The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 61 to 75.
Kannada Wikipedia Orientation Workshop at IISc, Bengaluru
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/kannada-wikipedia-orientation-workshop-at-iisc-bengaluru
<b></b>
<p>A Kannada Wikipedia orientation workshop was held at the Entrepreneurship Centre, SID, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru on 26 November, 2017. The day long event was aimed at adding content to Kannada Wikimedia projects on topics such as ecology, environment, wildlife and sciences of Karnataka. The event was organised by Gubbi Labs in conjunction with CIS-A2K. Gubbi Labs is a research collective and social collective run by environmental scientists. The event was attended was attended by 8 participants of which one member was female.</p>
<p>The participants created six articles and expanded one article. The impact of this workshop was the fact that participants were made aware of the importance of open access data. It helped initiate another similar workshop in Mysuru. Upon sharing the idea for projects like Wiki Loves Butterfly Idea, a participant was interested in starting a project titled 'Wiki Loves Spiders'. We are hoping to take this project forward on Kannada Wikipedia.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/kannada-wikipedia-orientation-workshop-at-iisc-bengaluru'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/kannada-wikipedia-orientation-workshop-at-iisc-bengaluru</a>
</p>
No publisherGopalakrishna ACIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpennessKannada Wikipedia2017-12-19T16:16:29ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia workshop for Sandarbh Science magazine writers
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-for-sandarbh-science-magazine-writers
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia workshop was recently conducted for the writers at Sandarbh Science magazine.
</b>
<p>On 18 November, a introductory Wikimedia workshop was conducted for the writers at Sandarbh Science magazine.</p>
<p>Sandarbh Society is a registered society and public trust established with the main objective of publication on science and education. They also conduct lectures, demonstrations, workshops and other such activities in addition to networking of school teachers interested in bringing in innovative approaches in education.</p>
<p>The workshop was aimed at introducing Wikimedia projects and creating/editing Wikipedia articles to the writers. Participants were completely unaware about Marathi Wikipedia and editing. They were trained in basic editing skills and search for the concerned articles, categorisation and translation from other language wikipedias. Participants worked on articles and made edits. Images were also added to Commons and into articles. 59 articles were edited. 11 participants took part in the event.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-for-sandarbh-science-magazine-writers'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-for-sandarbh-science-magazine-writers</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-12-19T15:53:30ZBlog EntryCIS-A2K signs MoU with Telangana Government
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-signs-mou-with-telangana-government
<b></b>
<p dir="ltr">The Centre for Internet and Society recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Telangana Government’s IT, Electronics & Communications Department with an aim to catalyse the development of the Wikimedia movement in Telangana and improve the state of free-licensed digital content in Telugu and Urdu. The Principal Secretary for IT Department Mr. Jayesh Ranjan and renowned Telugu Wikimedian and Theatre Scholar Pranay Raj were present for the occasion. Mr. Konatham Dileep, Director (Digital Media), IT Department and CIS-A2K Telugu Community Advocate Pavan Santhosh were signatories to the memorandum.</p>
<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-801e8a60-9b00-aac7-b438-5d1cba7d92ef"><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">This MoU is the result of successive meetings between the Digital Media wing and Telugu Wikipedians, CIS-A2K members and the Wikimedia Foundation. These discussions enabled all stakeholders to come up with a comprehensive plan to develop the free knowledge movement in Telugu and Urdu.</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Katta Srinivas, a historian, teach and long time Telugu Wikipedian, says, “As one of the participants in earlier discussions with the government, I am happy to see progress in this respect. Especially, [the planned] photo archives of museums, photos of historical places and other events can be free-licensed as part of these initiatives. This decision can lead other government organizations to take up similar initiatives in India."</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Apart from these, some of the planned activities include releasing encyclopedic photos and media content from government archives, increasing awareness about free licenses and Wikipedia among government officials, etc.</p>
<p><br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-signs-mou-with-telangana-government'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-signs-mou-with-telangana-government</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoTelugu WikisourceCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu WikipediaOpenness2017-11-08T10:08:20ZBlog EntryDiscussion on Creation of Social Media Guidelines & Strategy for Telugu Wikimedia
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discussion-on-creation-of-social-media-guidelines-strategy-for-telugu-wikimedia
<b>Between 1 to 16 September, an online discussion took place on the creation of social media guidelines and strategy for Telugu Wikimedia handles online.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>An online discussion of guidelines and policies for the various Telugu Wikimedia social media handles was conducted. User:Pavan santhosh.s suggested a set of strategies and guidelines that can be taken into consideration for an official Social Media Policy of Telugu Wikimedia Projects. These suggestions included defining objectives, guidelines (with do's and don'ts) and strategies for the Social Media Policy. User:Ravichandra supported the idea and suggested another objective(showcasing best quality works of Wikipedia). User:Viswanadh added some strategies (such as writing a series of posts about technical aspects that help Wikipedians). User:Pranayraj1985 suggested some don'ts in handling Wikipedia pages as well as handles while User:Rajasekhar1961 expanded the strategy to other sister projects(Telugu Wikisource and Wiktionary). Finally, User:Chaduvari suggested not to name any page as official to avoid possible conflicts. User:Swaralasika announced consensus and User:Pavan santhosh.s created a page based on the discussion in order for the community to reflect.</p>
<p>User:Pranayraj1985 said, "there are pages & groups for Telugu Wikipedia in Facebook for years. We are using them as major social media promotion channels. I(Pranay) am publishing content related to Telugu Wikipedia in those channels. Some of the community members also been admins of page and group. But once or twice, in Facebook page and group, unrelated posts were published and I informed this to Wikimedians active on Facebook and removed those posts. I am glad that this discussion happened and community came up with guidelines and strategy now. This is very much needed. </p>
<p>The guideline page can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B0%B5%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%95%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%AA%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%A1%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%AF%E0%B0%BE:%E0%B0%A4%E0%B1%86%E0%B0%B2%E0%B1%81%E0%B0%97%E0%B1%81_%E0%B0%B5%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%95%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%AA%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%A1%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%AF%E0%B0%BE_%E0%B0%B8%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%AE%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%9C%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%95_%E0%B0%B5%E0%B1%87%E0%B0%A6%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%95%E0%B0%B2_%E0%B0%AE%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%B0%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%97%E0%B0%A6%E0%B0%B0%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%B6%E0%B0%95%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%B2%E0%B1%81">here</a>.</p>
<p>Although the event was successful in creating guidelines, none of the input included women's voices as there were no female participants. Here's hoping there is a diversity of voices in future discussions.</p>
<p><em>With input from Pavan Santhosh S., Telugu Community Advocate, CIS-A2K.</em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discussion-on-creation-of-social-media-guidelines-strategy-for-telugu-wikimedia'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discussion-on-creation-of-social-media-guidelines-strategy-for-telugu-wikimedia</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu WikipediaOpenness2017-10-24T14:42:24ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Workshop at Solapur University
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-solapur-university
<b>15 September</b>
<p> </p>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia Workshop was held at the Department of Mass Communications at Solapur University. The workshop aimed to introduce Wikimedia and its sister projects to the students. The workshop comprised 25 participants with 10 female attendees.</p>
<p>Sharing their thoughts after the event, the participants were enthuse. Says Priyanka Lagshetti, "I never imagined that I can contribute to Wikipedia. I worked on various media related articles." Another participant, Ambadas Bhasake added, "This workshop showed us a innovative way to use internet productively and constructively" </p>
<p>While 19 new editors joined Wikipedia, participants worked on 60 articles and made around 90 edits. 15 images were added to Commons and into articles.</p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Workshop_at_Department_of_Mass_Communication,Solapur_University,Solapur,Maharashtra,India">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-solapur-university'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-solapur-university</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-10-24T14:09:24ZBlog EntryOrientation Program at Kannada University, Hampi
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-program-at-kannada-university-hampi
<b>A Kannada Wikipedia Orientation Program was conducted at Kannada University Hampi on 31 August and 1 September 2017.</b>
<p>A Kannada Wikipedia orientation program was conducted at the Kannada University in Hampi recently wherein the participants where introduced to the various Wikimedia projects in Kannada. The participants were doctoral research students of the Dravida Samskruti Adhyayana Kendra of which 5 were male and 1 female.</p>
<p>Working on Wiktionary, the students added 3300 words to their sandboxes, which will be moved to the main space on Wiktionary.</p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Kannada_University_Hampi_Orientation_Program">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-program-at-kannada-university-hampi'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-program-at-kannada-university-hampi</a>
</p>
No publisherGopalakrishna A.CIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpennessKannada Wikipedia2017-10-24T13:01:25ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Workshop at MGM Trust's College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Aurangabad
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-mgm-trusts-college-of-journalism-and-mass-communication-aurangabad
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia Workshop was recently held at the MGM Trust's College of Journalism and Mass Communication on 11 August 2017.</b>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia workshop was recently conducted at the MGM Trust's College of Journalism and Mass Communication at Aurangabad. The workshop aimed to introduced Marathi Wikipedia to the students of the college and equip them with the process of editing the same. The workshop was attended by 10 female participants and 15 male participants. </p>
<p>"It was happiest moment for me, when I created new article on Pashmi, [a] species of dog. I added [an] image also." says Shivani Joshi a participant at the workshop. While 21 new editors were introduced to Wikipedia, 60 articles were improved and 15 images added. Another participant, Randhir Patil who added content on water-related articles says, "This content can be used as training material by field workers.</p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Workshop_at_MGM_Trust%27s_College_of_Journalism_and_Mass_Communication,_Aurangabad,_Maharashtra,_India">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-mgm-trusts-college-of-journalism-and-mass-communication-aurangabad'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-mgm-trusts-college-of-journalism-and-mass-communication-aurangabad</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-10-24T13:18:41ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal, Satara
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-dalit-mahila-vikas-mandal-satara
<b></b>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon was conducted at the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal in Satara on 4 August 2017. The organisation, working on issues of women's rights, gender, justice and violence against women, was given an introduction to editing on Wikipedia. Voluntary organisation Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal is eager to implement innovative projects for the students and field activists. It has decided to integrate Wikimedia Projects and training modules for capacity building of students and movement volunteers. To get the overall introduction of Wikimedia Projects and basic skills, this workshop was organised for faculty and selected students. The edit-a-thon was attended by 10 female and 5 male participants. </p>
<p>Sana Patel, a participant emphasises, "I realised the need to contribute gender related content. It is very important to write about women's issues and laws'. The edit-a-thon resulted in 13 new editors discovering Wikipedia for the first time. 20 articles were improved and five images were uploaded. A follow-up workshop on building content on women-related issues has been planned with the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal as well as other like-minded organisations in Satara. Onkar Tapase, a participant opines, "as a journalist, I see a great potential to contribute" </p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Edit-a-thon_at_Muktangan_Naw_Vichar_Prerana_Kendra,Satara">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-dalit-mahila-vikas-mandal-satara'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-dalit-mahila-vikas-mandal-satara</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaWorkshopMarathi Wikisource2017-10-24T11:52:24ZBlog EntryWikimedia Workshop at Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College, Satara
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-workshop-at-ismailsaheb-mulla-law-college-satara
<b>A Wikimedia Workshop was on 4 August 2017 at the Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College in Satara to introduce the Wikipedia and its sister projects to the students.</b>
<p>A Wikimedia Workshop was conducted at the the Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College in Satara. The workshop provided an introduction to students on the various Wikimedia projects. The workshop also aimed to equip them with Wikipedia editing skills. However, owing to time constraints the editing component has been postponed. </p>
<p>The workshop saw at an attendance of 30 participants, with 20 women participants. The Principal of the institution, Ms. Sunita Pawar said, "Wikipedia is good platform for students to do online assignments. We are eager to integrate it in academics." A discussion on integrating academic assignments with Wikimedia Projects was conducted to develop the basic theme and concepts. </p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Workshop_on_Wikimedia_Projects_at_Ismailsaheb_Mulla_Law_College,_Satara">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-workshop-at-ismailsaheb-mulla-law-college-satara'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-workshop-at-ismailsaheb-mulla-law-college-satara</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaMarathi Wikisource2017-10-24T11:52:19ZBlog EntryOdia Wikisource Turns 3
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikisource-turns-3
<b></b>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Odia Wikisource, the Odia language version of Wikisource, an online digital library of free content textual sources run by the Wikimedia Foundation, celebrates three years of contributing to the free knowledge movement this October. Odia Wikisource is a sister project of Odia Wikipedia, the oldest Indian language Wikipedia. The Odia Wikimedia community, a group of active contributors to Odia Wikimedia projects in India, has been working towards digitizing rare books that are no longer under copyright as well as encouraging authors and publishers to free-license their work under the Creative Commons ShareAlike License 4.0. This license allows anyone free use of the work with due attribution. The books are usually digitized into Unicode text by scanning them using Optical Character Recognition technique. This ensures their easy accessibility on the Internet so that people may easily copy, share and use these works for citations and references. If the books are damaged to a degree that they cannot be scanned, volunteers take the painstaking effort to manually type out whole books and manuscripts.</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/baANy4HReecc9oOEVq2mtASuq-rbV7c24rH0qhk4vmurHt18vQPDs7Krvb9iGSgGTyGCycw5W1B2FD94zVDga2ZU9oahqvPIyqL56aOxZM1jfncrjPBwVQuOupm1XgOCHlKHCQA" alt="Odia_Wikisource_2_-_group_picture.jpg" height="355" width="602" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"> Odia Wikisource contributors/ CCBYSA4.0 User:Psubhashish</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">The Odia Wikisource project was realized on 20 October, 2014 after a two-year incubation period. Says Pankajmala Sarangi, long time Odia Wikimedian active on Wikisource, "since [2014] more than 300 old and rare books have been digitised and made available online. Before that, searching [for] a book in Odia was not possible even if it existed in pdf or some other format. Now it has become easy and all the books available on Wikisouce are easily searchable." In addition to digitization, the Odia Wikimedia community members conduct regular quality checks of the content from time to time by ensuring proper licensing, attributions and other errors that may be avoided by thorough proof-reading. While these quality checks follow global guidelines that have been localised to help volunteers prevent vandalism of any form, it has not been without its challenges. Ms. Pankajmala explains that the lack of Odia text on operating systems is problematic for access and availability. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Despite the challenges, Odia Wikisource counts amongst its accomplishments the digitization of a twelve volume 14th century Odia classic as well as 16th century palm leaf manuscripts from the Dadhibaman Temple in Bargarh, Odisha. Taking the movement to classrooms, Odia Wikisource was introduced to students of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences to pique the interest of young minds in the preservation of Odia language texts online. The many advantages of Odia Wikisource has also been illustrated to institutions with the Utkal University library encouraging the digitization of their rare books and manuscripts by Odia Wikimedians.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Sangram Keshari Senapati, another active Odia Wikimedian explains that Odia Wikisource is important for the preservation of those books which run a high risk of being lost in the coming years. He says, "our future generation must get a chance to read them." Adding to this, Ms. Pankajmala says, "Sky is the limit for Odia wikisource. We will try to digitise more books, most probably triple the number of existing books. We'll even try to reach more libraries and authors and get more books and further digitize them. The number of wikimedians may also flourish till that time."</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikisource-turns-3'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikisource-turns-3</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikisourceOdia WikipediaWikisource2017-10-23T05:40:20ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia - Vishwakosh Workshop for Science writers in IUCAA, Pune
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune
<b></b>
<p>A day-long workshop was organised for science writers at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-University_Centre_for_Astronomy_and_Astrophysics Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics], Pune on 7 October, 2017. Eminent astrophysicist-mathematician couple
<span class="" id="text-1">
<a class="link-wiki-add" title="Click to add a new page" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune/@@wickedadd?Title=en:Jayant Narlikar|Jayant&section=text">
en:Jayant Narlikar|Jayant<sup>[+]</sup></a>
</span>
and
<span class="" id="text-2">
<a class="link-wiki-add" title="Click to add a new page" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune/@@wickedadd?Title=en:Mangala Narlikar|Mangala Narlikar&section=text">
en:Mangala Narlikar|Mangala Narlikar<sup>[+]</sup></a>
</span>
, and renowned ecologist
<span class="" id="text-3">
<a class="link-wiki-add" title="Click to add a new page" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune/@@wickedadd?Title=en:Madhav Gadgil|Madhav Gadgil&section=text">
en:Madhav Gadgil|Madhav Gadgil<sup>[+]</sup></a>
</span>
were among the dignitaries present at the event.</p>
<p>The workshop was planned in three sessions. Presentations and discussions were conducted in first session, while second session was focused on actual editing demonstrations on Wikipedia. In the same session the new websites based on different subjects developed by Marathi Vishwakosh were presented. The process of content contribution in text, images, audio and video forms was explained in this session. The third session was to explore networking with Dyanmandals formed by
<span class="" id="text-4">
<a class="link-wiki-add" title="Click to add a new page" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune/@@wickedadd?Title=:en:Marathi Vishwakosh|Marathi Vishwakosh Nirmiti Mandal&section=text">
:en:Marathi Vishwakosh|Marathi Vishwakosh Nirmiti Mandal<sup>[+]</sup></a>
</span>
. Insisting the expertise of invited authors to contribute the articles in their own chosen fields in a well-structured format, this session will not only train the authors in content generation but also make them understand the expectations of laymen and common readers.</p>
<p>The mete page of the event is <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_-_Vishwakosh_Workshop_for_Science_writers_in_IUCAA,_Pune">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-12-20T02:42:39ZBlog EntryGuest Blog: Retd. Col. Ashwin Baindur on Strategy, Wikimedia Strategy Salon, Vijayawada
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guest-blog-retd-col-ashwin-baindur-on-strategy-wikimedia-strategy-salon-vijayawada
<b></b>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a7485abf-4d48-578c-481d-9b1e9e1305a3"><em>User:AshLin aka Col Ashwin Baindur (retd) gave a Plenary Speech(in absentia) on Strategy at the Wikimedia Movement Strategy Salon, held in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh on 27 August 2017. It is reproduced here with permission:</em></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests and my dear Wikimedia friends and colleagues,</p>
<p dir="ltr"> I am deeply honoured to be asked to say the opening words for the Movement Strategy Salon being held today at Vijayawada. The problems of ill health prevent me from coming to be with you as I most dearly wish, but I do hope my few words and thoughts will make do instead. Let me introduce myself. I happen to be a retired army officer but I see myself as a citizen of the world, as a Wikipedian whose cherished dream is to make Jimmy Wales dream come true.</p>
<p>“Imagine a world where the sum of all knowledge is available to all mankind!”</p>
<p dir="ltr"> The occasion for this conclave or salon is timely. The twenty first century paradigm of Open Culture, of sharing and collective intelligence are well established. Crowdsourcing, Wikipedia, Creative Commons, Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and so many other important global resources are proof.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Education has received a huge fillip by the vastly increased amounts of data and knowledge on the Internet. Open sourcing has made its mark in the software side of the business world. Just as has open access publishing in Academia. Society as a whole has gained by all these manifestations of open culture.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> And today, we are gathered here to begin thinking on the directions for the future of the Wikimedia movement in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> What does this mean in our case? India is a country of many languages, dialects, people, communities, religions, tribes. Along with this are the collective efforts of 1.3 billion people to make a secular, democratic, economically strong nation. The ability to share learning, understanding, experiences are key to this process. And for this, collaboration is a vital necessity.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> As of now the Wikimedia effort in India consists of a potpourri of projects, encyclopedia, quote, text repository and the use of Wikimedia Commons as a media repository. We have to grow this into a large, useful and versatile resource in each of our Indic languages.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> The Wikimedians, a small band of volunteers to date, must take along the entire society of India so that we have betterment as a nation by first creating and using these resources. And today’s conclave with kindred souls from society, academia, industry.. is a beginning in this regard.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Now we are here to think what directions this Movement must take. I am envious that I can’t be part of this process with you. However, as a retired military person, let me say a few words on strategy and how it is decided.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> All planning occurs at three levels. The most basic of activities to be done are referred to as tactics. Tactics are governed by operational planning which comprises of a worked out plan of how to achieve the overall plan or the goal.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> The deciding of this overall plan or goal is referred to as strategy.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> To be more specific..</p>
<p dir="ltr"> “a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty..”</p>
<p dir="ltr"> And when we do this for a long period of the future, it is more appropriately termed as ‘grand strategy".</p>
<p dir="ltr"> For this we have to ponder - What is our aim? What are our strengths? What are our challenges? What are our opportunities? What are our resources and what are our constraints? What path should we take to achieve our aim?</p>
<p dir="ltr"> These are to be reduced into a few directions which are broad based, actionable and full of potential. A good strategy must open huge opportunities, new fields, new possibilities.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> The is not easy to do or quick to make. It will take more than one session, more than one day, week or even a month to get our strategy right.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Most important of all is that we learn to think in the new paradigm of sharing and open culture. We should leave behind the mindset of scarcity, possessiveness and personal benefit and embrace the values of the common good, creation of opportunities and innovation.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> On our success in making a good strategy, depends the fate of millions of our children and youth who will either benefit from our decisions or lose opportunities if we are not wise and generous. We have to believe in the future. We have to want to make that future great for our nation.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> I wish you the very best in this endeavour. I repeat, that I am envious that I can't be with you today. I pray that the things we decide from today onward in this process of grand strategy for the Wikimedia movement in the decades to come.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> At the very end, I would like to thank the Wikimedia movement in India, CIS-India, the organisers of this salon and of course, my young friend Krishna Chaitanya Velaga for this opportunity.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Jai Hind!</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guest-blog-retd-col-ashwin-baindur-on-strategy-wikimedia-strategy-salon-vijayawada'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guest-blog-retd-col-ashwin-baindur-on-strategy-wikimedia-strategy-salon-vijayawada</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2017-10-24T11:52:49ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Workshop in Sangli, Maharashtra
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-in-sangli-maharashtra
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia workshop was recently held in Sangli, Maharashtra</b>
<p>An introductory Marathi Wikipedia workshop was recently held at CSIBER Trust's V.P. Institute of Management Studies and Research, Sangli, Maharashtra. The workshop aimed to introduce Wikipedia and its sister projects to the participants. </p>
<p>In an effort to implement innovative projects for the students, in March 2017, the institution decided to integrate Wikimedia Projects and academic assignments for capacity building of students and faculty. The implementation started with the <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-on-environment-management">Wikipedia edit-a-thon on Environment Management</a> at CSIBER Institute in Kolhapur on 30th March. The Institute in Sangli has also adopted the concept for this academic year. This workshop was organised for faculty and selected students who were taught basic editing skills on Wikipedia, searching for the concerned articles, categorisation and translation from other language wikis. Another focus of the workshop was to integrate academic assignments with Wikimedia projects.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-in-sangli-maharashtra'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-in-sangli-maharashtra</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-08-16T08:40:58ZBlog EntryChrist University Wikipedia Education Program Internship
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-internship
<b></b>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-0f6be479-11df-80e2-bfe1-1c86f83e058d" dir="ltr">CIS-A2K’s Wikipedia Education Program with Christ University, Bangalore is coming to an end after another year of intense classes, certificate courses and an internship at The Centre for Internet and Society. The internship activity in particular has successfully managed to engage students beyond classroom hours. The selection of 12 students for the internship program was based on their penchant for the language as well as their interest in the wiki world.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">The internship was structured into three stages. Firstly, the students were asked to develop stub articles. The aim of this activity was for students to learn searching skills. As a result, over 1500 articles were developed with qualitative work.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, the students were asked to create new articles from scratch. They searched for the topic on the Wikipedia, ascertained whether the article exists or not and later researched further on the content of the articles. As a result, the students were able to create 1400+ articles</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Finally, the students were asked to draft policy pages for their respective language Wikipedia. They went through the policy pages in different languages including English and were asked to create similar policy pages for Kannada Wikipedia.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Unlike previous years, the activities during the internship program were tailored to suit the individual capabilities of the students, taking into consideration the suggestions from community members. The students were of the opinion that in addition to rekindling their love for the language, the internship program also enabled them to develop their overall knowledge of various subjects. The students felt that their vocabulary and typing skills also improved. However, the students were of the opinion that they could have been taken a level or two higher from article writing and introduced to other Wikimedia projects and topics related to the overall movement. The CIS-A2K WEP Program hopes to incorporate these suggestions for the upcoming year while also trying to increase the number of days of the internship in order not to tax the students.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-internship'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-internship</a>
</p>
No publisherManasa Rao and Ananth SubrayCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikipedia Education ProgramWikimediaWikipediaSanskrit WikipediaOpennessHindi WikipediaKannada Wikipedia2017-07-05T09:33:19ZBlog EntryAsian Athletics Championships 2017 Edit-a-thon
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/asian-athletics-championships-2017
<b>Odia Wikipedians, in conjunction with Indian Athletics Federation and Sports and Youth Services collaborated to document the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships. Hundreds of photos were uploaded and new Wikipedia content added to inform the event’s fans. </b>
<p>The Asian Athletics Championships is an intra-continental sports event organized bi-annually since 1973. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Asian_Athletics_Championships">22nd championship</a> was held in July at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinga_Stadium">Kalinga Stadium</a>
in Bhubaneswar, India, where 655 athletes from 41 countries
participated in 21 games. The Odia Wikipedia community worked with the
event organizers in different ways, to document the event on Wikipedia,
by holding edit-a-thons (editing workshops), to improve Wikipedia’s
content about the championships and releasing official photos of the
event under free Creative Commons licenses.</p>
<p>The original plan was for the Indian city of Ranchi, Jharkhand to
host the 2017 athletics, but plans changed 90 days before the event when
Bhubaneswar was selected as a venue instead. Preparing the Kalinga
Stadium and getting ready for the championships in that short period was
a challenge for the organizers. However, the state government of Odisha
stepped in to assist, and as part of that freely shared the event
website content under Creative Commons licenses.</p>
<p>The local Wikipedia community, along with the WikiTungi project in
Bhubaneswar, were invited by R. Vineel Krishna, the State Department’s
Director of Sports and Youth Services, to organize an edit-a-thon for
the Championships. The scope was to improve Wikipedia’s content about
the participating Asian athletes.</p>
<p>Before the event, existing Wikipedia articles provided little
information on the biographies and accomplishments of some of the
participating athletes. Odia Wikipedians collaborated with the Sports
and Youth Services Department of Odisha to bridge the dearth of
information.</p>
<p>Edit-a-thon participants <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Asian_Athletics_Championships_2017_Edit-a-thon">gathered</a> at the office of CSM Technologies, an event partner for the championships. Fifteen Wikimedians from Bhubaneswar and Puri <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiTungi">WikiTungi</a>, with some CSM staff members and new editors participated in the edit-a-thon.</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/YRYydz-GZkOJTdcgg2-aVfgQs2K8o-m49SqwMzTJ3TsoFJ27d3Wg9JEFZz9bqyi_kxsI6qjExZCLOJcaAERTd1ynbVN7rPy3teBk3pBqnqBeLJk8ioDPD8EBDxPI5rjOqAu4PW8" alt="800px-Panoramic_view_of_Kalinga_Stadium.jpg" height="229" width="602" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr">Kalinga Stadium,, Bhubaneswar/ CC-BY-SA 4.0/ Sailesh Patnaik</p>
The collection includes images of the athletes during their Heats,
Semi Finals, Final, and Medal ceremonies of all four days. 127 images
are used in 269 pages on Wikipedia in 27 languages, and many articles
added their first image from this collection. WikiProject <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red">Women in Red</a> used the images in many female athlete articles. The Odia Wikipedia community and the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K">Centre for Internet and Society</a> are also planning to work with the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Asian_Month">Wikipedia Asian Month</a> competition to use these images to illustrate Wikipedia articles they work on, in their next edition.<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Victuallers"> Victuallers</a>, one of the volunteers of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red">Women in Red</a> project, identified athlete photos from the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/category:Images_from_Odisha2017.games">games website collection</a> and used them to illustrate their articles. He has also created new articles of other participating female athletes.
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/p_FwscNB98RMO6qmWaLfdiYd_tNE73wKvJWd0cn1CmBq9Ult5j1DieulUmX0M1WSQXY83pP-FgRzavBYuR_n8ouBLRPCElmI7cTyQ_uGdA7ZsE_Ul5xItf0j1Z0tFxrX6VFvD78" alt="aac 2.jpg" height="449" width="449" /></p>
<p align="center">Arpitha M. of India in action at the 400m hurdles event/ CC-BY-SA 4.0</p>
<p>The event started with a basic Wikipedia orientation session for new
participants. There was no Wikipedia article for the championships in
Odia language, so participants created it in addition to improving the
English Wikipedia article. Along with that, 10 new articles were
improved and created on both Odia and English Wikipedia. The 2017
Championships page on the English Wikipedia received over <a href="https://tools.wmflabs.org/pageviews/?project=en.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&start=2017-07-03&end=2017-07-09&pages=2017_Asian_Athletics_Championships">100,000 views</a> during the championships week.</p>
<p>“Wikipedia has been the one-stop source of knowledge for me,” says <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Impulsion_gods">Alankar Devta</a>,
an edit-a-thon participant. “It has helped me learn a lot and prepare
for competitions. This is the first time, I got a chance to take part in
any Wikipedia edit-a-thon. Apart from that, the articles about the
athletes taking part in this year’s Championships are of great help for
the readers who may want to search for the athletes with expectations to
find useful information about them.”</p>
<p>Wikimedia community members were offered passes to attend the opening
ceremony and take photos. We spent four hours taking photos of the 41
participating teams, athletes and cultural events. All were <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Opening_Ceremony-_22nd_Asian_Athletics_Championships">uploaded to Wikimedia Commons</a>. Nearly <a href="http://tools.wmflabs.org/glamtools/glamorous.php?doit=1&category=Opening+Ceremony-+22nd+Asian+Athletics+Championships&use_globalusage=1&ns0=1&projects%5Bwikipedia%5D=1">19% of the photos</a> taken at the opening ceremony are used on Wikipedia articles.</p>
<p>A major outcome of the edit-a-thon was releasing the content and
images of the championship’s official website under a Creative Commons
license. 286 images from the websites <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/category:Images_from_Odisha2017.games">were added to Wikimedia Commons</a>, of which 47.2% are used on Wikipedia in several languages.</p>
<p>“I have worked with the Women in Red project since it started,” says <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Victuallers">Victuallers</a>.
“Over the past two years, we have helped raise the percentage [of
female biographies on the English Wikipedia] from 15.5 to 17%. One of
the things that hold us back, though, is that women are less likely to
have images available. It’s, therefore, amazing to find that a major
athletic event has released hundreds of images with a CC BY-SA license.
Participating athletes are all notable and women are fairly well
represented. I have downloaded over 100 pictures and cropped group
photos to create portraits. We’ve been tweeting the new articles and
pictures on <a href="https://twitter.com/WikiWomenInRed">@WikiWomenInRed</a> and trying to encourage all to “one up” the Odisha people. It’s a great success and we need more people to follow suit.”</p>
<p>With such collaborative spirit from the Government institutes, the
Odia community is planning to get more content from Odisha under a free
license. The community has also partnered with the Bhubaneswar
Development Authority, to run a global edit-a-thon named <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bhubaneswar_Heritage_Edit-a-thon">Bhubaneswar Heritage Editathon</a>, for documenting the culture and heritage monuments of the city.</p>
<p>A version of<a class="external-link" href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/07/28/digest-asia-athletics-championships/"> this blog</a> post appears on the <a class="external-link" href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/07/28/digest-asia-athletics-championships/">Wikimedia Blog</a>, co-authored by Sailesh Patnaik and Jnanaranjan Sahu.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/asian-athletics-championships-2017'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/asian-athletics-championships-2017</a>
</p>
No publisherSailesh Patnaik & Jnanaranjan SahuCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaCommonsOdia WikipediaOpenness2017-08-01T05:23:47ZBlog Entry