The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 1 to 15.
One Thousand Books Online
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/one-thousand-books-online
<b></b>
<p>The article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://maharashtratimes.indiatimes.com/maharashtra/pune/books-online/articleshow/49587775.cms">Maharashtra Times</a> on October 30, 2015. Download the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/maharashtra-times" class="internal-link">file here</a>.</p>
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<img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Maharshtra_Times_News_2.jpg/@@images/ff8e85ce-9134-441e-8a87-baf780cd90c4.jpeg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Maharashtra Times" /></th>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/one-thousand-books-online'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/one-thousand-books-online</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi Wikisource2015-12-15T08:16:39ZNews Itemमहाराष्ट्र ग्रंथोत्तेजक संस्थेमधील एक हजार ग्रंथ ऑनलाईन
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/92e93993e93093e93794d91f94d930-91794d93090292594b92494d92494791c915-93890293894d92594792e927940932-90f915-93991c93e930-91794d930902925-91192893293e908928
<b>Coverage of Marathi Wikipedia in Saamna.</b>
<p>A scanned version of the article published in Saamna on October 30 is below:</p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Marathi_Wikipedia_News_from_Saamna_newspaper.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Marathi Wikipedia Saamna" /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/92e93993e93093e93794d91f94d930-91794d93090292594b92494d92494791c915-93890293894d92594792e927940932-90f915-93991c93e930-91794d930902925-91192893293e908928'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/92e93993e93093e93794d91f94d930-91794d93090292594b92494d92494791c915-93890293894d92594792e927940932-90f915-93991c93e930-91794d930902925-91192893293e908928</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaMarathi WikipediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2015-12-15T07:57:00ZNews ItemCommunity Discussion for Making Tulu Wikipedia Live
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/making-tulu-wikipedia-live
<b>CIS-A2K Programme Officer Rahmanuddin Shaik visited Mangalore on October 28 and 29 and again on November 5 and 6, 2015. During his visit he interacted with Wikipedians for making the Tulu Wikipedia live.</b>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There were discussions on translations of system messages that appear on Wikipedia interface, creating templates pages and adding images. Around 79 strings were translated on Translatewiki.net, the community project for MediaWiki localization, and about 500 strings were approved. This event was organised at Tulu Bhavana, Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Akademy. The director of the institution was part of the meeting who agreed for the following:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>To relicense a lower resolution cover pages, and metadata of their 157 volumes of books under Creative Commons licenses. This will bring in those many articles on Tulu Wikipedia.</li>
<li>To give detailed information of winners of Tulu Sahitya Akademy award winners (this was being given away across 6 disciplines from 1993 onwards), which would add close to 100 biography articles on Tulu Wikipedia.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">A possibility of CIS-A2K and Tulu Sahitya Akademy collaboration was also discussed briefly. Vishwanatha Badikana was there throughout these talks and he would be the contact person for further work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Rahmanuddin was also invited to be a part of the World Konkani Literature festival where he spoke briefly about Konkani Wikipedia to the gathering.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/making-tulu-wikipedia-live'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/making-tulu-wikipedia-live</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeTulu Wikipedia2015-12-15T07:45:54ZNews ItemJP Das's Books to be Made Available Free on Wikipedia
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/jp-dass-books-to-be-made-available-free-on-wikipedia
<b>Noted Odia-language author and art historian Jagannath Prasad Das's works will be available on Wikipedia for free.</b>
<p>A scanned version of the article published on October 16, 2015 is below:</p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/JPDas.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="JP Das" /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/jp-dass-books-to-be-made-available-free-on-wikipedia'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/jp-dass-books-to-be-made-available-free-on-wikipedia</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2015-12-15T08:18:51ZNews ItemCommunity Prioritisation of Content Donation: Kannada Wikisource
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/community-prioritisation-content-donation-kannada-wikisource
<b> CIS-A2K has initiated a community consultation in order to prioritise and streamline the work on Wikisource projects across FLA. Due to the commitment of volunteers from the respective FLA and the institutional partnerships that A2K has developed we have been able to bring a large corpus of content under free licence into our Wikisource projects. CIS-A2K promotes both content donation and content acquisition strategies in order to bring in free licence content.
</b>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">The re-releasing of the content under CC-BY-SA is a difficult task no doubt, but the even more difficult task is to get the donated content digitised and made available on Wikisource. As this activity involves three intermediary steps of scanning the original document, uploading the same on commons.wikimedia.org and finally recreate the same page on Wikisource by typing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">It is common knowledge that Indian Language Wikimedia communities consist of very few volunteers and in many communities it is Wikipedia that is the chief attraction for volunteers. This compounds the problem towards work that has to be done on Wikisource. To overcome this problem CIS-A2K has initiated a community consultation and prioritisation effort. CIS-A2K consults community in form of posts on Village pump, mailing lists and other channels of communication and update them about the overall content donated towards Wikisource projects and requests for suggestions and feedback as to the plan to digitse and bringing the content on Wikisource.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">For the month of November, 2015 CIS-A2K discussed the plan with the Kannada community Wikimedians and proposed a plan of aggregating all the content that has been donated towards Kannada Wikisource and copyright lapse content that has been identified by Wikimedians. A2K team is currently utilising its institutional partnership with Christ University in digitising the content of Sri. Niranjana a prominent Kannada author that was donated by Prof. Tejaswini Niranjana. As a result of this collaboration with the community A2K team shall be posting a comprehensive list of the content donated to Kannada Wikisource along with copyright lapse books that are available digitally on Digital Library of India and Osmania University Digital Library and other such platforms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">This consultation process with the Kannada Wikimedia community also seeded an idea of creating a 'Book Bank' for Kannada Wikimedians. The objective of the book bank is to provide authentic references, citation material and other primary sources of information for content generation. As a first step towards building of the proposed book bank, we have purchased encyclopaedic material on Stone Inscriptions found in Karnataka, Women writers of Karnataka, Literary history of Karnataka and Kannada Dictionaries. The material acquired under 'Book Bank' will serve as resources for community and will be provided to the community members upon request for the same.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">Following lists provide information about the current status of projects undertaken on Kannada Wikipedia:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><strong>Projects which are active on Wikisource:</strong></p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Vimochane - 50 pages to be typed out of 355</li>
<li>Abhaya - 63 to be typed of 326 pages</li>
<li>Doorada Nakshatra - 23 typed out of 175</li>
<li>Rangammana Vathara - 23 to be typed of 209 pages</li>
<li>Ekangini - 41 typed of 228 pages</li>
<li>Kalyanaswami - 100 typed of 251</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">These books are scanned and uploaded on Kannada Wikisource</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody"><strong>Books to be uploaded on Wikisource:</strong></p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Chirasmarane</li>
<li>Mrutyunjaya</li>
<li>Deekshe</li>
<li>Navodaya</li>
<li>Palike banda panchamruta</li>
<li>Swami Aparampara</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody"><strong>Books available to be scanned:</strong></p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Banashankari</li>
<li>Nandagokula</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">CIS-A2K has visited the following libraries in order to optimise the efforts put into Kannada Wikisource:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">1) Central Library, Cubbon Park, Bangalore</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">2) Kannada Shaitya Parishat, Chamarajpet, Bangalore</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">3) B.M. Shri Pratishtana Library, Bangalore</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">4) Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs, Basavanagudi, Bangalore</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">The visits have resulted in identifying many books that were hitherto unavailable with A2K team. We are in process of getting these books and digitise them so that they can be uploaded on Kannada Wiisource. A2K team is hopeful that the increased levels of activity and consultation held with the community will help the overall progress of Kannada Wikisource project.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/community-prioritisation-content-donation-kannada-wikisource'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/community-prioritisation-content-donation-kannada-wikisource</a>
</p>
No publisherhasanOpen Educational ResourcesCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaKannada Wikisource2015-12-15T07:42:09ZBlog EntryAnalysis of Institutional Partnerships: University of Mysore and Guru G Learning Labs
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-of-institutional-partnerships-university-of-mysore-and-guru-g-learning-lab
<b>University of Mysore considered to be one of the most prestigious institutions in the country has been famous for its innovative pedagogic techniques and opening up for students various avenues of knowledge acquisition.</b>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">The Kannada Encyclopedia project that was taken up by the Kuvempu Kannada Adhyana Samsthe, (KIKS), Manasagangothri, Mysore was one of its kind during its inception. It is safe to say that though Kannda has seen many other projects and attempts towards compiling encyclopedias, to this day the Vishwakoshas produced by University of Mysore are among the top picks regarding quality of the content, scope of the information and its reach with the general public. Many other encyclopedia projects such as “Bala Vignana Kosha” compiled by Shivaram Karanth, “Jnana Gangothri” by Niranjana, the “Kananda Sahitya Vishwakosha” from the Kannada University, Hampi have provided encyclopedic content to the Kannada readers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">The idea of the University of Mysore complied Vishwakoshas was simple. It seeked to provide basic and elemenatry information about key topics all around the universe (physical, spiritual, material, cultural, social, behavioural, political and many other domains of knowledge) to the general public. The intention was to make information accessible and easily understandable. It was not expected to educate or assist people in gaining profieciency regarding a certain topic but was expected to provide salient features, brief history and concise introduction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><strong>Rationale for Institutional partnership:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">The compilation of topics that were to be part of the Vishwakosha was done alphabetically and till date 13 Vishwakoshas have been produced along with one Kannada Vishaya Vishwakosha which exclusively deals with matters pertaining to Kannada land, language, literature, politics, culture, entertainment and other aspects of Kannada life. The Vishwakosha project was a method to democratise the process of production of knowledge. People from all walks of life were invited to contribute to the Vishwakosha along with the academicians and researchers. The submissions were then scrutinised by the review committee and was edited, information added as per the requirements. As this was not a text only Vishwakosha many attempts were made to source images as well. These were not used as ornamental or page filling purpose but was also informative in its own way with adequate meta data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">These encyclopedias have been extremely popular with the Kannada audience both for the content and for its competitive pricing. Prasaranga, the publication division of University of Mysore had also offered an discount for people who would purchase the entire set of Vishwakoshas at a special rate. The Vishwakosha project faced many problems and the last volume of the Vishwakosha was released in the year , while the first volume was released in . University of Mysore has also digitised the Vishwakoshas and made it avaialable for general public on a CD.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><strong>Plan of Action:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">Access to Knowledge team sought to bring these treasure troves of Knowledge onto the digital platform and update the information available on these Vishwakoshas. It was a shot in the arm for the activities being conducted by CIS-A2K when University of Mysore agreed to re-release all of its encyclopedias under free licence for the benefit of larger Kannada community. University of Mysore also agreed to handover soft copies of the few encyclopedias (that were already digitised) to create and redirect content towards Kannada Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">A2K team has conducted three skill building and Wikipedia orientation workshops with the students of University of Mysore in order to kick start the content generation activities. These workshops were received very positively by the students. However due to lack of an active community and serious infrastructural issues the students could not continue with the activities that had been planned. Due to the inactivity of these new volunteers we have witnessed a decrease in the activity of content generation effort as aimed earlier.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Textbody">CIS-A2K facilitated extracting the legacy text from the soft-copies, converting them to Unicode, distributing the files among volunteers and Christ University interns and uploading them to Kannada Wikisource. These articles will serve as primary material for new content generation on Kannada Wikipedia. CIS-A2K celeberated Open Knowledge Day in collaboration with University of Mysore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">The non availability of infrastructual requirement, administrative difficulties such as scheduling of academic calendar offered the A2K team many invaluable lessons towards fostering an institutional partnership. A2K team adopted corrective measures and has been using the encyclopedias donated by University of Mysore as a primary reference for the subsequent edit-a-thons. A2K has also created a project page on Meta to attract Kannada Wikimedians towards content generation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><strong>Outcome and Output:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">A2K team utilised its institutional partnership with Christ University in the initial stages and digitised volumes of Kannada Encyclopedias. These were used both as references for the edit-a-thons conducted by CIS-A2K and as a primary reference material that was curated into an independent article on Kannada Wikipedia. Many Kannada Wikimedians have joined hands with A2K in acheiving this. This is an on-going activity.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard"><strong>Plans for Future:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">As University of Mysore has rich archival collection particulalry in Indian Languages, A2K team intends to talk to individual departments to bring this content to Open Knowledge repositiries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">A2K team would like to involve various Departments to dedicate some staff on an hourly basis towards speedy completion of the project.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">The existing MoU is understood as a one time activity of content donation (print and e copy of Vishwakosha) where as A2K would like to continue this activity as a long term engagement that will facilitate in building research skills and writing skills.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">A2K team intends to request to University of Mysore should select/suggest some student volunteers for the digitisation project. With the inclusion of Kannada PA A2K team would collaborate with key Departments at the University of Mysore to conduct digitisation and translation sprints that will be facilitated by and other Wikimedians.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="Standard">A2K team would like to collate all the new articles created with the help of the content donated by University of Mysore and circulate it as a newsletter on a monthly basis and sent to the Kannada community and University of Mysore.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-of-institutional-partnerships-university-of-mysore-and-guru-g-learning-lab'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-of-institutional-partnerships-university-of-mysore-and-guru-g-learning-lab</a>
</p>
No publisherhasanOpen Educational ResourcesCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipedia2015-12-15T07:39:15ZBlog EntryTTT 2015
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ttt-2015
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) conducted a four day training workshop for Wikimedians all over India in order to facilitate conducting and organising outreach activities for promotion of Wikimedia activities within Indian language communities. Wikimedians from 21 language communities had participated in this training workshop including Wikipedians working for Nepali and Maithili Wikipedia.</b>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">CIS-A2K was successful in providing an idea exchange platform during the TTT workshop. Wikipedians from all over India got a chance to discuss their respective Wikimedia projects and identify best practices that could be customised for their own Wikimedia projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">CIS-A2K conducted TTT 2015 with a clear objecive of training Indian Wikimedians in conducting effective outreach activites, As a reflective exercise on the efficacy of our TTT camp held in Bangalore during February, 2015 we are now conducting follow-up with the participants and I have contacted three Wikipedians (for the month of November 2015) and following are the updates:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Sailesh Patnaik (Odia Wikimedian):</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Activities till now:</p>
<ol>
<li>Attended Google I/O Bhubaneswar to deliver a talk about Wikipedia movement.</li>
<li>Has organized a workshop at KIST Bhubaneswar with 50+ participants.</li>
<li>Was invited by GDG Bhubaneswar group to deliver a talk about Wikipedia project during Google Dev Fest.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Presented a seminar at CET Bhubaneswar after the invitation from the organizing committee of the Perception (The Annual tech fest of CET , Bhubaneswar).</li></ol>
<p>Upcoming Activities</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Planning to organize a Wiki Takes Bhubaneswar photowalk and am also planning a GLAM project with a Cooperative society powered by Central Government and spread Open Source movement in Odisha.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">V.T. Narayanan and Sayant Mahato (Samskritam Wikipedians):</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Activities till now:</p>
<ol>
<li>In May 2015, Samskrita Bharati organized a camp in Kalladka.</li>
<li>In July 2015 : Rashtriya Sanskrit Samsthan, Sringeri (Now Sringa Giri) organized a symposium for their staff and students.</li>
<li>In August 2015, Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidya Peeta, Tirupathi organized introductory classes on Wikipedia. Sayant Mahato attended the programme and expained in detail about Sanskrit Wikipedia.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Later in August 2015, at Aksharam, Bangalore, Samskrita Bharati conducted a " Medha Shibiram" exclusively oriented to youngsters and students who are based outside India like in USA. The Shibiram was well received both by the students and their parents. The participants were very interested to know about Sanskrit Wikipedia.</li>
<li>Samskrita Bharati is engaged in the work of editing the existing articles in Wikipedia. </li></ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ttt-2015'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ttt-2015</a>
</p>
No publisherhasanCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaWikipedianSpeak2015-12-15T07:36:25ZBlog EntryOdia Wikimedia community meetup at Cuttack
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/odia-wikimedia-community-meetup-at-cuttack
<b>Odia Wikimedians are planning to gather in Cuttack and discuss about future project ideas for the community.</b>
<p>Agenda:</p>
<ul><li>Discussion about existing projects and planning for future</li><li>Implementing the community's plans<br /></li><li>Responsibilities of CIS-A2K's new program Associate Sailesh Patnaik</li><li>Restarting monthly meetup plans in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar</li></ul>
More in the <a class="external-link" href="https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%89%E0%AC%87%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%AA%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%A1%E0%AC%BC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%86:%E0%AC%AE%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B3%E0%AC%A3/%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%9F%E0%AC%95/%E0%AD%A9">event page</a>
<p> on Odia Wikipedia.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/odia-wikimedia-community-meetup-at-cuttack'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/odia-wikimedia-community-meetup-at-cuttack</a>
</p>
No publisherSailesh PatnaikWikipediaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2015-12-29T12:07:56ZEventWomen's Day Edit-a-thon at Jeewan Jyoti Women's Empowerment Centre, Pune
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/womens-day-edit-a-thon-in-pune
<b>Sterlite Tech Foundation and Jnana Prabodhini joined hands with the Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team to hold a Wikipedia edit-a-thon at Jeewan Jyoti Women's Empowerment Centre, Ambawane in Pune on March 10, 2017. Subodh Kulkarni was one of the trainers. The edit-a-thon was attended by 28 students.</b>
<h3><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/PuneEditathon.jpg" alt="Pune Editathon" class="image-inline" title="Pune Editathon" /></h3>
<h3>Background</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sterlite Tech Foundation and Jnana Prabodhini are the organisations working for Women's Empowerment in Velhe Block of Pune District Maharashtra. Jeewan Jyoti - Sterlite’s flagship initiative aims to address these issues by empowering the under privileged sections of society, especially rural women with equal learning opportunities and with professional training courses in their formative years; thereby providing them with sustainable income opportunities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On the occasion of World Women's Day, Women's Wikipedia edit-a-thon week is arranged across the world. The organisers collaborated with The Centre for Internet & Society-Access to Knowledge Program to conduct this workshop for rural women.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Project Goal</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The goal of this Wikipedia Workshop is to build resources in the field of rural development & women empowerment on Marathi Wikipedia and equip its participants with the process of contributing to Wikipedia, and to introduce it as a concept to them. Another focus of the workshop will be on village articles.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Primary Goals</b></p>
<ul>
<li>To introduce Wikipedia as an encyclopedia for research and a concept to new editors.</li>
<li>To Promote Marathi Wikipedia Community & promote the use of regional languages in Wikipedia.</li>
<li>To have an open interaction within the editors, existing as well as new.</li>
<li>To spread the awareness of Wikipedia as a powerful tool.</li>
<li>To develop articles on gender & environment related issues</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Day_Edit-a-thon_at_Jeewan_Jyoti_Women%27s_Empowerment_Centre,_Ambawane,Dist.Pune">More info on Wikimedia Blog</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/womens-day-edit-a-thon-in-pune'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/womens-day-edit-a-thon-in-pune</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-04-10T16:04:03ZBlog EntryMoU between PAH Solapur University & CIS-A2K
http://editors.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='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T06:21:47ZBlog EntryTallapaka Pada Sahityam is now on Wikisource
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tallapaka-pada-sahityam-is-now-on-wikisource
<b></b>
<p><a name="cite_ref-Source_of_his_history_1-0"></a>
Tallapaka Pada Sahityam, a
compilation of over fourteen thousand Telugu compositions is now
available on Wikisource. Tallapaka Annamacharya was a 15th-century
Hindu saint and composer who was renowned for singing in praise of
Lord Venkateswara. The Tallapaka lineage began with him, giving rise
to many bards in the Telugu language from the family. The Tallapaka
Pada Sahityam is a compilation of three generations of Tallapaka
poets: Tallapaka Annamacharya,
Tallapaka Peda Tirumalacharya, and Tallapaka China
Tirumalacharya. This compilation, published by Annamayya Library,
Guntur has been uploaded by the library on Wikisource as part of
their efforts to digitize the library archives. These lyrical works,
dealing with a variety of themes, are of immense literary and
cultural significance to Telugu speakers the world over.</p>
<p>Owing to the large
size of the file donated by the library, the works need to be
separated into 29 volumes. These separated files would be uploaded
and indexed on Commons as well. A Unicode version of the work needs
to be published and proofread in addition to their print version.
Telugu Wikimedians are also exploring the possiblity of re-licensing
recitations of the poems by literary connoisseurs. On 9 June, an orientation of these activities was conducted for long time Telugu Wikipedia, <a title="te:user:శ్రీరామమూర్తి" class="extiw" href="https://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:%E0%B0%B6%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%B0%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%B0%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%AE%E0%B0%AE%E0%B1%82%E0%B0%B0%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%A4%E0%B0%BF">te:user:శ్రీరామమూర్తి</a>, who has begun publishing Unicode text and proof-reading on Telugu Wikisource.</p>
<p>The link to the work
is here:</p>
<p><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Tallapaka_pada_sahityam.pdf">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Tallapaka_pada_sahityam.pdf</a></p>
<p><br />
<br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tallapaka-pada-sahityam-is-now-on-wikisource'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tallapaka-pada-sahityam-is-now-on-wikisource</a>
</p>
No publisherPavan SanthoshTelugu WikisourceCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu WikipediaOpenness2017-07-10T13:44:41ZBlog EntryThematic Edit-a-thon at Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara
<b></b>
<p align="center"><br /></p>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia
edit-a-thon was held at Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science,
Satara. The aim of the workshop was to edit and improve articles on
Marathi Wikipedia under the theme "Environment and Local
Biodiveristy". Participants were given an orientation on how to
contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The
Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science is housed under the <a href="http://www.erayat.org/" target="_blank">Rayat
Shikshan Sanstha</a>, a century-old organization with the largest
network of schools and colleges across Maharashtra. The management
and local environmental group, Drongo, took the initiative to organize this thematic workshop in Satara, an area rich in terms of
biodiversity in the Western Ghats. Noted ecologist and scientist Prof. Madhavrao Gadgil addressed the workshop as a resource person along with Prof. V.Y. Deshpande of the Institute. A total of 23 members from various
like-minded organizations participated in the workshop.</p>
<p> </p>
<div align="center">
<ul><li><span id="docs-internal-guid-eefaaff2-30fd-2e1a-bf7c-56f91dcde4b8"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Nv-B5Uxu4VSIKSzWhDMzqJfy-hp7UUIQ_1sLss5IzaE7EzMBbCYyrm1vrdqDb4bNT57TafnROLvtMhLT7ojevVOT2qJVcY9tEB8XCA8svORZQamsl1Bc5QQj-TmNiu12ilYYqsM" alt="YCIS4.jpg" height="401" width="602" /></span></li></ul>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p>Image by <a title="User:सुबोध कुलकर्णी" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A7_%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%80">सुबोध कुलकर्णी</a>/ CC-BY-SA 4.0<br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-eefaaff2-30fd-2e1a-bf7c-56f91dcde4b8"></span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/thematic-edit-a-thon-at-yashawantrao-chavan-institute-of-science-satara</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-07-11T09:35:13ZBlog EntryUsing the Wikimedia sphere for the revitalization of small and underrepresented languages in India
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/using-wikimedia-sphere-for-revitalization-of-small-and-underrepresented-languages-in-india
<b>This report explores opportunities within the Wikimedia movement and projects to help revitalise small and underrepresented languages in India and provide recommendations to CIS’s Access to Knowledge team in furthering this effort. The report is mainly based on a roundtable conversation on Digital Access in Bhubaneswar with a diverse range of backgrounds and professions, including independent researchers, representatives from non-profit organizations, retired government officials, Wikimedia contributors (both Odia and Santali), ecological activists, directors of research institutes, consultants, and journalists. This was organized by the Access to Knowledge team of CIS in collaboration with Vasundhara, Bhubaneswar.</b>
<p>This strategic note discusses a broad program idea of offering barrier-free open access to resources in various underrepresented languages in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Languages spoken in the Republic of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians. Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austroasiatic_languages">Austroasiatic</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Tibetan_languages">Sino–Tibetan</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kra%E2%80%93Dai_languages">Tai–Kadai</a>, and a few other minor language families and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_isolate">isolates</a>. According to the People's Linguistic Survey of India, India has the second highest number of languages (780), after Papua New Guinea (840). Ethnologue lists a lower number of 456.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php"><span>UNESCO endangerment classification</span></a> is as follows:</p>
<ol> </ol><ol>
<li><i>Vulnerable</i>: most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home)</li>
<li><i>Definitely endangered</i>: children no longer learn the language as a 'mother tongue' in the home</li>
<li><i>Severely endangered</i>: language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves</li>
<li><i>Critically endangered</i>: the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently</li>
<li><i>Extinct</i>: there are no speakers left</li>
</ol><ol> </ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">North-East India is home to more than 200 languages, out of which 82 are listed as <i>Vulnerable</i>, 63 as <i>Definitely Endangered</i>, 6 as <i>Severely Endangered</i>, 46 as <i>Critically Endangered </i>and 6 as <i>Extinct </i>(<a href="https://www.kaggle.com/the-guardian/extinct-languages"><span>The Guardian Dataset</span></a>). Arunachal Pradesh is the state with the highest number of languages, with as many as 66 languages spoken there, while West Bengal has the highest number of scripts, nine, and around 38 languages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The state of Odisha has 62 Scheduled Tribes who speak as many as 74 dialects. Their ethos, ideology, worldview, value orientations and cultural heritage are rich and varied. Odisha has the unique distinction of having 93 different Scheduled Caste communities spread over 30 districts and 314 blocks of the state having different dialects. Apart from the languages of the North-East and the state of Odisha, there are several other languages all over India that deserve better representation on the Internet. While a handful of these languages enjoy status and visibility as official languages of the states and thereby hold some currency as widely spoken languages in their linguistic territories, there are many more languages that do not have speakers counting beyond a few hundred. Examples include the Bellari language (Spoken in Karnataka by 1000 speakers), the Toda language (Spoken in Tamil Nadu by 1600 speakers) and the Naiki language (Spoken in Maharashtra by 1500 speakers). What these languages do share in common with the languages of the North-East mentioned earlier is that they all lack free and open source knowledge and data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some of these languages are the official languages of the states and are widely spoken in this region. On the other hand, some of the languages have a few hundred native speakers. However, irrespective of the size of the native population or official status of the language, they all lack free and open source knowledge & data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">These languages show a range of marked cross-linguistic features which pose several interesting questions to Linguistic theories and speech processing research. Moreover, the close geographical proximity of these languages makes them vulnerable to changes in multiple linguistic levels, making these languages an excellent resource to study language change. Despite this, these languages severely lack digital preservation. One of the major reasons that contribute to the lack of resources is the difficulty in human access to some of the areas in these regions. Moreover, with English and Hindi being used as a lingua franca in these regions, the actual number of speakers proficient in their native language is much fewer than the number shown in the census reports. This makes it more important than ever to initiate a preservation process which does not primarily depend on fieldwork while also increasing the presence of the language in the digital sphere.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As language technologies advance and more sophisticated tools are built using Artificial Intelligence, the divide between low resource languages and others is likely to get even larger as a common prerequisite of these advanced systems is the existence of a large amount of digital data. Low resource languages are at a risk of being left behind.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Research on these languages by researchers are mostly conducted by collecting data personally, which causes a huge hindrance to the research process, as most of it remains as a private collection or published in closed journals. Moreover, data collection through fieldwork is particularly challenging in this region due to the restricted access to most of the disturbed areas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The goal of this program is to facilitate the study of these languages by making existing resources discoverable and building open-source structured datasets and tools using the Wikimedia sphere to enrich the language research landscape of small and underrepresented Indian languages.</p>
<p><b>Role of CIS-A2K</b></p>
<ul>
<li>To design and commission relevant research studies in collaboration with language communities to define the premises of the program. The plan is to work with languages which are being written in single or multiple scripts in the pilot phase.</li>
<li>To develop strategies regarding the integration of language datasets with Wikimedia projects</li>
<li>Skill building of volunteers and community leaders in Wikimedia projects</li>
<li>Structure of local knowledge to be compiled for contribution</li>
<li>To identify the specific Wiki projects such as Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Lingua Libre etc to build the archives of these languages</li>
<li>Designing outreach and knowledge dissemination processes</li>
<li>To develop partnerships with other academic, social, cultural and research institutions in the language sector for the sustainability of the project</li>
<li>Material support - Sound recorders, microphones, hard discs, laptop, scanner, internet hardware</li>
<li>Financial support - Remuneration of intern/fellow, internet data recharge</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Specific objectives</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ol> </ol><ol>
<li>Empowering the communities by enhancing digital literacy and connecting them with the world of knowledge and people outside.</li>
<li>Revitalizing/enriching the languages by increasing their use, coverage and depth using technological interventions.</li>
<li>Creating an ecosystem for developing language learning resources and tools; particularly, in the context of the New Education Policy.</li>
<li>Enabling scholars and researchers to overcome the challenge of finding appropriate data and expanding the knowledge on these languages.</li>
<li>By using the Wikimedia sphere, the infrastructural and technological support is secured, so that these languages are able to function in the digital world.</li>
</ol><ol> </ol>
<p>It is important to realise that these objectives can introduce new dynamics into other spheres of activity, such as education and the development of language.</p>
<p><b>Methodology</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p>Our target languages broadly belong to two sets:</p>
<ol>
<li>Languages which are primarily spoken in various states of India and have some or no digital presence on the internet.</li>
<li>Endangered languages which have extremely limited or no digital presence.</li>
</ol>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Survey of ongoing work</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Several individuals and institutions are working on languages across the globe. There are significant initiatives in India also to revitalise the small languages in the digital sphere. Some of these are listed in the reference section at the end. An exhaustive survey of all such efforts will be done to map the present status as well as a listing of stakeholders. The target languages for A2K’s future work and the potential collaborators will also be identified through these exercises.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Digital Dictionary Making</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A dictionary is a vital resource for any language learning. The idea of collaborative dictionaries using platforms like Wiktionary or Wikidata Lexemes eliminates the need for expert lexicographers and terminologists and rather follows the method in which the users enter data as new entries, definitions, and so on, and the same is reviewed by editors, once published. An offline e-dictionary application using this dataset could be developed to overcome the problem of sparse internet connectivity where the user is only expected to download & install the application once and use the dictionary offline at any moment.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Data Acquisition Strategies</b></p>
<ol> </ol><ol>
<li>Leveraging Crowdsourcing using <a href="https://lingualibre.org/wiki/LinguaLibre:Main_Page"><span>LinguaLibre</span></a> for the creation of Speech CorporaGiven the scarcity of text and speech corpora for these low-resource languages, the main potential source for dataset creation is by crowdsourcing.</li>
<li>Using Optical Character Recognition techniques -</li>
</ol>
<p>The digitisation of texts in the public domain would be done and made available freely by uploading them on Wikimedia projects. The digital copy will be made machine-readable using Optical Character Recognition (OCR).</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Processing the acquired data</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Preprocess</li>
<li>Processing Speech Corpora</li>
<li>Processing Bilingual Parallel text Corpora</li>
</ol>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Housing datasets</b></p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page"><span>Wiki Commons</span></a> for media files</li>
<li><a><span>Wikidata</span></a> for Lexemes</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page"><span>Wikisource</span></a> for texts</li>
</ol>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Capacity Building workshops</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Promoting the language among the young speakers of the community, since they are the future of the language and if it survives, it will belong to them.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Help language speakers possess up-to-date digital competencies and feel confident about them to actively participate in the digital world and increase content in their own native language.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Promoting contributions on platforms like <a href="https://storyweaver.org.in/"><span>Storyweaver</span></a>, <a href="https://prathambooks.org/"><span>Pratham Books</span></a>, <a href="https://www.eklavya.in/index.php/about-us-eklavya"><span>Eklavya</span></a> etc.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Promote the upskilling of native speakers and other disseminators</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Facilitate knowledge exchange through participatory mechanisms both virtually and face-to-face.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The potential communities would be introduced to <a href="https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Incubator:Main_Page"><span>Incubator</span></a> for building new Wikimedia projects</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Educational development</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Applying Open access philosophy to advance language pedagogy.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Develop language learning resources and tools, particularly, in the context of the New Education Policy.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>References</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Wikipedia articles</li>
<li>SCSTRTI, Odisha - <a href="https://www.scstrti.in/index.php/resources/mle-initiative/bilingual-dictionaries"><span>https://www.scstrti.in/index.php/resources/mle-initiative/bilingual-dictionaries</span></a></li>
<li>Most populous languages of Odisha - <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Languages_of_Odisha.svg"><span>https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Languages_of_Odisha.svg</span></a> </li>
<li>People’s Linguistic Survey of India - <a href="https://www.peopleslinguisticsurvey.org/"><span>https://www.peopleslinguisticsurvey.org/</span></a></li>
<li>The state and fate of linguistic diversity and inclusion in the NLP world - <a href="https://aclanthology.org/2020.acl-main.560/"><span>https://aclanthology.org/2020.acl-main.560/</span></a></li>
<li>Bhasha India - <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/bhashaindia"><span>https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/bhashaindia</span></a> </li>
<li>Omniglot - <a href="https://www.omniglot.com/index.htm"><span>https://www.omniglot.com/index.htm</span></a></li>
<li>Bharatavani - <a href="https://bharatavani.in/"><span>https://bharatavani.in/</span></a></li>
<li>Storyweaver - <a href="https://storyweaver.org.in/"><span>https://storyweaver.org.in/</span></a> </li>
<li>Dimasa Thairili - <a href="https://www.dimasathairili.com/"><span>https://www.dimasathairili.com/</span></a></li>
<li>SIL International - <a href="https://www.sil.org/"><span>https://www.sil.org/</span></a></li>
<li>Ethnologue - <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/"><span>https://www.ethnologue.com/</span></a></li>
<li>Global Recordings Network - <a href="https://globalrecordings.net/en/"><span>https://globalrecordings.net/en/</span></a></li>
<li>Glottolog - <a href="https://glottolog.org/"><span>https://glottolog.org/</span></a></li>
<li>Endangered Languages Project - <a href="https://endangeredlanguages.com/"><span>https://endangeredlanguages.com/</span></a></li>
</ol>
<hr />
<p>This is a report by Subodh Kulkarni with editorial oversight and support by Tanveer Hasan and Soni Wadhwa. Click to download the PDF <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/files/underrepresented-languages-and-wikimedia-projects.pdf">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/using-wikimedia-sphere-for-revitalization-of-small-and-underrepresented-languages-in-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/using-wikimedia-sphere-for-revitalization-of-small-and-underrepresented-languages-in-india</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaA2K Research2024-02-10T04:35:45ZBlog EntryCampaign for relicensing copyrighted books under Creative Commons licenses
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/campaign-for-relicensing-copyrighted-books-under-creative-commons-licenses
<b>A campaign has been started to relicense Telugu-language books of several noted authors from "all rights reserved" to Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-BY-SA) license.</b>
<p>This
campaign was started on June 19 and copyright migration process is
complete for 17 books so far. Once the copyright migration is over
the books—ranging from historical figures and popular personalities
to regional history—are going to be digitised on Wikisource.<br /><br /></p>
<h4 class="western">
List of books and their authors</h4>
<p><strong>Author:
</strong>Gadam
Gopala Swamy<strong><br />Book:
</strong><a href="https://te.wikisource.org/wiki/సూచిక:Pachima_Godavari_Jillalo_Mahatmuni_sancharam-Gadam_Gopalaswamy.pdf"><u>Paschima
Godavari Jillalo Mahatmuni Sancharam</u></a>,
a historical account on Gandhi's travels and the way he spread his
ideology in and around this area.<strong><br />Significance:
</strong>This
can be used in improving articles related to the history of villages
of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Godavari_district"><u>West
Godavari district</u></a>.
Swamy is going to publish his <em>magnum
opus</em>
on
the national movement in West Godavari along with another
biographical work about the notable people of the district.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>"I
dedicate these works to all the people of the West Godavari
district. All my efforts will be useful even if one person [from
West Godavari] reads these works, learns what their ancestors lived
for and died for [in the national independence movement] and tries
to be responsibly contribute to the society. I find this could only
be possible through placing it in digital platform like Wikisource."
</em><br />- Dr. Gadam Gopala Swamy, historian, former professor</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Author:
</strong>Kanuri
Badarinadh (Historian, Novelist and Journalist)<strong><br />Books:
</strong>Biographies,
short biographies like <em>Tanuku
Talukulu</em>,
<em>Yarra
Narayana Swamy Jeevitha Charitra</em>,
Local Histories like <em>Panara
Vishayamu</em>,
<em>Maa
doothikapuramu</em>,
collection of articles on historical, cultural, social and art like
<em>Kasyapa
Vyasalu</em>,
<em>Antharvani</em>,
<em>Badareenadheeyam</em>,
<em>Lochoopu</em>,
<em>Annavi
anukonnavi</em>,
<em>Vyasa
Badarikam</em>,
historical fiction like <em>Kavi
garu</em>,
<em>Koutilyuni
Nireekshanam</em>.<strong><br />Priority:
</strong>These
Books can be used as resources to create articles about notable
personalities of West Godavari district, several important persons
and events in Andhra pradesh politics and history. Can improve
articles related to West Godavari district, especially about the
history sections in the village articles.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<em>I
don't want these works to be in bookshelf and get wasted by termites.
My wish as an author and researcher is to make these works available
to future historians who can make use of it, so that our people get
to know the local history” <br /></em>
- Kanuri Badarinadh, historian, novelist and journalist. Badarinadh has
donated some of his books.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Author:
</strong>Katta
Srinivasa Rao, historian, Wikipedian and poet<strong><br />Book:
</strong><em>Ganapeswaralayam,
</em>a
historical account of temples of historical importance that were
built in Kusumanchi of Khammam district in Telangana. These temples
flourished under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakatiya_dynasty"><u>Kakatiya
dynasty</u></a>’s
reign.<strong><br />Priority:
</strong>Katta
Sriniavasa Rao is one of the first line Telangana historians who are
working to rebuild Telangana’s History. This work is result of his
research. It contains valuable content about Ganapeswara Temple and
gives a glimpse of the sculpture, history and society under
Kakatiya dynasty in Khammam.</p>
<p><strong>Author:
</strong>Vemuri
Venkateswara Rao<strong><br />Book:
</strong><a href="https://te.wikisource.org/wiki/సూచిక:Ramanujan_Nundi_Etu_Atu_by_Vemuri_Venkateswararao.pdf"><em><u>Ramanujan
Nundi atu itu</u></em></a><em>,
</em>a
book about mathematician <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan"><u>Srinivasa
Ramanujan</u></a>
and
his works in mathematics<br /><strong>Priority:
</strong>Like
many other Indian languages, Telugu also has a lower number of books
related to science and mathematics especially in the contemporary
context.
This
book is about Ramanujan Numbers, formulas and a few more works. It
also has description about contemporary mathematics built upon
Ramanujan's work. This can be used to improve mathematics related
articles in Telugu Wikipedia.</p>
<p><strong>Author:
</strong>Yasaswi
Sateesh Kumar<strong><br />Books:
</strong><a href="https://te.wikisource.org/wiki/సూచిక:TellakagitaM.pdf"><em><u>Okkamata</u></em></a><em>,</em>
contains
brief poetic pen portraits that explains about contemporary Telugu
poets, <em>Tellakagitam
</em>is
anthology of Telugu poet Yasaswi’s poetry.<strong><br />Priority:
</strong>Photos
of many contemporary Telugu poets and brief descriptions about them
are now under CC-BY-SA 4.0 license. These can be used in Wikipedia
articles about notable poets.</p>
<p><strong>Author:
</strong>Emma
Rauschenbusch Clough<strong><br />Translator:
</strong>Vivina
Murthy<strong><br />Book</strong>:
<em>Cheppulu Kuduthu
Kuduthu </em>is a
translation of Emma Rauschenbusch Clough’s English book “<em>While
sewing sandals</em>”.
The English book was released in 1899 and is in Public Domain. The
Telugu book was translated by Vivina Murthy and was published in
2007 by Manasu Foundation. As the translator had rights on his
translated work, he released it under CC-BY-SA 4.0 license to make
it freely available to all on our request.<strong><br />Priority:
</strong>Historical
record especially about Christianity in coastal Andhra Pradesh,
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit"><em><u>dalit</u></em></a><em>s</em>
in 19th century.</p>
<p><strong>Author:
</strong>Gurajada
Apparao<strong><br />Book</strong>:
<em>Gurujadalu </em>is
a compilation of all the works Gurajada Apparao -- he is considered
as one of the greatest literary figures of modern Telugu literature.
The book was edited and published by the efforts of Manasu
Foundation and its associates. Apparao’s works are under Public
Domain already as per the Indian Copyright Law,. But the critical
introduction and some of the translations included in the book were
copyrighted by Manasu foundation which they released under CC-BY-SA
4.0 license. This move will help digitize them on Wikisource and
make them freely available to Telugu people.<strong><br />Priority:
</strong>Even Though some of
the works of Apparao got digitized on Wikisource, this can showcase
his complete literary journey with bringing a vast set of reading
for the Telugu readers.</p>
<p>All
of these books were released or agreed to be released under a
CC-BY-SA 4.0 license in June and July 2016. Some of these books were
digitized on Wikisource, and the proofreading is going on currently.
Some of the the remaining books being scanned and some are uploaded
on Wikimedia Commons. The ones that have been <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cheppulu_Kudutu_Kudutu.pdf"><u>uploaded</u></a>
on
Commons are being <a href="https://te.wikisource.org/wiki/సూచిక:Ramanujan_Nundi_Etu_Atu_by_Vemuri_Venkateswararao.pdf"><u>indexed
and digitized</u></a>
on
Wikisource.</p>
<p>The
news about all of these license migrated books was shared with the
[Telugu Wikimedia] community, and also personally with some of the
community members like Rajasekhar, Sri Ramamurthy, Gullapalli
Nageswara Rao, Bhaskara Naidu, and a few others who supported in
various stages of digitization like indexing, proofreading, etc.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>"I
wish this contribution will go forward in the same way and help
making Telugu Wikisource number one in entire Indic Wikisources. I
will support this work wherever you need and please ask my help
whenever necessary. Definitely we can collaborate."<br /></em>-
User:Rajasekhar1961, Telugu Wikimedian</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>The
list of the books can also be located on the</strong><a href="https://te.wikisource.org/wiki/వాడుకరి:Pavan_santhosh.s/cc-by-sa_re-licensed_works_in_2016"><u>
</u><u><strong>Telugu
Wikisource.</strong></u></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/campaign-for-relicensing-copyrighted-books-under-creative-commons-licenses'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/campaign-for-relicensing-copyrighted-books-under-creative-commons-licenses</a>
</p>
No publisherPavan Santhosh S. & Subhashish PanigrahiTelugu WikisourceCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu Wikipedia2016-09-20T12:43:29ZBlog EntryTulu Wikipedia Goes 'Live' after 8 Years on Incubator
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/tulu-wikipedia-goes-live-after-8-years-on-incubator
<b>Eight years after being created in the Wikimedia Incubator, the Tulu-language Wikipedia is now live as the 23rd Indic language.</b>
<p>The Tulu Wikipedia page is <a class="external-link" href="https://tcy.wikipedia.org">available here</a>. The project has a total of 1285 articles contributed by 198 editors.</p>
<p>Other news in brief:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMIN/events/India_At_Rio_Olympics_2016_Edit-a-thon">Ongoing India At Rio Olympics 2016 Edit-a-thon</a> promises to plant one tree for every 20 new articles created.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2016_in_India">Wiki Loves Monuments</a> returns to India after three years.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016">WikiConference India 2016</a>, the largest Wikimedia community gathering of the year in South Asia comes to an end.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://or.wikisource.org/wiki/User:Ashusarangi">Ashutosh Sarangi</a> , the youngest Wikimedian from the oldest Indian-language Wikipedia community.</li>
</ul>
<p>Read more on Blog <a class="external-link" href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/08/24/digest-tulu-wikipedia/">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/tulu-wikipedia-goes-live-after-8-years-on-incubator'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/tulu-wikipedia-goes-live-after-8-years-on-incubator</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeTulu Wikipedia2016-09-22T01:33:29ZNews Item