The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 31 to 45.
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
<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>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<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>
</tr>
<tr>
<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>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<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>
<p> </p>
<p>
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>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaFeaturedHomepage2019-04-01T13:18:33ZBlog Entryಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಯೋಜನೆ ಸಮಾವೇಶ ಮತ್ತು ತರಬೇತಿಯ ವರದಿ
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/c95ca8ccdca8ca1-cb5cbfc95cbfcaaca1cbfcaf-cb6cbfc95ccdcb7ca3-cafc9cca8cc6-cb8caecbecb5cb6-caeca4ccdca4cc1-ca4cb0cacca4cbfcaf-cb5cb0ca6cbf
<b>ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಯು ದಿನದಿಂದ ದಿನಕ್ಕೆ ಬಳಕೆಯಿಲ್ಲದೇ ಕುಂದುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಗ್ರಾಮೀಣ ಭಾಗದ ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಸರಿಯಾದ ಕನ್ನಡ ಆಕರಗಳು ಸಿಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಇಂತಹ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ, ಕನ್ನಡವನ್ನು ಉಳಿಸಿ ಬೆಳೆಸುವುದು ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಬ್ಬ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗನ ಕರ್ತವ್ಯ. ಇದನ್ನೆಲ್ಲ ಗಮನದಲ್ಲಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡು, ಸಂತ ಅಲೋಶಿಯಸ್ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಆಶ್ರಯದಲ್ಲಿ ದಿನಾಂಕ ೦೯ ಹಾಗೂ ೧೦ ನೇ ಫೆಬ್ರುವರಿ, ೨೦೧೯ ರಂದು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಯೋಜನೆ ಸಮಾವೇಶ ಮತ್ತು ತರಬೇತಿಯನ್ನು ನಡೆಸಲಾಯಿತು.
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<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣವನ್ನು ತಮ್ಮಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಬೇಕೆನ್ನುತ್ತಿರುವ ಪ್ರಾಧ್ಯಾಪಕರು ಹಾಗೂ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ಪರಿಚಯ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಡುವುದು ಹಾಗೂ ತರಬೇತಿ ನೀಡುವುದು ಈ ಸಮಾವೇಶದ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಉದ್ದೇಶವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಮೊದಲ ದಿನ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣವನ್ನು ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಿರುವ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಗಳಿಂದ ಒಬ್ಬ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ ಮತ್ತು ಒಬ್ಬ ಪ್ರಾಧ್ಯಾಪಕರನ್ನು ಆಹ್ವಾನಿಸಿ, ಅವರಿಂದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಪರಿಚಯಿಸಿಕೊಡಲಾಯಿತು. ವಿಶ್ವಕನ್ನಡ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕರಾದ ಡಾ. ಪವನಜ ಅವರು ಸವಿಸ್ತಾರವಾಗಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳುವಳಿಕೆ ನೀಡಿದರು.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">ಕ್ರೈಸ್ಟ್ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯದಿಂದ ಮಹಾದೇವಪ್ಪ ಹೆಚ್. ಹಾಗೂ ಧನ್ಯ ಭಾರದ್ವಾಜ್ ಎಂಬ ಇಬ್ಬರು ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಿ, ಕರ್ನಾಟಕವಲ್ಲದೇ ಅಂತರಾಷ್ಟೀಯ ಮಟ್ಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಸರುವಾಸಿಯಾಗಿರುವ ಕ್ರೈಸ್ಟ್ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯದ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಅಚ್ಚುಕಟ್ಟಾದ ಪರಿಚಯ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಟ್ಟರು. ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯದ ವಿ.ಶಿ.ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭದಿಂದ ಇಲ್ಲಿಯವರೆಗಿನ ಬೆಳೆದುಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದ ರೀತಿಯೊಂದಿಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲ ಅಂಕಿ-ಅಂಶಗಳನ್ನು ಮಹಾದೇವಪ್ಪ ಮಂಡಿಸಿದರೆ, ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳ ನಿಲುವುಗಳನ್ನು ಧನ್ಯ ವಿವರಿಸಿದರು.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">ಇದರೊಂದಿಗೆ, ಉಜಿರೆಯ ಎಸ್.ಡಿ.ಎಮ್ ಹಾಗೂ ಮೂಡಿಬಿದಿರೆಯ ಆಳ್ವಾಸ್ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯವರು ಕೂಡ ತಮ್ಮ ವಿ.ಶಿ. ಯೋಜನೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ವಿವರಿಸಿದರು. ಹೀಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲ ಬಗೆಯ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಒದಗಿಸುವ ಮೂಲಕ ಮೊದಲ ದಿನದ ಸಮಾವೇಶ ಮುಕ್ತಾಯಗೊಂಡಿತು.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">ಎರಡನೇಯ ದಿನ, ಪವನಜರ ಮುಂದಾಳತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ ಹಾಗೂ ಪ್ರಾಧ್ಯಾಪಕರುಗಳಿಗೆ ಆನ್ಲೈನ್ ತರಬೇತಿಯನ್ನು ನೀಡುವ ಮೂಲಕ ವಿವಿಧ ಕಾಲೇಜುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿ.ಶಿ.ಯೋಜನೆ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಲು ಸಹಕಾರ ನೀಡಲಾಯಿತು. ಎರಡು ದಿನಗಳ ಕಾಲ, ಹಾಜರಿದ್ದ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಉತ್ತಮವಾದ ವಸತಿ ಹಾಗೂ ಊಟದ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯನ್ನು ಮಾಡಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಕೊನೆಗೆ, ಸ್ವಾಗತದಷ್ಟೇ ಆದರದಿಂದ ಎಲ್ಲರನ್ನು ಬೀಳ್ಕೊಡಲಾಯಿತು.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/c95ca8ccdca8ca1-cb5cbfc95cbfcaaca1cbfcaf-cb6cbfc95ccdcb7ca3-cafc9cca8cc6-cb8caecbecb5cb6-caeca4ccdca4cc1-ca4cb0cacca4cbfcaf-cb5cb0ca6cbf'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/c95ca8ccdca8ca1-cb5cbfc95cbfcaaca1cbfcaf-cb6cbfc95ccdcb7ca3-cafc9cca8cc6-cb8caecbecb5cb6-caeca4ccdca4cc1-ca4cb0cacca4cbfcaf-cb5cb0ca6cbf</a>
</p>
No publisherAnanthWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-03-07T02:35:05ZBlog EntryGoa University students update ‘Goa’ Marathi articles on Wikipedia
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/times-of-india-february-20-2019-goa-university-students-update-goa-marathi-articles-on-wikipedia
<b>Faculty and students of Goa University’s Marathi department have updated 164 Marathi articles on Wikipedia related to Goa recently.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/gu-students-update-goa-marathi-articles-on-wiki/articleshowprint/68071126.cms">Times of India</a> on February 20, 2019.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">They have also added information related to the state focused on freedom fighters, Marathi literature and cultural heritage, tourism, biodiversity and the environment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The two-day effort was carried out under the supervision of Subodh Kulkarni from the Centre for Internet and Society, the Indian partner of the Wikimedia Foundation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The history of Goan villages collected by students was uploaded on Wikipedia in Marathi Devanagari Unicode. They also participated in #1Lib1Ref campaign supported by Wikipedia Library and uploaded new articles and 25 photos.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Other than editing the 164 Marathi articles, the faculty and students also edited reference for articles on Wikipedia and contributed to important facts about Goa.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Kulkarni served as the resource person for the session, while director of digital learning and initiative at Goa University Prof Ramrao Wagh, head of department of Hindi Vrushali Mandrekar; librarian at GU library Gopakumar, head of department of Marathi Sunita Umraskar, and coordinator of the workshop Vinay Madgaonkar, oversaw the effort.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/times-of-india-february-20-2019-goa-university-students-update-goa-marathi-articles-on-wikipedia'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/times-of-india-february-20-2019-goa-university-students-update-goa-marathi-articles-on-wikipedia</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpenness2019-02-22T02:27:14ZNews ItemMini MediaWiki Training Theni
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mini-mediawiki-training-theni
<b>CIS-A2k is trying to strengthen the MediaWiki movement in India, and over the last six months, the team has collaborated with different Indian Wikimedians and started a project called Indic-TechCom.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Indic-TechCom provides technical support to the Indic Wikimedia community and as of now has supported community members in <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Indic-TechCom/Tools/IndicOCR">Indic OCR</a> and <a href="https://tools.wmflabs.org/indic-wsstats/">Indic Wikisource stats</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To increase the awareness on MediaWiki, Indic TechCom members and CIS-A2K decided to reach out to students with the Computer science background and help them understand how to contribute on MediaWiki. As a pilot project, we reached out to Nadar Saraswathi College of Engineering and Technology and organised a two-day long Mini MediaWiki training for the students on 22nd and 23rd of January 2019.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the training, On Day 1, students were explained about MediaWiki and were introduced to Git, GitHub, Phabricator and Gerrit. We helped them to install MediaWiki software on their system and also helped them to understand the structure of MediaWiki.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the second day, students were introduced to the extensions and skins, understanding the structure of extension and special pages. We also taught them how to submit patches through Gerrit.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This training had a group of 20 students and 2 faculty members who were supporting the students and guiding them in their native language. The first day of the event started slowly as students were lacking in having the knowledge of Wikimedia and its structure. After setting up the relation of the Wikimedia platform the students were able to understand the use and benefits of MediaWiki. Then the installation of MediaWiki and hosting of own MediaWiki server was done. Seven students were successfully able to install and play with Localsettings.php to get the grip of their sites.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At the end of the sessions, two[1][2] students were able to submit the patch to Gerrit and it was approved by Volker_E (Sr. User Experience Engineer, Wikimedia Foundation).</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">[1]. <a href="https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214470">https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214470</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[2]. <a href="https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214468">https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214468</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mini-mediawiki-training-theni'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mini-mediawiki-training-theni</a>
</p>
No publisherAnanthWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-02-13T02:34:40ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Workshop & 1lib1ref session at Goa University
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-1lib1ref-session-at-goa-university
<b>Marathi language department of Goa University has initiated the process to document the culture of Goa on Marathi Wikipedia and Commons.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As this was the first exposure to Wikimedia projects, a two day extensive training workshop was planned. In the same event, a three hour session in library as part of 1lib1ref session was also conducted. CIS-A2K has partnered Goa University for conducting the event which attracted a footfall of 36 participants.</p>
<h3>Primary objectives</h3>
<p>The following objectives were broadly covered in the sessions held at Goa University campus on 31 January and 1 February 2019:</p>
<ul>
<li>Awareness about digital knowledge in Marathi, Open knowledge resources and Wikimedia projects.</li>
<li>Explain participants the history of Wiki movement and the pillars of Wikipedia.</li>
<li>Train the participants in basic editing skills in Wikipedia.</li>
<li>Explore the ways to find reliable and verifiable references.</li>
<li>Present the article structure, manual of style, and categorization.</li>
<li>Explain copyright, Commons guidelines and uploading images on Wikipedia.</li>
<li>Discuss follow-up plan and integration with academic activities.</li>
<li>Add reliable references as part of 1lib1ref session in library.</li>
</ul>
<h3>The Workshop</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The practice of Marathi typing in Unicode was carried out through preparing articles as Word document. The students selected the articles on history of Goa, writers and artists of Goa, tourism in Goa and villages in Goa. Participants learnt basic editing skills, adding references and uploading on Commons. They worked first in sandboxes on their new articles. The content addition is in progress. The verified content would be moved to main namespace under the guidance of experienced editors.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The concept of 1lib1ref campaign was shared with Chief Librarian of Goa University. The response was very positive. As a result, in the last two sessions of the workshop on 1 February, the participants added references to the articles. The session was conducted in the library. The library staff and faculty facilitated the process.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Follow-up</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The editors are preparing the articles in sandboxes and offline also. It is proposed to conduct another iteration to verify and publish this content in main namespace. The students are also taking the images of issues related to Goan culture. The exclusive session on Commons is also proposed. The librarian has suggested making separate rack of reference books related to Goa culture and heritage for utility. This idea will be explored in the next 1lib1ref iteration in May-June 2019.</p>
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<p>For more info see the <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Marathi_Wikipedia_Workshop_%26_1lib1ref_session_at_Goa_University">Meta report</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-1lib1ref-session-at-goa-university'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-1lib1ref-session-at-goa-university</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhMarathi WikipediaCIS-A2KAccess to Knowledge2019-03-01T00:35:44ZBlog EntryCIS Signs MoU with Odia Virtual Academy
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-signs-mou-with-odia-virtual-academy
<b>On October 26, 2018, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Odia Virtual Academy (OVA) to work on drafting an open content policy for the state, to promote use of Wikimedia projects by various user types and to ensure sustainability of Wikimedia projects, and to facilitate development of relevant free and open source software projects. This partnership between OVA and CIS will be carried out from December 2018 to November 2019, and we are sharing an overview of the activities and their objectives in this post.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The internet is increasingly significant as a knowledge repository today. Especially relevant in this context is the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which contains information on almost every topic under the sun, across many languages spoken globally, and is used extensively all people to seek information and produce knowledge.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">From past one year (since July 2017), The Government of Odisha has been actively participating in the open knowledge movement by publishing the content of their seven websites and eight social media accounts under Creative Commons 4.0 International license. This active collaboration with Government of Odisha and an active Odia Wikimedia community seeking to create and distribute knowledge in Odia language over the internet has resulted in improving 1,200 articles on different Wikimedia projects, and together has received a near about 16 Million page views. Further, the Government of Odisha adopting an open content policy will provide a significant boost in institutionalising creation, sharing, and re-use of open knowledge resources - including government documents, official statistics, open educational resources, and open cultural resources - in Odia language.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://ova.gov.in/en/" target="_blank">Odia Virtual Academy (OVA)</a> is an organisation established by Government of Odisha for development, promotion and popularization of Odia language, literature, and lexicography for general use. It is an organised initiative to encourage expeditious evolution and popularisation of Odia books, magazines, journals, old songs, manuscripts, assembly speeches, and archival records by digitising and providing internet based resources and opportunities for all odia people living across the globe.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On October 26, 2018, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) signed a MoU with the Odia Virtual Academy to work on drafting an open content policy for the state, to promote use of Wikimedia projects by various user types and to ensure sustainability of Wikimedia projects, and to facilitate development of relevant free and open source software projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This partnership between OVA and CIS will be carried out from December 2018 to November 2019, and its activities are structured by the following objectives:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Open Content Policy for the Government of Odisha:</b> The open content policy will include guidelines for the use of open licenses and open standards to enable the resource (text, resources or otherwise) publishing entity to share resources in a manner that it can be easily and freely be accessed, shared, and re-used by entities, without asking for prior permission, while ensuring that full attribution to the creator/publisher is provided and the resources are not misused, or the creator/publisher is not misrepresented in the process.<br /><br /></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Developing Digital and Open Knowledge Resources in Odia Language:</b> The CIS team will undertake awareness-building, training, and outreach activities to develop Odia language content on Wikimedia ecosystem, as well as to enable content creators from across institutions, with a focus on state government officials at district headquarters and college students. The broad mandate of the digital resource generation workshop is to introduce teachers, students, and interested citizens to tools of collaborative knowledge production on the internet and methods for generating new online content or reintroduce offline content in Odia language.<br /><br /></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>‘Revive Odia’ Activities:</b> Odia as a language has a long tradition and has been medium of expression for the native speakers of Odisha. While Odia as a language of communication is not under any immediate threat, its role and responsibility as a language of Knowledge needs to be examined carefully. ‘Revive Odia’ activities have a simple objective: <i>To bring Odia under limelight in the digital domain</i>. Wikimedia projects in Odia language are working actively to increase the presence of Odia language on the Internet. If such projects can be supported new projects can be incubated, Odia will emerge as the language of knowledge production and distribution as well.<br /><br /></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) Partnerships:</b> Wikimedia ecosystem offer several platforms for using the power and opportunities of internet to (digitally) preserve, enable access to, and creative re-use of historical, cultural, and social artefacts, and channel the expertise of local populations to build narratives around these artefacts. The CIS team is particularly interested in initiating engagement with public GLAM institutions at various locations and levels, and work with academic and research community to build scientific metadata of these objects. The metadata will be used to represent the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Odisha in projects such as Wikidata.<br /><br /></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><b>Building and Supporting FOSS for Odia Language:</b> To promote and enable usage of Odia language on the web, the CIS team will facilitate development of an Odia font, an input tool, and a spell-check dictionary - all of which will be released as FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) resources.</li>
</ul>
<p>To undertake these activities, CIS will receive a grant of Rs 20,00,000 (~$28,000) from OVA.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-signs-mou-with-odia-virtual-academy'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-signs-mou-with-odia-virtual-academy</a>
</p>
No publishersaileshOpen Educational ResourcesCIS-A2KOpen LicenseAccess to KnowledgeOpen DataWikipediaOpen ContentOdia WikipediaOpen AccessWikimedia2018-12-20T00:24:44ZBlog EntryIndic Wikisource Community Consultation 2018
https://cis-india.org/indic-wikisource-community-consultation-2018
<b>A group of Indian Wikisource leader from 12 different language communities gathered in Kolkata to attend the Indic Wikisource Community Consultation 2018</b>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>There was a long time required of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition">Optical Character Recognition (OCR)</a> for Indic language computing. There was not at per OCR available in Indic languages before 2015. Most of the Indic subdomain was created in 2007 to 2011, but due to not availability of OCR, the Indic Wikisource Community used to type the whole book or import the Unicoded text from other non-reliable sources. In 2015 the after Google Drive OCR released Indic community relief from the typing era.</p>
<p>Later <a href="https://github.com/tshrinivasan">Shrinivasan T</a><strong> </strong>developed an <a href="https://github.com/tshrinivasan/OCR4wikisource">OCR4wikisource</a> script to use the Google Drive OCR as Bot. Since the implementation of the OCR, there has been a lot of progress in Indic Wikisource. But we have realized the there should be a common platform where we can share our knowledge. Then one-month planning we have organized <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Indic_Wikisource_Community_Consultation_2018">Indic Wikisource Community Consultation 2018</a>. in Kolkata. this is first such consultation at this scale, convened by the CIS A2K team. </p>
<p>The meeting had a representation of one volunteer from the Assamese, Bangla, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Telugu, and Sanskrit language Wikisource communities. <a title="User:Ananth subray" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ananth_subray">Ananth Subray</a> (Kannada ) <a title="User:Bodhisattwa" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bodhisattwa">Bodhisattwa</a> (Bengali) <a title="User:Hrishikes (page does not exist)" class="gmail-new" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Hrishikes&action=edit&redlink=1">Hrishikes</a> Sen (English ) <a title="User:Gurlal Maan" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gurlal_Maan">Gurlal Maan</a> (Punjabi ) G<a title="User:Gitartha.bordoloi" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gitartha.bordoloi">itartha Bordoloi</a> (Assamese ) <a title="User:Pooja Jadhav" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pooja_Jadhav">Pooja Jadhav</a> (Marathi ) <a title="User:Pmsarangi" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pmsarangi">Pankajmala Sarangi</a> (Oriya ) <a title="User:Shubha" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Shubha">Shubha</a> (Sanskrit ) <a title="User:Sushant savla" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sushant_savla">Sushant Savla</a> (Gujurati ) R<a title="User:Ranjithsiji" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ranjithsiji">anjith siji</a> (Malayalam ) <a title="User:अजीत कुमार तिवारी (page does not exist)" class="gmail-new" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%A4_%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80&action=edit&redlink=1">A</a>jit Kumar Tiwari (Hindi ) <a title="User:Ramesam54 (page does not exist)" class="gmail-new" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Ramesam54&action=edit&redlink=1">Ramesam54</a> (Telugu ) <a title="User:Jayprakash12345" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jayprakash12345">Jayprakash</a> (Indic Tech team) <a title="User:Chinmayee Mishra" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Chinmayee_Mishra">Chinmayee Mishra</a> (Oriya ) as well as Tito Dutta, Tanveer Hasan, Subodh Kulkarni and Jayanta Nath, four members of the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge">Access to Knowledge Programme</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_for_Internet_and_Society_%28India%29">Centre for Internet and Society</a> (CIS-A2K) .</p>
<p>The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Indic_Wikisource_Community_Consultation_2018#Objectives">objectives</a> of the consultation are:</p>
<ol><li>Share views and preferences on the most effective ways to pursue our shared vision of creating and sharing free knowledge in India and in the Indian languages (including English) around the world through the Indic Wikisource Project.</li><li>Attempt to come to an agreement on a roadmap for a future where our resources are better utilized, our volunteers are better served, and progress on our mission is more steadily attained.</li></ol>
<div> </div>
<p>We have started our discussion on day zero with the agenda of the main aims of this consultation and what all participants want from this program. The discussion was started at 6 PM and ended at 10 PM night. After discussion, we have summarized and set-up for two days agenda which was actually coming from the participants. The CIS-A2K team arranged for the travel and stay of all participants, as well as a night stay for all participants between the zero and second day, to ensure that the programme started on time on.</p>
<p>Day one started with Introduction of Wikisource by me were introduce the workflow of Wikisource, adding text, finding the source, basic copyright checking, creating Index pages, OCRed the page, Proofreading, layout with typography, Validation, Transclusion and Finishing touch. Later on, <a title="User:Hrishikes (page does not exist)" class="gmail-new" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Hrishikes&action=edit&redlink=1"><span id="gmail-1205" class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_1205 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Style gmail-replaceWithoutSep">Hrishikes</span></a> Sen demonstrated each segment broadly. <a title="User:Bodhisattwa" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bodhisattwa"><span id="gmail-1204" class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_1204 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Style gmail-replaceWithoutSep">Bodhisattwa</span></a> (Bengali) demonstrated Wikisource Tool, like IA-UPLOAD, Vicuna Uploader, URL2COMMONS, Fill index Gadget etc. And all participants implement hands-on. Bodhisatta showed the <a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E0%A6%A6%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE_%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%96%E0%A6%A8_%E0%A6%A6%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%97%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC.webm">Bengali Wikisource promotional videos.</a></p>
<p>Day two was started with Google <span id="gmail-94" class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_94 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Punctuation gmail-only-ins gmail-replaceWithoutSep">Drive</span> OCR without using Bot solution developed by <a title="User:Jayprakash12345" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jayprakash12345">Jayprakash</a> (Indic Tech team). Later on OTRS process by Jayanta Nath, Wikisource Roadmap by Tanveer Hasan, Institutional Partnership - by Subodh Kulkarni and Transclusion in Wikisource by Susant Salva presented. The most achievements of this meeting were the second day, <a title="User:Jayprakash12345" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jayprakash12345">Jayprakash</a> leads the task myself to clear the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Indic-TechCom/Requests/IWCC2018">Wikisource technical backlog</a>. </p>
<p>There were also some ideas coming up by the session by Tanveer. This included awareness, outreach, followups, and evaluation. A report about this meeting was published at <a href="https://www.cis-india.org/indic-wikisource-community-consultation-2018-report-at-asomiya-pratidin-epaper-highest-circulated-assamese-daily">Asomiya Pratidin</a>. Some feedback from the participants can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Indic_Wikisource_Community_Consultation_2018">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/indic-wikisource-community-consultation-2018'>https://cis-india.org/indic-wikisource-community-consultation-2018</a>
</p>
No publisherjayantaCIS-A2KOdia WikisourceAccess to KnowledgeCommonsIndic WikisourceAutomationWorkshoparchivesWikisourceKannada WikisourceIndic ScriptsMobile AppsMarathi Wikisource2018-12-08T18:22:29ZBlog EntryIndic Wikisource Community Consultation 2018 report at Asomiya Pratidin ePaper- Highest Circulated Assamese Daily
https://cis-india.org/indic-wikisource-community-consultation-2018-report-at-asomiya-pratidin-epaper-highest-circulated-assamese-daily
<b>Indic Wikisource Community Consultation 2018 report at Asomiya Pratidin ePaper- Highest Circulated Assamese Daily</b>
<p><em>Volunteers from various Indic Wikisource projects took part in a discussion organized by Centre for Internet and society: access to knowledge (CIS:A2K) in Kolkata recently. Dr. Gitartha Bordoloi participated in this consultation on behalf of the Assamese Wikisource which included other Indic languages like Bengali, Odia, Marathi, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu and Sanskrit. It is worth mentioning here that Wikisource is another important project like Wikipedia, Wiktionary etc operated by Wikimedia Foundation. Anyone can contribute to this wikisource project which stores copyright-free books, plays, lyrics, speeches, translated works etc. Such works are first scanned and digitalized and then converted to unicode so that everything becomes searchable. Assamese Wikisource (<a href="http://as.wikisource.org/" target="_blank">as.wikisource.org</a>), started in 2013, so far includes various literary works of Guru Sankardeva and Madhavdev, Jyotiprasad Agarwala, Lakshminath Bezbaroa, Padmanath Gogain Baruah, Chandraprasad Agarwala, Amulya Barua, Dandinath Kalita etc. Measures to popularize Wikisource among masses, increasing numbers of readers and contributors, correct techniques to digitalize a book etc were discussed at the event in Kolkata.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Translated from Assamese by Dr. Gitartha Bordoloi </em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/indic-wikisource-community-consultation-2018-report-at-asomiya-pratidin-epaper-highest-circulated-assamese-daily'>https://cis-india.org/indic-wikisource-community-consultation-2018-report-at-asomiya-pratidin-epaper-highest-circulated-assamese-daily</a>
</p>
No publisherjayantaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeIndic WikisourceBooksDigitisationWikisourceIndic ComputingWorkshopIndic Scripts2018-12-10T15:08:56ZNews ItemAditya 365
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/aditya-365
<b>Telugu Wikimedian Aditya Pakide successfully completed 365 Wiki Commons Days. Aditya started contributing to project after a Facebook comment by A2K community advocate suggesting that the same picture would get more utilization in Commons and a brief training followed.</b>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Aditya365.jpg/@@images/3076bc5e-519f-4bf3-868f-c782088da581.jpeg" alt="Aditya 365" class="image-inline" title="Aditya 365" /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/aditya-365'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/aditya-365</a>
</p>
No publisherpavanCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu Wikipedia2018-11-07T02:32:27ZBlog EntryVan Bodh Workshop for content development on Forest Resources at Gadchiroli
https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/van-bodh-workshop-for-content-development-on-forest-resources-at-gadchiroli
<b>CIS-A2K has collaborated with Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI) to facilitate development of Open knowledge resources on Community Forest Resource and content development in Wikimedia projects with community participation. These contents will become a part of "Van Bodh Knowledge repository".</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy, Bombay University has formulated and going to start a "Diploma course in Community Resource Management " with the support of TRTI, Pune from 2nd of oct 2018. This is a historic attempt to impart education of the level of a diploma to rural, especially tribal youth without any condition of academic qualification. The course was conducted at Mendha(Lekha) an hamlet in Dhanora taluk of Gadchiroli District. CIS-A2K has collaborated with TRTI to facilitate development of Open knowledge resources on Community Forest Resource and content development in Wikimedia projects with community participation.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/van-bodh-workshop-for-content-development-on-forest-resources-at-gadchiroli'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/van-bodh-workshop-for-content-development-on-forest-resources-at-gadchiroli</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaEvent2018-11-06T01:36:39ZEventSouth India Copyright Workshop
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/south-india-copyright-workshop
<b>A workshop on Copyright was organized by CIS-A2K at Hotel Bhagini Icon in Bengaluru from 19th to 21st October 2018. Seventeen members from 5 language communities (Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Tulu) participated in the workshop. Yann Forget was the master trainer for the workshop.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Before the event participants <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/15AJZmenWY-dOFNhKrvpvFTOLUZ0Sblukl39Sefj9RDo/edit">listed their questions</a>. The workshop participants’ queries covered all aspects of copyright on Commons.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The event began with ‘Lightning talk About Copyrights’ by master trainer Yann. He spoke about copyright, what works be copyrighted, and why doesn’t one gets copyright. The session covered important issues like originality, creativity, Default copyrights of Collective works, Compilation works, newspapers and magazines. Case studies of 2D & 3D works of art (paintings, sculptures), Texts, Pictures & videos were elaborated. Yann also elaborated on some critical cases like recordings of musical concerts, complex geometric figures, dictionary content, mathematical theorems and algorithms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The workshop also threw light on what is free license, acceptable licenses, CC-BY-SA with attribution and ‘share alike’ license, etc. Various license tags and templates, non-copyright restrictions, etc. were also deliberated upon during the workshop. A hands-on session on translation of important templates in local languages and verifying files on Commons for description, source, categories, license and other details was also done. Participants were also introduced to uploading YouTube videos on Commons. Websites having copyright free content were also discussed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Yann also discussed various aspects of GODL India license policies. A brief session on process of deletion, un-deletion and OTRS volunteers’ structure was also conducted. On Day 2, an exhaustive session on copyright of pictures from sources such as <a href="https://www.flickr.com/">Flickr</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://pixabay.com/">Pixabay</a>, <a href="http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/">Bollywood Hungama</a>, <a href="https://newspaperarchive.com/">Newspaperarchive</a>, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a>, Government websites etc. was conducted. Participants explored specific categories and found out treasures of free images on web. Important templates like <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-Art">PD-Art</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-India">PD-India</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-1996">PD-1996</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Not-PD-US-URAA">Not-PD-US-URAA</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-UK-unknown">PD-UK unknown</a> were explained with proper examples.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The final session was dedicated to Books on Commons. All participating communities were actively involved in digitization and uploading free content on Commons and Wikisource. Nationalization of books by Tamil Nadu state government was taken up for discussion. Tamil Wikipedians spoke about the licensing procedures and problems being faced by community on Commons. Yann stressed on importance of creating Wikidata items for files and categories in Commons with examples.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the concluding session a follow-up plan was framed with active contribution of all members. The major tasks include - Creating a list of authors with death year details in the respective language to decide public domain/copyright free status in India (Works of Indian authors who died 60 years ago), Translation of important 10 policy pages, 8 templates and 2 category pages in local languages and Preparation of check list for users before uploading any content to Commons. Yann Forget played crucial role in developing clear understanding on important issues. The workshop has definitely created cohesive group of Indic Wikimedians striving to build free content on Commons.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/south-india-copyright-workshop'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/south-india-copyright-workshop</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2018-11-06T01:25:49ZBlog Entry