the copyright therein, copyright shall subsist until [sixty years] from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the record is first published.—In the case of Government work, where Government is the first owner of the copyright therein, copyright shall subsist until [sixty years] from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the record is first published."

Read section 28 here

Section 52 of the act allows some “fair use” and informs how content can be used for research, education, review, criticism and some other purpose. The lengthy copyright section may be read here. However, it does not make the content free. You are not allowed to remix the work or use for commercial purpose. You can not freely use, modify, distribute it.

Now let’s have a look at a few Government websites and their license details pages.

Indian Prime Minister’s official website

(http://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/website-policies)

In this website the copyright policy page informs:

Material featured on this website may be reproduced free of charge. However, the material has to be reproduced accurately and not to be used in a derogatory manner or in a misleading context. Wherever the material is being published or issued to others, the source must be prominently acknowledged. However, the permission to reproduce this material shall not extend to any material which is identified as being copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the department/copyright holder concerned.

A screenshot may be seen below:

Here-

“Wherever the material is being published or issued to others, the source must be prominently acknowledged.” -- this part of the policy is similar to the Creative Commons licenses, where the owner or author of a work must be given attribution.

but,

“has to be reproduced accurately” -- it prohibits remix or modification works,
“not to be used in a derogatory manner” -- it is unclear that what is “derogatory manner”! Can it be used for criticism?

Indian Vice President’s official website
(http://vicepresidentofindia.nic.in/website-policies)

This is similar to the Prime Minister’s website policy and does not allow remix, commercial use etc. See screenshot:

Indian President’s official website
(http://presidentofindia.gov.in/copyright-policy.htm)

Although the Vice President’s website allows some fair use, the Indian President’s official web portal’s license is different and does not allow to reproduce the work “partially or fully”. The copyright policy states:

This contents of this website may not be reproduced partially or fully, without due permission from The President of India, If referred to as a part of another publication, the source must be appropriately acknowledged. The contents of this website can not be used in any misleading or objectionable context.

We have shown 3 example above, but it is more or less similar in all government web portals.

Part 3: Government works — Worldwide

It might be interesting to note that unlike India, a large number of countries publish their Government works under open licenses or public domain. We’ll discuss only a few here:

United States

The works by the US Federal Government automatically go into public domain.
The White House website and third party content such as text or speeches by the first lady are licensed under CC SA 3.0 US license. U.S.
On 18 June, 2013, Barack Obama and other G7 leaders endorsed the Open Data Charter. Open Data Action plan is licensed under CC0.
Several other works such as works created by New York State Senate, works created by the State of Virginia are also under different creative commons licenses. Details may be seen here.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Open Government License (OGL) is used for Crown Copyright works published by the UK government. Since 2001, some works by the UK government were available under the Click-Use license. This license was replaced by OGL in 2010. The first version of OGL was released on 30 September 2010. OGL is compatible with the CC licenses. OGL allows to:

copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information,
adapt the Information,
exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application.

However,

Attribution must be given to with source link, which is similar to the creative commons licenses.
Some documents such as the British passport, military insignia, property rights, including patents, trademarks, and design rights, personal information in data don’t come under OGL.

More about the Open Government License may be seen here.

France

France government’s website http://www.gouvernement.fr/ is licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 FR license. The English version of the policy page may be seen here.
France government’s cultural department’s website http://www.culture.fr/ is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 FR.
The Culture Communication website http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/ is also licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 FR.

Russian Federation

Content of the website http://kremlin.ru are under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. License policy page may be seen here. Many other Russian government works are under different open licenses, details may be seen here.

Netherlands

The Dutch government official website http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/ is licensed under CC 0. All content of this website is under public domain, unless any other license is specified.

Bulgaria

The President of Bulgaria’s official website https://www.president.bg/ is licensed under CC BY ND 2.5 Bulgaria.

Croatia

Croatian Government website http://otvorenikod.nsk.hr/ is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0 Croatia.

The Long list

More than 30 countries have adopted and publishing their works under the Creative Commons and other free licenses. Other the above mentioned countries, the list include countries like Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Macedonia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, Venezuela etc. Other than the counties, several international organizations such as the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) endorsed the free license concept and have adopted the same. See a long list of countries using free licenses here.

Last line

It is unfortunate that the Indian Government works are not under free licenses, however it would be great if the Government rethinks and relicense their general content under the free licenses. This will help not only the movement, but the content itself can be utilized in a much better and broader way.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-knowledge-and-indian-government-work

Wikidata Advisor (Consultant) position open

tito — 2019-05-19T15:32:55Z

The Access to Knowledge team of the Centre for Internet and Society is seeking applications for the position of Wikidata Advisor (consultant), to support its Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Programme.

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is seeking applications from prospective candidates for the position of Wikidata Advisor, to support its Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Programme.

The position will be either based in CIS’ Bangalore office No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071, or the advisor may be remotely located (must be in India) also.

Position summary

As a Wikidata advisor you will work closely with the CIS-A2K Team on the work-plan to improve and support Wikidata community in India.

Characteristics of a Project Advisor

High level of commitment: The person should believe in the values of CIS and Wikimedia projects, exude enthusiasm for the mission and can powerfully embody and communicate the mission.
Intellectual curiosity and flexibility: Must enjoy tackling difficult, ambiguous problems and able to incorporate new knowledge into how one approaches situations and generates solutions, loves learning from others while expanding intellectual horizons.
Open and transparent: Have a high level of integrity and be comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion.
Strong cultural competency: Able to navigate in a global movement and on a global team in addition to navigating the complexity of India.
Willing to travel: The advisor must regularly travel within India to conduct and support Wikidata workshops and events. This also includes meetings with different institutions, and CIS team meetings.

Responsibilities

A Wikidata advisor's responsibility includes but not limited to:

Supporting Indic Wikidata communities in all possible wiki-ways such as helping in community-planned Wikidata activities,
Conducting national-level/zonal workshops in India
Creating movement resources (such as handbooks, help videos, manuals) based on community needs-assessment
Sharing Wikidata's global best practices among Indian communities,
Wikidata India IRC conducting

Eligibility criteria

The person must have knowledge about Wikidata project, Wikidata activities in India, different Wikimedia projects such as Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia etc
The person must have active involvement on Wikidata and experience
The person must have knowledge at least intermediate level knowledge about Sparql/query creation (required for workshops, and on-Wiki query support
The person must know about/have experience of working with tools like QuickStatement, Mix'n'Match, Tabernacle, OpenRefine and other important tools frequently used on Wikidata

Plus

prior experience of conducting Wikidata-related event (such as data-thon) will be considered a plus.
prior experience of working with database will be considered as a plus

Location: The position is based out of the CIS’s Bangalore office or remote (applicant must be residing in India during the working period)

Remuneration

Remuneration will be decided after selection. Expected monthly remuneration is around INR 32,000. As this is a consultant position, no other benefit is available

Apply

If you want to apply for this position, please send your CV and a letter to tito+wikidata2019@cis-india.org (do not miss +wikidata2019 part from the email id, it is a filter for us).

Your letter/document should narrate your experience and works in details.

Please also write, what makes you interested to apply for the position, and some of your ideas to improve Wikidata projects in India. The last date apply for this position is 31 May 2019. Appointment will be based on expert opinion, and review.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/wikidata-advisor-consultant-position-open

Freedom in Feb — an awareness increasing campaign

tito — 2017-06-28T09:59:29Z

You have heard about the Ice bucket challenge (and the rice bucket challenge). You may have heard about the 100happinessdays challenge (and its Wikipedia version 100wikidayschallenge). You may have heard and participated in the November no shaving challenge. Some of these campaigns are organized to increase awareness about different social issues. Now here the Centre for Internet and Society, India brings to you a campaign called Freedom In Feb.

Freedom in Feb (FiF, hashtag #freedominfeb) is a campaign to be conducted in the month of February. The objective of the initiative is to increase awareness of free content and free licenses. The name of this campaign “Freedom in Feb” was coined by Sunil Abraham, the Executive Director of The Centre for Internet and Society, India.

Event dates

The first iteration of the event will take place between 0:00 UTC on 1 February 2017 and 23:59 UTC on 28 February 2017.

Rules

The rule to participate in this challenge is simple:

The works you will create or publish in February you have to release those under free licenses such as the Creative Commons licenses or under public domain.
The content includes your blog post, writing, image on Facebook, or Instagram, or your Tweets (no “all rights reserved” please :)).
If releasing all content under free licenses is not possible, please try to release as much as content under the free licenses this February.

So, this Feb, please release your works under the free licenses, and encourage others to do so as well.

Participate

If you are interested to participate in this challenge or want to know more, please fill this form, or you can also send us an email to this address sunil@cis-india.org and/or tito@cis-india.org. Please include "Freedom in Feb" in your email subject line.

FAQ

Question: Which free license should I choose?
Answer: You can choose any free license. We suggest you to choose a license that allows remixing, and using for commercial purpose such as CC BY-SA 4.0. You may also choose a license CC BY-NC 2.0, but that’s not really free.

Question: I am a professional and depend on my works (photography, music, writing) on living. Do I need to release all my creations under the free licenses?
Answer: We understand this situation, but we request you to release as much as or some content under the free licenses or public domain.

More FAQs to be added

Keep in touch

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freedominfeb/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/freedominfeb
Freenode IRC: freedominfeb
Public forum: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/freedominfeb (anyone can post here by sending an email to: freedominfeb@googlegroups.com, but you need to join the group to view posts and other
Hashtag: #freedominfeb

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

Wikipedia Workshop on Template Creation and Modification Conducted in Bengaluru

tito — 2017-08-10T06:48:26Z

A Wikipedia workshop on template creation, modification was conducted in Bengaluru on 30 July 2017. Here is a report.

A Wikipedia workshop on template creation, modification was conducted in Bengaluru on 30 July 2017. 9 Wikipedians, mostly associated with Karavali Wikimedians and Kannada Wikimedia projects attended the workshop. A template is a Wikipedia page created to be included in other pages. Templates usually contain repetitive material that might need to show up on any number of articles or pages. They are commonly used for boilerplate messages, standard warnings or notices, infoboxes, navigational boxes and similar purposes.¹ The workshop was requested by Kannada Wikimedians.

The workshop started with explaining template and its importance. This was followed by discussing structure of a template, and creation of a simple template with a couple of variables. This activity continued for sometime, and designing a template with CSS markup was shown. Following this different types of templates such as infobox, navbox, sidebar, informational templates such as Hatnote were shown and discussed. On Wikipedia there is a Special page with a list of wanted templates. The participants studied the page and started making a list of templates they should create or improve. It was found that a good number of templates on Kannada Wikipedia don't have proper documentation in native languages. The participants came to a conclusion that attempts should be made to properly localize the template. During the workshop the participants spent sometime to translate and localize some template documentations.

The workshop was a preliminary one in nature and should be followed up by an advanced workshop.

Image credit

File:Kannada wiki workshop on Template 02.jpg by User:Gopala Krishna A from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Footnotes

Help:Template on English Wikipedia, accessed 10 August 2017
Special:WantedTemplates on a Wikipedia

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikipedia-workshop-on-template-creation-and-modification-conducted-in-bengaluru

Indian English Wikipedian Nvvchar completes 1500 Did You Know articles

tito — 2017-06-28T10:03:41Z

Indian English Wikipedian Nvvchar has completed 1500 Did you know articles. This is the second highest on English Wikipedia.

Indian English Wikipedian User:Nvvchar has completed 1500 Did you know (DYK) articles. DYK is a short piece of fact (hook) taken from Wikipedia's newest content and is showcased on the "Did you know" section on the Main Page. On English Wikipedia 18-24 hooks appear on the Main Page every day. Since mid-2012 Nvvchar has been diligently working on this DYK project and has created (or expanded) articles on a very wide range of subjects such as religion, history, geography, arts, literature, women's achievement, education etc.

On 27 July 2011 Nvvchar completed 500 DYK articles. On 23 August 2013 his 1000th DYK appeared on the Main Page. The DYK nomination and review process need a lot of effort and sometimes it takes weeks to fully finish the process. However after the 1000th DYK in August 2013, in just 2 years 8 months Nvvchar touched another milestone. On 26 April 2016, his 1500th DYK appeared on the Main Page of Wikipedia and the fact was from an article Rudra Mahalaya Temple, an ancient ruined temple located Sidhpur in the Patan district of Gujarat.

A few Wikipedians congratulated him for this achievement. User:Ijon, a Hebrew Wikipedian, appreciated him saying-

Thank you for the persistent and quiet work you do to contribute much-needed knowledge to Wikipedia!

User:Victuallers, an English Wikipedia administrator, wrote on Nvvchar's talk page-

Lets just guess that the average DYK gets read by 100 people - that means you have a readership of 150,000 people. I think its more like 1000 per DYK appearance so that means that your words have been read by over 1 million people and thats just on the first day of publication! There must be multi-millions of people who know a little more about Asian settlements, buildings, people and artefacts then they would have done without the efforts of Nvvchar. . . . . . Great respect for your efforts. Thanks from the Wiki and its many readers

As of 9 May 2016, Nvvchar has 1503 DYKs.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/nvvchar-1500-dyk

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

Dalit History Month 2017 edit-a-thon in Delhi, India

tito — 2017-06-21T06:09:39Z

Dalit History Month edit-a-thon was conducted in Delhi on 20 May 2017. Here is a report.

A Dalit HIstory Month edit-a-thon was conducted Delhi, India on 20 May, 2017. This event was organised by Whose Knowledge?. A member from the Center for Internet and Society, Bangalore, attended the event as a resource person. The history of Dalit movement, and their knowledge are not very-well represented on Wikipedia, and it is essential that attempts are made to bridge such gaps. This edit-a-thon was such an initiative. On 15 April, this year, an edit-a-thon was conducted in Berkeley, US, and the Delhi edit-a-thon was followed by that.

14 editors participated in the edit-a-thon (not counting the resource persons). In the introduction speech Wikimedian and the primary co-ordinator of the event Inaaya explained the details the importance, scope and objectives of the edit-a-thon. This was followed by hands' on editing activities. A few participants were new to Wikipedia, and they created their accounts. Discussions took place to understand the gaps, and the difficulties. It was noticed that finding references to create or expand articles is sometimes a big challenge. Other than referencing, other topics such as Wikipedia manual of style, images, image license policy etc. were also discussed. Although it was a one-day workshop, the aim was to continue it after the event as well, so the participants were encouraged to continue editing. We have statistics of last 1 month, and it shows that in this time period: 45 articles were edited, 11 articles were created, and more than 10 thousand words were added.

There are plans to conduct follow-up Wiki-events. A few students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, showed interest to form Wikipedia club in their campus. Although, the edit-a-thon was not very big in scale and size, taking such an initiative itself is challenging, and hopefully such initiatives will help reduce the knowledge gap on Wikipedia.

Image source

File:Dalit History Month header.jpg, from Wikimedia Commons, author: Bilqischondol, file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dalit-history-month-2017-edit-a-thon-in-delhi-india

Call for Position - Programme Officer (Communication) - Access to Knowledge

tito — 2018-11-02T09:37:09Z

We are inviting applications for the position of a Programme Officer (Communication) to join the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team at the Centre for Internet and Society. Please find below the description of the position, the eligibility criteria, and the application process.

To contribute to, support, and lead public communication of the work of the CIS-A2K team, we are looking for a creative, dedicated, and enterprising individual to join the team as Programme Officer (Communications). Please note that women and trans candidates, especially those from socio-economically marginalised communities, and women who are returning to work after a hiatus will be given preference.

Project Background

Responsibilities

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Desirable Skills and Experience

Location and Remuneration

Application Process

Project Background

The CIS-A2K team is supported by Wikimedia Foundation to work towards catalysing the growth of the open knowledge movement in south Asia and in Indian languages. The current work plan (2018-19) of the CIS-A2K team is focused on working towards creating an inclusive Wiki atmosphere in India, with emphasis on creating safe spaces, and promoting activities to bridge gender gap in Wiki projects across languages. Further, CIS-A2K facilitates exchange and incubation of ideas amongst Indian language Wikimedia communities, which contributes to the growth of these community and enables emergence of community leaders. During the current year, the A2K team is investing resources and energy on 4 programs/ideas that we believe are going to be 'triggers of change': 1) Focus Project Area, 2) MediaWiki Training, 3) Bridging Gender Gap, and 4) Wikisource Conference India. Please find a detailed description of our proposed activities during 2018-19 on our Meta-Wiki page.

Responsibilities

The CIS-A2K team is primarily based in the Bangalore office of CIS, and the Programme Officer (Communication), henceforth POC, will be expected to work out of the same office. Members of this team are also based in Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Hyderabad (Telangana), and Sangli (Maharashtra), and the POC will be expected to work closely with them - generally remotely, and sometimes by travelling to these locations

To support and drive outreach of the work being done by the CIS-A2K team, the POC will be responsible for the following tasks:

Public communication (60% of monthly work): POC will be responsible for the overall public-facing communication of the work and activities of the CIS-A2K team. This includes planning, driving, and carrying out multi-media documentation of ongoing activities of the team; announcement of programmatic activities in terms of authoring press releases, opinion pieces, short updates, and social media posts, including helping CIS-A2K team members with doing the same; co-authoring and editing the major reports prepared by the team, primarily for submission to Wikimedia Foundation; managing and posting on the Twitter account of the CIS-A2K team; and preparing and publishing a monthly newsletter to share the work of Indian Wikimedia communities and the CIS-A2K team. The CIS-A2K team usually conducts 4 events each month on average.
Innovative media projects (25% of monthly work): POC may explore widely from conventional to new media forms to create original stories of experiences, challenges, and learnings of members of Indian Wikimedia communities in general, and communities engaged with by the CIS-A2K team in particular. This may include storytelling in the form of interviews, blogs, audio and video productions including those native to social media platforms, with a focus on producing content in multiple Indian languages, often with support from CIS-A2K team and members of Wikimedia communities. The focus of these media projects will be on the stories of the volunteers who edit and contribute to Indian language Wikimedia projects, as well as gaps and futures thereof. This task includes interviewing Indian Wikimedians under the ambit of the WikipediansSpeak project.
Liasoning and training (15% of monthly work): POC will function as an interface between A2K team and the Indian (and global) Wikimedia communities as the first point of contact for incoming communications, and inform the CIS-A2K about requests and concerns shared by members of these communities. POC may also be invited to provide training on effective communications for members of Indian Wikimedia communities, as needed, and to support them to independently tell their own stories in their languages.

Competencies

Core Competencies

Accountability
Awareness and sensitivity regarding issues of gender and sexuality
Critical appreciation of open knowledge initiatives
Effective communication
Inclusive collaboration
Intellectual curiosity and openness
Respect for diversity
Strong cross-cultural competency

Functional Competencies

Ability to learn-at-work, especially about the Wikimedia ecosystem
Highly organised, motivated, and able to take initiative
Experience of managing public communications and outreach, including managing mailing lists and social media accounts
Experience of producing multimedia content, including writing and web-based content

Required Skills and Experience

Languages

Excellent communication skills (written and oral) in English
Working knowledge (or better) of at least one other Indian language

Professional

Two years of working experience in an Indian/global organisation with diverse members, and in a position that involved managing communication and producing text and media content

Technical

Basic understanding of functioning of Wikipedia, and ideally of other Wikimedia projects too
Basic ability to produce audio/video content, including recording and editing

Desirable Skills and Experience

Active user of free and open source software
Experience of actively contributing to Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia and others
Experience of being a member of an Indian Wikimedia community, or taking part in Wikimedia-related events
Experience of being part of a free and open source software / open knowledge community

Location and Remuneration

The position is based out of the Bangalore office of CIS.

Monthly remuneration for the position will be Rs. 40,000-45,000 (including taxes) based on the level of experience and previous salary.

Application Process

We invite interested (and eligible) candidates to apply for the position by sending us the following documents to tito@cis-india.org, with “Application for Programme Officer (Communication)” as the subject, by Sunday, October 28, 2018:

Cover letter (2 pages): This should introduce your relevant academic, professional, and other experiences, and describe the kind of work you look forward to do as part of the CIS-A2K team. We strongly recommend reading the 2018-19 work plan of the CIS-A2K team while writing this cover letter, as well as for preparation for the interview to follow (if you are shortlisted for interview).
CV: This should provide details of your academic, professional, and other achievements
Work samples: The position will require you to produce effective writing outputs in a regular manner. Please share 2 samples of your writing (published or unpublished). In case you have produced media works (photographs, audio/video interviews, short films, etc.), please share 1 or 2 samples of the same. While sharing media works, please share the URL to the same and not the actual files.

We will prepare a short list of candidates, on the basis of the submitted applications, and inform you of our selection decision by Friday, November 02.

The shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by the CIS team, including members of the CIS-A2K team. If needed, there will be two rounds of interview.

We will take the final hiring decision by early November, inform the shortlisted candidates accordingly, and invite the selected person to join our from December 1, 2018.

Please do not hesitate to write to us at tito@cis-india.org for any clarification regarding this.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/jobs/call-for-position-programme-officer-communication-a2k-2018

Utlilization Certificate: Access to Knowledge: The Centre for Internet & Society 2017-2018

tito — 2018-11-07T10:26:21Z

Utlilization Certificate: Access to Knowledge: The Centre for Internet & Society 2017-2018. Please click on the file to view/download it.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/utlilization-certificate-access-to-knowledge-the-centre-for-internet-society-2017-2018

Supporting Indian Community 2018: Needs Assessment

tito — 2019-02-06T21:46:14Z

The Wikimedia Foundation and Google worked in close coordination with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Wikimedia India chapter (WMIN) and user groups will pilot a program encouraging Wikipedia communities to create locally relevant and high-quality content in Indian languages. Here is the needs-assessment report.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/supporting-indian-community-2018-needs-assessment

CIS-A2K Finance Officer: Call for application

tito — 2019-03-07T08:46:29Z

The Access to Knowledge team of the Centre for Internet and Society is seeking applications for the position of Finance Officer, to support its Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Programme. The job application is open to women only.

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is seeking applications from prospective candidates who identify themselves as female, for the position of Finance Officer, to support its Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Programme. The job application is open to women only because we feel that a woman Finance Officer will contribute more towards bridging the gender gap in the Wikimedia movement and also it will bring a gender balance in the team. The position is full time and will be based in CIS’ Bangalore office No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071. Finance Officer will work closely with the CIS-A2K Team and would report to the Executive Director/any supervisor in Team.

Position Summary

As a Finance Officer, your job will be to support the A2K Programme and the community members in financial related aspects such as filing the reimbursements, maintaining the books of accounts etc.

Characteristics of the Programme Officer

High level of commitment: The Finance Officer should believe in the values of CIS and Wikimedia projects, exude enthusiasm for the mission and can powerfully embody and communicate the mission.
Intellectual curiosity and flexibility: Must enjoy tackling difficult, ambiguous problems and able to incorporate new knowledge into how one approaches situations and generates solutions, loves learning from others while expanding intellectual horizons.
Open and transparent: Have a high level of integrity and be comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion.
Strong cultural competency: Able to navigate in a global movement and on a global team in addition to navigating the complexity of India.
Willing to travel: The Finance Officer must regularly travel within India during the events to help the community members to file the reimbursements.

Responsibilities

You will be responsible for the overall finance-related aspects of Team that include maintaining the books of accounts, filing the reimbursements.
Assistance in book-keeping to include monthly expenditure, financial statements, accounts receivable, accounts payable, disbursement journal, trial balance, tax reports, etc.
Work in preparation of budgets, proposals, objectives, audits, annual reports.

Requirements

Prior experience of working in a collaborative community, preferably an open movement.
Must be fluent in English and at least in one Indian language.
Minimum of 1-year experience in clerical/bookkeeping/accounting field.
Ability and flexibility to deal with pressure and deadlines.
Good knowledge of formulas in excel sheets.
Basic knowledge of Tally software.

Wikimedians will be given priority.

Location: The position is based out of the CIS’s Bangalore office.

Remuneration: Compensation structure will be determined by the level of expertise, experience and current remuneration.

Contract period

Initial contract will be till 30 June 2019, following the current work-plan of the A2K team

Apply

To apply, please send your resume and cover letter to Tito Dutta (tito+fo@cis-india.org) (please do not miss the +fo part in the email address). The last date of application is 18 March 2019.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-finance-officer-call-for-application

Train-a-Wikipedian and policy discussion meetup in Hyderabad

tito — 2017-06-28T10:06:34Z

The first on-ground Train-a-Wikipedian and policy discussion meetup was conducted in Hyderabad on 15 May 2016. 14 editors from 5 Indian Wikimedia communities participated in this event.

A Train-a-Wikipedian and policy discussion event was conducted in Hyderabad on 15 May 2016. Tito Dutta of CIS-A2K joined as a resource person and Telugu Programme Associate Pavan Santosh coordinated the event.

Although the Train-a-Wikipedian program was launched in January 2016, this was the first on-ground workshop for Telugu Wikipedians. The event was organized at Golden Threshold campus, Hyderabad. 13 editors from 5 Indic Wikimedia communities participated in the event. Here is the list of the participants:

User:Meena gayathri.s (Telugu)
User:Ajaybanbi (Telugu)
User:Pranayraj1985 (Telugu)
User:Nrgullapalli (Telugu)
User:Rajasekhar1961 (Telugu)
User:Viswanadh (Telugu)
User:Kasyap (Telugu)
User:Vin09 (English, Telugu)
User:Sonalisubudhi122 (Odia)
User:Mouryan (Bengali)
User:Sakthi swaroop (English)
User:Yash.golechha (interested to contribute to Hindi and English Wikipedia)
User:Yohannvt (English, Wikimedia India representative)

Introduction

The day's program started with discussing and explaining the works CIS-A2K is currently doing to support Indian-language Wikimedia communities. This session was primary focused on introducing the Train-a-Wikipedian (TAW) program. There were a number of editors who either were not aware of TAW, or were attending a real-life session for the first time. The program's vision, working-process and syllabus were narrated in details so that those who were new to the program understand how TAW works better. They were also informed about the past sessions. As there were a few editors, who were very new to the world of Wikipedia, they were quickly introduced to Wikipedia's main components. User:Rajasekhar1961 discussed the basic structure of an article.

Train-a-Wikipedian: Hands-on activity

This was followed by a hands-on activity where the participants were asked to glance through random articles on Wikipedia and discuss the issues in the article. More than 20 articles from English and Telugu Wikipedia were read and the issues/concerns were listed. The new editors were asked to comment from their own perspective, and the experienced editors shared their views using Wiki-vocabulary. The aim of the activity was to make a list of issues Wikipedia articles generally have (such as prose style, article size, references) and try to discuss those with relevant policy or guideline, so that it becomes clearer that policies and guidelines are needed in every step of Wikipedia editing.

Policy discussion

After the hands-on session which ended with a sense that almost every Wikipedia-editing related issue to be directly related to one or another policy, the second session of the day, on policy discussion, started. In the beginning of this year CIS-A2K, —with the help of Indian Wikipedians—created an Indic Wikipedia Policies and Guidelines Handbook, discussing how to create Wikipedia policies and modify the existing ones, discussing on Village pump, consensus etc. The book's content was presented to the participants.

Right after this session the participants were divided into two groups with Telugu Wikipedians and non-Telugu Wikipedians, and two parallel activities were conducted. Telugu Wikipedians started discussing their Wikipedia's policy portal and with non-Telugu Wikipedians the Train-a-Wikipedian session was continued. Telugu Wikipedians discussed a number of policies and guidelines such as stub policy, notability of books, authors, academics, prose style, and, using honorifics etc. Telugu Wikipedians suggested that they should work on the policy portal on a regular basis. They proposed that for the policies where they already have consensus, they should try to work on at least policy in every 1-2 week(s). For other policies discussion should take place on the village pump on regular basis.

Train-a-Wikipedian: Tools and gadgets

Following the policy discussion, a second session of Train-a-Wikipedian was conducted where a few advanced tools and gadgets were discussed. Some of the tools, gadgets and topics discussed in this session are:

Google Books citation
Autofill option
Indian Newspaper search tool
Search Indian news website
Copyright violation tools (with and alert about Mirrors and forks)
QuickWikiEditor
ArticlePlaceHolder
UserScripts and how they help

The day's program ended with a general feedback-gathering on how the Train-a-Wikipedia program can be improved more in future.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/train-a-wikipedian-and-policy-discussion-meetup-in-hyderabad

Centre for Internet and Society

Free Knowledge and Indian Government Work

Part 1: Free Knowledge

Part 2: Indian Government Work

Indian Prime Minister’s official website

Part 3: Government works — Worldwide

United States

United Kingdom

France

Russian Federation

Netherlands

Bulgaria

Croatia

The Long list

Last line

Wikidata Advisor (Consultant) position open

Position summary

Characteristics of a Project Advisor

Responsibilities

Eligibility criteria

Plus

Remuneration

Apply

Freedom in Feb — an awareness increasing campaign

Event dates

Rules

Participate

FAQ

Keep in touch

Wikipedia Workshop on Template Creation and Modification Conducted in Bengaluru

Image credit

Footnotes

Indian English Wikipedian Nvvchar completes 1500 Did You Know articles

Access to Knowledge 2019–2020 Utilisation Certificate

Dalit History Month 2017 edit-a-thon in Delhi, India

See also

Image source

Call for Position - Programme Officer (Communication) - Access to Knowledge

Project Background

Responsibilities

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Desirable Skills and Experience

Location and Remuneration

Application Process

Utlilization Certificate: Access to Knowledge: The Centre for Internet & Society 2017-2018

Supporting Indian Community 2018: Needs Assessment

CIS-A2K Finance Officer: Call for application

Position Summary

Characteristics of the Programme Officer

Responsibilities

Requirements

Contract period

Apply

Train-a-Wikipedian and policy discussion meetup in Hyderabad

Introduction

Train-a-Wikipedian: Hands-on activity

Policy discussion

Train-a-Wikipedian: Tools and gadgets