The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 21 to 35.
MoU between PAH Solapur University & CIS-A2K
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis
<b>CIS-A2K is working in collaboration with PAH Solapur University, Solapur in Maharashtra on Wikimedia projects. The Mass Communication and Journalism departments are involved in content generation on Marathi Wikipedia & Commons. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2019, the students completed assignments in the form of Wikipedia articles. Looking at the interest of students and knowledge creation process, other departments also expressed their willingness to adopt this methodology in academics. Vice Chancellor Dr. Mrunalini Fadnavis took initiative to conduct introductory meeting to discuss the larger collaboration with University courses. The department heads agreed on working in Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Commons and other Wikimedia projects to enhance the skills of students. As a result, principle level MoU to accommodate Wiki programs in academics as policy for the next academic year was signed between University and Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) on 15th May at Solapur. On this occasion, Program Manager Tito Dutta was present to sign on behalf of CIS. From University, VC, Registrar, Prof. Ravindra Chincholkar- Coordinator and HoD's of 4 departments were present. The summary of MoU is given below:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Terms of Collaboration</h3>
<div id="_mcePaste">
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To promote content generation in Wikimedia projects among the institutions under University affiliation. To organise awareness programs and training workshops to achieve this. For consistent and dedicated efforts, mechanism of subject experts and coordinators will be developed. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To integrate the academic assignments, projects etc. with knowledge building in Wikimedia projects e.g. Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To facilitate content donation in the form of published thesis, University publications to free library - Wikisource. To write well referenced articles based on these research work. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To develop platform in University for outreach programs on Digital knowledge, Language & technologies, FOSS, Unicode etc. To involve other stakeholders in knowledge business like publishers, writers, printers, designers in these programs. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To take lead in accommodating open knowledge concepts, locally relevant content generation practices while designing the courses. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To promote content generation in Wikimedia projects among the institutions under University affiliation. To organise awareness programs and training workshops to achieve this. For consistent and dedicated efforts, mechanism of subject experts and coordinators will be developed. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To integrate the academic assignments, projects etc. with knowledge building in Wikimedia projects e.g. Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To facilitate content donation in the form of published thesis, University publications to free library - Wikisource. To write well referenced articles based on these research work. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To develop platform in University for outreach programs on Digital knowledge, Language & technologies, FOSS, Unicode etc. To involve other stakeholders in knowledge business like publishers, writers, printers, designers in these programs. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To take lead in accommodating open knowledge concepts, locally relevant content generation practices while designing the courses.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Plan of Execution</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">A core team shall be constituted by representatives of this MoU for realization of the objectives of this MoU. This core team will be constituted by 10 June 2019.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>The core team shall prepare an action plan with specific goals for achieving the objectives of MoU. They shall take into consideration the academic, commercial and legal aspects of this co-operation.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>The proposed action plan shall be reviewed and approved by representatives of both parties.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>The core team shall be supported and authorised to take all necessary actions to implement the action plan in an effective, speedy and dynamic manner.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>Revenue sharing shall be decided on case to case basis by core team.</span></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Media Coverage</h3>
<p>The news of this event was published by major media houses:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522051544/http://epaperlokmat.in/Archive/epapernew.php?articleid=LOK_SOLK_20190516_2_10&arted=Solapur%20Main&width=367px">Lok Mat</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522052258/http://newspaper.pudhari.co.in/archive/viewpage.php?edn=Solapur&date=2019-05-16&edid=PUDHARI_SOL&pid=PUDHARI_SOL&pn=5#Page/5/Article/PUDHARI_SOL_20190516_05_5/359px/10EF1A6">Pudhari</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522053215/http://124.30.219.86/EpaperData/Sakal/Solapur/2019/05/16/Main/Sakal_Solapur_2019_05_16_Main_DA_005/44_1606_494_2310.jpg">Sakal</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190522054429/http://www.dainiksurajya.com/2019/05/16/city/page05.jpg">Surajya</a> (22 May 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T06:21:47ZBlog EntryTrain-the-Trainer 2019 at Vishakhapatnam
https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2019-at-vishakhapatnam
<b>Train-the-trainer 2019 (TTT 2019), residential training program to groom leadership among the Indian Wikimedia community members, is going to happen in Visakhapatnam during 31 May, 1 and 2 June 2019 at Fairfield by Marriott Hotel at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">TTT 2019 is the 6th iteration in the earlier iterations happened in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Based on internal needs-assessment conducted annually by CIS-A2K tweaks and improvises the design and expected outcomes of TTT every year. This year, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Work_plan_July_2018_-_June_2019/Skill_Building_Initiatives#Annual_Train-the-Trainer">A2K planned</a> to involve communities or community members in planning, and organizing the event to be more transparent. This year A2K has two major changes in organising the TTT.</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>Indic communities were asked to take part in the bidding process in order to </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/2019/Bids">express interest </a><span>to host this iteration of TTT. Based on the bidding process, this year A2K is going to collaborate with </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/VVIT_WikiConnect">VVIT Wikiconnect</a><span> to host TTT 2019 in Visakhapatnam.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Wikimedians from various language and project communities showed interest to attend TTT 2019. The jury considered these applications and selected 24 participants from 13 language and project communities. A2K involved Experienced Indian Wikimedians who are not part of CIS-A2K in the jury. Apart from the details provided by applicants over application form jury members made attempts to know more about participants and reached out some of them over brief telephone calls. Based on set parameters and analysis jury made decisions. Find the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/2019#Participants">selected participants’ list</a><span> here.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e1a35ed5-7fff-8fd6-c765-2b6b3e8cb367"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Please find </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/2019"><span>the event page</span></a><span> for further details.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2019-at-vishakhapatnam'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2019-at-vishakhapatnam</a>
</p>
No publisherpavanCIS-A2KEventAccess to Knowledge2019-05-24T02:21:19ZEventIndic Wikisource speak : Shubha
https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-shubha
<b>As the texts are in the searchable format, many students and research scholars can make use of Wikisource. As we all know, Samskrit is a treasure trove of knowledge. There are many such books that can be uploaded and utilised by the public. For this, we are putting effort to upload more and more books and make our Wikisource a rich one. -- Shubha, a Samskrit Wiki-librarian share her experience </b>
<p><span class="im">
</span></p>
<p><strong>CIS :Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Shubha</strong><strong>: </strong>I am Shubha (user id – same) working as a coordinator for wiki wing of Samskrita Bharati, Bengaluru. I joined Wikimedia movement in July 2011. For the first five years we concentrated on Wikipedia project. Now we are concentrating on wikisource. I personally have worked on sa Wikipedia, sa wikiquote and sa wikisource.</p>
<span class="im">
<p><strong><br />CIS: What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute on your language Wikisource?</strong></p>
</span>
<p><em><strong>Shubha</strong><strong>:</strong> There are many old books in Samskrit language. We search for pdf files of old books and upload them in wikicommons. Then we do editing on Wikisource. We are having the facility of scanning the books also. Currently, keeping the student group in our mind, we have collected the Samskrit syllabus in various universities of Karnataka. Made a list of the curriculum related books , collected and uploaded the pdf files so that it will be useful for the students.</em></p>
<span class="im">
<p><strong>CIS:How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?</strong></p>
</span>
<p><em><strong>Shubha</strong><strong>: </strong>Awareness about Samskrit Wikisource can be termed as less. We need to reach the people and create awareness in a big way. So keeping this in mind, we have conducted exhibitions in various Samskrit conventions as well as annual day celebrations in universities. These were useful for the public as well as students. We were successful in conducting a couple of workshops in colleges also.</em></p>
<p><strong>Q:What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.</strong></p>
<p><em><strong>Shubha :</strong> OCR :- There are many books in Samskrit like dictionaries, Puranas where the text is divided into 2 columns. OCR tool available in the Wikisource cannot perform this task in the correct manner. So updated ocr tool will be a big boon for us. This will help us to upload more such books.</em></p>
<p><em>Technical support :- Samskrit wikisourcers are not having enough exposure to technical knowledge. Wikisource tools and gadgets are growing day by day. If we get systematic assistance in this regard, we will be able to increase our efficiency.</em></p>
<p><em>Creating awareness :- Awareness can be created in 3 levels. Level one will be an introductory workshop that can be conducted in various educational institutions about the use of wiki. Second level will be to approach student group and teach them the editing the wikisource. Third level will be to contact the Samskrit teachers or lecturers for the proof reading task as it requires Samskrit knowledge.</em></p>
<span class="im">
<p><strong>CIS: How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?</strong></p>
</span>
<p><em><strong>Shubha</strong><strong>: </strong>As the texts are in the searchable format, many students and research scholars can make use of Wikisource. As we all know, Samskrit is a treasure trove of knowledge. There are many such books that can be uploaded and utilised by the public. For this, we are putting effort to upload more and more books and make our Wikisource a rich one.</em></p>
<span class="im">
<p><strong>CIS: Please share one remarkable work which is available at your domain and you had contributed. </strong></p>
</span>
<p><em><strong>Shubha :</strong> Recently, we have uploaded a book named Alankaramanihara, which deals with the figure of speech. This book was published long back and is not in the print now. We happened to come across this and were successful in uploading all the 4 volumes of this book. Now this is available in the Wikisource in the transcluded form. </em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-shubha'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-shubha</a>
</p>
No publisherjayantaCIS-A2KWikipedianSpeakWiki-librarian speakWikisourceWikipediansSpeak2019-04-25T15:30:49ZBlog EntryIndic Wikisource Speak: J. Balaji
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/indic-wikisource-speak-j-balaji
<b>To perfectly proofread the content with matching styles it takes a lot of effort. Patience is the key. The formatting methods are in wikisource are different from Wikipedia. So wikipedians are finding it difficult to edit in wikisource without an introduction.The young generation are accessing the internet through Mobile. They don’t use laptops and computers much. Though mobile is good medium for creating multimedia content, they are poor in creating text. It is difficult to proofread wikisource using a mobile phone. The challenge is bringing the next generation proofreaders - Wiki-librarian J. Balaji share his experience.</b>
<div><strong><br /></strong></div>
<div><strong>CIS:Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?</strong></div>
<div><strong><br /></strong></div>
<em>A: My name is J. Balaji. I am from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. I edit in wikis with the username Balajijagadesh. I am geoscientist by profession.</em>
<p><em>I joined in Wikipedia in 2009 though was using the Wikipedia from 2006. I remember how costly the books (encyclopaedias) back then. Even in libraries the encyclopaedias can only be read there itself. They don’t allow encyclopaedias for lending. Accessing knowing was costly and hassle. Suddenly I found Wikipedia which was free for anyone. Anyone can contribute too. I was fascinated by this idea. Wanted to make sure people in the future shouldn’t face problem like I did with costly encyclopaedias. From then I am a regular contributor to Wiki projects. I mostly edit in Tamil Wikisource, Wiktionary, Wikipedia, Wikidata and commons. Also sometimes in English Wikipedia and other projects out of interest</em></p>
<div><strong>CIS: What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute on your language Wikisource?</strong></div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<em>A: In 2016 in collaboration with Tamil Nadu government (Tamil Virtual Academy) about 2000+ books i.e. more than 4 lakh scanned pages were uploaded to commons. Then by the Google OCR (Optical Character Recognition) script written by T.Shrinivasan (those times OCR for indic languages were not available in Indian Languages) the OCR was done for the 4 lakh pages. Since the proof reading work is huge, I turned my efforts to Tamil wikisource. Since that was the first time proof reading was done in Tamil wikisource many templates were not available. Many templates were imported from other languages, help pages for other users were created, rules were framed. Now the system is maturing. Hence these days the typical work flow in proofreading, validating pages proofread by other people and transclusion of books completed. (Transclusion is a process by which the page wise content is placed in logical sections for easy reading of the public). Interested Tamil wikisource contributors have formed a telegram group. So I help other members with their problems, doubts etc in proofreading the wikisource. Also we have a collaborative proofreading project called “proofreading book of the month” where many people collaborate and work on a single book for a month. I participate in this too.</em></div>
<p> </p>
<p>CIS<strong>:How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?</strong></p>
<p><em>A: The awareness about wikisource in Tamil community is less compared to Tamil Wikipedia. We are trying to place many links from Wikipedia to wikisource. For example if there is an article about famous book we place a template which tells that the complete book is available in wikisource for reading. If there is an author page in Wikipedia whose work is available in wikisource we place a template which tells that the author’s works are available in wikisource. We have twitter and facebook account to increase awareness. In the future some training sessions are also planned to increase awareness and create interest</em></p>
CIS<strong>:We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?</strong>
<div><em><br /></em></div>
<div><em>A: The community needs help in training. Because the editing methods and rules are slightly different from Wikipedia. Sometimes in can become tricky to edit in wikisource for those who come from Wikipedia. Second is the technical support regarding proofreading. Some of the proofreading methods are very complicated. For example, to create a family tree or flow chart is very tedious using complicated table formatting. Technical support would be of great help. Also support with respect to copyright status would be very helpful.</em>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>CIS: What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.</strong></p>
<p><em>A: To perfectly proofread the content with matching styles it takes a lot of effort. Patience is the key. The formatting methods are in wikisource are different from Wikipedia. So wikipedians are finding it difficult to edit in wikisource without an introduction. The young generation are accessing the internet through Mobile. They don’t use laptops and computers much. Though mobile is good medium for creating multimedia content, they are poor in creating text. It is difficult to proofread wikisource using a mobile phone. The challenge is bringing the next generation proofreaders.</em></p>
<em>Another major challenge is on the copyright side. The copyright status of the authors who have already passed away can be known only if the date of death is known from an authentic source. Many a times this information is missing. Hence there is difficult to judge if an author’s work is in public domain or not.</em>
<p> <strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>CIS: How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?</strong></p>
<p><em>A: The future of wikisource is optimistic. The support and interest is growing day by day. For example, the site views of Tamil wikisource was about 4000 views per day two years ago. It has now increased to 13,000 views in April 2019. The absolute page views of wikisource is very less compared to Wikipedia. Nevertheless it is an important project in the era of fake news and fake information. By documenting the source of printed information it increases the quality of references in Wikipedia. For example if a particular information in an article in Wikipedia quotes a book and the book is available in wikisource then it’s easy to cross verify the facts easily by anyone.</em></p>
<div><em>My personal goals for the wikisource is on two sides. One is to increase the number of books available for proofreading in wikisource platform. There is potential for 10,000 books to be uploaded in Tamil wikisource in a year’s time. Then proofreading the pages already in wikisource. With the current rate of proof reading it would be taking decades to complete the work. So the contribution need to be increased by arranging online/offline workshops, proofreading competitions, engaging of similar interested non-profit agencies for proofreading, proofreading education programs, etc.</em></div>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>CIS: Please share one remarkable work which is available at your domain and you had contributed. </strong></p>
<p><em>A: I don’t want to beat my own trumpet by claiming my work as remarkable. One of the books proofread by me was close to my heart is சோழர் வரலாறு. The book is about history of Chola kings and kingdoms (A major kingdom with its capital in south of India) , documenting history from 300 B.C to 1200 A.D. I did proofreading and transcription for this books. Other few users too contributed for proofreading and validating the pages.</em></p>
<p> </p>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/indic-wikisource-speak-j-balaji'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/indic-wikisource-speak-j-balaji</a>
</p>
No publisherjayantaCIS-A2KWikipedianSpeakWiki-librarian speakWikisourceWikipediansSpeak2019-04-25T15:21:57ZBlog EntryWikimedia Education SAARC conference
https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/wikimedia-education-saarc-conference
<b>Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) happy to announce that, Wikimedia Education SAARC conference 2019 programme submissions (proposals) are open from today, 25 April 2019. Deadline for applying for scholarship is 20 May 2019. The conference organized by Christ University in association with CIS-A2K will be held from 20 - 22 June 2019 at Christ University in Bengaluru. The event is being co-organized by Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia & Education User Group.</b>
<p id="_mcePaste" style="text-align: justify;">Education is a core function of the Wikipedia project. Many Wiki chapters, the Wikimedia movement, user groups and affiliates are developing education programs across the globe. Wiki has been used as a teaching resource by many teachers. Students are doing assignments on Wiki and adopting modern technologies. The Wikimedia and Education movements have the same goal - to ensure that knowledge is made accessible to every person across the world.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The CIS-A2K team, for instance, is working with the language department of Christ University and other educational institutions to enrich the content of Indic Wikimedia projects with the help of students. Globally many students and educators are involved in the Wikimedia movement and the Education movement working towards democratising education and increasing accessibility of education materials. We believe that students should not only consume knowledge available on the internet but also be a part of the larger Open Internet movement, and help in creating open knowledge resources. The Wikimedia Education SAARC conference will be the first of its kind conference involving SAARC countries, engaging students, education program leaders, educators and researchers working with the Open Education and free knowledge movement.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This conference will allow us to understand the different efforts made by the communities involved in the Wikimedia Education movement. This will help us to create models, templates and documents that can be replicated in by other institutions or programs. We at CIS A2K were inspired to host such a conference through the course of our work with Christ University. This will be one of the many projects that will be able to use the conference as a platform to showcase their work among the global Wikimedia movement.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Goals</h3>
<ul>
<li>To generate awareness of Wikipedian Education programs and activities happening in Asia by different community members/languages.</li>
<li>Sharing the knowledge and best practices of how to build "trust relationship" with new partners/teachers and how to improve trust in Wikipedia.</li>
<li>Challenges on student retention and how to engage students in the broader Wikimedia movement.</li>
<li>The best method to evaluate and measure the quality of the work done by students.</li>
<li>To introduce tools like the dashboard, across diverse languages, and other tools which will be useful for tracking, assessment, allocation of the topics and others.</li>
<li>Integration of Wiki activities with academic assignments, regular course syllabus.</li>
<li>To bridge the gap and develop a mutually beneficial liaison between Wiki communities and Wikimedia Education stakeholders.</li></ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/wikimedia-education-saarc-conference'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/wikimedia-education-saarc-conference</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminCIS-A2KEventAccess to Knowledge2019-06-22T09:30:46ZEventCIS-A2K proposal to Wikimedia Foundation for 2019-2020
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ananth-subray-april-15-2019-cis-a2k-proposal-to-wikimedia-foundation-for-2019-2020
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) has submitted its proposal form for the year 2019 - 2020 to the Wikimedia Foundation. CIS thanks all community members who gave valuable suggestions and inputs for drafting this proposal.</b>
<h2>Grants:APG/Proposals/2018-2019 round 2/The Centre for Internet and Society/Proposal form</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation registered in India that works in different areas such as <a class="text external" href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility" rel="nofollow">accessibility</a>, <a class="text external" href="https://cis-india.org/openness" rel="nofollow">openness</a>, <a class="text external" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance" rel="nofollow">internet governance</a>, <a class="text external" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom" rel="nofollow">telecom</a>, <a class="text external" href="https://cis-india.org/raw" rel="nofollow">research</a>, etc. The organisation's official website may be seen at <a class="text external" href="https://cis-india.org/" rel="nofollow">cis-india.org</a>. Annual reports of the Centre for Internet and Society may be seen <a class="text external" href="https://cis-india.org/about/reports" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <a class="text external" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k" rel="nofollow">Access to Knowledge (A2K)</a> program of CIS<sup><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2018-2019_round_2/The_Centre_for_Internet_and_Society/Proposal_form#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> is dedicated to supporting and serving Indian Wikimedia projects and the communities. In the last few years, CIS-A2K has worked towards creating sustainable programs and building community capacity. The primary objectives of CIS-A2K are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Supporting and serving the Indian Wikimedia communities in all possible ways.</li>
<li>Building institutional partnerships.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Bringing more content under <a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_license" title="en:Free license">free license</a></li>
<li>Designing and executing projects with community participation.</li>
<li>Strengthening the Wikimedia volunteers.</li>
<li>Fostering and enabling an appropriate legal and technological ecosystem.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2018–2019 CIS-A2K worked with Kannada, Marathi, Odia, and Telugu communities as Focused Language Area, and Punjabi Wikisource as a Focused Project Area. Some of the major events conducted by CIS-A2K in last 1 year were:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program" style="text-align: center; " title="CIS-A2K/Events/Train the Trainer Program">Train the Trainer</a></li>
<li><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/MediaWiki_Training" style="text-align: center; " title="CIS-A2K/Events/MediaWiki Training">MediaWiki Training</a></li>
<li><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Wiki_Advanced_Training/2018" style="text-align: center; " title="CIS-A2K/Events/Wiki Advanced Training/2018">Advanced Wikidata Training</a></li>
<li><span style="text-align: center; ">Wikisource workshop (</span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_Wikimedians/Punjabi_Wikisource_Training_Workshop,_Patiala" style="text-align: center; " title="Punjabi Wikimedians/Punjabi Wikisource Training Workshop, Patiala">Patiala</a><span style="text-align: center; ">, </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gujarati_Wikisource_Workshop,_Ahmedabad" style="text-align: center; " title="Gujarati Wikisource Workshop, Ahmedabad">Ahmedabad</a><span style="text-align: center; ">, </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Wikisource_training_Bengaluru" style="text-align: center; " title="CIS-A2K/Events/Wikisource training Bengaluru">Bangalore</a><span style="text-align: center; ">)</span></li>
<li><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikigraphists_Bootcamp_(2018_India)" style="text-align: center; " title="Wikigraphists Bootcamp (2018 India)">Wikigraphists Bootcamp</a></li>
<li><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/TWLCon_(2019_India)" style="text-align: center; " title="TWLCon (2019 India)">TWLCon</a></li>
<li><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Women_TTT_2019" style="text-align: center; " title="CIS-A2K/Events/Women TTT 2019">Women's TTT</a></li>
<li><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Women_for_Women_Wellbeing_2018" style="text-align: center; " title="Wiki Women for Women Wellbeing 2018">Wiki Women for Women Wellbeing (WWWW)</a></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Women_TTT_2019" style="text-align: center; " title="CIS-A2K/Events/Women TTT 2019"></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K is also working with like-minded organisations and institutions such as <a class="text external" href="https://christuniversity.in/" rel="nofollow">Christ University</a>, Bangalore, <a class="text external" href="https://www.mkcl.org/" rel="nofollow">Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation</a>, <a class="text external" href="http://vigyanashram.com/" rel="nofollow">Vigyan Ashram</a>, <a class="text external" href="http://su.digitaluniversity.ac/" rel="nofollow">Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Solapur University</a>, Odisha state government etc to improve content on different Wikimedia projects and to bring more content to the projects.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Proposal overview</h3>
<p><strong>1.</strong> Please provide a brief description of your organisation's work in the upcoming funding period.<strong><br /></strong>The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K" title="CIS-A2K">Centre for Internet and Society – Access to Knowledge</a> is submitting the work-plan for the period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020. Our plans and programs may be divided into the following verticals:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">in <strong>Content Enrichment</strong>, we are proposing activities like edit-a-thons, Wikisource proofread and validation campaign, Wikidata label-a-thons and data-thons, photowalks etc. We'll also work with like-minded institutions and organisations to conduct thematic edit-a-thons or similar activities that will help to improve content on different Indic Wikimedia projects;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">in <strong>Skill Development Initiatives</strong>, we are proposing to conduct activities like <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Copyright_workshop:_South_India" title="CIS-A2K/Events/Copyright workshop: South India">Zonal Wiki workshops</a>, <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MWT" title="MWT">MediaWiki Training</a>, and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Advanced_Wikidata_Training_2018" title="CIS-A2K/Events/Advanced Wikidata Training 2018">Wikidata workshop</a> etc. We will also conduct zonal and regional workshops on different Wikimedia projects.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">in <strong>Partnership</strong>, we will continue our work with the existing partners, and we'll build new partneships. We are proposing activities like outreach, awareness sessions, and workshops for content donation, increasing awareness about the Wiki movement and bridging gender gap;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">in <strong>Leadership</strong>, we are proposing activities like <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/TTT" title="TTT">Train-the-Trainer</a>, Wikisource Conference, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/2019/Wikimedia_Summit_India_2019" title="CIS-A2K/Events/2019/Wikimedia Summit India 2019">Wikimedia Summit India</a>, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Intensive_Personalized_Wiki_Training" title="CIS-A2K/Intensive Personalized Wiki Training">Intensive Personal Wiki Training</a>, supporting Indic Wikimedians through <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:CIS-A2K/Requests" title="Talk:CIS-A2K/Requests">request page</a> etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>In this work-plan year, CIS-A2K will continue its transition from Focused Language Area (FLA) to Focused Project Area (FPA).</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Focused Language Area: Focused Language Area is an approach of CIS-A2K, where we work with a community with all its projects and activities. In other words, CIS-A2K supports all wiki-activities of a particular language community. So far Kannada, Konkani, Odia, Marathi, Tulu, Telugu have been our FLAs.</li>
<li>Focused Project Area: Focused Project Area or FPA is an approach of CIS-A2K introduced in <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Work_plan_July_2018_-_June_2019" title="CIS-A2K/Work plan July 2018 - June 2019">2018–2019 work-plan</a> where CIS-A2K mainly focuses on projects. In 2018–2019 CIS-A2K collaborated with <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_Wikimedians" title="Punjabi Wikimedians">Punjabi Wikimedians</a>, and our focused projects for Punjabi Wikimedians were Punjabi mostly Wikisource and Institutional Partnership. In the same year, we increased our support towards Wikisource communities in India, appointed a Wikisource project advisor, and conducted and supported several Wikisource project events. In November 2018, we conducted a national-level <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Indic_Wikisource_Community_Consultation_2018" title="CIS-A2K/Events/Indic Wikisource Community Consultation 2018">Wikisource consultation</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We'll plan programs and activities accordingly keeping (Wikipedia) and Wikisource and Wikidata in mind. We will focus on these two projects as based on our interaction with Indian Wikimedia community members, we have found several Indic Wikimedia communities want further support and focus on these projects. CIS-A2K earlier put some effort to support these projects, and this work-plan year we will put more effort.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K will continue working towards creating an inclusive Wiki atmosphere in the Indian subcontinent. With an emphasis on creating safe spaces, promoting gender gap bridging activities A2K team would like to work with all the Indian communities, projects and individuals with interesting ideas and for the overall development of Wikimedia movement. Bridging gender gap will remain as a primary focus of CIS-A2K. We'll try to ensure at least 25% of female participants in all the events conducted by CIS-A2K. We'll conduct a quarterly audit, and present the report in our <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter" title="CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter">newsletters</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/ProposalOverview.jpg/@@images/19a87ca1-0e58-47a3-9055-bf2e181221ab.jpeg" alt="Proposal Overview" class="image-inline" title="Proposal Overview" /></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Read the full proposal on <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2018-2019_round_2/The_Centre_for_Internet_and_Society/Proposal_form">Wikipedia page</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ananth-subray-april-15-2019-cis-a2k-proposal-to-wikimedia-foundation-for-2019-2020'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ananth-subray-april-15-2019-cis-a2k-proposal-to-wikimedia-foundation-for-2019-2020</a>
</p>
No publisherAnanthWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-04-15T08:05:23ZBlog EntryIndic Wikisource speak : Ajit Kumar Tiwari
https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-ajit-kumar-tiwari
<b>"Wikisource is going to be as important as Wikipedia because it addresses the issues of citations and references inherently. I will make it as my key pedagogical tool to educate my students and make them a part of this great movement." - Hindi Wiki-librarian Ajit Kumar Tiwari ( अजीत कुमार तिवारी ) share his experience about Hindi Wikisource which approved by Language committee of Wikimedia Foundation Inc , US for separate domain on February 2019.</b>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="m_3295304901219593379gmail-m_6597212628377513338gmail-docs-internal-guid-ee7eba51-7fff-12de-cdc2-69e485e8ff6b"></span><strong>CIS :Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?</strong></p>
<p><em><strong>Ajit : I joined the movement in 2012 as a Wikipedian. I am involved in Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wikidata.</strong></em></p>
<strong><span class="im">
<p dir="ltr">CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute on your language Wikisource?</p>
</span></strong><span class="im"></span><span class="im"></span><span class="im"> </span>
<div><em><strong><strong>Ajit </strong>:</strong> I usually upload a book and try to indulge as many editors as possible and distribute the works like header & footer and proofreading to concerned editors.</em></div>
<span class="im"><br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS :How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?</strong></p>
</span>
<div><em><strong><strong>Ajit </strong>:</strong> Its still in an early state but awareness is spreading rapidly since November 2018. I hope till the end of this year, wikisource will be the next best project in Hindi after Wikipedia.</em></div>
<span class="im"><br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS :We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?</strong></p>
</span>
<div><em><strong><strong>Ajit </strong> :</strong> Better knowledge and understandings of the copyright acts, proofreading tools and lowering technical gap in the community.</em></div>
<span class="im">
<div> </div>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS :What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to aurtors or publishers.</strong></p>
</span>
<div><em><strong><strong>Ajit </strong>:</strong> Copyright is the key concern, however making authors and publishers understand the ethos of Wikisource or free knowledge access is even bigger challenge.</em> </div>
<span class="im"><br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?</strong></p>
</span><em>Ajit : Wikisource is going to be as important as Wikipedia because it addresses the issues of citations and references inherently. I will make it as my key pedagogical tool to educate my students and make them a part of this great movement.</em>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-ajit-kumar-tiwari'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-ajit-kumar-tiwari</a>
</p>
No publisherjayantaWikisourceCIS-A2KWiki-librarian speakAccess to Knowledge2019-04-17T20:07:20ZBlog EntryIndic Wikisource Speak: Sushant Savla
https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-sushant-savla
<b>Future is bright -- Sushant Savla (User:Sushant_savla) from Gujarati Wikisource community, share his experience & journey.</b>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?Dr Hrishikesh Sen at IWCC2018</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Sushant Savla</em><strong>:</strong><em> </em><em>Sushant Savla (User Name: Sushant_savla) </em><em>I joined Wikimedia Movement in around 2008. </em><em>I am associated with Gujarati Wikipedia, Gujarati WikiSource, Graphics Lab on Commons (Illustrations SVG)</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute to your language Wikisource?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Sushant Savla</em><strong>:</strong> <em>We take up a book and work on it till it completes. AS we have limited members and all are having good understanding all work on same project and complete it to the level of Validation. A book is chosen, Scanning is done, If not copyright free OTRS is executed, Index is prepared, OCR is done, Page number allotment is kept on Discussion page of Index page and as per the availability of time the Users take up pages and proofreading starts, Experienced Librarians or Manager of the project carries out validation simultaneously. While this work goes on other team parallely stats scanning other book for next project. </em> </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Sushant Savla</em><strong>:</strong> In the small commmunity of ours all knows about wikisource. However among common people awareness is low.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Sushant Savla</em><strong>:</strong> <em>Major challenge now is technical support, in conversion of PDF, mobi etc.</em><em>The Second challenge is Outreach. </em><em>The third challenge is lack of time in arranging Contest etc. More technical , automated result giving systems are required to hold competition on grand level. </em><em>The delay in getting OTRS approved is another challenges. Till the time OTRS is approved the enthusiasm of a doner writter fuses off. Speedy process is required. OTRS approver should have time limit.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Sushant Savla</em><strong>:</strong><em><strong> </strong></em><em>As such nothing. But a letter of appreciation sort of thing to author would help. we can print that in certificate format and give them. </em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Sushant Savla</em><strong>: </strong><em>Future is bright, Person Goals : more books , more material, More contributors, Keeping them live on project. Need to motivate users by some interesting events.In wikiconference please increase the number of participants. </em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-sushant-savla'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-sushant-savla</a>
</p>
No publisherjayantaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikipedianSpeakWiki-librarian speakWikisourceWikipediansSpeak2019-04-17T20:09:09ZBlog EntryIndic Wikisource Speak: Dr. Hrishikes Sen
https://cis-india.org/Indic%20Wikisource%20Speak%20Dr%20Hrishikes%20Sen
<b>There are plenty of people engaged in digitising Bengali books. Plenty of pirated digitised books are available online. We need to tap into that catchment area. I think, if we can prepare high-grade pdf versions of our completed works and spread those to various online non-wiki reader communities, we are likely to get good contributors. -- User:Hrishikes from English and Bengali Wikisource community, share his journey.</b>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Hrishikes:</strong><em> Joined in March, 2007. In Wikisource since 2012.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute to your language Wikisource?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Hrishikes:</strong> <em>Method: I work slowly; try to give meticulous attention. Don't skip pages usually. Work page-by-page upto the last, even if a page is problematic. Come back to previously worked pages time and again, and correct any mistake.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Hrishikes:</strong> <em>Awareness is present in the community, but there is disinclination to work in Wikisource, because of templates and other formatting issues</em>.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Hrishikes:</strong> <em>There are plenty of people engaged in digitising Bengali books. Plenty of pirated digitised books are available online. We need to tap into that catchment area. I think, if we can prepare high-grade pdf versions of our completed works and spread those to various online non-wiki reader communities, we are likely to get good contributors.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Hrishikes:</strong><em><strong> </strong>I like this project. Main issue is getting the time: extracting time from real life commitments. I have not been active in author/publisher liaison.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Hrishikes:</strong><em>The main problem is: everybody wants to download books and read them offline. Hardly anyone wants to read online. That attitude is going to stay. So we need to concentrate on giving this to the customers. Books downloaded from our site (transcribed books, not scans) should be of very high quality. If we can achieve this, the future may be good.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : Please share one remarkable work which is available at your domain and you had contributed. </strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Hrishikes: </strong>There are many more ,</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ac9ea17a-7fff-c1a0-097b-f5edb5ad6c49"></span></p>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"> Bengali Wikisource <a href="https://bn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B6%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE_(%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%9F_%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B8_%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A3)">শকুন্তলা (সিগনেট প্রেস সংস্করণ)</a>, <a href="https://bn.wikisource.org/s/a70z">রাজমালা (ভূপেন্দ্রচন্দ্র চক্রবর্তী) </a>,<a href="https://bn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A6%9C%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A6_%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0_%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B7%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A0_%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE">জীবনানন্দ দাশের শ্রেষ্ঠ কবিতা </a>,<a href="https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AB%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%A3%E0%A6%BF_%E0%A6%93_%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%A3%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0_%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A3">ফুলমণি ও করুণার বিবরণ </a>, <a href="https://bn.wikisource.org/s/fxiy">পোকা-মাকড় </a>, <a href="https://bn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A6%97%E0%A7%8C%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE">গৌড়রাজমালা </a>,</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Hindi Wikisource: <a href="https://wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A1%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%BE">कपालकुण्डला </a></p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">English Wikisource : <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandra_Shekhar">Chandra Shekhar </a><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Collected_Physical_Papers">Collected Physical Papers</a>, <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Bird_of_Time">The Bird of Time</a> , <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nil_Darpan">Nil Durpan</a>, <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Folk-tales_of_Bengal">Folk-tales of Bengal </a>, <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Constitution_of_India_(Original_Calligraphed_and_Illuminated_Version)">The Constitution of India (Original Calligraphed and Illuminated Version)</a> , <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Calcutta:_Past_and_Present">Calcutta: Past and Present</a> ,<a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Bengali_Language"> The History of the Bengali Language</a> , <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_P%C4%81las_of_Bengal/Chapter_4">The Pālas of Bengal</a></p>
</li></ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/Indic%20Wikisource%20Speak%20Dr%20Hrishikes%20Sen'>https://cis-india.org/Indic%20Wikisource%20Speak%20Dr%20Hrishikes%20Sen</a>
</p>
No publisherjayantaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeFeaturedWiki-librarian speakWikisource2019-04-26T06:42:48ZBlog EntryIndic Wikisource Speak: Dr. Gitartha Bordoloi
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/Indic-Wikisource-Speak-Dr-Gitartha-Bordoloi
<b>"People are more aware of Wikipedia than Wikisource." - Gitartha Bordoloi from Assamese Wikisource community, share his experience with CIS-A2K team.</b>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-c9a13f54-7fff-f790-f196-dc27d397de09" dir="ltr">Gitartha Bordoloi from Assamese Wikisource community</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS :</strong> <strong>Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Gitartha:</strong> <em>I'm Gitartha Bordoloi hailing from Jorhat, Assam. I edit in Wikimedia projects under the username Gitartha.bordoloi. I'm a doctor by profession and currently I'm working as a faculty in the Department of Physiology, Silchar Medical College and Hospital, Assam.</em></p>
<em>
</em>
<p dir="ltr"><em>I joined Wikimedia movement in February, 2011. I tried to write an article in English Wikipedia when a friend of mine informed me that there's even a Wikipedia in Assamese and suggested I contribute there too. I'm now mostly involved in Assamese Wikipedia and Wikisource. I contribute to commons also to the best of my ability.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute to your language Wikisource?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Gitartha</strong><strong class="gr-progress">: </strong><em>When</em><em> we started as.wikisource we didn't have any scans and we typed or collected only texts. Then after learning about the detailed process I scanned a few books from my personal collection and uploaded those to commons for proofreading in Wikisource. We are currently digitizing scanned books found in Archive and other online sources. We are putting the list of new additions on the wikisource home page and encouraging the volunteers, mostly through social networks, to work on them. Instead of picking random books for proofreading, we are choosing an author every month (based on the birth or death month) and doing proofreading works penned by the author.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS :</strong> <strong>How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Gitartha: <em>The awareness about Wikisource in the community isn't that great reflecting the awareness of the general population. People are more aware of Wikipedia than Wikisource. We're trying to tell people about this project through facebook group, page and twitter. Some articles were published in news papers in the past which we'll have to do again. We'll also arrange some wikisource meets and workshops in near future.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Gitartha:</strong> <em>Of late there has been a sharp growth in Assamese Wikisource due to active engagement of a number of users which we would like to sustain in the long term. We're planning to conduct the first Assamese wikisource workshop within a few months. Many new users have shown interest in this. Hopefully we'll get the guidance from CIS at every step. When the community grows we should be given a chance to hold a national level program such as TTT which will catch people's eyes and increase the number of contributors.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS :</strong> <strong>What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Gitartha:</strong> <em>As a contributor the first challenge I faced in wikisource was its steep learning curve compared to wikipedia. It's one thing to do only the proofreading part, but Wikisource is much more than that. Checking copyright status, uploading, indexing, transcluding, formatting etc take some effort. So the new users have to be kept away from some of the processes. Another major challenge for me is get sufficient time for offline wiki activities which I'm unable to do now. Third major challenge for me is motivating people about developing project without any monetary benefit.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS :</strong> <strong>How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Gitartha</strong><strong>:</strong><em>Our</em><em> project is still in the nascent stage and so we're not yet having any social challenges. We hope we face such issues in the coming months with the growth of our community.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>CIS : Please share one remarkable work which is available at your domain and you had contributed. </strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Gitartha</strong><strong>: </strong>I would like to consider all the works that I've contributed as remarkable and close to my heart. Though one rare book titled "<a class="external-link" href="https://as.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B2%27%E0%A7%B0%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%9B%E0%A7%8B%E0%A7%B1%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%80%E0%A7%B0_%E0%A7%B0%E0%A6%82-%E0%A6%98%E0%A7%B0%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE_%E0%A6%96%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%82%E0%A6%9A%E0%A7%80">ল'ৰা-ছোৱালীৰ ৰং-ঘৰীয়া খেল</a>" (Lora-suwalir rong-ghariya khel) stands out. It was published in 1849 and teaches a large number of simple sports and physical activities including dance movements which can be practiced in schools. I found it in archive.org and transferred to commons before completing proofreading process with some other users. </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/Indic-Wikisource-Speak-Dr-Gitartha-Bordoloi'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/Indic-Wikisource-Speak-Dr-Gitartha-Bordoloi</a>
</p>
No publisherjayantaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikipedianSpeakWiki-librarian speakWikisourceWikipediansSpeak2019-04-17T20:10:28ZBlog EntrySVG Translation Workshop at KBC North Maharashtra University
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-april-10-2019-svg-translation-workshop-at-kbc-north-maharashtra-university
<b>The Centre for Internet & Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) wing organized an SVG translation workshop in collaboration with KBC North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon on 14-15 March 2019. The workshop was a part of India level campaign. Total 58 participants attended the workshop and contributed to Commons till 31 March 2019.</b>
<h3>Background</h3>
<p>During the edit-a-thons and thematic workshops, the need for images in Marathi was realised. Many articles on health and science have images with labels in English. The issue was discussed with few institutions. KBC University came forward to start the activity under this campaign.</p>
<h3>Objectives</h3>
<ul>
<li>Orientation of Wikimedia projects</li>
<li>Localisation of SVG images</li>
<li>Commons upload policies and process</li></ul>
<h3>Facilitators</h3>
<ul>
<li>Krishna Chaitanya Velaga -- <a title="User:KCVelaga" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:KCVelaga">User: KCVelaga</a></li>
<li>Subodh Kulkarni, CIS-A2K --<a title="User:Subodh (CIS-A2K)" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Subodh_(CIS-A2K)">Subodh (CIS-A2K)</a> </li>
<li>Prof. Manish Joshi, SOCS KBCNMU, Jalgaon -- <a title="User:Joshmanish" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Joshmanish">Joshmanish</a> </li>
<li>Dr. Snehalata B. Shirude, SOCS KBCNMU, Jalgaon --<a title="User:Snehalata Shirude" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Snehalata_Shirude">Snehalata Shirude</a> </li></ul>
<h3>Agenda</h3>
<ul>
<li>Introduction to Wikimedia projects, Marathi Wikipedia, Commons</li>
<li>Account creation, basic editing skills</li>
<li>Copyrights, Commons upload process</li>
<li>Graphics images, types of formats, features</li>
<li>Installation of fonts, Inkscape</li>
<li>Resources for translation, verification before uploads</li>
<li>Selection of images, tags, categories for upload</li>
<li>Using translated images in local Wikipedia</li></ul>
<h3>Report</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As the participants were not aware of Wikimedia projects, the first two sessions dedicated to an introduction to various projects. The participants opened accounts on a smartphone and created user pages after logging in on computers. They were introduced to basic skills in Wikipedia editing, giving references/wiki links and adding images from Commons. The Commons platform was explained in detail. The missing images in Marathi language articles and Commons as well were shown. The discussion on these topics resulted in understanding the need for SVG translation exercise.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The next session was to download and install the necessary software on each computer. The participants installed Google Input Tools for Marathi typing and also Inkscape. Before translating images on Inkscape, the students first practised Marathi typing on their sandboxes. After this, the main graphics sessions were conducted. Krishna explained various types of formats, differences between raster and vector graphics, the importance of SVGs and actual SVG file translation process. He demonstrated the process for images with different difficulty levels. They were introduced to resources available as a part of the campaign for SVG translation and necessary techniques. The usage of various online resources like encyclopedia and thesaurus available was also explained. The images were selected and working tags were applied by the participants. The faculty facilitated the process of work distribution among the students. The participants were able to upload 100+ images on the first day.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/SVGWorkshop.jpg/@@images/6d0456b2-a79a-49eb-abd0-73e551f0fbb0.jpeg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="SVG Workshop" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Pictured above: Students from Day 1 helping others on Day 2 (Picture by Subodh Kulkarni)</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">On Day 2, around 20 participants newly joined the workshop. This group comprised of teachers, journalists, doctors, and other enthusiastic citizens. Active students from Day 1 facilitated the training of this new batch. Having conducted a session on the previous day greatly helped to facilitate this session easily. The experienced teachers and citizens helped others to get correct translations and terms. This boosted the speed of the work. The images were also used in the articles on Marathi Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With the help of science teachers, the images were verified before uploading to Commons. Due to active participatory work on the second day, the total images crossed 200 mark. The students continued to contribute till last day of campaign i.e. 31 March. At the end, due to consistent work <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Creations_from_STC19_in_mr">Marathi category</a> reached the highest number with a total of 357 images among <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Creations_from_STC19">all Indian languages</a>. The workshop and further work was well organized and motivated by Prof. Manish Joshi and Prof. Snehalata Shirude from Computer Science department.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">Link to the Wikipedia page report<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/SVG_Translation_Workshop_at_KBC_North_Maharashtra_University,_Jalgaon_(14-15_March_2019)"> here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-april-10-2019-svg-translation-workshop-at-kbc-north-maharashtra-university'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-april-10-2019-svg-translation-workshop-at-kbc-north-maharashtra-university</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhFeaturedCIS-A2KMarathi WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-04-26T06:47:40ZBlog EntryContent Donation Sessions with Authors
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/content-donation-sessions-with-authors
<b>CIS-A2K has adopted an integrated approach towards knowledge generation in Marathi language. With the involvement of various stakeholders in different programmes, CIS-A2K facilitated a comprehensive workshop for publishers, printers, designers and writers on 7 September 2018.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The State Govt. Language department, All India Marathi Literary Body & All India Marathi Publishers Consortium took the lead to organize this workshop. In this workshop, noted authors Sunilkumar Lawate and Laxmikant Deshmukh expressed their willingness to donate their books to Wikimedia projects. The awareness about content donation was spread among the writers' community through this workshop.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Objectives</h3>
<ul>
<li>To promote the concept of content donation in Wikimedia projects</li>
<li>To develop repository of reference books on Commons & Wikisource</li>
<li>To facilitate organizations working in developmental sector for developing open knowledge on internet</li>
</ul>
<h3>Report</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To promote Marathi language, Marathi language fortnight (1-15 January) and Marathi Day (27 February) was celebrated in Maharashtra. CIS-A2K organized various events on this occasion with state government, publishers, writers and other stakeholders in knowledge business. Some of the authors responded to the appeal to donate their literature in public domain. The following content donations were received in February and March 2019.</p>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF_%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%9A%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE_(Shoonya_Kachara).pdf">Book on Home Composting</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Kaustubh Tamhankar, an active citizen from Thane is promoting innovative home composting methods for zero garbage. He has produced some manuals and videos on the process. As the awareness about environment friendly lifestyle is increasing, the author thought of releasing the first manual on Commons. CIS-A2K community advocate (CA) trained him in basics of Wikipedia and Commons. He completed the OTRS process and uploaded the book on zero garbage. He has planned to upload some more manuals and videos in future.</p>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Books_by_Sunilkumar_Lawate">Books by Sunilkumar Lawate</a></h3>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/VSKhandekar.jpg/@@images/eaaf1a61-67d6-4c7a-9930-789769cc79e3.jpeg" alt="VS Khandekar" class="image-inline" title="VS Khandekar" /></p>
<p>Pictured above: Cover page of the book 'V. S. Khandekar Biography' by Sunilkumar Lawate</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%9F%E0%A5%87" title="mr:सुनीलकुमार लवटे">Prof. Sunilkumar Lawate</a> is an educationist, social activist and writer in Maharashtra. He participated in the FOSS & Wikimedia workshop conducted in September 2018. He approached CIS-A2K for release of his books in CC-BY-SA on the occasion of Marathi Day on 27 February. CA trained the author in copyrights, Commons upload process and OTRS process in the session held at Kolhapur on 27 February. Prof. Lawate uploaded his 21 books on Commons. These are reference value books on education, child rights, literature, autobiographies, social issues and classic literature. The newspapers covered this event as feature of Marathi day. Because of good media coverage, many responses from other authors in Maharashtra have been received for content donation.</p>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Books_published_by_Lek_Ladaki_Abhiyan,_India">Books by Lek Ladaki Abhiyan</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We all know that vast amount of training materials and case studies are produced in development sector. But it is not available to society at large. It is restricted to NGOs, funding agencies, etc. for project period. If it is brought in Wikimedia, it will be searchable for all and will be linked to various articles also as reference resource. CIS-A2K is approaching several such organizations for content donations. CIS-A2K received positive response from Adv. Varsha Deshpande, President of Lek Ladaki Abhiyan, Satara about bridging gender gap activities on Wikimedia projects. Lek Ladaki Abhiyan (LLA) is one of the most active organizations working on Women's issues in Maharashtra. The activities cover wide range of issues viz. stopping child marriages, counselling workshops for adolescents, pre-marriage counselling, child labour issues, legal aid to women facing violence, sting operations for exposing cases of female foeticide, hostel for girls etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">LLA organization is involved in content generation on women's issues for the last two years with the support of CIS-A2K. The process proved useful for the members and other participants. On the occasion of Women's day on 9th March, LLA re-licensed 8 books and uploaded on Commons. The convener Adv. Varsha Deshpande has authored 6 books. She has taken this noble initiative. The content is spreading across beneficiaries and getting good feedback also. The books cover all the issues mentioned above. The articles created in women's day workshop and books donated by this organization have contributed to reduction in gender gap. LLA would like to lead the movement with other like-minded organizations in urban, rural, tribal areas to facilitate the open knowledge generation on women's issues.</p>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Books_by_Laxmikant_Deshmukh">Books by Laxmikant Deshmukh</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%A4_%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%96" title="mr:लक्ष्मीकांत देशमुख">Laxmikant Deshmukh</a> is former IAS and writer in Maharashtra. He was president of All India Marathi Literary Festival in 2017 at Badoda. He was co-organizer for the FOSS & Wikimedia workshop conducted in September 2018. From that event, he has been promoting open knowledge concept and Wikimedia projects. The training session at Pune was held on 16 March for re-licensing his 4 works. The books are on socio-economic issues of Maharashtra.</p>
<hr />
<p>Link to the <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Content_donation_sessions_with_authors">Wikipedia page report here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/content-donation-sessions-with-authors'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/content-donation-sessions-with-authors</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhMarathi WikipediaCIS-A2KAccess to Knowledge2019-04-10T01:28:21ZBlog EntryWikimedia projects orientation session at Tata Trust's Vikas Anvesh Foundation
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-april-9-2019-wikimedia-projects-session-at-tata-trust-vikas-anvesh-foundation
<b>Researchers in development sector produce a pool of training material and case studies. However, these do not trickle down to the society and many in the public domain are unaware of the same.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Largely the research is restricted to non-profit organizations or their funding agencies during the project period. If the research carried out in development sector is re-licensed and then linked to Wikipedia articles as references we could see a larger section of the society gaining access to such information. The twin advantages of posting such content is that the information will be searchable online through search engines and the Wikipedia page with numerous hyperlinks leading to different sources will act as a reference resource. Larger sections in the public domain will have access to information which would perhaps be hard to gain access to.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/VAFContent.jpg/@@images/04b6fbcf-bc09-4026-9c0f-6ade9ab1772c.jpeg" alt="VAF Content" class="image-inline" title="VAF Content" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span class="discreet">Pictured above: Meeting at Vikas Anvesh Foundation office to discuss the possibility of disseminating the research work done, through Wikipedia. Subodh Kulkarni was the resource person for the meeting. [Picture by Sdeora14 licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license].</span></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Orientation Session</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Keeping this in view an orientation session was conducted by Centre for Internet & Society’s Access to Knowledge wing (CIS-A2K) at Tata Trust’s Vikas Anvesh Foundation (VAF) in Pune. CIS-A2K and VAF joined hands to explore possibilities of content enrichment in Wikimedia projects. Dr. Ajit Kanitkar and Subodh Kulkarni were the facilitators for the session attended by eight participants.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Report</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The researchers at VAF presented their publications in the form of study reports, papers in journals and conferences and datasets. Advisor Ajit Kanitkar presented story of 'Gems of Purest Ray Serene', a book about the life stories of twenty-two outstanding Indian social workers. The content of the book is uploaded on VAF's website <a href="http://www.socialworkindia.in/profiles/madhukar-dhas">socialworkindia.in</a> which is freely downloadable. The book is published in Marathi and Hindi language also.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After the presentations from VAF, CIS-A2K facilitator presented different Wikimedia projects.In the discussions, it was realised that Wikipedia articles related to social issues and development sector lack reliable references. The research work on VAF website can be linked as references. The publications could be uploaded on Wikisource for wider reach. The images and videos during the work can also be uploaded on Commons.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Follow-up</h3>
<p>VAF will discuss the process of content donation with management and decide on the further steps. The training regarding Wikipedia editing and Commons uploads would be planned.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-april-9-2019-wikimedia-projects-session-at-tata-trust-vikas-anvesh-foundation'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-april-9-2019-wikimedia-projects-session-at-tata-trust-vikas-anvesh-foundation</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-04-09T00:56:25ZBlog EntrySupporting Indian Language Wikipedias Program/Report
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/supporting-indian-language-wikipedias-program-report
<b>CIS-A2K team submitted Project Tiger final report. </b>
<h2>Background</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2017–2018, the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation" title="Wikimedia Foundation">Wikimedia Foundation</a> (WMF) and Google collaborated to start a pilot project in India, working closely with the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K" title="CIS-A2K">Centre for Internet and Society</a> (CIS) and the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India" title="Wikimedia India">Wikimedia India</a> chapter (WMIN). This project, titled Project Tiger was aimed at encouraging Wikipedia communities to create locally relevant and high-quality content in Indian languages. The name Project Tiger was chosen to reflect the Indian metaphor of a tiger representing a strong, or brave person (Baagh in Hindi, Puli in Tamil, etc).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Through this project, support was provided to active and experienced Wikipedia editors in the form of Chromebook donations, and stipends for Internet access. Additionally, a three-month-long editathon was conducted, as well as a language-based contest on Indic Wikipedia that aimed at addressing existing Wikipedia content gaps.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Needs Assessment</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As a part of Project Tiger, CIS-A2K facilitated a <a class="text external" href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_-xcSKuBRVmJI5UHoeRE1066qoX6USgqmc_yN89iSAjzO-w/viewform" rel="nofollow">needs assessment</a> process in the month of December 2017, prompting a large number of responses between December 2017 and March 2018. Among these, the highest percentage of responses came from Wikimedians who were associated with Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. A notable percentage of responses came from students. Among 190 responses, it was found that 16% of users edit Wikimedia projects on mobile phones. Additionally, out of 189 users, 51.85% said they use laptops for editing. 73 users reported that they share their devices with others to make contributions.</p>
<p>Our learnings from this process are:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">150 users who contribute to Wikipedia belong to the age groups of 20-35 and 35-50. Younger community members can consistently bring in more contributions and have a sustainable presence within the community. Supporting these young Wikimedians is very important.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Users with personal devices can make more contributions to Wikipedia than those without them. Sharing devices between users is a barrier to maximising contributions.</p>
<ul>
<li>Most users are genuinely interested in contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">There is a requirement for skill development activities (Writing skills, tools, gadgets) within the Indian Wikimedia community. Skills development will directly result in increased contribution to Wikimedia projects. Additionally, Wikimedians also showed interest in obtaining easier access to books, journals, etc.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Chromebook Distribution</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K received a large number of requests for Chromebooks and access to the Internet from community members CIS-A2K observed 271 <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program/Support" title="Supporting Indian Language Wikipedias Program/Support">requests</a> for laptop and internet access (including draft requests, requests from IP address, and withdrawn requests by applicants).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the first round of responding to these requests, 26 requests were answered with support. 11 of these 26 Chromebook recipients are female Wikipedians. In the second round of responses, CIS-A2K supported 24 requests. In just two rounds all Chromebooks were distributed among the users. Total Chromebooks are delivered <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program/Support/Laptops" title="Supporting Indian Language Wikipedias Program/Support/Laptops">are 50</a>. The first stage of distribution involved delivery of Chromebooks to Odia Wikimedian <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ssgapu22" title="User:Ssgapu22">Ssgapu22</a>. Subsequently, we prepared a <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program/Support/Laptops/Help" title="Supporting Indian Language Wikipedias Program/Support/Laptops/Help">help document</a> intended to make the Chromebooks convenient to use for Indian Wikipedians. Then the Chromebooks were transported to the recipients, either by courier (35–40 Chromebooks), or in person by community advocates at events. CIS-A2K has successfully shipped Chromebooks even to rural areas in India including the border areas of West Bengal. CIS-A2K has made a final third list which serves as a waiting list, with 25 pending requests that are open for support. Support via Chromebooks has created a noticeable increase in all forms of contributions by Wikimedians to the Wikimedia projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Read the complete report published on <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program/Report">Wikipedia page</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/supporting-indian-language-wikipedias-program-report'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/supporting-indian-language-wikipedias-program-report</a>
</p>
No publisherGopala Krishna AWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-05-01T05:04:24ZBlog EntryRejuvenating India’s Rivers the Wiki Way
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-rejuvenating-indias-rivers-the-wiki-way
<b>Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an organisation working on rejuvenation of rivers in India, has began documentation of rivers on Wiki, especially to draw attention to and mitigate the crisis of toxic deposits facing more than 40 rivers in India. The work was started by Jal Biradari, TBS’s Maharashtra based group, in Sangli district with the help of the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team of CIS. Here is the report from the first pilot workshop conducted by CIS-A2K during 22-25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh Ashram, in Alwar, Rajasthan.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Events details on Wikimedia <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Workshop_of_river_activists_at_Tarun_Bharat_Sangh,_Bhikampura,_Rajasthan">meta page</a></h4>
<hr />
<h2>The Workshop</h2>
<p>As per a <a href="http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/status_trace_toxic_materials_indian_rivers.pdf">Government of India report</a> 42 rivers in India are polluted with toxic heavy metal deposits in them. To mitigate this crisis Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an organization working on rejuvenation of rivers in India began documentation of rivers on Wiki. The work was started by TBS’s Maharashtra based group Jal Biradari in Sangli district with the help of the Access to Knowledge team of CIS (CIS-A2K).</p>
<p>Realizing the potential of the project TBS decided to integrate this as training module in their capacity building workshops conducted at Bhikampura in Rajasthan. The first pilot workshop was conducted by CIS-A2K during 22-25 December 2018 at Tarun Bharat Sangh Ashram, Bhikampura, Alwar in Rajasthan for 34 participants from eight states of India. Dr. Rajendra Singh, Maulik Sisodiya and Subodh Kulkarni, CIS-A2K were the facilitators. The objectives behind organizing the workshop was to build an open knowledge resource on water related issues in all Indian languages, document the river basins of India, train volunteers working in the sector to work in Wikimedia projects, open street mapping exercises and photo walks along the river and post free content on Commons and Wikisource projects.</p>
<p>The documentation structure for river basin was decided through participatory process. The participants were divided into 6 groups for working on 6 river basins of Arvari district. The resource material available with TBS in the form of maps, reports, training booklets was used to prepare the schematic maps of each river basin. The water bodies such as ponds, manmade structures like dams were also listed.</p>
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<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/WorkshopofRiverActivities.jpg/@@images/e336ea4b-9b8b-4b22-a647-79950225f98e.jpeg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Workshop on River Activities" /></th>
<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/WorkshopofWaterActivities.jpg/@@images/d96a9ca9-4520-4d09-9eb4-f215492c8839.jpeg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Workshop on Water Activities" /></th>
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<td style="text-align: center;" colspan="2"><em>Activists during the workshop conducted by TBS in Alwar, Rajasthan in December 2018</em><br /><br /></td>
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<p>After this pre-work, the training on Wikipedia editing started. The participants worked in sandboxes first on their articles. The manual of style, giving offline and online references and categorisation were discussed and practiced on sandboxes. The Commons session started with elaborate discussion on copyrights, licenses and encyclopedic content. The images were uploaded on Commons and used in the articles. The articles in the sandboxes were presented by each working group. Taking into consideration various suggestions, appropriate modifications were done. The finished new articles and the additional content into existing articles were then moved in the main namespace of respective language Wikipedia. TBS has decided to re-license 30 books and training material on river in CC-BY-SA. Participants who attended the workshop have started contributing in various languages.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Participants' Feedback</h2>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;" class="quoted">“Rivers are essential for existence of life in land. Keeping its sanctity and health is very important. The Wikimedia workshop gave an insight on river pollution issues and the importance of reviving them. As Wikipedia is an open platform it can create a larger impact by reaching out to the society.” - <a title="en:Username:Mrityunjay1010" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Username:Mrityunjay1010">Mrityunjay1010</a></blockquote>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;" class="quoted">“The wiki-workshop on "Rivers on Wiki" has been my maiden experience in the context of generalizing the knowledge for common good. The workshop gave me a lens to see the usage of Wikipedia in regional languages as a medium for environmental consciousness building as well as conservation. Wikipedia as a means for social audit was also another enriching experience in that workshop.” - <a title="en:Username:Simantabharati" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Username:Simantabharati">Simantabharati</a></blockquote>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-rejuvenating-indias-rivers-the-wiki-way'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-rejuvenating-indias-rivers-the-wiki-way</a>
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No publishersubodhCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaFeaturedHomepage2019-04-01T13:18:33ZBlog Entry