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Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021/Report
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-wikimeet-india-2021-report
<b>In March 2020, the whole world came to a standstill. What many deemed as a regular ‘flu’ turned out to be the pandemic that brought everyone to their knees. The things that we always did, we could no longer do them. We were all confined to our homes with no choice but to work online. Hanging out with friends, attending weddings, and being a part of the conferences and seminars suddenly became a part of the past. We started using the word unprecedented a lot. </b>
<p align="center"><strong><i>“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change!”</i></strong></p>
<p align="right">- <strong><i>Wayne Dyer</i></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>For the last many months, we have been getting used to this new ‘normal’. Students and teachers are getting accustomed to the classes and tests happening online. What people thought was impossible, has now become possible. No one could have guessed that birthday parties, gatherings, even marriages would be conducted online. We have now got used to being part of webinars, sessions, and conferences online. A2K is not an exception to this. We planned and conducted a national meet named ‘</span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Program">Wikimedia Wikimeet India </a><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Program">202</a><span>1’.</span></p>
<p align="center"><strong><i>“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success!” </i></strong></p>
<p align="right">- <strong><i>Henry Ford</i></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Background:</strong><span> We, at A2K, have organised many such training sessions and conferences like </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program">Train the Trainer</a><span>, </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/MediaWiki_Training">Media Wiki Training</a><span>, </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Wiki_Advanced_Training/2018">Advanced Wiki Training</a><span>. But due to COVID restrictions it was not possible to organise such an event offline this year. So this year, we decided to organise a virtual meet for the Wikimedians of India. This meet was planned and conducted especially for the Wikimedians who are already working or are interested in working on Wikimedia projects that deal with Indian content.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Our main <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021">objectives</a> behind organising this meet were to celebrate the work done by Wikimedians of India, to provide an online platform for wiki-learning and skill-share, to support discussions and interactions, to give training on important and relevant topics, and explore the medium of online training and wiki-event for future use.</p>
<p>After all the planning, our three-day event of Wikimedia Wikimeet took place from 19 February to 21 February, 2021.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><span>Community Engagement:</span></strong> We decided to organise this meet as there seemed to be a scarcity in volunteer’s and user’s contribution. Moreover, we have always believed in giving back to the community. So, we took an initiative to keep the community engaged. Our goal was to encourage volunteers and users to come forward and take lead in Wikimedia activities. To make it easy for our volunteers and the users to select their area of interest, we started <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Request_for_Comments">Request for Comments</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Get_involved">Community Engagement</a>. It is a forum where open discussions can take place about and where participants can share their knowledge, expertise, and experience. The tasks that were conducted under this were Logo Design, Translation, and Knowledge on Hybrid / Blended Learning Model.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><span>Modes of Promotion:</span></strong> This event would not have been a success if not for our participants. We began promoting the event by using our India Mailing list. Our next step was to publicise the event on our social media channels and pages and also in messenger groups. We sent bulk messages on Indic Village Pumps announcing that the Wikimedia Wikimeet was about to take place. Our next step was to start a fortnightly <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Newsletter">newsletter</a> about the event. It was started to notify the people of updates. We encouraged our users to sign up for the newsletter so they would get immediate updates. This way, our volunteers and users knew what was happening with regard to the event and they also came to know what was about to happen in the coming 15 days.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another thing we did was to put up a <a href="https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/11/05/wikimedia-wikimeet-india-2021-lets-focus-on-why/">blogpost</a> on Diff about our event. Our blogpost stated the importance of organising such an event. We have also discussed the background ideas in the same post. Our next <a href="https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/11/11/wikimedia-wikimeet-india-2021-entering-the-design-stage/">blogpost</a> dealt with the ‘how’ of our event. In it, we discussed the ideas of designing the event. Total 5 <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021#Footnotes">blogposts</a> were written and put up. Another article named <a href="https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/06/18/charaiveti-01-wikimedia-wikimeet-and-beyond-ideas-and-opinions/">Wikimedia Wikimeet and Beyond: Ideas and Opinions</a> was written and posted a few months later.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><span>Organisation Methodology:</span></strong> Every great journey begins with one step. With that in mind, we first decided on the organisation methodology. The team tried its best to maintain transparency from planning and organisation till the execution and the end of the meet. This was the first ever large scale meet that we were planning to organise. Thus, some of the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Resources">resources</a> came in handy in our planning stage. To mention a few, we took inspiration and guidance from <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2020">Celtic Knot Conference</a>, <a href="https://sites.google.com/stanford.edu/ld42020/track-descriptions?authuser=0">LD4 Conference</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Online_Meeting_2020">Wikimedia CEE Online Meeting</a>, <a href="https://summit.creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons Global Summit</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ItWikiCon/2020">Italy Wiki Conference</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCite/2020_Virtual_conference">Wikicite Virtual Conference</a>, and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transition/Global_Conversations">Wikimedia Strategy Global Conversation</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Next step the core team took was to appoint a program committee. The main function of this <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Program">program committee</a> was to select important submissions and presentations. Following are the 5 members of our program committee:</p>
<p><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Kiril_Simeonovski">Kiril Simeonovski</a>: He is the founding member of <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Macedonia">Wikimedia Macedonia</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Shared_Knowledge">Shared Knowledge</a> and has been the president of Shared Knowledge since 2014.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Netha_Hussain">Netha Hussain</a>: She has been a volunteer in the Wikimedia Movement since 2010. Nowadays she mostly works in English WIkipedia and Wikidata, but she is also active in Commons, Metawiki, and <a href="https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%89%E0%B4%AA%E0%B4%AF%E0%B5%8B%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%A4%E0%B4%BE%E0%B4%B5%E0%B5%8D:Netha_Hussain">Malayalam Wikipedia</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Shyamal">Shyamal</a><span>: He is interested in the natural history of India, environmental consciousness in general, and history of science, especially biology.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mahir256">Mahir256</a><span>: He is an </span><a>administrator</a><span> on Wikidata, an </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Administrators">administrator</a><span> on </span><a href="https://bn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%A8:%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8_%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE">Bengali Wikisource</a><span>, and has a native understanding of English language.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bodhisattwa">Bodhisattwa</a><span>: He has been a volunteer editor in different Wikimedia projects since 2012. He is mostly active on Bengali Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. He is also a part-time coordinator at the </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K">Center for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge</a><span>.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It was necessary for the participants of this event to register prior to the event. A <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Registration">registration form</a> was open and made available for the duration of a month. After the deadline of this registration form, another special registration form with criteria was given to the participants. The participants were then selected according to the criteria.</p>
<p>The event took place on <a href="https://zoom.us/">Zoom</a>. We used the official Zoom account of the Center for Internet and Society. The main reason behind registrations was to avoid zoom-bombing. The eligible participants were given the link to join the event.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wikimedia Wikimeet was a three - day long event. We tried our best to accommodate all the presenters, moderators, attendees, and participants. Time was set according to them. This was a national level event but we were able to involve a few experienced international experts. So we had to take the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) as well as the Indian Standard Time (IST) into consideration so that the volunteers, participants, and experts could all attend all the sessions and could engage in fruitful discussions.</p>
<p><strong><span>Selection of Presentations and Sessions:</span></strong> We received 44 submissions for this event and eventually after discussions 29 were selected to be featured in the event. A committee was given the task to select the submissions based on the topics that are crucial to Indic editors. We also had willing participants from the Wikimedia Foundation as presenters to acquaint the members of Indian community and volunteers with the important topics and issues.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We also invited international guests and experts to speak to our Indian Wikimedian community about the topics that are relevant currently and would be crucial for Indic writers and editors in future. We invited the experts from France to talk about their <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Lingua_Libre_-_record_your_language">Lingua Libre</a> project. We also invited the team to talk about Strategy. Our keynote speakers were also invited for this event.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><span>Event:</span></strong> After taking all the submissions into consideration, our program committee made a <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Program">program schedule</a> for the three-day event. The tracks that were selected by the program committee for the presentations were: Growth of Wikimedia communities and partnerships, Information on technical Aspects and tools, Strategy of Wikimedia movement, GLAM & Content copyrights, etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Other than that, we tried to follow the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Friendly_space_policy/en">Friendly Space Policy</a> completely. All the rules of the said policy were cleared before the event. The team tried its best to remove the language barrier for our Non-English speakers. We urged the Wikimedians to translate their content in their language for their respective communities. This practice was followed by quite a few Indic Wikimedians.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>30 sessions</strong> were planned in all. Every session had a separate Etherpad link. As this was a virtual event, this facility was provided for the participants as well as the experts to interact during and after the session. Due to shortage of time, the notes and questions were made on the Etherpad. Experts and presenters wrote their answers on the Etherpad as well. All the sessions and presentations were recorded and are now available to everyone on the Commons under the name <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021">Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021</a>.</p>
<p>During this three-day event, around 200 participants joined in at different times. Out of the <strong>30 presentations</strong>, 18 presenters were from India and the remaining were international presenters.</p>
<p>Day 1 (Friday, 19 February, 2021):</p>
<p>There were 9 presentations on Day 1 of the event. After the introduction by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Titodutta">Tito Dutta</a>, the keynote speech was delivered by Asaf Bartov (<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ijon">Ijon</a>). This was attended by <a href="https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/wmwmopeningspeech">86</a> participants.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After the keynote speech, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Diptanshu_Das">Dipantshu Das</a> shed a light on ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Attracting_experts_to_contribute_to_Wikimedia_movement">Attracting experts to contribute to Wikimedia’</a>. He highlighted that it was the need of the hour. And this work would greatly help communities in India. He talked about urging academicians to contribute to Wikipedia more openly.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Next presentation was made by Sudhanshu Gautam and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:AMuigai_(WMF)">Angie Muigai</a>. They talked about ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Growing_Wikipedia%E2%80%99s_reach_in_India_with_a_new_Wikipedia_app">Growing Wikipedia’s reach in India with a new Wikipedia app</a>’ in their presentation, they talked about the importance of making Wikipedia mobile friendly with the increase of internet users in India. They mentioned that there was an opportunity to provide ideas to increase the readership.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The next two presentations under the growth track were: ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Help_your_community_grow">Help your community grow</a>’ and ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Help_your_community_grow">Introducing newcomers from Wikisource to Wikipedia: A case study from Hindi Wikipedia’</a>. The first session was a 20 minutes long presentation followed by a conversation and it was beneficial to welcome and retain new users to Wikipedia and also increase the quality of new users’ edits. The second presentation shed some light on how to retain the new users and volunteers once they join the community after attending sessions and workshops.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On day 1, there were three presentations about the partnerships: ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Engaging_with_partners_in_the_movement!_WMF%27s_approach">Engaging with partners in the movement! WMF's approach</a>’, ‘GLAM Mapping leads to Wikimedian in Residence’, and ‘Discover Structured Data on Commons for you and your partners’.</p>
<p>In the first presentation, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:PDas_(WMF)">Praveen Das</a> underlined the importance of working with various partners from different fields for mutual growth.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Next presenter <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%80">Arya Joshi</a> talked about the GLAM mapping research conducted by CIS - A2K and her work with Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum, Pune. She talked about offline and online documentation of work and creating new opportunities for research.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The final presentation of the day was Discover Structured Data on Commons for you and your partners by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Alicia_Fagerving_(WMSE)">Alicia Fagerving</a>. In this session, the presenter gave recommendations to make optimum use of the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Structured_data">Structured Data on Commons (SDC)</a> to improve workflow. This presentation was followed by a workshop where the participants edited SDC and then there was a discussion.</p>
<p>Day 2 (Saturday, 20 February, 2021):</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Day 2 began with a special morning session and keynote speech by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Katherine_(WMF)">Katherine Maher</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Katherine_(WMF)">Amanda Keton</a>. In her <a href="https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/wmwmd02special">speech</a>, Katherine highlighted how Indian community is important to the Wikimedia movement. She also talked about the growth of emerging communities. Groups and Wikimedians who have been doing good work were also recognised. She talked about relaunching the Grant strategy. It was a fruitful session with comments and question - answers.</p>
<p>After the keynote address, there were 3 presentations that dealt with the technical aspect and issues.</p>
<p>The first talk was about <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Gadgets_and_tools_for_a_Wikipedia_Editor">Gadgets and tools for a Wikipedia Editor</a> by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ranjithsiji">Ranjith Siji</a>. He introduced and explained different kinds of scripts and tools required to edit and browse Wikipedia.</p>
<p>The second session was a 60 minute long workshop followed by a conversation about <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Transforming_Data_from_the_Web_with_OpenRefine">Transforming Data from the Web with OpenRefine</a>. It was conducted by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gnoeee">Gnoeee</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ranjithsiji">Ranjith Siji</a>. This was a basic level training given to the new users of <a href="https://openrefine.org/">OpenRefine</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The last technical presentation was <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Writing_UserScripts_and_gadgets">Writing UserScripts and gadgets</a> by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jayprakash12345">Jay Prakash</a>. In his session, the presenter imparted basic to intermediate level training on writing user scripts and explaining how to use it as a gadget on Wiki.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The last 4 sessions of the day dealt with Strategy. The first presentation ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/An_update_from_the_Sustainability_Initiative">An update from the Sustainability Initiative</a>’ in this category was made by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gnom">Gnom</a> from Germany. He gave an update on the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sustainability_Initiative">Sustainability Initiative</a>. His talk consisted of an update on current developments around environmental sustainability in the Wikimedia movement.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Next presentation named ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Grants_in_2021_-_What_is_the_process%3F">Grants in 2021 - What is the process?</a>’ was by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:THasan_(WMF)">Tanveer Hasan</a>. As a part of the Community Resources team, the presenter shared a process update and gathered feedback on how to improve the strategy relaunch process.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Next presentation titled ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Movement_Strategy_and_South_Asia">Movement Strategy and South Asia</a>’ was done by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Anna_Torres_(WMAR)">Anna Torres</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Hillun_Vilayl_Napis_(WMID)">Hillun Vilayl Napis</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Kayusyussuf">Kayode Yussuf</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:THasan_(WMF)">Tanveer Hassan</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MPourzaki_(WMF)">Mehrdad Pourzaki</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:RMerkley_(WMF)">Ryan Merkley</a>, and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:KVaidla_(WMF)">Kaarel Vaidla</a>. In this session, all the presenters talked about the initiatives that are most relevant and important in 2021 in communities of South Asia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The last session of the day was ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Distributed_leadership_and_global_decision-making_-_the_Interim_Global_Council">Distributed leadership and global decision-making - the Interim Global Council’</a>. It was delivered by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MPourzaki_(WMF)">Mehrdad Pourzaki</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:RMerkley_(WMF)">Ryan Merkley</a>, and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:KVaidla_(WMF)">Kaarel Vaidla</a>. They talked about global decision making and distributed leadership. Their aim was to acquaint the South Asian communities to the conversations, possibilities, and updates.</p>
<p>Day 3 (Sunday, 21 February, 2021):</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The last day of the event was dedicated to ‘<a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42375">International Mother Language Day</a>’. The day began with 2 consecutive sessions by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Diptanshu_Das">Dipantshu Das</a> named ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Copyright,_Copyleft,_and_Wikimedia_movement">Copyright, Copyleft, and Wikimedia movement</a>’ and ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Building_a_diamond_open_access_journal_on_Wikimedia_platform">Building a diamond open access journal on Wikimedia platform</a>’. In the first session, the presenter talked about the importance of intellectual property rights and copyright to the Wikimedia movement. In the second session, the presenter talked about the importance of having diamond open access journals especially in India as the article processing charges for open access journals can be very high in India due to conversion rates.</p>
<p>Next session was a workshop conducted by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jayanta_(CIS-A2K)">Jayanta Nath</a> on <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Wikisource_Workshop_-_Basic">Wikisource</a>. Another workshop was conducted at the same time by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Rangan_Datta_Wiki">Rangan Datta</a> on <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Wikivoyage_Workshop">Wikivoyage</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Next 4 presentations on Day 3 were community based. The first presentation in this series was titled <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Internship_Program_in_Tamil_Wiki_Projects">‘Internship Program in Tamil Wiki Projects</a>’ and was delivered by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Neechalkaran">Neechalkaran</a>. It was a knowledge sharing session on the internship program for college students.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The second presentation was made by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Subodh_(CIS-A2K)">Subodh Kulkarni</a> and the title was ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Re-licensing_and_Digitisation_process_in_Maharashtra">Re-licensing and Digitisation process in Maharashtra</a>’. The presenter explained the relicensing process taking place in Maharashtra Marathi community, authors, copyright holders, and organisations.</p>
<p>The third session was conducted by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ziko">Ziko</a> and was named ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Rules_that_every_wiki_needs">Rules that every wiki needs</a>’. In this session, the presenter introduced the topic ‘law and rules every wiki needs’.</p>
<p>The last session in the Community category was ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/100wikidays">100wikidays</a>’ and it was conducted by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ssgapu22">Sangram Senapati</a>. In this session, the presenter shared his story of writing an article for Wiki each and every day for 100 days.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The last four presentations of the day were dedicated to language. In the session titled ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Servants_Of_Knowledge_initiative_for_Digital_Archiving_Kannada_%26_other_Indic_language_content">Servants Of Knowledge initiative for Digital Archiving Kannada & other Indic language content</a>’, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Omshivaprakash">Omshivprakash</a> talked about the impact of digitisation of art, history, and culture on language preservation. He primarily talked about the Kannada language.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Next session was on ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Spell4Wiki_-_Audio_upload_tool_for_Wikimedia_commons_%26_Multilingual_dictionary_based_on_Wiktionary">Spell4Wiki - Audio upload tool for Wikimedia commons & Multilingual dictionary based on Wiktionary</a>’ by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Manimaran96">Manimaran</a>. In this presentation, he introduced the Spell4wiki app. He also described the features and benefits of using the said app.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Next session was conducted by invited guest experts from France. The session was about ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Lingua_Libre_-_record_your_language">Lingua Libre - record your language</a>’ and ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Lingua_Libre_bot_and_recording_wizard">Lingua Libre bot and recording wizard’</a>. It was conducted by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ad%C3%A9la%C3%AFde_Calais_WMFr">Adélaïde Calais</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Poslovitch">Poslovitch</a>, and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Yug">Yug</a>. Lingua Libre is a website created by Wikimedia France to record vocabulary. Its aim is to build a collaborative and multilingual bank. In the session, the two tools used in the Lingua Libre project, the Record Wizard and the Lingua Libre Bot, were also introduced.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The last session before the closing keynote speech was ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021/Submissions/Section_Translation:_New_Ways_to_Contribute_on_Mobile_Devices">Section Translation: New Ways to Contribute on Mobile Devices’</a>. It was presented by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Aaharoni-WMF">Amir Aharoni</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:NGkountas_(WMF)">NGkountas</a>, and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pginer-WMF">Pau Giner</a>. The presenters talked about the content translation extension. Further, they talked about two new features that are to be deployed that can be used by more people in many countries and languages.</p>
<p>The closing keynote speech was given by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Tarunno">Tarunno</a>. He spoke about ‘<a href="https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/wmwmclosingspeech">International Mother Language Day - The love for Language and a sound of silence</a>’ The event ended with a closing session by Tito Dutta.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><span>Hurdles we faced:</span></strong> At the beginning, we found it difficult to form a team to organise the event. Due to the pandemic, we were unsure about approaching the wikimedians and were also worried about the participation. As it was a virtual event, the internet was the most important factor in it. Many participants and volunteers faced problems due to low internet connectivity.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><span>Our achievements:</span></strong> This was the first ever national level virtual event conducted in India by A2K. We were able to create a platform for the wikimedians to interact. Though it was initially a national event, we were able to get international guests as well.</p>
<p>We received positive feedback and precious suggestions from the participants. Following are some quotes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Productive, helpful sessions. Was very helpful to me personally. Good effort by all involved. If I were to suggest improvements, Would have liked slots for conversations, and networking sessions. A "state of nation" like updates by projects would have helped too. “</p>
<p>“Thanks a lot again, this was a very good event.</p>
<p>Online events are not the same as physical ones but it was still very interesting and useful.”</p>
<p>“I was a presenter and presented a workshop on Wikivoyage. It was a nice program and I'm looking forward to more such virtual and physical events.”</p>
<p>We also received some feedback videos that were an appreciation for A2K. Following are a couple of links:</p>
<p><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Wikimeet_India_2021_%E2%80%93_message_from_Manavpreet_Kaur.webm">Manavpreet Kaur</a></p>
<p><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimeet_India_2021followup_message_from_Mehrdad_Pourzaki.webm">Mehrdad Pourzaki</a></p>
<p>We also received audio feedback from <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiMeet-2021-Comment.ogg">Ashwin Bandur</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><span>What’s next?!</span></strong>: After all the stumbles and hurdles and achievements we had in Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2021, we have already started planning for Wikimedia Wikimeet India 2022. Tito Dutta has <a href="https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/06/18/charaiveti-01-wikimedia-wikimeet-and-beyond-ideas-and-opinions/">written</a> about the planning for next year’s meet.</p>
<p align="center"><strong><i>“It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.” </i></strong></p>
<p align="right">- <strong><i>Carl Friedrich Gauss</i></strong></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-wikimeet-india-2021-report'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-wikimeet-india-2021-report</a>
</p>
No publisherNitesh Gill and Tito DuttaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMalayalam Wikipedia2021-08-20T14:01:55ZBlog EntryDeveloping Open Educational Resources in Indian Languages
https://cis-india.org/openness/developing-open-educational-resources-in-indian-languages
<b>The Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education (CILHE), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), in collaboration with the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) programme at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), has been involved in organising workshops on developing open educational resources (OER) in Indian languages with undergraduate and postgraduate students across various partner institutions. The objective of these workshops is to introduce students to: a) tools of collaborative knowledge production on the Internet, and b) methods for generating new online content in Indian languages.</b>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-6a5cf4f0-34dc-8053-8ba7-e604a4aef120" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">During November 2015 - February 2016, four such workshops have been organised at TISS’ Mumbai and Tuljapur campuses, <a href="http://www.srtt.org/casestudies/Pune_University_Case_Study%20-%202.pdf">Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women's Studies Centre</a> (KSPWSC), Pune University, and at the <a href="http://www.efluniversity.ac.in/">English and Foreign Languages University</a> (EFLU), Hyderabad.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">A one and half day workshop was organised at KSPWSC, Pune during January 22-23, 2016. A total of 20 students attended this workshop along with three faculty members from the Centre. This workshop is a part of CILHE's ongoing and sustained engagement with KSPWSC to generate and strengthen content pertaining to women's studies on the <a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/">Marathi Wikipedia</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Pune</strong><br />On Day 1, after the opening address by Dr. Anagha Tambe from KSPWSC, Sohnee Harshey from CILHE, TISS spoke about the importance of creating open educational resources in Indian languages for social sciences and humanities. She sought responses from participants about the nature of their engagement with their research areas—which languages they used while collecting data, whether they had accessed reading material in languages other than English, and what were their sources of information. All the participants had used languages other than English in their learning process, some had even accessed Indian language Wikipedias, and all of them felt the need for more resources in Indian languages—especially in simpler and more accessible formats. Tanveer Hasan from CIS then spoke about the utility of Wikipedia for knowledge consumers and its immense potential for students to become knowledge producers, especially in the Indian languages.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In order to familiarize the participants with social sciences (specifically women's studies) terminology in Indian languages, an exercise was conducted, wherein they were asked to describe a concept (from a given list) without using the term itself. The idea behind this was to highlight what function a concept performs in a sentence and in the language context, and what assumptions are made while using this concept. This was followed up with another exercise where the participants were encouraged to choose two concepts and explain their denotation and connotation. This was done in order to familiarise them with the web of other concepts in which a concept is located. The concept of ‘labour’ or ‘shram’ (in Marathi) was chosen for discussion.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">On Day 2 of the workshop, Abhinav Garule, Programme Associate with A2K-CIS, introduced the participants to the basics of Wikipedia editing through a hands-on activity. They navigated through both the English and Indian language Wikipedias to see how the edit, talk, and view history functions work, what the key characteristics of a good article are, and how one can read more about a certain topic through interwiki and external links and categories. This was interspersed with recalling the exercises done on the previous day and comparing the critical thinking process involved.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Since one of the simpler ways to populate Indian language Wikipedias is through translation of existing content in English, participants were encouraged to try this with an entry of their choice. They were asked to also list difficulties that they faced in the process of translation. At the end of this exercise, a range of ‘problems’ like lack of appropriate terminology for complex concepts, the dangers of oversimplification, differences between languages in terms of the structure of sentences, and lack of references in Indian languages, were highlighted by the participants. While they were still thinking about these problems, another challenge was put forth for them to look at two conflicting or opposing references for a topic (for example, a movie review, or reporting around an event) and come up with a ‘neutral’ write-up about it. Questions of what constitutes a valid reference, issues of plagiarism, personal opinion, codes of civility on Talk pages formed part of this discussion.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Following this, the participants chose one topic (each) on which they wished to create a Wikipedia article in an Indian language. Most of the participants worked on the Marathi Wikipedia. They worked in groups of 3-4 to edit and create a range of articles including ones on patriarchy, colonialism, masculinity, family, and tribes, among others. A total of 12 entries were created in this workshop. Participants also explored Wikimedia Commons, Meta, and Wikisource as allied repositories. The students have now become active as knowledge producers and will join the existing group of editors at KSPWSC in the wiki-sprints to generate new content every month.</p>
<p><strong>Hyderabad: </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Similar exercises were also conducted during the two-day workshop at EFLU, Hyderabad in February 2016. The participants worked on the Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi Wikipedias. Articles were written on geographical entities like Tamil Eelam and West Godavari district, on academic figures like M.S.S. Pandian and Maxine Berstein, academic and literary works such as My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk and Towards a World of Equals by Susie Tharu, among other topics. Since creating an article from scratch also involved deliberation regarding issues of translation, and the limits of concepts and their meanings in the Indian context, it is hoped that these new editors will find it useful for their own research to think critically about the process of generating content on the Indian language Wikipedias.</p>
<p class="discreet"><em>* Sohnee Harshey works at the</em><em> Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Article edited by Subhashish Panigrahi of CIS-A2K.<br /></em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/developing-open-educational-resources-in-indian-languages'>https://cis-india.org/openness/developing-open-educational-resources-in-indian-languages</a>
</p>
No publisherSohnee Harshey*CIS-A2KMalayalam WikipediaMarathi WikipediaTelugu WikipediaHindi Wikipedia2016-06-10T01:50:22ZBlog EntryPromoting Online Content Through 'Wiki Malayalam'
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/new-indian-express-may-6-2016-promoting-online-content-through-wiki-malayalam
<b>Practical sessions on using Wiki Malayalam as a medium to preserve the language and promote digital media were held on Thursday, the final day of the two-day workshop on ‘Wiki Malayalam.’</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/Promoting-Online-Content-Through-Wiki-Malayalam/2016/05/06/article3417585.ece">New Indian Express</a> on May 6, 2016.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The event was organised jointly by Swadeshabhimani Media Study Centre in conjuction with Centre for Internet and Society and the Wiki Malayalam Fraternity. The sessions were promising, enriching and a big help for promoting online content through Wiki Malayalam which is still in its infancy, the participants said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Rahimuddhim Sheik of Centre for Internet and Society, and Manoj Karangimadathil, Wikipedia Fraternity, led the sessions on Wiki technicals. It was followed by an interactive practical session wherein participants learned to be an editor and reporter in Wiki Malayalam. Participants were taught to create articles on sandbox through observation of articles published on Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Various aspects for making Wiki Malayalam presentable such as adding more images to the articles were imparted effectively.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Environmentalist Madhav Gadgil, speaking after inaugurating the two-day workshop,the other day, said, “Authenticity of the information in Wikipedia is often questioned but the discussion page offers the option to point out misleading information and to ensure true information and details.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The introductory session by Madhav Gadgil incorporated various themes and ideas about the workshop, wikipedia commons, wikipedia projects, and its pillars and principles.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In his session he briefed about how wikipedia gives an in-depth information on particular material on a chronological order and various external references for further extensive reading. As an examples Madhav Gadgil discussed about the Athirapilly Hydroelectric Project in Wikipedia. It sets out a chance for anyone to start a new article on any subject.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/new-indian-express-may-6-2016-promoting-online-content-through-wiki-malayalam'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/new-indian-express-may-6-2016-promoting-online-content-through-wiki-malayalam</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeMalayalam Wikipedia2016-05-06T15:35:14ZNews ItemSpread awareness through Malayalam Wikipedia: Gadgil
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-times-of-india-may-5-2016-spread-awareness-through-malayalam-wikipedia
<b>"Contribution of information by people of Rukadi village near Kolhapur to Marathi Wikipedia, by referring to media reports, helped spread the word about mass fish deaths in the region. Similar efforts should be initiated in Kerala so that information about local movements like Plachimada campaign would be available in the public domain," opined environmentalist Madhav Gadgil. He was speaking at the Malayalam Wikipedia workshop hosted by Swadeshabhimani Media Study Centre at Vakkom Moulavi Memorial Hall here on Wednesday.</b>
<p>The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/Spread-awareness-through-Malayalam-Wikipedia-Gadgil/articleshow/52117252.cms">published in the Times of India</a> on May 5, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The scientist spoke at length on how the information technology in general and the Wikipedia in particular, could help create awareness among commoners about the harmful effects of environmental degradation. He added that though Malayalam Wikipedia is ahead of other Indian languages in documenting geographical details, the content doesn't stretch beyond official information. He suggested that controversial information too must be documented with reference to media reports.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Fuad Jaleel, volunteer editor of Malayalam Wikipedia, explained Wikipedia policies on notability and reliability. The two-day workshop is organised in association with Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and Malayalam Wikipedia community. On Wednesday, the event focused on identifying topics for wiki-articles and creating basic village/town data by making use of census. Forty participants attending the workshop will contribute articles to Wikipedia on Thursday. Representatives from CIS Bengaluru and members of Malayalam Wikipedia Community will assist them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"The intention is to add wiki-articles on environmental issues at panchayat level. Malayalam Wikipedia could be used as a medium for citizen journalism. We will organize more workshops and classes," said Ram Kamal, one of the coordinators of Swadeshabhimani centre. V K Damodaran delivered welcome speech and A Suhair presented vote of thanks in the inaugural session.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-times-of-india-may-5-2016-spread-awareness-through-malayalam-wikipedia'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-times-of-india-may-5-2016-spread-awareness-through-malayalam-wikipedia</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeMalayalam Wikipedia2016-05-05T15:43:59ZNews ItemTelugu Wikipedia Education Program at Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada
https://cis-india.org/openness/events/telugu-wikipedia-education-program-at-andhra-loyola-college-vijayawada
<b>In collaboration with Andhra Loyola College (ALC), Vijayawada, Access to Knowledge programme (CIS-A2K) of the Centre for Internet and Society is opening up a Wikipedia Digital Centre in the college so that students and local Wikimedians could grow Wikipedia and other Wikimedia content in Telugu and other Indian languages. To begin with this, a two-day long Wikipedia Education Program is also being initiated which will continue to grow further by expanding local content on Wikipedia.</b>
<p>As part of this two-day programme 40 undergraduate students (10 each from Botany, Statistics,
Physics and Telugu) will be taking part and will be creating articles in their respective subjects in four languages; Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil.</p>
<p>On the 13th a Wikipedia Digital Centre will be opened at ALC. G Umamaheswara Rao of Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies (CALTS) lab, University of Hyderabad will be joining as the chief guest. This lab will have 10 computers and will be jointly managed by the CIS and ALC where the student-Wikipedians and the local Wikimedia community could conduct regular Wikipedia outreach programmes. Joining in this event are principal of the institution Fr. Kishore, Professsor
Sivakumari from Department of Botany, Professor Sahayabaskaran, Department of Physics, and Professor
Kola Sekhar, Department of Telugu. On behalf of CIS-A2K, Rahmanuddin Shaik and Pavan Santosh will be participating and facilitating the Wikipedia Education Program and the inauguration of the lab.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/events/telugu-wikipedia-education-program-at-andhra-loyola-college-vijayawada'>https://cis-india.org/openness/events/telugu-wikipedia-education-program-at-andhra-loyola-college-vijayawada</a>
</p>
No publisherPavan SantoshCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeMalayalam WikipediaTelugu WikipediaHindi Wikipedia2016-01-13T07:51:13ZEvent150 Rare Books Get New Lease of Life Online, Courtesy Students
https://cis-india.org/news/new-indian-express-july-15-2014-anila-backer-150-rare-books-get-new-lease-of-life-online-courtesy-students
<b>You might have heard about Samkshepa Vedartham by Clement Pianius, the first book printed in Malayalam but might not have got a chance to read it.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Anila Backer was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/150-Rare-Books-Get-New-Lease-of-Life-Online-Courtesy-Students/2014/07/15/article2331073.ece">published in the New Indian Express</a> on July 15, 2014. The Access to Knowledge team at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS-A2K) supported this Malayalam community event.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Now, you can read the book published in 1772 online through the Malayalam Wiki library (Wiki grandhasala). More than 150 such rare books have been digitised and uploaded by the school students across the state and a few members of the public as part of the digitisation contest jointly hosted by Malayalam Wikipedia community, IT@School, Kerala Sahitya Akademi , Centre for Internet and Society and Swathanthra Malayalam computing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">More than 1,000 students from 137 schools and 234 participants from the public uploaded more than 13,000 pages of rare books such as Hasthalakshana Deepika (1892) by Kadathanattu Udayavarma Thampuran, Madamahee Shashathakam Manipravalam (1908) by Kottaratil Shankunni, Malayazhmayude Vyakaranam (1863) by Rev George Mathan and Divan Shankunni Menon (1922) by C Achutha Menon as part of the competition held during January and February.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Besides, you can also acquire information on the social scenario during different time periods, like the matrilineal system of inheritance, ‘Marumakkathayam’ through the various volumes of old magazines digitised by the students. Magazines such as Mangalodayam and Rasikaranjini are also available in the wiki library. “Books that were not available in Malayalam and those existed only in the German and French libraries were digitised with the contest. The contest was organised to provide the public access to these rare collections,” says IT@School Wayanad district coordinator V J Thomas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“It also allows one to search for a particular word or topic as well as to copy the content of the book for a research work or other purposes that cannot be done with a scanned copy of a book,” he adds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Moreover, it also aims at developing an interest among the students towards Malayalam computing and to make them effectively utilise the scope of Internet, besides improving their reading habit,” he added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“It has also improved the typing speed of the students and they get familiar with the old fonts in the language also,” he added.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/new-indian-express-july-15-2014-anila-backer-150-rare-books-get-new-lease-of-life-online-courtesy-students'>https://cis-india.org/news/new-indian-express-july-15-2014-anila-backer-150-rare-books-get-new-lease-of-life-online-courtesy-students</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMalayalam WikipediaOpenness2014-07-18T06:12:31ZNews ItemWikiSangamotsavam 2013 brings Indian Wikimedians together
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dna-january-14-2014-netha-hussain-subhashish-panigrahi-wikisangamotsavam-2013-brings-indian-wikimedians-together
<b>WikiSangamotsavam, the annual conference of Malayalam Wikimedians, took place in Alappuzha, Kerala from December 21 to 23, 2013. The conference brought together around 200 Wikimedians and well-wishers from all over India.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post originally <a class="external-link" href="http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/01/06/wikisangamotsavam-2013/">published on Wikimedia Foundation's website</a> was copy edited by Rohini Lakshane and published as an <a class="external-link" href="http://www.dnaindia.com/blogs/post-wikisangamotsavam-2013-brings-indian-wikimedians-together-1950971">article in DNA</a> on January 14, 2014.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The host town, Alappuzha is popularly known as the Venice of the East owing to its picturesque backwaters and canals. Alappuzha was chosen as the location for the conference in an attempt to draw attention to the region's diversity and touristic appeal, thereby increasing the town's representation on Wikipedia. A few pre-conference events including a bicycle rally, a meetup for young Wikimedians and several edit-a-thons were held.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Day 1</b><br />The first day of WikiSangamotsavam started with Wiki-Vidyarthi-Sangamam, a meetup of student Wikimedians. The digitisation of "Sri-Mahabharatham", a seven volume Malayalam epic was flagged off during the Wiki-Vidyarthi-Sangamam. Around 100 students from all over Kerala interacted with each other and learnt about Wikimedia projects in Malayalam. A Wikipedia workshop was conducted for physically impaired delegates. They were introduced to various means of accessibility by the <a href="http://www.daisy.org/" target="_blank">DAISY Consortium</a>. This session helped them learn about self-education tools, accessing knowledge platforms such as Wikipedia, and contributing in Malayalam online.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">During a panel discussion on "Malayalam and Wikipedia" language and computing experts discussed the role of Wikipedia in the growth of the Malayalam language. Talks and presentations about topics relevant to Wikimedia were held in three parallel sessions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first day of the event also marked the Malayalam Wikipedia’s eleventh anniversary. The occasion was celebrated by cutting a cake. At the end of the day, Wikimedians entertained themselves by singing Malayalam folk songs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Day 2</b><br />The second day started with the inaugural session. The event was inaugurated by Sashi Kumar, a media analyst and founder of India’s first regional satellite television channel.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Dr. Thomas Isaac, a former minister in Kerala, was the chief guest at the function. Mementos were given away to active Wikimedians who organised various Wikimedia events throughout 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The QRpedia project was launched by Dr. Thomas Isaac at the Alappuzha lighthouse. QRpedia aims to make QR codes for tourist locations, which link to Wikipedia articles pertaining to the locations and monuments. By the start of the next year, all historical monuments and tourist destinations are set to be marked with QR codes. If successfully completed, Alappuzha would be the first town in India to be fully digitised with QR codes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A Non-Malayalam Indic Wikimedia meetup was held for Wikimedians who contribute to Wikimedia projects in other Indic languages and English. There was a track to discuss how various collaborative projects could be built to have content creation drives for enriching Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Day 3</b><br />The third and final day of WikiSangamotsavam was devoted to taking Wikimedians on a boat trip amidst the flora of the Vembanad lake to experience its unique biodiversity. Experienced Wikimedians who have done extensive research on the region's biodiversity provided a guided tour onboard the boat.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 126 acres of reclaimed wetland around the lake and its rare plant species serves as the location for a rich discussion and collaboration among bio-enthusiasts on Wikipedia. Wikimedians also discussed how to go about protecting the biodiversity of the R. Block of Vembanad lake.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The three-day long WikiSangamotsavam brought together many of the Malayalam Wikimedians under one roof and enabled them to share their best practices, ideas and visions for the future.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dna-january-14-2014-netha-hussain-subhashish-panigrahi-wikisangamotsavam-2013-brings-indian-wikimedians-together'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dna-january-14-2014-netha-hussain-subhashish-panigrahi-wikisangamotsavam-2013-brings-indian-wikimedians-together</a>
</p>
No publisherNetha Hussain and Subhashish PanigrahiAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMalayalam WikipediaOpenness2014-02-03T06:57:04ZBlog EntryDigitising contest to preserve rare books in Malayalam
https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-january-4-2014-digitising-contest-to-preserve-rare-books-in-malayalam
<b>The Malayalam Wiki Grandhasala has announced a competition in digitally preserving rare books in Malayalam.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/digitising-contest-to-preserve-rare-books-in-malayalam/article5538126.ece">published in the Hindu</a> on January 4, 2014.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">‘Digitalisation Contest 2014’, launched by the Wiki community, is aimed at digitising rare books in Malayalam, the copyright of which has expired, and making them available online in Unicode font.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Wiki community wants the books to reach innumerable readers through the Internet.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The competition will be held in separate categories for schools and the general public. The competition involves entering the text on the computer and proof-reading. The prizes include e-book readers and books.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the first phase of the project, 55 books listed by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi have been offered for digitising. They include ‘Samskshepa Vedartham’ (1772), ‘Malayanmayude Vyakaranam’ (1863) and ‘Hasthalakshanadeepika’ (1892).<br />Copies of magazines such as ‘Rasikaranjini’ and ‘Mangalodayam’ have also been offered for digitising.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Those who wish to take part in the competition should visit the Wiki Grandhasala (ml.wikisource.org) and become a member of the project.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Details of the competition and the list of books may be downloaded. The contest will be open till January 31. It is being organised on the 10th anniversary of the Wiki Source project by the Centre for Internet and Society, IT@School project, Swanthanthra Malayalam Computing and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For details, contact K. Manoj, general convener of the contest (cellphone number: 9495576262).</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-january-4-2014-digitising-contest-to-preserve-rare-books-in-malayalam'>https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-january-4-2014-digitising-contest-to-preserve-rare-books-in-malayalam</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMalayalam WikipediaOpenness2014-01-31T06:33:15ZNews Item