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"Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din" celebrations in Maharashtra
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-bhasha-gaurav-din-celebrations-in-maharashtra
<b>Marathi Language Day was recently commemorated across the state of Maharashtra to celebrate the Marathi language, its literature and culture.</b>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Last week, the state of Maharashtra commemorated <i>Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din</i>, a day to celebrate the Marathi language, its literature and culture. The celebrations mark the 105th birth anniversary of renowned Marathi poet and writer <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusumagraj">Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar</a> who wrote under the pen name Kusumagraj. Most notably, the Maharashtra state government issued a circular, appealing to all educational institutions and government offices to edit one paragraph on Marathi Wikipedia on 27th February(Marathi Language Day). Asmita Pote, a Marathi Wikipedian, believes that this “small step of writing one paragraph on Marathi Wikipedia will give those learning about Wikipedia for the first time, an opportunity to explore further and contribute”.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">There were Wikipedia awareness programs and cultural festivities organised across the state’s schools and colleges to mark the week long(27 February to 6 March) celebrations. The Gateway of India in Mumbai <a class="external-link" href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/gateway-lights-up-with-marathi-day-celebrations/story-UHVEiGFu89fehJF33x54gP.html">held a large-scale cultural program</a> with performances from leading Marathi singers, dancers and poets portraying their cultural heritage through their art. The state government promoted the celebrations on television channels, radio stations and newspapers with interviews of eminent Marathi achievers from different walks of life. These interviews can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&profile=images&search=One+para+on+Marathi+Wikipedia+statement+&fulltext=1&searchToken=a7cfxv89hs80rqmp261wo5unz">here</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">This year’s theme for Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din was ‘role of computer and internet in language’. The Minister for Education and Marathi Bhasha(among other portfolios), Mr. <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinod_Tawde">Vinod Tawde</a>, encouraged citizens to edit on Wikipedia and urged the citizens to <a class="external-link" href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/gateway-lights-up-with-marathi-day-celebrations/story-UHVEiGFu89fehJF33x54gP.html">use unicode</a> on their social media platforms to facilitate discussions in Marathi. Says Rahul Deshmukh, Marathi Wikipedia administrator, “this is the outcome of efforts channelled over two years. The government understood the need to take Wikipedia to the <i>aam aadmi</i>(common man) in Maharashtra in order to strengthen the language. The primary goal was to expose people to Wikipedia and raise awareness about Marathi Wikipedia.” In thanking the government officials who worked tirelessly for this initiative, he also appeals to other Indic language communities in India to see this as a role model. He believes that this initiative should be taken to other states and state governments as well.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The recent celebrations in Maharashtra have seen significant due to active government involvement. Priya Hiregange, a Marathi Wikipedian, says, “the government raised awareness not just in schools and colleges across the state but also in their own offices, giving training to government officials to write about their department or their organisation’s work on the free encyclopaedia.” The government circular appealing to citizens to edit on Wikipedia saw a great increase in the number of articles and editors. This goes to show that government involvement could immensely benefit the free knowledge movement in regional languages by creating awareness and exposure to these resources. It also sets a positive precedent for other state governments in India to emulate and promote their regional languages. Wikipedia is available in 23 Indic languages. A supportive government could go a long way to ensure the development of the free knowledge movement in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">If you would like to contact Mr. Rahul Deshmukh for guidance on such initiatives for your language, please drop him a line <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rahuldeshmukh101">here </a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-bhasha-gaurav-din-celebrations-in-maharashtra'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-bhasha-gaurav-din-celebrations-in-maharashtra</a>
</p>
No publishermanasa@cis-india.orgMarathi WikipediaCIS-A2KAccess to Knowledge2017-03-10T05:36:48ZBlog EntryMediaWiki Training 2017
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mediawiki-training-2017
<b>MediaWiki Training 2017 conducted in Bangalore</b>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-49ea8922-35ba-d138-1d53-ee5d0c03947a" dir="ltr">The third iteration of the MediaWiki Training was conducted on 24-26 February at Bangalore, India (the first and second iterations of MWT was conducted in 2015 and 2016). 16 participants from 9 Indic Wikimedia communities attended the workshop. The following graph shows the participation from different Indic Wikimedia communities.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/g4JRAFAIWKHBZiTb8X5uIKlsohrl9wRnyGLqUBQdXZINly4r_YicNP8R71Bt8QxUOuzCeL7DHc8_90NlpL1VZxb13afZwc6cSOw1WrFEbv7T5pObq4vymO5mUBF8zzv1sPa1REY" alt="chart1.png" height="371" width="600" /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Malayalam Wikimedian User:Viswaprabha attended the workshop as a resource person. On behalf of the Centre for Internet and Society, User:Titodutta and User:Ananth_subray were the resource persons.</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">== Sessions ==</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">On the first day, the following topics were discussed</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">=== First day: technical audit ===</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Introduction to MediaWiki Training: The first session of the day started with introducing the aims of objectives of MediaWiki Training 2017.</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Introduction to MediaWiki software and platform: Following this User:Titodutta and User:Viswaprabha discused the MediaWiki software, different extensions, LocalSettings.php and some other important configurations related to MediaWiki.</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Wikipedia technical audit: Wikipedia technical audit was the central theme of the day, and the phrase “Wikipedia technical audit” was coined by Rahul Desmukh of IIT Bombay. He suggested that once in a year a Wikimedia community should do its technical audit, when the community would solve issues like deadend pages, orphan pages, uncategorized pages, script errors, infobox errors, reference errors, and other errors and issues related to a Wikimedia project.</p>
<p dir="ltr">On the first day of the MWT workshop we discussed these issues and errors and how to solve these.</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">== Second day ==</p>
<p dir="ltr">On the second day of third iteration of MWT, we began with problems faced in different languages with respect to Templates and Imfoboxes. And continued with teaching how to create the basic info boxes. Each participant were thought how to add two digits in a single template and creation of LUA templates. Later we had thought them how to create a basic template by adding a label and data, and even localizing of some templates were also done.</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">After this use of Wikidata was thought and INfoboxes using wikidata.</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Post lunch some of the tools and their uses and applications were thought Copyvio, Duplication detector, Google books citation, Citation generator and Hay's tool directory</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">== Third day ==</p>
<p dir="ltr">On the third day of MWT 2017, the first session started with a session where User:Viswaprabha discussed Wikimedia Labs Quarry (<a href="https://quarry.wmflabs.org/">https://quarry.wmflabs.org/</a>)</p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">The major points of the session were:</p>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Introduction to Quarry.</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Importance of Quarry</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Coding simple quarry.</p>
</li></ul>
<p dir="ltr">User:Viswaprabha also showed how to integrate Google spreadsheet with Quarry. He showed a couple of examples where he had the most of it using the tricks.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mediawiki-training-2017'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mediawiki-training-2017</a>
</p>
No publisherTito Dutta and Ananth SubrayCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaMediawiki training (MWT)WikipediaOpenness2017-06-07T08:43:57ZBlog EntryWikiTungi: Bhubaneswar City Wiki Community Turns 1
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikitungi-bhubaneswar-city-wiki-community-turns-1
<b>The Odia Wikipedia’s WikiTungi is an attempt at building a community of Wikimedians at the city level.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span id="docs-internal-guid-7bfb0247-7d33-566f-91d8-e4047130feac">The </span><span>tungi</span><span>, named after an ancient practice in Odia that involves passing on knowledge of the scriptures, is a city based Wikipedia community that helps Wikimedians around the city to meet and learn from their shared experiences. The Tungi meetups and events are organised with the help of the volunteers.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><span id="docs-internal-guid-7bfb0247-7d33-b5e9-5c1e-17b27fccb38e">The Odia community's WikiTungi is based out of two cities, Puri and Bhubaneswar. While Wikimedians in Puri conduct meetups bi-monthly, Bhubaneswar Wikimedians meet once a month. In every meetup, Wikimedians exchange their resources with each other, helping address their doubts and queries regarding their problems and projects.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><span><span id="docs-internal-guid-7bfb0247-7d34-16e3-912c-aa6120f95cef">This February marks the first anniversary of the Bhubaneswar WikiTungi. The WikiTungi members from the city meet every second Sunday of the month. To commemorate the first anniversary of this novel effort, nine community members from the Bhubaneswar Tungi met for a celebratory dinner at a local restaurant on 9 February 2017 <span id="docs-internal-guid-7bfb0247-7d34-673d-162f-178a5fc58e14">and toasted to the dedication of the volunteers.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><span><span><span><span id="docs-internal-guid-7bfb0247-7d34-be27-1a02-5d78514ab1d1">The community discussed various ideas (listed below) and the ways in which they can be implemented in the regular WikiTungi meetups. Members of the community also showed their interest in organising the third edition of WikiConference India in Bhubaneswar to bring Wikipedia to more people across the state of Odisha. During the community meetup, Tungi members came up with few ideas to implement it as a best practice in the Wikipedia movement.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7bfb0247-7d34-f76a-dfb4-7a2b6a1e50da"><span>Some of them are listed here:</span></p>
<ul id="docs-internal-guid-7bfb0247-7d35-314a-ea43-3452ecb0710b">
<li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc; ">
<p dir="ltr"><span>The Tungi members will invite one of the global community leaders for a Skype or hangout session.</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc; ">
<p dir="ltr"><span> Discuss the best practice from the global community and discuss them with the community.</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc; ">
<p dir="ltr"><span>Updating the minutes of the meeting and sharing them with the other community members.</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc; ">
<p dir="ltr"><span>Updating the Learning and Evaluation team about the new learning of the community every month.</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc; ">
<p dir="ltr"><span>The community will also send postcards as a souvenirs to the participants of the global community for the online sessions.</span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikitungi-bhubaneswar-city-wiki-community-turns-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikitungi-bhubaneswar-city-wiki-community-turns-1</a>
</p>
No publishersaileshCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2017-02-27T01:42:11ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikisource & Digitisation Workshop
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikisource-digitisation-workshop
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia workshop was organized by the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) team on February 17 and 18, 2017. Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited and Jnana Prabhodini were the co-organizers. The discussions were held at Jnana Prabodhini, Sadashiv Peth, Pune on February 17 and C Trade Tower, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune on February 18, 2017.</b>
<h3>Objectives of the Workshop</h3>
<ol>
<li>To build awareness about the strengths of Marathi Wikisource as a knowledge reference resource</li>
<li>To connect active community in Marathi language area</li>
<li>Networking with organisations with manuscripts,old reference books and gazetteers</li>
<li>To develop liaison with libraries,museums,research institutes,social institutions and knowledge enterprises</li>
<li>To develop methodology for listing,selection and prioritisation of material</li>
<li>To acquire skills for digitisation, running OCR tools,uploading on archives and Wikisource</li>
</ol>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/MarathiWikisource1.jpg/@@images/f3ed8866-3f1a-4bf5-856c-4db312193277.jpeg" alt="Marathi Wikisource" class="image-inline" title="Marathi Wikisource" /></p>
<p><i>Madhav Gadgil speaking</i></p>
<h3>Background</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="text external" href="http://granthottejak.org/index.html" rel="nofollow">Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha (MGS)</a>,a pioneering organisation working for the preservation of Maharashtra’s linguistic and cultural heritage. It was founded in Pune, India in 1894. Being an important archive for the preservation of many hundreds of years old manuscripts and historical artifacts from the Peshwa era, the institution is open to public for study and research. In a noble initiative to celebrate 121st anniversary of MGS, Pune the board members have decided to re-license 1000 books to free license and to donate them to CIS-A2K in order to be digitised and uploaded on Marathi Wikisource project. These books are the single largest content donation made by an organisation in the history of Marathi Wikimedia projects. These books when digitised and uploaded will prove to valuable resources both for researchers and general readers. <a class="text external" href="http://www.mkcl.org/" rel="nofollow">MKCL (Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited)</a>, a reputed organisation is extending manpower support for the scanning of the books. Till date 2700 books are digitised and 900 books are uploaded on Internet Archive. Further process of uploading on Wikisource is to be started. With this view, it was decided to organise this workshop and include other libraries also, who wish to take up such project.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Organizations</h3>
<p>35 Representatives from following libraries and museums in Maharashtra attended session at Jnana Prabodhini.</p>
<ol>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://www.bori.ac.in/default.html" rel="nofollow">The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute</a>,Pune</li>
<li>Pradnya Pathashala Mandal,Wai</li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://www.dcpune.ac.in/" rel="nofollow">Deccan College</a>,Pune</li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://granthottejak.org/index.html" rel="nofollow">Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha (MGS)</a>,Pune</li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://www.jnanaprabodhini.org/" rel="nofollow">Jnana Prabodhini</a>,Pune</li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://www.kanawa.in/" rel="nofollow">Karveer Nagar Wachan Mandir</a>,Kolhapur</li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://www.dasbodha.org/index.php/about-us/vagdevta-mandir" rel="nofollow">Shri Samarth Vagdevata Mandir</a>,Dhule</li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://www.punenagarvachan.org/" rel="nofollow">Pune Nagar Vachan Mandir</a>,Pune</li>
<li><a class="text external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Itihas_Sanshodhak_Mandal">Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal</a>,Pune</li>
<li>Lokmanya Tilak Smarak Wachan Mandir, Chiplun</li>
<li>Vedshastra Vidya Sanwardhan Mandal,Karad</li>
<li>Rajwade Sanshodhan Mandal, Dhule</li>
<li>Sangli Nagar Wachanalay, Sangli</li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://vigyanashram.com/" rel="nofollow">Vigyan Ashram</a>,Pabal</li>
<li><a class="text external" href="http://www.tmv.edu.in/" rel="nofollow">Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth</a>,Pune</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<p>For more info see the originally published piece on <b><a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikisource_%26_Digitisation_Workshop_on_17-18th_February_2017">Wikimedia Blog</a></b></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikisource-digitisation-workshop'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikisource-digitisation-workshop</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhMarathi WikipediaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeMarathi Wikisource2017-03-05T02:34:58ZBlog EntryOrientation & Training session for Environmental Activists in Satara on 13th February 2017
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-training-session-for-environmental-activists-in-satara-on-13th-february-2017
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia Orientation & Training session for Environmental Activists was held in Satara on 13 February, 2017</b>
<p>As part of the ongoing CIS-A2K effort to work and collaborate with communities of interest, a Marathi Wikipedia orientation and training session was held in Satara on 13 February, 2017. The workshop trained environmental activists on basic Wikipedia editing skills. The participants were introduced to Wikipedia as a knowledge resource and were encouraged to contribute to Wiki projects. </p>
<p>The theme of the workshop was to build resources in the areas of biodiversity and environmental issues on Marathi Wikipedia. The participants were also given orientation regarding contribution to the villages project where they could edit articles about their villages and towns. The three-hour workshop held at Sukale Studio in Satara saw six participants collaboratively creating and editing two articles. The participants were also trained in "smart editing" on their smartphones. </p>
<p>The link to event page on meta can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Orientation_%26_Training_session_of_Environmental_Activists_in_Satara_on_13th_February_2017">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-training-session-for-environmental-activists-in-satara-on-13th-february-2017'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-training-session-for-environmental-activists-in-satara-on-13th-february-2017</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-04-16T14:43:25ZBlog EntryBargarh Manuscript Digitisation Project
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/bargarh-manuscript-digitisation-project
<b>The digitisation of temple manuscripts at the Dadhivamana Temple, Bargarh in Western Odisha followed by a workshop for the students of Imperial College took place between 11- 12 February, 2017.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-6a520b68-785b-1cce-b50f-f1af9415b19a"><a class="external-link" href="http://www.orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/orissareview/jun2004/englishpdf/workship.pdf">Shri Dadhivamana Temple</a>, also known as the Srikshetra(Puri) of Western Odisha is a 400-year-old temple in Bargarh, Odisha. The temple is among the most important religious sites in Western Odisha. The temple has a record room with 250 ancient palm leaf manuscripts in the Odia language, dating back to the 16th century. These palm leaf manuscripts tell the stories of the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Skanda Purana and the history of the temple itself.</span></p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-6a520b68-785b-46da-54af-2ef2d6886eab"></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Given the historical value of the temple, the temple administration and the Temple Trust have preserved the pothi(palm leaf manuscripts) with the help of various chemicals, including the indigenous usage of turmeric and camphor. The process of preservation of the manuscripts began a few years ago years with student volunteers from different colleges in Bhatli helping the temple administration by identifying and storing the manuscripts.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-6a520b68-785c-811b-7fd1-d636007720a6">Minati Sahoo, a well known social activist in Bargarh and a few other journalists explained the importance of manuscript digitisation to the temple administration and took permission for digitising the manuscripts in the month of March. One of the pandas (temple priests), Pandit Shri Goura Chandra Ratha, released his book, Jay Shree Dadhibamana, under the Creative Commons 4.0 license. A three-day long digitisation camp will be organised in Bhatli for introducing the students to Wikipedia and the process of digitisation. The manuscripts will be digitised simultaneously during the workshop. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-6a520b68-785d-0efd-44f2-0ab04c96fef2">An orientation program was organised at <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Imperial_College_Orientation_Program">Imperial College</a>, Bargarh for introducing the students of the college to the digitisation process as well as to introduce the pothi digitisation which they would be partaking in. With over 60 participants, the workshop not only explained the idea of the global Wikimedia movement to them, but also taught them how they could use the digitisation skill for the preservation of language. This digitisation project will bring different manuscripts into Odia Wikipedia, while also helping to raise awareness about digitisation of language in western Odisha. After scanning the manuscripts, the Odia Wikipedia community will take help of the students for uploading, digitising and proofreading the same.</span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/bargarh-manuscript-digitisation-project'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/bargarh-manuscript-digitisation-project</a>
</p>
No publisherSailesh PatnaikCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikipediaOpenness2017-04-16T20:08:04ZBlog EntryImperial College Orientation Program, Bargarh
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/imperial-college-orientation-program-bargarh
<b>An Odia Wikipedia workshop was conducted at Imperial College, Bargarh on 12 February, 2017.</b>
<p>An Odia Wikipedia orientation workshop was conducted at Imperial College, an affiliate of Sambalpur University, on 12 February 2017 for 60 undergraduate students of the College. The aim of the workshop was to introduce students to Odia Wikipedia while also giving them a broad overview of the global free knowledge movement. This workshop was conducted as part of CIS-A2K's ongoing efforts to expand the reach of Odia Wikipedia in Western Odisha in conjunction with the Odia Wikipedia community members. </p>
<p>The students were also introduced to the process of digitisation and how digitisation was fundamental to the preservation of language and local knowledge. The students also showed an interest in the digitisation sprint for the Dadhivamana Temple's Pothi digitisation project, an ongoing effort to digitise 250 ancient palm leaf manuscripts from the Dadhivamana Temple in Bargarh.</p>
<p><em>The meta page for this event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Imperial_College_Orientation_Program">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/imperial-college-orientation-program-bargarh'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/imperial-college-orientation-program-bargarh</a>
</p>
No publisherSailesh PatnaikCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikipediaOpenness2017-04-16T19:51:29ZBlog EntryOnly 8.5pc of Wikipedia Editors are Women. How do we fix the Gender Gap on the Internet?
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-ting-yi-chang-february-7-2017-only-8.5-percent-of-wikipedia-editors-are-women-how-do-we-fix-the-gender-gap-on-the-internet
<b>Women-related articles are generally shorter, more prone to deletion, and more likely to be peripheral pieces under male-centric articles.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was published by <a class="external-link" href="https://yourstory.com/2017/02/wikipedia-and-women/">Your Story</a> on February 7, 2017.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I was beginning an introduction session at a college in Vijayawada. While my audience (mostly female students) was giggling, I wrote down a simple question on the whiteboard:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><i>“I see more men than women in _____”</i></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The response was some more shy giggling until some students slowly raised their hands. “Sports!” “Technology companies!” “Conferences!” “In governments!” “…When I am in my class.” There is no denying that we all observe the underrepresentation of women at some points and occasions in our lives. However, it is much harder to imagine and notice that Wikipedia, the most used online encyclopaedia and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the 7<sup>th</sup> most visited website worldwide</a>, also poses a problematic imbalance in its content and editor demographics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-253705" height="400" src="https://d25medu75j19j3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Women-in-tecchnology-01.jpg" width="800" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2011<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Editor_Survey_Report_-_April_2011.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">, a survey</a> carried out by the Wikimedia Foundation found that only 8.5 percent of Wikipedia editors were female. Since then, the awareness has risen; many have found the editor demographic imbalance is a strong reflection of what the encyclopaedia does or does not cover, how the written language and discourse were constructed on the pages, and how discussion flows on article talk pages<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[1]</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For example, scholars discovered that women-related articles are generally shorter, more prone to deletion, and more likely to be peripheral pieces under male-centric articles. To elaborate, in the network structure of Wikipedia articles, women’s pages lack centrality as they often provide links and mention related male figures in their writing but not the other way around. A glass ceiling also exists for the notability criteria. The threshold for a woman to be “notable enough” (from the perspective of a male-dominant community) to deserve a Wikipedia page is higher than that of male figures. Thus, the lack of women editors and an already male-centric structure pose a threat not only to the diversity of content but also to the very definition of knowledge.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">But why?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For years, the foundation and local communities have tried to discover the reasons behind the gender gap and solutions to it. Former Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner posted on her <a href="https://suegardner.org/2011/02/19/nine-reasons-why-women-dont-edit-wikipedia-in-their-own-words/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">blog</a> nine reasons that are off-putting for women when they edit Wikipedia.</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The non-beginner-friendly editing interface</li>
<li>Lack of personal free time</li>
<li>Lack of confidence and self-efficacy</li>
<li>Unwillingness to stir up or participate in conflicts and edit wars</li>
<li>Feeling that their edits are “too likely to be reverted or deleted”</li>
<li>Misogynistic environment</li>
<li>“Wikipedia culture is sexual”</li>
<li>Being addressed as male in languages that have grammatical gender</li>
<li>Wikipedia is not as socialising or as welcoming as other websites</li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In India and other parts of the world, various reasons can also contribute to the problem. Awareness, for example, is the first barrier to be tackled. Many women did not know that Wikipedia is editable or that there are Indian language versions that they can contribute to. Internet access and facilities are a couple more reasons. In case someone does not have a personal computer, a woman is usually more cautious and skeptical when using a public internet café and staying out late. Similarly, families of young women editors can be more concerned about their daughters’ participation in men-organised/male-dominant communities, especially when there are offline (on-site) activities. The roots of the issue are not merely at the community level, but also sociopolitical and cultural.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Many events and initiatives have been carried out from local to global community levels. ‘Women in Red (WiR)’, for example, is a global initiative to bring more women-related articles online. It encourages editors to turn ‘red links’ (non-existing pages) into ‘blue links’ (existing Wikipedia page). The project has helped increase female biographies from 15 percent (November 2014) of total biographies on English Wikipedia to 16.75 percent (November 2016)<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[2]</a>. In March, Wikipedia communities around the globe also celebrate ‘Women’s History Month’, when edit-a-thons (marathons for Wikipedia editing) are held to help create more women’s articles online as well as to recruit more female volunteers and spread awareness. However, is this enough?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-253704" height="401" src="https://d25medu75j19j3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Women-in-tecchnology-02.jpg" width="801" /></p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">“A new debate: what matters?”</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As we are raising more awareness, integrating gender gap issues into the community’s strategy plans and coming up with more intervention ideas to reach more potential women editors, it is time to revisit the meaning behind the work. In my early research time, I was to believe that ‘retention rate’ (whether female participants will stay active after an event), ‘number of articles created’, and the ‘event continuation potentials’ are the key factors in determining whether an event can be called successful. But the ideas have slowly changed as I have got to reach more female participants.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As a matter of fact, Wikipedia is about voluntary contribution and negotiating for consensus in quality knowledge creation as well as maintaining a friendly and open environment for all. In other words, we can ‘nudge’ people into Wikipedia editing but we should not (and need not to) ‘push’ them to do it. Especially in the situation of a wide gender gap, we should not make women feel like they are tokenised in the process — that we are targeting them due to their gender and that they should contribute more because they are female, the minority. When asked about the existing problems in the current gender gap interventions, an active Wikipedian once explained to me:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Say if you are writing the biography of someone then you should be familiar with and interested in that person’s work. That’s why sometimes those gender-specific edit workshops backfire... If you are creating a bio just because this person is a woman, then I think it is missing the whole point of Wikipedia.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In my opinion and through discussions with several female Wikipedians, I have realised that there should be a new debate and investigation on how intervention goals should be set and what these actions’ long-term results would be. While focusing on the retention rate of a new Wikipedian after an intervention, we limit ourselves in the frame of time and numbers. We should, instead, understand more about new members’ experiences and feedback to pinpoint the good motivations and expected barriers for them. With this information, we should help establish the motivation in event follow-ups and to minimise their barriers as much as the community can. Secondly, article quality should be stressed upon —even if it takes more time to publish her/his first article, it is a much more fruitful learning experience to understand the responsibility of a Wikipedian. After all, low-quality articles not only do not contribute to Wikipedia content but also lead to more deletion, which can be a discouraging experience for those who are new.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For event continuation, we should guide the participants to community engagement and support them to carry out more event ideas that can suit their interests and goals. In short, it is about creating involvement, discussion, and a sense of community instead of continuously pushing events on our end and have the women be passive participants. When asked about how one can define a “successful gender gap-bridging event,” one of the active organisers told me:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“For me, it is when conversations are happening. It is when we have both men and women, and that we can openly have a discussion about the issue and the difficulties and how we want to see changes.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To put it simply, I believe that we should look at experiences more than numbers, focus on quality more than quantity, and try to reach people (both men and women) to stimulate discussion more than being fixated on the contents needed to balance out the asymmetry.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">How to fix the Wikipedia gender gap is never an easy question to ask, but what I am sure about is that Wikipedia and its communities should be empowering rather than result-oriented and that our learning still has a long way to go.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[1]</a> A “talk page” is attached to each Wikipedia article (found on the top-left corner of an article), where editors can hold discussions and debates or leave comments during the editing process.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[2]</a> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-ting-yi-chang-february-7-2017-only-8.5-percent-of-wikipedia-editors-are-women-how-do-we-fix-the-gender-gap-on-the-internet'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-ting-yi-chang-february-7-2017-only-8.5-percent-of-wikipedia-editors-are-women-how-do-we-fix-the-gender-gap-on-the-internet</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderWikipediaWikimedia2017-02-09T02:49:47ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-february-5-2017-in-pune
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia edit-a-thon was conducted by the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) on February 5, 2017 at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal in Pune.</b>
<table class="plain">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/MarathiWikiEdit1.jpg/@@images/393ec2b7-9f7f-43f8-9238-017398315503.jpeg" alt="Marathi Wikipedia in Pune" class="image-inline" title="Marathi Wikipedia in Pune" /></th><th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/MarathiWikiEdit2.jpg/@@images/d1f42734-721b-479d-b452-fa867a0f3269.jpeg" alt="Marathi Wikipedia in Pune" class="image-inline" title="Marathi Wikipedia in Pune" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; "><i>Discussion on themes</i></td>
<td style="text-align: center; "><i>Hand holding</i></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K aims to build resources in the field of appropriate rural technologies on Marathi Wikipedia and encourage the participants to contribute and enrich Marathi language on Wikipedia. The workshop besides encouraging participants to develop village articles also focused on:</p>
<ul>
<li>Introducing Wikipedia as an encyclopaedia for research.</li>
<li>Promoting Marathi Wikipedia community and use of Marathi on Wikipedia.</li>
<li>Open interactions within the editors, new as well as old.</li>
<li>Spreading awareness of Wikipedia as a power digital tool of knowledge.</li>
<li>Developing articles on gender and environment related issues.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The workshop was highly interactive and participants were able to discuss specific problems in content creation and seek appropriate guidance from the trainer conducting the edit-a-thon. Seven articles were created at the workshop:</p>
<ul>
<li>विकिपीडिया:मराठी विकिपीडिया संपादन कार्यशाळा - विज्ञान आश्रम,पाबळ <a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/306z">https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/306z</a></li>
<li>विज्ञान आश्रम <a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/307h">https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/307h</a></li>
<li>पाबळ <a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/300s">https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/300s</a></li>
<li>कन्हेरसर <a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/306p">https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/306p</a></li>
<li>केंदूर <a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/3070">https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/3070</a></li>
<li>भैरवनाथ मंदिर, पाबळ <a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/3078">https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/3078</a></li>
<li>श्री पद्ममानी जैन कॉलेज पाबळ <a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/307w">https://mr.wikipedia.org/s/307w</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For more info see the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Edit-a-thon_at_Vigyan_Ashram,Pabal,Dist.Pune_on_5th_February_2017">Wikimedia Blog</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-february-5-2017-in-pune'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-february-5-2017-in-pune</a>
</p>
No publishersubodhMarathi WikipediaCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeMarathi Wikisource2017-03-05T01:31:31ZBlog Entry"Free-license Wings To Your Books" in Vijayawada
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-license-wings-to-your-books-in-vijayawada
<b>"Free-license Wings To Your Books" event held at Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada </b>
<p>Over the course of the last one year, CIS-A2K, with the help
of Telugu Wikipedia community members, has been regularly conducting re-licensing
events, scan-a-thons and digitization activities in and
around Guntur and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh in order to raise awareness about free licensing books and content. Notable among these are the
series of digitization and proofreading sprints conducted at Andhra Loyola
College. The "Free-license Wings To Your Books" held on 8 February, 2017 was a culmination
of these series of events in Vijayawada. </p>
<p> This event aimed to raise awareness about free-licensing in Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada. The awareness session was followed by community felicitations to writers Kanuri Badarinadh, Fr. Poodota
Jojayya and Fr. Job Sudarsan who have released some their content into CC-BY-SA. Fr. Job Sudarsan announced at the event that all his works shall be re-licensed into CC-BY-SA. Later, certificates were distributed to student Wikipedians who contributed to the digitization of 3,500 pages in Wikisource by participating in the digitization
sprint that took place at the event. Notable attendees at the event were Mandali Buddha Prasad, Deputy Speaker of
Andhra Pradesh, Samala Ramesh Babu, Editor, Nadustunna Charitra and Fr. G.A.P. Kishore,
Principal, Andhra Loyola. </p>
<p>The link to event page on meta can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/2017/Free_Licenses-Wings_to_your_books_event_in_Vijayawada">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-license-wings-to-your-books-in-vijayawada'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-license-wings-to-your-books-in-vijayawada</a>
</p>
No publisherPavan SanthoshCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu WikipediaOpenness2017-04-16T10:38:22ZBlog EntryGoogle-translated Telugu articles prioritisation exercise: February iteration
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/google-translated-telugu-articles-prioritisation-exercise-february-iteration
<b>The February iteration of the Google-translated Telugu articles prioritisation exercise took place online.
</b>
<p> </p>
<p>The Google-translated Telugu articles prioritization is an online exercise intended to prioritize and improve over 1,900 machine-translated articles on Telugu Wikipedia. This project was initiated in 2009 when Google translation project took place on Telugu Wikipedia in several rounds. Jointly organised by the Telugu Wikipedia community and CIS-A2K, this exercise saw the participation of 2 Wikipedians. </p>
<p> 47 out of 116 articles have been prioritised for further improvement. Says Telugu Wikipedian <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Meena_gayathri.s">User:Meena gayathri.s</a>, "I improved Machine translated articles earlier and my major problem is
whether my contribution is being channelled properly or not. I always
used to think if we can have a list of articles that separates articles
that needed to be improved from that of deleted; it will help a lot in
this heavy task. This exercise is helping in the same aspect and that is
why I'm contributing to this in every iteration."</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/google-translated-telugu-articles-prioritisation-exercise-february-iteration'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/google-translated-telugu-articles-prioritisation-exercise-february-iteration</a>
</p>
No publisherPavan SanthoshCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu WikipediaOpenness2017-04-18T05:02:13ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at 'Swa'-Roopwardhinee, Pune
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-swa-roopwardhinee-pune
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon was held at 'Swa'-Roopwardhinee, Pune on 7th February 2017</b>
<p> A Marathi Wikipedia edit-a-thon conducted by CIS-A2K in partnership with 'Swa'-Roopwardhinee, an organisation working in the field of education and social work was held on 7 February, 2017. The aim of the workshop was to train participants from 'Swa'-Roopwardhinee on the basics of Wikipedia editing. The theme of the edit-a-thon was to build resources on education and community development on Marathi Wikipedia. Six participants took part in the three hour workshop conducted at the 'Swa'-Roopwardhinee premises. </p>
<p>This edit-a-thon is part of CIS-A2K's ongoing effort to engage communities of interest to partner and collaborate on contributing to Wikipedia so as to utilize their domain knowledge on the free encyclopaedia. Five articles were created and edited by participants. </p>
<p><em>The link to event page on meta can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Edit-a-thon_at_%27Swa%27-Roopwardhinee,_Pune_on_7th_February_2017">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-swa-roopwardhinee-pune'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-swa-roopwardhinee-pune</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-04-16T14:31:46ZBlog Entry"Free-license Wings To Your Books" in Guntur
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-license-wings-to-your-books-in-guntur
<b>"Free-license Wings To Your Books" event held at Annamayya Library, Guntur</b>
<p>The "Free-license Wings To Your Books" (<em>"Pustakaniki Rekkalu Swecha Nakalu Hakkulu"</em> in Telugu) event, an event aimed to bring more books and content onto Telugu Wikisource was conducted by CIS-A2K with support from Annamayya Library, Guntur on 5 February, 2017. The event was primarily intended to raise awareness about free-licensing among Telugu writers and involve them in content donation on Telugu Wikisource. Telugu Wikipedia community member, User:Nrgullapalli commented on the aptness of the event saying, "this is the right event in present situation." </p>
<p>As part of the event, Writer Bhusurapalli Venkateswarlu, who had previously released his book into CC-BY-SA license and writer Peddi Sambashivarao, who supported content donation drive by encouraging fellow writers, were felicitated. The first ever Telugu book released in print directly under CC-BY-SA license - Kodihalli Murali Mohan's "Andhra Sahityamulo Biruda Namamulu" was launched at the event. CIS-A2K Community Advocate Pavan Santhosh conducted a session on the importance of free-licenses as a better alternative in current Telugu publications. The writers engaged in a discussion on the same topic. However, the event lacked female participation.</p>
<p>The link to event page on meta can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/2017/Free_Licenses-Wings_to_your_books_event_in_Guntur">here</a>.</p>
<div> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-license-wings-to-your-books-in-guntur'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-license-wings-to-your-books-in-guntur</a>
</p>
No publisherPavan SanthoshTelugu WikisourceCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu WikipediaOpenness2017-04-16T10:53:51ZBlog EntryOdia Wikipedia Workshop in IIMC, Dhenkanal
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikipedia-workshop-in-iimc-dhenkanal
<b>An Odia Wikipedia Workshop was conducted at IIMC, Dhenkanal on 31 January, 2017</b>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-47782ce9-7a39-f103-835e-e62b1ba4da4b"></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Since 2013, the Odia Wikipedia community has collaborated with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal for enabling students of the institution to partake in and contribute to the Wikimedia movement. An Odia Wikipedia workshop was conducted for the students of the institution on 31 January, 2017. The students were given an orientation on the basics of editing Wikipedia on the web and on their smart phones in addition to an explanation of Wikipedia policies, history of Wikipedia and Wiki News.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The 45 English and Odia language students with a male: female ratio of 60: 40, who took part were given a live demonstration of these topics. Along with the help of supportive faculty members, the students were exposed to Commons and Incubator as well. Overall, the event saw the creation of 20 new editors on Odia Wikipedia. A follow-up workshop is also being planned for the students in the coming months.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikipedia-workshop-in-iimc-dhenkanal'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikipedia-workshop-in-iimc-dhenkanal</a>
</p>
No publisherSailesh PatnaikCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikipediaOpenness2017-04-17T06:31:41ZBlog EntryOdia Wikipedia and Orientation Training Programme
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/odia-wikipedia-and-orientation-training-programme
<b>An Odia Wikipedia orientation and training programme is being organized by the Centre for Internet & Society's (CIS-A2K) team on 31 January 2017 at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal in Odisha. </b>
<h3>Agenda</h3>
<ul>
<li>Bringing new editors on board.</li>
<li>Orientation programme for students of IIMC.</li>
<li>Finding possible partnership with the institute.</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/odia-wikipedia-and-orientation-training-programme'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/odia-wikipedia-and-orientation-training-programme</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaEventAccess to Knowledge2017-01-23T00:58:38ZEvent