Centre for Internet and Society

Wikipedia workshop in the theme of “Sau Dhuni Teen” in Pune University

Abhinav Garule — 2016-06-18T18:08:36Z

A two-day Wikipedia workshop was organised in the Srimati Savitribai Phule Pune University on the 20th August 2015. The workshop was focused on enriching Wikipedia with 100 articles related to notable Indian women under the scope of the “Sau Dhuni Teen” project.

To begin with, we announced it in the Marathi Wikipedia village pump prior to the workshop inviting Wikipedians to join. The primary goal of the project was to to introduce Wikipedia as an encyclopaedia for research and a concept to new editors, to promote Marathi Wikipedia and promote the use of Indian languages in Wikipedia.This workshop provided a platform to have an open interaction within the editors, existing as well as new. Interestingly, there was a male:female ratio of 1:10 among the new participants out of which five edited Wikipedia before coming there. Six new accounts were created on that day. Each of the participants created at least one new article which resulted creation of 15 new articles where 28 articles in English, Bangla and Hindi Wikipedias were edited totally. As the participants were new, learning typing using Wikipedia’s native Marathi input method “Aksharantaran” was slightly difficult for some where some found the Google’s input easier. Unavailability of sandboxes (user subpages where users work on a draft Wikipedia article until it is fully ready to be published) in Marathi Wikipedia was a concern as many editors were unsure if their article might be changed and/or deleted during the time when they were editing. During the workshop one good quality article was created and the second one was in progress by the end of the second day. We helped the editors to refer to the existing good quality articles for understanding how to write one.

We are planning to to engage with the participating new editors once or twice in a quarter. The event is being organised in collaboration with Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education (CILHE).

More details of the workshop could be found in the Meta event page.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-workshop-in-the-theme-of-201csou-dhuni-teen201d-in-pune-university

Talamaddale on August 23

praskrishna — 2015-09-20T15:57:16Z

A talamaddale ‘Karna Chedana’ and ‘Shalya Nirgamana’ will be organised at Abhisheka mandira on the premises of Manjunatha temple at Kadri on August 23 at 2.30 p.m. Yakshagana playback singers Balipa Narayana Bhagawatha and Puttige Raghurama Holla will take part.

Workshop

A three-day workshop on writing for Tulu Wikipedia began at Ramakrishna Pre-University College and Ramakrishna College here on Friday. Speaking on the occasion U.B. Pavanaja, Programme Officer, Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru, and a Wikipedia representative said that if a language was to sustain it should in use continuously and all information should be available in that language. Tulu also should be kept alive using modern tools of technology.

Read the original coverage published by the Hindu on August 16, 2015 here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-hindu-august-23-2015-talamaddale-on-august-23

Seminar on "Empowering Marathi Schools", Pune

garule — 2016-06-18T17:59:29Z

A full day seminar is scheduled to be organised to address the issue of the gradual decline of Marathi schools in Maharashtra. CIS-A2K member Abhinav Garule will be attending the event to share how teachers could encourage students to contribute to Marathi Wikipedia.

This day long seminar is organised by Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan, Mumbai

Organiser's Agenda: Day by day number of students in Marathi Schools is decreasing. Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan (यशवंतराव चव्हाण प्रतिष्ठान) and Marathi Shala Tikavalya Pahijet (Facebook Group) have planned to organise this seminar to discuss about addressing these issues. Former Director of Education of the Government of Maharashtra has been invited to chair the seminar and share learning that could help solve problems of the Marathi schools. Abhinav is planning to share how the teachers could use Wikipedia as a learning tool and encourage their students to edit and learn about various topics of interest.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/seminar-on-empowering-marathi-schools-pune

Access to Knowledge Bulletin — December 2012

praskrishna — 2013-01-10T13:33:41Z

This is the fourth Access to Knowledge newsletter from the CIS team in Delhi! During the month of December we had organised the Marathi wiki workshop, a workshop at NMAIT in Karnataka and a workshop at SRM University in Chennai.

Beginning from September 1, 2012, Wikimedia Foundation has awarded CIS a two-year grant of upto INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. The Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program has become the Access to Knowledge (A2K) program of the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS). In this issue we bring you updates from the Marathi wiki community and workshops organised in NMAIT in Karnataka and SRM University in Chennai.

Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications at http://bit.ly/TOcXId.

CIS Office in Delhi

The A2K team consists of three members: Nitika Tandon, Subhashish Panigrahi and Noopur Raval.

Education Program

Marathi Wiki Workshop at TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, December 8, 2012). Organised as part of the Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society’s initiative of focusing on Indian languages. Nitika Tandon participated in the event.

Workshops Organised by CIS:

Wikipedia Workshop at NMAIT (NMAIT, Karkala Taluk, Karnataka December 21, 2012, co-organised in association with Metawings Institute). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.
Wikipedia Workshop at SRM (SRM University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, December 17, 2012, co-organised in association with Metawings Institute). Noopur Raval participated in the event.

Media Coverage

A Report of Odia Wikipedia Workshop at IIT, Kharagpur (Samaja, Odia daily, Kolkata edition, December 3, 2012).

# Blog Entries

Non Unicode ISCII Text Can be Converted to Unicode Now! (by Subhashish Panigrahi, December 19, 2012).
New Avenues: Media Wiki Groups (by Noopur Raval, December 28, 2012).

Video

Wikipedia: State of Tech — A Talk by Erik Moeller (CIS, Bangalore, November 12, 2012). Erik Moeller, Vice President of Engineering and Product Development at the Wikimedia Foundation gave a talk.

About CIS

CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programs such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom.

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.

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*Support Us*

Please help us defend consumer / 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.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/access-to-knowledge-bulletin-december-2012

Bhuvana Meenakshi elected Mozilla Rep for July 2019

Admin — 2019-09-25T16:33:55Z

Bhuvana Meenakshi was selected as a Rep of the Month (July 2019) by Mozilla for my active contributions.

Reps are community coordinators interested in:

finding and connecting new talent with Mozilla projects they are contributing to
developing communities on a functional or local level
supporting local communities and Mozilla to have an effective and decentralized environment for contribution
creating collaborations with adjacent communities to spread Mozilla’s mission and expand Mozilla’s outreach in the open source ecosystem
collecting local knowledge from Mozilla communities to inform and inspire Mozilla’s strategy, activities and priorities

How is the Rep of the Month nominated?

Every Rep can be nominated by any Reps Mentor to receive this recognition. Therefore it's possible to nominate other Reps, not just the mentor's mentees. This nomination is meant as a recognition for outstanding contributions to Mozilla through the Reps program. Mentors are encouraged to nominate any Reps that have stood out in the past month.

For more see here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/bhuvana-meenakshi-elected-mozilla-rep-for-july-2019-1

Mini MediaWiki Training Theni

Ananth — 2019-02-13T02:34:40Z

CIS-A2k is trying to strengthen the MediaWiki movement in India, and over the last six months, the team has collaborated with different Indian Wikimedians and started a project called Indic-TechCom.

Indic-TechCom provides technical support to the Indic Wikimedia community and as of now has supported community members in Indic OCR and Indic Wikisource stats.

To increase the awareness on MediaWiki, Indic TechCom members and CIS-A2K decided to reach out to students with the Computer science background and help them understand how to contribute on MediaWiki. As a pilot project, we reached out to Nadar Saraswathi College of Engineering and Technology and organised a two-day long Mini MediaWiki training for the students on 22nd and 23rd of January 2019.

As part of the training, On Day 1, students were explained about MediaWiki and were introduced to Git, GitHub, Phabricator and Gerrit. We helped them to install MediaWiki software on their system and also helped them to understand the structure of MediaWiki.

In the second day, students were introduced to the extensions and skins, understanding the structure of extension and special pages. We also taught them how to submit patches through Gerrit.

This training had a group of 20 students and 2 faculty members who were supporting the students and guiding them in their native language. The first day of the event started slowly as students were lacking in having the knowledge of Wikimedia and its structure. After setting up the relation of the Wikimedia platform the students were able to understand the use and benefits of MediaWiki. Then the installation of MediaWiki and hosting of own MediaWiki server was done. Seven students were successfully able to install and play with Localsettings.php to get the grip of their sites.

At the end of the sessions, two[1][2] students were able to submit the patch to Gerrit and it was approved by Volker_E (Sr. User Experience Engineer, Wikimedia Foundation).

[1]. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214470

[2]. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214468

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mini-mediawiki-training-theni

Goa University students update ‘Goa’ Marathi articles on Wikipedia

Admin — 2019-02-22T02:27:14Z

Faculty and students of Goa University’s Marathi department have updated 164 Marathi articles on Wikipedia related to Goa recently.

The article was published in the Times of India on February 20, 2019.

They have also added information related to the state focused on freedom fighters, Marathi literature and cultural heritage, tourism, biodiversity and the environment.

The two-day effort was carried out under the supervision of Subodh Kulkarni from the Centre for Internet and Society, the Indian partner of the Wikimedia Foundation.

The history of Goan villages collected by students was uploaded on Wikipedia in Marathi Devanagari Unicode. They also participated in #1Lib1Ref campaign supported by Wikipedia Library and uploaded new articles and 25 photos.

Other than editing the 164 Marathi articles, the faculty and students also edited reference for articles on Wikipedia and contributed to important facts about Goa.

Kulkarni served as the resource person for the session, while director of digital learning and initiative at Goa University Prof Ramrao Wagh, head of department of Hindi Vrushali Mandrekar; librarian at GU library Gopakumar, head of department of Marathi Sunita Umraskar, and coordinator of the workshop Vinay Madgaonkar, oversaw the effort.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/times-of-india-february-20-2019-goa-university-students-update-goa-marathi-articles-on-wikipedia

Wikimedia Summit India 2019

Admin — 2019-03-03T05:31:35Z

CIS-A2K team is organizing a two-day Wikimedia Summit event for the participants taking part in the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin.

Wikimedia Summit India 2019 is an national-level event which intends to prepare representatives of various user groups, affliates, committees, groups, and teams associated to Wikimedia foundation from India who are going to attend in Wikimedia Summit 2019 and helping them understand about Movement Strategy process.

The Wikimedia Summit 2019 (WMSummit 19) will be designed along the needs and status of the Movement Strategy Process and its Working Groups, as well as the participants’ input. The 2019 event will be an important milestone of the Movement Strategy Process.

Wikimedia Summit India 2019 will serve following goals:

Helping participants understand Ongoing phase in movement strategy process: Some of the participants are participating in Movement strategy process' ongoing phase in different capacities, while others might not have a good understanding about it. This conference aims to improve understanding about strategy process especially regarding 9 strategy Working groups and their scoping.
Preparation for WMSummit 19: The Summit will be an occasion where the affiliates’ and WMF’s leadership will come together to check in on the broader direction of the Strategy Process, with the opportunity to reinforce their co-ownership in this process. All Working Groups will have reached the point in their work where they prepare to draft and discuss first recommendations within their thematic area. From Indian Wikimedia movement's perspective, this offers them an opportunity to share their experience in different thematic areas of strategy process and help the broader movement strategy to have different perspectives. Also, this helps Indian Wikimedia movement to utilize experiences and learnings from different areas of Wikimedia movement and utilize them to grow the movement in India exponantially. Wikimedia Summit India 2019 also aims on gathering the collective and diverse experiences and learnings of Indian Wikimedia movement and understand where they can help in movement strategy process.

Schedule

Friday - 15 March 2019

6:30 PM to 8 PM: Introductions

Saturday - 16 March 2019

9:30 AM to 10 AM: Introduction to WMSummit India 2019
10 AM to 11:30 AM: Strategy Process: Necessity, Strategic direction 2030, Timeline
11:30 AM to 1 PM: Reinforcing co-ownership in Strategy process: How communities and affliates can be part of process
1 PM to 1:30 PM: Lunch
1:30 PM to 2:30 PM: Potential Impact of Strategy process
2:30 PM to 5 PM: Introducing various working groups: Working group representatives will be requested to explain over video calls

Sunday - 17 March 2019

10 AM to 10:20 AM: Working group scoping documents' introduction
10:20 AM to 12 PM: Various community learnings and to what working group's scope they matter: Group activity
12 PM to 1 PM:
1 PM to 1:30 PM: Lunch
1:30 to 2:30: Way forward: Consulting their community and framing agenda before WMSummit 2019

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/wikimedia-summit-india-2019

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಯೋಜನೆ ಸಮಾವೇಶ ಮತ್ತು ತರಬೇತಿಯ ವರದಿ

Ananth — 2019-03-07T02:35:05Z

ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಯು ದಿನದಿಂದ ದಿನಕ್ಕೆ ಬಳಕೆಯಿಲ್ಲದೇ ಕುಂದುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಗ್ರಾಮೀಣ ಭಾಗದ ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಸರಿಯಾದ ಕನ್ನಡ ಆಕರಗಳು ಸಿಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಇಂತಹ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ, ಕನ್ನಡವನ್ನು ಉಳಿಸಿ ಬೆಳೆಸುವುದು ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಬ್ಬ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗನ ಕರ್ತವ್ಯ. ಇದನ್ನೆಲ್ಲ ಗಮನದಲ್ಲಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡು, ಸಂತ ಅಲೋಶಿಯಸ್ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಆಶ್ರಯದಲ್ಲಿ ದಿನಾಂಕ ೦೯ ಹಾಗೂ ೧೦ ನೇ ಫೆಬ್ರುವರಿ, ೨೦೧೯ ರಂದು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಯೋಜನೆ ಸಮಾವೇಶ ಮತ್ತು ತರಬೇತಿಯನ್ನು ನಡೆಸಲಾಯಿತು.

ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣವನ್ನು ತಮ್ಮಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಬೇಕೆನ್ನುತ್ತಿರುವ ಪ್ರಾಧ್ಯಾಪಕರು ಹಾಗೂ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ಪರಿಚಯ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಡುವುದು ಹಾಗೂ ತರಬೇತಿ ನೀಡುವುದು ಈ ಸಮಾವೇಶದ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಉದ್ದೇಶವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಮೊದಲ ದಿನ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣವನ್ನು ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಿರುವ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳಿಂದ ಒಬ್ಬ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ ಮತ್ತು ಒಬ್ಬ ಪ್ರಾಧ್ಯಾಪಕರನ್ನು ಆಹ್ವಾನಿಸಿ, ಅವರಿಂದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಪರಿಚಯಿಸಿಕೊಡಲಾಯಿತು. ವಿಶ್ವಕನ್ನಡ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕರಾದ ಡಾ. ಪವನಜ ಅವರು ಸವಿಸ್ತಾರವಾಗಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳುವಳಿಕೆ ನೀಡಿದರು.

ಕ್ರೈಸ್ಟ್ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯದಿಂದ ಮಹಾದೇವಪ್ಪ ಹೆಚ್. ಹಾಗೂ ಧನ್ಯ ಭಾರದ್ವಾಜ್ ಎಂಬ ಇಬ್ಬರು ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿ, ಕರ್ನಾಟಕವಲ್ಲದೇ ಅಂತರಾಷ್ಟೀಯ ಮಟ್ಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಸರುವಾಸಿಯಾಗಿರುವ ಕ್ರೈಸ್ಟ್ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಅಚ್ಚುಕಟ್ಟಾದ ಪರಿಚಯ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಟ್ಟರು. ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯದ ವಿ.ಶಿ.ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭದಿಂದ ಇಲ್ಲಿಯವರೆಗಿನ ಬೆಳೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದ ರೀತಿಯೊಂದಿಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲ ಅಂಕಿ-ಅಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ಮಹಾದೇವಪ್ಪ ಮಂಡಿಸಿದರೆ, ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳ ನಿಲುವುಗಳನ್ನು ಧನ್ಯ ವಿವರಿಸಿದರು.

ಇದರೊಂದಿಗೆ, ಉಜಿರೆಯ ಎಸ್.ಡಿ.ಎಮ್ ಹಾಗೂ ಮೂಡಿಬಿದಿರೆಯ ಆಳ್ವಾಸ್ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯವರು ಕೂಡ ತಮ್ಮ ವಿ.ಶಿ. ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ವಿವರಿಸಿದರು. ಹೀಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲ ಬಗೆಯ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಒದಗಿಸುವ ಮೂಲಕ ಮೊದಲ ದಿನದ ಸಮಾವೇಶ ಮುಕ್ತಾಯಗೊಂಡಿತು.

ಎರಡನೇಯ ದಿನ, ಪವನಜರ ಮುಂದಾಳತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ ಹಾಗೂ ಪ್ರಾಧ್ಯಾಪಕರುಗಳಿಗೆ ಆನ್ಲೈನ್ ತರಬೇತಿಯನ್ನು ನೀಡುವ ಮೂಲಕ ವಿವಿಧ ಕಾಲೇಜುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿ.ಶಿ.ಯೋಜನೆ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಲು ಸಹಕಾರ ನೀಡಲಾಯಿತು. ಎರಡು ದಿನಗಳ ಕಾಲ, ಹಾಜರಿದ್ದ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಉತ್ತಮವಾದ ವಸತಿ ಹಾಗೂ ಊಟದ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯನ್ನು ಮಾಡಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಕೊನೆಗೆ, ಸ್ವಾಗತದಷ್ಟೇ ಆದರದಿಂದ ಎಲ್ಲರನ್ನು ಬೀಳ್ಕೊಡಲಾಯಿತು.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/c95ca8ccdca8ca1-cb5cbfc95cbfcaaca1cbfcaf-cb6cbfc95ccdcb7ca3-cafc9cca8cc6-cb8caecbecb5cb6-caeca4ccdca4cc1-ca4cb0cacca4cbfcaf-cb5cb0ca6cbf

Wikimedia projects orientation session at Tata Trust's Vikas Anvesh Foundation

subodh — 2019-04-09T00:56:25Z

Researchers in development sector produce a pool of training material and case studies. However, these do not trickle down to the society and many in the public domain are unaware of the same.

Largely the research is restricted to non-profit organizations or their funding agencies during the project period. If the research carried out in development sector is re-licensed and then linked to Wikipedia articles as references we could see a larger section of the society gaining access to such information. The twin advantages of posting such content is that the information will be searchable online through search engines and the Wikipedia page with numerous hyperlinks leading to different sources will act as a reference resource. Larger sections in the public domain will have access to information which would perhaps be hard to gain access to.

Pictured above: Meeting at Vikas Anvesh Foundation office to discuss the possibility of disseminating the research work done, through Wikipedia. Subodh Kulkarni was the resource person for the meeting. [Picture by Sdeora14 licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license].

Orientation Session

Keeping this in view an orientation session was conducted by Centre for Internet & Society’s Access to Knowledge wing (CIS-A2K) at Tata Trust’s Vikas Anvesh Foundation (VAF) in Pune. CIS-A2K and VAF joined hands to explore possibilities of content enrichment in Wikimedia projects. Dr. Ajit Kanitkar and Subodh Kulkarni were the facilitators for the session attended by eight participants.

Report

The researchers at VAF presented their publications in the form of study reports, papers in journals and conferences and datasets. Advisor Ajit Kanitkar presented story of 'Gems of Purest Ray Serene', a book about the life stories of twenty-two outstanding Indian social workers. The content of the book is uploaded on VAF's website socialworkindia.in which is freely downloadable. The book is published in Marathi and Hindi language also.

After the presentations from VAF, CIS-A2K facilitator presented different Wikimedia projects.In the discussions, it was realised that Wikipedia articles related to social issues and development sector lack reliable references. The research work on VAF website can be linked as references. The publications could be uploaded on Wikisource for wider reach. The images and videos during the work can also be uploaded on Commons.

Follow-up

VAF will discuss the process of content donation with management and decide on the further steps. The training regarding Wikipedia editing and Commons uploads would be planned.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-april-9-2019-wikimedia-projects-session-at-tata-trust-vikas-anvesh-foundation

Eight Challenges That Indian-Language Wikipedias Need to Overcome

subha — 2016-03-29T17:05:36Z

Even after a decade of existence, Indian language Wikipedias are not yet known to many Indian language speakers. Wikipedia, being the largest available encyclopedia made in the human history, it what it is today because of the hundreds and thousands of volunteer-editors. But while native-language Wikipedias are becoming game-changers in other corners of the world, the scenario in India is skewed. In my experience, here are a number of challenges that Indian-language Wikipedias are currently facing.

The article was published in the Wire on March 17, 2016. A version of the article was also mirrored by Opensource.com on March 28, 2016.

1. Language communities:

The language communities of many of the Indian languages are such that many of them do not know how to search for information online, in their language typed in their script. Some of these communities even believe that because Google’s home page does not have their script, their language does not exist on the Internet. Starting with five Indian languages as the language of its interface, Google now has has nine Indian languages. But this does not stop a Santali or Manipuri user to search in Unicode Ol chiki (script for Santali) or in Unicode Meithei (script for Manipuri). Google or any search engine for that matter will display anything available in any script on the Internet. But the lack of this very thing is keeping many people away from being connected to the Internet in general and Wikipedia in particular.\

2. Wikipedia’s editor community:

Wikipedia is written by people like you and me. And from writing to editing everything happens voluntarily. As many people do not probably know, or do not try to learn, anybody can correct the mistakes and inaccuracies that exist in many Wikipedia articles. The Wikipedia editor communities for several Indian languages are really small. While these languages are spoken by millions of people, only a handful editors contribute in editing the Wikipedia in these languages. In January this year, the Hindi Wikipedia, for instance, had only 89 editors while the total number of Hindi speakers would be over 550 million.

3. Language input in computers:

A vast majority of people in this country do not know how to type in their own language.. There is also little documentation for users to learn about language input. Even though many government-run schools in India are seeing a proliferation of more computers and Internet access, native language input and several other essential training of basic computing are not widely taught in schools in all states. What is sad is that there is a wide variety of free software for native-language input and the challenges of typing in Indian languages that existed a few years back has almost gone.

4. Language input in mobile devices:

With over 1 billion people with mobile phones, the 15% internet penetration rate will soon grow at a faster pace. This in turn — and also tough competition that compel TSPs to drop data charges — will help many Indians get access to the Internet . If these people are not educated about native language input then they will be victims of the English-centric Internet rather than being able to enjoy the virtue of the same. Many Indians that have smartphones need full Indian language support and especially inbuilt input methods to be able to contribute in their own language Wikipedia.

5. Low availability of Indian-language content on the Internet:

Lack of native language content on the Internet is another major factor in the low adoption of Indian language Wikpedias. As per an Internet and Mobile Association of India survey conducted in 2012, over 6% of the population is left behind from joining the online sphere simply because of lack of content in their languages. Take, for instance, my state odisha.While the Kerala government’s official tourism portal is available in Odia and other Indian languages, the Odisha government’s tourism portal itself has no information in Odia-language today. Our languages are neglected largely in our own states.

6. Mismatch of conventional and new media:

Many conventional media houses still continue to use non-standard variants of the ASCII/ISCII script encoding systems, instead of adopting the Unicode standard. Unicode being a global standard, and having the advantage of unifying the world, has been available for Indian languages for almost 25 years now. But much of our vernacular print media has failed to adopt this. Consequently, many popular Indian-language newspapers are yet to become available in Unicode on the open Internet.

7. Lack of Open Access:

Majority of the information produced on the Internet in general and by the government, in particular, are mostly copyrighted. The paywalled garden of copyright restrictions keeps the information closed and stop people from sharing and learning more. On the contrary, Wikipedia is available under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license which allows anyone to make use of the content and even distribute commercial copies of its content. The idea of opening up information for masses in a free license could make information reach millions of people.

8. People with disabilities:

Many people cannot read, speak and write. India has over 60 million people with some form of hearing impairment. There is a desperate need for a high-quality text-to-speech and speech-to-text engine for people with physical disabilities. Also, these software products have to be free software so that common people, that cannot afford to buy expensive proprietary software like JAWS, can contribute to Wikipedia in their language. Many text-to-speech engines that are available today for Indian languages sound so mechanical that it is difficult for common speakers to use them.

Subhashish Panigrahi is an educator and free knowledge evangelist, and currently works for Communications, Program Capacity & Learning at Wikimedia Foundation, and Access to Knowledge at the Centre for Internet and Society. Portions of this article came from a speech that Panigrahi gave at BHASHA: Indian Languages Digital Festival in New Delhi.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/the-wire-march-17-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-eight-challenges-that-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome

8 Challenges In Growing Indian-Language Wikipedias

praskrishna — 2016-06-18T17:11:05Z

While speaking at BHASHA: Indian Languages Digital Festival, a day-long discourse at New Delhi on Indian languages and their state in new media, especially digital platforms, I touched upon Wikipedia in Indian languages. Most people, in fact, do not even know that Wikipedia exists in many Indian languages.

The article was first published in Huffington Post on March 19, 2016. This was cross-posted in Medianama titled as Multiple key factors preventing Indic Wikipedia growth on March 21, 2016.

I personally did not know about the Odia Wikipedia until 2011 when a friend told me about its existence. Back then the project was completely inactive. And then a couple of friends and I started contributing, and the project grew to what it is today. The site now has more than 300,000 visitors every month and it is the most-visited Odia language site on the internet. Other languages, I believe, could follow a similar trajectory on Wikipedia, but there are several challenges along the way.

Many people do not even know how to search for information online in their own language, typed in its script.

1. Ignorance of language communities

Many people do not even know how to search for information online in their own language, typed in its script. Some even share that because Google's home page does not have their script it means that their language does not exist on the internet. This ignorance perpetuates the gap.

2.Wikipedia's editor community

Wikipedia, as you all know, is written and edited by people like you and me who volunteer their efforts. Many people probably do not know or do not try to learn that they themselves can correct the mistakes and inaccuracies that exist in many Wikipedia articles and become editors. The Wikipedia editor communities for several Indian languages are really small. When these languages are spoken by millions of people, only a handful of editors contribute in editing the Wikipedia in these languages.

3.Language input in computers

A vast majority of people in this country do not know how to type in their own language. There is also little documentation for users to learn about language input. Even though many government-run schools in India are seeing more computers and internet, native language input is not widely. However, there is a lot of free software for language input and the challenges of typing in Indian language that existed a few years back have almost gone. You just have to look for the right tools.

4. Language input in mobile devices

With over 1 billion people with mobile phones, the 15% internet penetration rate will soon grow. This in turn will help a lot many Indians to get access to the internet. If these people are not educated about native language input then they will be unnecessarily constricted by the English-centric internet. Many Indians that have smartphones need inbuilt input methods to be able to contribute in their own language Wikipedia.

Many Indians that have smartphones need inbuilt input methods to be able to contribute in their own language Wikipedia.

5. Low availability of Indian-language content on the Internet

Lack of native language content on the Internet bars many from accessing knowledge. As per the Internet and Mobile Association of India survey conducted in 2012, over 6% of the population is deterred from going online because of lack of content in their languages. Take the example of my state. When the Kerala government's official tourism portal is available in Odia and other Indian languages, the Odisha government's tourism portal has no information in Odia language today. Our languages are neglected in our own states.

6. Mismatch of conventional and new media

Many conventional media houses still use non-standard variants of ASCII/ISCII script encoding systems instead of adopting the Unicode standard. Unicode being a global standard and having the advantage of unifying the world has been available for Indian languages for about 25 years now. But many of our traditional media have failed to adopt this. Many popular Indian-language newspapers are yet to become available in Unicode.

7. Lack of open access

Most of the information produced on the internet in general and by the government, in particular, is copyrighted. The paywalled garden of copyright restrictions keeps the information closed and stops people from sharing and learning more. On the contrary, Wikipedia is available under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license which allows anyone to make use of the content and even distribute commercial copies of it. The idea of opening up information for the masses in a free license could make the information reach millions of people.

Many conventional media houses still use non-standard variants of ASCII/ISCII script encoding systems instead of adopting the Unicode standard.

8. People with disabilities

Many people cannot read, speak and write. India has over 60 million people with hearing impairment. There is a need for a good quality text-to-speech and speech-to-text engine for people with physical disabilities. Also, these software products have to be free so that common people who cannot afford to buy expensive proprietary software like JAWS can contribute to Wikipedia in their language. Many text-to-speech engines that are available today for Indian languages sound so mechanical that it is tough for common speakers to use them.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/huffington-post-march-19-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-in-growing-indian-language-wikipedias

Telugu Wikisource Workshop

Pavan Santhosh — 2017-08-16T08:40:55Z

Recently, a Telugu Wikisource Workshop was conducted in Hyderabad between 22- 23 July, 2017

An introductory Wikisource workshop was recently held for Telugu Wikipedians in Hyderabad. This event was held in conjunction with the NTR Trust, an organisation working towards socio-economic change in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Wikisource aims to build a library of source texts as well as translations. The workshop held between 22- 23 July was conducted for both existing Wikimedians and those new to the movement. Prior to the workshop, Telugu Wikipedians were consulted and were asked to take part in the event and provide their support. The participants were taught the basics of Wikisource and encouraged to contribute to it. They were given a tutorial on the entire process from uploading the book to completing it as an eBook. They were taught important aspects such as copyright, Creative Commons licenses as this would help them select books to upload on Wikisource.

Says participant Sri Ramamurthy "I am contributing to Telugu Wikisource for a long time, regularly. I could learn how to do some important aspects of Telugu Wikisource like indexing a book and techniques like OCR in this event. This turned out to be a very useful event. As resource persons are from Telugu language and sessions were in Telugu, I could easily and quickly grasp things."

Ten index pages were created during the event and 193 pages were uploaded onto Telugu Wikisource after the event. The event had only two female participants and eight male participants. CIS-A2K hopes to make more of a concerted effort to bridge this gap in participation between males and females.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/telugu-wikisource-workshop

A Workshop on Editing Wikipedia in Mumbai

praskrishna — 2013-08-23T16:00:46Z

The Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS-A2K) is holding a workshop on Wikipedia editing at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai on August 24, 10.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

The morning session will be having a discussion and demonstration on Wikipedia (10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.), which will be followed by a practical session (2.00 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.).

As part of the run-up to the Indian Languages Mela (planned for September 20-21, 2013), CILHE will conduct a workshop for those who would like create new articles in any Indian Language Wikipedia. The workshop is organized in collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society’s Access to Knowledge Programme (CIS-A2K) and the Wikipedia Hyderabad community. The objective of the workshop is to train students to edit Wikipedia. Participants are encouraged to work with Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Urdu or any other language of their choice. Although the workshop is mainly intended for potential competitors for the Mela awards for Best New Article in an Indian Language Wikipedia, anyone interested in Wikipedia is welcome.

As you may know, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, and is the 5th most-visited website in the world! It's completely free to use and re-use, it has no advertising, and is available in more than 286 different languages - including 20+ Indian languages. Wikipedia articles are written by ordinary people who volunteer to share their knowledge with the world.

The CILHE is committed to producing material in Indian languages for higher education, and is partnering Wikipedia in drawing new editors to the Indian language Wikipedias so that they become an important knowledge resource.

What students gain from Wikipedia editing:

It improves writing skills. Wikipedia provides students a platform to hone their writing skills. Writing on Wikipedia enhances critical thinking and the ability to see all sides of a story. Students will find this incredibility useful in both their personal and professional lives while evaluating the pros and cons of different situations, projects, assignments etc. Wikipedia editing also strengthens research skills. A Wikipedia editor has to provide credible references by looking up books, journals and online materials. Writing on Wikipedia is good practice for those who will also work on a thesis or a research project.

Your articles will be read by thousands of people across the globe. If you edit a Wikipedia article, it is there *forever* and the audience can be any number from the 500 million who read Wikipedia every month!

It'll boost your chances in admissions or scholarships or placements.

It teaches students how to collaborate! Editing Wikipedia is magical. You add some content and someone from some other part of the class or school or town or country or somewhere else in the world adds a little bit more and makes the contribution that much better. Wikipedia helps one learn how to work productively with other people, even those you don’t know and may never actually meet.

The workshop will cover the following:

What exactly is Wikipedia and how does it work?
Who edits Wikipedia?
How do I edit Wikipedia?
What can I edit?
How can I input text in Indian languages?
How do I insert images?
How do I find and add references?
Do’s and Don’ts

Participants are required to register at least by August 23, 2013. Send your names to Ritesh Khunyakari riteshpk@gmail.com.

Important Instructions

Each student attending the Wikipedia Training programme should register themselves on Wikipedia. Please note that once you register on a Wikipedia project, you can use that 'Username' (i.e. same log-in details) across all Wikipedias and Wikimedia platforms. This should be done by August 23, 2013. Please note that you will not be able to register more than 5 Usernames from a single IP address within 24 hours (a security feature of Wikipedia). This tutorial will help you with Registration on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial/Registration
Once registered the students must furnish their details on the google doc. I have already entered my data just as sample. Please circulate this link to all the students at the earliest. This should be done by August 24, 2013 before the commencement of the Workshop https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AshSF7ZKRBR5dFBfM2lTaExINTZodVZ4ejd3VURzMEE&usp=sharing
All the students are expected to do editing on Wikipedia. We will choose Telugu Wikipedia (www.te.wikipedia) as a site to do some editing. Please be assured that we will also show how to use English and other language Wikipedias. For this workshop each student should come up with one article at least in an Indian language. This should be typed and be available in a soft copy form and could be carried in a thumb drive or any other storage media which should be easily accessible to them during the training programme.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/workshop-on-editing-wikipedia-in-mumbai

వికీపీడియా:సమావేశం/హైదరాబాద్/ఆగష్టు

praskrishna — 2013-08-29T06:24:45Z

T.Vishnu participated in the Telugu meet-up held in Hyderabad on August 25, 2013, via Skype.

Click to read the original published by Telugu Wikipedia here

తెలుగు వికీపీడియా నెలవారీ ముఖాముఖీ సమావేశం. సమావేశానంతరం/ముందు మినీ వికీపీడియా వర్కుషాపు ఉంటుంది.

వివరాలు

ప్రదేశం : థియేటర్ ఔట్రీచ్ యూనిట్ (టి.ఓ.యు), గోల్డెన్ త్రెషోల్డ్ అబిడ్స్, హైదరాబాద్
తేదీ : 25:08:2013; సమయం : 3 p.m. నుండి 6 p.m. వరకూ.

చర్చించాల్సిన అంశాలు

హాంక్‌కాంగ్ లో జరిగిన 2013 వికీమానియా విశేషాలు - విష్ణు
తెవికీ నాణ్యతకు వికీపీడియా ఉపకరణాలు - ECHO; AFT; VISUAL EDITOR - విష్ణు
తెలుగు రంగస్థలం - వికీపీడియా - ప్రణయ్ రాజ్, రామారావు మరియు శేఖర్ బాబు.
తెలుగు ప్రముఖుల ప్రాజెక్టు సమీక్ష - రాజశేఖర్
వ్యాసరచన పోటీ సమీక్ష - పోటీలో విజేతలకు బహుమతుల ప్రదానం.
వికీసోర్సులో s:పోతన తెలుగు భాగవతము చేర్చే పని యొక్క ప్రస్తుత పరిస్థితి.
విక్షనరీలో నెలవారీ కార్యక్రమ ప్రణాలిక.

ఇంకా ఏమయినా విషయాలు దీని పైన చేర్చగలరు

సమావేశం నిర్వాహకులు

Rajasekhar1961 (చర్చ) 13:12, 17 ఆగష్టు 2013 (UTC)

పైన మీ పేరు చేర్చండి

సమావేశానికి ముందస్తు నమోదు

(నమోదు తప్పనిసరికాదు కాని నిర్వాహకులకు సహాయంగా మరియు ఇతరులకు ప్రోత్సాహంగా వుంటుంది. పైన మార్చు నొక్కి మీ పేరు చేర్చవచ్చు)

తప్పక

వాడుకరి:Maheshwar Reddy (చర్చ) 12:05, 22 జూలై 2013 (UTC)

<పై వరసలో పేరు చేర్చండి లేక సంతకం చేయండి>

Skype ద్వారా చర్చలో పాల్గొనదలచినవారు

విష్ణు (చర్చ) 14:33, 23 ఆగష్టు 2013 (UTC)

<పై వరసలో పేరు చేర్చండి లేక సంతకం చేయండి>

బహుశా

<పై వరసలో పేరు చేర్చండి లేక సంతకం చేయండి>

పాల్గొనటానికి కుదరని

<పై వరసలో పేరు చేర్చండి లేక సంతకం చేయండి>

స్పందనలు

<పై వరసలో స్పందించండి>

నివేదిక

స్కైప్ ద్వారా విష్ణుగారు పాల్గొని హాంక్‌కాంగ్ లో జరిగిన 2013 వికీమానియా విశేషాలు, వికీపీడియా అభివృద్ధికోసం జరిగిన చర్చల గురించి తెలియజేశారు.

అనంతరం ఈ క్రింది అంశాల గురించి వివరించారు.

తెలుగు వికీపీడియాకు గ్లోబల్ లెవల్ లో గుర్తింపులేదు. తెవికీలో ఉన్న ప్రాజెక్టులలోని కొన్ని వ్యాసాలను (పల్లెవాసుల జీవన విధానం మొ.) ఆంగ్లంలోనికి అనువదించి, ఆంగ్ల వికీపీడియాలో చేర్చడంద్వారా గ్లోబల్ లెవల్ లో గుర్తింపు తీసుకురావడం. వచ్చే వికీమానియాలో తెలుగు వికీపీడియాకు ప్రముఖస్థానం వచ్చేలా కృషిచేయడం.
లీలావతి డాటర్స్ అనే పుస్తకంలోని 64 మంది మహిళా సైంటిస్టుల గురించి వ్యాసాలను రాయడం.
తెలుగు వికీపీడియాలో చురుగ్గా పనిచేస్తున్న ఇంజనీర్స్ ను తెలుగు వికీపీడియా మెంటర్స్ గా తయారుచేయడం.
తెలుగు భాషాభివృద్ధికి తోడ్పడే ప్రాజెక్టులను ఎంపికచేసుకొని, ఆ ప్రాజెక్టుల నిర్వాహణకు గ్రాంట్ వచ్చేలా చూడడం.
తెవికీ నాణ్యతకు వికీపీడియా ఉపకరణాల ఉపయోగాలు. 1. ECHO (Notification Tool, రాసిన వ్యాసాల గురించిన సవరణలను చూపించే ఉపకరణం). 2. AFT (Article Feedback Tool, వీక్షకులు, పాఠకులు తమ అభిప్రాయాలను రాసే ఉపకరణం). 3. VISUAL EDITOR (వ్యాసాన్ని వ్యాసపు పేజీలోనే సవరించేందుకు ఉపకరణం).

వచ్చే నెలలో తెలుగు రంగస్థలంపై ప్రాజెక్టు నిర్వహించదలచామని రాజశేఖర్ గారు ప్రతిపాదించగా, రంగస్థలానికి చెందినవారిని వాడుకరులుగా చేర్పించి వారితో వ్యాసాలను రాయించాలనీ, అందుకోసం రంగస్థల అధ్యాపకులైన పెద్ది రామారావు గారి సహయం తీసుకుందామని విష్ణుగారు సూచించారు.
వ్యాసరచన పోటీ విజేతలకు బహుమతుల ప్రధానంకోసం, ఎంపికైనవారు వారివారి చిరునామాను పంపించవలసిందిగా వారి వాడుకరి/వ్యాసపు పేజీలో రాయడం.
వికీసోర్సులో s:పోతన తెలుగు భాగవతము చేర్చే పనిలో భాగంగా 4 స్కంధాలు పూర్తయ్యాయని, మిగతావి మరో వారం రోజుల్లో పూర్తి చేస్తానని రాజశేఖర్ గారు చెప్పారు.
రావూరి భరద్వాజ గారి గురించి, ఆయన రచనల గురించి తెవికీలో రాయడంపై బొగ్గుల శ్రీనివాస్ తో రాజశేఖర్ గారు చర్చించగా, తన వద్దవున్న సమగ్ర సమాచారాన్ని అందించగలనని శ్రీనివాస్ హమీ ఇచ్చారు.

సమావేశంలో పాల్గొన్నవారు

విష్ణు (Skype ద్వారా)
Rajasekhar1961
గుళ్లపల్లి నాగేశ్వరరావు
Pranayraj1985
బొగ్గుల శ్రీనివాస్

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