Centre for Internet and Society

Re-licensing Sessions with Authors and Organisations

subodh — 2019-08-05T16:12:42Z

In collaboration with Marathi community, CIS-A2K is getting connected with various authors and organisations willing to re-license their content under CC-By-SA. A2K is facilitating the OTRS process Commons for re-licensing as well as digitisation of the content. The team of trained Wikimedians at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal, District Pune has taken the responsibility of digitising the books and further uploads in Wikimedia projects.

See the information posted on Wikipedia page here

In July, CIS-A2K facilitated the OTRS process of two organisations. Jnana Prabodhini and Saptahik Vivek Hindustan Prakashan Sanstha have released their 6 books and 8 volumes of encyclopedias respectively in CC-By-SA. As the organisations have solely published these books by sponsoring the writers, editors and designers, the authorised signatory of the organisation has to complete the OTRS process. The simple 'How to do' step by step manual was developed to facilitate this process. This process will be replicated by other organisations in near future. These books are valuable & reliable references in Marathi literature.

CIS-A2K conducted three sessions with authors also. In the field of rural development in Maharashtra, thoughts of Late S. G. Majgaonkar are highly regarded. His son Dhananjay Majgaonkar who holds the copyright for his books, completed the OTRS process and released 3 books in CC-By-SA. The books are now on Commons as well as Wikisource project.

Content donation sessions were conducted with Ila Dalwai, daughter of social reformer & writer Late Hamid Dalwai, thinker & writer Hari Narake and grand daughter of Marathi thinker & writer Late Narahar Kurundkar. These persons handed over the books to CIS-A2K for further process. The digitisation of the books has been started at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal.

The links of books uploaded on Commons are given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-july-31-2019-re-licensing-sessions-with-authors-and-organisations

Rejuvenating India’s Rivers the Wiki Way

subodh — 2019-04-01T13:18:33Z

Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an organisation working on rejuvenation of rivers in India, has began documentation of rivers on Wiki, especially to draw attention to and mitigate the crisis of toxic deposits facing more than 40 rivers in India. The work was started by Jal Biradari, TBS’s Maharashtra based group, in Sangli district with the help of the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team of CIS. Here is the report from the first pilot workshop conducted by CIS-A2K during 22-25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh Ashram, in Alwar, Rajasthan.

Events details on Wikimedia meta page

The Workshop

As per a Government of India report 42 rivers in India are polluted with toxic heavy metal deposits in them. To mitigate this crisis Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an organization working on rejuvenation of rivers in India began documentation of rivers on Wiki. The work was started by TBS’s Maharashtra based group Jal Biradari in Sangli district with the help of the Access to Knowledge team of CIS (CIS-A2K).

Realizing the potential of the project TBS decided to integrate this as training module in their capacity building workshops conducted at Bhikampura in Rajasthan. The first pilot workshop was conducted by CIS-A2K during 22-25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh Ashram, Bhikampura, Alwar in Rajasthan for 34 participants from eight states of India. Dr. Rajendra Singh, Maulik Sisodiya and Subodh Kulkarni, CIS-A2K were the facilitators. The objectives behind organizing the workshop was to build an open knowledge resource on water related issues in all Indian languages, document the river basins of India, train volunteers working in the sector to work in Wikimedia projects, open street mapping exercises and photo walks along the river and post free content on Commons and Wikisource projects.

The documentation structure for river basin was decided through participatory process. The participants were divided into 6 groups for working on 6 river basins of Arvari district. The resource material available with TBS in the form of maps, reports, training booklets was used to prepare the schematic maps of each river basin. The water bodies such as ponds, manmade structures like dams were also listed.


Activists during the workshop conducted by TBS in Alwar, Rajasthan in December 2018

After this pre-work, the training on Wikipedia editing started. The participants worked in sandboxes first on their articles. The manual of style, giving offline and online references and categorisation were discussed and practiced on sandboxes. The Commons session started with elaborate discussion on copyrights, licenses and encyclopedic content. The images were uploaded on Commons and used in the articles. The articles in the sandboxes were presented by each working group. Taking into consideration various suggestions, appropriate modifications were done. The finished new articles and the additional content into existing articles were then moved in the main namespace of respective language Wikipedia. TBS has decided to re-license 30 books and training material on river in CC-BY-SA. Participants who attended the workshop have started contributing in various languages.

Participants' Feedback

“Rivers are essential for existence of life in land. Keeping its sanctity and health is very important. The Wikimedia workshop gave an insight on river pollution issues and the importance of reviving them. As Wikipedia is an open platform it can create a larger impact by reaching out to the society.” - Mrityunjay1010

“The wiki-workshop on "Rivers on Wiki" has been my maiden experience in the context of generalizing the knowledge for common good. The workshop gave me a lens to see the usage of Wikipedia in regional languages as a medium for environmental consciousness building as well as conservation. Wikipedia as a means for social audit was also another enriching experience in that workshop.” - Simantabharati

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-rejuvenating-indias-rivers-the-wiki-way

Indic Wikisource Speak: Sushant Savla

jayanta — 2019-04-17T20:09:09Z

Future is bright -- Sushant Savla (User:Sushant_savla) from Gujarati Wikisource community, share his experience & journey.

CIS : Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?Dr Hrishikesh Sen at IWCC2018

Sushant Savla: Sushant Savla (User Name: Sushant_savla) I joined Wikimedia Movement in around 2008. I am associated with Gujarati Wikipedia, Gujarati WikiSource, Graphics Lab on Commons (Illustrations SVG)

CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute to your language Wikisource?

Sushant Savla: We take up a book and work on it till it completes. AS we have limited members and all are having good understanding all work on same project and complete it to the level of Validation. A book is chosen, Scanning is done, If not copyright free OTRS is executed, Index is prepared, OCR is done, Page number allotment is kept on Discussion page of Index page and as per the availability of time the Users take up pages and proofreading starts, Experienced Librarians or Manager of the project carries out validation simultaneously. While this work goes on other team parallely stats scanning other book for next project.

CIS : How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?

Sushant Savla: In the small commmunity of ours all knows about wikisource. However among common people awareness is low.

CIS : We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?

Sushant Savla: Major challenge now is technical support, in conversion of PDF, mobi etc.The Second challenge is Outreach. The third challenge is lack of time in arranging Contest etc. More technical , automated result giving systems are required to hold competition on grand level. The delay in getting OTRS approved is another challenges. Till the time OTRS is approved the enthusiasm of a doner writter fuses off. Speedy process is required. OTRS approver should have time limit.

CIS : What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.

Sushant Savla: As such nothing. But a letter of appreciation sort of thing to author would help. we can print that in certificate format and give them.

CIS : How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?

Sushant Savla: Future is bright, Person Goals : more books , more material, More contributors, Keeping them live on project. Need to motivate users by some interesting events.In wikiconference please increase the number of participants.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-sushant-savla

Indic Wikisource speak : Shubha

jayanta — 2019-04-25T15:30:49Z

As the texts are in the searchable format, many students and research scholars can make use of Wikisource. As we all know, Samskrit is a treasure trove of knowledge. There are many such books that can be uploaded and utilised by the public. For this, we are putting effort to upload more and more books and make our Wikisource a rich one. -- Shubha, a Samskrit Wiki-librarian share her experience

CIS :Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?

Shubha: I am Shubha (user id – same) working as a coordinator for wiki wing of Samskrita Bharati, Bengaluru. I joined Wikimedia movement in July 2011. For the first five years we concentrated on Wikipedia project. Now we are concentrating on wikisource. I personally have worked on sa Wikipedia, sa wikiquote and sa wikisource.

CIS: What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute on your language Wikisource?

Shubha: There are many old books in Samskrit language. We search for pdf files of old books and upload them in wikicommons. Then we do editing on Wikisource. We are having the facility of scanning the books also. Currently, keeping the student group in our mind, we have collected the Samskrit syllabus in various universities of Karnataka. Made a list of the curriculum related books , collected and uploaded the pdf files so that it will be useful for the students.

CIS:How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?

Shubha: Awareness about Samskrit Wikisource can be termed as less. We need to reach the people and create awareness in a big way. So keeping this in mind, we have conducted exhibitions in various Samskrit conventions as well as annual day celebrations in universities. These were useful for the public as well as students. We were successful in conducting a couple of workshops in colleges also.

Q:What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.

Shubha : OCR :- There are many books in Samskrit like dictionaries, Puranas where the text is divided into 2 columns. OCR tool available in the Wikisource cannot perform this task in the correct manner. So updated ocr tool will be a big boon for us. This will help us to upload more such books.

Technical support :- Samskrit wikisourcers are not having enough exposure to technical knowledge. Wikisource tools and gadgets are growing day by day. If we get systematic assistance in this regard, we will be able to increase our efficiency.

Creating awareness :- Awareness can be created in 3 levels. Level one will be an introductory workshop that can be conducted in various educational institutions about the use of wiki. Second level will be to approach student group and teach them the editing the wikisource. Third level will be to contact the Samskrit teachers or lecturers for the proof reading task as it requires Samskrit knowledge.

CIS: How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?

Shubha: As the texts are in the searchable format, many students and research scholars can make use of Wikisource. As we all know, Samskrit is a treasure trove of knowledge. There are many such books that can be uploaded and utilised by the public. For this, we are putting effort to upload more and more books and make our Wikisource a rich one.

CIS: Please share one remarkable work which is available at your domain and you had contributed.

Shubha : Recently, we have uploaded a book named Alankaramanihara, which deals with the figure of speech. This book was published long back and is not in the print now. We happened to come across this and were successful in uploading all the 4 volumes of this book. Now this is available in the Wikisource in the transcluded form.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-shubha

Indic Wikisource speak : Ajit Kumar Tiwari

jayanta — 2019-04-17T20:07:20Z

"Wikisource is going to be as important as Wikipedia because it addresses the issues of citations and references inherently. I will make it as my key pedagogical tool to educate my students and make them a part of this great movement." - Hindi Wiki-librarian Ajit Kumar Tiwari ( अजीत कुमार तिवारी ) share his experience about Hindi Wikisource which approved by Language committee of Wikimedia Foundation Inc , US for separate domain on February 2019.

CIS :Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?

Ajit : I joined the movement in 2012 as a Wikipedian. I am involved in Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wikidata.

CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute on your language Wikisource?

Ajit : I usually upload a book and try to indulge as many editors as possible and distribute the works like header & footer and proofreading to concerned editors.

CIS :How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?

Ajit : Its still in an early state but awareness is spreading rapidly since November 2018. I hope till the end of this year, wikisource will be the next best project in Hindi after Wikipedia.

CIS :We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?

Ajit : Better knowledge and understandings of the copyright acts, proofreading tools and lowering technical gap in the community.

CIS :What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to aurtors or publishers.

Ajit : Copyright is the key concern, however making authors and publishers understand the ethos of Wikisource or free knowledge access is even bigger challenge.

CIS : How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?

Ajit : Wikisource is going to be as important as Wikipedia because it addresses the issues of citations and references inherently. I will make it as my key pedagogical tool to educate my students and make them a part of this great movement.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-ajit-kumar-tiwari

CIS-A2K proposal to Wikimedia Foundation for 2019-2020

Ananth — 2019-04-15T08:05:23Z

The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) has submitted its proposal form for the year 2019 - 2020 to the Wikimedia Foundation. CIS thanks all community members who gave valuable suggestions and inputs for drafting this proposal.

Grants:APG/Proposals/2018-2019 round 2/The Centre for Internet and Society/Proposal form

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation registered in India that works in different areas such as accessibility, openness, internet governance, telecom, research, etc. The organisation's official website may be seen at cis-india.org. Annual reports of the Centre for Internet and Society may be seen here.

The Access to Knowledge (A2K) program of CIS^[2] is dedicated to supporting and serving Indian Wikimedia projects and the communities. In the last few years, CIS-A2K has worked towards creating sustainable programs and building community capacity. The primary objectives of CIS-A2K are:

Supporting and serving the Indian Wikimedia communities in all possible ways.
Building institutional partnerships.

Bringing more content under free license
Designing and executing projects with community participation.
Strengthening the Wikimedia volunteers.
Fostering and enabling an appropriate legal and technological ecosystem.

In 2018–2019 CIS-A2K worked with Kannada, Marathi, Odia, and Telugu communities as Focused Language Area, and Punjabi Wikisource as a Focused Project Area. Some of the major events conducted by CIS-A2K in last 1 year were:

Train the Trainer
MediaWiki Training
Advanced Wikidata Training
Wikisource workshop (Patiala, Ahmedabad, Bangalore)
Wikigraphists Bootcamp
TWLCon
Women's TTT
Wiki Women for Women Wellbeing (WWWW)

CIS-A2K is also working with like-minded organisations and institutions such as Christ University, Bangalore, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation, Vigyan Ashram, Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Solapur University, Odisha state government etc to improve content on different Wikimedia projects and to bring more content to the projects.

Proposal overview

1. Please provide a brief description of your organisation's work in the upcoming funding period.
The Centre for Internet and Society – Access to Knowledge is submitting the work-plan for the period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020. Our plans and programs may be divided into the following verticals:

in Content Enrichment, we are proposing activities like edit-a-thons, Wikisource proofread and validation campaign, Wikidata label-a-thons and data-thons, photowalks etc. We'll also work with like-minded institutions and organisations to conduct thematic edit-a-thons or similar activities that will help to improve content on different Indic Wikimedia projects;
in Skill Development Initiatives, we are proposing to conduct activities like Zonal Wiki workshops, MediaWiki Training, and Wikidata workshop etc. We will also conduct zonal and regional workshops on different Wikimedia projects.
in Partnership, we will continue our work with the existing partners, and we'll build new partneships. We are proposing activities like outreach, awareness sessions, and workshops for content donation, increasing awareness about the Wiki movement and bridging gender gap;
in Leadership, we are proposing activities like Train-the-Trainer, Wikisource Conference, Wikimedia Summit India, Intensive Personal Wiki Training, supporting Indic Wikimedians through request page etc.

In this work-plan year, CIS-A2K will continue its transition from Focused Language Area (FLA) to Focused Project Area (FPA).

Focused Language Area: Focused Language Area is an approach of CIS-A2K, where we work with a community with all its projects and activities. In other words, CIS-A2K supports all wiki-activities of a particular language community. So far Kannada, Konkani, Odia, Marathi, Tulu, Telugu have been our FLAs.
Focused Project Area: Focused Project Area or FPA is an approach of CIS-A2K introduced in 2018–2019 work-plan where CIS-A2K mainly focuses on projects. In 2018–2019 CIS-A2K collaborated with Punjabi Wikimedians, and our focused projects for Punjabi Wikimedians were Punjabi mostly Wikisource and Institutional Partnership. In the same year, we increased our support towards Wikisource communities in India, appointed a Wikisource project advisor, and conducted and supported several Wikisource project events. In November 2018, we conducted a national-level Wikisource consultation.

We'll plan programs and activities accordingly keeping (Wikipedia) and Wikisource and Wikidata in mind. We will focus on these two projects as based on our interaction with Indian Wikimedia community members, we have found several Indic Wikimedia communities want further support and focus on these projects. CIS-A2K earlier put some effort to support these projects, and this work-plan year we will put more effort.

CIS-A2K will continue working towards creating an inclusive Wiki atmosphere in the Indian subcontinent. With an emphasis on creating safe spaces, promoting gender gap bridging activities A2K team would like to work with all the Indian communities, projects and individuals with interesting ideas and for the overall development of Wikimedia movement. Bridging gender gap will remain as a primary focus of CIS-A2K. We'll try to ensure at least 25% of female participants in all the events conducted by CIS-A2K. We'll conduct a quarterly audit, and present the report in our newsletters.

Read the full proposal on Wikipedia page

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ananth-subray-april-15-2019-cis-a2k-proposal-to-wikimedia-foundation-for-2019-2020

Indic Wikisource Speak: Dr. Hrishikes Sen

jayanta — 2019-04-26T06:42:48Z

There are plenty of people engaged in digitising Bengali books. Plenty of pirated digitised books are available online. We need to tap into that catchment area. I think, if we can prepare high-grade pdf versions of our completed works and spread those to various online non-wiki reader communities, we are likely to get good contributors. -- User:Hrishikes from English and Bengali Wikisource community, share his journey.

CIS : Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?

Hrishikes: Joined in March, 2007. In Wikisource since 2012.

CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute to your language Wikisource?

Hrishikes: Method: I work slowly; try to give meticulous attention. Don't skip pages usually. Work page-by-page upto the last, even if a page is problematic. Come back to previously worked pages time and again, and correct any mistake.

CIS : How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?

Hrishikes: Awareness is present in the community, but there is disinclination to work in Wikisource, because of templates and other formatting issues.

CIS : We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?

Hrishikes: There are plenty of people engaged in digitising Bengali books. Plenty of pirated digitised books are available online. We need to tap into that catchment area. I think, if we can prepare high-grade pdf versions of our completed works and spread those to various online non-wiki reader communities, we are likely to get good contributors.

CIS : What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.

Hrishikes: I like this project. Main issue is getting the time: extracting time from real life commitments. I have not been active in author/publisher liaison.

CIS : How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?

Hrishikes:The main problem is: everybody wants to download books and read them offline. Hardly anyone wants to read online. That attitude is going to stay. So we need to concentrate on giving this to the customers. Books downloaded from our site (transcribed books, not scans) should be of very high quality. If we can achieve this, the future may be good.

CIS : Please share one remarkable work which is available at your domain and you had contributed.

Hrishikes: There are many more ,

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/Indic%20Wikisource%20Speak%20Dr%20Hrishikes%20Sen

Nichole Saad from the Wikimedia Foundation visits Christ University

manasarao — 2017-12-17T19:01:04Z

Nichole Saad, Program Manager, Wikipedia Education Program, Wikimedia Foundation visited Christ University, Bengaluru to conduct a periodic review of the Wikipedia Education Program. The meeting was conducted along with CIS-A2K and Department of Language faculty: Dr. Mallika Krishnaswami, Dr. K.A. Sebastian, Dr. Rathi and Dr. Shivaprasad.

The review kicked off with an introduction to Ms. Saad regarding the work that has been going on at the University. Registrar, Dr. Anil Pinto addressed the gathering of faculty of the Department of Languages and CIS-A2K team members. Student representative Shamama was also present.

Upon giving an introduction to the University itself, Dr. Pinto spoke about the genesis of the Program which was, at its heart, a loss of interest in languages. He spoke of the various ways in which the program has engaged with language: promoting science in regional language, publishing Christ University books on Wikisource, digitising old/ rare books, in addition to editing of articles, creating articles and creating articles in their specialities. On the future of the program, he felt that moving ahead to asking "faculty member in other disciplines if they can accept assignments submitted in languages other than English(despite the fact that the medium of instruction is English)” would be a good way forward. Dr. Pinto continued, “Wikipedia is the best tool available to us to go digital. We are happy that Wikipedia builds in the process and our students also learn.” He said that there were also plans to get all PhD students to go through a Wikipedia workshop to create knowledge specific to their subject.

Speaking next, Tanveer, Program Manager, CIS-A2K, expressed his gratitude to Christ University for enabling CIS-A2K to conduct the Wikipedia Education program at the University. He pointed out that even before the WMF started thinking about the New Readers program, CIS-A2K had engaging students at Christ University who had not previously engaged with Wikipedia. This marked a shifting away from digital learning to critical thinking in knowledge production and creation.

Just as in other WEP programs, there has been an inclination towards a specific topic. For example, Pune University has been working on gender. When this all comes together, it gives a composite view of knowledge production in indian language. There is also the need to escalate the discussion to a core academic level- a fruitful engagement mode with different points of view.

CIS-A2K’s WEP interventions have also been offering certificate courses for students as well as internships in order to understand a) the work their peers have done and b) the value addition they can do. This is exciting because this results in a large outreach and lends to learn and thinking on our feet constantly. As with every intervention, there are challenges that astonish that we need to think about and integrate into our work. In conclusion, he pointed out that the WEP at Christ is a challenge that CIS-A2K relishes.

The attendees further discussed the need to not only keep the community abreast of WEP activities but to also acknowledge and understand the feeling of ownership that comes with working on Wikimedia projects. Another commendable feature of the WEP at Christ remains the fact that students take on the role of campus ambassadors. The outcomes of the program have been documented in the Kannada media with a paper presentation as well. The attendees discussed possible research outputs as well.

Finally, Ms. Saad spoke of the importance of sharing wisdom and experiences in review meetings like these. She said that the focus of the Wikimedia movement is to go to places where people don’t have access and go to marginalised communities and make education accessible to them. This has the potential to change people’s lives as they will get access to information and skills to navigate a digitally literate world. Ms. Saad also spoke about using Wikimedia projects in classrooms. She said, “it can’t happen overnight, can’t become familiar with it right away or comfortable with it. However with pioneers like Christ University in this space, who areopen minded to it, the impact is greater than just number and statistics."

During the later sessions, Ms. Saad conducted activities that enabled students to ponder the following questions:

how can technology enrich the learning of students in India?
what are WEP challenges in India
what are some of the improvements you would need to make WEP better?

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/nichole-saad-from-the-wikimedia-foundation-visits-christ-university

Kannada Wikipedia Orientation Workshop at IISc, Bengaluru

Gopalakrishna A — 2017-12-19T16:16:29Z

A Kannada Wikipedia orientation workshop was held at the Entrepreneurship Centre, SID, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru on 26 November, 2017. The day long event was aimed at adding content to Kannada Wikimedia projects on topics such as ecology, environment, wildlife and sciences of Karnataka. The event was organised by Gubbi Labs in conjunction with CIS-A2K. Gubbi Labs is a research collective and social collective run by environmental scientists. The event was attended was attended by 8 participants of which one member was female.

The participants created six articles and expanded one article. The impact of this workshop was the fact that participants were made aware of the importance of open access data. It helped initiate another similar workshop in Mysuru. Upon sharing the idea for projects like Wiki Loves Butterfly Idea, a participant was interested in starting a project titled 'Wiki Loves Spiders'. We are hoping to take this project forward on Kannada Wikipedia.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/kannada-wikipedia-orientation-workshop-at-iisc-bengaluru

Marathi Wikipedia - Vishwakosh Workshop for Science writers in IUCAA, Pune

manasarao — 2017-12-20T02:42:39Z

A day-long workshop was organised for science writers at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-University_Centre_for_Astronomy_and_Astrophysics Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics], Pune on 7 October, 2017. Eminent astrophysicist-mathematician couple en:Jayant Narlikar|Jayant^[+] and en:Mangala Narlikar|Mangala Narlikar^[+] , and renowned ecologist en:Madhav Gadgil|Madhav Gadgil^[+] were among the dignitaries present at the event.

The workshop was planned in three sessions. Presentations and discussions were conducted in first session, while second session was focused on actual editing demonstrations on Wikipedia. In the same session the new websites based on different subjects developed by Marathi Vishwakosh were presented. The process of content contribution in text, images, audio and video forms was explained in this session. The third session was to explore networking with Dyanmandals formed by :en:Marathi Vishwakosh|Marathi Vishwakosh Nirmiti Mandal^[+] . Insisting the expertise of invited authors to contribute the articles in their own chosen fields in a well-structured format, this session will not only train the authors in content generation but also make them understand the expectations of laymen and common readers.

The mete page of the event is here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune

Post More Articles on Kannada Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:38:06Z

The article was published in Indian Express, Mangaluru edition on December 12, 2015. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was quoted. A scanned version of the article is given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/post-more-articles-on-kannada-wikipedia

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Prajavani

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:40:23Z

The article was published in Prajavani Mangal on December 11, 2015. A scanned version of the article is given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-prajavani-mangal

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Udayavani Coverage

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:36:53Z

The article was published in Udayavani on December 7, 2015. A scanned version of the article is below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-udayavani-coverage

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon in Mangalore: Udayavani

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:36:24Z

The article was published in Udayavani on December 11, 2015. A scanned version of the article is given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-in-mangalore-udayavani

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Vijaya Karnataka

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:35:13Z

The article was published in Vijaya Karnataka on December 11, 2015. A scanned version of the article is below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-vijaya-karnataka