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Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Environment Management
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-on-environment-management
<b>A Wikipedia edit-a-thon was organized by CSIBER College and the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) in Kolhapur on March 30, 2017. Subodh Kulkarni was a trainer. The edit-a-thon was attended by 32 students.</b>
<h3>Project Scope</h3>
<p>The goal of Wikipedia Workshop is to build resources in the field of Environmental Science & Management on Marathi Wikipedia and equip its participants with the process of contributing to Wikipedia, and to introduce it as a concept to them. Another focus of the workshop will be on ‘Women & Environment’ and village articles.</p>
<ol>
<li>To introduce Wikipedia as an encyclopedia for research and a concept to new editors.</li>
<li>To Promote Marathi Wikipedia Community & promote the use of regional languages in Wikipedia.</li>
<li>To have an open interaction within the editors, existing as well as new.</li>
<li>To spread the awareness of Wikipedia as a powerful tool.</li>
<li>To develop articles on environment related issues & villages</li>
</ol>
<h3>Output</h3>
<p>The edit-a-thon was aimed at creating/editing wikipedia pages of women activists and environmental issues in India. Extensive discussion on the issues was conducted to develop the theme and basic concepts. 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.</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Edit-a-thon_on_Environment_Management_at_CSIBER,_Kolhapur,_India">More info on Wikimedia Blog</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-on-environment-management'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-on-environment-management</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-04-10T16:58:31ZBlog EntryShould India adopt Plan S to realise Open Access to Public-funded Scientific Research?
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research
<b>Timely and affordable access to scientific research remains a problem in this digital day and age. Around three decades ago, the radical response that emerged was making public-funded scientific research “open access”, i.e. publishing it on the Web without any legal, technical or financial barriers to access and use such research. Several Indian public research institutions also adopted open access mandates and built self-archiving digital tools, however, the efforts haven’t yielded much. Most countries including India, continue to struggle with implementing open access. The latest international initiative (created in Europe) to remedy this problem is Plan S. Plan S is has been positioned as a strategy to implement immediate open access to scientific publications from 2021 – which India is considering adopting.
This article unpacks the disorderly growth of open access in India, and discusses the gap between the Plan's vision and current Indian scenario in some respects. </b>
<p></p>
<p><em>Note: This blog entry was first published on May 29, 2019, and later updated on June 5, 2019 to accommodate the revisions to Plan S (released on May 31, 2019 after their public feedback exercise).<br /></em></p>
<h2>Introduction<em><br /></em></h2>
<p>In 2017, scientific
researchers in India produced 1.4 lakh pieces of peer-reviewed literature, of
which approximately 27,000 were open access publications (SCImago 2018). This
means that only 27,000 pieces were available to the public to freely read and
share, despite the fact that Indian tax-payers had funded half of the annual
expenditure on R&D that year. The remaining items were largely stuck behind
expensive paywalls and subscription systems, doing a huge disservice to the
scientific ecosystem as well as the public interest.</p>
<p>Open Access is
a movement to make both scientific research and data accessible to everyone in
society, and a key tenet of Open Science. It emerged in response to rising
costs and barriers to timely access and sharing of research, as well as a
crisis of epistemic injustice in science. With the advent of the Internet and World
Wide Web, it was expected that costs of publishing and disseminating scholarly
research would decrease leading to a more equitable research environment. The
principal idea was “<em>to make copies of all
the papers they published in scholarly journals freely available on the
internet</em>.”(Harnad S 1995). Two principal ways of implementing OA that initially
emerged were: publishing on online institutional repositories (of the research
institute/ funder) and/or paying the journal to make the paper OA online (i.e.
author pays upfront instead of public paying subscription charges to read that
research).</p>
<p>Since
Harnad’s first call, numerous international conventions, mandates, calls have
been issued in support of OA. The latest international response to the problem is
<a class="external-link" href="https://www.coalition-s.org/">Plan S</a>. With its origins in Europe, Plan S was initially positioned as a clarion
call to provoke a global flip to OA, and then transformed to achieving the goal of "scientific publications that result from research funded by public
grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms" from 2021. Plan S invites research funding
organisations to become members of cOAlition S, who in turn are expected to
abide by the ten principles articulated under the Plan. Crucially, it holds
funders responsible for enforcing OA policies and sanction
non-compliance.</p>
<p>The Principal
Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India announced in February 2019 that
India will join Plan S. That could make India the second country in the global
south to adopt Plan S (Zambia (via National Science and Technology Council of
Zambia) was the first one). Although it must be noted that the announcement was made with respect to an earlier version of the current plan. It remains to be confirmed if India will still abide by its commitment. Even so, at first glance the key tenets underlying the plan remain the same to a large extent. Regardless it is a huge step for India, and perhaps bears the promise
of pulling together the various strands of a diffused OA movement in India. Presently,
cOAlition S is dominated by European entities. Majority of the entities provide
marginal funding support to Indian scientific research, with the exception of
two members - the UK based biomedical charity Wellcome Trust and the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation. Wellcome Trust has been a longstanding global
advocate of OA, and also played a crucial role in shaping a key institutional OA
mandate in India. Apart from the European Commission and European Research
Council, China’s largest funding agency has also made strong statements to
support Plan S.</p>
<p>Plan S’ principles
prescribe that research should be only published in those journals and on
platforms which enable authors to publish articles under a Creative Commons
Attribution license (CC- BY; alternatively, CC Attribution Share-alike or CC Public
Domain licenses); authors should retain copyright in their articles; have a “solid
system” in place for peer-review as per the standards in the relevant research
discipline; provide subsidies/ waivers in Article Processing Charges (APCs); and
do not operate under the hybrid model. More importantly, the Plan prioritises
publishing in journals over institutional repositories (IRs) – and requires
funding organisations to pay APCs. Further, all kinds of self-archiving
platforms (including IRs) should also meet certain registration requirements.</p>
<h2>Key aspects of Indian scientific research</h2>
<h3>Funding of research<br /></h3>
<p>Currently, scientific
research is significantly funded by both government and private sector in India.
During 2017-18, the national investment on R&D activities in scientific
research was estimated to be approximately one lakh crores, with majority (45%)
being met by central government, and approximately 38% from private sector
industries (and 7% from state and 5% from public sector organisations). The
highest R&D expenditure is incurred by Defence Research and Development
Organisation at INR 13,000 crores, followed by Department of Space at 5000
crores, Department of Atomic Energy at under 4000 crores. Indian Council for
Agricultural Research (ICAR), Council of Scientific and Agricultural Research
(CSIR), Department of Science and Technology (DST) find themselves in the same
bracket of 2000-4000 crores roughly, whereas Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
and Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) trail with under 1000 crores (Department
of Science 2018). Of these institutions, only ICAR, CSIR, DST and DBT have OA
mandates.</p>
<h3>Indian institutional OA initiatives<br /></h3>
<p>The earliest OA
efforts in India led to the creation of IRs to support self-archiving in
scientific research institutions (Arunachalam 2004). Recommendations presented
at the 93<sup>rd</sup> Indian Science Congress in 2006 said that an optimal national
OA policy should mandate research papers produced either by partial or full government
funding to be deposited into IRs immediately upon publication; encouraged such
grant holders to retain copyright; and suggested that the government should
commit to cover costs for publication in OA journals (i.e. cover APCs). These
recommendations found support in a 2007 report by the erstwhile National
Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India.
The Commission envisaged a national academic OA portal for sharing research
articles, and highlighted the need for the government to allocate funds for
digitisation of books and periodicals in the public domain (material outside
the scope of copyright protection). Additionally, it recognised the digital
divide as an impediment to access to scientific knowledge. More importantly, it
required the government and research institutions to bear the cost of
publishing in OA journals, instead of passing the financial burden to authors/
scientists.</p>
<p>Soon key public-funded
institutions such as the <a href="http://www.csircentral.net/mandate.pdf">Council of Scientific and Agricultural
Research</a> (CSIR), <a href="http://www.dbtindia.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/APPROVED-OPEN-ACCESS-POLICY-DBTDST12.12.2014.pdf">Department of Science and Technology
and Department of Biotechnology</a>
(DST-DBT), <a href="https://krishi.icar.gov.in/PDF/ICAR_Open_Access_Policy.pdf">Indian Council of Agricultural
Research</a>, Institute of
Mathematical Sciences adopted OA mandates. However, the thrust of all policies happened
to be on IR deposits and not financial support for APCs. The concept of IRs
took root to a considerable extent, although many IRs later ran into issues for
various reasons and stopped functioning (Das 2014). A few initiatives such as
the <a href="http://www.urdip.res.in/#/aboutus">CSIR-URDIP</a>
(which developed a centralised IR to make OA journals discoverable across
institutions funded by CSIR and DST-DBT) remain under-populated despite being
stably maintained. This is either due to absence of or uneven implementation of
OA mandates – for example, only some institutional beneficiaries (approximately
20) have implemented the DST-DBT mandate, and a meagre 3000 papers have been
made open thus far in various IRs. Problems cited for under-populating of
repositories include disinterest by administrators in implementing the mandates
(DST Centre for Policy Research 2018).</p>
<h2>Plan S' vision and current Indian scenario<br /></h2>
<h3>Mandatory copyright retention by authors</h3>
<p>If India
signs up for Plan S, IRs under Indian OA mandates will be required to publish
articles under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY; alternatively CC BY
SA or CC0, and CC BY ND in exceptional cases), wherein the copyright shall be retained by the author without any
restrictions. Unfortunately, “copyright retention by authors” hardly finds support
in Indian OA mandates as a fundamental principle. None of the institutions with
OA mandates (mentioned previously) provide a clear stance on copyright
retention, thereby implicitly leaving it to individual authors to negotiate
their own arrangements with publishers. For example, the DST-DBT OA policy
states that “<em>It is not the intent of this
policy to violate copyright or other agreements entered into by the researcher,
institution or funding agency...</em>” Individual arrangements largely take the
shape of mandatory copyright transfers in favour of the publishers (with an
embargo condition on author’s freedom to re-publish). Mandatory copyright
transfers harm the agency of authors to publish/ share their works in other
places of their choice. This is the primary reason for legacy works to remain
locked up with the publishers until the copyright term expires; and in many
cases even after the work has become a part of the public domain, publishers are
loathe to release such works.</p>
<p>This happens
despite two things: firstly, in most cases in India, authors’/ researchers’
institutional employment contracts require that all IP vests with the
institutions; secondly, as per the applicable law - Indian Copyright Act, 1957,
copyright in such works in ordinary circumstances vests with the employer. Thus, if public institutions so desired, they should be able to
retain the copyright in the work produced under their aegis (and transfer it to
the authors).</p>
<h3>Removal of embargoes<br /></h3>
<p>Both OA and closed
access journals routinely impose embargoes averaging a year for peer-reviewed
outputs to be made open. Presently, most Indian OA mandates accommodate an
embargo of six months to one year, and accept both post-prints and pre-prints
(the two terms roughly refer to the version of author’s manuscripts before and
after peer-review) for publication in IRs. Such conditions again run contrary
to the Plan’s requirement of making the final peer-reviewed published version
of articles (post-print version) to be made open immediately upon publication–
i.e. without an embargo period.</p>
<h3>Addressing the menace of predatory publishing<br /></h3>
<p>Separately, another
thorn in the side of OA’s reputation has been the rise of predatory journals. Predatory
journals are outfits that dress themselves as a genuine OA journal, often
charging unsuspecting authors high APCs, but conduct abysmal peer-reviews and
provide poor editorial services and exhibit such conduct amounting to fraud. Such
outfits have irreparably damaged many researchers’ reputations and careers, especially for vulnerable authors in the global south, with
their unchecked manuscripts getting published without requisite quality
checks (Sinha 2016). While this is an issue that requires special immediate measures; Plan S can potentially check the growth of such journals since it requires all publication venues to be completely transparent about their editorial policies and editorial board members, and also prohibits them from using APCs as bait to guarantee publication. </p>
<h3>Publishing in 'prestigious venues' cannot be a criterion for evaluating scientific merit<br /></h3>
<p>The growth of
OA has further been hindered due to a misguided tendency amongst authors to
publish only in select prestigious journals, many of which are closed access.
Such select journals have cultivated a brand of reputability and prestige over
decades, they demonstrate as much by their high JIF (Journal Impact Factor)
credentials. Traditionally, JIF has been the measure of a journal’s prestige –
a proxy for the impact and influence of a journal’s publications. Despite
having been discredited as wholly inaccurate (Kiermer 2016), many funding
agencies continue to consider a publication’s worth in terms of the JIF of the
journal it was published in, in hiring, promotional and other career
advancement decisions. So long as we continue to judge the worth of research by
the venue of its publication (assuming a uniform high quality of peer review
and other checks) and not by its actual contribution to science, OA publishing
is bound to be a less favourable option, because most OA journals are new and
have not raked up a high impact factor score. Yet Indian funding
agencies continue to use and promote JIF metrics, for a lack of awareness or
wanton dis-interestedness in improving the system. Another reason for an
immediate need to break the religiosity surrounding JIF is that many journals (both
OA and closed access) in the global south enjoy good reputations but do not
carry a high JIF as they are newer and their citation metric pales in comparison
to their more dominant western counterparts. This disparity is starker for
fields wholly situated in the global south. In this respect, the Plan clearly requires funders to only evaluate a publication on the basis of its intrinsic merit, and not factor in publication channels, impact factors or the publisher.</p>
<h3>Recent steps by Indian government and agencies<br /></h3>
<p>Indian agencies’
approach to addressing these issues has been chequered, and does more harm than
good. In 2017, the Universities Grants Commission (UGC) released a pre-determined
list of journals that researchers should publish in, and linked researchers’ career
advancement to publishing in the select listed journals (Pushkar 2016). This
approved list contains approximately 39,000 journals that are indexed in Web of
Science, SCOPUS and Indian Citation Index (Universities Grant Commission 2018). UGC’s
step was seen as an attack on academic freedom with serious doubts about its competence
to create a credible exclusionary list of journals in multiple disciplines –
and it has indeed been shown that the procedure of making the list is flawed
(Patwardhan et al. 2018). Separately, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development notified to
National Institutes of Technology (NITs) that papers published in journals
levying APCs will not earn career advancement credits (Mukunth 2017). MHRD’s notification dismisses <em>all </em>paid journals irrespective of their
quality. This has the effect of placing genuine high-quality OA journals on the
same pedestal as predatory journals, and ultimately dents the growth of OA business
models looking for modest support via APCs that are helpful in covering
operational costs (software platform and an editorial team), and do not come
close to unreasonable APCs levied by the biggest commercial players in the
field. The reality is that most OA journals charge authors to publish (Bastian
2018).</p>
<p>These
steps led to much consternation amongst the Indian research community. Another government central committee has proposed to award cash bonuses
for publications (with a higher bonus for publishing in international journals
over national journals). This has been criticised by Indian scientists on two
grounds: firstly, that the scheme may lead to a spike in predatory or
sub-standard journals; secondly, it devalues national journals, and reinforces
the prestige factor to favour international journals (Vaidyanathan 2019). A
2011 study has shown that cash incentives appear to encourage submission of
research that has low regard for quality (Franzoni et. al 2011). In fact in 2010,
UGC introduced APIs (Academic Performance Indicators), which was essentially a
system of reward points against number of publications for researchers and
faculty members ostensibly to improve scientific publishing. However, this ended
up triggering a race to publish poor quality research in fake journals (<a href="https://thewire.in/education/the-ugc-deserves-applause-for-rrying-to-do-something-about-research-fraud">Pushkar</a>
2016), and the UGC recently changed the scheme to in order to do damage-control.</p>
<h3>Government will have to foot APC bill</h3>
<p>Crucially, the
Plan requires funding organisations to commit to funding APCs, in addition to
research grants. The PSA in his announcement on Twitter (relating to Plan S)
has said that, “We will negotiate for APCs normalised to India.” The Plan also
emphasises on waivers and discounts for low and middle income countries. Studies
show that Indian authors spend anywhere between INR 500 to 3 lakhs per article
on APCs, and during 2010-14 the estimated payment to open access journals (the
immediate OA kind) was INR 16 crores per year, on an average costing INR 76,000
per paper (Madhan et al. 2016). It has been estimated that Plan S will cost India
INR 616.46 crores per year (Mukunth 2019). The estimate is more than half of the
annual investment in public institutions such as DBT and ICMR.</p>
<h3>Imperfect competition in the scholarly publishing market</h3>
<p>Does the
academic publishing market have any justifications for exorbitant APCs? A European University Association study highlighted the
oligopolistic structure in this market sector, which functions with an absolute
lack in pricing transparency (through strict confidentiality agreements with
institutions), large profiteering through public funds and asymmetry in
negotiating power (European Universities Association 2018). In 2015, five
companies controlled more than half of the market for academic publishing: RELX
(formerly Reed Elsevier, UK), Taylor and Francis (UK), Wiley-Blackwell (UK),
Springer Nature (Germany), SAGE (US). Majority of the most important closed-access
journals continue to be owned by these publishers (Larivière et. al 2015). It
does not help that many of the top OA journals are also owned by the same
publishers (who are responsible for charging the highest APCs). It will be
interesting to see which journals will change their model to comply with Plan S
requirements.</p>
<h2>Conclusion<br /></h2>
<p>Nonetheless,
after many years of piecemeal OA reforms within Indian institutions, the PSA’s
announcement indicates a renewed interest in OA. Elimination of copyright
transfer agreements and embargoes will give authors surely more control over
their works – steps that should have been implemented and strictly enforced by
Indian institutions long ago.</p>
<p>However, it
makes little sense for developing countries to spend an enormous amount on APCs
demanded by a foreign publishing oligopoly. Latin America continues to be
opposed to Plan S as a matter of its principled position against APCs. If India
signs up for Plan S, it is could be the case that we will find ourselves
in a situation where our public institutions will be paying for subscriptions
as well as APCs for a long time to come. One of the plan's principles does say that "<em>... When Open Access publication fees are applied, they must be commensurate with
the publication services delivered and the structure of such fees must
be transparent to inform the market and funders potential
standardisation and capping of payments of fees.</em>" Since the coalition is currently overwhelmingly
Eurocentric, it remains to be seen how a fair and reasonable analysis will be
worked out across geographies. In this sense, Plan S is not exactly a
breakthrough plan for the global south as it does not sufficiently undercut the
market power of the oligopoly.</p>
<p>There is
plenty that can be done in the interim to realise the vision of OA, as we
continue to ponder and debate the feasibility of Plan S in the global scheme of
scientific publishing as well as India. For starters, it would be ideal to
conduct a nationwide consultation with the research community in India. Strengthening
the infrastructure underlying institutional repositories – in terms of
developing more powerful search tools for IRs, linking IRs, making deposited
articles more discoverable over the Web are steps that do not require
relatively large funds (vis-à-vis APCs), yet stand to contribute to improving
visibility of our research. The government must also look out for authors’ interests
by actively negotiating stricter terms with publishers, so that authors aren’t
coerced into signing away their copyright (or by fait accompli). Transparency
of commercial agreements should become a non-negotiable principle in institutions’/ libraries’ dealings
with publishers, which is also reiterated as a key principle of the Plan. Such steps may not result in an immediate shift to OA, if implemented strictly and uniformly can perhaps be more radical
and fruitful than anything that the Indian research community has seen in decades. </p>
<p></p>
<h2><strong>References</strong></h2>
<p>Arunachalam,
Subbiah (2004): “India’s March Towards Open Access,” <em>SciDevNet,</em> <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/publishing/opinion/indias-march-towards-open-access.html">https://www.scidev.net/global/publishing/opinion/indias-march-towards-open-access.html</a></p>
<p>Bastian Hilda
(2018): “A Reality Check on Author Access to Open Access Publishing” <a href="https://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2018/04/02/a-reality-check-on-author-access-to-open-access-publishing/">https://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2018/04/02/a-reality-check-on-author-access-to-open-access-publishing/</a></p>
<p>Das, Anup
Kumar (2014): “Open Access to Scientific Knowledge: Policy Perspectives and
National Initiatives,” <em>CSIR –NISTADS
(ed): India - Science and Technology</em>, Vol 3, pp. 292-299</p>
<p>Department of
Science and Technology (2018): “Annual Report 2017-2018” <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IPKUdbSx0Da2Zi_ufzC4u-T3jCFzPred/view">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IPKUdbSx0Da2Zi_ufzC4u-T3jCFzPred/view</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"></span></p>
<p>DST Centre
for Policy Research (2018): “Panel Discussion on Equitable Access to Knowledge,
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_kjoFRjAQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_kjoFRjAQ</a></p>
<p>European
Universities Association (2018): “The lack of transparency and competition in
the academic publishing market in Europe and beyond” <a href="https://eua.eu/component/attachments/attachments.html?task=attachment&id=1691">https://eua.eu/component/attachments/attachments.html?task=attachment&id=1691</a></p>
<p>Harnad, Stevan
(1995): “Universal FTP Archives for Esoteric Science and Scholarship: A
Subversive Proposal”, <em>Scholarly Journal
at the Crossroads</em>, Washington DC: Association of Research Libraries</p>
<p>Kiermer,
Veronique (2016): “Measuring Up: Impact Factors Do Not Reflect Article Citation
Rates,” <em>PLOS Blogs,</em> <a href="https://blogs.plos.org/plos/2016/07/impact-factors-do-not-reflect-citation-rates/">https://blogs.plos.org/plos/2016/07/impact-factors-do-not-reflect-citation-rates/</a></p>
<p>Franzoni,
Chiara & Scellato, Giuseppe &Stephan, Paula (2011): “Changing
Incentives to Publish,” Science, <a href="http://www.utstat.utoronto.ca/reid/sta2201s/2012/Science-2011-Franzoni-702-3.pdf">http://www.utstat.utoronto.ca/reid/sta2201s/2012/Science-2011-Franzoni-702-3.pdf</a></p>
<p>Larivière,
Vincent & Haustein, Stefanie & Mongeon, Philippe (2015): “The Oligopoly
of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era,”<em>
PLoS One</em>. 10 (6), p. 1-15.DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502">https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502</a></p>
<p>Madhan, Muthu
& Kimidi, Siva Shankar & Gunasekaran, Subbiah & Arunachalam,
Subbiah (2016): “Should Indian researchers pay to get their work published?,”
Current Science <a href="http://dst.sciencecentral.in/17/1/Current_Science_Sept2016.pdf">http://dst.sciencecentral.in/17/1/Current_Science_Sept2016.pdf</a></p>
<p>Manupriya
(2017): “Helping institutions embrace open access,” <em>IndiaBioscience</em>, <a href="https://indiabioscience.org/news/2017/helping-institutions-embrace-open-access">https://indiabioscience.org/news/2017/helping-institutions-embrace-open-access</a></p>
<p>Mukunth,
Vasudevan (2017):“<em>Scientists in the Lurch
After Imprecise MHRD Notice About 'Paid Journals</em>'”, <em>The Wire</em>,<strong> </strong><a href="https://thewire.in/education/mhrd-open-access-nit-predatory-journals-career-advancement-impact-factor">https://thewire.in/education/mhrd-open-access-nit-predatory-journals-career-advancement-impact-factor</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></p>
<p>Mukunth
Vasudevan (2019): “Six Concerns Over India Joining the Plan S Coalition for
Science Journals”, <em>The Wire</em>, <a href="https://thewire.in/the-sciences/six-concerns-over-india-joining-the-plan-s-coalition-for-science-journals">https://thewire.in/the-sciences/six-concerns-over-india-joining-the-plan-s-coalition-for-science-journals</a></p>
<p>Patwardhan,
Bhushan & Nagarkar, Shubhada & Gadre, Shridhar & Lakhotia, Subhash
& Mohan Katoch, Vishwa & Moher, David. (2018): “A Critical Analysis of
the ‘UGC-Approved List of Journals’”. <em>Current
science</em>. pp 114.</p>
<p>Poynder,
Richard (2019): “Plan S: What strategy now for the Global South?” <a href="https://richardpoynder.co.uk/Plan_S.pdf">https://richardpoynder.co.uk/Plan_S.pdf</a></p>
<p>Pushkar (2016):
“<em>The UGC Deserves Applause for Trying to
Do Something About Research Fraud</em>,” <em>The
Wire</em>, <a href="https://thewire.in/education/the-ugc-deserves-applause-for-rrying-to-do-something-about-research-fraud">https://thewire.in/education/the-ugc-deserves-applause-for-rrying-to-do-something-about-research-fraud</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></p>
<p>SCImago
(2018): “SJR – SCImago Journal and Country Rank” viewed on 2 April 2019 (<a href="https://www.scimagojr.com/countrysearch.php?country=in">https://www.scimagojr.com/countrysearch.php?country=in</a> )</p>
<p>Sinha, Anubha
(2016): “Why Open Access Has To Look Up For Academic Publishing To Look Up”, <em>The Centre for Internet and Society</em>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/the-wire-anubha-sinha-october-12-2016-why-open-access-has-to-look-up-for-academic-publishing-to-look-up">https://cis-india.org/openness/the-wire-anubha-sinha-october-12-2016-why-open-access-has-to-look-up-for-academic-publishing-to-look-up</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></p>
<p>Universities
Grants Commission (2018): “Annual Report 2017-2018” <a href="https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5595965_UGC-ANNUAL-REPORT-English-2017-18.pdf">https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5595965_UGC-ANNUAL-REPORT-English-2017-18.pdf</a></p>
<p>Vaidyanathan,
Gayatri (2019): “Indian payment-for-papers proposal rattles scientists,” <em>Nature India, </em><a href="https://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2019.18?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureInd#.XGlrKLpUnPU.twitter"><em>https://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2019.18?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureInd#.XGlrKLpUnPU.twitter</em></a><em>
</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaOpen AccessAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T13:19:28ZBlog EntryMoU between PAH Solapur University & CIS-A2K
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis
<b>CIS-A2K is working in collaboration with PAH Solapur University, Solapur in Maharashtra on Wikimedia projects. The Mass Communication and Journalism departments are involved in content generation on Marathi Wikipedia & Commons. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2019, the students completed assignments in the form of Wikipedia articles. Looking at the interest of students and knowledge creation process, other departments also expressed their willingness to adopt this methodology in academics. Vice Chancellor Dr. Mrunalini Fadnavis took initiative to conduct introductory meeting to discuss the larger collaboration with University courses. The department heads agreed on working in Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Commons and other Wikimedia projects to enhance the skills of students. As a result, principle level MoU to accommodate Wiki programs in academics as policy for the next academic year was signed between University and Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) on 15th May at Solapur. On this occasion, Program Manager Tito Dutta was present to sign on behalf of CIS. From University, VC, Registrar, Prof. Ravindra Chincholkar- Coordinator and HoD's of 4 departments were present. The summary of MoU is given below:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Terms of Collaboration</h3>
<div id="_mcePaste">
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To promote content generation in Wikimedia projects among the institutions under University affiliation. To organise awareness programs and training workshops to achieve this. For consistent and dedicated efforts, mechanism of subject experts and coordinators will be developed. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To integrate the academic assignments, projects etc. with knowledge building in Wikimedia projects e.g. Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To facilitate content donation in the form of published thesis, University publications to free library - Wikisource. To write well referenced articles based on these research work. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To develop platform in University for outreach programs on Digital knowledge, Language & technologies, FOSS, Unicode etc. To involve other stakeholders in knowledge business like publishers, writers, printers, designers in these programs. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To take lead in accommodating open knowledge concepts, locally relevant content generation practices while designing the courses. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To promote content generation in Wikimedia projects among the institutions under University affiliation. To organise awareness programs and training workshops to achieve this. For consistent and dedicated efforts, mechanism of subject experts and coordinators will be developed. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To integrate the academic assignments, projects etc. with knowledge building in Wikimedia projects e.g. Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To facilitate content donation in the form of published thesis, University publications to free library - Wikisource. To write well referenced articles based on these research work. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To develop platform in University for outreach programs on Digital knowledge, Language & technologies, FOSS, Unicode etc. To involve other stakeholders in knowledge business like publishers, writers, printers, designers in these programs. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To take lead in accommodating open knowledge concepts, locally relevant content generation practices while designing the courses.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Plan of Execution</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">A core team shall be constituted by representatives of this MoU for realization of the objectives of this MoU. This core team will be constituted by 10 June 2019.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>The core team shall prepare an action plan with specific goals for achieving the objectives of MoU. They shall take into consideration the academic, commercial and legal aspects of this co-operation.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>The proposed action plan shall be reviewed and approved by representatives of both parties.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>The core team shall be supported and authorised to take all necessary actions to implement the action plan in an effective, speedy and dynamic manner.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>Revenue sharing shall be decided on case to case basis by core team.</span></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<p>The news of this event was published by major media houses:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522051544/http://epaperlokmat.in/Archive/epapernew.php?articleid=LOK_SOLK_20190516_2_10&arted=Solapur%20Main&width=367px">Lok Mat</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522052258/http://newspaper.pudhari.co.in/archive/viewpage.php?edn=Solapur&date=2019-05-16&edid=PUDHARI_SOL&pid=PUDHARI_SOL&pn=5#Page/5/Article/PUDHARI_SOL_20190516_05_5/359px/10EF1A6">Pudhari</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522053215/http://124.30.219.86/EpaperData/Sakal/Solapur/2019/05/16/Main/Sakal_Solapur_2019_05_16_Main_DA_005/44_1606_494_2310.jpg">Sakal</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522054429/http://www.dainiksurajya.com/2019/05/16/city/page05.jpg">Surajya</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T06:21:47ZBlog EntryProject Tiger: Wikipedia ropes in locals to contribute articles in Indian languages
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger
<b>The project has generated content in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Odiya and Gujarati. </b>
<p>The article by Tushar Kaushik was <a class="external-link" href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/project-tiger-wikipedia-ropes-in-locals-to-contribute-articles-in-indian-languages/articleshow/69531673.cms">published in Economic Times</a> on May 29, 2019.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Hundreds of people from across the country are generating online content in local Indian languages and are even competing in ‘editathons’ that pit contributors of different languages against each other.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While online encyclopedia Wikipedia’s content might be exhaustive in English, its content in Indian languages is limited. Keeping this in mind, Wikipedia’s parent organization Wikimedia Foundation, and Google, roped in Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) - Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K), Wikimedia India Chapter in 2017 and started ‘Project Tiger’ aimed at generating more content in Indian languages. <span>A pilot project was held from December 2017 to May 2018 and another phase of the competition is set to begin next month. The project has generated content in major languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Odia and Gujarati.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The contributors are from varied age groups, some are also from remote, rural areas and they worked from different cities across the country. Two years ago, Durga Prasanna, a journalism student at Alva’s college in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district, joined a group of contributors to Wikipedia as part of a requirement from the college. She got an opportunity to participate in ‘Project Tiger’ last year. She generated Wikipedia entries in Kannada and also in the regional languages of Tulu and Konkani. Apart from Durga, seven other students of her college together contributed over 70 articles in Kannada, and a few in Tulu and Konkani, during the ‘editathon’. “We were provided a long list of topics on which not much literature existed in the local languages and among them, we chose topics based on our interests. For example, I wrote articles on ‘psychologist’ and ‘medicinal plants’,” she said.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Another participant, Charan Gill, a 65-year-old former social worker from Patiala, Punjab, was the top contributor in Punjabi. “I wrote 432 articles in a span of two-and-a-half months.However, contributing is not new to me as I have written over 10,000 Wikipedia entries in Punjabi since 2012,” he says. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Gill now works with another Wikimedia project, translating literary classics into Punjabi. He is currently translating some works of 19th century Russian author Ivan Turgenev. Thanksto Gill’s contributions, the Punjabi community of contributors won the prize for producing the most articles — 1,320. In Tamil, 1,241 articles were contributed. A total of 78 articleswere produced in Kannada by eight members. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Gopalakrishna A, community advocate for Kannada language, CIS-A2K, said all written articles were evaluated by a Wikimedia team jury to check if they fulfilled all criteria beforebeing uploaded on Wikipedia set for the contest. Once they fulfil the criteria, the articles are eligible for the prizes. “The main idea was to create content in Indian languages. Thethings most Indian contributors required were internet and hardware support. So participants who had made significant contributions prior to the competition Wikimediaprojects were provided internet connections or laptops Chromebooks,” he said.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T06:37:55ZNews ItemWhat is Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference?
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1
<b>The Wikimedia Education SAARC conference is on 20th June 2019. A conference for Wikimedians, Wikimedia education leaders, educators and researchers engaged with Open Education and free knowledge movement.</b>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_Association_for_Regional_Cooperation">South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation</a> (SAARC) is the regional union of nations in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia">South Asia</a>. Wikimedians belonging to these nations share several common challenges and many of them are emerging communities within the Wikimedia movement. The community members to attend the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference">Wikimedia Education SAARC conference</a> are involved in Indic language Wikimedia projects.</p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-536ddd6b-7fff-541e-6101-49c29d2c07f8"></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Wikimedia Education SAARC conference will be the first of its kind conference in SAARC countries which will engage Wikimedians, education program leaders, educators and researchers engaged with Open Education and free knowledge movement. We believe that the students of all ages should not only consume the knowledge available on the Internet but also be a part of the larger Open Internet movement, and help in creating open knowledge resources.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The event will be organised in and by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_University">Christ (Deemed to be University)</a> in Bengaluru from 20th June 2019 to 22nd June 2019. CIS-A2K team has <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University">been</a> working with the department of languages in this university from <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University/CUWEP2013">2013</a>, where students of the university are contributing to multiple Wikimedia projects. Our education activity at this university has inspired us to plan this event. To know more about this university, Please see <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University">here</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This conference will allow us to understand the different efforts made by the SAARC communities involved in the Wikimedia Education movement. This will help us to create models, templates and documents that can be replicated in by other institutions or programs.</p>
<p>Conference Goals:</p>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">To know the Wikimedia Education activities happening in South Asia by different community members/Languages.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Sharing the knowledge and best practices of how to build "trust relationship" with new partners/teachers and how to improve trust in Wikimedia projects.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Challenges on student retention and how to engage them in the broader Wikimedia movement.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The best method to evaluate and measure the quality of the work done by the students.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">To introduce tools like the dashboard, not in your language, and other tools which will be useful for the tracking, assessment, allocation of the topics and others.</p>
</li></ul>
<p dir="ltr">The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Programme">program structure</a> for Wikimedia Education SAARC conference has been developed by keeping the general and specific challenges and opportunities in South Asia, and the submission selected from the participants.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Follow the hashtag #EduWikiSAARC19 for more updates.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1</a>
</p>
No publishersaileshWikimedia EducationAccess to KnowledgeWikipedia Education ProgramWikimediaWikipediaChrist University2019-06-22T09:37:23ZBlog EntryWIPO Regional Seminar on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/wipo-regional-seminar-on-copyright-limitations-and-exceptions-1
<b>Anubha Sinha participated in the WIPO “Regional Seminar for the Asia Pacific Group on Libraries, Archives, Museums and Educational & Research Institutions in the Field of Copyright”, which was held on April 29 and 30, 2019, in Singapore.
</b>
<p>For more info about the event, <a class="external-link" href="https://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=433213">click here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/wipo-regional-seminar-on-copyright-limitations-and-exceptions-1'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/wipo-regional-seminar-on-copyright-limitations-and-exceptions-1</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminCopyrightAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2019-06-05T13:34:54ZNews ItemMay 2019 Newsletter
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2019-newsletter
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society Newsletter for the month of May 2019</b>
<h2><span>Highlights for May 2019</span></h2>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Omidyar Network is <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/appropriate-use-of-digital-identity-alliance-announcement">investing in in establishing a three-region research alliance</a> co-led by the Institute for Technology & Society, Brazil , the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law, Kenya, and the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), India on appropriate use of Digital Identity. CIS will look at the policy objectives of digital identity projects, how technological policy choices can be thought through to meet the objectives, and how legitimate uses of a digital identity framework may be evaluated.</li>
<li>The term Fintech is generally used to describe innovative technology and technological processes being used in the financial services sector. Vipul Kharbanda has <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/vipul-kharbanda-may-8-2019-an-analysis-of-rbi-draft-framework-on-regulatory-sandbox-for-fintech">presented a detailed analysis of RBI’s Draft Framework on Regulatory Sandbox for Fintech</a>.</li>
<li>Centre for Internet & Society's 'Access to Knowledge' wing (CIS-A2K) <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis">signed a MoU with PAH Solapur University, Maharashtra</a> to promote content generation in Wikimedia projects among the institutions under University affiliation and develop a platform in the university for outreach programs on digital knowledge, language and technologies, FOSS, unicode, etc.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Timely and affordable access to scientific research remains a problem in this digital day and age. Most countries including India, continue to struggle with implementing open access. The latest international initiative (created in Europe) to remedy this problem is Plan S. This has been positioned as a strategy to implement immediate open access to scientific publications from 2021 which India is considering adopting. Anubha Sinha <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research">in an article unpacks the disorderly growth of open access in India, and discusses the gap between the Plan's vision and current Indian scenario in some respects</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Shweta Mohandas was nominated to curate <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/curating-genderlog-indias-twitter-handle">Genderlog's Twitter handle (@genderlogindia)</a>. She tweeted <span style="text-align: justify; ">about topics related to gender and data, more specifically around AI, big data, privacy and surveillance.</span></li>
<li>Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Tim Davies <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/open-data-and-land-ownership">co-authored a chapter titled Open Data and Land Ownership in State of Open Data book </a>which was recently launched at World Bank. The authors have thrown light on how the lessons from the land ownership field highlight the political nature of data, and illustrate the importance of politically aware interventions when creating open data standards, infrastructure, and ecosystems.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The Bodies of Evidence collection, edited by Bishakha Datta and Richa Kaul Padte, is a collaboration between Point of View and CIS as part of the Big Data for Development Network supported by International Development Research Centre, Canada. Can data ever know who we really are? <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/zara-rahman-can-data-ever-know-who-we-really-are">This is an excerpt from an essay by Zara Rahman, written for and published as part of the Bodies of Evidence collection of Deep Dives</a>.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3><span>CIS and the News</span></h3>
<p>The following news pieces were authored by CIS and published on its website in May:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-may-1-2019-aayush-rathi-and-ambika-tandon-how-privacy-fares-in-the-2019-election-manifestos">How privacy fares in the 2019 election manifestos | Opinion </a>(Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon; May 1, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-may-1-2019-shyam-ponappa-democracy-digital-india-and-networks">Democracy, Digital India and Networks</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; May 1, 2019). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-may-2-2019-gurshabad-grover-why-the-tik-tok-ban-is-worrying">Why the TikTok ban is worrying</a> (Gurshabad Grover; Hindustan Times; May 2, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-19-2019-nishant-shah-digital-native-three-things-we-need-to-realise-about-what-tik-tok-is-doing-to-us">Digital Native: Narendra Modi’s interview by Akshay Kumar is a PR masterpiece</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; May 5, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-wire-arindrajit-basu-may-8-2019-will-the-wto-finally-tackle-the-trump-card-of-national-security">Will the WTO Finally Tackle the ‘Trump’ Card of National Security?</a> (Arindrajit Basu; The Wire; May 8, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-19-2019-nishant-shah-digital-native-three-things-we-need-to-realise-about-what-tik-tok-is-doing-to-us">Digital Native: Three things we need to realise about what TikTok is doing to us</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; May 19, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/openness/open-data-and-land-ownership">Open Data and Land Ownership</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; State of Open Data; May 22, 2019).</li>
<li><span><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/can-evm-vulnerabilities-be-used-to-game-the-indian-election">Can EVM vulnerabilities be used to game the Indian election?</a> (Karan Saini; Kaarana Blog; May 22, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/indian-express-may-30-2019-gurshabad-grover-the-huawei-bogey">The Huawei bogey </a>(Gurshabad Grover; Indian Express; May 30, 2019).<br /></span></li>
</ul>
<div></div>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>CIS in the News</h3>
<p>CIS was quoted in these news articles published elsewhere:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-may-2-2019-tushar-kaushik-cyber-criminals-hide-in-the-dark-web-to-remain-anonymous">Cyber criminals hide in the ‘dark web’ to remain anonymous </a>(Tushar Kaushik; Economic Times; May 2, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-vidhi-choudhary-may-3-2019-bjp-outspends-congress-others-in-social-media-advertising">BJP outspends Congress, others in social media advertising</a> (Vidhi Choudhary; Hindustan Times; May 3, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/biometric-update-may-8-2019-three-emerging-market-think-tanks-to-collaborate-on-good-id-recommendations-with-omidyar-backing">Three emerging market think tanks to collaborate on Good ID recommendations with Omidyar backing</a> (Chris Burt; Biometric Update; May 8, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/newsclick-martin-moore-may-20-2019-aadhaar-reduced-agency-in-citizens-and-empowered-those-in-positions-of-authority">"Aadhaar Reduced Agency in Citizens and Empowered Those in Positions of Authority"</a> (Martin Moore; News Click; May 20, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/top-10-vpn-megha-bahree-may-21-2019-in-parts-of-india-internet-shutdowns-are-a-fact-of-life">In Parts of India, Internet Shutdowns Are a Fact of Life</a> (Megha Bahree; Top10VPN; May 21, 2019).</li>
<li><span><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/artificial-intelligence-consumer-experiences-in-new-technologies">Artificial Intelligence: Consumer Experiences in New Technologies</a> (Consumer International; May 28, 2019).<br /></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div></div>
<ul>
</ul>
<div></div>
<h2><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Our Access to Knowledge programme currently consists of two projects. The Pervasive Technologies project, conducted under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), aims to conduct research on the complex interplay between low-cost pervasive technologies and intellectual property, in order to encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The Wikipedia project, which is under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Copyright & Patent</h3>
<p><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research">Should India adopt Plan S to realise Open Access to Public-funded Scientific Research?</a> (Anubha Sinha; May 29, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipdedia</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).</p>
<p><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-may-3-2019-wikipedia-assignments-workshop-for-pg-students-pah-solapur-university">Wikipedia assignments workshop for Post Graduate students in PAH Solapur University</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; May 3, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-may-26-2019-wikisource-workshop-at-vigyan-ashram">Wikisource Workshop at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; May 26, 2019)</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis">MoU between PAH Solapur University & CIS-A2K</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; May 31, 2019). </li>
</ul>
<p><span><strong>Jobs</strong></span></p>
<p>CIS-A2K team is seeking applications for the following posts:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/cis-a2k-communication-officer-position">Communication Officer</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/project-tiger-2019-coordinator-position-open">Project Tiger 2019 Coordinator</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/wikidata-advisor-consultant-position-open">Wikidata Advisor</a> (Consultant)</li>
</ul>
<h3><span>Events </span></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2019-at-vishakhapatnam">Train-the-Trainer 2019</a> (Organized by CIS-A2K; Vishakhapatnam; May 31 - June 2, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/wikimedia-education-saarc-conference">Wikimedia Education SAARC conference</a> (Organized by Christ University (Deemed to be University) with the association of CIS-A2K; Christ University; Bangalore; June 20 - June 22, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Media Coverage</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/vishwavihar-may-13-2019-ahmedabad-wikisource-workshop">Ahmedabad Wikisource Workshop</a> (Vishwavihar; May 13, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/northeast-now-may-17-2019-youths-come-forward-to-augment-assamese-wikisource-project">Youths come forward to augment Assamese Wikisource project</a> (NE Now News; May 17, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-tushar-kaushik-may-28-2019-wikipedia-looks-to-ramp-up-its-indian-language-content">Wikipedia looks to ramp up its Indian language content</a> (Tushar Kaushik; May 28, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger">Project Tiger: Wikipedia ropes in locals to contribute articles in Indian languages</a> (Tushar Kaushik; May 29, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Openness</h3>
<p><strong>Publication</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/openness/open-data-and-land-ownership">Open Data and Land Ownership</a> (State of Open Data; Sumandro Chattapadhyay; May 22, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and IDRC) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on restrictions that the Indian government has placed on freedom of expression online.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Identity</h3>
<p><strong>Announcement</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/appropriate-use-of-digital-identity-alliance-announcement">Announcement of a Three-Region Research Alliance on the Appropriate Use of Digital Identity</a> (Amber Sinha; May 13, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Event Organized</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/picking-2018wholes2019-thinking-in-systems-workshop">Picking ‘Wholes’ - Thinking in Systems Workshop</a> (Organized by CIS; New Delhi; May 27 - 28, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<h3><span>Gender</span></h3>
<div>
<p><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-may-9-2019-workshop-on-feminist-information-infrastructure">Workshop on Feminist Information Infrastructure</a> (Ambika Tandon; edited by Gurshabad Grover and designed by Saumyaa Naidu; May 9, 2019).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Free Speech</h3>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/stockholm-internet-forum-2019">Stockholm Internet Forum 2019</a> (Organized by Stockholm Internet Forum 2019; Stockholm; May 16 - 17, 2019). Gurshabad Grover was a panelist in the discussion on 'Influencing Internet Governance' co-organised by Article 19.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/consilience-2019">Consilience 2019</a> (Organized by the Law and Technology Society; National Law School of India University, Bangalore; May 25, 2019). Gurshabad Grover was a panelist on the discussion on 'Online Content Regulation: Global Perspectives and Solutions'.</li>
</ul>
<h3><span>Privacy</span></h3>
<p><strong>Research Paper</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/vipul-kharbanda-may-8-2019-an-analysis-of-rbi-draft-framework-on-regulatory-sandbox-for-fintech">An Analysis of the RBI’s Draft Framework on Regulatory Sandbox for Fintech</a> (Vipul Kharbanda; May 8, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/data-empowerment-and-protection-architecture-depa-workshop">Data Empowerment And Protection Architecture (DEPA) Workshop</a> (Organized by iSPIRT Foundation; May 18, 2019). Pranav Manjesh Bidare attended the workshop. </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/abli-privacy-workshop">ABLI Privacy Workshop</a> (Organized by Asian Business Law Institute; Singapore; May 21 - 22, 2019). Elonnai Hickok participated in the event.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hillhacks-2019">HillHacks 2019</a> (Organized by HillHacks; Bir, Himachal Pradesh; May 24 - 26, 2019). Karan Saini was a speaker.</li>
</ul>
<h3><span>Artificial Intelligence</span></h3>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/society-5-0-and-artificial-intelligence-with-a-human-face">Society 5.0 and Artificial Intelligence with a Human Face</a> (Organized by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations; India Habitat Centre, New Delhi). Radhika Radhakrishnan attended a roundtable consultation.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ai-for-good-workshop">AI for Good Workshop</a> (Organized by Swissnex India and Wadhwani AI; Bangalore; May 22, 2019).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/mwc19-shanghai-ai-and-trust-in-apac-and-china">MWC19 Shanghai AI and Trust in APAC and China</a> (Organized by Digital Asia Hub; MWC Shanghai; June 27, 2019). Sunil Abraham will be making a presentation at the summit on AI and Trust in APAC and China. Sunil has been invited as a speaker on panel ‘Framing AI for Digital Upstarts’.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cyber Security</h3>
<p>Participation in Event</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/shining-light-into-darkness-encouraging-greater-transparency-of-government-offensive-practices-in-cyberspace">Shining light into darkness: Encouraging greater transparency of government offensive practices in cyberspace</a> (Organized by Rights Con; Tunis; June 12, 2019). Sunil Abraham will be attending a conversation on encouraging greater transparency of government offensive practices in cyberspace. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div></div>
<h2><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Article</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-may-1-2019-shyam-ponappa-democracy-digital-india-and-networks">Democracy, Digital India and Networks</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Organizing India Blogspot; May 1, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Event</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/live-closed-trai-open-house-discussion-on-ott-regulation-delhi">Live [Closed]: TRAI Open House Discussion on OTT Regulation - Delhi</a> (Organized by TRAI; New Delhi; May 20, 2019). Anubha Sinha attended the event.</li>
</ul>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work (RAW)</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by an emerging need to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It aims to produce local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Essay</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/zara-rahman-can-data-ever-know-who-we-really-are">Can data ever know who we really are?</a> (Zara Rahman; May 22, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/war-driving-in-lhasa-vegas-2771b502910b">War Driving in Lhasa Vegas</a> (Oxblood Ruffin; May 11, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/dotbharatadoption-95cf90b6079f">#DotBharatAdoption</a> (Dr. Amit Prakash, K.A. Dayanand, Dr. Srinivasan Ramani, Dr. V. Sridhar, and Vivek Pani; May 11, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/materialisingwriting-b0a3e9ebe7">#MaterialisingWriting</a> (Dibyadyuti Roy, Indrani Roy, Padmini Ray Murray, and Puthiya Purayil Sneha; May 21, 2019). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/the-shadow-that-social-media-casts-the-doubled-offlines-of-online-sociality-aa1fbbbb2ec6">The Shadow that Social Media Casts: The Doubled Offlines of Online Sociality</a> (Karandeep Mehra; May 21, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p>► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<div>
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<div>Please help us defend consumer and citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru - 5600 71.</div>
<p>► Request for Collaboration</p>
<div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at <a>tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects</i>.</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2019-newsletter'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2019-newsletter</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet GovernanceAccess to Knowledge2019-06-26T01:40:33ZPageIndian Patent Office updates Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions, yet again
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/indian-patent-office-issues-updated-guidelines-for-computer-related-inventions-yet-again
<b>By discarding a test brought into force last year, the updated Guidelines take no concrete position to help clarify the ambiguity around patentability of software inventions in India.</b>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and
Trademarks (CGPDTM) issued new <a href="http://www.ipindia.nic.in/writereaddata/Portal/Images/pdf/Revised__Guidelines_for_Examination_of_Computer-related_Inventions_CRI__.pdf">Guidelines
on Examination of Computer Related Inventions (CRIs</a>) on 30<sup>th</sup> June,
making it easier to obtain a software patent in India (as compared to standards set in the 2016 Guidelines).</p>
<h2>New Changes</h2>
<p>The most important change is <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/the-new-guidelines-for-computer-related-inventions-are-a-big-win-for-foss-in-india">removal
of a test notified in 2016</a> which made CRIs patent eligible provided there
was a novel hardware component in the patent application. Accordingly, references
in the guidelines which aided interpretation of the 2016 test have been
deleted. Additionally, the new guidelines exclude the layout of integrated
circuits as patentable subject matter in CRIs.</p>
<p>The CGPDTM has refrained from prescribing a new test to
determine patentability of CRIs.</p>
<p>In the absence of specific guidance, it is likely that examiners will heavily rely on section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970, the Manual of Patent Practice and Procedure, and the views expressed by the <a class="external-link" href="http://164.100.47.5/webcom/MoreInfo/PatentReport.pdf">Joint Parliamentary Committee</a> in respect of "per se":</p>
<p> <em> "In the new proposed clause (k) the words ''per se" have been
inserted. This change has been proposed because sometimes the computer
programme may include certain other things, <strong>ancillary thereto or developed thereon.</strong> The intention here is not to reject them for grant of patent if they are inventions. However, the <strong>computer programmes as such</strong> are not intended to be granted patent. This amendment has been proposed to clarify the purpose." </em></p>
<h2>Policymaking re Guidelines on Examination
of CRIs</h2>
<p>After years of deliberation, the Indian Patent Office <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-the-guidelines-for-examination-of-computer-related-inventions-cris">first proposed
a test in 2015</a> which was met with disapproval as it lowered the bar for
patentability of CRIs. After a stakeholder consultation, the IPO revised the test
in 2016, raising the bar of patent eligibility of CRIs, which was favorable to the
growth of small and medium enterprises in the Indian IT industry. The present 2017
guidelines are a result of streamlining stakeholder consultations conducted in
response to the 2016 guidelines as per a <a href="http://www.ipindia.nic.in/writereaddata/Portal/Images/pdf/Office_Order_No_36_of_2017_for_Revised__Guidelines_for_Examination_of_CRIs.pdf">circular</a>
by the IPO.</p>
<p>In the following table, I list the substantive changes made
in the new guidelines (in comparison to the 2016 Guidelines) and make some
preliminary remarks:</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<table class="grid">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Type of Change</strong></td>
<td><strong>Change</strong></td>
<td><strong>Remarks</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Inserted in 2.1, <strong>Legal Provisions relating to CRIs</strong>
and
Deleted in 4.1, <strong>Novelty</strong></td>
<td>Section 2 (1)(l) defines “new invention” in The Indian Patents Act,
1970 as follows:
"New invention" means any invention or technology which has
not been anticipated by publication in any document or used in the country or elsewhere in the world before the date
of filing of patent application with complete specification, i.e. the subject
matter has not fallen in public domain or that it does not form part of the
state of the art</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><br /><br />Added in 2.2, <strong>List of explicit exclusions from patentability under
section 3 for CRIs</strong></td>
<td>Section 3(o) topography of integrated circuits</td>
<td>Contemplates layout of integrated circuits as subject matter relating
to CRIs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Parts deleted in 4.3, <strong>Industrial Applicability</strong></td>
<td><br /><br />Industry herein is to be understood broadly having any useful and
practical activity while excluding intellectual or aesthetic activity.
Claims relating to “Method of playing games” and “computer
programming languages” are not considered to be industrially applicable. A
method for effecting introductions with a view to making friends is not
industrially applicable even though it could be carried out by a commercial
enterprise.
The determination of industrial applicability in case of CRIs is very
crucial since applications relating to CRIs may contain only abstract
theories, lacking in industrial application.</td>
<td>Only an explanation of industrial applicability in the general
context of patent law remains.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Deleted in 4.4, <strong>Sufficiency of Disclosure </strong>(strikethrough indicates
deleted part)</td>
<td><br /><br />4.4.1 Fully and particularly (What):
1. If the patent application
relates to apparatus/system/device i.e hardware based inventions, each and
every feature of the invention shall be described with suitable illustrative
drawings. <s>If these system/device/apparatus claims are worded in such a way
that they merely and only comprise of a memory which stores instructions to
execute the previously claimed method and a processor to execute these
instructions, then this set of claims claiming a system/device /apparatus may
be deemed as conventional and may not fulfil the eligibility criteria of
patentability. </s>
If, however, the invention relates to ‘method’, the necessary
sequence of steps should clearly be described so as to distinguish the
invention from the prior art with the help of the flowcharts and other
information required to perform the invention together with their modes/means
of implementation.
[…]</td>
<td>Loosened the disclosure requirement</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Deleted in 4.4, <strong>Sufficiency of Disclosure</strong> (strikethrough indicates
deleted part)</td>
<td><br />4.4.4 Form and substance:
[…]
Even when the issue is related to hardware/software relation, <s>(e.g.,
when the claims recite ‘processor is programmed to… or ‘apparatus comprising
a processor and configured / programmed to…..)</s> the expression of the
functionality as a ‘method’, is judged on its substance. It is well established that, in
patentability cases, the focus should be on the underlying substance of the
invention, not the particular form in which it is claimed. The Patents Act
clearly excludes computer programmes per se and the exclusion should not be
allowed to be avoided merely by camouflaging the substance of the claim by
wording <s>(e.g. different subroutines are performed in different physical
locations such as processors will not suffice).</s></td>
<td>Removed illustrations</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Replaced in 4.4, <strong>Sufficiency of Disclosure</strong> (strikethrough indicates
deleted part)</td>
<td><br /><br />4.4.5 Means Plus Function:
<p>Further, if the specification supports <s>implementation</s>
of the invention solely by the computer program then in that case means plus
function claims shall be rejected as these means are nothing but computer
programme per se.</p>
<p>Where no structural features of those means are disclosed in
the specification and specification supports <s>implementation</s> of the
invention solely by the software then in that case means in the “means plus
function” claims are nothing but software.</p>
</td>
<td> Replaced both struck out words by<em> performing the invention</em><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><br /><br />Added in 4.5, <strong>Determination of excluded subject matter relating to
CRIs</strong></td>
<td><br />[…] Hence, along with determining the merit of invention as envisaged
under Sections 2(1) (j), (ja) and (ac), the examiner should also determine
whether or not they are patentable inventions under Section 3 of the Act.</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><br />Parts deleted in 4.5.1. <strong>Claims directed as “Mathematical Method”</strong>:</td>
<td><br />[…]
Some examples which will attract exclusion:
acts of mental skill. e.g. A
method of calculation, formulation of equations, finding square roots, cube
roots and all other methods directly involving mathematical methods like
solving advanced equations of mathematics.
merely manipulates abstract
idea or solves a purely mathematical problem without specifying a practical
application.</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Added in in 4.5.1. <strong>Claims directed as “Mathematical Method”</strong> (emphasis
supplied)</td>
<td><br /><br />4.5.1. Claims directed as “Mathematical Method”:
Mathematical methods are a particular example of the principle that
purely abstract or intellectual methods are not patentable. Mathematical
methods like method of calculation, formulation of equations, finding square
roots, cube roots and all other similar acts of mental skill are therefore,
not patentable. <strong><u>Similarly mere
manipulations of abstract idea or solving purely mathematical
problem/equations without specifying a practical application also attract the
exclusion under this category.</u></strong>
<strong> </strong>
However, mere presence of a mathematical formula in a claim, to
clearly specify the scope of protection being sought in an invention, may not
necessarily render it to be a “mathematical method” claim. <strong><u>Also, such exclusions may not apply to
inventions that include mathematical formulae and resulting in systems for
encoding, reducing noise in communications/ electrical/electronic systems or
encrypting/ decrypting electronic communications</u></strong><u>.</u></td>
<td>Illustrations added to show that CRIs that include mathematical
formulae and result in systems for encoding, reducing noise in
communications/ electrical/electronic systems or encrypting/ decrypting
electronic communications, will not be ineligible merely by virtue of
presence of mathematical formulae. They will not necessarily construe a claim
on mathematical method.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><br /><br />Part deleted in 4.5.4, <strong>Claims directed as “Computer Programme per se”</strong></td>
<td>The computer programme per se is excluded from patentability under
section 3(k) apart from mathematical or business method and algorithm</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><br /><br />Inserted in 4.5, <strong>Determination of excluded subject matter relating to
CRIs </strong>(emphasis supplied)</td>
<td>4.5.8. Topography of integrated circuits
The above criterion is to be judged as per the procedures as laid out
in chapter 08.03.05.14 of the Manual</td>
<td>Contemplates layout of integrated circuits as subject matter relating
to CRIs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Parts deleted in 5, <strong>Tests/Indicators to determine Patentability of
CRIs</strong></td>
<td><br /><br />5. Tests/Indicators to
determine Patentability of CRIs:
Examiners may rely on the following three stage test in examining CRI
applications:
(1) Properly construe the
claim and identify the actual contribution;
(2) If the contribution
lies only in mathematical method, business method or algorithm, deny the
claim;
(3) If the contribution lies
in the field of computer programme, check whether it is claimed in
conjunction with a novel hardware and proceed to other steps to determine
patentability with respect to the invention. The computer programme in itself
is never patentable. If the contribution lies solely in the computer
programme, deny the claim. If the contribution lies in both the computer
programme as well as hardware, proceed to other steps of patentability.</td>
<td>Implication is that this test is no longer in force for examination
of patentability of CRIs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><br /><br />Deleted 6, <strong>Illustrative examples of Claims which are not patentable</strong></td>
<td><em>Refer to 2016 Guidelines</em></td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> Note: This post has been updated to reflect the change in point 4.4.5, which was previously missed by the author.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/indian-patent-office-issues-updated-guidelines-for-computer-related-inventions-yet-again'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/indian-patent-office-issues-updated-guidelines-for-computer-related-inventions-yet-again</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaIndian Patents Act Section 3(k)PatentsAccess to KnowledgeSoftware Patents2017-07-05T07:42:44ZBlog EntryPreliminary Findings: Working Requirements for Complex Products under the Indian Patent System
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/2nd-international-conference-on-standardisation-patents-and-competition-issues
<b>Prof. Jorge L. Contreras gave a talk on a forthcoming paper "Preliminary Findings: Working Requirements for Complex Products under the Indian Patent System" at the "2nd International Conference on Standardisation, Patents and Competition Issues" held on June 10 and 11, 2017 in New Delhi. The conference was organized by O.P. Jindal Global University.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The paper contains findings a study by Rohini Lakshane of CIS and Prof Jorge Contreras, University of Utah on the Statements of Working (Form 27) of the patents they found for their previous paper "Patents and mobile devices in India: An empirical survey". <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/files/working-requirements-for-complex-products-under-the-indian-patent-system">View the slide deck</a>. See the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.jgu.edu.in/jirico/conference-new-1.php">event website</a>. To read the Research Methodology <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/methodology-statements-of-working-form-27-of-indian-mobile-device-patents">click here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/2nd-international-conference-on-standardisation-patents-and-competition-issues'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/2nd-international-conference-on-standardisation-patents-and-competition-issues</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgePervasive Technologies2017-08-22T13:48:08ZNews ItemTallapaka Pada Sahityam is now on Wikisource
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tallapaka-pada-sahityam-is-now-on-wikisource
<b></b>
<p><a name="cite_ref-Source_of_his_history_1-0"></a>
Tallapaka Pada Sahityam, a
compilation of over fourteen thousand Telugu compositions is now
available on Wikisource. Tallapaka Annamacharya was a 15th-century
Hindu saint and composer who was renowned for singing in praise of
Lord Venkateswara. The Tallapaka lineage began with him, giving rise
to many bards in the Telugu language from the family. The Tallapaka
Pada Sahityam is a compilation of three generations of Tallapaka
poets: Tallapaka Annamacharya,
Tallapaka Peda Tirumalacharya, and Tallapaka China
Tirumalacharya. This compilation, published by Annamayya Library,
Guntur has been uploaded by the library on Wikisource as part of
their efforts to digitize the library archives. These lyrical works,
dealing with a variety of themes, are of immense literary and
cultural significance to Telugu speakers the world over.</p>
<p>Owing to the large
size of the file donated by the library, the works need to be
separated into 29 volumes. These separated files would be uploaded
and indexed on Commons as well. A Unicode version of the work needs
to be published and proofread in addition to their print version.
Telugu Wikimedians are also exploring the possiblity of re-licensing
recitations of the poems by literary connoisseurs. On 9 June, an orientation of these activities was conducted for long time Telugu Wikipedia, <a title="te:user:శ్రీరామమూర్తి" class="extiw" href="https://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:%E0%B0%B6%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%B0%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%B0%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%AE%E0%B0%AE%E0%B1%82%E0%B0%B0%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%A4%E0%B0%BF">te:user:శ్రీరామమూర్తి</a>, who has begun publishing Unicode text and proof-reading on Telugu Wikisource.</p>
<p>The link to the work
is here:</p>
<p><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Tallapaka_pada_sahityam.pdf">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Tallapaka_pada_sahityam.pdf</a></p>
<p><br />
<br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tallapaka-pada-sahityam-is-now-on-wikisource'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tallapaka-pada-sahityam-is-now-on-wikisource</a>
</p>
No publisherPavan SanthoshTelugu WikisourceCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu WikipediaOpenness2017-07-10T13:44:41ZBlog EntryThematic Edit-a-thon at Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara
https://cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara
<b></b>
<p align="center"><br /></p>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia
edit-a-thon was held at Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science,
Satara. The aim of the workshop was to edit and improve articles on
Marathi Wikipedia under the theme "Environment and Local
Biodiveristy". Participants were given an orientation on how to
contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The
Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science is housed under the <a href="http://www.erayat.org/" target="_blank">Rayat
Shikshan Sanstha</a>, a century-old organization with the largest
network of schools and colleges across Maharashtra. The management
and local environmental group, Drongo, took the initiative to organize this thematic workshop in Satara, an area rich in terms of
biodiversity in the Western Ghats. Noted ecologist and scientist Prof. Madhavrao Gadgil addressed the workshop as a resource person along with Prof. V.Y. Deshpande of the Institute. A total of 23 members from various
like-minded organizations participated in the workshop.</p>
<p> </p>
<div align="center">
<ul><li><span id="docs-internal-guid-eefaaff2-30fd-2e1a-bf7c-56f91dcde4b8"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Nv-B5Uxu4VSIKSzWhDMzqJfy-hp7UUIQ_1sLss5IzaE7EzMBbCYyrm1vrdqDb4bNT57TafnROLvtMhLT7ojevVOT2qJVcY9tEB8XCA8svORZQamsl1Bc5QQj-TmNiu12ilYYqsM" alt="YCIS4.jpg" height="401" width="602" /></span></li></ul>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p>Image by <a title="User:सुबोध कुलकर्णी" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A7_%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%80">सुबोध कुलकर्णी</a>/ CC-BY-SA 4.0<br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-eefaaff2-30fd-2e1a-bf7c-56f91dcde4b8"></span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-07-11T09:35:13ZBlog EntryCourse Packs for Education Ruled Legal in India
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/eifl-anubha-sinha-july-12-2017-course-packs-for-education-ruled-legal-in-india
<b>On 9 May 2017, a five year court battle between publishers and universities finally came to an end when the Supreme Court of India dismissed an appeal by the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO) challenging an earlier judgment of Delhi High Court that ruled course packs in India legal for educational purposes.</b>
<p>The article was published by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.eifl.net/blogs/course-packs-education-ruled-legal-india">EIFL</a> on July 12, 2017.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>In a case that gained wide international attention, issues such as the cost of textbooks in India were raised, students agitated for fair access to educational materials, and the jurisprudence on copyright in India has taken a leap forward. In this guest blog, <b>Anubha Sinha, Programme Officer on Openness and Access to Knowledge at the Centre for Internet and Society India</b>, discusses the judgment in the case known as the ‘Delhi University photocopy’ case, and what it means for access to educational materials in India.</i></p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">The facts of the case</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In 2012, three academic publishers, Oxford University Press (OUP), Cambridge University Press (CUP) and Taylor & Francis, sued the University of Delhi (DU) and Rameshwari Photocopy Service (based at the university) for copyright infringement for photocopying parts of their textbooks and distributing them in course packs - collections of assigned reading materials – exclusively to students for a fee.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The publishers sought to compel Delhi University to enter into a licensing agreement with the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO), that manages certain rights on behalf publishers and other rightsholders in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The course packs in question comprised excerpts from textbooks on course syllabi at Delhi School of Economics (part of the University of Delhi). The court analyzed the content of four packs that included works such as Transforming India: Social and Political Dynamics of Democracy (OUP), New Cambridge History of India (CUP) and Political Philosophy (Routledge/Taylor & Francis).</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The court found that on average 8.8% of the textbooks, that each cost on average 39 USD (2,500 INR), were used in the course packs. Students and faculty were charged a nominal fee of one US cent (40 paise) per page to buy the course pack.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">The court’s judgment – no infringement, no licence required</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In an interim order in 2012, the court issued a temporary injunction restraining the sale of course packs by Rameshwari. However, the order was overturned when in subsequent judgments (in September 2016 and an appeal judgment in December 2016) the court ruled in favour of the University.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">On whether the making of the course packs was a copyright infringement, the court found no infringement because the activities fell under the education exception in Indian copyright law (specifically section 52(1)(i)).</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Section 52(1)(i) of the Indian Copyright Act (1957) allows any work to be reproduced by a teacher or pupil for the purposes of instruction. In a liberal interpretation of the provision, the court held that the reproduction of a work is not limited to reproduction by an individual teacher or pupil, it also extends to the action of multiple teachers and students. Further, the court held that the phrase ‘course of instruction’ embraces any instruction for the duration of an entire course or teaching programme, it is not limited only to teaching in the classroom.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">On whether the university must obtain a licence to photocopy from IRRO, the court held that no licence is required because the activities are covered by Section 52(1)(i).</p>
<p dir="ltr">The court also found there to be no commercial exploitation of copyright in the works.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">During the case, the publishers tried to impute a profit motive on the part of the defendants. They argued that by selling chapters of the books, the defendants were in direct competition with publishers thereby creating an adverse effect on the publishers’ market.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The court rejected the argument holding that students are hardly potential customers for multiple books used in the course packs. For example, post-graduate students might have 35-40 reading assignments per subject.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Without the course packs, students would simply look elsewhere for the material, including the university library. In fact, the court noted that increased access to education has the potential to expand the customer base for such books in the future.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Primacy of purpose</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Importantly, the court said fairness of use is to be judged only by its intended purpose i.e. education, and not from any qualitative or quantitative uses (such as which parts of the text are used or the number of copies made).</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The court’s judgment on appeal, that references case law from Canada, the USA the UK and New Zealand, emphasizes that the determination of ‘fairness’ of a use rests solely on the “touchstone of the purpose of the use and/or other limitations expressly built in each of these clauses”. Thus there is no requirement to introduce other tests or factors when applying Section 52(1)(i) and so a general fair use principle is to be read into all such provisions in the law.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">The case concludes</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The High Court remained undecided on two points of fact: whether the works included in the course packs were necessary for educational instruction, and whether the photocopying of entire books is allowed under Indian law. It decided to refer these issues for determination to a trial court.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">However, the trial court hearing never proceeded because in March 2017 the publishers decided to withdraw from the case, in a move that surprised observers. A <a href="http://fdslive.oup.com/asiaed/News%20Items%20and%20Images/Joint%20Public%20Statement.pdf">joint statement issued by OUP, CUP and Taylor & Francis</a> acknowledged the important role that course packs play in education, and looked forward to working “even more closely with academic institutions, teachers and students to understand and address their needs”.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In a further twist in April 2017, the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO) filed an appeal to the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s judgment.</p>
<p dir="ltr">On 9 May 2017, the Supreme Court summarily dismissed IRRO’s appeal.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Impact of the Delhi University case</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The ruling in the Delhi University case is a huge triumph for access to educational materials in India over the interests of private copyright holders.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The case shone a light on the socio-economic context of university level education in India, in particular the cost of textbooks. Students became advocates for access to knowledge, and the law on access to educational materials in India has been advanced.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Book prices in India are an issue</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">A<a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/exceptions-limitations-education"> study submitted to the court</a> showed that consumers in the global South often have to commit significantly higher proportions of their income to buy books because absolute book prices are far higher than in the global North. For example, if consumers in the US had to pay the same proportion of their income to purchase the Oxford English Dictionary, it would cost a ludicrous 941.20 USD!</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Not even university libraries can afford these prices. While libraries do purchase multiple copies of textbooks, they cannot cater for the entire student population that can ran into hundreds of students enrolled on an individual course.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">In addition, the latest editions are not always available to purchase in India. So the absence of course packs would seriously compromise access to education.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><i>“While foreign publishers claim that almost all educational titles have lower priced Indian editions, our empirical research shows this to be false. The vast majority of legal and social science titles that we surveyed had no equivalent Indian editions, and had to be purchased at prices equivalent to or higher than in the West. The lower priced Indian editions were often older and outdated.” - </i><a href="https://spicyip.com/2012/09/a-fair-education-in-copyright-world.html">Shamnad Basheer, writing in SpicyIP</a>, one of India’s leading blogs/repositories on intellectual property (IP) and innovation law/policy.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Students, faculty and authors mobilized</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The case resonated strongly with the student and academic communities. Two new groups were formed, the Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge (ASEAK) and the Society for Promotion of Equitable Access to Knowledge (SPEAK). Both groups were admitted as interveners in the case in support of the defendants.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Student engagement has continued, increasing awareness among the next generation for fair access to knowledge.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In addition, over three hundred academics from all over the world, including 33 authors whose works were listed in court documents as being included in the course packs,<a href="https://spicyip.com/2013/03/du-photocopy-case-academicians-and.html"> wrote to the three publishers asking them to withdraw the lawsuit.</a> The letter was submitted to the court in pleadings by the defendant.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Copyright jurisprudence advanced</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The case has advanced copyright jurisprudence in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The making of course packs for educational purposes is allowed by law.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The court’s reasoning in the judgments was based on the socio-economic context of India, the realities of the education system, and the progress afforded by modern technology. These are welcome developments that will enable the law to adapt to new situations and current needs of Indian society.</p>
<h2 class="sub-header" dir="ltr">Timeline</h2>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">August 2012: Oxford University Press (OUP), Cambridge University Press (CUP) and Taylor & Francis issue legal proceedings against Delhi University and Rameshwari Photocopy Service</p>
<p dir="ltr">October 2012: Interim injunction issued against Rameshwari Photocopy Service restraining sale of course packs.</p>
<p dir="ltr">March 2013: 33 authors of works cited in court documents write to publishers asking them to withdraw the case.</p>
<p dir="ltr">September 2016: j<a href="http://lobis.nic.in/ddir/dhc/RSE/judgement/16-09-2016/RSE16092016S24392012.pdf">udgment</a> issued by Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, Delhi High Court; injunction on Rameshwari Photocopy Service lifted.</p>
<p dir="ltr">October 2016:<a href="https://spicyip.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/RFAOS.pdf"> Publishers file appeal</a> against Justice Endlaw’s decision.</p>
<p dir="ltr">December 2016:<a href="http://lobis.nic.in/ddir/dhc/PNJ/judgement/09-12-2016/PNJ09122016RFAOS812016.pdf"> Appeal rejected</a> by Delhi High Court Division Bench Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Yogesh Khanna.</p>
<p dir="ltr">January 2017:<a href="https://spicyip.com/2017/01/oxford-university-students-and-others-urge-oup-to-not-appeal-to-the-supreme-court-in-the-du-copyright-case.html"> Oxford students and academics urge OUP not to appeal to the Supreme Court.</a></p>
<p dir="ltr">March 2017:<a href="http://fdslive.oup.com/asiaed/News%20Items%20and%20Images/Joint%20Public%20Statement.pdf"> Publishers announce their withdrawal from the case.</a></p>
<p dir="ltr">April 2017: Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO) (that intervened in the lower case)<a href="https://spicyip.com/2017/04/breaking-news-irro-challenges-del-hcs-du-photocopy-judgment-before-the-supreme-court.html"> files appeal to the Supreme Court.</a></p>
<p dir="ltr">May 2017:<a href="https://spicyip.com/2017/05/breaking-news-supreme-court-refuses-to-admit-irro-appeal.html"> IRRO appeal dismissed by the Supreme Court.</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/eifl-anubha-sinha-july-12-2017-course-packs-for-education-ruled-legal-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/eifl-anubha-sinha-july-12-2017-course-packs-for-education-ruled-legal-in-india</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaAccess to Knowledge2017-07-14T04:05:00ZBlog EntryChrist University Wikipedia Education Program Faculty Orientation Report
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-faculty-orientation-report
<b>Christ University faculty were given an orientation for the upcoming year on the Wikipedia Education Program</b>
<p>Report on Christ University Wikipedia Education Program Faculty Orientation</p>
<p>Participants:</p>
<ul><li>Rathi MT<br /></li><li>Shivaprasad</li><li> Sebastian K A</li><li>Naga Lakshmi</li><li>George Joseph<br /></li></ul>
<p>This <span id="DWT141" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT179" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span> training aimed to get more involvement of <span id="DWT143" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT181" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span>
in Wikipedia and teach them how to use the Dashboard tool for evaluation
and monitoring of the work done by the students. The following things
which are required for the students to complete their assignments weretaught to the <span id="DWT145" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT183" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span> during the orientation; so that students' doubts could be immediately resolved by the faculty: <span id="DWT147" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT185" class="ZmSearchResult"></span></span></p>
<ul><li>Google forms and sending confirmation emails.</li><li>Linking of email to Wikipedia account( helps to recover the password). <br /></li><li>Basic editing of Wikipedia and Wikisource.</li><li>Enabling of the keyboard if students have disabled in preferences.<br /></li><li>Usage of Visual editor.</li><li>Usage of referencing tool.</li><li>Editing toolbar.</li><li>Dashboard tool.<br /><br /></li></ul>
<p>After the orientation, we were discussing the possible events which we can do for the current year and the <span id="DWT149" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT187" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span> was interested in doing the following:</p>
<ul><li> Wikipedia Edit-a-thon for the language <span id="DWT151" class="ZmSearchResult"><span id="DWT189" class="ZmSearchResult">faculty</span></span> of different colleges in Karnataka.</li><li>Hack-a thon with help of computer science department at Christ University.</li><li>Photo walk/Photo contest with the help of media studies Christ University.</li><li>WEP review.</li></ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-faculty-orientation-report'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/christ-university-wikipedia-education-program-faculty-orientation-report</a>
</p>
No publisherAnanth SubrayAccess to KnowledgeWikipedia Education ProgramWikimediaWikipediaOpenness2017-08-03T04:45:38ZBlog EntryAccess to Knowledge Bulletin — October 2012 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-october-2012-bulletin
<b>This is the second bulletin from the Access to Knowledge team of CIS in Delhi. This issue features education program updates of the Assamese, Malayalam and Gujarati Wiki communities, a hackathon held at BITS, Hyderabad, press coverage of the Odia Wikipedia workshop in Pune, and reports of workshops organised in Bangalore, Ghaziabad and Pune during the month of October.</b>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Education Program Updates</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/launch-of-assamese-wikipedia-education-program">Launch of Assamese Wikipedia Education Program at Guwahati University</a> (by Nitika Tandon, October 22, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/malayalam-wikipedia-education-program-august-october-update">Malayalam Wikipedia Education Program: August to October Updates</a> (by Shiju Alex, October 29, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/gujarati-wikipedia-education-program-rajkot">Gujarat Wikipedia Education Program: Rajkot</a> (by Noopur Raval, October 31, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/gujarati-wikipedia-article-competition">Gujarati Wikipedia Article Competition – 10 schools, 200 students, 20 articles on Gujarati Wikipedia</a> (by Noopur Raval, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Workshop Reports</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/bengaluru-a-hub-for-kannada-and-sanskrit-wikipedia">Bengaluru: A Hub for Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects!</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, October 16, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wikipedia-workshop-ghaziabad">Wikipedia workshop @ Inmantec College, Ghaziabad</a> (by Nitika Tandon, October 19, 2012).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wiki-women-day-2012-pune">Bridging Gender Gap in Pune: WikiWomenDay 2012 Celebrated with Success!</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, PAI International Learning Solutions, Azam Campus, Pune, October 28, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/first-pune-odia-wikipedia-organized">First Pune Odia Wikipedia Organized!</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Event Organised</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-hackathon-bits-hyderabad">Wikipedia Hackathon at BITS Hyderabad</a> (organized by CIS - A2K team and BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad, October 26 – 27, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Press Coverage</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowEvents.asp?id=37463">Odisha: Odia Wikipedia workshop organized in Pune to promote Odia language</a> (OdishaDiary.com, October 31, 2012).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Team Updates</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge/Team" title="Access To Knowledge/Team">A2K team</a> consists of three members based in Delhi: <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Nitika Tandon</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Subhashish Panigrahi</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Noopur Raval</a>.</li>
<li>We are seeking applications for the post of <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/vacancy-for-programme-director">Programme Director</a> (Access to Knowledge) for New Delhi office.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Shiju Alex</a>, Programme Manager, Access to Knowledge is leaving the organisation. November 16, 2012 will be his last working day. We wish him success in all his future endeavours. </li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness">Openness</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a>, and <a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i> </i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Follow us elsewhere</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="https://twitter.com/cis_india">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-october-2012-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-october-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpennessNewsletter2012-12-14T08:19:52ZPageA Comparative Study of Article Creation Campaigns on Wikipedia - Part II
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india-part-ii
<b>This is a short report on a comparative analysis of two prominent Wikimedia initiatives, Wikipedia Asian Month and Project Tiger, to understand prevailing challenges and opportunities, and strategies to address the same. The report has been authored by Nitesh Gill with inputs from Suswetha Kolluru, and editorial oversight and support by Puthiya Purayil Sneha. This is part of a series of short-term studies undertaken by the CIS-A2K team in 2019–2020. </b>
<p class="discreet"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india">Part </a>I of this report outlined the research questions and methods of this study. Part II presents some of the observations and learnings. </p>
<h3>Observations and Analysis</h3>
<p>Wikipedia Asian Month and Project Tiger are pilot projects and both are equally popular among Indian communities. They are similar projects but also have some unique aspects. Communities connect with each-other but in different ways. For example, as noted by an organiser, Sailesh Patnaik, WAM has the following objectives: “ a) Supporting Small Wikipedia communities around the world (majorly Asian Language Wikipedias) b) Providing support to small local communities, to encourage growth and development c)Increase the cooperation among the Wikimedia communities and affiliates in Asia, d)Enriching Asian related culture, content, and enjoyment on Wikimedia projects.”</p>
<p>Meenakshi Nandini, a Malaylam Wikimedian notes, “The Project Tiger contest gave me some best experiences. Through this project, I got support in the form of laptop and Internet access. That is very useful for me. In my view, it is a competition between the communities rather than individuals. I saw that participants wrote more articles in the Project tiger contest than in any other events.But, WAM helped to create more relevant and high-quality content than Project tiger.”</p>
<p>Some common aspects for the both projects are below:</p>
<h3>Motivation</h3>
<p dir="ltr">WAM is one of the initial projects to give a boost to volunteers across the world. Most of the editors are focussed on initiatives in their own languages, and WAM offered a common platform for Asian communities to work together on a project. According to the interviews of community members, the love for their languages inspired them to participate as well as create content in regional languages, communicate to other community members etc. </p>
<p dir="ltr">As community member SangappaDyamani notes , “To enrich Kannada wiki articles, [I’m] happy to represent kn wiki in such an event, we can meet new editors, learn new tech used in other wiki etc.” </p>
<p dir="ltr">Communities or community members began to take part in WAM when they had less opportunities or less ideas to grow their local Wikipedias. After this project began, communities or individuals have been motivated for their Wikipedia’s growth, and engaging more with regional languages and knowing about Asia or Asian culture. Many Indic languages were searching for a platform and WAM gave them a common platform to engage and create content in their regional languages. All interviews indicated the same point that it was a new idea and as every Indic language was developing at the time, this idea influenced most of the languages.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As community member, Ramajit Tudu observes, “As our Santali Wikipedia [went live], we all had lots of excitement to cover all types of the article[s] but prior to that we had articles on the regional topic only. At that time some of the other community members suggested we should take part in this editathon (WAM) and we felt It was a very nice campaign, it is an exchange and sharing of information among the Wikipedians of Asia. Knowing about the person, place and subject about your own continent other than your own country and putting them in your own language is always an interesting job. In the year 2018, I was one of the coordinators and Jury for WAM - Santali language. As our community was growing in the year 2019 others were the co-ordinator and jury but still, I had contributed by participating in the editathon. Besides these, I support the editathon by creating the project page in Santali language.”</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Similarly,there are quite a number of motivational factors for volunteers who have been actively participating in Project Tiger. Firstly, it gives an opportunity to create several important and relevant articles that relate to their language Wikipedia that are presently missing. Secondly, in order to keep up the momentum among participants throughout the competition, it is designed in two phases and there is friendly competition between all the Indic communities that participated to secure the top position. The third and final motivational factor is cash prizes, in the form of Amazon vouchers, for top 3 individual contributors from each community and a three day <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Project_Tiger_Training_2018">offline Wiki workshop</a> for all the active and major contributors from top performing communities.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“When it comes to a competition (between communities), there is a different kind of zeal and there are cash prizes too for extra motivation” says User:Jagmit Brar from the Punjabi community who created more than 1000 articles under Project Tiger in both the iterations.</p>
<p dir="ltr">These motivation factors have definitely been a major reason why the contest witnessed immense engagement and reach among the Indian communities. </p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Communication and Collaboration</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Communication is an important aspect of running these long duration editathons. So, the model is to engage local organizers and participants with early invitations. The team started contacting Asian communities a month before the start of the campaign. </p>
<p dir="ltr">According to Rupika, the Communication and Media officer of WAM “One of the most difficult things about any project is when it is a new project and they are just trying to [let the] community know about the project. But for projects that are popular and well-established like Wikipedia Asian Month and Wiki Loves Monuments, they don’t have to work that much hard. But we do make sure that our efforts with local organisers are complete. So, we ask them to create a page a month or two before that project starts.” </p>
<p dir="ltr">The discussion started from the mailing lists. Thereafter, mass messages were dropped on all the village pumps and local organisers started discussion with their community members. A new meta page was designed for every iteration. After the notifying and instructions, interested communities add their names and make sure to participate in this project. The model of engaging the communities is through social media channels, emails or on-wiki. The central-notice is a more beneficial method for informing Wikimedia about WAM and also writing blogs for the updates on progress of the project. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Also Wikipedia Asian Month’s primary objective was to collaborate with all the Asian countries as well as others to increase content related to Asia on Wikipedia. It started after a proper discussion and this collaboration was a huge experiment for organisers as well editors. The volunteers interviewed in the course of this study expressed that they are glad with the collaboration of different communities across the world on this campaign.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Collaboration is one of the main features which defines the objective of WAM. It helps the small communities to grow systematically and do something for their regional Wikipedias and learn from other international and national communities.WAM started with 40 plus communities and at present, the number of participating communities is over 70 due to its collaborative nature. Through its five iterations, many Wikipedia communities have been linked to each other and know about each other’s histories and culture etc. ‘Mourya Biswas, a Bengali wikimedian notes’, “Personally, organising WAM was a great deal of a learning experience as well with regard to how to go about organising an editathon with so many people contributing from across different parts of the world. I had hitherto very little experience on organising online editathons. A few tools were absolutely new to me. In the subsequent editathons that I have organised since then, I've learnt to use a few tools to coordinate, support and manage the editathon even more efficiently.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Similarly communication engagement is an effective step of Project Tiger as well. Organisers announce the project on India mailing list then approach communities via village pumps so that they are aware of when the project will commence. Communities remain engaged with the project till three months. The communication channels include social media, emails and phone-calls. Jury members regularly remain in touch with organisers. Editors also communicate regularly with recipients of hardware support. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Project Tiger, as a contest, needs collaborative efforts in order to be a successful engagement with the communities, and the emphasis was on regular communication and discussions that resulted in strengthening the community further.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We had Whatsapp groups with all the volunteers participating in the contest to strategise, resolve doubts, share ideas in order to create as many good quality articles as possible”, observes User:Parvathi Sridharan from Tamil Wiki community.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This contest/project not only saw engaging participation from existing and experienced volunteers, but also from many new ones. This contest has paved a way for new and enthusiastic people who were interested in contributing to Wikipedia. One way this happened is also through offline Wiki workshops conducted as part of outreach.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">“This contest was a good chance to show how people in India are improving the access to knowledge across India and to the world. Many communities which were unnoticed came out during this PT writing contest and showed their community strength.” notes User:Gnoeee, from the Malayalam community who had contributed to English and Malayalam Wikipedia during Project Tiger 1.0</p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Culture</h3>
<p>WAM encourages cultural exchange by mediating online connections between communities and helping them learn about unique aspects of their respective countries and languages. During this project, Asian communities generate articles/content on their local Wikipedias, and also have an opportunity to find their cultural interests and ways to understand other cultures.</p>
<p>As noted by Saliesh Patnaik, an Odia Wikipedian who is also the social media head for WAM, “This project also encourages cultural exchange within the community with the help of a month-long edit-a-thon which promotes the creation or improvement of the Wikipedia content about Asia except for their (the participant’s) own country.” </p>
<p dir="ltr">“Wikipedia Asian Month is the one of the first kinds of campaigns not just in Asia but in the entire movement to involve so many small communities in this wide level. That individually has allowed so many different communities to grow and help them to learn how to systematically and structurally work together. Project Tiger and other contests came [in the later stages] which really got communities involved. But when WAM started in 2015 it was the first contest where people participated internationally.” The editors’ enthusiasm towards WAM proves that they are interested in creating content across cultures and establishing their links with other non-Indian communities. </p>
<p>Just like WAM, Project Tiger also encourages cultural exchange and bridging cultural gaps. Through this project, Indic communities got a platform to connect with each other. During this contest, communities generate their own regional list regarding important articles for their local Wikipedias. Communities have the opportunity to contact other fellow Wikimedians from Indic languages. They talked to each other through existing groups to solve their issues which they faced during the contest. </p>
<p>During the training period for the winner and runner up community, there was a possibility to exchange their thoughts and ideas. Due to that on-ground activity, Wikimedians played their roles enthusiastically and got more motivated with other stories, experiences and cultural aspects like cuisine. This is the way cultural exchange happened via Project Tiger.</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<h3>Grant Process</h3>
<p>While projects under the Wikimedia movement are primarily run on the strength and interests of its volunteer community, there are specific aspects which require funding and support from collaborators such as the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). For major events, the Wikimedia project needs a grant, depending on time duration and objectives. Similarly, WAM, while not being a very high budget event, is supported by a <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid">rapid grant</a> from the foundation. This rapid grant supports the work on purchasing and sending postcards, certificates, T-shirts, stickers & pins, advertisements on social media (Facebook, Twitter), infrastructure (AirTable membership, G-Suite subscription, etc.), <a href="https://asianmonth.wiki/">domain</a>, and the time of volunteers who are engaged in this work. </p>
<p>For Project Tiger, CIS-A2K gets a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. Selected applicants from any Indic language get hardware support which covers chromebooks/laptops and internet connectivity. Apart from it, during the contest Amazon vouchers were also given to the participants from each community who got the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rank for all the three months. These prizes are fixed for every month. There are also prizes for an overall winner community, and a runner up, which is in the form of a training session after the writing contest. </p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Appreciation</h3>
<p dir="ltr">A token of appreciation is provided to participants, which is important to aid efforts. Under WAM, this appreciation is divided into two parts : Postcards & Certificates and Brand Ambassador. Postcards are given to those participants who created at least five articles about an Asian country. The postcards are sent by the same countries in appreciation of the contributors’ participation. This is a way to encourage new leadership and new editors. Certificates are also part of this appreciation, as a recognition of active participation and the importance of their work. As Aliva Sahoo, Odia Wikimedia, notes “When I wrote articles in 2016 I created a good number of articles. And that time I was happier because I got 4 or 5 postcards from different countries. My other community members also received postcards. That time I felt motivated to get postcards and I decided to create more articles next time and will collect more postcards. I think this kind of appreciation encourages volunteers and makes them happy.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="text-align: center;">The second form of appreciation is the Wikipedia Asian Month Ambassador. This is an honour from WAM to a Wikipedian who creates the most number of articles on their respective Wikipedia. In every iteration of WAM, ambassadors are chosen depending on the number and quality of contributions. By adding an element of competition, and using a title that does not suggest the same, the ambassador initiative plays a very important role in the event to enable more contributions. In the end, we have Wikipedians who are willing to receive other postcards by contributing 30-50 articles (relatively high quality according to our rules), which makes this event very successful and effective” Rupika Sharma, notes.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">In Project Tiger as well, as a token of appreciation to all the top performing participants, prizes were given to the top 3 editors who created the most number of articles from each community, every month in the 3 month contest. Appreciation was given in the form of a cash prize during the first iteration of the Project. After receiving a lot of feedback about this, gift vouchers are given in the second iteration instead of cash prizes.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Apart from this, merchandise such as stickers and t-shirts to other top contributors is also a practice that’s followed. The overall winner, runner up communities and few other top contributors and juries from remaining communities later attend a three day workshop as part of the Project Tiger community prize, on the topics of their preference. </p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Fountain tool</h3>
<p dir="ltr">The Fountain tool was developed for reviewing the articles of Wikipedia Asian Month, and is used only when the contests are running. “I made the first prototype during the first Wikipedia Asian Month in 2015. We, the jury members, were flooded with articles that needed to be evaluated fairly quickly and so I thought that I can automate 90% of the jury workflow” notes fountain tool developer Le Loy. In this tool, bytes and words are fixed according to the project. For example, in the Wikipedia Asia Month a minimum of 3000 bytes are fixed as per the criteria of evaluation for WAM. This is therefore a useful tool for the contests. It is a tool which helps a lot to collect statistics of specific projects on Wikipedia. After talking to Le Loy, we can reach the conclusion that the tool is not limited to a particular language, and it can be used for any kind of event on Wikipedia. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Project Tiger also uses the Fountain tool to review articles submitted in this contest. It was easy for the participants to submit the articles and also for the jury to pick up an unreviewed article and review it based on the number of bytes, or if the article was actually submitted in the time period mentioned in the contest rules and so on. This tool has definitely made the jury process more efficient and smooth.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<h3>Diversity and Bridging gaps</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Cultural diversity is an important aspect of the sustenance of the Wikimedia movement itself, and bridging different cultural gaps is an important aspect of this effort. </p>
<p dir="ltr">After checking all past statistics of WAM, we found that WAM focused on content related to Asia only but it didn't pay much attention to content by and about persons across diverse gender and sexual identities, including marginalised groups. Sailesh Patnaik & Rupika Shrama, WAM organiser notes that there have been some efforts in this area, saying “We work with more than 50 different language communities on Wikipedia, and have also collaborated with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red">Women in Red</a> to bridge the gender gap in our projects.” There is however a need for ongoing work in this space. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Project Tiger has its own strategy behind diversity and bridging gaps. Both events maintain their diversity as per required rules and areas. One of the major reasons why volunteers find a hindrance in dedicating time for Wikimedia and its projects is the lack of facilities like a laptop or even a proper internet connection. This is why laptops and internet stipends provided during the first phase of the contest have a monumental effect on the contest and also in contributions to not just Project Tiger, but also many other Wiki projects in general. Several volunteers contribute articles via mobile phones in spite of the difficult/complex editing environment. Without this support, there is a chance that Wikipedia can lose some of its most promising volunteers.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Project Tiger also tries to bridge a gender gap. For example, the criteria for hardware support also includes ensuring a certain percentage of women applicants are selected. The coordinators have also tried to specifically engage women participants during the contest. Before opening the applications for hardware support, PT core team set criteria for eligibility. On the other hand, one rule always highlighted that 33% women can get laptop or internet connectivity due to their past contribution. This is an effort to engage women in the Wikimedia movement. </p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<h3><span style="text-align: justify;">Limitations and Barriers </span></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Despite the success of these long running programmes, its true that there still remain some barriers and limitations, as illustrated below: </p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;">Wikipedia Asian Month</span></p>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">WAM has largely remained a stable programme, but it would be a good thing to see how new aspects could be introduced in the programme. The process is the same every year because after finishing the first iteration the core team didn’t take any feedback, suggestions or concerns from the individuals for the next step, which is a major barrier to growing and planning something new for the next level. As Odia Wikimedian Aliva Sahoo notes, “From 2016 to 2019, WAM was the same and there was nothing new, but I am not sure if during 2020, they changed something because I didn’t participate this year.” According to participant’s comments or WAM rules & guidelines changes in the structure could be introduced. “When the same project is happening again and again then the novelty will reduce. We should make some changes from time to time to engage the people” notes Punjabi Wikimedian, Satdeep Gill.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The project actively makes an effort in trying to work with more communities every year but also collaborate with other projects such as Women in Red, which is aimed at creating more content by and about women. WAM itself has not been able to promote women leaders and women content as well due to its design which focuses on promoting content. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Follow-up on receipt of appreciation postcards etc. should be done diligently.There have also been instances where appreciation postcards have been delayed or not sent which affects the motivations of contributors in engaging with the project further. A few contributors did not receive their appreciation from senders, which has led to some negativity. At least after two iterations of any project, contributors or Wiki projects demand for something new. For example, during the beginning of the project, participants got the Wikipedia Asian Month ambassador tags and that was an honour for them. But volunteers seem to be looking for a change and they want to look forward to the project. A Malayalm Wikimedian, Meenakshi Nandini, noted, “However the prizes are not getting to most of the participants, especially the WAM prizes. Even me also didn’t receive most of the event prizes. So we couldn’t tell the participants that you will definitely get these prizes. I won two times as a "Wikipedia Asian Ambassador". But is there any importance or benefit for that honor?”</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">During the WAM, the focus was only on article creation but not on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Content_assessment">quality of articles</a>. It is important therefore to accord more attention to the quality of the content being created, which would help in the long-term sustenance of the project and is better aligned with the larger objectives of the movement. </p>
</li></ul>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p>
<h3><span style="text-align: justify;">Project Tiger</span></h3>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Project Tiger happened only in two iterations, but has its limitations and challenges as well. The participants or volunteers who participated in Project Tiger had some concerns on the Google article lists. Contributors felt Google should suggest only those articles which are important for their Wikipedias as priority. The PT core team was not properly able to convince participants as to why the Google list is important and editors were also not fully aware of the same, which led to some mismatch in expectations from the project.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Due to hardware support and gift vouchers, most participants are motivated to contribute more, But on the other hand, it changes the whole process of contribution in the Wikimedia movement. Cash prizes or gift vouchers showed a less than satisfactory result, thereby leading to a rethinking of how best to motivate contributors.. But for a few editors hardware support and prizes are a lot. A few users who were editing from phones got laptops just because of the project which has helped their contributions. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The manner of addressing the gender gap in the project has also been a point of contention. The possibility is, some participants feel that women only get laptops or internet support due to their gender identity. The process of such quotas may be debatable going forward, and so a clear rationale and process may be developed to encourage participation by women and individuals across the spectrum of gender and sexual identities. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">One major concern from jury members was that participants did not work on quality but quantity. Reviewers and readers are facing problems with machine translated articles submitted during Project Tiger. The PT team tried to solve the issue of quality during the second iteration, but did not work well, and jury members faced the same difficulty this time as well. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">A common challenge noted by Satdeep Gill (for both projects) is that “Contributors focus mainly on increasing the article count and the maintenance work lags behind. We need to focus on this as well.”</p>
</li></ul>
<h3><strong><br /></strong>Learnings</h3>
<p>Both projects have had more than one iteration so far, and have managed to create interest and engagement within Indian language communities in working collaboratively and building content. They have also had a fair number of challenges and limitations as well, as illustrated by the interviews. For instance, there has been a difficulty in measuring the quality of articles, the way that quantity is tracked. So there is a need to develop metrics to capture and work on quality of content. A related point is with reference to a lack of capacity building within communities, which would enable them to collaborate and contribute better. There have also been some challenges with logistics, and ensuring that participants receive their prizes during Wikipedia Asian Month. This would need more communication and careful coordination of efforts. There is also a need to keep participants engaged over a long time, and repeating the same structure of the project every year may also lead to a lack of interest or innovation. The project actively makes an effort in trying to work with more communities every year but also collaborate with other projects such as Women in Red, which is aimed at creating more content by and about women. WAM itself has not been able to promote women leaders and women content as well due to its design which focuses on promoting content. The projects therefore need to work in a progressive manner, building on feedback from participants and adapting to the evolving needs and interests of the communities. </p>
<p>These difficulties are also faced by Project Tiger. Google should focus on lists according to the needs of communities, in discussion with the PT team.For example, the core team should track volunteers' contributions after getting the support because anyone can make 500 or 1000 edits for getting a laptop. The core team should find people from the communities who need this support and will contribute proactively. Project Tiger’s process transparency is appreciated, but with the same transparency the infrastructure distribution process should be different from now. Also it should encourage or discuss with communities about proactive women’s participation during the project. PT should run a Bridging Gender Gap campaign, where communities should play a role to engage women as organisers from each community and should make a strategy for the same. This project needs to work on a strategy for building and sustaining quality as well which is important for growth of Indic Wikipedias.</p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;">So, not every project is perfect, every project has some achievements and some limitations. Therefore, WAM and Project Tiger are also the same, it achieves its goals but also carries some failures. But there is a possibility to make changes to both projects.</span></p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Conclusion </h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Wikipedia Asian Month is an International project which started in 2015. It is a low budget project, and gives a common platform to Asian as well as Non-Asian communities to participate over the course of a month. When WAM started most of the communities were excited to do something for their languages, and this was a big initial motivation for the project. The communities want to continue with WAM because they feel like this is one of the projects which started at that time when communities wanted something to engage themselves with Wikipedias. Every year most of the communities participate in it for sure, although the people who work on the projects may differ. Project Tiger is a pilot project which is a three-month-long contest. This project provides an opportunity to communities to work together. After the success of the Indic languages contest [Project Tiger] in 2018, two more countries, (<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proyek_Saraswati/Kompetisi">Project Saraswati</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Project_GLOW/Project_Al-Ma%27refa">Project Al-Ma'refa</a>), also organised a similar project under different names. Due to Project Tiger, thousands of articles were created or developed by volunteers about important, most searched for topics suggested by Google, as well as those important to respective Indic language Wikipedias. Infra-structure support pays attention to volunteers' hard work and encourages them to work to share free knowledge. These projects therefore go a long way in enriching local language content, and keeping volunteer communities interested and engaged with their respective Wikipedias. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">You may also read the full report on Wikimedia Meta-Wiki<a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:A_Comparative_Analysis_of_Article_Creation_Campaigns_on_Wikipedia"> here. </a></p>
<p><strong><br /><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india-part-ii'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-comparative-study-of-wikimedia-article-creation-campaigns-in-india-part-ii</a>
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No publishersneha-ppA2K ResearchAccess to Knowledge2021-06-11T10:54:37ZBlog Entry