The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 61 to 75.
Marathi Wikipedia workshop for Sandarbh Science magazine writers
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-for-sandarbh-science-magazine-writers
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia workshop was recently conducted for the writers at Sandarbh Science magazine.
</b>
<p>On 18 November, a introductory Wikimedia workshop was conducted for the writers at Sandarbh Science magazine.</p>
<p>Sandarbh Society is a registered society and public trust established with the main objective of publication on science and education. They also conduct lectures, demonstrations, workshops and other such activities in addition to networking of school teachers interested in bringing in innovative approaches in education.</p>
<p>The workshop was aimed at introducing Wikimedia projects and creating/editing Wikipedia articles to the writers. Participants were completely unaware about Marathi Wikipedia and editing. They were trained in basic editing skills and search for the concerned articles, categorisation and translation from other language wikipedias. Participants worked on articles and made edits. Images were also added to Commons and into articles. 59 articles were edited. 11 participants took part in the event.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-for-sandarbh-science-magazine-writers'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-for-sandarbh-science-magazine-writers</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-12-19T15:53:30ZBlog EntryGender Equality in the Workplace
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/gender-equality-in-the-workplace
<b>The workshop was conducted by Samvada at the Centre for Internet & Society's office in Bengaluru on November 15, 2017. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Why is it important for a workshop on sexual harassment to address the larger question of gender equality in the workplace? And how does an understanding of equality help prevent and address sexual harassment?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At this moment in time, we are witnessing an unprecedented “outing” of incidents of sexual harassment and the men who are responsible for them. The worlds of filmmaking and academia are reverberating with discussions on the nature of the workplace and what women have had to suffer in silence because of the ways in which power is distributed between genders.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Now more than ever it’s important for us to understand what sexual harassment is, the structures that support it, the experiences that surround it, and ways of addressing it within our workplaces, so that we don’t lose ourselves in the following: a) a flattened and ahistorical idea of how power functions within our daily work; b) polarisations between men and women that denies all dialogue and self-reflection; and c) purely legalistic ideas on what harassment is and how to deal with it. The 1-day workshop will do the following:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Encourage the staff of CIS to understand how power functions in relationships within the organisation</li>
<li>Offer historical, social and legal understandings of sexual harassment at the workplace</li>
<li>Set up participatory discussion on the experiences of both men and women within the workplace</li>
<li>Help carve out a way forward in both prevention and redressal of SH</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The sessions will take the form of participatory discussions and activities, that will draw on the experiences, opinions and histories of the CIS staff.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Anita Ratnam</b> is the Founder and Executive Director of Samvada (Bangalore), an organisation that has been working with youth on issues of social justice and sustainability since 1990. The organisation runs 6 Youth Resource Centres/Yuva Samvada Kendras in different parts of Karnataka, and also established Baduku Community College in Bangalore in 2007, as an effort to build alternative livelihoods for youth. She is also Co-founder and Partner at Anekataa, an organisation that works on gender diversity at the corporate workplace. In the last 30 years she has written and taught on a range of issues related to youth rights, gender justice, crafts and traditional occupations, communalism and pluralism, and sustainable development. Her publications include “Traditional occupations in a modern world: Career Guidance, Livelihood Planning, and Crafts in the Context of Globalization”, in <i>Handbook of Career Development: International Perpsectives</i> (eds. Gideon Arulmani, Anuradha J Bakshi, Frederick TL Leong and AG Watts) and a host of media publications on issues ranging from garment industries, caste and development, the ban on night shift work for women, sex education, racism and rape, and gender and religion. She has also contributed to and helped shape the emergence of many organisations that work on human rights-related issues in Karnataka and elsewhere in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Nitya Vasudevan</b> is currently working at Baduku Community College (Samvada) as Convener of Centre for Wellness and Justice. She also co-coordinates the project on “Strengthening Gender and Sexuality Education” (AJWS) within Samvada, and conducts workshops with students on gender, marriage, relationships and sexuality. Her publications include “The State of Desire and other flights of fantasy: Sexuality, Pornography, Technology”, in Law Like Love: Queer Perspectives on Law (co-authored with Namita Aavriti, eds. Arvind Narrain and Alok Gupta), “’Public Women’ and the ‘Obscene’ Body: An Exploration of Abolition Debates in India”, in <i>The Sexual History of the Global South: Sexual Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America</i> (eds Saskia Wieringa and Horacio Sivori), “Between Ooru, Area and Pettai: The Terms of the Local in Tamil Cinema of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century”, in the journal <i>Positions</i> (Rice University, upcoming issue); and a set of columns for <i>TimeOut Bengaluru</i>. She is also a co-organiser of the Bangalore Queer Film Festival along with a team of eight others who work on the festival simply out of a mad love for good cinema, performance and art.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Together, both have coordinate and conducted (along with other Samvada staff) a series of workshops at all the offices of Greenpeace India International, on “Gender Sensitivity and Diversity at the Workplace” (2016).</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/gender-equality-in-the-workplace'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/gender-equality-in-the-workplace</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminWikimediaWikipediaEventAccess to Knowledge2017-11-26T03:12:49ZEventCIS-A2K signs MoU with Telangana Government
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-signs-mou-with-telangana-government
<b></b>
<p dir="ltr">The Centre for Internet and Society recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Telangana Government’s IT, Electronics & Communications Department with an aim to catalyse the development of the Wikimedia movement in Telangana and improve the state of free-licensed digital content in Telugu and Urdu. The Principal Secretary for IT Department Mr. Jayesh Ranjan and renowned Telugu Wikimedian and Theatre Scholar Pranay Raj were present for the occasion. Mr. Konatham Dileep, Director (Digital Media), IT Department and CIS-A2K Telugu Community Advocate Pavan Santhosh were signatories to the memorandum.</p>
<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-801e8a60-9b00-aac7-b438-5d1cba7d92ef"><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">This MoU is the result of successive meetings between the Digital Media wing and Telugu Wikipedians, CIS-A2K members and the Wikimedia Foundation. These discussions enabled all stakeholders to come up with a comprehensive plan to develop the free knowledge movement in Telugu and Urdu.</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Katta Srinivas, a historian, teach and long time Telugu Wikipedian, says, “As one of the participants in earlier discussions with the government, I am happy to see progress in this respect. Especially, [the planned] photo archives of museums, photos of historical places and other events can be free-licensed as part of these initiatives. This decision can lead other government organizations to take up similar initiatives in India."</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Apart from these, some of the planned activities include releasing encyclopedic photos and media content from government archives, increasing awareness about free licenses and Wikipedia among government officials, etc.</p>
<p><br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-signs-mou-with-telangana-government'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-signs-mou-with-telangana-government</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoTelugu WikisourceCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu WikipediaOpenness2017-11-08T10:08:20ZBlog EntryIndian Women Bureaucrats: Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/feminism-in-india-fii-team-november-1-2017-indian-women-bureaucrats-wikipedia-edit-a-thon
<b>We are all aware of the large reach and popularity of Wikipedia. However, what most people don’t know is that, according to a study conducted in 2011, globally only 9% of the editors on Wikipedia were women. And the percentage for India is even lower, just 3%.</b>
<p>This was <a class="external-link" href="https://feminisminindia.com/2017/11/01/indian-women-bureaucrats-wikipedia-edit-thon/">published by Feminism in India</a> on November 1, 2017.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipedia recognises the <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Systemic_bias">systemic gender bias</a></b> that is created because of factors such as these and thus enables its diverse range of users to edit and create Wikipedia pages, with reliable and authentic sources.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>Feminism in India</i> conducts monthly Wikipedia edit-a-thons with different organisations exploring various facets of gender in India, thus increasing content on women and marginalized communities on Wikipedia as well as training women to create and edit Wikipedia pages and hence increasing the number of women editors.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/66cpYmcaFYI" width="560"></iframe></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For October, we collaborated with <i>The Centre for Internet and Society</i> and co-hosted one on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/190586108155151/" rel="noopener"><b>Indian Women Bureaucrats </b></a>at CIS’s Delhi office. The edit-a-thon was aimed at creating/editing Wikipedia pages of Indian women bureaucrats who lack representation on the platform currently.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The CIS team prepared a list of women bureaucrats a week before the edit-a-thon, while most of the names did not have a page on Wikipedia, some had pages with very basic and limited information (stub pages). We used online resources for references.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We were a group of 4 participants in total. The event began with a discussion on Wikipedia and its gender gap and on the whys and hows of Wikipedia editing for new-comers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After that, each participant chose one or more Indian woman bureaucrat absent from Wikipedia, and started digging through the internet looking for interviews, news reports and e-books to write comprehensive Wikipedia articles on them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">By the end of the day, the participants edited a total of 8 Wikipedia pages in English.</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Rajam_Malhotra" rel="noopener"><b>Anna Rajam George</b></a>: Japleen</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Prithika_Yashini" rel="noopener"><b>K. Prithika Yashini</b></a>: Japleen</li>
<li><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Singhal" rel="noopener">Ira Singhal</a></b>: Tanya Kapoor</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supriya_Sahu" rel="noopener"><b>Supriya Sahu</b></a>: Tanya Kapoor</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isha_Basant_Joshi" rel="noopener"><b>Isha Basant Joshi</b></a>: Tanisha Kapoor</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._Sivakami" rel="noopener"><b>Sivakami P</b></a>: Tanisha Kapoor</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanchan_Chaudhary_Bhattacharya" rel="noopener"><b>Kanchan Choudhary Bhattacharya</b></a>: Shinjinee</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakuntala_Gamlin" rel="noopener"><b>Shakuntala Gamlin</b></a>: Shinjinee</li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Participants’ testimonies on their first experience of editing on Wikipedia:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Shinjinee</b>: Attending the Wikipedia Edit-a-thon was a great learning experience. I learned how to create and edit a Wikipedia page, so now I will be able to contribute towards bridging the gender gap that is there in the pages dedicated to important personalities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Tanya</b>: The Editathon was interesting. I did not know how to edit Wikipedia pages. It was for the first time that I was attending an Editathon organised by <i>Feminism in India</i>.<br /> I learned new things about Wikipedia i.e. how to use citations, and insert paragraphs and links, etc. Overall, my experience was amazing. And will surely attend such editathons in future.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Tanisha</b>: It was the first time that I participated in a Wikipedia editathon event. I am very grateful that I got this opportunity. I never knew that anybody can edit a Wikipedia page. Also, I learnt a lot of new things. I got to know how to create Wikipedia pages, what things one should keep in mind while editing a page. The coordinator was also very helpful. It was fun working with the members of FII. Will surely attend such events in future. It was a wonderful experience.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/feminism-in-india-fii-team-november-1-2017-indian-women-bureaucrats-wikipedia-edit-a-thon'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/feminism-in-india-fii-team-november-1-2017-indian-women-bureaucrats-wikipedia-edit-a-thon</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminWikimediaWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2017-11-08T02:03:45ZNews ItemDiscussion on Creation of Social Media Guidelines & Strategy for Telugu Wikimedia
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discussion-on-creation-of-social-media-guidelines-strategy-for-telugu-wikimedia
<b>Between 1 to 16 September, an online discussion took place on the creation of social media guidelines and strategy for Telugu Wikimedia handles online.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>An online discussion of guidelines and policies for the various Telugu Wikimedia social media handles was conducted. User:Pavan santhosh.s suggested a set of strategies and guidelines that can be taken into consideration for an official Social Media Policy of Telugu Wikimedia Projects. These suggestions included defining objectives, guidelines (with do's and don'ts) and strategies for the Social Media Policy. User:Ravichandra supported the idea and suggested another objective(showcasing best quality works of Wikipedia). User:Viswanadh added some strategies (such as writing a series of posts about technical aspects that help Wikipedians). User:Pranayraj1985 suggested some don'ts in handling Wikipedia pages as well as handles while User:Rajasekhar1961 expanded the strategy to other sister projects(Telugu Wikisource and Wiktionary). Finally, User:Chaduvari suggested not to name any page as official to avoid possible conflicts. User:Swaralasika announced consensus and User:Pavan santhosh.s created a page based on the discussion in order for the community to reflect.</p>
<p>User:Pranayraj1985 said, "there are pages & groups for Telugu Wikipedia in Facebook for years. We are using them as major social media promotion channels. I(Pranay) am publishing content related to Telugu Wikipedia in those channels. Some of the community members also been admins of page and group. But once or twice, in Facebook page and group, unrelated posts were published and I informed this to Wikimedians active on Facebook and removed those posts. I am glad that this discussion happened and community came up with guidelines and strategy now. This is very much needed. </p>
<p>The guideline page can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B0%B5%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%95%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%AA%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%A1%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%AF%E0%B0%BE:%E0%B0%A4%E0%B1%86%E0%B0%B2%E0%B1%81%E0%B0%97%E0%B1%81_%E0%B0%B5%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%95%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%AA%E0%B1%80%E0%B0%A1%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%AF%E0%B0%BE_%E0%B0%B8%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%AE%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%9C%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%95_%E0%B0%B5%E0%B1%87%E0%B0%A6%E0%B0%BF%E0%B0%95%E0%B0%B2_%E0%B0%AE%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%B0%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%97%E0%B0%A6%E0%B0%B0%E0%B1%8D%E0%B0%B6%E0%B0%95%E0%B0%BE%E0%B0%B2%E0%B1%81">here</a>.</p>
<p>Although the event was successful in creating guidelines, none of the input included women's voices as there were no female participants. Here's hoping there is a diversity of voices in future discussions.</p>
<p><em>With input from Pavan Santhosh S., Telugu Community Advocate, CIS-A2K.</em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discussion-on-creation-of-social-media-guidelines-strategy-for-telugu-wikimedia'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discussion-on-creation-of-social-media-guidelines-strategy-for-telugu-wikimedia</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaTelugu WikipediaOpenness2017-10-24T14:42:24ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Workshop at Solapur University
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-solapur-university
<b>15 September</b>
<p> </p>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia Workshop was held at the Department of Mass Communications at Solapur University. The workshop aimed to introduce Wikimedia and its sister projects to the students. The workshop comprised 25 participants with 10 female attendees.</p>
<p>Sharing their thoughts after the event, the participants were enthuse. Says Priyanka Lagshetti, "I never imagined that I can contribute to Wikipedia. I worked on various media related articles." Another participant, Ambadas Bhasake added, "This workshop showed us a innovative way to use internet productively and constructively" </p>
<p>While 19 new editors joined Wikipedia, participants worked on 60 articles and made around 90 edits. 15 images were added to Commons and into articles.</p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Workshop_at_Department_of_Mass_Communication,Solapur_University,Solapur,Maharashtra,India">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-solapur-university'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-solapur-university</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-10-24T14:09:24ZBlog EntryOrientation Program at Kannada University, Hampi
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-program-at-kannada-university-hampi
<b>A Kannada Wikipedia Orientation Program was conducted at Kannada University Hampi on 31 August and 1 September 2017.</b>
<p>A Kannada Wikipedia orientation program was conducted at the Kannada University in Hampi recently wherein the participants where introduced to the various Wikimedia projects in Kannada. The participants were doctoral research students of the Dravida Samskruti Adhyayana Kendra of which 5 were male and 1 female.</p>
<p>Working on Wiktionary, the students added 3300 words to their sandboxes, which will be moved to the main space on Wiktionary.</p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Kannada_University_Hampi_Orientation_Program">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-program-at-kannada-university-hampi'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-program-at-kannada-university-hampi</a>
</p>
No publisherGopalakrishna A.CIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOpennessKannada Wikipedia2017-10-24T13:01:25ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Workshop at MGM Trust's College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Aurangabad
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-mgm-trusts-college-of-journalism-and-mass-communication-aurangabad
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia Workshop was recently held at the MGM Trust's College of Journalism and Mass Communication on 11 August 2017.</b>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia workshop was recently conducted at the MGM Trust's College of Journalism and Mass Communication at Aurangabad. The workshop aimed to introduced Marathi Wikipedia to the students of the college and equip them with the process of editing the same. The workshop was attended by 10 female participants and 15 male participants. </p>
<p>"It was happiest moment for me, when I created new article on Pashmi, [a] species of dog. I added [an] image also." says Shivani Joshi a participant at the workshop. While 21 new editors were introduced to Wikipedia, 60 articles were improved and 15 images added. Another participant, Randhir Patil who added content on water-related articles says, "This content can be used as training material by field workers.</p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Workshop_at_MGM_Trust%27s_College_of_Journalism_and_Mass_Communication,_Aurangabad,_Maharashtra,_India">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-mgm-trusts-college-of-journalism-and-mass-communication-aurangabad'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-at-mgm-trusts-college-of-journalism-and-mass-communication-aurangabad</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-10-24T13:18:41ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal, Satara
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-dalit-mahila-vikas-mandal-satara
<b></b>
<p>A Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon was conducted at the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal in Satara on 4 August 2017. The organisation, working on issues of women's rights, gender, justice and violence against women, was given an introduction to editing on Wikipedia. Voluntary organisation Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal is eager to implement innovative projects for the students and field activists. It has decided to integrate Wikimedia Projects and training modules for capacity building of students and movement volunteers. To get the overall introduction of Wikimedia Projects and basic skills, this workshop was organised for faculty and selected students. The edit-a-thon was attended by 10 female and 5 male participants. </p>
<p>Sana Patel, a participant emphasises, "I realised the need to contribute gender related content. It is very important to write about women's issues and laws'. The edit-a-thon resulted in 13 new editors discovering Wikipedia for the first time. 20 articles were improved and five images were uploaded. A follow-up workshop on building content on women-related issues has been planned with the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal as well as other like-minded organisations in Satara. Onkar Tapase, a participant opines, "as a journalist, I see a great potential to contribute" </p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_Edit-a-thon_at_Muktangan_Naw_Vichar_Prerana_Kendra,Satara">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-dalit-mahila-vikas-mandal-satara'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-dalit-mahila-vikas-mandal-satara</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaWorkshopMarathi Wikisource2017-10-24T11:52:24ZBlog EntryWikimedia Workshop at Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College, Satara
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-workshop-at-ismailsaheb-mulla-law-college-satara
<b>A Wikimedia Workshop was on 4 August 2017 at the Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College in Satara to introduce the Wikipedia and its sister projects to the students.</b>
<p>A Wikimedia Workshop was conducted at the the Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College in Satara. The workshop provided an introduction to students on the various Wikimedia projects. The workshop also aimed to equip them with Wikipedia editing skills. However, owing to time constraints the editing component has been postponed. </p>
<p>The workshop saw at an attendance of 30 participants, with 20 women participants. The Principal of the institution, Ms. Sunita Pawar said, "Wikipedia is good platform for students to do online assignments. We are eager to integrate it in academics." A discussion on integrating academic assignments with Wikimedia Projects was conducted to develop the basic theme and concepts. </p>
<p>The meta page of the event can be found <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Workshop_on_Wikimedia_Projects_at_Ismailsaheb_Mulla_Law_College,_Satara">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-workshop-at-ismailsaheb-mulla-law-college-satara'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-workshop-at-ismailsaheb-mulla-law-college-satara</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaMarathi Wikisource2017-10-24T11:52:19ZBlog EntryOdia Wikisource Turns 3
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikisource-turns-3
<b></b>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Odia Wikisource, the Odia language version of Wikisource, an online digital library of free content textual sources run by the Wikimedia Foundation, celebrates three years of contributing to the free knowledge movement this October. Odia Wikisource is a sister project of Odia Wikipedia, the oldest Indian language Wikipedia. The Odia Wikimedia community, a group of active contributors to Odia Wikimedia projects in India, has been working towards digitizing rare books that are no longer under copyright as well as encouraging authors and publishers to free-license their work under the Creative Commons ShareAlike License 4.0. This license allows anyone free use of the work with due attribution. The books are usually digitized into Unicode text by scanning them using Optical Character Recognition technique. This ensures their easy accessibility on the Internet so that people may easily copy, share and use these works for citations and references. If the books are damaged to a degree that they cannot be scanned, volunteers take the painstaking effort to manually type out whole books and manuscripts.</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/baANy4HReecc9oOEVq2mtASuq-rbV7c24rH0qhk4vmurHt18vQPDs7Krvb9iGSgGTyGCycw5W1B2FD94zVDga2ZU9oahqvPIyqL56aOxZM1jfncrjPBwVQuOupm1XgOCHlKHCQA" alt="Odia_Wikisource_2_-_group_picture.jpg" height="355" width="602" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"> Odia Wikisource contributors/ CCBYSA4.0 User:Psubhashish</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">The Odia Wikisource project was realized on 20 October, 2014 after a two-year incubation period. Says Pankajmala Sarangi, long time Odia Wikimedian active on Wikisource, "since [2014] more than 300 old and rare books have been digitised and made available online. Before that, searching [for] a book in Odia was not possible even if it existed in pdf or some other format. Now it has become easy and all the books available on Wikisouce are easily searchable." In addition to digitization, the Odia Wikimedia community members conduct regular quality checks of the content from time to time by ensuring proper licensing, attributions and other errors that may be avoided by thorough proof-reading. While these quality checks follow global guidelines that have been localised to help volunteers prevent vandalism of any form, it has not been without its challenges. Ms. Pankajmala explains that the lack of Odia text on operating systems is problematic for access and availability. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Despite the challenges, Odia Wikisource counts amongst its accomplishments the digitization of a twelve volume 14th century Odia classic as well as 16th century palm leaf manuscripts from the Dadhibaman Temple in Bargarh, Odisha. Taking the movement to classrooms, Odia Wikisource was introduced to students of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences to pique the interest of young minds in the preservation of Odia language texts online. The many advantages of Odia Wikisource has also been illustrated to institutions with the Utkal University library encouraging the digitization of their rare books and manuscripts by Odia Wikimedians.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Sangram Keshari Senapati, another active Odia Wikimedian explains that Odia Wikisource is important for the preservation of those books which run a high risk of being lost in the coming years. He says, "our future generation must get a chance to read them." Adding to this, Ms. Pankajmala says, "Sky is the limit for Odia wikisource. We will try to digitise more books, most probably triple the number of existing books. We'll even try to reach more libraries and authors and get more books and further digitize them. The number of wikimedians may also flourish till that time."</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikisource-turns-3'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikisource-turns-3</a>
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No publishermanasaraoCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikisourceOdia WikipediaWikisource2017-10-23T05:40:20ZBlog EntryOnline bid for Science in Marathi
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/pune-mirror-october-18-2017-aparajita-vidyarthi-online-bid-for-science-in-marathi
<b>Pune scientists hold a workshop with Marathi Vishwakosh to thrash out how to provide more vocabulary for scientific discourse in the language, to cater to a vast majority that is not comfortable looking up info in English.</b>
<p>The article by Aparajita Vidyarthi was <a class="external-link" href="http://punemirror.indiatimes.com/pune/civic/online-bid-for-science-in-marathi/articleshow/61122823.cms">published in Pune Mirror</a> on October 18, 2017.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">City scientists have teamed up with the makers of the Marathi Vishwakosh and other organisations to promote the usage of the Marathi language for scientific discourse. Most of the scientific material available on the internet is in English. Thus, readers who wish to read this material in Marathi have fewer options. A workshop for the scientific scholars and authors was organised last week to urge them to write in Marathi. It was a joint effort by the Marathi Vishwakosh, Rawat’s Nature Academy, Centre for Internet Society and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mahtigar, the system operator of the Marathi Wikipedia, shared, “The number of scientists and scholars writing in Marathi has increased manifold, but there is still a long way to go as the number of Marathi readers are also increasing by the day. Also, I feel that even though the internet is a ready search tool, information is not that easy to avail of for the simple reason that it is not available in a layman’s language. For instance, if a person from the rural areas wishes to read and get information about the crops or agriculture, not much information is available in the language of his preference.”<br /> <br /> He continued, “I still feel that initially, a bit of leniency to use technical words in English while writing scientific articles in Marathi should be given, since it will be easier to understand the material. Eventually, we can move on to using the technical Marathi words in articles.” It is being expected that by 2021, the number of Marathi readers of scientific journals will see a prominent incline. According to the KPMG and Google report, 80 per cent people in India will be using Indian languages to get information off the internet. Also, by 2021, around five crore of the Marathi population would prefer to operate the internet in Marathi only. Thus, efforts should be made to provide the material in the language.<br /> <br /> Subodh Kulkarni, Marathi advocate from the Centre for Internet and Society, told <i>Mirror</i>,“The field of science is continuously expanding and evolving; the language has to do the same to stay on a par with it. Thus, continuous efforts have to be made to keep updating the dictionary and thesaurus of local languages. Supporting this cause, prominent scientist Jayant Narlikar among others has agreed to put his book on astrophysics on Wiki Source without copyrights. The book has been written in Marathi.” It has often been debated that usage of the internet is more in urban areas compared to villages. Surprisingly, on the contrary, the rural areas use the internet for 530 minutes per week, whereas city dwellers use only around 487 minutes per week.<br /> <br /> Underscoring the immediate need for scientific content in Marathi, Pradip Rawat, director of Rawat’s Nature Academy, stressed, “Out of 12 crore Marathi speakers, only around 50,000 know English. What about the rest? Scant information is available for Marathi readers. Even though the fisherman and labourers have access to the internet via the smartphone, they can’t really decipher the information owing to the language barrier. The Marathi encyclopedia will now be linked to the Marathi Wikipedia, so that more and more information is available for the people. I think it is a watershed moment. During the workshop, we also discussed about a comparative chart of where the other Indian languages stand. We have to strengthen Marathi on the internet. This way we will be able to approach the commonest person of the country.”</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/pune-mirror-october-18-2017-aparajita-vidyarthi-online-bid-for-science-in-marathi'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/pune-mirror-october-18-2017-aparajita-vidyarthi-online-bid-for-science-in-marathi</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminWikimediaWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2017-10-18T13:32:23ZNews ItemMarathi Wikipedia - Vishwakosh Workshop for Science writers in IUCAA, Pune
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune
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<p>A day-long workshop was organised for science writers at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-University_Centre_for_Astronomy_and_Astrophysics Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics], Pune on 7 October, 2017. Eminent astrophysicist-mathematician couple
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<a class="link-wiki-add" title="Click to add a new page" href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune/@@wickedadd?Title=en:Jayant Narlikar|Jayant&section=text">
en:Jayant Narlikar|Jayant<sup>[+]</sup></a>
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and
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<a class="link-wiki-add" title="Click to add a new page" href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune/@@wickedadd?Title=en:Mangala Narlikar|Mangala Narlikar&section=text">
en:Mangala Narlikar|Mangala Narlikar<sup>[+]</sup></a>
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, and renowned ecologist
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<a class="link-wiki-add" title="Click to add a new page" href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune/@@wickedadd?Title=en:Madhav Gadgil|Madhav Gadgil&section=text">
en:Madhav Gadgil|Madhav Gadgil<sup>[+]</sup></a>
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were among the dignitaries present at the event.</p>
<p>The workshop was planned in three sessions. Presentations and discussions were conducted in first session, while second session was focused on actual editing demonstrations on Wikipedia. In the same session the new websites based on different subjects developed by Marathi Vishwakosh were presented. The process of content contribution in text, images, audio and video forms was explained in this session. The third session was to explore networking with Dyanmandals formed by
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<a class="link-wiki-add" title="Click to add a new page" href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune/@@wickedadd?Title=:en:Marathi Vishwakosh|Marathi Vishwakosh Nirmiti Mandal&section=text">
:en:Marathi Vishwakosh|Marathi Vishwakosh Nirmiti Mandal<sup>[+]</sup></a>
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. Insisting the expertise of invited authors to contribute the articles in their own chosen fields in a well-structured format, this session will not only train the authors in content generation but also make them understand the expectations of laymen and common readers.</p>
<p>The mete page of the event is <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marathi_Wikipedia_-_Vishwakosh_Workshop_for_Science_writers_in_IUCAA,_Pune">here</a>.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-vishwakosh-workshop-for-science-writers-in-iucaa-pune</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-12-20T02:42:39ZBlog EntryGuest Blog: Retd. Col. Ashwin Baindur on Strategy, Wikimedia Strategy Salon, Vijayawada
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guest-blog-retd-col-ashwin-baindur-on-strategy-wikimedia-strategy-salon-vijayawada
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<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a7485abf-4d48-578c-481d-9b1e9e1305a3"><em>User:AshLin aka Col Ashwin Baindur (retd) gave a Plenary Speech(in absentia) on Strategy at the Wikimedia Movement Strategy Salon, held in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh on 27 August 2017. It is reproduced here with permission:</em></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests and my dear Wikimedia friends and colleagues,</p>
<p dir="ltr"> I am deeply honoured to be asked to say the opening words for the Movement Strategy Salon being held today at Vijayawada. The problems of ill health prevent me from coming to be with you as I most dearly wish, but I do hope my few words and thoughts will make do instead. Let me introduce myself. I happen to be a retired army officer but I see myself as a citizen of the world, as a Wikipedian whose cherished dream is to make Jimmy Wales dream come true.</p>
<p>“Imagine a world where the sum of all knowledge is available to all mankind!”</p>
<p dir="ltr"> The occasion for this conclave or salon is timely. The twenty first century paradigm of Open Culture, of sharing and collective intelligence are well established. Crowdsourcing, Wikipedia, Creative Commons, Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and so many other important global resources are proof.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Education has received a huge fillip by the vastly increased amounts of data and knowledge on the Internet. Open sourcing has made its mark in the software side of the business world. Just as has open access publishing in Academia. Society as a whole has gained by all these manifestations of open culture.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> And today, we are gathered here to begin thinking on the directions for the future of the Wikimedia movement in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> What does this mean in our case? India is a country of many languages, dialects, people, communities, religions, tribes. Along with this are the collective efforts of 1.3 billion people to make a secular, democratic, economically strong nation. The ability to share learning, understanding, experiences are key to this process. And for this, collaboration is a vital necessity.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> As of now the Wikimedia effort in India consists of a potpourri of projects, encyclopedia, quote, text repository and the use of Wikimedia Commons as a media repository. We have to grow this into a large, useful and versatile resource in each of our Indic languages.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> The Wikimedians, a small band of volunteers to date, must take along the entire society of India so that we have betterment as a nation by first creating and using these resources. And today’s conclave with kindred souls from society, academia, industry.. is a beginning in this regard.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Now we are here to think what directions this Movement must take. I am envious that I can’t be part of this process with you. However, as a retired military person, let me say a few words on strategy and how it is decided.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> All planning occurs at three levels. The most basic of activities to be done are referred to as tactics. Tactics are governed by operational planning which comprises of a worked out plan of how to achieve the overall plan or the goal.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> The deciding of this overall plan or goal is referred to as strategy.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> To be more specific..</p>
<p dir="ltr"> “a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty..”</p>
<p dir="ltr"> And when we do this for a long period of the future, it is more appropriately termed as ‘grand strategy".</p>
<p dir="ltr"> For this we have to ponder - What is our aim? What are our strengths? What are our challenges? What are our opportunities? What are our resources and what are our constraints? What path should we take to achieve our aim?</p>
<p dir="ltr"> These are to be reduced into a few directions which are broad based, actionable and full of potential. A good strategy must open huge opportunities, new fields, new possibilities.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> The is not easy to do or quick to make. It will take more than one session, more than one day, week or even a month to get our strategy right.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Most important of all is that we learn to think in the new paradigm of sharing and open culture. We should leave behind the mindset of scarcity, possessiveness and personal benefit and embrace the values of the common good, creation of opportunities and innovation.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> On our success in making a good strategy, depends the fate of millions of our children and youth who will either benefit from our decisions or lose opportunities if we are not wise and generous. We have to believe in the future. We have to want to make that future great for our nation.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> I wish you the very best in this endeavour. I repeat, that I am envious that I can't be with you today. I pray that the things we decide from today onward in this process of grand strategy for the Wikimedia movement in the decades to come.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> At the very end, I would like to thank the Wikimedia movement in India, CIS-India, the organisers of this salon and of course, my young friend Krishna Chaitanya Velaga for this opportunity.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Jai Hind!</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guest-blog-retd-col-ashwin-baindur-on-strategy-wikimedia-strategy-salon-vijayawada'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guest-blog-retd-col-ashwin-baindur-on-strategy-wikimedia-strategy-salon-vijayawada</a>
</p>
No publishermanasaraoWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipediaAccess to Knowledge2017-10-24T11:52:49ZBlog EntryMarathi Wikipedia Workshop in Sangli, Maharashtra
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-in-sangli-maharashtra
<b>A Marathi Wikipedia workshop was recently held in Sangli, Maharashtra</b>
<p>An introductory Marathi Wikipedia workshop was recently held at CSIBER Trust's V.P. Institute of Management Studies and Research, Sangli, Maharashtra. The workshop aimed to introduce Wikipedia and its sister projects to the participants. </p>
<p>In an effort to implement innovative projects for the students, in March 2017, the institution decided to integrate Wikimedia Projects and academic assignments for capacity building of students and faculty. The implementation started with the <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-on-environment-management">Wikipedia edit-a-thon on Environment Management</a> at CSIBER Institute in Kolhapur on 30th March. The Institute in Sangli has also adopted the concept for this academic year. This workshop was organised for faculty and selected students who were taught basic editing skills on Wikipedia, searching for the concerned articles, categorisation and translation from other language wikis. Another focus of the workshop was to integrate academic assignments with Wikimedia projects.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-in-sangli-maharashtra'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-workshop-in-sangli-maharashtra</a>
</p>
No publisherSubodh KulkarniCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaMarathi WikipediaOpenness2017-08-16T08:40:58ZBlog Entry