The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 21 to 35.
Voices from Goa: Frania Pereira tells Why She Writes Articles on Konkani Wikipedia
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/voices-from-goa
<b>Konkani as a language has seen geographical, political and religious conflicts. Being the official language of Goa and spoken widely in the Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra it is still trying to strengthen its base. Recently the Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge Programme (CIS-A2K) in collaboration with the Konkani department of Goa University organized a four-day Wikipedia workshop for MA, Konkani language students. This workshop involved 38 students creating 43 new articles on Konkani Wikipedia which is incubation. We’re hoping that these efforts will contribute towards bringing this 7 year old project out of incubation to a live Wikipedia project.</b>
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<p><iframe height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kY92D_ylJY4" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p><span class="extiw"><i>Video by Subhashish Panigrahi, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" target="_blank">CC-BY-SA 3.0</a></i></span></p>
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<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Why do you [edit] Wikipedia?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipedia editors are always volunteers which translates to “Anyone and everyone can contribute to Wikipedia”. What is that brings people in today’s date to write articles on Wikipedia. This is a question we are not sure at times. You get up late in the night and check how many times your article has been edited and feel excited. This happens to many of the wikipedians including myself. It has been a personal journey to ask Wikipedians about the same. While conducting this workshop along with my colleague <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nitika.t">Nitika</a>, I spent some time with the students asking about their experience of Wikipedia editing. We found that many of them were shy enough to sound low and we could not take the videos. This particular video features <a class="extiw" href="https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Frania_pereira" title="incubator:User:Frania pereira">Frania Pereira,</a><span class="extiw"> an MA student from Konkani department of <a href="http://www.unigoa.ac.in/" target="_blank">Goa University</a>. She attended the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Events/Konkani_Wikipedia_woskshop_21August2013" target="_blank">Wikipedia workshop</a> we organized at the Central Library at Panaji for two days and edited articles on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebinca" target="_blank">Bebinca</a> (<i>Konkani article <a href="https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/gom/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%95" target="_blank">here</a></i>) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colva#Etymology_and_History">Colvá fama</a> (<i>Konkani article <a href="https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/gom/%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%9A%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%82_%E0%A4%AB%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AE" target="_blank">here</a></i>), a local festival celebrated by the Colvá Catholics. Frania is worried how people stereotype Goa to be the just land of enjoyment and not look at the diverse culture, its ethnic food and festivals. Even the Konkani speaking population in other regions (Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and abroad) don’t know much about this socio-language-cultural diversity. No other language than her mother-toungue Konkani could tell about these. And that is why she edits Wikipedia.</span></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/voices-from-goa'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/voices-from-goa</a>
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No publishersubhaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaVideoOpenness2013-09-05T09:24:57ZBlog EntryVachana Sanchaya: Bringing Access to 11th century Kannada Literature
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/openaccessweek-april-3-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-vachana-sanchaya
<b>The blog post throws light on providing access to Vachana Sanchaya, a eleventh century Kannada literature.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://openaccessweek.org/m/blogpost?id=5385115%3ABlogPost%3A107871">Open Access Week</a> on April 3, 2014.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">During early 11th century a form of spiritual <a class="ui-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada_language" target="_blank">Kannada language</a> poetry in the Indian state of Karnataka called <a class="ui-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachana_sahitya" target="_blank" title="on Wikipedia">Vachana sahitya</a> became quite popular. It started flourishing in the 12th century by a religious movement called <a class="ui-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingayatism" target="_blank" title="on Wikipedia">Lingayatha movement</a>. More than 259 Vachana writers, called Vachanakaru, compiled over 11,000 vachanas (verses). 21,000 of these verses in 15 volumes were published by the Government of Karnataka into an online portal called <a class="ui-link" href="http://www.vachanasahitya.gov.in/" target="_blank" title="digitally published Indian poems">Samagra Vachana Samputa</a>. Two Wikimedians along with two linguists brought these verses on a standalone project called <a class="ui-link" href="http://vachana.sanchaya.net/" target="_blank" title="website">Vachana Sanchaya</a>. Kannada Wikimedians, <a class="ui-link" href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF:Pavithrah">Pavithra Hanchagaiah</a> and <a class="ui-link" href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF:Omshivaprakash">Omshivaprakash HI</a> along with Kannada linguist O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy converted the font to Unicode to make the verses searchable on this project. The entire collection is now ready to enrich the <a class="ui-link" href="https://kn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AE%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%96%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF_%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%9F">Kannada WikiSource</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The text in Samagra Vachana Samputa were typed using fonts of </span><span><a class="ui-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Script_Code_for_Information_Interchange" target="_blank" title="Indian Script Code for Information Interchange">ISCII</a>, an Indian character encoding standard. Indic characters generally replace Latin ones inside the font that makes them completely useless when someone does not have the particular font installed in the computer. This is a typical problem with non-Latin fonts, especially Indic typefaces. In case of this particular publication, there were more than 5 ISCII standards which made searching and reusing content completely impossible. Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash started </span>writing scripts to make the Vachanas searchable through an index. This demanded a user friendly platform for the linguistic researchers, students, and the public interested in accessing this literature.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Omshivaprakash worked on designing the architecture for this platform using open source software tools. Hanchagaiah was involved in providing critical hacks for digitization and valuable inputs through suggestions, feedback, and quality assurance.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At present, Vachana Sanchaya project has around 200,000 unique words that were derived from these verses. The public has been using the repository and accessing vachana<span> from Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ profiles. There are thousands of people now who read a Vahana as part of their daily routine. Vachana Sanchaya is not only a gateway for reading the literature, but also a research platform for Kannada language and literature. It has options for researchers to help in reviewing content which in turn will help to add references from research papers.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>All of the content is currently available to the public through the OpenData API, and once the reviewing the work is complete, it will be distributed in the public domain through WikiSource. This will open up the system for students, developers, researchers, and anyone interested in building linguistic tools for Kannada and other Indic languages. Users will be able to use our code to digitize any book available in the public domain. Early literature in any language is well-respected, so making it available via an open platform allows for reuse of the content for research, publication, and other documentation work.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Other similar projects could take help from this project and use any part of the processes.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Plans going foward:</b></p>
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<li>To initiate <a class="ui-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processing">Natural Language Processing (NLP)</a> projects if more researches help to tag words and grow the glossary.</li>
<li>To continue work on subsequent, similar projects for Sarvagnana Vachanagalu and Dāsa Sanchaya (work has begun) and Vyāsa and Muddann (work to be started)</li>
<li><span>To extend this platform to other the contemporary literature works available in the public domain.</span></li>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>Authored by <a class="ui-link" href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF:Pavithrah">Pavithra Hanchagaiah</a>, <a class="ui-link" href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF:Omshivaprakash">Omshivaprakash HI</a> and <a class="ui-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Psubhashish" title="User:Psubhashish">Subhashish Panigrahi</a>. Draws inspiration from another <a class="ui-link" href="http://opensource.com/life/14/3/wikipedia-project-hindu-poetry" target="_blank">article</a> published on Opensource.com under CC-BY-SA 4.0</i></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/openaccessweek-april-3-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-vachana-sanchaya'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/openaccessweek-april-3-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-vachana-sanchaya</a>
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No publishersubhaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2014-04-08T01:48:18ZBlog EntryVachana Sanchaya: 11th century Kannada literature to enrich Wikisource
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/vachana-sanchaya-11th-century-kannada-literature-to-enrich-wikisource
<b>Kannada Wikipedian Omshivaprakash, Pavithra and I co-authored this article on digitizing Vachana Sahitya, a 11th century Kannada literature on WikiSource.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i><a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF:Pavithrah">Pavithra Hanchagaiah</a> and <a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF:Omshivaprakash">Omshivaprakash HI</a>, Wikimedians from India are co-authors with Subhashish Panigrahi in this article. </i>This was originally posted on <a class="external-link" href="http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/12/11th-century-kannada-literature-to-enrich-wikisource/">Wikimedia blog</a> and published by <a class="external-link" href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/03/18/11th-century-kannada-literature-available-on-wikisource/">GlobalVoices</a> on March 18, 2014.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the poetry of Kannada (an Indic language), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachana_sahitya" title="en:Vachana sahitya">Vachana sahitya</a> is a form of rhythmic writing that evolved in the 11th Century C.E. and flourished in the 12th century, as part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingayatism" title="en:Lingayatism">“Lingayatha” movement</a>. More than 259 Vachanakaras (Vachana writers) have compiled over 11,000 vachanas. 21,000 of these verses which were published in a 15 volume “<a href="http://www.vachanasahitya.gov.in">Samagra Vachana Samputa</a>” by the government of Karnataka have been digitized. Two Wikimedians along with a Kannada linguist and author O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy are involved in the Unicode conversions, corrections and writing preface for these verses. The entire work is now available as a standalone project called <a href="http://vachana.sanchaya.net/">“Vachana Sanchaya”</a> and ready to enrich <a href="https://kn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AE%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%96%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF_%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%9F">Kannada Wikisource</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This project was started a year ago when Kannada Wikimedian <a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF:Omshivaprakash">Omshivaprakash</a> was trying to help Professor O.L. Naghabhushana Swamy and Kannada author and publisher Vasudhendra access the vachana (verses) of Vachana Sanchaya. Swamy had trouble using publicly available content on Vachanas since the data was in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII">ASCII</a> standard and searching text was a huge problem. I (Pavithra Hanchagaiah) started to help gather information about vachanas and document it in Unicode by writing scripts for open source software. Further discussions were had to get thousands of vachanas in the form of a database, so that they could be easily searchable with an index. This demanded us to build a platform supporting all these activities, which would help the linguistic researchers, students and members of the general public who have an interest in reading and studying Vachana literature. With this idea, Omshivaprakash started designing the model, and his colleague Devaraju started building it. In the meantime I was running various scripts to fix errors in conversion of ASCII text to Unicode, confirming that the data was ready to consume by the modules developed for concordance. We spent weekends & holidays executing this project from home. With the constant feedback and guidance from Mr. Swamy and Vasudendra, we learned how <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordance_%28publishing%29" title="en:Concordance (publishing)">concordance</a> of text is used by researchers and what would make it easier for them to research on Vachana Sahitya. Omshivaprakash worked on the architecture of the platform, decided the infrastructure requirements – free and open source software technologies were used to keep the platform active while managing the entire project. I provided critical hacks for digitization and gave feedback through suggestions.</p>
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<h3>Working System</h3>
<p>Currently, the system has around 200,000 unique words in its repository. Vachana Sanchaya is meant for research rather than just a repository of text on the web. While you search the words on our system, you can see who has used the word in all Vachanas. To make the research more readable, we highlight the text searched in each Vachana that would be displayed. To repeat the search for a specific Vachanakara (poet) you just need to click on his name on the graph on the results page. We have used MediaWiki’s jquery-ime input tool architecture that helped us provide a feature to directly enter Kannada text in Unicode for searches. So just type, and get results!</p>
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<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Vachana.png" title="Vachana" height="212" width="378" alt="Vachana" class="image-inline" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">Vachana Sanchaya Website Screenshot</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Public Response</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are glad to see people accessing vachanas from our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ channels. There have been approximately 500,000 pageviews to our site in the first few months of our platform’s public launch. Interestingly, commonly searched Kannada words like “ಕರ್ಮ”(Karma en:Work/Deed) , “ಸತ್ಯ” (Sathya -en:Truthfulness ) and “ನದಿ” (River) have resulted in quick and easy results.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Plans for the future</h2>
<blockquote class="pullquote">ಆಂಗೀರಸ, ಪುಲಸ್ತ್ಯ, ಪುಲಹ, ಶಾಂತ,ದಕ್ಷ, ವಸಿಷ್ಠ, ವಾಮದೇವ, ನವಬ್ರಹ್ಮ, ಕೌಶಿಕ, ಶೌನಕ, ಸ್ವಯಂಭು, ಸ್ವಾರೋಚಿಷ, ಉತ್ತಮ, ತಾಮಸ, ರೈವತ, ಚಾಕ್ಷಷ, ವೈವಸ್ವತ, ಸೂರ್ಯಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಚಂದ್ರಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಇಂದ್ರ ಸಾವರ್ಣಿ ಇವರು ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು ಮಂದಿ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣ ಸಹಾಯ[ದ]ವರು. ಹತ್ತೊಂಬತ್ತು ಎಂದರೆ ಪುಣ್ಯನದಿಗಳು. ಅದು ಎಂತೆಂದಡೆ: ಗ್ರಂಥ</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Our system is extensible with respect to adding new feature – we have a review desk for researchers to help us with the review of content. Later we will also be adding required references to Vachanas from various research works that have been done around this literature. The content is available to the public through OpenData API and will be distributed as public domain through Wikisource once the review work is complete. This will open up the system for students, developers, researchers and anyone interested in working around building linguistic tools for Kannada and other Indic languages. This system is meant to evolves around other works rather than having to change and re-invent the wheel for more such projects. Vachana Sahitya will further help us to initiate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processing">Natural Language Processing (NLP)</a> projects if more researchers get together to tag the words, glossary etc in the coming days. We can also fulfill the need of various language tools like spelling and grammar checker for users through crowd-sourcing the development. The next projects under the “Kannada Sanchaya” are <i>Sarvagnana Vachanagalu</i> and <i>Dāsa Sanchaya</i> which are in the pipeline with initial phases of work underway. Our idea is to extend this platform from Vyasa to Muddanna and possibly the contemporary literature work available in the public domain.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/vachana-sanchaya-11th-century-kannada-literature-to-enrich-wikisource'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/vachana-sanchaya-11th-century-kannada-literature-to-enrich-wikisource</a>
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No publishersubhaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2014-03-20T11:13:22ZBlog EntryUnable to read Odia on your android device? Don’t fret!
https://cis-india.org/openness/news/odisha-sun-times-september-28-2015-ruby-nanda-unable-to-read-odia-on-your-android-device
<b>If you get only boxes in place of Odia fonts in your Android device then it does not support the language. So you need to install Odia font in your smart phone; one way is to root it, but it’s not without cons.</b>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">The article by Ruby Nanda was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://odishasuntimes.com/2015/09/28/unable-to-read-odia-on-your-android-device-dont-fret/">Odisha Sun Times</a> on September 28, 2015. Subhashish Panigrahi was quoted.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">Rooting means breaking and getting full rights into the entire operating system of your Android. If done right it can turn you into a super user and open a wealth of opportunities with your handheld device. But, rooting is a complex process and definitely not for a newbie, as rooting leads to loss of warranty, security issues and a wrong move can turn it into a paperweight.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“Rooting is not advisable as it is bit complicated and turns your phone warranty void”, says Subhashish Panigrahi, Programme Officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, an NGO. By far the easiest way to read Odia is by installing Firefox Browser for your android mobile, he added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Nihar Kumar Dalai, IT professional, has found an easy hack and with Panigrahi, he has designed a free licensed tutorial by which one can easily read Odia language in their smart phones.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“Odia fonts are supported only in the latest android 5.1.1 update, but people using android devices with older version may not have Odia fonts and can see only the boxes. We see many people seeking help to resolve this problem on Twitter and Facebook. With missing Odia fonts, people may end up writing Odia in Roman script, said Dalai.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“There has been very positive response from people who have tried this method. I’m happy to play a very small part for this cause, the IT professional added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">So if you are unable to read or write Odia in your android handheld then no sweat, just try out these simple steps and enjoy the fun of reading and writing Odia in your mobile.</p>
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<li>Install Mozilla Firefox browser for Android on your phone from Google Play.</li>
<li>Launch Firefox and go to the Oriya fonts package Add-Ons page and select “Add to Firefox”</li>
<li>Click on Install</li>
<li>Eureka! Now Odia fonts appear on your android device instead of unrecognizable boxes.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Click here to watch the tutorial:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2For.wikipedia.org%2Fs%2Fucf&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEVXipqv4vk1v0UT8LSU4pCrZc1bA">https://or.wikipedia.org/s/ucf</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Once you’re able to read and write Odia, you can use any online Odia transliteration service e.g. TypeOdia (on Firefox browser), iBUS on Linux, Microsoft’s Indic language Input Tool, Google Input Tool.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">P.S: This method only works on Firefox Browser for Android and not on any other Apps. Android jellybean 4.3 version also supports Odia but there might be issues which are fixed by 5.1.1.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/news/odisha-sun-times-september-28-2015-ruby-nanda-unable-to-read-odia-on-your-android-device'>https://cis-india.org/openness/news/odisha-sun-times-september-28-2015-ruby-nanda-unable-to-read-odia-on-your-android-device</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2015-12-15T08:04:39ZNews ItemTypography Day 2016
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/typography-day-2016
<b>Typography Day was organized for the 9th time at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore in collaboration with the Industrial Design Centre (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) with support from India Design Association (InDeAs) and Aksharaya.
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<p>Subhashish Panigrahi was a speaker at the event. He along with Pooja Saxena made a presentation on <a class="external-link" href="http://www.slideshare.net/psubhashish/typoday-2016-presentation-by-pooja-saxena-and-subhashish-panigrahi">Bringing Ol Chiki to the Digital World</a>.</p>
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<p><iframe width="595" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/M9afQdv5t5PW3k"> </iframe></p>
<div><strong> <a title="Typoday 2016: Presentation by Pooja Saxena and Subhashish Panigrahi" href="http://www.slideshare.net/psubhashish/typoday-2016-presentation-by-pooja-saxena-and-subhashish-panigrahi" target="_blank">Typoday 2016: Presentation by Pooja Saxena and Subhashish Panigrahi</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/psubhashish" target="_blank">Subhashish Panigrahi</a></strong></div>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/typography-day-2016'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/typography-day-2016</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-04-24T15:16:04ZNews ItemTyping in Indic Languages from Mobiles made Easy!
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/typing-in-indic-languages-from-mobiles
<b>A new app is up for typing in Indic languages from mobile phones. This is is available online at: http://bitly.com/indictyping and supports on iOS. Android version is to be released soon.</b>
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<p class="quoted"><i>"There are two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors."</i><br /><b>Phil Karlton</b></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Yuvi Panda smiles saying this. <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Yuvipanda">Yuvi Panda</a>, a former Wikimedia Foundation contractor and developer was here in our Delhi office and I had an opportunity to spend some time discussing some of the technical problems that we have been facing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">One of the major setback most people have with their phones is the lack of language support and lack of typing support for Indic languages. Fortunately most of the new generation phones support Indic languages. Three of the major operating systems used currently by most phones are Android, Windows, Blackberry and iOS. Android being an open source operating system has extensive community support and developments which is something we were primarily hopeful while starting this project. Windows phones also have a good number of user base in India and support for Indic languages on Windows is really good. Though iOS has good support for Indic display there is no support for typing. IOS, Windows and Blackberry all being proprietary have really less community support and any tool available on these app market would be proprietary. So, our idea was to start a cross platform app which will use the available jQuery ime used for Indic typing for Indic Wikipedias and sister projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Currently, most of the Indic language Wikipedias use a typing tool called <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Narayam">Narayam</a> ( "Narayam" is a Malayalam word which refers to a metal stylus that was used for writing on palm leaves and papyrus in ancient days). By default the typing scheme for most of the language wikipedias is set to transliteration or phonetic. An Indian mobile user would normally type his own language using Roman letters from a mobile. "और दोस्त सब ठीक है?" in Hindi would be typed as "Aur dost sab thik hai?" when someone pings a friend on facebook or sends a text message. Now with the new typing tool you need to type "aur dosta saba thiika hai?" to get the same text in Devanagari script. This typing scheme is almost same like the phonetic typing most people use for regional languages on mobile which is why typing won’t be much of difference. In terms of usability most people would use the typed text either for web search in regional languages, Facebook posts, tweeting or even sending mails and text messages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The detailed procedure for typing using this tool is documented at: <a href="http://goo.gl/HdVJW">http://goo.gl/HdVJW</a>. Indic typing tool is available at: <a class="external-link" href="http://bitly.com/indictyping">http://bitly.com/indictyping</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Scan the QR code below using your QR code application to go "Indic typing tool".</b></p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/QRCodeIndictypingtool.png" title="QR Code for Indic typing tool" height="193" width="193" alt="QR Code for Indic typing tool" class="image-inline" /></p>
<h3>Developer speaks:</h3>
<p>This is a simple tool that lets you type in your native language on mobile phones. Currently only iOS devices are supported.</p>
<p>The tool is a simple wrapper around Wikimedia Foundation <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Language_Engineering_team">Language Engineering</a>'s <a href="http://github.com/wikimedia/jquery.ime">jquery.ime</a> project. It simply adds a much easier to use (on a mobile device) language selector, and makes it available offline (on iOS devices).</p>
<h3>Quick links:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Source code: <a class="external-link" href="https://github.com/yuvipanda/indic-typing-tool">https://github.com/yuvipanda/indic-typing-tool</a></li>
<li>Test the app and report the bugs directly on <a class="external-link" href="https://github.com/yuvipanda/indic-typing-tool/issues">GitHub</a> or on <a class="external-link" href="http://goo.gl/sBiaF">Meta</a>.</li>
<li>Credits: <a class="external-link" href="http://yuvi.in/">YuviPanda</a>, <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Psubhashish">Subhashish Panigrahi</a>, <a class="external-link" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Santhosh.thottingal">Santhosh Thottingal</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/typing-in-indic-languages-from-mobiles'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/typing-in-indic-languages-from-mobiles</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpennessInformation Technology2013-07-17T09:02:46ZBlog EntryTwitter weekly Curation WeAreWikipedia brings one Wikipedian Every Week
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/twitter-weekly-curation-wearewikipedia-brings-one-wikipedian-every-week
<b>WeAreWikipedia is an initiative to bring in voices of Wikipedia contributors (known as Wikipedians). One Wikipedian curates the Twitter based handle for a week and tells interesting stories from his/her communities that are unheard to the rest of the globe. Started as a personal project by our program officer Subhashish Panigrahi it has brought 18 Wikipedians across the globe including 6 Indic language communities.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>This post is written by <a class="external-link" href="http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AD%8D%E0%AD%9F%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%B9%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%B0%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%B0%E0%AD%80:Guguly18">Diptiman Panigrahi</a>, an Odia Wikipedian who curated <a class="external-link" href="http://twitter.com/wearewikipedia">@WeAreWikipedia</a> during the week when the Odia community was celebrating Odisha Dibasa 2014 in March</i>.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Kjʊ (ə) ˈreɪt/ (curate)</b><br />Select, organize, and present (online content, merchandise, information, etc.), typically using professional or expert knowledge.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Luckily I also got a chance to curate WeAreWikipedia on Twitter. WeAreWikipedia is the official Twitter handle of wikipedians from different linguistic groups around the world, in which appointed Wikipedians tweet information, what is happening in Wikipedia of different languages, new services about Wikipedia and achievements of Wikipedia and Wikipedians across the globe.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">During the last week of March 2014, I got a chance and responsibility to handle @WeAreWikipedia. I am a volunteer in Odia Wikipedia. Odia is an Indian classical language. Coincidentally Odia Wikipedia was celebrating the Statehood Day of Indian State Odisha and Classical Status to 2500 years old language Odia. The main motto of this celebration was “How can we use Odia language more and more in digital media?” Subhashish Panigrahi, program officer, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), told me to curate Wikipedia, for that week of the occasion. When I studied the rules and regulations for tweeting, I got to know that, it is not an easy job. I had to keep track on every tweet of whom the handle was following and who was following to that handle, related to Wikipedia. It was difficult to track Bangla Wikipedia because completion of every article was informed by a tweet by their volunteer. I have a Twitter account of my own but, I don’t frequently use this. So I didn’t know about tweeting technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As the function was ahead, I have seen Subhasish Panigrahi and other active wikipedians tweeting frequently about what’s going on in function in every particular time interval, as per the program time-table. So, I asked them “How you guys are doing so much of tweeting and organizing the function at a time?” Then they told about tweetdeck technology, a tool to schedule you tweet for future for any time and any moment. After that the work became 50% easier for me. I added my personal account to WeAreWikipedia account on tweetdeck, scheduled the tweet as per time table of the program. Now, the only work was to keep in touch with tweets of wikipedians regarding Wikipedia and other related tweets about Wikipedia. During the function, I happened to tweet the updated pictures and extra information live from the venue. After that my friends asked me “Are you sure you are organizing the program? This was so since the tweets were coming in every half-an-hour. However, they didn’t know that I was travelling here and there during the program for emergency requirements.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It was a wonderful experience curating WeAreWikipedia without even much time. Meeting the entire Wikimedia global community was even more fun when I was telling happenings of my own community. I hope to take part in more of such collaborative global issues like this.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/twitter-weekly-curation-wearewikipedia-brings-one-wikipedian-every-week'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/twitter-weekly-curation-wearewikipedia-brings-one-wikipedian-every-week</a>
</p>
No publisherDiptiman PanigrahiAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikipediaOpenness2014-06-16T06:16:30ZBlog EntryTrain The Trainer Programme for Wikipedians
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dnaindia-november-14-2013-subhashish-panigrahi-train-the-trainer-programme-for-wikipedians
<b>Twenty Wikimedians from 10 cities speaking 8 languages attended the 4-day Train-The-Trainer (TTT) programme conducted last month by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge programme (CIS-A2K) at Bangalore. The programme aimed to improve and enhance Wikipedians' skills for outreach and community-building activities.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Subhashish Panigrahi was edited by Rohini Lakshane and <a class="external-link" href="http://www.dnaindia.com/blogs/post-report-train-the-trainer-programme-for-wikipedians-1919207">published in DNA</a> on November 14, 2013.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Twenty Wikimedians from 10 cities speaking 8 languages attended the 4-day <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Events/TTT" target="_blank">Train The Trainer</a> (TTT) programme conducted last month by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge programme (CIS-A2K) at Bangalore. Twenty active Indian language Wikimedia communities spread across the world are moving ahead the bandwagon of collaborating with each other and carving their mark on the world's largest encyclopaedia and its other sister projects. Apart from editing Wikipedia articles, some Wikimedians devote their time to bringing new blood into the community and fostering it, so that the community grows. Indian language Wikimedia communities need to empower Wikimedians who would lead the outreach activities locally in their vernacular communities. The idea of the TTT programme was born out of this need.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The TTT programme kicked off on October 3 with Wikimedians from Punjab, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. They delivered presentations on various topics: Why the society needs Wikipedia; Wikipedia in Indian languages; How articles about diseases and other common medical science topics could be improved to help people; etc. Their presentation delivery skills were assessed by CIS-A2K's Director and Manager and they were offered individual assessment and feedback. Personal trainer Sachin Nagarajappa spent time with Wikimedians discussing mistakes that trainers do while conducting workshops and gradual improvement techniques for impactful outreach. Malayalam Wikimedian Viswanathan Prabhakaran held a session on "Crowd Sourcing from the Future" explaining various layers of crowdsourced projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On the next day, groups of Wikimedians were assigned the task of delivering a Wikipedia editing session to the audience as if the latter were new editors. Sachin conducted an advanced presentation skill improvement workshop based on inputs gathered from participants and the assessment of the group presentations. Veteran Wikimedian Hari Prasad Nadig shared lessons on "Challenges and Opportunities in building an Indian Language Community online". FOSS activist and CIS Executive Director Sunil Abraham conducted two sessions: "A spectrogram-based activity to simplify the criticality of Neutral Point of View" and an interactive session on offline and online outreach, "Speed Geeking". These were followed by one-on-one discussions on improving presentation skills.</p>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/TrainTrainerWikipedia.png/@@images/8596f00b-ce01-4beb-8538-09e5253bb70e.png" alt="Train, Trainer, Wikipedia" class="image-inline" title="Train, Trainer, Wikipedia" /></th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Typing in Indian languages is not easy, especially with the many typing layout standards used in the public and private sectors in India. CIS-A2K's Programme Officer Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted a session on the Unicode standard for Indian languages, its use and fonts in different operating systems. Social media expert and Wikimedian Tinu Cherian shared the secrets of popularising Indian language Wikipedias and bringing outstanding contributors to the limelight. He also spoke about how the media played an important role in showcasing initiatives for free encyclopaedic content contribution in India, and shared tips on using the social media. CIS-A2K's Programme Director Vishnu Vardhan shared case studies of making Wikipedia workshops interesting, interactive and fun. Viswanathan and CIS-A2K's Programme Officer Subhashish Panigrahi demonstrated how to set up a handheld digital camera-based prop to easily digitise books without using a scanner.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The most vital part of Wikipedia articles is citing references. Wikimedian Shyamal Lakshminarayan demonstrated how finding sources of references and citing them on Wikipedia could be made easier using various tools. Board member of the Wikimedia Foundation and writer Achal Prabhala shared stories of documenting orally continued traditions in Kerala and South Africa for building references on Wikipedia. He also shed light on how copyright laws evolved in the context of copyright issues that Wikipedia contributors face, and on content donation on WikiSource and other platforms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wikimedia India's founding member and veteran Telugu Wikimedian Arjuna Rao Chavala spoke about the history and future plans of Wikimedia India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The participants then went to M.G. Road Boulevard to see the weaving work by Gandhians, a philately exhibition on Gandhi, and spent some time with Namma Metro's staff to learn about the operations of the Metro. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja and Kannada Wikimedian Om Shivaprakash guided the Wikimedians to the office of Deccan Herald-Prajavani where they observed the newspaper production process and learnt about the use of Kannada Unicode fonts in newspaper printing. The editor and staff of Prajavani learnt about the use of the Wikimedia Commons as a free media repository. The Wikimedians left Bangalore with happy faces with the hope of cultivating more editors in their communities.</p>
<hr />
<ul>
<li>Link to the <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Events/TTT">meta page here</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>More <a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:CIS-A2K_Train-the-Trainer_Program">pictures here</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dnaindia-november-14-2013-subhashish-panigrahi-train-the-trainer-programme-for-wikipedians'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dnaindia-november-14-2013-subhashish-panigrahi-train-the-trainer-programme-for-wikipedians</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2013-11-18T08:24:52ZBlog EntryTrain the Trainer Program
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/train-the-trainer-program
<b>Wikipedians, about 20 of them, from 10 different cities, speaking 8 different languages, joined together for the first ever four days "Train the Trainer Program" organised by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team in Bangalore from October 3 to 6, 2013. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Events/TTT">Read the original published on the Wikipedia meta page</a></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Programme_Plan">CIS-A2K</a> organised the residency training program to build capacities amongst different language Wikimedia communities. A good diversity of Wikipedians from various language communities such as Bengali, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Odia, came over for the event.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K identified two prominent reasons for organizing the event: (1) Limitations of a virtual sphere, and (2) Limited number of Wikipedians leading outreach activities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><b>Limitations of a virtual sphere</b></span><br />Most open source communities face problem of a lack of time and space for sharing ideas in a non-virtual sphere. Similary Wikipedians, who are voluntary contributors and authors of the articles posted on Wikipedia merely get time and opportunity to meet fellow editors because of the limitations of a virtual platform on which Wikipedia is built. There are twelve active Indian language Wikimedia communities that are spread across the world and moving the bandwagon of collaborating with each other and carving their historic mark of compiling the world's largest encyclopaedia and its other sister projects. To keep this movement alive there is a need of cross-sharing ideas of working together for a common goal and strengthening the leaders of these communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><b>Limited number of Wikipedians leading outreach activities<br /> </b></span>Only a handful of Wikipedians devote their time in leading outreach activities and bringing new blood to the community. Indian language Wikimedia communities are in need of empowering Wikipedians who would lead outreach sessions in order to expand their editor community and strengthen their language projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The inception of this program began with the discussion of organizing a training program for the Wikipedians who are willing to conduct more activities in their home cities. Finally on October 3, 2013, Bangalore heard the voices of prominent Wikipedians from Punjab, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. The Wikipedians delivered presentations on various topics such as — why Wikipedia is needed for the society, why Wikipedia in Indian languages, importance of starting new Wiki projects and so on.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Their presentation delivery skills were judged by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Visdaviva">Vishnu Vardhan</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nitika.t">Nitika Tandon</a> and all other community members present. They gave individual assessments and feedback for improvement towards the end of the day. Personal trainer Sachin Nagarajappa spent time with Wikipedians discussing mistakes that trainers do while conducting workshops and gradual improvement techniques for impactful outreach. Wikipedia is built on the concept of crowdsourcing and Malayalam Wikimedian <a href="https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Viswaprabha">Viswanathan Prabhakaran</a> carried out a session about “Crowd Sourcing from the Future” explaining the various layers of crowdsourced projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first day ended with a task where different language Wikipedians formed groups to prepare presentations for the following day.</p>
<hr />
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_TraintheTrainer.png" alt="Train the Trainer 1" class="image-inline" title="Train the Trainer 1" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Above: Wikipedians Satdeep Gill, Shyamal Lakshminarayan and Shubha during at the CIS-A2K Train-the-Trainer Program (by Subhashish Panigrahi, CC-BY-SA 3.0)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Groups were given a challenge of imagining the audience as new wikipedians. Five groups presented on the second day. Sachin conducted an advanced presentation skill improvement workshop based on the inputs from the participants and the assessment of the group presentations. Veteran Wikipedian <a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/ಸದಸ್ಯ:HPNadig">Hari Prasad Nadig</a> shared learnings from Challenges & Opportunities in building an Indian Language Community online. Open source activist and CIS's Executive Director <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Sunil Abraham</a> conducted two sessions — a spectrogram based activity to simplify the "Criticality of Neutral Point of View" and an interactive session called “Speed Geeking” on offline and online outreach followed by a one-on-one discussion on the presentation skill improvement.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Typing in Indian languages is not easy especially when it comes to multiple typing layout standards followed in the public and private sectors in India. <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pavanaja">Dr. U.B.Pavanaja</a> conducted a session on Unicode standard for Indian languages and its usefulness with a brief context on the fonts and their different operating systems. Social media expert and Wikimedian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tinucherian">Tinu Cherian</a> shared the secrets of popularizing Indian language Wikipedias and bringing outstanding contributors to the limelight, how media played an important role in showcasing initiatives for free encyclopaedic content contribution in India and tips of social media. With fun activities <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Visdaviva">Vishnu Vardhan</a> shared case studies of making Wikipedia workshops interesting. Wikimedia Foundation board member and writer <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Aprabhala">Achal Prabhala</a> shared stories of documenting Oral traditions in Kerala and South Africa for Wikipedia referencing and how copyright laws evolved in the context of copyright issues that Wikipedia contributors face. Achal also threw light on content donation on WikiSource and other platforms that would be useful for people to consume for knowledge production on diverse platforms where Wikipedia could play a central role. Viswanathan and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Psubhashish">Subhashish Panigrahi</a> demonstrated how to set up a handheld digital camera based prop to easily digitize books without using any scanner and then create electronic books.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The most vital part of Wikipedia articles is referencing. Wikimedian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Shyamal">Shyamal Lakshminarayan</a> demonstrated how finding sources of references and citing them for the facts on Wikipedia could be made easier through detailed research and by using several tools available. <a href="https://wiki.wikimedia.in/">Wikimedia India</a>'s founding member and veteran Telugu Wikipedian <a href="https://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/వాడుకరి:Arjunaraoc">Arjuna Rao Chavala</a> gave a talk about the history and future plans of Wikimedia India. Wikipedians then went to M.G. Road boulevard to see the weaving work by Gandhians, Philately exhibition on Gandhi and spent some time with Namma Metro's staff to know about the metro operation. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja and Kannada Wikipedian <a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/ಸದಸ್ಯ:Omshivaprakash">Om Shivaprakash</a> guided Wikipedians to the office of Deccan Herald Prajavani where they got to see the entire newspaper production and spent time with the technical staff to learn about the use of Kannada Unicode fonts for newspaper printing. Editors and staff at Prajavani got to know about the use of WikiCommons as a free image repository.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The four action filled days involved learning new concepts, training on presentation skills, collaborating to create outreach documents, sharing stories from different language communities, understanding new mediums of outreach, meeting Wikipedians from different cities and also having lots of fun. Wikipedians left Bangalore city with happy faces and we hope to cultivate new editors in their communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><b>List of Participants</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:AbhiSuryawanshi" title="en:user:AbhiSuryawanshi">Abhishek Suryawanshi</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:AnkitaS" title="en:user:AnkitaS">Ankita Sinha</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Charan_Gill" title="en:user:Charan Gill">Charan Gill</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:jayantanth" title="en:user:jayantanth">Jayanta Nath</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Kasyap" title="en:user:Kasyap">Kasyap</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Niraj_Suryawanshi" title="en:user:Niraj Suryawanshi">Niraj Suryawanshi</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:pranayraj1985" title="te:user:pranayraj1985">pranayraj vangari</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Satdeep_gill" title="en:user:Satdeep gill">Satdeep Gill</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://sa.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:shubha">Shubha</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Rangilo_Gujarati" title="en:user:Rangilo Gujarati">Rangilo Gujarati</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Manojk" title="ml:User:Manojk">Manoj K</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MKar" title="en:User:MKar">Mrutyunjaya Kar</a> (<a class="extiw" href="https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MKar" title="or:User:MKar">Odia Wiki</a>)</li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Subas_Chandra_Rout" title="or:User:Subas Chandra Rout">Subas Chandra Rout</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Nikhil.kawale" title="en:user:Nikhil.kawale">Nikhil Kawale</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B0%B5%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%A1%E0%B1%81%E0%B0%95%E0%B0%B0%E0%B0%BF:%E0%B0%B5%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%B6%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%B5%E0%B0%A8%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%A7%E0%B1%8D.%E0%B0%AC%E0%B0%BF.%E0%B0%95%E0%B1%86." title="te:వాడుకరి:విశ్వనాధ్.బి.కె.">Viswanadh.b.k</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Hindustanilanguage" title="hi:user:Hindustanilanguage">Muzammil</a></li>
<li><a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:John_Noronha" title="en:user:John Noronha">John Noronha</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/train-the-trainer-program'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/train-the-trainer-program</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaFeaturedOpennessHomepage2013-11-18T07:52:26ZBlog EntryTrain the Trainer Program
https://cis-india.org/openness/events/train-the-trainer-program
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) welcomes you to attend the "Train the Trainer Program" in Bangalore.</b>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Train the Trainer (TTT) is a residential training workshop to groom leadership skills among the Indian Wikimedia community members. CIS-A2K is organizing the Wikipedia Train the Trainer Program 2015 (TTT 2015). This is the second iteration of this program. TTT 2015 will be conducted by CIS-A2K during 26 February to 1 March 2015 in Bangalore, India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Note: All selected participants will be expected to reach the event venue the previous night (i.e. February 25) and leave by the evening of March 1, 2015. <b><span>The selected participants are requested to kindly confirm their participation by writing to tanveer<img alt=" at " height="17" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/At_sign.svg/17px-At_sign.svg.png" title=" at " width="17" />cis-india.org. <b><span>Registration for TTT 2015 is closed. Please do not register.</span></b>. Please note that registration does not confirm participation. Selection by CIS-A2K will be final. Before registering here please go through the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program#Selection_Criterion" title="India Access To Knowledge/Events/Train the Trainer Program">selection criterion</a>.</span></b></p>
<h2>Programme Schedule</h2>
<h3>Thursday, February 26, 2015</h3>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timing</th><th>Session</th><th>Topics to be Covered</th><th>Coordinator / Resource Person</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="grid listing">
<thead> </thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">7:30am - 8:30am</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Breakfast</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">8:30am - 9:00am</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Registration</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">9:00am - 10.30am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Welcome & Introduction</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Introductions (activity based) Creating name tags for yourself and your friends </li>
<li> Energiser/Activity. Meet and greet Wikimedians </li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">T. Vishnu Vardhan (VV) and Tanveer Hasan (TH)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">10:30am - 11 am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Why TTT?</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Design and Objectives of the TTT</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">VV</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">11 am - 11.30 am</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">☕ Tea/Coffee Break</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">☼ 11.30 am - 1 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Participant presentations</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Individual presentation based on pre-work</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">TTT Participant</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">1 pm - 2 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Lunch</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">2 pm - 3.30 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Participant presentations</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Individual presentation based on pre work</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">TTT Participant</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">3.30 pm - 4 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">☕ Tea/Coffee Break</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">4 pm - 5 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Presenting with impact</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Effective Communication </li>
<li> Forceful Introduction </li>
<li> Organizing your speech (Opening, Body Closing) </li>
<li> Get to the point (General purpose and specific purpose) </li>
<li> Communicate clearly, accurately and vividly </li>
<li> Body Language (Stance, Movement, Gestures, Facial expression and eye contact) </li>
<li> Vocal Variety (Volume, Pitch, Rate and Quality) </li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">TH</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">5.30 pm - 6.30 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Break</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">6.30 pm - 8 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Parallel Sessions</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Personal coaching on Presentation Skills using video recordings of Presentation <br /> or </li>
<li> Multilingual Edit-a-thon (theme - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jnanpith_Award" title="en:Jnanpith Award">Jnanpith_Award</a>) </li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Sunil Abraham(SA) </li>
<li> VV </li>
<li> TH </li>
<li> Rahmanuddin Shaik (RS) </li>
<li> Subhashish Panigrahi (SP) </li>
<li> U.B. Pavanaja (UBP) </li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">8:00 pm - 9:00 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Dinner</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Friday, February 26, 2015</h3>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timing</th><th>Session</th><th>Topics to be Covered</th><th>Coordinator / Resource Person</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">☾ 8 pm - 9 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Dinner</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">☼ 10.30 am - 11 am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Internet research techniques (Session 2)</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Information literacy and Internet research techniques for Wikipedia editors <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/muscicapa/information-literacy-and-internet-research-wiki-workshop">slides</a></p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">LS</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">9.15 am - 10 am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Internet research techniques (Session 1)</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Information literacy and Internet research techniques for Wikipedia editors</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">LS</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">8:30 am - 9.15 am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Copyright, CC and Wikimedia</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Introduction to Copyright and Creative Commons <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/muscicapa/some-basic-ideas-on-copyright-law-for-wikipedia-users">slides</a> </li>
<li> Creative Commons </li>
<li> Wikimedia Applications </li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">L. Shyamal (LS)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">7:30 am - 8:30 am</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Breakfast</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">7 pm - 8 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Parallel sessions</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Personal Coaching </li>
<li> GLAM Projects Do's and Dont's </li>
<li> FOSS Tools Support and Discussion </li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul type="disc">
<li> CIS-A2K Team </li>
<li> RL </li>
<li> RS </li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">6.30 pm - 7 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">GLAM Projects in Indic Wikipedia Context</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Feasibility, Scalability and Scope</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Rohini Lakshane(RL)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">6 pm - 6.30 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">☕ Tea/Coffee Break</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">5 pm - 6 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Essential Foss Tools for Wikimedians</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Hands on Session</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Rahamanuddin</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">4.30 pm - 5 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Essential FOSS Tools</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Demonstration</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">RS</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">4 pm - 4.30 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">☕ Tea/Coffee Break</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">3.30 pm - 4 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Panel Discussion</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Importance of NPOV in Indian Languages</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Participant Panel (TBD)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">2.45 pm - 3.30 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Importance of NPOV</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">NPOV as an essential quality for Wikimedians with English Wikipedia as a case study</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">NVV Char and Tito Dutta</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">2 pm - 2.45 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Spectogram</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Interactive activity to critically discuss the importance of NPOV</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">SA</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">11.45 am - 1 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">DIY</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Digitisation Techniques for Wikimedians-Hands on Session</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Group Activity</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">11.30 am - 11.45 am</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">☕ Tea/Coffee Break</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">11 am - 11.30 am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">DIY</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Digitisation Techniques for Wikimedians</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Viswa Prabha(VP)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">10 am - 10.30 am</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">☕ Tea/Coffee Break</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">1 pm - 2 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Lunch</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Saturday, February 28, 2015</h3>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timing</th><th>Session</th><th>Topics to be Covered</th><th>Coordinator / Resource Person</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>7 am - 7.30am</td>
<td colspan="3">Breakfast</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7:30am</td>
<td colspan="3">Departure to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janapada_Loka" title="en:Janapada Loka">Janapada Loka</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9 am - 9.30am</td>
<td>Expectations from GLAM Activity</td>
<td>Design,scope and expected outcomes</td>
<td>TH</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9.30am - 1 pm</td>
<td>* GLAM Activity</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li> Interviewing Janapada Loka Staff </li>
<li> Documentation of Janapada Loka exhibits </li>
<li> Resource Collection for Wiki Commons </li>
<li> Material collection for GLAM Edit-a-thon </li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<ul>
<li> VP </li>
<li> RL </li>
<li> CIS-A2K </li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1 pm - 2 pm</td>
<td colspan="3">Lunch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2 pm - 3.30 pm</td>
<td>Group Activity</td>
<td>GLAM Editathon in Indian Languages</td>
<td>VP and VV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3.30 pm - 4 pm</td>
<td colspan="3">☕ Tea/Coffee Break</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4 pm - 4.30 pm</td>
<td>Panel Discussion</td>
<td>Need and importance of GLAM Activities</td>
<td>TBD</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4.30 pm - 5.30 pm</td>
<td>Focused Group Discussion</td>
<td>GLAM Activities to be pursued (Individual and Community)</td>
<td>Participant Groups</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5.30 pm - 6.30 pm</td>
<td colspan="3">Departure to CEO Centre</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>☾ 8 pm - 9 pm</td>
<td colspan="3">Dinner at CEO Centre</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Sunday, March 1, 2015</h3>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Timing</th><th>Session</th><th>Topics to be Covered</th><th>Coordinator / Resource Person</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">07:30 am - 08:30 am</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Breakfast</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">08:30am - 9.30 am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Media and Social Media Strategies for Wikimedians</p>
</td>
<td>
<ul type="disc">
<li> Mobilizing mainstream media to cover Wikimedia success stories </li>
<li> Best practices of Social Media </li>
</ul>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Tinu Cherian</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">9.30am - 10 am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Building Communities for Wikimedia Movement</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Introduction to WMIN</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Ravishankar Ayyakkannu (RA)and Yohann Thomas (YT)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">10am - 10.30 am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Building Communities for Wikimedia Movement</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">CIS-A2K Trials and Success</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">VV</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">☼ 10.30 am - 11:00 am</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">☕ Tea/Coffee Break</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">11am - 11.30 am</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Group Discussion</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Challenges & Opportunities in building an Indian Language Community online</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Participant Groups</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">11.30 pm - 12.30 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Participant Presentation</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Participant Presentations</p>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">12.30 pm - 1 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Lunch</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">1.30 pm - 2 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Focused Group Discussion</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Road Ahead for GLAM activities in India Languages</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Participant Presentations</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">2.30 pm - 3.30 pm</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Participant Presentation</p>
</td>
<td>
<p align="center">Submission of Outreach and GLAM Draft Plans</p>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">3.30 pm - 3.45 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Feedback Session</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">3.45 pm - 4 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Closing Remarks</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p align="center">4:00 pm</p>
</td>
<td colspan="3">
<p align="center">Departures or Visit to CIS</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>For any further queries please email—</p>
<ul>
<li>tanveer<img alt=" at " height="17" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/At_sign.svg/17px-At_sign.svg.png" title=" at " width="17" />cis-india.org 09844439247</li>
<li>ajoy <img alt=" at " height="17" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/At_sign.svg/17px-At_sign.svg.png" title=" at " width="17" />cis-india.org 09845492122</li>
<li>vishnu<img alt=" at " height="17" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/At_sign.svg/17px-At_sign.svg.png" title=" at " width="17" />cis-india.org 09845207308</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/events/train-the-trainer-program'>https://cis-india.org/openness/events/train-the-trainer-program</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpennessEvent2015-02-27T02:37:10ZEventThree emerging market think tanks to collaborate on Good ID recommendations with Omidyar backing
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
<b>Omidyar Network has invested in a trio of organizations from different regions to support enhanced understanding of the appropriate use and limits of digital identity.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post by Chris Burt was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/201905/three-emerging-market-think-tanks-to-collaborate-on-good-id-recommendations-with-omidyar-backing">published in Biometri Update</a> on May 8, 2019.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Organizations from Brazil, Kenya, and India will take on a collaborative and iterative research process to help develop Omidyar’s concept of Good ID, according to a <a href="https://www.omidyar.com/blog/appropriate-use-digital-identity-why-we-invested-three-region-research%C2%A0alliance" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blog post</a> by Omidyar Networks Investment Principal Subhashish Bhadra.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The three organizations are the Institute for Technology & Society (ITS), the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT), and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). The ITS is a non-profit organization based in Brazil, with a mission of ensuring that emerging markets can respond appropriately to digital technologies, and that their benefits are broadly shared. CIPIT is an academic think tank, operating from the Strathmore Law School in Nairobi, Kenya, addressing emerging issues of continent-wide impact and providing an African voice for research networks. CIS is an India-based non-profit, which conducts interdisciplinary academic research to understand how the internet and digital technologies reconfigure social processes and structures.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Bhadra notes that 110 countries have begun identification schemes in the past decade. These programs are often implemented to serve an initial use case, and their application expanded over time.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“In the absence of adequate legislative or judicial oversight, mission creep can create risks for those very individuals that an identity is supposed to empower,” Bhadra writes. “By their very nature, digital identity systems collect some data about individuals in order to provide access to certain services. This immediately raises two interrelated questions. First, how much data should the system collect? Second, what services should it be tied to?”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Determining the appropriate scope of digital identity is inherently complex, and the potential for mission creep and requirement for a growing list of services risks exclusion, privacy violations, and a power imbalance between institutions and individuals, Bhadra argues.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The three groups will conduct independent research over the next six months, and create a set of recommendations and tools for stakeholders to use when engaging with digital identity systems.<br />Omidyar is a supporter of the <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/201901/mission-billion-challenge-offers-100k-in-prizes-for-identity-data-privacy-innovation">Mission Billion Challenge</a>, among several initiatives related to UN SDG 16.9.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a 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'>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</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminInternet Governance2019-05-14T15:01:48ZNews ItemThis Twitter Account Puts a Face to the Unsung Volunteer Editors Behind Wikipedia
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/global-voices-online-june-18-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-twitter-account-puts-a-face-to-unsung-volunteer-editors-behind-wikipedia
<b>The life of a Wikipedia editor is an interesting one. Globally, about 100,000 editors edit the collaborative online encyclopedia's 30 million articles in 287 languages, including over 4.5 million in the English Wikipedia.</b>
<p>Click to read the post published on <a class="external-link" href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/06/18/this-twitter-account-puts-a-face-to-the-unsung-volunteer-editors-behind-wikipedia/">Global Voices here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/WikiEditors.png" alt="Wiki Editors" class="image-inline" title="Wiki Editors" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">They dedicate a tremendous amount of their time to contribute and edit articles, but for no pay (editors work as volunteers) and for little public recognition – their work is credited via their usernames tucked away in the entry's edit history.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Now, one initiative is trying to shine the spotlight on these hard-working “Wikipedians.” <a href="http://wearewikipedia.wordpress.com/author/wearewikipedia/">WeAreWikipedia</a> is an unofficial project that brings on a different editor each week to curate information regarding their favorite Wikipedia pages and tweet them using the handle <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreWikipedia">@WeAreWikipedia</a>. So far, 19 people representing 17 different language Wikipedias have curated the account.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">WeAreWikipedia explains on its blog that it was inspired by a weekly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation_Curation">rotation curation</a> handle <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreBangalore" target="_blank">@WeAreBangalore</a> created by social media strategists from the Indian city of Bangalore in October 2013 to create a space for Bangaloreans to tell their stories, give their opinions or simple connect with other active social media users in the area.</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">Admin: Most of u r not aware that, one of our previous curators @psubhashish was inspired by us and started global #RoCur @WeAreWikipedia :)<br /> — Bangalore/Rajeev (@WeAreBangalore) June 17, 2014</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">@WeAreBangalore in turn took its cue from the highly successful @sweden, which turns over the Twitter handle to a different Swede every week as a sort of citizen ambassador program.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The WeAreWikipedia <a href="http://wearewikipedia.wordpress.com/curators/">curators</a> also tell personal stories and <a href="https://twitter.com/FloydKellyMusic/statuses/474769259021627393">explain the technicalities</a> of publishing and editing Wikipedia to any readers who ask.</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">Wherever I go, local Wikipedians are so welcoming and so open to collaboration. I have made friends all around the globe.<br />— WeAreWikipedia (@WeAreWikipedia) <a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/WeAreWikipedia/statuses/478904734758490113">junio 17, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Curators often focus tweets on their Wikipedia language community and country. Two women editors from India, Noopur Raval and Netha Hussain, dedicated many of their publications to facts about women’s rights, issues and development in India while curating the handle during <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_History_Month" target="_blank">Women’s History Month</a> in March. They also drew attention to an <a href="http://wikiwomen.in/" target="_blank">edit-a-thon</a> held in Bangalore that brought <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/indian-wiki-women-history-month">90 women to write about 77 articles</a> related to women in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mariona Aragay, an editor for the Catalan Wikipedia, made a related call for more women editors while she was at the helm of @WeAreWikipedia:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>As a wikipedian, it concernes me the low ratio of <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23woman&src=hash">#woman</a> editors: if you’re a wiki-girl, let us know your experience! <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23gendergap&src=hash">#gendergap</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WikiWomen">@wikiwomen</a></p>
<p>— WeAreWikipedia (@WeAreWikipedia) <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreWikipedia/statuses/474257031621533696">June 4, 2014</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Curators also highlight community events, such as <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/08/odisha-dibasa-2014-14-books-released-under-cc-license/">Odisha Dibasa 2014,</a> a gathering at the end of March 2014 of the Odia-language Wikipedia community in the capital of the Indian state of Odisha, where the language is predominantly spoken.</p>
<p>Diptiman Panigrahi, an Odia editor who curated @WeAreWikipedia during the event, talked about his week in a <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/twitter-weekly-curation-wearewikipedia-brings-one-wikipedian-every-week">blog post</a> for The Centre for Internet and Society in India:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted">It was a wonderful experience curating WeAreWikipedia without even much time. Meeting the entire Wikimedia global community was even more fun when I was telling happenings of my own community. I hope to take part in more of such collaborative global issues like this.</blockquote>
<p>You can follow WeAreWikipedia on <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreWikipedia">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WeAreWikipediaProject">Facebook</a> and on their <a href="http://wearewikipedia.wordpress.com/">blog</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/global-voices-online-june-18-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-twitter-account-puts-a-face-to-unsung-volunteer-editors-behind-wikipedia'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/global-voices-online-june-18-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-twitter-account-puts-a-face-to-unsung-volunteer-editors-behind-wikipedia</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpennessWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2014-07-03T06:17:56ZBlog EntryThis little innovation is bringing a revolution in the Odia language
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dna-february-3-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-little-innovation-is-bringing-revolution-in-odia-language
<b>Depicting human language within computing environments has always been a challenge: a given language's script and alphabet needs to be mapped to a coding system that a computer can process digitally. This is done by way of an encoding system that basically maps each character to a unique numeric code.</b>
<p>The article was published by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report-this-little-innovation-is-bringing-a-revolution-in-the-odia-language-2173325">DNA</a> on February 3, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was a standard approach for dealing with languages in the computing context. However, over time, many such encoding systems mushroomed. In 2012, Odisha-based non-profit Srujanika, with help from colleagues, created<strong> <a rel="nofollow" href="https://bitbucket.org/rebati/rebati/downloads" target="_blank">two text encoding converters</a> </strong>that could convert two different legacy non-Unicode based script encoding systems to the universally accepted Unicode. I personally tested and found a lot of typos. It seemed to me that one would take more time to convert and proofread than just typing the text.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a rel="nofollow" href="http://unicode.org/standard/WhatIsUnicode.html" target="_blank"><strong>Unicode</strong></a> is a computing industry standard that provides a unique number for every character of the alphabet irrespective of the platform, program or script. Before the onset of Unicode there existed several other standards—such as <strong><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.asciitable.com/" target="_blank">American Standard Code for Information Interchange</a></strong> (ASCII) and <strong><a rel="nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Script_Code_for_Information_Interchange" target="_blank">Indian Script Code for Information Interchange</a></strong> (ISCII)—that defined the manner in which letters of a particular language were depicted on a computer. The text encoding converters generally are used to convert them from one encoding systems to another.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, as proprietary and legacy encoding systems were so popular among the desktop publishing (DTP) operators, most Indian language media houses remained tied to their existing encoding systems even after Unicode was introduced. This led to editors, journalists, writers and many native language users having to reliable and intuitive way to input in their own language. For example, Unicode Odia resulted in a huge gap of Odia-language content online with users that depended on earlier, disjointed standards.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The converters I explained before could solve this problem partially as they could convert only two encoding systems with about 80% linguistic accuracy. While seeking help to enhance and scale up these existing converters, three Wikimedian-developers came forward to work on the available converters and create more foolproof ones. We worked together for hours spanning over a few months to make the converters better. When I asked my writer and journalist friends to test it, the result literally thrilled me as they all had started writing in Odia on Facebook the very next day.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">More blogs started coming in Odia and more social media interaction in Odia. Interestingly, popular newspaper Sarbasadharana.com and an online portal Odisha.com used it. Many even started contributing to blogs and online portals. It became much easier for Wikimedians to use existing resources from portals, newspapers and magazines to enrich Wikipedia. Some of the available soft copies of public domain books acquired and books that were relicensed to CC licenses could easily be used on Wikisource.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Though it is difficult to measure the exact percentage of growth for online Odia-language content on the Internet, a significant change is seen today as compared to the state of the Odia language on the internet six months ago. Almost all the federal entities that were stuck with two non-Unicode encoding systems finally moved to Unicode, with official portal odia.odisha.gov.in including adoption of Unicode in their core policy. As a gesture of support to the development, the federal department has included Odia Wikipedia on the top of their <strong><a rel="nofollow" href="http://odia.odisha.gov.in/it-tool-for-viewing-odia-in-browser.html" target="_blank">resources page</a></strong>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently, <strong><a rel="nofollow" href="https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jnanaranjan_sahu" target="_blank">Jnanaranjan Sahu</a></strong>, one of core contributors to the project combined all the converters into a standalone on-wiki converter that is available both on <strong><a rel="nofollow" href="https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:Converter" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></strong> and <strong><a rel="nofollow" href="https://or.wikisource.org/wiki/WS:Converter" target="_blank">Wikisource</a></strong>. Many of the larger Odia language community have contributed in finding errors which were fixed. Jyanaranjan has made available a free <strong><a rel="nofollow" href="http://gyan111.github.com/" target="_blank">online responsive converter</a></strong> that not just works from a computer but also seamlessly work from any smartphone. The converter has indeed helped to widely use Odia on the Internet. The <strong><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150406/jsp/frontpage/story_12966.jsp#.Vq7OahjMNE4" target="_blank">bigger dream</a></strong> of an Odia version of Google is closer to becoming real.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dna-february-3-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-little-innovation-is-bringing-revolution-in-odia-language'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dna-february-3-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-little-innovation-is-bringing-revolution-in-odia-language</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-02-27T07:33:06ZBlog EntryThere is No Such Thing as Free Basics
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/bangalore-mirror-subhashish-panigrahi-february-9-2016-there-is-no-such-thing-as-free-basics
<b>India would not see the rain of Free Basics advertisements on billboards with images of farmers and common people explaining how much they could benefit from this Firefox project. Because the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken a historical step by banning the differential pricing without discriminating services.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.bangaloremirror.com/news/india/There-is-No-such-thing-as-Free-basics/articleshow/50908289.cms">Bangalore Mirror</a> on February 9, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In their notes, TRAI has explained, "In India, given that a majority of the population are yet to be connected to the Internet, allowing service providers to define the nature of access would be equivalent of letting TSPs shape the users' Internet experience." Not just that, violation of this ban would cost Rs 50,000 every day.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook's earlier plan was to launch Free Basics in India by making a few websites—that are mostly partners with Facebook—available for free. The company not just advertised heavily on billboards and commercials across the nation, it also embedded a campaign inside Facebook asking users to vote in support of Free Basics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">TRAI criticised Facebook's attempt for such a manipulative public provocation. However, Facebook was heavily criticised by many policy and Internet advocates, including non-profits groups like Free Software Movement of India and Savetheinternet.in campaign.<br /><br />The latter two collectives were strongly discouraging Free Basics by bringing public opinion wherein Savetheinternet.org was used to send over 10 lakh emails to TRAI to disallow Free Basics.<br /><br />Furthermore 500 start ups including major ones like Cleartrip, Zomato, Practo, Paytm and Cleartax also wrote to prime minister Narendra Modi requesting continued support for Net Neutrality — a concept that advocates equal treating of websites — on the Republic Day.<br /><br />Stand-up comedy groups like AIB and East India Comedy had created humorous but informative videos explaining the regulatory debate and supporting net neutrality which went viral.<br /><br />Technology critic and Quartz writer Alice Truong reacted saying: "Zuckerberg almost portrays net neutrality as a first-world problem that doesn't apply to India because having some service is better than no service."<br /><br />In the light of differential pricing, news portal Medianama's founder Nikhil Pawa, in his opinion piece in Times of India, emphasised the way Aircel in India, Grameenphone in Bangladesh and Orange in Africa were providing free access to Internet with a sole motif of access to Internet, and criticised the walled Internet of Facebook that confines users inside Facebook only.<br /><br />Had the differential pricing been allowed, it would have affected start ups and content-based smaller companies adversely, as they could never have managed to pay the high price to a partner service provider to make their service available for free.<br /><br />On the other hand, tech-giants like Facebook could have easily managed to capture the entire market. Since the inception of the Facebook-run non-profit Internet.org has run into a lot of controversies because of the hidden motive behind the claimed support for social cause.<br /><br />The decision by the government has been welcomed largely in the country and outside.<br /><br />In support of the move, Web We Want programme manager at the World Wide Web Foundation, Renata Avila, has shared saying,<br /><br />"As the country with the second largest number of Internet users worldwide, this decision will resonate around the world.<br /><br />"It follows a precedent set by Chile, the United States, and others which have adopted similar net neutrality safeguards. The message is clear: We can't create a two-tier Internet — one for the haves, and one for the have-nots. We must connect everyone to the full potential of the open Web."</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/bangalore-mirror-subhashish-panigrahi-february-9-2016-there-is-no-such-thing-as-free-basics'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/bangalore-mirror-subhashish-panigrahi-february-9-2016-there-is-no-such-thing-as-free-basics</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaFree BasicsTRAIFacebookInternet Governance2016-02-14T11:37:50ZBlog EntryThe largest Wikipedia gathering in South Asia kicks off
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/opensource.com-subhashish-panigrahi-august-5-2016-largest-wikipedia-gathering-in-south-asia-kicks-off
<b>Wikimedia Conference 2016Wiki Conference India 2016 (WCI), the largest gathering of contributors to Wikipedia and its sister projects in South Asia, will be held during August 5-7 this year in Chandigarh, India.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was published <a class="external-link" href="https://opensource.com/life/16/8/wikipedia-conference-india-2016">Opensource.com</a> on August 5, 2016</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first iteration of this event was five years ago in<a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/02/wikiconference-india/" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/02/wikiconference-india/" target="_blank">2011</a>. The event is focused around <a href="https://opensource.com/life/16/2/why-its-essential-grow-indian-language-wikipedias" target="_blank">South Asian language Wikipedias</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Complete_list_of_Wikimedia_projects" target="_blank">Wikimedia projects</a>. Hundreds of participants, including over <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/05/27/wikiconference-india-scholarship/" target="_blank">100 scholarship holders</a> from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, will participate in this three-day event. A team of volunteers representing several Wikimedia communities across the country and three <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_movement_affiliates" target="_blank">Wikimedia affiliates</a>—<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India" target="_blank">Wikimedia India</a>,<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_Wikimedians" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_Wikimedians" target="_blank">Punjabi Wikimedians</a> and<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K" target="_blank">Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge program</a>—are working together to make this event a success.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Several Wikimedia project and program-related talks, meetups and thematic workshops, focused on technology, program design, volunteer leadership building and engagement, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gender_gap" target="_blank">gender gap in Wikipedia</a>, global reach, and education, will keep the participants occupied. There will be separate technical tracks, which were chosen from the results of a pre-event <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EIgOuTjwzHqqR94m1GhDnbyKFkDG9HCXH-t17k8hZVQ/prefill" target="_blank">needs assessment survey</a> to ensure that community needs are met. Prior to the conference, a <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/Punjab_Edit-a-thon" target="_blank">month-long edit-a-thon</a> has been running in twelve South Asian language Wikipedias, and one European language Wikipedia (Ukrainian Wikipedia). The focus of this sprint was to expand the content reach of Wikipedia on Punjab, Punjabi people, and their language and culture as the event is happening in Punjab. So far, more than 1900 articles have been created by about 150 Wikipedians, and the edit-a-thon will be also running during the conference to keep the option of creating more articles open to the participants. Some of the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016#Guests" target="_blank">guests</a> includes Wikimedia Foundation's board member <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016/Nominations/Nataliia_Tymkiv" target="_blank">Nataliia Tymkiv</a>, the organization's newly promoted executive director <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Maher" target="_blank">Catherine Maher</a>, Punjabi-language poet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surjit_Patar" target="_blank">Surjit Patar</a> and Internet freedom advocate and Centre for Internet and Society's Executive Director <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team#sunil" target="_blank">Sunil Abraham</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As compared to the last WikiConference India, this conference has more thematic focus, especially on challenges like the gender bias on Wikipedia, and emerging projects like the Wikipedia Education Program. There are as many as six presentations related to gender gap, and six more related to education program.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There has been constant engagement on both on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WikiConferenceIndia2016" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/WikiConIndia" target="_blank">Twitter</a> with the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=WCI2016&src=typd" target="_blank">#WCI2016</a>. Some of the most-used <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/Basic_Phrases" target="_blank">basic phrases in the Punjabi language</a> have been recorded and shared to the participants from outside the region to communicate with the locals.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/opensource.com-subhashish-panigrahi-august-5-2016-largest-wikipedia-gathering-in-south-asia-kicks-off'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/opensource.com-subhashish-panigrahi-august-5-2016-largest-wikipedia-gathering-in-south-asia-kicks-off</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-08-06T17:11:39ZBlog Entry