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Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference 2019
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-june-22-2019-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-2019
<b>Christ University in association with the Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) organized a conference, from 20 - 22 June 2019, at Christ University, Bengaluru. Forty-nine Wikimedians from four countries (Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India) participated in the event.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The meta report published on Wikimedia Blog can be <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Report">accessed here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K is working with various universities and educational institutions to develop content in Wikimedia projects. One such institutional partner, <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_University">Christ</a> (deemed to be university) has taken the initiative to organize Wikimedia Education <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_Association_for_Regional_Cooperation">SAARC</a> conference in association with CIS-A2K and <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_%26_Education_User_Group">Wikipedia & Education User Group</a>. The participants included one member from Sri Lanka, four members from Nepal, seven members from Bangladesh and 37 members from India. In all 14 language communities were represented.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The broad objectives of the conference were:</p>
<ul>
<li>To know the nature of education programs being conducted.</li>
<li>To share the best practices.</li>
<li>Discuss the challenges like retention and quality.</li>
<li>Explore the methodologies to evaluate & measure the work being done.</li>
<li>Enhancing the community involvement in the education programmes. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The applications for participation and thematic submissions were invited from Wikimedians of SAARC countries. The selection committee comprised of representatives from Wikimedia Foundation and community conducted the scrutiny. The scholarships were provided to 49 selected participants. In all 12 submissions on diverse topics were received from different language communities. Wikimedia Foundation’s Partnerships & Global reach team member <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/profile/praveen-das/">Praveen Das</a>, Trust & Safety team member <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/profile/neha-nair/">Neha Nair</a> and advisor for this conference <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/profile/tanveer-hasan/">Tanveer Hasan</a> were also present for some of the sessions during the conference.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The following report gives a summary of all the deliberations at the conference.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center; ">Day 1, 20 June 2019</h3>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/SAARC1.png/@@images/3a0bcab1-68dc-4bec-b6c7-67f95415ea01.png" alt="SAARC 1" class="image-inline" title="SAARC 1" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The inaugural session was graced by chief guest Dr. Ramesh Sharma, an expert in open education and Associate Professor of Instructional Design at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._B.R._Ambedkar_University_Delhi">Ambedkar University Delhi</a> along with Dr. Anil Pinto Registrar of Christ University who was instrumental in launching Wikipedia in education for the students. The other persons on the dais were Tito Dutta, Program Manager CIS-A2K, Dr. Mallika Krishnaswami, Dr. John Joseph Kennedy, and Dr. Sebastian K A.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>In this session the speakers stressed upon the advancement of language, to adopt latest knowledge sharing technologies, innovation in education programmes and collaborations with multifaceted institutions to actualize new ideas. The journey of Christ University regarding the Wikimedia education program during the last six years was also elaborated.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The inaugural session was followed by a session on <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/CoC">Code of Conduct</a> and Friendly space policies by the Response Team of CIS-A2K. The objectives, diversity statement, general community guidelines, unacceptable behaviour and process of reporting described in CoC were discussed. <span>To explain the motivation and hierarchy of Wikipedia in Education at Wikimedia movement the following sessions were conducted during the conference.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the keynote address, Dr. Ramesh Sharma revealed many facets of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources">Open Educational Resources</a> (OER) in the field of academic courses, science, mathematics, music, multimedia etc. He shared many experiences of working with <a href="https://oeru.org/">Open Education Resource University (OERU)</a> and appealed for future collaborations. He also deliberated upon some wider topics like Government education policies, licenses and quality improvement framework for OERs. <span>In a remote session with </span><a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:NSaad_(WMF)">Nichole Saad</a><span>, Senior Programme Manager (</span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program">Wikipedia Education Programme</a><span>) from </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation">Wikimedia Foundation</a><span>, she explained the rationale behind the Education in Wikimedia projects and the execution process.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The session on Wikipedia & Education User Group focused on the global user group that supports the work around Wikimedia and Education in various capacities. One of the Board members of user group, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:KCVelaga">Krishna Chaitanya Velaga</a> gave an introduction to the user group, its background, vision, and objectives. Later the functioning of the group was also explained including the membership process and the governance. The three focus areas of the group were explained in detail — community, resources, and outreach. Later, the participants were briefed on various ways in which they can get involved with the group. These included joining the newly formed working groups for each focus area, taking up membership, and also attending the monthly open meetings held by the group, and share their stories to the broader community. The session ended with a brief upon areas where community members could seek the support of the group, such as mentorship, securing resources, advocacy, etc.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The participants were introduced to each other through their work. Session on sharing of various programmes being conducted, it’s learning, challenges and way ahead were very informative and stimulating. The participants from different language communities explained the present status of the education programmes being conducted with institutions. The challenges like lack of initiative, the paucity of resources, trust in Wikipedia and consistency were discussed collectively. New and innovative ideas that were not tried so far were also put forth by the members making it an interesting session. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The last session of the day one was group work on the theme - ' कल आज और कल ' : Past Present Future. The participants were divided into eight groups. Enthusiasm was very high during discussions on the past, present & future of education programmes with the community. The groups collectively worked on the poster presentations.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center; ">Day 2, 21 June 2019</h3>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/SAARC2.png/@@images/a43660cd-a3af-4b26-af74-c5f4d4f03d32.png" alt="SAARC 2" class="image-inline" title="SAARC 2" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The second day started with an interactive session on the topic - The interesting ways of Introducing Wikimedia projects (Wikidata, Wikisource, etc.) into classrooms. The participants shared their experiences with different entry point events other than Wikipedia. Many felt that Wikipedia is complicated to start with. The community also reacted strongly sometimes due to the quality of the articles. This discussion was followed by promoting planned growth process for bridging the gender gap.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The conference submissions on education projects were presented in two parallel tracks. According to interest, the members attended the various sessions. The highlights of the presentations are given below.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Submissions/Goals_of_Wikimedia_%252B_Education:_Content,_Retention,_Skills,_etc&sa=D&ust=1562052431065000&usg=AFQjCNFpgNJ-1il11YBcP35HQfrSKzCsUw">Goals of Wikimedia + Education: Content, Retention, Skills</a>:<strong> </strong><span style="text-align: justify; ">The session started off by asking participants about why they do an education programme, and what else can we include as the goals for any EduWiki activity. Different approaches for achieving each of these goals, and how each of these goals affects the rest were discussed. This included a quick brainstorming on how communities should collaborate with the EduWiki activities so that it adds value to its goals. Eventually, the presenter along with the participants realized that retention of users should be prioritized over the other two goals to easily reach all the three goals. Caution points regarding assignments like copyvio, reliable references were also discussed. The scale of the activity and scoping student interest are also an important criterion.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Submissions/Challenges_of_growing_communities_:_Make_Wikipedia_trustworthy_to_the_educators&sa=D&ust=1562052788058000&usg=AFQjCNFhg4QjQu2bspWs-9FY5lmR5U3zGw">Challenges of growing communities : Make Wikipedia trustworthy to educators</a></strong>: <span>In this session, challenges before Bangla Wikipedia were discussed. There is a need to collaborate with institutions and capacity building of editors to improve the quality of articles. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Submissions/Non-Conventional_methods_of_knowledge_expansion_by_Education_programs&sa=D&ust=1562055701709000&usg=AFQjCNGNrwgUeDgfA-G2C4U0fMmjse7jJA">Non-Conventional methods of knowledge expansion by programs involving Wikimedia and Education</a>: </strong><span>The formal approaches like giving compulsory tasks for students will not work in the Wikimedia movement. We can expect better outcomes by adopting non-formal methods like digital skills development and team building through collaborative work.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Submissions/Wikimedia_Education_Program_Outreach_Mentorship&sa=D&ust=1562055734241000&usg=AFQjCNH5PyQ2FaIgcLcSvagBbl96sbYPMw"><strong>Wikimedia Program Outreach Mentorship</strong></a>: Proper awareness and detailed planning of resources are the key aspects of outreach programmes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><a class="external-link" href="http://www.schoolwiki.in/">School Wiki</a> in Kerala</strong>: State government education department of Kerala has developed School Wiki with Wikimedians in Kerala. In all 15000 articles of schools have been created with their history, location details, alumni, maps, cultural activities, photos and creative works of students like stories, poems and paintings. The innovative project - Folk encyclopedia is also shaping up. The linkages with Malayalam Wikipedia are being established slowly. As the students are now aware of the Wiki environment, there are chances of getting good editors in future.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Wikipedia in School</strong>: <a href="http://www.tn.gov.in/">State government of Tamil Nadu</a> took the initiative to organise capacity building programme for teachers through the EDUSAT on a mass scale. This Wikipedia training started in 2016 and till now 40,000 teachers are trained. Due to this, teachers became active on Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Submissions/Submissions_Retaining_Tulu_Language_and_culture_-_the_ways_and_means">Retaining Tulu Language and </a><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Submissions/Submissions_Retaining_Tulu_Language_and_culture_-_the_ways_and_means">culture:</a><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Submissions/Submissions_Retaining_Tulu_Language_and_culture_-_the_ways_and_means"> the ways and means</a></strong>: <a href="https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Karavali_Wikimedians">Karavali Wikimedians user group</a> is active in the coastal part of Southern Karnataka and Northern Kerala. It is focusing on the preservation of language and culture. They have started the first physical Wiki library with 650 books. Other innovative activities are ‘<a href="https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Karavali_Wikimedians/Outreach_Program/Karavali_Wikimedians_to_Home,_Mangalore,_November_20,_2018">Karavali Wikimedians to Home</a>’ and Text-Performance-Documentation and Reconstruction of rare Folk Performing art <a href="https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Karavali_Wikimedians/Events/Sidda_Vesha">Sidda Vesha</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Submissions/VVIT_WikiConnect:_A_Year_in_Review"><strong>VVIT WikiConnect : A Year in review</strong></a> : The coordinators of Wikiclub presented the activities conducted in the last two years. The focus is on capacity building of active students, leadership development, quality of content and retention. According to the scoping of students’ interest, various events were conducted like Edit-a-thons, Photowalks, Wikidata workshop, 1lib1ref session, Wikimedia Strategy Salon, Mini Media Wiki training, Thematic workshops, etc. The user survey was also done to get the feedback of students.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Submissions/Wikipedia_Students_Association_at_Alva%27s"><strong>Wikipedia Student Association at Alva's College Moodubidire</strong></a>: The regular Wiki activities have resulted in active Students’ Association at Alva’s College. The major activities are publishing of wall magazine - Wiki Suddi : Mundu and newspaper - Wiki Samachaara, Wikicamp and internship by Department of Journalism.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/WEP_in_Indian_Languages_at_Christ_University"><strong>Wikipedia in Education at Christ University</strong></a>: The coordinator presented the journey of six years programme at Christ. The process of engaging students from day one to the last day of the second semester was explained. The students learn digital skills, language typing, writing articles on the topic of interest and respective stream. From writing in the sandbox, they even progress up to documenting case study on research related to Wikipedia. The structure of monitoring and evaluation systems within the department was elaborated. The community engagement aspect was also discussed in detail. The challenges and the preparations for the next curve of WEP Christ were presented.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the last session of the day, groups presented their work through posters visualising ‘Past, Present & Future’ of the education programmes. The interaction and loud thinking provided many ideas to be taken further for implementation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The second day ended with Cultural programme by Christ University students. The vibrant performances of music and dance were enjoyed by the participants.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Day 3, 22 June 2019</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The day started with early morning ‘<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/BirdWalk">Bird Walk</a>’ at the university campus with rich biodiversity. Seven enthusiasts joined this walk and captured images of 22 different species of birds which is documented on <a href="https://ebird.org/india/view/checklist/S57612668">eBird portal</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The last day of the conference started with a remote presentation on OER by Wayne Macintosh (Director <a href="http://oerfoundation.org/">OER Foundation</a>, and UNESCO - ICDE Chair in OER). <span>Wayne started with an overview of demand for education vis-a-vis the infrastructure available in the global south. The fundamentals of OERs, OER Foundation and OER University were elaborated. He stressed the need to start at least two OER courses by every Indian University. They can join the OERu network for free to host the courses. The credit system for various micro courses was explained through examples. He also discussed the </span><a href="https://wikieducator.org/Main_Page">WikiEducator</a><span> programme and appealed Wikimedians to join this evolving community as all courses run using media-wiki software. Regulatory issues for universities to adopt OER courses are to be looked into in Indian context. Dr Ramesh Sharma assured to facilitate in this matter. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The next session, ‘Strategy in Wikimedia and Education’ by Pavan Santhosh intended to help participants understand the importance brewing Strategy and figuring out a Big dream in their programs. This session started with demystifying the word strategy. With examples from the Wikimedia movement that participants can relate, the presenter explained how can a Big dream help prioritizing activities and programs. Later in an interactive part of the session, participants came up with ideas to run a strategy process in their programs and communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Lively group activity - ‘Revolving cafe’ happened after the strategy session. The activity was planned around five themes - <a href="https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/">Program and Events Dashboard</a>, <a>Wikidata</a>, Communication & Blogging, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM">GLAM</a> in Education and Support structures (<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Start">WMF grants</a> and <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Requests">CIS Requests page</a>). As the groups were small, the participants utilised this opportunity to clear doubts through one to one dialogue. The session was mutually beneficial for group leaders as well as participants.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After the cafe activity, <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/About/Staff">Wikimedia Education Staff</a> member <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SPatnaik_(WMF)">Sailesh Patnaik</a> deliberated upon the outreach and communications aspects. He stressed on using social media effectively and give publicity to innovative activities through newsletters. He also explained about upcoming Greenhouse pilot.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The last session, ‘Wikisource in education’ was conducted by <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jayanta_(CIS-A2K)">Jayanta Nath</a>. He explained how Wikisource activity is complementary to the qualitative growth of Wikipedia. The basics of Wikisource like licenses and workflow were discussed in detail. Various ways to combine the education programme with Wikisource were explored in interaction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The conference closing ceremony was meaningful with spontaneous feedback from the participants.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-june-22-2019-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-2019'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-june-22-2019-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-2019</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhWikimediaWikipediaAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia Education2019-07-04T02:48:58ZBlog EntryKaravali Wikimedians at All India Radio, Mangaluru
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedians-at-all-india-radio-mangaluru
<b>This blog is about the experience of visiting All India Radio Mangaluru station as a part of the Karavali Wikimedians outreach program.</b>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was really surprised to
get an early morning call from Dr. Sheni, Principal PU College Mangaluru, an
educationalist, & folklorist. The reason for the call added my surprise he
got a message from AIR Mangaluru inviting Tulu Wikimedians for a discussion.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I feel extremely proud to
share the memorable experience of visiting All India Radio Mangaluru station as
a part of the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Karavali_Wikimedians">Karavali Wikimedians</a> outreach program.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We a team of Six Karavali
Wikimedians <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Vishwanatha_Badikana">Dr. Vishwanatha Badikana</a> a professor Kannada Department of Saint
Aloysius College Mangaluru, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Kishorekumarrai">Dr. Kishore Kumar Rai Sheni</a> Principal
Ramakrishna Pre University College Bunts Hostel Mangaluru,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;" class="separator">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Wikimedians_at_AIR_Mangaluru_(16).jpg"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Wikimedians_at_AIR_Mangaluru_(16).jpg" alt="null" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
(from Left Dr. Vishwanatha
Badikana, Dr. Kishore Kumar Rai Sheni, Dr. Sadananda Perl, Dr. A
V Navada, Bharathesha Alasandemajalu and Mrs. Akshatha Raj Perla(standing))</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dr. A V Navada former
Kannada Professor from Hampi University Karnataka along with two Women
Wikimedians <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Vinoda_mamatharai">Mrs. Vinodha Rai</a> & Mrs. <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Kavitha_G._Kana">Kavitha Ganesh</a> & myself <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:BHARATHESHA_ALASANDEMAJALU">BharatheshaAlasandemajalu</a> took part in a fruitful discussion of around one hour at All
India Radio Mangaluru on 18 March 2019</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I wish to underline that
this is not our first visit, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sadananda.perla">Dr. Sadananda Perla</a> program coordinator &
staff coordinator <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009151007647">Mrs. Akshatha Raj</a> of All India Radio Mangaluru had also given
us an opportunity to participate in a program in a previous occasion. But this
was a memorable day one can cherish. I will treat this as recognition for the
humble work we have done with limited resources available to us.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dr. Vishwanatha Badikana
explained about how to edit the Tulu Wikipedia & its significance in days
ahead. He elucidated how this can act as a beneficiary for future research
students as well as for those contributing to have an archive including
Wikisource & Wikicommons.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mr. Kishore Kumar acted as
program co-manager, his questions were very relevant to the subject & he
was persuasive & logical in his questions.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dr. A V Navada guided the
Karavali Wikimedians, how to utilize the sources available presently with the
help of Tulu Academy a Govt Body of Karnataka state. He Enlighted about
copyright of books using to Wikisource & requested all Tulu writers to give
their right to Karavali Wikimedians for preserving knowledge & exhorted
listeners to edit & read Wikipedia for boosting the reach vocal knowledge
of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulu_language">Tulu</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Myself Bharathesha
Alasandemajalu explained about uses of Tulu Wikipedia template. How to navigate
& find the right article at the right time for editing. About Wiktionary
work, currently it is in incubator stage how to come out from incubator &
make it live, as a postgraduate student of Tulu MA from <a href="https://mangaloreuniversity.ac.in/university-evening-college-mangalore">Mangaluru University</a> it
sounds a lot, an online dictionary, it will help me & also the
student fraternity. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;" class="separator">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Karavali_Women_Wikimedians_at_AIR_1.jpg"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Karavali_Women_Wikimedians_at_AIR_1.jpg" alt="null" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In addition gave some very
valued suggestions also, how Tulu as a language can improve, as an alternative
to conducting a number of lavish financial burden programs, Organizing
conclaves & conducting competition between school, college in cluster,
Taluk & District level will be more meaningful. Children of Tulunadu will
talk & think in his native language, that's how to preserve the language in
the era of globalization.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mrs. Vinodha & Kavitha
discussed the activities of Women's Wikipedia & illustrated their active
wiki project about topics related to women health.</div>
We canopy light on our
project about new initiation ‘ <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Karavali_Wikimedians/Outreach_Program/Karavali_Wikimedians_to_Home,_Mangalore,_November_20,_2018,">Wikimedians Home to Home</a> ’ this is a special & innovative
function. Here we are preserving & reconstructing folk art & dance by
text document.
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedians-at-all-india-radio-mangaluru'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedians-at-all-india-radio-mangaluru</a>
</p>
No publisherBharathesha AlasandemajaluCIS-A2KAccess to Knowledge2019-06-13T08:54:57ZBlog EntryWhat is Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference?
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1
<b>The Wikimedia Education SAARC conference is on 20th June 2019. A conference for Wikimedians, Wikimedia education leaders, educators and researchers engaged with Open Education and free knowledge movement.</b>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_Association_for_Regional_Cooperation">South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation</a> (SAARC) is the regional union of nations in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia">South Asia</a>. Wikimedians belonging to these nations share several common challenges and many of them are emerging communities within the Wikimedia movement. The community members to attend the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference">Wikimedia Education SAARC conference</a> are involved in Indic language Wikimedia projects.</p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-536ddd6b-7fff-541e-6101-49c29d2c07f8"></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Wikimedia Education SAARC conference will be the first of its kind conference in SAARC countries which will engage Wikimedians, education program leaders, educators and researchers engaged with Open Education and free knowledge movement. We believe that the students of all ages should not only consume the knowledge available on the Internet but also be a part of the larger Open Internet movement, and help in creating open knowledge resources.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The event will be organised in and by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_University">Christ (Deemed to be University)</a> in Bengaluru from 20th June 2019 to 22nd June 2019. CIS-A2K team has <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University">been</a> working with the department of languages in this university from <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University/CUWEP2013">2013</a>, where students of the university are contributing to multiple Wikimedia projects. Our education activity at this university has inspired us to plan this event. To know more about this university, Please see <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/India/Christ_University">here</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This conference will allow us to understand the different efforts made by the SAARC communities involved in the Wikimedia Education movement. This will help us to create models, templates and documents that can be replicated in by other institutions or programs.</p>
<p>Conference Goals:</p>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">To know the Wikimedia Education activities happening in South Asia by different community members/Languages.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Sharing the knowledge and best practices of how to build "trust relationship" with new partners/teachers and how to improve trust in Wikimedia projects.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Challenges on student retention and how to engage them in the broader Wikimedia movement.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The best method to evaluate and measure the quality of the work done by the students.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">To introduce tools like the dashboard, not in your language, and other tools which will be useful for the tracking, assessment, allocation of the topics and others.</p>
</li></ul>
<p dir="ltr">The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_SAARC_conference/Programme">program structure</a> for Wikimedia Education SAARC conference has been developed by keeping the general and specific challenges and opportunities in South Asia, and the submission selected from the participants.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Follow the hashtag #EduWikiSAARC19 for more updates.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/what-is-wikimedia-education-saarc-conference-1</a>
</p>
No publishersaileshWikimedia EducationAccess to KnowledgeWikipedia Education ProgramWikimediaWikipediaChrist University2019-06-22T09:37:23ZBlog 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 EntryMay 2019 Newsletter
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2019-newsletter
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society Newsletter for the month of May 2019</b>
<h2><span>Highlights for May 2019</span></h2>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Omidyar Network is <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/appropriate-use-of-digital-identity-alliance-announcement">investing in in establishing a three-region research alliance</a> co-led by the Institute for Technology & Society, Brazil , the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law, Kenya, and the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), India on appropriate use of Digital Identity. CIS will look at the policy objectives of digital identity projects, how technological policy choices can be thought through to meet the objectives, and how legitimate uses of a digital identity framework may be evaluated.</li>
<li>The term Fintech is generally used to describe innovative technology and technological processes being used in the financial services sector. Vipul Kharbanda has <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/vipul-kharbanda-may-8-2019-an-analysis-of-rbi-draft-framework-on-regulatory-sandbox-for-fintech">presented a detailed analysis of RBI’s Draft Framework on Regulatory Sandbox for Fintech</a>.</li>
<li>Centre for Internet & Society's 'Access to Knowledge' wing (CIS-A2K) <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis">signed a MoU with PAH Solapur University, Maharashtra</a> to promote content generation in Wikimedia projects among the institutions under University affiliation and develop a platform in the university for outreach programs on digital knowledge, language and technologies, FOSS, unicode, etc.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Timely and affordable access to scientific research remains a problem in this digital day and age. Most countries including India, continue to struggle with implementing open access. The latest international initiative (created in Europe) to remedy this problem is Plan S. This has been positioned as a strategy to implement immediate open access to scientific publications from 2021 which India is considering adopting. Anubha Sinha <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research">in an article unpacks the disorderly growth of open access in India, and discusses the gap between the Plan's vision and current Indian scenario in some respects</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Shweta Mohandas was nominated to curate <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/curating-genderlog-indias-twitter-handle">Genderlog's Twitter handle (@genderlogindia)</a>. She tweeted <span style="text-align: justify; ">about topics related to gender and data, more specifically around AI, big data, privacy and surveillance.</span></li>
<li>Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Tim Davies <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/open-data-and-land-ownership">co-authored a chapter titled Open Data and Land Ownership in State of Open Data book </a>which was recently launched at World Bank. The authors have thrown light on how the lessons from the land ownership field highlight the political nature of data, and illustrate the importance of politically aware interventions when creating open data standards, infrastructure, and ecosystems.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The Bodies of Evidence collection, edited by Bishakha Datta and Richa Kaul Padte, is a collaboration between Point of View and CIS as part of the Big Data for Development Network supported by International Development Research Centre, Canada. Can data ever know who we really are? <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/zara-rahman-can-data-ever-know-who-we-really-are">This is an excerpt from an essay by Zara Rahman, written for and published as part of the Bodies of Evidence collection of Deep Dives</a>.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3><span>CIS and the News</span></h3>
<p>The following news pieces were authored by CIS and published on its website in May:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-may-1-2019-aayush-rathi-and-ambika-tandon-how-privacy-fares-in-the-2019-election-manifestos">How privacy fares in the 2019 election manifestos | Opinion </a>(Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon; May 1, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-may-1-2019-shyam-ponappa-democracy-digital-india-and-networks">Democracy, Digital India and Networks</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; May 1, 2019). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-may-2-2019-gurshabad-grover-why-the-tik-tok-ban-is-worrying">Why the TikTok ban is worrying</a> (Gurshabad Grover; Hindustan Times; May 2, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-19-2019-nishant-shah-digital-native-three-things-we-need-to-realise-about-what-tik-tok-is-doing-to-us">Digital Native: Narendra Modi’s interview by Akshay Kumar is a PR masterpiece</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; May 5, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-wire-arindrajit-basu-may-8-2019-will-the-wto-finally-tackle-the-trump-card-of-national-security">Will the WTO Finally Tackle the ‘Trump’ Card of National Security?</a> (Arindrajit Basu; The Wire; May 8, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-19-2019-nishant-shah-digital-native-three-things-we-need-to-realise-about-what-tik-tok-is-doing-to-us">Digital Native: Three things we need to realise about what TikTok is doing to us</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; May 19, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/openness/open-data-and-land-ownership">Open Data and Land Ownership</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; State of Open Data; May 22, 2019).</li>
<li><span><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/can-evm-vulnerabilities-be-used-to-game-the-indian-election">Can EVM vulnerabilities be used to game the Indian election?</a> (Karan Saini; Kaarana Blog; May 22, 2019).</span></li>
<li><span><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/indian-express-may-30-2019-gurshabad-grover-the-huawei-bogey">The Huawei bogey </a>(Gurshabad Grover; Indian Express; May 30, 2019).<br /></span></li>
</ul>
<div></div>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>CIS in the News</h3>
<p>CIS was quoted in these news articles published elsewhere:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-may-2-2019-tushar-kaushik-cyber-criminals-hide-in-the-dark-web-to-remain-anonymous">Cyber criminals hide in the ‘dark web’ to remain anonymous </a>(Tushar Kaushik; Economic Times; May 2, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-vidhi-choudhary-may-3-2019-bjp-outspends-congress-others-in-social-media-advertising">BJP outspends Congress, others in social media advertising</a> (Vidhi Choudhary; Hindustan Times; May 3, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/biometric-update-may-8-2019-three-emerging-market-think-tanks-to-collaborate-on-good-id-recommendations-with-omidyar-backing">Three emerging market think tanks to collaborate on Good ID recommendations with Omidyar backing</a> (Chris Burt; Biometric Update; May 8, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/newsclick-martin-moore-may-20-2019-aadhaar-reduced-agency-in-citizens-and-empowered-those-in-positions-of-authority">"Aadhaar Reduced Agency in Citizens and Empowered Those in Positions of Authority"</a> (Martin Moore; News Click; May 20, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/top-10-vpn-megha-bahree-may-21-2019-in-parts-of-india-internet-shutdowns-are-a-fact-of-life">In Parts of India, Internet Shutdowns Are a Fact of Life</a> (Megha Bahree; Top10VPN; May 21, 2019).</li>
<li><span><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/artificial-intelligence-consumer-experiences-in-new-technologies">Artificial Intelligence: Consumer Experiences in New Technologies</a> (Consumer International; May 28, 2019).<br /></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div></div>
<ul>
</ul>
<div></div>
<h2><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Our Access to Knowledge programme currently consists of two projects. The Pervasive Technologies project, conducted under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), aims to conduct research on the complex interplay between low-cost pervasive technologies and intellectual property, in order to encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The Wikipedia project, which is under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Copyright & Patent</h3>
<p><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research">Should India adopt Plan S to realise Open Access to Public-funded Scientific Research?</a> (Anubha Sinha; May 29, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipdedia</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).</p>
<p><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-may-3-2019-wikipedia-assignments-workshop-for-pg-students-pah-solapur-university">Wikipedia assignments workshop for Post Graduate students in PAH Solapur University</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; May 3, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-may-26-2019-wikisource-workshop-at-vigyan-ashram">Wikisource Workshop at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; May 26, 2019)</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mou-between-pah-solapur-university-and-cis">MoU between PAH Solapur University & CIS-A2K</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; May 31, 2019). </li>
</ul>
<p><span><strong>Jobs</strong></span></p>
<p>CIS-A2K team is seeking applications for the following posts:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/cis-a2k-communication-officer-position">Communication Officer</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/project-tiger-2019-coordinator-position-open">Project Tiger 2019 Coordinator</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/wikidata-advisor-consultant-position-open">Wikidata Advisor</a> (Consultant)</li>
</ul>
<h3><span>Events </span></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2019-at-vishakhapatnam">Train-the-Trainer 2019</a> (Organized by CIS-A2K; Vishakhapatnam; May 31 - June 2, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/wikimedia-education-saarc-conference">Wikimedia Education SAARC conference</a> (Organized by Christ University (Deemed to be University) with the association of CIS-A2K; Christ University; Bangalore; June 20 - June 22, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Media Coverage</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/vishwavihar-may-13-2019-ahmedabad-wikisource-workshop">Ahmedabad Wikisource Workshop</a> (Vishwavihar; May 13, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/northeast-now-may-17-2019-youths-come-forward-to-augment-assamese-wikisource-project">Youths come forward to augment Assamese Wikisource project</a> (NE Now News; May 17, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-tushar-kaushik-may-28-2019-wikipedia-looks-to-ramp-up-its-indian-language-content">Wikipedia looks to ramp up its Indian language content</a> (Tushar Kaushik; May 28, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger">Project Tiger: Wikipedia ropes in locals to contribute articles in Indian languages</a> (Tushar Kaushik; May 29, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Openness</h3>
<p><strong>Publication</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/openness/open-data-and-land-ownership">Open Data and Land Ownership</a> (State of Open Data; Sumandro Chattapadhyay; May 22, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and IDRC) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on restrictions that the Indian government has placed on freedom of expression online.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Identity</h3>
<p><strong>Announcement</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/appropriate-use-of-digital-identity-alliance-announcement">Announcement of a Three-Region Research Alliance on the Appropriate Use of Digital Identity</a> (Amber Sinha; May 13, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Event Organized</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/picking-2018wholes2019-thinking-in-systems-workshop">Picking ‘Wholes’ - Thinking in Systems Workshop</a> (Organized by CIS; New Delhi; May 27 - 28, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<h3><span>Gender</span></h3>
<div>
<p><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ambika-tandon-may-9-2019-workshop-on-feminist-information-infrastructure">Workshop on Feminist Information Infrastructure</a> (Ambika Tandon; edited by Gurshabad Grover and designed by Saumyaa Naidu; May 9, 2019).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Free Speech</h3>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/stockholm-internet-forum-2019">Stockholm Internet Forum 2019</a> (Organized by Stockholm Internet Forum 2019; Stockholm; May 16 - 17, 2019). Gurshabad Grover was a panelist in the discussion on 'Influencing Internet Governance' co-organised by Article 19.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/consilience-2019">Consilience 2019</a> (Organized by the Law and Technology Society; National Law School of India University, Bangalore; May 25, 2019). Gurshabad Grover was a panelist on the discussion on 'Online Content Regulation: Global Perspectives and Solutions'.</li>
</ul>
<h3><span>Privacy</span></h3>
<p><strong>Research Paper</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/vipul-kharbanda-may-8-2019-an-analysis-of-rbi-draft-framework-on-regulatory-sandbox-for-fintech">An Analysis of the RBI’s Draft Framework on Regulatory Sandbox for Fintech</a> (Vipul Kharbanda; May 8, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/data-empowerment-and-protection-architecture-depa-workshop">Data Empowerment And Protection Architecture (DEPA) Workshop</a> (Organized by iSPIRT Foundation; May 18, 2019). Pranav Manjesh Bidare attended the workshop. </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/abli-privacy-workshop">ABLI Privacy Workshop</a> (Organized by Asian Business Law Institute; Singapore; May 21 - 22, 2019). Elonnai Hickok participated in the event.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hillhacks-2019">HillHacks 2019</a> (Organized by HillHacks; Bir, Himachal Pradesh; May 24 - 26, 2019). Karan Saini was a speaker.</li>
</ul>
<h3><span>Artificial Intelligence</span></h3>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/society-5-0-and-artificial-intelligence-with-a-human-face">Society 5.0 and Artificial Intelligence with a Human Face</a> (Organized by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations; India Habitat Centre, New Delhi). Radhika Radhakrishnan attended a roundtable consultation.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ai-for-good-workshop">AI for Good Workshop</a> (Organized by Swissnex India and Wadhwani AI; Bangalore; May 22, 2019).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/mwc19-shanghai-ai-and-trust-in-apac-and-china">MWC19 Shanghai AI and Trust in APAC and China</a> (Organized by Digital Asia Hub; MWC Shanghai; June 27, 2019). Sunil Abraham will be making a presentation at the summit on AI and Trust in APAC and China. Sunil has been invited as a speaker on panel ‘Framing AI for Digital Upstarts’.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cyber Security</h3>
<p>Participation in Event</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/shining-light-into-darkness-encouraging-greater-transparency-of-government-offensive-practices-in-cyberspace">Shining light into darkness: Encouraging greater transparency of government offensive practices in cyberspace</a> (Organized by Rights Con; Tunis; June 12, 2019). Sunil Abraham will be attending a conversation on encouraging greater transparency of government offensive practices in cyberspace. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div></div>
<h2><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Article</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-may-1-2019-shyam-ponappa-democracy-digital-india-and-networks">Democracy, Digital India and Networks</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Organizing India Blogspot; May 1, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Event</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/live-closed-trai-open-house-discussion-on-ott-regulation-delhi">Live [Closed]: TRAI Open House Discussion on OTT Regulation - Delhi</a> (Organized by TRAI; New Delhi; May 20, 2019). Anubha Sinha attended the event.</li>
</ul>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work (RAW)</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by an emerging need to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It aims to produce local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Essay</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/zara-rahman-can-data-ever-know-who-we-really-are">Can data ever know who we really are?</a> (Zara Rahman; May 22, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/war-driving-in-lhasa-vegas-2771b502910b">War Driving in Lhasa Vegas</a> (Oxblood Ruffin; May 11, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/dotbharatadoption-95cf90b6079f">#DotBharatAdoption</a> (Dr. Amit Prakash, K.A. Dayanand, Dr. Srinivasan Ramani, Dr. V. Sridhar, and Vivek Pani; May 11, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/materialisingwriting-b0a3e9ebe7">#MaterialisingWriting</a> (Dibyadyuti Roy, Indrani Roy, Padmini Ray Murray, and Puthiya Purayil Sneha; May 21, 2019). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/the-shadow-that-social-media-casts-the-doubled-offlines-of-online-sociality-aa1fbbbb2ec6">The Shadow that Social Media Casts: The Doubled Offlines of Online Sociality</a> (Karandeep Mehra; May 21, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p>► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a></li>
<li>Twitter - Access to Knowledge: <a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K">https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a></li>
<li>Twitter - Information Policy: <a href="https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy">https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy</a></li>
<li>Facebook - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a></li>
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<li>E-Mail - Researchers at Work: <a>raw@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>List - Researchers at Work: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li>
</ul>
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<p>► Support Us</p>
<div>Please help us defend consumer and citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru - 5600 71.</div>
<p>► Request for Collaboration</p>
<div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at <a>tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects</i>.</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2019-newsletter'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2019-newsletter</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet GovernanceAccess to Knowledge2019-06-26T01:40:33ZPageProject Tiger: Wikipedia ropes in locals to contribute articles in Indian languages
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger
<b>The project has generated content in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Odiya and Gujarati. </b>
<p>The article by Tushar Kaushik was <a class="external-link" href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/project-tiger-wikipedia-ropes-in-locals-to-contribute-articles-in-indian-languages/articleshow/69531673.cms">published in Economic Times</a> on May 29, 2019.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Hundreds of people from across the country are generating online content in local Indian languages and are even competing in ‘editathons’ that pit contributors of different languages against each other.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While online encyclopedia Wikipedia’s content might be exhaustive in English, its content in Indian languages is limited. Keeping this in mind, Wikipedia’s parent organization Wikimedia Foundation, and Google, roped in Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) - Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K), Wikimedia India Chapter in 2017 and started ‘Project Tiger’ aimed at generating more content in Indian languages. <span>A pilot project was held from December 2017 to May 2018 and another phase of the competition is set to begin next month. The project has generated content in major languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Odia and Gujarati.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The contributors are from varied age groups, some are also from remote, rural areas and they worked from different cities across the country. Two years ago, Durga Prasanna, a journalism student at Alva’s college in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district, joined a group of contributors to Wikipedia as part of a requirement from the college. She got an opportunity to participate in ‘Project Tiger’ last year. She generated Wikipedia entries in Kannada and also in the regional languages of Tulu and Konkani. Apart from Durga, seven other students of her college together contributed over 70 articles in Kannada, and a few in Tulu and Konkani, during the ‘editathon’. “We were provided a long list of topics on which not much literature existed in the local languages and among them, we chose topics based on our interests. For example, I wrote articles on ‘psychologist’ and ‘medicinal plants’,” she said.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Another participant, Charan Gill, a 65-year-old former social worker from Patiala, Punjab, was the top contributor in Punjabi. “I wrote 432 articles in a span of two-and-a-half months.However, contributing is not new to me as I have written over 10,000 Wikipedia entries in Punjabi since 2012,” he says. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Gill now works with another Wikimedia project, translating literary classics into Punjabi. He is currently translating some works of 19th century Russian author Ivan Turgenev. Thanksto Gill’s contributions, the Punjabi community of contributors won the prize for producing the most articles — 1,320. In Tamil, 1,241 articles were contributed. A total of 78 articleswere produced in Kannada by eight members. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Gopalakrishna A, community advocate for Kannada language, CIS-A2K, said all written articles were evaluated by a Wikimedia team jury to check if they fulfilled all criteria beforebeing uploaded on Wikipedia set for the contest. Once they fulfil the criteria, the articles are eligible for the prizes. “The main idea was to create content in Indian languages. Thethings most Indian contributors required were internet and hardware support. So participants who had made significant contributions prior to the competition Wikimediaprojects were provided internet connections or laptops Chromebooks,” he said.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-may-29-2019-tushar-kaushik-project-tiger</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T06:37:55ZNews ItemShould India adopt Plan S to realise Open Access to Public-funded Scientific Research?
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research
<b>Timely and affordable access to scientific research remains a problem in this digital day and age. Around three decades ago, the radical response that emerged was making public-funded scientific research “open access”, i.e. publishing it on the Web without any legal, technical or financial barriers to access and use such research. Several Indian public research institutions also adopted open access mandates and built self-archiving digital tools, however, the efforts haven’t yielded much. Most countries including India, continue to struggle with implementing open access. The latest international initiative (created in Europe) to remedy this problem is Plan S. Plan S is has been positioned as a strategy to implement immediate open access to scientific publications from 2021 – which India is considering adopting.
This article unpacks the disorderly growth of open access in India, and discusses the gap between the Plan's vision and current Indian scenario in some respects. </b>
<p></p>
<p><em>Note: This blog entry was first published on May 29, 2019, and later updated on June 5, 2019 to accommodate the revisions to Plan S (released on May 31, 2019 after their public feedback exercise).<br /></em></p>
<h2>Introduction<em><br /></em></h2>
<p>In 2017, scientific
researchers in India produced 1.4 lakh pieces of peer-reviewed literature, of
which approximately 27,000 were open access publications (SCImago 2018). This
means that only 27,000 pieces were available to the public to freely read and
share, despite the fact that Indian tax-payers had funded half of the annual
expenditure on R&D that year. The remaining items were largely stuck behind
expensive paywalls and subscription systems, doing a huge disservice to the
scientific ecosystem as well as the public interest.</p>
<p>Open Access is
a movement to make both scientific research and data accessible to everyone in
society, and a key tenet of Open Science. It emerged in response to rising
costs and barriers to timely access and sharing of research, as well as a
crisis of epistemic injustice in science. With the advent of the Internet and World
Wide Web, it was expected that costs of publishing and disseminating scholarly
research would decrease leading to a more equitable research environment. The
principal idea was “<em>to make copies of all
the papers they published in scholarly journals freely available on the
internet</em>.”(Harnad S 1995). Two principal ways of implementing OA that initially
emerged were: publishing on online institutional repositories (of the research
institute/ funder) and/or paying the journal to make the paper OA online (i.e.
author pays upfront instead of public paying subscription charges to read that
research).</p>
<p>Since
Harnad’s first call, numerous international conventions, mandates, calls have
been issued in support of OA. The latest international response to the problem is
<a class="external-link" href="https://www.coalition-s.org/">Plan S</a>. With its origins in Europe, Plan S was initially positioned as a clarion
call to provoke a global flip to OA, and then transformed to achieving the goal of "scientific publications that result from research funded by public
grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms" from 2021. Plan S invites research funding
organisations to become members of cOAlition S, who in turn are expected to
abide by the ten principles articulated under the Plan. Crucially, it holds
funders responsible for enforcing OA policies and sanction
non-compliance.</p>
<p>The Principal
Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India announced in February 2019 that
India will join Plan S. That could make India the second country in the global
south to adopt Plan S (Zambia (via National Science and Technology Council of
Zambia) was the first one). Although it must be noted that the announcement was made with respect to an earlier version of the current plan. It remains to be confirmed if India will still abide by its commitment. Even so, at first glance the key tenets underlying the plan remain the same to a large extent. Regardless it is a huge step for India, and perhaps bears the promise
of pulling together the various strands of a diffused OA movement in India. Presently,
cOAlition S is dominated by European entities. Majority of the entities provide
marginal funding support to Indian scientific research, with the exception of
two members - the UK based biomedical charity Wellcome Trust and the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation. Wellcome Trust has been a longstanding global
advocate of OA, and also played a crucial role in shaping a key institutional OA
mandate in India. Apart from the European Commission and European Research
Council, China’s largest funding agency has also made strong statements to
support Plan S.</p>
<p>Plan S’ principles
prescribe that research should be only published in those journals and on
platforms which enable authors to publish articles under a Creative Commons
Attribution license (CC- BY; alternatively, CC Attribution Share-alike or CC Public
Domain licenses); authors should retain copyright in their articles; have a “solid
system” in place for peer-review as per the standards in the relevant research
discipline; provide subsidies/ waivers in Article Processing Charges (APCs); and
do not operate under the hybrid model. More importantly, the Plan prioritises
publishing in journals over institutional repositories (IRs) – and requires
funding organisations to pay APCs. Further, all kinds of self-archiving
platforms (including IRs) should also meet certain registration requirements.</p>
<h2>Key aspects of Indian scientific research</h2>
<h3>Funding of research<br /></h3>
<p>Currently, scientific
research is significantly funded by both government and private sector in India.
During 2017-18, the national investment on R&D activities in scientific
research was estimated to be approximately one lakh crores, with majority (45%)
being met by central government, and approximately 38% from private sector
industries (and 7% from state and 5% from public sector organisations). The
highest R&D expenditure is incurred by Defence Research and Development
Organisation at INR 13,000 crores, followed by Department of Space at 5000
crores, Department of Atomic Energy at under 4000 crores. Indian Council for
Agricultural Research (ICAR), Council of Scientific and Agricultural Research
(CSIR), Department of Science and Technology (DST) find themselves in the same
bracket of 2000-4000 crores roughly, whereas Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
and Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) trail with under 1000 crores (Department
of Science 2018). Of these institutions, only ICAR, CSIR, DST and DBT have OA
mandates.</p>
<h3>Indian institutional OA initiatives<br /></h3>
<p>The earliest OA
efforts in India led to the creation of IRs to support self-archiving in
scientific research institutions (Arunachalam 2004). Recommendations presented
at the 93<sup>rd</sup> Indian Science Congress in 2006 said that an optimal national
OA policy should mandate research papers produced either by partial or full government
funding to be deposited into IRs immediately upon publication; encouraged such
grant holders to retain copyright; and suggested that the government should
commit to cover costs for publication in OA journals (i.e. cover APCs). These
recommendations found support in a 2007 report by the erstwhile National
Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India.
The Commission envisaged a national academic OA portal for sharing research
articles, and highlighted the need for the government to allocate funds for
digitisation of books and periodicals in the public domain (material outside
the scope of copyright protection). Additionally, it recognised the digital
divide as an impediment to access to scientific knowledge. More importantly, it
required the government and research institutions to bear the cost of
publishing in OA journals, instead of passing the financial burden to authors/
scientists.</p>
<p>Soon key public-funded
institutions such as the <a href="http://www.csircentral.net/mandate.pdf">Council of Scientific and Agricultural
Research</a> (CSIR), <a href="http://www.dbtindia.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/APPROVED-OPEN-ACCESS-POLICY-DBTDST12.12.2014.pdf">Department of Science and Technology
and Department of Biotechnology</a>
(DST-DBT), <a href="https://krishi.icar.gov.in/PDF/ICAR_Open_Access_Policy.pdf">Indian Council of Agricultural
Research</a>, Institute of
Mathematical Sciences adopted OA mandates. However, the thrust of all policies happened
to be on IR deposits and not financial support for APCs. The concept of IRs
took root to a considerable extent, although many IRs later ran into issues for
various reasons and stopped functioning (Das 2014). A few initiatives such as
the <a href="http://www.urdip.res.in/#/aboutus">CSIR-URDIP</a>
(which developed a centralised IR to make OA journals discoverable across
institutions funded by CSIR and DST-DBT) remain under-populated despite being
stably maintained. This is either due to absence of or uneven implementation of
OA mandates – for example, only some institutional beneficiaries (approximately
20) have implemented the DST-DBT mandate, and a meagre 3000 papers have been
made open thus far in various IRs. Problems cited for under-populating of
repositories include disinterest by administrators in implementing the mandates
(DST Centre for Policy Research 2018).</p>
<h2>Plan S' vision and current Indian scenario<br /></h2>
<h3>Mandatory copyright retention by authors</h3>
<p>If India
signs up for Plan S, IRs under Indian OA mandates will be required to publish
articles under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY; alternatively CC BY
SA or CC0, and CC BY ND in exceptional cases), wherein the copyright shall be retained by the author without any
restrictions. Unfortunately, “copyright retention by authors” hardly finds support
in Indian OA mandates as a fundamental principle. None of the institutions with
OA mandates (mentioned previously) provide a clear stance on copyright
retention, thereby implicitly leaving it to individual authors to negotiate
their own arrangements with publishers. For example, the DST-DBT OA policy
states that “<em>It is not the intent of this
policy to violate copyright or other agreements entered into by the researcher,
institution or funding agency...</em>” Individual arrangements largely take the
shape of mandatory copyright transfers in favour of the publishers (with an
embargo condition on author’s freedom to re-publish). Mandatory copyright
transfers harm the agency of authors to publish/ share their works in other
places of their choice. This is the primary reason for legacy works to remain
locked up with the publishers until the copyright term expires; and in many
cases even after the work has become a part of the public domain, publishers are
loathe to release such works.</p>
<p>This happens
despite two things: firstly, in most cases in India, authors’/ researchers’
institutional employment contracts require that all IP vests with the
institutions; secondly, as per the applicable law - Indian Copyright Act, 1957,
copyright in such works in ordinary circumstances vests with the employer. Thus, if public institutions so desired, they should be able to
retain the copyright in the work produced under their aegis (and transfer it to
the authors).</p>
<h3>Removal of embargoes<br /></h3>
<p>Both OA and closed
access journals routinely impose embargoes averaging a year for peer-reviewed
outputs to be made open. Presently, most Indian OA mandates accommodate an
embargo of six months to one year, and accept both post-prints and pre-prints
(the two terms roughly refer to the version of author’s manuscripts before and
after peer-review) for publication in IRs. Such conditions again run contrary
to the Plan’s requirement of making the final peer-reviewed published version
of articles (post-print version) to be made open immediately upon publication–
i.e. without an embargo period.</p>
<h3>Addressing the menace of predatory publishing<br /></h3>
<p>Separately, another
thorn in the side of OA’s reputation has been the rise of predatory journals. Predatory
journals are outfits that dress themselves as a genuine OA journal, often
charging unsuspecting authors high APCs, but conduct abysmal peer-reviews and
provide poor editorial services and exhibit such conduct amounting to fraud. Such
outfits have irreparably damaged many researchers’ reputations and careers, especially for vulnerable authors in the global south, with
their unchecked manuscripts getting published without requisite quality
checks (Sinha 2016). While this is an issue that requires special immediate measures; Plan S can potentially check the growth of such journals since it requires all publication venues to be completely transparent about their editorial policies and editorial board members, and also prohibits them from using APCs as bait to guarantee publication. </p>
<h3>Publishing in 'prestigious venues' cannot be a criterion for evaluating scientific merit<br /></h3>
<p>The growth of
OA has further been hindered due to a misguided tendency amongst authors to
publish only in select prestigious journals, many of which are closed access.
Such select journals have cultivated a brand of reputability and prestige over
decades, they demonstrate as much by their high JIF (Journal Impact Factor)
credentials. Traditionally, JIF has been the measure of a journal’s prestige –
a proxy for the impact and influence of a journal’s publications. Despite
having been discredited as wholly inaccurate (Kiermer 2016), many funding
agencies continue to consider a publication’s worth in terms of the JIF of the
journal it was published in, in hiring, promotional and other career
advancement decisions. So long as we continue to judge the worth of research by
the venue of its publication (assuming a uniform high quality of peer review
and other checks) and not by its actual contribution to science, OA publishing
is bound to be a less favourable option, because most OA journals are new and
have not raked up a high impact factor score. Yet Indian funding
agencies continue to use and promote JIF metrics, for a lack of awareness or
wanton dis-interestedness in improving the system. Another reason for an
immediate need to break the religiosity surrounding JIF is that many journals (both
OA and closed access) in the global south enjoy good reputations but do not
carry a high JIF as they are newer and their citation metric pales in comparison
to their more dominant western counterparts. This disparity is starker for
fields wholly situated in the global south. In this respect, the Plan clearly requires funders to only evaluate a publication on the basis of its intrinsic merit, and not factor in publication channels, impact factors or the publisher.</p>
<h3>Recent steps by Indian government and agencies<br /></h3>
<p>Indian agencies’
approach to addressing these issues has been chequered, and does more harm than
good. In 2017, the Universities Grants Commission (UGC) released a pre-determined
list of journals that researchers should publish in, and linked researchers’ career
advancement to publishing in the select listed journals (Pushkar 2016). This
approved list contains approximately 39,000 journals that are indexed in Web of
Science, SCOPUS and Indian Citation Index (Universities Grant Commission 2018). UGC’s
step was seen as an attack on academic freedom with serious doubts about its competence
to create a credible exclusionary list of journals in multiple disciplines –
and it has indeed been shown that the procedure of making the list is flawed
(Patwardhan et al. 2018). Separately, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development notified to
National Institutes of Technology (NITs) that papers published in journals
levying APCs will not earn career advancement credits (Mukunth 2017). MHRD’s notification dismisses <em>all </em>paid journals irrespective of their
quality. This has the effect of placing genuine high-quality OA journals on the
same pedestal as predatory journals, and ultimately dents the growth of OA business
models looking for modest support via APCs that are helpful in covering
operational costs (software platform and an editorial team), and do not come
close to unreasonable APCs levied by the biggest commercial players in the
field. The reality is that most OA journals charge authors to publish (Bastian
2018).</p>
<p>These
steps led to much consternation amongst the Indian research community. Another government central committee has proposed to award cash bonuses
for publications (with a higher bonus for publishing in international journals
over national journals). This has been criticised by Indian scientists on two
grounds: firstly, that the scheme may lead to a spike in predatory or
sub-standard journals; secondly, it devalues national journals, and reinforces
the prestige factor to favour international journals (Vaidyanathan 2019). A
2011 study has shown that cash incentives appear to encourage submission of
research that has low regard for quality (Franzoni et. al 2011). In fact in 2010,
UGC introduced APIs (Academic Performance Indicators), which was essentially a
system of reward points against number of publications for researchers and
faculty members ostensibly to improve scientific publishing. However, this ended
up triggering a race to publish poor quality research in fake journals (<a href="https://thewire.in/education/the-ugc-deserves-applause-for-rrying-to-do-something-about-research-fraud">Pushkar</a>
2016), and the UGC recently changed the scheme to in order to do damage-control.</p>
<h3>Government will have to foot APC bill</h3>
<p>Crucially, the
Plan requires funding organisations to commit to funding APCs, in addition to
research grants. The PSA in his announcement on Twitter (relating to Plan S)
has said that, “We will negotiate for APCs normalised to India.” The Plan also
emphasises on waivers and discounts for low and middle income countries. Studies
show that Indian authors spend anywhere between INR 500 to 3 lakhs per article
on APCs, and during 2010-14 the estimated payment to open access journals (the
immediate OA kind) was INR 16 crores per year, on an average costing INR 76,000
per paper (Madhan et al. 2016). It has been estimated that Plan S will cost India
INR 616.46 crores per year (Mukunth 2019). The estimate is more than half of the
annual investment in public institutions such as DBT and ICMR.</p>
<h3>Imperfect competition in the scholarly publishing market</h3>
<p>Does the
academic publishing market have any justifications for exorbitant APCs? A European University Association study highlighted the
oligopolistic structure in this market sector, which functions with an absolute
lack in pricing transparency (through strict confidentiality agreements with
institutions), large profiteering through public funds and asymmetry in
negotiating power (European Universities Association 2018). In 2015, five
companies controlled more than half of the market for academic publishing: RELX
(formerly Reed Elsevier, UK), Taylor and Francis (UK), Wiley-Blackwell (UK),
Springer Nature (Germany), SAGE (US). Majority of the most important closed-access
journals continue to be owned by these publishers (Larivière et. al 2015). It
does not help that many of the top OA journals are also owned by the same
publishers (who are responsible for charging the highest APCs). It will be
interesting to see which journals will change their model to comply with Plan S
requirements.</p>
<h2>Conclusion<br /></h2>
<p>Nonetheless,
after many years of piecemeal OA reforms within Indian institutions, the PSA’s
announcement indicates a renewed interest in OA. Elimination of copyright
transfer agreements and embargoes will give authors surely more control over
their works – steps that should have been implemented and strictly enforced by
Indian institutions long ago.</p>
<p>However, it
makes little sense for developing countries to spend an enormous amount on APCs
demanded by a foreign publishing oligopoly. Latin America continues to be
opposed to Plan S as a matter of its principled position against APCs. If India
signs up for Plan S, it is could be the case that we will find ourselves
in a situation where our public institutions will be paying for subscriptions
as well as APCs for a long time to come. One of the plan's principles does say that "<em>... When Open Access publication fees are applied, they must be commensurate with
the publication services delivered and the structure of such fees must
be transparent to inform the market and funders potential
standardisation and capping of payments of fees.</em>" Since the coalition is currently overwhelmingly
Eurocentric, it remains to be seen how a fair and reasonable analysis will be
worked out across geographies. In this sense, Plan S is not exactly a
breakthrough plan for the global south as it does not sufficiently undercut the
market power of the oligopoly.</p>
<p>There is
plenty that can be done in the interim to realise the vision of OA, as we
continue to ponder and debate the feasibility of Plan S in the global scheme of
scientific publishing as well as India. For starters, it would be ideal to
conduct a nationwide consultation with the research community in India. Strengthening
the infrastructure underlying institutional repositories – in terms of
developing more powerful search tools for IRs, linking IRs, making deposited
articles more discoverable over the Web are steps that do not require
relatively large funds (vis-à-vis APCs), yet stand to contribute to improving
visibility of our research. The government must also look out for authors’ interests
by actively negotiating stricter terms with publishers, so that authors aren’t
coerced into signing away their copyright (or by fait accompli). Transparency
of commercial agreements should become a non-negotiable principle in institutions’/ libraries’ dealings
with publishers, which is also reiterated as a key principle of the Plan. Such steps may not result in an immediate shift to OA, if implemented strictly and uniformly can perhaps be more radical
and fruitful than anything that the Indian research community has seen in decades. </p>
<p></p>
<h2><strong>References</strong></h2>
<p>Arunachalam,
Subbiah (2004): “India’s March Towards Open Access,” <em>SciDevNet,</em> <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/publishing/opinion/indias-march-towards-open-access.html">https://www.scidev.net/global/publishing/opinion/indias-march-towards-open-access.html</a></p>
<p>Bastian Hilda
(2018): “A Reality Check on Author Access to Open Access Publishing” <a href="https://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2018/04/02/a-reality-check-on-author-access-to-open-access-publishing/">https://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/2018/04/02/a-reality-check-on-author-access-to-open-access-publishing/</a></p>
<p>Das, Anup
Kumar (2014): “Open Access to Scientific Knowledge: Policy Perspectives and
National Initiatives,” <em>CSIR –NISTADS
(ed): India - Science and Technology</em>, Vol 3, pp. 292-299</p>
<p>Department of
Science and Technology (2018): “Annual Report 2017-2018” <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IPKUdbSx0Da2Zi_ufzC4u-T3jCFzPred/view">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IPKUdbSx0Da2Zi_ufzC4u-T3jCFzPred/view</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"></span></p>
<p>DST Centre
for Policy Research (2018): “Panel Discussion on Equitable Access to Knowledge,
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_kjoFRjAQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_kjoFRjAQ</a></p>
<p>European
Universities Association (2018): “The lack of transparency and competition in
the academic publishing market in Europe and beyond” <a href="https://eua.eu/component/attachments/attachments.html?task=attachment&id=1691">https://eua.eu/component/attachments/attachments.html?task=attachment&id=1691</a></p>
<p>Harnad, Stevan
(1995): “Universal FTP Archives for Esoteric Science and Scholarship: A
Subversive Proposal”, <em>Scholarly Journal
at the Crossroads</em>, Washington DC: Association of Research Libraries</p>
<p>Kiermer,
Veronique (2016): “Measuring Up: Impact Factors Do Not Reflect Article Citation
Rates,” <em>PLOS Blogs,</em> <a href="https://blogs.plos.org/plos/2016/07/impact-factors-do-not-reflect-citation-rates/">https://blogs.plos.org/plos/2016/07/impact-factors-do-not-reflect-citation-rates/</a></p>
<p>Franzoni,
Chiara & Scellato, Giuseppe &Stephan, Paula (2011): “Changing
Incentives to Publish,” Science, <a href="http://www.utstat.utoronto.ca/reid/sta2201s/2012/Science-2011-Franzoni-702-3.pdf">http://www.utstat.utoronto.ca/reid/sta2201s/2012/Science-2011-Franzoni-702-3.pdf</a></p>
<p>Larivière,
Vincent & Haustein, Stefanie & Mongeon, Philippe (2015): “The Oligopoly
of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era,”<em>
PLoS One</em>. 10 (6), p. 1-15.DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502">https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502</a></p>
<p>Madhan, Muthu
& Kimidi, Siva Shankar & Gunasekaran, Subbiah & Arunachalam,
Subbiah (2016): “Should Indian researchers pay to get their work published?,”
Current Science <a href="http://dst.sciencecentral.in/17/1/Current_Science_Sept2016.pdf">http://dst.sciencecentral.in/17/1/Current_Science_Sept2016.pdf</a></p>
<p>Manupriya
(2017): “Helping institutions embrace open access,” <em>IndiaBioscience</em>, <a href="https://indiabioscience.org/news/2017/helping-institutions-embrace-open-access">https://indiabioscience.org/news/2017/helping-institutions-embrace-open-access</a></p>
<p>Mukunth,
Vasudevan (2017):“<em>Scientists in the Lurch
After Imprecise MHRD Notice About 'Paid Journals</em>'”, <em>The Wire</em>,<strong> </strong><a href="https://thewire.in/education/mhrd-open-access-nit-predatory-journals-career-advancement-impact-factor">https://thewire.in/education/mhrd-open-access-nit-predatory-journals-career-advancement-impact-factor</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></p>
<p>Mukunth
Vasudevan (2019): “Six Concerns Over India Joining the Plan S Coalition for
Science Journals”, <em>The Wire</em>, <a href="https://thewire.in/the-sciences/six-concerns-over-india-joining-the-plan-s-coalition-for-science-journals">https://thewire.in/the-sciences/six-concerns-over-india-joining-the-plan-s-coalition-for-science-journals</a></p>
<p>Patwardhan,
Bhushan & Nagarkar, Shubhada & Gadre, Shridhar & Lakhotia, Subhash
& Mohan Katoch, Vishwa & Moher, David. (2018): “A Critical Analysis of
the ‘UGC-Approved List of Journals’”. <em>Current
science</em>. pp 114.</p>
<p>Poynder,
Richard (2019): “Plan S: What strategy now for the Global South?” <a href="https://richardpoynder.co.uk/Plan_S.pdf">https://richardpoynder.co.uk/Plan_S.pdf</a></p>
<p>Pushkar (2016):
“<em>The UGC Deserves Applause for Trying to
Do Something About Research Fraud</em>,” <em>The
Wire</em>, <a href="https://thewire.in/education/the-ugc-deserves-applause-for-rrying-to-do-something-about-research-fraud">https://thewire.in/education/the-ugc-deserves-applause-for-rrying-to-do-something-about-research-fraud</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></p>
<p>SCImago
(2018): “SJR – SCImago Journal and Country Rank” viewed on 2 April 2019 (<a href="https://www.scimagojr.com/countrysearch.php?country=in">https://www.scimagojr.com/countrysearch.php?country=in</a> )</p>
<p>Sinha, Anubha
(2016): “Why Open Access Has To Look Up For Academic Publishing To Look Up”, <em>The Centre for Internet and Society</em>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/the-wire-anubha-sinha-october-12-2016-why-open-access-has-to-look-up-for-academic-publishing-to-look-up">https://cis-india.org/openness/the-wire-anubha-sinha-october-12-2016-why-open-access-has-to-look-up-for-academic-publishing-to-look-up</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span></p>
<p>Universities
Grants Commission (2018): “Annual Report 2017-2018” <a href="https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5595965_UGC-ANNUAL-REPORT-English-2017-18.pdf">https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5595965_UGC-ANNUAL-REPORT-English-2017-18.pdf</a></p>
<p>Vaidyanathan,
Gayatri (2019): “Indian payment-for-papers proposal rattles scientists,” <em>Nature India, </em><a href="https://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2019.18?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureInd#.XGlrKLpUnPU.twitter"><em>https://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2019.18?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureInd#.XGlrKLpUnPU.twitter</em></a><em>
</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/should-india-adopt-plan-s-to-realise-open-access-to-public-funded-scientific-research</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaOpen AccessAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T13:19:28ZBlog EntryWikipedia looks to ramp up its Indian language content
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-tushar-kaushik-may-28-2019-wikipedia-looks-to-ramp-up-its-indian-language-content
<b>Wikipedia is generating more content in major Indian languages with the help of Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Tushar Kaushik was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/wikipedia-looks-to-ramp-up-its-indian-language-content/69529967">Economic Times</a> on May 28, 2019.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Hundreds of people from across the country are generating online content in local <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tag/indian+languages">Indian languages</a> and are even competing in ‘editathons’ that pit contributors of different languages against each other.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While online encyclopedia <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tag/wikipedia">Wikipedia</a>’s content might be exhaustive in English, its content in Indian languages is limited. Keeping this in mind, Wikipedia’s parent organization Wikimedia roped in Bengaluru-based Centre for <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet">Internet</a> and Society (CIS) in 2017 and started ‘<a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tag/project+tiger">Project Tiger</a>’ aimed at generating more content in Indian languages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A pilot project was held from December 2017 to May 2018 and another phase of the competition is set to begin next month. The project has generated content in major languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Odiya and Gujarati.<br /><br />The contributors are from varied age groups, some are also from remote, rural areas and they worked from different cities across the country. Two years ago, Durga Prasanna, a journalism student at Alva’s college in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district, joined a group of contributors to Wikipedia as part of a requirement from the college.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">She got an opportunity to participate in ‘Project Tiger’ last year. She generated Wikipedia entries in Kannada and also in the regional languages of Tulu and Konkani. Apart from Durga, seven other students of her college together contributed over 70 articles in Kannada, and a few in Tulu and Konkani, during the ‘editathon’. “We were provided a long list of topics on which not much literature existed in the local languages and among them, we chose topics based on our interests. For example, I wrote articles on ‘psychologist’ and ‘medicinal plants’,” she said.<br /><br />Another participant, Charan Gill, a 65-year-old former social worker from Patiala, Punjab, was the top contributor in Punjabi. “I wrote 432 articles in a span of two-and-a-half months. However, contributing is not new to me as I have written over 10,000 Wikipedia entries in Punjabi since 2012,” he says.<br /><br />Gill now works with another Wikimedia project, translating literary classics into Punjabi. He is currently translating some works of 19th century Russian author Ivan Turgenev. Thanks to Gill’s contributions, the Punjabi community of contributors won the prize for producing the most articles — 1,320. In Tamil, 1,241 articles were contributed. A total of 78 articles were produced in Kannada by eight members.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A Gopalkrishna, community advocate for Kannada language, CIS, said all written articles were evaluated by a Wikimedia team to check if they fulfilled all criteria before being uploaded on Wikipedia. “The main idea was to create content in Indian languages. The things most Indian contributors required were internet and hardware support. So participants who had made significant contributions prior to the competition were provided internet connections or laptops,” he said.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-tushar-kaushik-may-28-2019-wikipedia-looks-to-ramp-up-its-indian-language-content'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-tushar-kaushik-may-28-2019-wikipedia-looks-to-ramp-up-its-indian-language-content</a>
</p>
No publisherTushar KaushikAccess to Knowledge2019-06-05T07:20:17ZNews ItemWikisource Workshop at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-may-26-2019-wikisource-workshop-at-vigyan-ashram
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) organized a workshop in collaboration with Vigyan Ashram, Pabal on May 25-26, 2019 at Pabal. Total 12 participants attended sessions during this two days workshop. The basic skills in digitisation, uploading on Commons and Wikisource process were imparted in the workshop. Jayanta Nath was the facilitator.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Active members of Wikisource at Vigyan Ashram have expressed their interest in learning advanced skills on VP. Previously, they have scanned & uploaded 50+ books on Commons, OCR'd 10,000+ pages and proofread few pages. This team wants to learn advanced skills in processing scanned books, metadata linking with Wikidata, Wikisource - proofreading & layout skills, tools etc. The institution has also planned to integrate proofreading activity with the Unicode/FOSS training courses, so that the students will be involved in next academic year. The primary objectives of the workshop were:</p>
<p>To impart :</p>
<ul>
<li>Basic orientation to Wikisource</li>
<li>Understanding of Wikisource work flow</li>
<li>Skills required from scanning to OCR of book</li>
<li>skills for Proof-reading, transclusion methods</li>
</ul>
<h3>Agenda</h3>
<ul>
<li>Introduction to Wikisource - features, scope and future potential</li>
<li>Wikisource work flow - explanation of different stages</li>
<li>Upload tools and Copyrights</li>
<li>OCR4Wikisource and Indic OCR</li>
<li>Proofreading methods and Tools required</li>
<li>Wikisource tools, gadgets</li>
<li>Transclusion methods</li>
<li>Wikidata linkage</li>
</ul>
<h3>Day 1</h3>
<p id="_mcePaste" style="text-align: justify; ">Day one started with training on Scanning and post processing methods. The expert trainer explained various programmes to clean files & make the pdf of book. He also reviewed the previous work done at Vigyan Ashram and gave important suggestions. All the participants scanned 20 pages and processed them for practise. Then copyright issues and various licenses were discussed with some examples on Commons. The big size books were uploaded by chunkedupload tool. This will be useful in future as it reduces time and space also. <span>After the uploading session, the basics of Wikisource project were explained by Jayanta Nath. He demonstrated proof-reading methods and the related tools, gadgets required. Some scripts for proof-reading are not imported in Marathi Wikisource. The need analysis was done to identify basic minimum templates and gadgets. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The participants learned to make their common.js pages to install the scripts. The hands-on activity was done by distributing the pages of one book for all the members. </span><span>Day one started with training on Scanning and post processing methods. The expert trainer explained various programmes to clean files & make the pdf of book. He also reviewed the previous work done at Vigyan Ashram and gave important suggestions. All the participants scanned 20 pages and processed them for practise. Then copyright issues and various licenses were discussed with some examples on Commons. </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The big size books were uploaded by chunkedupload tool. This will be useful in future as it reduces time and space also.After the uploading session, the basics of Wikisource project were explained by Jayanta Nath. He demonstrated proof-reading methods and the related tools, gadgets required. Some scripts for proof-reading are not imported in Marathi Wikisource. The need analysis was done to identify basic minimum templates and gadgets. The participants learned to make their common.js pages to install the scripts. The hands-on activity was done by distributing the pages of one book for all the members.</span></p>
<h3><span>Day 2</span></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On the second day, three active Wikimedians and one new member from Pune joined group at Vigyan Ashram. After the recap of first day activity, the review of status of Marathi Wikisource was taken. The practise session for proof-reading & layout of pages continued till lunch break. In the second half, final process of transclusion was explained in detail. The participants also learnt about the various methods for different forms of books. The final layout for reading the books on Wikisource and formats for downloading the books were also discussed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the last session, the future plan of Wikisource activity was discussed. The organisation has decided to involve all the trainees in this activity to enhance the skills as well as knowledge. The active community members have planned to spread the awareness about the Wikisource in the society for more content donation and increasing editor base.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Follow-up</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Consistent activity for the new trainees is planned with trained team at the institute. Scanning of rare and re-licensed books from libraries is in progress. This activity will be scaled up in near future.</p>
<hr />
<p><a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Wikisource_Workshop_at_Vigyan_Ashram,_Pabal_(25-26_May_2019)">The blog post was originally published on Wikimedia Blog</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-may-26-2019-wikisource-workshop-at-vigyan-ashram'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-may-26-2019-wikisource-workshop-at-vigyan-ashram</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhWikimediaWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-06-23T03:26:53ZBlog EntryTrain-the-Trainer 2019 at Vishakhapatnam
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2019-at-vishakhapatnam
<b>Train-the-trainer 2019 (TTT 2019), residential training program to groom leadership among the Indian Wikimedia community members, is going to happen in Visakhapatnam during 31 May, 1 and 2 June 2019 at Fairfield by Marriott Hotel at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">TTT 2019 is the 6th iteration in the earlier iterations happened in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Based on internal needs-assessment conducted annually by CIS-A2K tweaks and improvises the design and expected outcomes of TTT every year. This year, <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Work_plan_July_2018_-_June_2019/Skill_Building_Initiatives#Annual_Train-the-Trainer">A2K planned</a> to involve communities or community members in planning, and organizing the event to be more transparent. This year A2K has two major changes in organising the TTT.</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span>Indic communities were asked to take part in the bidding process in order to </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/2019/Bids">express interest </a><span>to host this iteration of TTT. Based on the bidding process, this year A2K is going to collaborate with </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/VVIT_WikiConnect">VVIT Wikiconnect</a><span> to host TTT 2019 in Visakhapatnam.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Wikimedians from various language and project communities showed interest to attend TTT 2019. The jury considered these applications and selected 24 participants from 13 language and project communities. A2K involved Experienced Indian Wikimedians who are not part of CIS-A2K in the jury. Apart from the details provided by applicants over application form jury members made attempts to know more about participants and reached out some of them over brief telephone calls. Based on set parameters and analysis jury made decisions. Find the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/2019#Participants">selected participants’ list</a><span> here.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e1a35ed5-7fff-8fd6-c765-2b6b3e8cb367"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Please find </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/2019"><span>the event page</span></a><span> for further details.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2019-at-vishakhapatnam'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2019-at-vishakhapatnam</a>
</p>
No publisherpavanCIS-A2KEventAccess to Knowledge2019-05-24T02:21:19ZEventYouths come forward to augment Assamese Wikisource project
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/northeast-now-may-17-2019-youths-come-forward-to-augment-assamese-wikisource-project
<b>Assamese Wikisource is a sister-project of Assamese Wikipedia, where Assamese books with expired copyrights are available.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://nenow.in/north-east-news/youths-come-forward-to-augment-assamese-wikisource-project.html">NE NOW NEWS</a> on May 17, 2019.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In order to take the <a href="https://nenow.in/north-east-news/assam/assam-cm-welcomes-decision-to-include-assamese-language-in-kvs.html">Assamese</a> Wikisource project forward, few young men and women of the state involving in different fields, recently gathered in Guwahati to attend a workshop.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Assamese Wikisource is a sister-project of Assamese <a href="https://nenow.in/north-east-news/tripura/tripura-cm.html">Wikipedia</a>, where Assamese books with expired copyrights are available. The project owned by Wikimedia Foundation was launched in 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A total of 14 volunteers from across the state participated in the workshop hosted by Centre for Internet and Society-Access to knowledge (CIS-A2K) in a city hotel.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Two experts–Jayanta Nath from Kolkata and Tito Dutta from Bangalore–were present as trainers for the workshop, say organisers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The two-day event was coordinated by Gitartha Bordoloi, a physician based in Silchar and the administrator of Assamese Wikipedia and Wikisource.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Wikisource sources hosts books, plays, lyrics, letters etc which are available in open source,” says an organiser.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">PDF or similar files are added to Wikisource which are then converted to unicode form so that every information becomes searchable on the internet.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In addition to books that are hitherto copyright free, new books can also be donated by authors and can be added to the field.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Everyone can access and contribute to this collaborative project. Presently, Assamese Wikisource stands at ninth position out of eleven Indic languages. This can be due to less Wikisource projects and also lack of contributors.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In addition to the basic navigation on Wikisource, the participants learnt searching and uploading public domain works, using OCR to get the texts, correcting errors and creating final product for the readers, he says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As a part of the workshop, the participants fully digitised three old Assamese books within a few hours. They also discussed the future aims, perspectives and goals of Assamese Wikipedia and Wikisource.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As a result of their persistent efforts, works of <a href="https://nenow.in/north-east-news/assam/satriya-exponent-basistha-dev-sarma-gets-srimanta-sankardev-award.html">Srimanta Sankardev</a> and Madhabdev, <a href="https://nenow.in/north-east-news/assam/assam-renovation-for-assamese-writer-lakshminath-bezbaroas-house-begins.html">Lakshminath Bezbaroa</a>, Jyotiprasad Agarwala, Rajanikanta Bordoloi, Hiteshwar Barbarua and some others are now available on Assamese Wikisource.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With the target of digitizing the books by an author in every one or two months, the volunteers have mulled to digitize the works of Padmanath Gohain Baruah, a luminary of Assamese literature.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/northeast-now-may-17-2019-youths-come-forward-to-augment-assamese-wikisource-project'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/northeast-now-may-17-2019-youths-come-forward-to-augment-assamese-wikisource-project</a>
</p>
No publisherNE NOW NEWSWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2019-05-21T16:03:43ZNews ItemProject Tiger 2019 Coordinator position open
http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/project-tiger-2019-co-ordinator-position-open
<b>To contribute to support, and coordinate of the work of the Project Tiger, we are looking for a creative, dedicated individual to join the team as a coordinator. Please note that women, especially those from socioeconomically marginalized communities, and women who are returning to work after a hiatus will be given preference.</b>
<h2 id="docs-internal-guid-01812897-7fff-d2bd-9fd3-137f0bc1811c" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Project Background</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">In India, Wikipedia exists in<a href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/List_of_Indian_language_wiki_projects"> 23 Indian languages</a>. All of these Wikipedias are in the early growth phase having a range of articles from few thousands to 100,000+ articles. The typical size of an Indian language community is only to have around or less than 100 people making 5+ edits every month. While there are many social economic and technical reasons for the size and activity of the Indian language communities, learnings from successful projects in the past have demonstrated that we can provide specific interventions to support these communities.</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Many active Indian language Wikipedia editors tend to contribute more actively when they are provided support for contributing equipment and internet expenses. This was evident from the success of the pilot program<a href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Equipment_Lending_and_Community_Support"> initiated by the Wikimedia India chapter</a>. The recently launched<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_donation_program"> hardware donation program</a> also had a lot of interest from the Indian region.</p>
</li></ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Wikipedia communities usually show interest participating in contests and edit-a-thons. Well known examples are<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Asian_Month"> Wikipedia Asian Month</a>,<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/Punjab_Edit-a-thon"> Punjab edit-a-thon</a>,<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_History_Month-2016"> Women’s history month</a>.</p>
</li></ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">More than 80% edits of all Wikipedias are made by around 2% editors of the community. While many editing promotion activities aspire to attract new editors who are hard to retain, we can sustain more editing activity by empowering existing active editors.</p>
</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Combining these insights, we propose to create locally relevant and high-quality content in Indian languages by launching this pilot program which will (a) support active and experienced Wikipedia editors through the donation of laptops and stipends for internet access and (b) sponsor a language-based contest that aims to address existing Wikipedia content gaps.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Responsibilities</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The CIS-A2K team is primarily based in the Bangalore office of CIS, and the Project Tiger coordinator, henceforth PTC, will be expected to work out of the same office.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">To support and drive outreach of the work being done by the CIS-A2K team, the PTC will be responsible includes but not limited to:</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Supporting Project tiger related communication, documentation and coordination</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Supporting Project Tiger Chromebook disbursal.</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Supporting internet stipend distribution and reimbursement.</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Supporting creation and updation of statistics.</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Feedback collection and surveys.</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Logistics coordination of offline events.</p>
</li></ol>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Characteristics of a coordinator</h2>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Accountability</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Awareness and sensitivity regarding issues of gender and sexuality</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Critical appreciation of open knowledge initiatives</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Effective communication</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Inclusive collaboration</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Intellectual curiosity and openness</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Respect for diversity</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Strong cross-cultural competency</p>
</li></ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Ability to learn-at-work, especially about the Wikimedia ecosystem</p>
</li></ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Eligibility criteria</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">These are the eligibility criteria</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Basic criteria</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Graduate in any discipline</li>
<li>Fluent in English and excellent communication skills in English and working knowledge (or better) of at least one other Indian language </li></ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Technical</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Basic understanding of functioning of Wikipedia, and ideally of other Wikimedia projects too</p>
</li></ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Location and Remuneration</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The position is based out of the Bangalore office of CIS.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Monthly remuneration will be decided after selection. Expected monthly remuneration is around INR 28,000. As this is a consultant position, no other benefit is available</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Application Process</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">We invite interested (and eligible) candidates to apply for the position before 7 June 2019 sending us the following documents to tito+ptc2019@cis-india.org (do not miss +ptc2019 part from the email id, it is a filter for us) with “Application for Project Tiger (Coordinator)” as the subject:</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Cover letter (2 pages): This should introduce your relevant academic, professional, and other experiences, and describe the kind of work you look forward to do as part of the CIS-A2K team. We strongly recommend reading the Supporting Indian Language Wikipedia Project page[<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program">1</a>] on Meta while writing this cover letter, as well as for preparation for the interview to follow (if you are shortlisted for interview).</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">CV: This should provide details of your academic, professional, and other achievements</p>
</li></ol>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Footnotes:</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[1] - <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program">https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/project-tiger-2019-co-ordinator-position-open'>http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/project-tiger-2019-co-ordinator-position-open</a>
</p>
No publishergopalaJobsAccess to Knowledge2019-05-27T06:28:38ZPageProject Tiger 2019 Coordinator position open
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/project-tiger-2019-coordinator-position-open
<b>To contribute to support, and coordinate of the work of the Project Tiger, we are looking for a creative, dedicated individual to join the team as a coordinator. Please note that women, especially those from socioeconomically marginalized communities, and women who are returning to work after a hiatus will be given preference.</b>
<h2 id="docs-internal-guid-01812897-7fff-d2bd-9fd3-137f0bc1811c" dir="ltr">Project Background</h2>
<p dir="ltr">In India, Wikipedia exists in<a href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/List_of_Indian_language_wiki_projects"> 23 Indian languages</a>. All of these Wikipedias are in the early growth phase having a range of articles from few thousands to 100,000+ articles. The typical size of an Indian language community is only to have around or less than 100 people making 5+ edits every month. While there are many social economic and technical reasons for the size and activity of the Indian language communities, learnings from successful projects in the past have demonstrated that we can provide specific interventions to support these communities.</p>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Many active Indian language Wikipedia editors tend to contribute more actively when they are provided support for contributing equipment and internet expenses. This was evident from the success of the pilot program<a href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Equipment_Lending_and_Community_Support"> initiated by the Wikimedia India chapter</a>. The recently launched<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_donation_program"> hardware donation program</a> also had a lot of interest from the Indian region.</p>
</li></ul>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Wikipedia communities usually show interest participating in contests and edit-a-thons. Well known examples are<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Asian_Month"> Wikipedia Asian Month</a>,<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/Punjab_Edit-a-thon"> Punjab edit-a-thon</a>,<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_History_Month-2016"> Women’s history month</a>.</p>
</li></ul>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">More than 80% edits of all Wikipedias are made by around 2% editors of the community. While many editing promotion activities aspire to attract new editors who are hard to retain, we can sustain more editing activity by empowering existing active editors.</p>
</li></ul>
<p dir="ltr">Combining these insights, we propose to create locally relevant and high-quality content in Indian languages by launching this pilot program which will (a) support active and experienced Wikipedia editors through the donation of laptops and stipends for internet access and (b) sponsor a language-based contest that aims to address existing Wikipedia content gaps.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Responsibilities</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The CIS-A2K team is primarily based in the Bangalore office of CIS, and the Project Tiger coordinator, henceforth PTC, will be expected to work out of the same office.</p>
<p> To support and drive outreach of the work being done by the CIS-A2K team, the PTC will be responsible includes but not limited to:</p>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Supporting Project tiger related communication, documentation and coordination</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Supporting Project Tiger Chromebook disbursal.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Supporting internet stipend distribution and reimbursement.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Supporting creation and updation of statistics.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Feedback collection and surveys.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Logistics coordination of offline events.</p>
</li></ol>
<h2> Characteristics of a coordinator</h2>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Accountability</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Awareness and sensitivity regarding issues of gender and sexuality</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Critical appreciation of open knowledge initiatives</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Effective communication</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Inclusive collaboration</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Intellectual curiosity and openness</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Respect for diversity</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Strong cross-cultural competency</p>
</li></ul>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Ability to learn-at-work, especially about the Wikimedia ecosystem</p>
</li></ul>
<h2 dir="ltr">Eligibility criteria</h2>
<p dir="ltr">These are the eligibility criteria</p>
<h3 dir="ltr"> Basic criteria</h3>
<ul><li>Graduate in any discipline<br /></li><li>Fluent in English and excellent communication skills in English and working knowledge (or better) of at least one other Indian language
</li></ul>
<h3> Technical</h3>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Basic understanding of functioning of Wikipedia, and ideally of other Wikimedia projects too</p>
</li></ul>
<h2 dir="ltr">Location and Remuneration</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The position is based out of the Bangalore office of CIS.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Monthly remuneration will be decided after selection. Expected monthly remuneration is around INR 28,000. As this is a consultant position, no other benefit is available</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Application Process</h2>
<p dir="ltr">We invite interested (and eligible) candidates to apply for the position before 10 June 2019 sending us the following documents to tito+ptc2019@cis-india.org (do not miss +ptc2019 part from the email id, it is a filter for us) with “Application for Project Tiger (Coordinator)” as the subject:</p>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Cover letter (2 pages): This should introduce your relevant academic, professional, and other experiences, and describe the kind of work you look forward to do as part of the CIS-A2K team. We strongly recommend reading the Supporting Indian Language Wikipedia Project page[<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program">1</a>] on Meta while writing this cover letter, as well as for preparation for the interview to follow (if you are shortlisted for interview).</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">CV: This should provide details of your academic, professional, and other achievements</p>
</li></ol>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<h3 dir="ltr">Footnotes:</h3>
[1] - <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program">https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Supporting_Indian_Language_Wikipedias_Program</a>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/project-tiger-2019-coordinator-position-open'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/project-tiger-2019-coordinator-position-open</a>
</p>
No publishergopalaJobsAccess to Knowledge2019-06-10T15:29:58ZBlog EntryCIS-A2K Communication Officer position
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/cis-a2k-communication-officer-position
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is seeking applications only from prospective candidates who identify themselves as women, for the position of Programme Officer (Communications, the position is also known as Communication Officer), to support its Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Programme. The job application is open to women only because we feel that a woman communications person will contribute more towards bridging the gender gap in the Wikimedia movement by emphasising on gender-sensitive communication apart from contributing internally for bringing a gender balance in the team.</b>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Context of the CIS-A2K programme</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">As an affiliate of the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind Wikipedia and Wikipedia’s sister project, we design and implement different projects with an aim to create high quality content and cultivate new contributors to Wikimedia projects. The projects will be premised on themes and seek to create a multilingual repository of knowledge using Wikimedia projects as a knowledge platform. You are encouraged to deeply engage with the CIS-A2K work plan before making the application. You will work cohesively with the Wikimedia community and the Wikimedia India Chapter to meet specific goals of each language community in India. You will be a part of a small team of 5 to 10 doing high visibility and high impact work. Please learn more about CIS-A2K <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K">here</a>. </p>
<h2>Position summary</h2>
<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-e872459b-7fff-84b8-c620-88d7bf2f0d83">As a Programme Officer, your job will be to support the Team’s larger goals -- growth of Indian-language Wikipedias and other Wikimedia projects (hereinafter Wikimedia projects), and the contributor communities (hereinafter Community). Your primary responsibility will be to support the Programme Associates -- that spearhead our on-ground programmatic activities -- with regular communications with the community and the world outside.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-e1fd20a7-7fff-39c5-20f7-8e9f6d9d7042">The position is full time and will be based in CIS’ Bengaluru office. Programme Officer will work closely with CIS-A2K Team (hereinafter Team) and would report to the Executive Director/any supervisor in Team.</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-be5f9d88-7fff-7637-6768-87a401727f45">
<h3 dir="ltr">Characteristics of the Programme Officer</h3>
<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-12a50210-7fff-dea5-baaa-ba732c04ecea">
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">High level of commitment: The Programme Officer should believe in the values of CIS and Wikimedia projects, exude enthusiasm for the mission and can powerfully embody and communicate the mission.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Intellectual curiosity and flexibility: Must enjoy tackling difficult, ambiguous problems and able to incorporate new knowledge into how one approaches situations and generates solutions, loves learning from others while expanding intellectual horizons.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Open and transparent: Have a high level of integrity and be comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion, open to input and feedback, a proactive and candid communicator who wants people to know what s/he is doing and isn't afraid to bring others in when things are off-track or when you need help and should able to handle criticism in a mature fashion.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Community builder: It is essential that the Programme Officer sees herself/himself as a partner to and supporter of the Wikimedians who have and will continue to be the leaders in building the Wikimedia projects. The Programme Officer must be willing and able to work with a diverse array of people, many of whom come from non-traditional backgrounds and have a fervent commitment to Wikimedia movement’s community-led nature.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Strong cultural competency: Able to navigate in a global movement and on a global team in addition to navigating the complexity of India.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Partnership developer: Able to initiate, negotiate and operate partnerships that advance the Wikimedia mission in Indic languages and English (as relevant to India) with a wide range of institutions across the public, NGO, universities, philanthropic and private sector.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Willing to travel: The Programme Officer must regularly travel within India to engage with Wikimedia communities and partner with institutions.</p>
</li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Responsibilities</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-01643df2-7fff-20b1-118d-ee9848ad6207">
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">You will be responsible for the overall communications of Team that include storytelling in the form of interviews, blogs, opinion pieces in newspaper/other platforms, regular coverage in both Indian language and English media, and anything beyond.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">You will be exploring widely from conventional to new media to spread the stories of the hundreds and thousands of volunteers that make the Indian-language Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects such great knowledge repositories.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Creating original stories of challenges and learning, and successes of Wikimedia community in general and the ones that we closely work with in particular.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Function as an interface between A2K team and the community, and help the team better work collaboratively with the community.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Sharing the work of the community and A2k team in a regular basis in the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter">monthly newsletters</a> and other places.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Providing training on effective communications to the communities in a need basis, and supporting them to independently tell their own stories in their own languages.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Announcement of programmatic activities in the form of announcements, blogs and reports, and microblogging (social media, etc.).</p>
</li></ul>
Interviewing Wikimedians under the ambit of the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikipediansSpeak">WikipediansSpeak</a> [1] project and beyond, and share the story of the Wikimedia community widely in the media</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Required skills</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9bb9064e-7fff-ba08-f8a2-3d4d779e6e33">
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Graduate with a strong track record of success in high performance organisations, preferably in non-profits.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Experience could be during studies or after, primarily in blogging, writing organisation reports, managing social media for organisations, interviewing and covering people’s stories in mainstream media.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Prior experience of working in a collaborative community, preferably and open one like Wikipedia and in online.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Good understanding of the basics of organisational programme design and management.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Strong understanding of the Internet and the forces that underpin the success of Wikipedia. Active participation as a Wikimedia volunteer would be an asset, though not a prerequisite (must be prepared to demonstrate knowledge of how Wikipedia works in interviews).</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Experience working in a global, multicultural and diverse team environment will be preferred.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Must be fluent in English and at least in one Indian language.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">A good understanding of the cultural and knowledge universe of the Indian language communities.</p>
</li></ul>
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-45253165-7fff-bdf9-3d8b-4cc318bfca7a">
<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-0a87bd67-7fff-8715-6bde-5b0c62406037">
<br />
<p dir="ltr">Location: The position is based out of the CIS’s Bangalore office.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Remuneration: Compensation structure will be determined by the level of expertise, experience and current remuneration.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr">To apply, please send your resume to Tito Dutta (tito+po2019@cis-india.org) by 4 June 2019. Please do not miss the +po2019 part in the email, that is an email filter for us)</p>
<div> </div>
</span></div>
</span></div>
</span></div>
</span></div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/cis-a2k-communication-officer-position'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/cis-a2k-communication-officer-position</a>
</p>
No publishertitoJobsAccess to Knowledge2019-06-04T06:45:28ZBlog EntryWikidata Advisor (Consultant) position open
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/wikidata-advisor-consultant-position-open
<b>The Access to Knowledge team of the Centre for Internet and Society is seeking applications for the position of Wikidata Advisor (consultant), to support its Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Programme.
</b>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;">The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is seeking applications from prospective candidates for the position of Wikidata Advisor, to support its Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Programme. </span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;">The position will be either based in CIS’ Bangalore office No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071, or the advisor may be remotely located (must be in India) also. </span></p>
<h2><span style="text-align: justify;">Position summary</span></h2>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;">As a Wikidata advisor you will </span><span style="text-align: justify;">work closely with the CIS-A2K Team on the work-plan to improve and support Wikidata community in India.</span></p>
<h2><span style="text-align: justify;">Characteristics of a Project Advisor</span></h2>
<div>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">High level of commitment: The person should believe in the values of CIS and Wikimedia projects, exude enthusiasm for the mission and can powerfully embody and communicate the mission.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Intellectual curiosity and flexibility: Must enjoy tackling difficult, ambiguous problems and able to incorporate new knowledge into how one approaches situations and generates solutions, loves learning from others while expanding intellectual horizons.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Open and transparent: Have a high level of integrity and be comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Strong cultural competency: Able to navigate in a global movement and on a global team in addition to navigating the complexity of India.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Willing to travel: The advisor must regularly travel within India to conduct and support Wikidata workshops and events. This also includes meetings with different institutions, and CIS team meetings.</p>
</li></ul>
</div>
<h2>
Responsibilities</h2>
<div>A Wikidata advisor's responsibility includes but not limited to:<br />
<ul><li>
Supporting Indic Wikidata communities in all possible wiki-ways such as helping in community-planned Wikidata activities, </li><li>
Conducting national-level/zonal workshops in India </li><li>Creating movement resources (such as handbooks, help videos, manuals) based on community needs-assessment </li><li>Sharing Wikidata's global best practices among Indian communities, </li><li>Wikidata India IRC conducting
</li></ul>
</div>
<h2> Eligibility criteria</h2>
<div>
<ul><li>The person must have knowledge about Wikidata project, Wikidata activities in India, different Wikimedia projects such as Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia etc</li><li>The person must have active involvement on Wikidata and experience</li><li>The person must have knowledge at least intermediate level knowledge about Sparql/query creation (required for workshops, and on-Wiki query support</li><li>The person must know about/have experience of working with tools like QuickStatement, Mix'n'Match, Tabernacle, OpenRefine and other important tools frequently used on Wikidata</li></ul>
</div>
<h3>Plus</h3>
<div>
<ul><li>prior experience of conducting Wikidata-related event (such as data-thon) will be considered a plus.</li><li>prior experience of working with database will be considered as a plus</li></ul>
</div>
<div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Location: The position is based out of the CIS’s Bangalore office or remote (applicant must be residing in India during the working period)</p>
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Remuneration</h2>
<div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Remuneration will be decided after selection. Expected monthly remuneration is around INR 32,000. As this is a consultant position, no other benefit is available</p>
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Apply</h2>
<div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">If you want to apply for this position, please send your CV and a letter to tito+wikidata2019@cis-india.org (do not miss +wikidata2019 part from the email id, it is a filter for us). </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Your letter/document should narrate your experience and works in details. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Please also write, what makes you interested to apply for the position, and some of your ideas to improve Wikidata projects in India. The last date apply for this position is 31 May 2019. Appointment will be based on expert opinion, and review.</p>
<div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/wikidata-advisor-consultant-position-open'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/wikidata-advisor-consultant-position-open</a>
</p>
No publishertitoJobsAccess to Knowledge2019-05-19T15:32:55ZBlog Entry