Centre for Internet and Society

ଓଡ଼ିଅା ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର

subha — 2014-05-06T06:50:02Z

This article was published in Odia magazine "The Kadambini". It covers a brief history of the book digitization initiatives in Odia language, problems with access available content in ISCII standard, scope of Unicode content and Open Access, Odia Wikipedia's further use for public and contribution.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kadambini-april-8-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-odia-language-and-development-in-digital-era

Vachana Sanchaya: Bringing Access to 11th century Kannada Literature

subha — 2014-04-08T01:48:18Z

The blog post throws light on providing access to Vachana Sanchaya, a eleventh century Kannada literature.

The article was published in Open Access Week on April 3, 2014.

During early 11th century a form of spiritual Kannada language poetry in the Indian state of Karnataka called Vachana sahitya became quite popular. It started flourishing in the 12th century by a religious movement called Lingayatha movement. More than 259 Vachana writers, called Vachanakaru, compiled over 11,000 vachanas (verses). 21,000 of these verses in 15 volumes were published by the Government of Karnataka into an online portal called Samagra Vachana Samputa. Two Wikimedians along with two linguists brought these verses on a standalone project called Vachana Sanchaya. Kannada Wikimedians, Pavithra Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash HI along with Kannada linguist O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy converted the font to Unicode to make the verses searchable on this project. The entire collection is now ready to enrich the Kannada WikiSource.

The text in Samagra Vachana Samputa were typed using fonts of ISCII, an Indian character encoding standard. Indic characters generally replace Latin ones inside the font that makes them completely useless when someone does not have the particular font installed in the computer. This is a typical problem with non-Latin fonts, especially Indic typefaces. In case of this particular publication, there were more than 5 ISCII standards which made searching and reusing content completely impossible. Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash started writing scripts to make the Vachanas searchable through an index. This demanded a user friendly platform for the linguistic researchers, students, and the public interested in accessing this literature.

Omshivaprakash worked on designing the architecture for this platform using open source software tools. Hanchagaiah was involved in providing critical hacks for digitization and valuable inputs through suggestions, feedback, and quality assurance.

At present, Vachana Sanchaya project has around 200,000 unique words that were derived from these verses. The public has been using the repository and accessing vachana from Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ profiles. There are thousands of people now who read a Vahana as part of their daily routine. Vachana Sanchaya is not only a gateway for reading the literature, but also a research platform for Kannada language and literature. It has options for researchers to help in reviewing content which in turn will help to add references from research papers.

All of the content is currently available to the public through the OpenData API, and once the reviewing the work is complete, it will be distributed in the public domain through WikiSource. This will open up the system for students, developers, researchers, and anyone interested in building linguistic tools for Kannada and other Indic languages. Users will be able to use our code to digitize any book available in the public domain. Early literature in any language is well-respected, so making it available via an open platform allows for reuse of the content for research, publication, and other documentation work.

Other similar projects could take help from this project and use any part of the processes.

Plans going foward:

To initiate Natural Language Processing (NLP) projects if more researches help to tag words and grow the glossary.
To continue work on subsequent, similar projects for Sarvagnana Vachanagalu and Dāsa Sanchaya (work has begun) and Vyāsa and Muddann (work to be started)
To extend this platform to other the contemporary literature works available in the public domain.

Authored by Pavithra Hanchagaiah, Omshivaprakash HI and Subhashish Panigrahi. Draws inspiration from another article published on Opensource.com under CC-BY-SA 4.0

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/openaccessweek-april-3-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-vachana-sanchaya

୭୯ ବର୍ଷରେ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଓଡ଼ିଶା: ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଏହାର ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର

subha — 2014-05-06T05:18:21Z

This article was published in online Odia magazine "The Amalekha". It covers a brief history of the book digitization initiates in Odia language, problems with access available content in ISCII standard, scope of Unicode content and Open Access, Odia Wikipedia's further use for public and contribution.

ଓଡ଼ିଶା ହେଉଛି ଭାରତର ପ୍ରଥମ ରାଜ୍ୟ ଯାହା ସ୍ୱାଧୀନ ଭାରତରେ ଭାଷା ଭିତ୍ତିରେ ପ୍ରଥମ ରାଜ୍ୟ ହେଲା । ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା, ଯାହାକୁ ଭିତ୍ତି କରି ଓଡ଼ିଶା ଏକ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ରାଜ୍ୟ ହେଲା ତାହା ନିକଟ ଅତୀତରେ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ମାନ୍ୟତା ଲାଭ କରିଛି ନିଜର ୨୦୦୦ ବର୍ଷରୁ ଅଧିକ ବର୍ଷର ଗୌରବଜ୍ଜଳ ଇତିହାସକୁ ଜଗତ ସମ୍ମୁଖରେ ଉନ୍ମୋଚିତ କରି । ତେବେ ଏ ମାନ୍ୟତା ଏକ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ମୂଳ ବାସିନ୍ଦାଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ କେବଳ ଗୋଟିଏ ବିଶେଷ ସୁଯୋଗ ଆଣିଦିଏ-ତାହା ହେଲା ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ନିମନ୍ତେ କେନ୍ଦ୍ର ସରକାରଙ୍କର ୫୦୦ କୋଟିର ଅନୁଦାନ ଯାହା ଭାଷାର ନାନାଦି ସାଧନ ନିର୍ମାଣରେ ସାହାଯ୍ୟ କରେ । ତେବେ ଏକ ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶରେ କେଉଁ କେଉଁ ସାଧନ ଗୁରୁତ୍ତ୍ୱପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭୂମିକା ନିଭାଏ ତାହା ଜାଣିବା ନିତାନ୍ତ ଜରୁରୀ । ଜଗତର ପ୍ରଥମ ପାଞ୍ଚଟି ସବୁଠାରୁ ଅଧିକ କ‌ଥିତ ଭାଷା: ମାଣ୍ଡାରିନ (ଚାଇନିଜ ଭାଷାଗୋଷ୍ଠୀ), ଇଂରାଜୀ, ହିନ୍ଦୁସ୍ଥାନୀ (ହିନ୍ଦୀ, ଉର୍ଦ୍ଦୁ ଆଦି ଭାଷାସମୂହ), ସ୍ପାନିସ ଓ ରୁସିଆନ‌ ଭାଷାମାନ‌ଙ୍କ ସ‌ହ ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ତୁଳନା କଲେ ଆମ ସାମନାରେ ଅନେକ ଅନାଲୋଚିତ ତ‌ଥ୍ୟ ଉନ୍ମୁକ୍ତ ହେବ । ଉପରଲିଖିତ ପାଞ୍ଚୋଟିଯାକ ଭାଷା ଭିତରୁ କେଉଁଟି ବି ମୂଳ ଭାଷା ନୁହେଁ, ଅର୍ଥାତ, ଏ ସବୁଯାକ ଭାଷା ଏକ ମୂଳ ଭାଷାରୁ ବାହାରି ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷା ଦ୍ୱାରା ପ୍ରଭାବିତ ହୋଇ ଏକ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଭାଷା ରୂପେ ଆଧୁନିକ ଦୁନିଆରେ ଜଣାଶୁଣା । ଏମାନଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ସବୁଠାରୁ ପୁରାତନ ଭାଷା ମାଣ୍ଡାରିନ ଭାଷାସମୂହର ମୂଳ ତ‌ତ୍କାଳୀନ କଳିଙ୍ଗ ବା ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଉଚ୍ଚାରଣରେ "କ୍ଳିଙ୍ଗ" ଭାଷାର ଢାଞ୍ଚାରେ ନିର୍ମିତ ଯାହା ପ୍ରମାଣିତ କରେ ଆମ ସାଧବ ପୁଅମାନେ ଦୂରଦେଶକୁ କେବଳ ଆମର ପାଟଲୁଗା ଆଉ ମସଲା ନେଇଯାଇ ନଥିଲେ, ଆମର ଭାଷା, ଚଳଣି, ଧର୍ମର ଅନେକ ଧାରା ଦକ୍ଷିଣ-ପୂର୍ବ ଏସିଆକୁ ନେଇଯାଇଥିଲେ । ତେବେ ଅନେକ ଐତିହାସିକ ତ‌ଥ୍ୟ ଅଭିଲେଖର ଅଭାବରେ ପ୍ରମାଣିତ ହୋଇନ‌ପାରି ଇତିହାସ ଆଢ଼ୁଆଳରେ ରହିଯାଇଛି । ଓଡ଼ିଆକୁ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଭାଷା ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇଁ ବରିଷ୍ଠ ଭାଷାବିଦ ପଦ୍ମଶ୍ରୀ ଦେବୀପ୍ରସନ୍ନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକଙ୍କ ନେତୃତ୍ୱରେ ଯେଉଁ କମିଟି ଗଢ଼ାଯାଇଥିଲା ସେଥିରେ ପ୍ରମାଣସ୍ୱରୂପ କେତେକ ଅଭିଲେଖର ଉପସ୍ଥାପନା କରାଯାଇଛି । କିନ୍ତୁ ଖାରବେଳଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ଖୋଦିତ ଖଣ୍ଡଗିରିର ହାତୀଗୁମ୍ଫା ଶିଳାଲେଖକୁ ବାଦ‌ଦେଲେ ଆଉ କିଛି ପୁରୁଣା ଲେଖ ମିଳିପାରିଲା ନାହିଁ । ତେବେ ଭାଷାଟିଏ ଜଣାଶୁଣା ହେବା ପାଇଁ ଯେ ଏହା ପୁରାତନ ହେବା ଜରୁରୀ ନୁହେଁ ତାହା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସ‌ହିତ ପୃଥିବୀର ୫ଟି ଭାଷାକୁ ତୁଳନା କଲେ ସ୍ପଷ୍ଟ ଜଣାପଡ଼େ । ତେବେ କିଭଳି ଭାବେ ଭାଷା ବିଶ୍ୱସାରା ବ୍ୟାପେ, ଏହା ଚିନ୍ତା କରିବାର ବେଳ ଆସିଛି ।

ଭାଷାଟିଏ ସମୃଦ୍ଧ ହୁଏ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରରୁ । ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷା ସାଧାରଣ ଜୀବନ ସ‌ହ ଯେତେ ଅଙ୍ଗାଙ୍ଗୀ ଭାବେ ଜଡ଼ିତ ସେ ଭାଷା ସେତେ ଅଧିକ ପ୍ରବ‌ହ‌ମାନ । ଭାଷା ବ୍ୟାପେ ଲିଖନ ଓ ପଠନରୁ । ଜଗତର ସମସ୍ତ ଜଣାଶୁଣା ଭାଷାର ସାହିତ୍ୟ କେବଳ ସେହି ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ସୀମିତ ନ‌ଥାଏ, ତାହା ଅନୁଦିତ ହୋଇ ବିଶ୍ୱସାହିତ୍ୟ ସମାଜରେ ପଠିତ ହୁଏ । ସରଳ ଭାଷାରେ କ‌ହିଲେ ଯେତେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସାହିତ୍ୟ, ଓଡ଼ିଶାର କ‌ଥା ବିଶ୍ୱର ବାକି ଭାଷାମାନଙ୍କରେ ଲିଖିତ ହେବ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରରେ ସେତେ ପ୍ରସିଦ୍ଧି ଲାଭ କରିବ । ଭାଷାର ନିଅଁ ଦମ୍ଭିଲା ହୁଏ ସରକାରୀ ପ୍ରୋତ୍ସାହ‌ନରୁ । ଯେଉଁ ସମୟରେ ପଶ୍ଚିମ‌ବଙ୍ଗରେ ସରକାରୀଭାବେ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଶିକ୍ଷା, ଇଂରାଜୀରେ ସରକାରୀ ନ‌ଥିପ‌ତ୍ରରେ କାମ କରିବା ଉପରେ ଜୋର ଦିଆଯାଉଥିଲା ସେହି ଏକା ସମୟରେ ବଙ୍ଗଳାଦେଶରେ ବଙ୍ଗଳା ଭାଷାକୁ ସରକାରୀ କଳରେ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ କରି, ଶିକ୍ଷାଦୀକ୍ଷାର ମାଧ୍ୟମ କରିବା କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ ଚାଲିଥିଲା । ଏହି ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନରେ ପ୍ରାଣବଳି ଦେଇଥିଲେ ଅନେକ ଭାଷା ପ୍ରେମୀ ଯାହାଙ୍କ ସ୍ମୃତିରେ ଇଉନେସ୍କୋ ଫେବ୍ରୁଆରି ୧୫କୁ ଅନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀୟ ମାତୃଭାଷା ଦିବସ ଭାବେ ପାଳନ କରେ । ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷା ଯେତେ ସ‌ହଜରେ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖରେ ପ‌ହ‌ଞ୍ଚିପାରେ ସେ ଭାଷା ସେତେ ଅଧିକ ପଠିତ ହୁଏ । ଏ ତିନୋଟି ମୁଖ୍ୟ ପଦଃକ୍ଷେପ ଭିତରୁ ଜଣେ ସାଧାରଣ ପାଠକ ଓ ଲେଖକର ହାତରେ ପ୍ରଥମ ଓ ତୃତୀୟଟି ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବେ ର‌ହିଛି । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଅଧିକ ବ‌ହିପ‌ତ୍ର ପଢ଼ିବା, ତାହାକୁ ଅନ୍ୟଭାଷାରେ ଅନୁବାଦ କରିବା, ନିଜ ଅଞ୍ଚଳର, ଗୋଷ୍ଠୀର ଅନେକ ନିଆରା ପରମ୍ପରା, ଲୋକସାହିତ୍ୟକୁ ବିଶ୍ୱର ବାକି ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖି ଜ୍ଞାନର ବିତରଣ କରିବା ଦ୍ୱାରା ଅନେକ ଅନାଲୋଚିତ ବିଷୟବସ୍ତୁ ଉପରେ ପାଠକର ଆଗ୍ରହ ବଢ଼େ । ଏହା ପରୋକ୍ଷରେ ସାହିତ୍ୟ, ଭାଷା, ପରମ୍ପରା ଓ ପର୍ଯ୍ୟଟନର ବିକାଶର ପ‌ଥ ପ୍ରସାରଣ କରେ । ଭାବନ୍ତୁ, ଯଦି ଭାଷାଟିଏକୁ ଛିଡ଼ା କରାଇବା ପାଇଁ ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ କରୁଥିବା ଯୁବଗୋଷ୍ଠୀଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ଇଂରାଜୀରେ ବଙ୍ଗର ଜନ‌ଜୀବନ ଉପରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ରବୀନ୍ଦ୍ରନାଥଟିଏ ବାହାରି ନ‌ଥାନ୍ତା ତାହେଲେ ଆଜି ବଙ୍ଗଳା ଭାଷା ବିଶ୍ୱର ସ‌ପ୍ତମ କ‌ଥିତ ଭାଷା ଭାବେ ପରିଗଣିତ ହୋଇଥାନ୍ତା କି?

ପୁରୁଣା ବ‌ହିର ଅଭିଲେଖ:

୧୮୧୧ ରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ୧୯୫୦ ମସିହା ମଧ୍ୟରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଅନେକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବ‌ହି ପୁରୁଣା କାଗଜ, ରକ୍ଷଣାବେକ୍ଷଣା ଅଭାବରୁ ନଷ୍ଟ ହେଇଯାଉଥିବା ଲକ୍ଷ କରି ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରର ସୃଜନିକା ଦ୍ୱାରା ସେସବୁ ବ‌ହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ସଂସ୍କରଣ ତିଆରି କାମ କିଛି ବର୍ଷ ତଳେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇଥିଲା । ଏଯାବତ ପାଖାପାଖି ୭୪୦ ଖଣ୍ଡ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବ‌ହି, ପ‌ତ୍ରପ‌ତ୍ରିକା ଆଦି ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂପରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଯାହା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ଇତିହାସରେ ଏଯାବତ ସର୍ବାଧିକ । ନ୍ୟାସନାଲ ଇନଷ୍ଟିଚ୍ୟୁଟ ଅଫ ଟେକନେଲୋଜି (NIT), ରାଉରକେଲା ସ‌ହ‌ଯୋଗରେ ସୃଜନିକା ବ‌ହିସବୁକୁ ସ୍କାନ କରି ପରେ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀମାନଙ୍କ ସ‌ହାୟତାରେ ପିଡ଼ିଏଫ ଫର୍ମାଟରେ ଏହି ବ‌ହି ଓ ପାଣ୍ଡୁଲିପି ଆଦିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ଅଭିଲେଖ ତିଆରି କରିଛନ୍ତି । ଅଧୁନା oaob.nitrkl.ac.in ରେ ୨୪୦ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବ‌ହି ଡାଉନଲୋଡ଼ ପାଇଁ ଖୋଲାରେ ବିତରଣ ହେଉଥିବା ବେଳେ ବାକି ବ‌ହି ସୃଜନିକା ଦ୍ୱାରା ସିଡ଼ି/ଡିଭିଡ଼ି/ପେନ‌ଡ୍ରାଇଭରେ ମିଳୁଛି । ଏହି ବ‌ହି ଭିତରେ ରହିଛି ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ଭାଷାକୋଷ, ୧୮୧୧ରୁ ୧୯୪୨ ଭିତରେ ସଂକଳିତ ପାଖାପାଖି ୨୬ ଗୋଟି ଅଭିଧାନ, ୧୮୫୦ରୁ ୧୯୫୦ ଭିତରର ୧୦୦ ବର୍ଷରେ ଛପାଯାଇଥିବା ଅନେକ ବିଜ୍ଞାନ, ସାହିତ୍ୟ, ଇତିହାସ ଓ ଗବେଷଣାଧର୍ମୀ ବ‌ହି । ୬୧ଟି ପ‌ତ୍ରିକା ଓ ୧୪ଟି ତ‌ତ୍କାଳୀନ ଖବରକାଗଜରୁ ପାଖାପାଖି ୧,୨୦,୦୦୦ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ଡିଜିଟାଲ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ସଂରକ୍ଷିତ କରାଯାଇପାରିଛି । ନିକଟ ଅତୀତରେ ସଂସ୍କୃତି ବିଭାଗ ତରଫରୁ ପୁରାତନ ଅନେକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବ‌ହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ସଂସ୍କରଣ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରାଯାଇଛି । ତେବେ କି କି ବ‌ହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂପ ସରକାରଙ୍କ ତରଫରୁ କରାଯାଉଛି ତାହା ଅଗୋଚରରେ ରହିଛି । ୨୦୦୪ ପରଠାରୁ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସରକାରଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଉତ୍କଳ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ (ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ) ଓ Orissa Review (ଇଂରାଜୀରେ) http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/utkalprasanga/utkalprasanga.htm ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଯେଉଁଥିରେ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧିତ ଅନେକ ଗବେଷଣା ସମ୍ବଳିତ ରଚନା ସ୍ଥାନ ପାଇଛି । orissabigyanacademy.nic.in ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଅନେକ ଉପାଦେୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବିଜ୍ଞାନ ଲେଖା, ବିଶେଷ କରି ବିଜ୍ଞାନ ଦିଗନ୍ତ ପ‌ତ୍ରିକାର ସଂଖ୍ୟାସବୁ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଯାହା ପଢ଼ାଯାଇପାରିବ । ପ୍ରମୁଖ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଓ ପ‌ତ୍ରପ‌ତ୍ରିକାମାନଙ୍କର ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଖବର ଓ ଲେଖାସବୁ ରହିଛି ଯାହା ଭିତରୁ କିଛି ଆର୍କାଇଭ ହୋଇଛି ଆଉ କିଛି ହୋଇନାହିଁ । ତେବେ ଉପରେ ବର୍ଣ୍ଣିତ ସମସ୍ତ ବ‌ହି କେବଳ ପଢ଼ିହେବ । ତାହା ନାଁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଖୋଜିହେବ ନାଁ ଲେଖାକୁ ପୁନ‌ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରିହେବ ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା:

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ପ୍ରଥମ ଛାପାକଳରୁ ଛପା ହେବା ପରଠାରୁ ଆଜିଯାଏ ହୁଏତ ଅସଂଖ୍ୟ ବ‌ହି ଛପାଯାଇଥିବ । ତେବେ ସେସବୁକୁ ଖୋଜିବସିଲେ ସ‌ହଜରେ ମିଳିବ କି? ଏଠାରେ ଆଉ ଏକ ବିରାଟ ଛିଡ଼ାହୁଏ ଆମ ଆଗରେ, ଯାହା ହେଲା ସ‌ହଜଲବ୍ଧ ଅଭିଲେଖ ବା ଆର୍କାଇଭ । ଯଦି ମୋତେ ଗୀତଗୋବିନ୍ଦ କାବ୍ୟର ଏକ ପଙ୍‌କ୍ତି ପଢ଼ିବାର ଅଛି ତାହେଲେ ମୁଁ ଜୟଦେବଙ୍କ ଲିଖିତ ବିରଳ ତାଳପ‌ତ୍ର ପୋଥିଟି ଖୋଜିବି କି? ମୁଁ ପ୍ରଥମେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜିବସିବି ଲାଇବ୍ରେରି ଯିବା ଆଗରୁ । ଆଧୁନିକ ଯୁଗରେ ମଣିଷର ବ‌ହି ସ‌ହ ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧ ଯେତେ ଘୁଞ୍ଚି ଘୁଞ୍ଚି ଯାଉଛି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଉପରେ ନିର୍ଭରଶୀଳତା ସେତେ ବଢ଼ି ବଢ଼ି ଯାଉଛି । ତେବେ ନୂତନ-ପୁରାତନ ବ‌ହିର ସବୁ ପାଠ ଯଦି ସ‌ହଜରେ ମିଳିପାରନ୍ତା ତେବେ ପାଠକଟିଏ ଯେତେବେଳେ ଯାହା ଚାହିଁବ ତାହା ପଢ଼ିପାରିବ । ଯେଉଁ ଭାଷାରେ ଏ ସାଧନ ଯେତେ ଅଧିକ ସେ ଭାଷା ପାଠକ ତିଆରି କରିବାରେ ସେତେ ସଫଳ । ଏ ବିଷୟରେ ଭାବିଲେ ଆମ ମନରେ ଯେଉଁ ପ୍ରଥମ ଭାଷାଟି ଉଙ୍କିମାରେ ତାହା ହେଲା ଇଂରାଜୀ । ଆମେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବା ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବିଷୟରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ କିଛି ଖୋଜିବା ବେଳେ ଯାହା ଗୁଗଲରେ ଟାଇପ କରୁ ସେ ବି ହେଉଛି ଇଂରାଜୀ ଭାଷା । ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ପଢ଼ିବାରେ ଓ ଲେଖିବାରେ ବାଟ ବି ଖୋଲିଛି ତାହା ଉଣା ଅଧିକେ ଅନେକେ ଜାଣି ନ‌ଥିବେ । ସମ୍ବିଧାନ ସ୍ୱିକୃତୀପ୍ରାପ୍ତ ପ୍ରାୟ ସମସ୍ତ ଭାଷା କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରଯୋଗ୍ୟ । ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ଆଜିର ସମୟରେ ଅଧିକାଂଶ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରକାରୀ ମାଇକ୍ରୋସଫ୍ଟ ଉଇଣ୍ଡୋଜର ଅପରେଟିଙ୍ଗ ସିଷ୍ଟମ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରିଥାନ୍ତି । ଉଇଣ୍ଡୋଜ ଭିସ୍ତା ନାମକ ଅପରେଟିଙ୍ଗ ସିଷ୍ଟମର ସସ୍କରଣ ଆସିବା ଯାଏଁ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଲେଖାପଢ଼ା ସମ୍ପୁର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବେ ସମ୍ଭବ ହୋଇପାରୁନ‌ଥଲା । ତେବେ ଭିସ୍ତା ପରଠାରୁ ଏହି ଅସୁବିଧା ଆପାତ‌ତଃ ଦୂର ହେଲା । ଆଜିର ସମୟରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଅପରେଟିଙ୍ଗ ସିଷ୍ଟମ ଯଥା: ମାଇକ୍ରୋସଫ୍ଟ ଉଇଣ୍ଡୋଜ, ଲିନ‌କ୍ସ ଓ ଆପଲ ମ୍ୟାକ ଆଦିରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ପଢ଼ିବା ଓ ଲେଖିବାରେ ବିଶେଷ କିଛି ଅସୁବିଧା ପ୍ରାୟ ନାହିଁ । କିନ୍ତୁ ଯଦି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର ଚିହ୍ନୁଥିବା ଯେକୌଣସି କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରକାରୀକୁ କେହି ପଚାରନ୍ତି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କିଛି ଟାଇପ କରି ଲେଖିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ, ୧୦୦ରୁ ଜଣେ କି ଦୁଇଜଣ ନିଜର କ୍ଷମତା ପ୍ରକାଶ କରିବେ କି ସେ ସନ୍ଦେହର କ‌ଥା । ଏହାର ମୂଳ କାରଣ ହେଲା ସ୍କ୍ୁଲ, କଲେଜ ପଢ଼ାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପିଙ୍ଗ କରିବା କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ କିଛି ତାଲିମ ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀମାନେ ପାଇନ‌ଥାନ୍ତି । ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଯେ ଲେଖିହେବ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଏହାକୁ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଭଳି ସ‌ହଜରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରିହେବ ଏହା ଅନେକ‌ଙ୍କୁ ଆକାଶ କଇଆଁ ଭଳି ଲାଗିବ । ତେବେ ଏହା ଶତକଡ଼ା ଶହେ ସମ୍ବବ । ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଲେଖିବାରେ ଯେଉଁ ମୂଳ ପ୍ରତିବନ୍ଧକଟି ଅଛି ତାହା ହେଲେ ନାନାଦି ଅନ୍ଧବିଶ୍ୱାସ । କେବଳ ବିରାଡ଼ିକୁ ଦେଖି ପଛକୁ ଗାଡ଼ି ନେବା ଅନ୍ଧବିଶ୍ୱାସ ନୁହେଁ, ଭାଷାଶିକ୍ଷଣ କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଅନେକ ନ‌କଲି ଅନ୍ଧବିଶ୍ୱାସ ଅଛି । ତା ଭିତରୁ ପ୍ରଥମଟି ହେଲା ଅନେକେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିବା କ‌ଥା ଆସିଲେ ଭାବି ବସନ୍ତି ଛାପାଖାନାରେ ଛପା ହେଉଥିବା ବ‌ହି ବାବଦରେ । ଆଜି ଡିଜିଟାଲ ପ୍ରକାଶନ (ଡିଟିପି)ର ବ‌ହୁଳତା ଆଗକାଳର ବିଶାଳକାୟ ଛାପାକଳ ସବୁକୁ ଅତୀତକୁ ଠେଲିଦେଇଛି । କିନ୍ତୁ ଆଜି ବି ଆମର ଛପା ପାଇଁ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ହେଉଥିବା ସଫ୍ଟ୍ୱାରଠୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ଲେଖାରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ହେଉଥିବା ଫଣ୍ଟ ବା କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରର ଅକ୍ଷରସଜାଣି ମାନ‌ଧାତା ଅମଳର । ନ‌ବେ ଦଶକର ଶେଷ ଆଡ଼କୁ ଯେଉଁ ISCII (Indian Script Code for Information Interchange) ନାମକ ମାନ‌କର ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇଥିଲା କିଛି ବର୍ଷ ପରେ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ନାମକ ନୂଆ ମାନ‌କ ତାକୁ ଆଜି ବି ଦୂରେଇପାରିନାହିଁ । ଫଳତଃ ଆଜିଯାଏ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଡିଟିପି କରାଯାଇଥିବା ପାଖାପାଖି ସମସ୍ତ ଲେଖା ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ନା ଖୋଜିହେବ ନା ଆଉ କାହା ସଙ୍ଗେ ବାଣ୍ଟି କରିହେବ । କେଇ ଦଶନ୍ଧି ତଳେ ଆପଣଙ୍କ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଫଣ୍ଟ ନ ଥିଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର ବଦଳରେ ଯେଉଁ ଚାରିକୋଣିଆ ଘର ଦେଖିବାକୁ ମିଳୁଥିଲା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଡିଟିପିରେ ଆଜି ବି ଯେଉଁ ଫଣ୍ଟ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ହେଉଛି ସେ ସେଇ ଏକା ଫଳ ଦେବ । ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶରେ ଆଧୁନିକ ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୌଶଳ ବିଶେଷ ଜରୁରୀ ଯାହା ଗତାନୁଗତିକ ଏହି ପ୍ରଚଳିତ ଟାଇପିଙ୍ଗକୁ ଦୂରକୁ ଫିଙ୍ଗିଦେବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିବ। ଦୁଃଖର ବିଷୟ ଆମର ପ୍ରାୟ ସମସ୍ତ ଖବରକାଗଜଙ୍କର ପ୍ରକାଶନ ଏହି ସବୁ ISCII ଫଣ୍ଟରେ ଲେଖାହୋଇଥିବାରୁ ସେସବୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜାଯାଇପାରିବ ନାହିଁ ।

ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ମାଧ୍ୟମ (Unicode standards):

ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଏକ ଆନ୍ତର୍ଜାତୀକ ମାନ‌କ ଯାହା ଏକ ଭାଷାକୁ ଅନ୍ୟ ଭାଷାର ସମକକ୍ଷ କରାଇଥାଏ ଓ ଏହା ସଙ୍ଗେ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖାଥିବା ଲେଖାକୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ସ‌ହଜରେ ଖୋଜିହୁଏ, କପି କରି ବାକିମାନଙ୍କ ସ‌ହ ବିତରଣ କରିହୁଏ ଆଉ ସବୁଠାରୁ ବଡ଼ କ‌ଥା ହେଲା ଏହା ପାଇଁ କୌଣସି ଫଣ୍ଟ ଇନଷ୍ଟଲ କରିବାକୁ ପଡ଼େନାହିଁ । ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ବି ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ର ବିକାଶ ହୋଇଛି । ହେଲେ ଆମର ଖବରକାଗଜ ସମେତ ବାକି ସମସ୍ତ ଛାପାଖାନା ଆଜିଯାଏ ପୁରୁଣା ISCII ମାନ‌କରେ କରା‌ଯାଏ । ତେବେ ଛାପାଖାନାସବୁ ଯେ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ର ଉପ‌ଯୋଗୀତା ବୁଝିନାହାନ୍ତି ବା ଆବଶ୍ୟକ‌ତା ଅନୁଭବ କରିନାହାନ୍ତି କିମ୍ବା ନିଜର ଗତାନୁଗତିକ ଧାରାରୁ ବାହାରି କିଛି ଅଲଗା କରିବାକୁ ଇଚ୍ଛୁକ ନୁହ‌ଁନ୍ତି ତାହା ନୁହେଁ, କିନ୍ତୁ ନୂଆ କିଛି ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରିବାକୁ ପଛଘୁଞ୍ଚା ଦେଉଛନ୍ତି । କିଛି ମାସ ତଳେ ସ୍କାଇବସ (Scribus) ସଫ୍ଟ୍ୱାର ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର କରି ତେଲୁଗୁ ଖବରକାଗଜ "ପ୍ରଜାଶକ୍ତି" ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଫଣ୍ଟରେ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଛପାଇ ଇତିହାସ ତିଆରି କଲା । ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ବି ଏହା ଅସମ୍ଭବ ନୁହେଁ । ତେବେ ଆମ ପାଖରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଥିବା ବ‌ହିଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଯେତେବେଳ ଯାଏଁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ନ କରାଯାଇଛି ସେଯାଏଁ କେହି ସେସବୁକୁ ଲାଇବ୍ରେରି ନ ଯାଇ ପଢ଼ିପାରିବେ ନାହିଁ । ଆଜିର ତାରିଖରେ ୨୫-୩୦ ବର୍ଷ ବୟସରୁ କମ ପ୍ରାୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ହୁଏତ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର ଚିହ୍ନିବାକୁ ବି ହୁଡ଼ିବେ । ଭାଷା କେବଳ ଗପ-କବିତା ରଚନା ଓ ଉପାଧୀ-ସମ୍ମାନ ପ୍ରଦାନରେ ସମୃଦ୍ଧ ହୁଏ ନାହିଁ । ଯଦି ଆମ ଭାଷାର ବଡ଼ବଡ଼ୁଆମାନେ ଭାଷାକୁ ସାଧାରଣ ଜୀବନରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ନ କରିଥାନ୍ତେ ତାହେଲେ ଆମେ ଆଜି ନିଜକୁ ଭାଷା ଭିତ୍ତିରେ ଏକ ରାଜ୍ୟ ଭାବରେ ପରିଚୟ ଦେଉନ‌ଥାନ୍ତୁ । ଆଉ ମଧୁବାବୁ-ଫକୀରମୋହ‌ନ-ଗଙ୍ଗାଧର-ରାଧାନାଥ ପ୍ରମୁଖ ନିଜ ସମୟଠାରୁ ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ ଆଗରେ ଚାଲୁଥିଲେ । ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଲେଖା ଆଜି ମାନ‌କ ଲେଖାର ମୂଳଦୁଆ ଗଢ଼ିଛି । ଆଜି ଆମେ ଯଦି ଆମ ସମୟର ସମତାଳରେ ନ ଚାଲି ଅପ୍ରଚଳିତ ଟେକନୋଲୋଜିକୁ ଆପଣାଇ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ପରେ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ରଚନା କରିଚାଲିବା ତାହା ଭବିଷ୍ୟତର ପିଢ଼ି ନିମନ୍ତେ ଉପଯୋଗୀ ହେବ ତ? ଆମେ ସମସ୍ତେ ଯଦି ଆମ ଚାରିପାଖର ଘଟଣାବଳୀକୁ ଟିକେ ନିରେଖି ଦେଖିବା ତାହେଲେ ଅନେକ ବିଷୟ ଫର୍ଚା ହୋଇ‌ ଦିଶିବ । ସମ‌ଭାବରେ ଦେଖିଲେ ଯେତେବେଳେ ଭାଷାର ପାଠକ ସଂଖ୍ୟା କମି କମି ଯାଉଛି ସେତେବେଳେ ଆଉ କିଛି ବ‌ହି ଛପାଇ, କିଛି କମିଟି ତିଆରି କରିବା ଠାରୁ ସ୍କୁଲ, କଲେଜ ସ୍ତରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶିକ୍ଷାକୁ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ବାଧ୍ୟତାମୂଳକ କରି ପିଲାଙ୍କୁ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର, ମଜା ମଜା ଖେଳ ଆଦି ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶିକ୍ଷା ଦେବା ନିତାନ୍ତ ଜରୁରୀ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଭାଷା ମାନ୍ୟତା ପାଇବା ପରେ ଯେଉଁ ୫୦୦ କୋଟି ଅର୍ଥ ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶରେ ଖର୍ଚ୍ଚ ହେବା ନିମନ୍ତେ ଯୋଜନା ହେଉଛି ଏଥିରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ଓ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଶିକ୍ଷାଦାନ ଏକ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ପଦଃକ୍ଷେପ ହେବା ଉଚିତ । ଆମ ଭାଷାରେ ଏଯାବତ ଲେଖାଯାଇଥିବା ଅନେକ ପୋଥିପୁସ୍ତକ ଅଭିଲେଖାଗାରରେ ଧୀରେ ଧୀରେ କୀଟଙ୍କ ଦାଉରୁ ନଷ୍ଟ ହୋଇଯାଉଛି । ସେସବୁକୁ ସ୍କାନ କରି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ମାଗଣାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇଲେ ତାହା ଅନେକଙ୍କ ଜ୍ଞାନ ପିପାସା ମେଣ୍ଟାଇବ । ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖାଥିବା ପୃଥିବୀର ସର୍ବାଧିକ ତାଳପ‌ତ୍ର ପୋଥି ଅଛି (ଯାହା ୨୦,୦୦୦ ରୁ ଅଧିକ) । ଏଥିରେ ଅନେକ ମୁଖ୍ୟତଃ ରାଜ୍ୟ ସଂଗ୍ରହାଳୟରେ ରଖା‌ଯାଇଛି ଆଉ କିଛି ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ମାଲିକାନାରେ ରହିଛି । ଏହି ସବୁ ପୋଥିର ଲେଖାକୁ ମଧ୍ୟ ସର୍ବସାଧାରଣରେ ଉନ୍ମୋଚନ କରିବାର ମାନସିକ ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନର ଆବଶ୍ୟକ‌ତା ରହିଛି ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: କପିରାଇଟ ନ‌ଥିବା ଏକ ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ, ଯହିଁରେ ସମସ୍ତେ ଲେଖିପାରିବେ

ଏକ ଭାଷାର ଚଳନ୍ତି ଇତିହାସ ହେଲା ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ ବା ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ଯେଉଁଥିରେ ଜଗତର ସମସ୍ତ ଜ୍ଞାନ ସାଇତାହୋଇ ରହିଥାଏ । ଗୋପାଳ ପ୍ରହରାଜ ଓ ବିନୋଦ କାନୁନ‌ଗୋଙ୍କ ପରେ ବିଶେଷ କିଛି ଉଦ୍ୟମ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ ଲିଖନ ପାଇଁ ହୋଇପାରିନ‌ଥିଲା । ଆଧୁନିକ ପାଠକଙ୍କ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ଜ୍ଞାନ ଆହରଣର ଭବିଷ୍ୟତକୁ ଆଖିରେ ରଖି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇଥିଲା ୨୦୦୨ରେ ପ୍ରଥମ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଭାବରେ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ or.wikipedia.org ରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ । ଧରାବନ୍ଧା ହାତଗଣତି ସଂକଳକଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ଏହାର ସମ୍ପାଦନା ନ କରି ଏଥିରେ ସମସ୍ତ ଜନସାଧାରଣଙ୍କୁ ଯୋଡ଼ିବା ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ଆରମ୍ଭ । ଏଯାବତ ୫୩୦୦ରୁ ଅଧିକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖାହୋଇସାରିଛି । ତେବେ ଅଧିକ ଉତ୍ସାହୀ ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ଯୋଗଦାନରେ ଏହି ଭଳି ସାମୁହିକ ଉଦ୍ୟମ ଫଳବତୀ ହୋଇପାରିବ।

ପାଠକ, ସାହିତ୍ୟାନୁରାଗୀ, ଭାଷା ଗବେଷକ, ଭାଷାର କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ବିକାଶ କରୁଥିବା ବିଜ୍ଞାନୀ ଏକ ମଞ୍ଚରେ ଆଲୋଚନା କରି ଭାଷାର ବିଭିନ୍ନ ସାଧନ ନିର୍ଣ୍ଣୟ କରିପାରିଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆର ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଭାଷା ମାନ୍ୟତା ସଫଳ ହେବ । ଯୁବଶକ୍ତିକୁ ବିନିଯୋଗ କରି ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶରେ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ସମସ୍ୟାଗୁଡ଼ିକର ସମାଧାନ କରା‌ଯାଇପାରିବ । ପାଠକର ଆବଶ୍ୟକ‌ତା ଜାଣି ପାଠର ମାଧ୍ୟମ ବଦଳାଇପାରିଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ନିଶ୍ଚିତ ଜଗତର ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ଜଣାଶୁଣା ଭାଷା ଭିତରୁ ଏକ ହେବ ।

ଅଧିକ ପଠନ:

୧. ପୁରୁଣା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବ‌ହି ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂପରେ: oaob.nitrkl.ac.in

୨. ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ, ଏକ ଖୋଲା ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ: or.wikipedia.org

୩. ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା ଉପରେ ଶିକ୍ଷଣ: or.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Typing

୪. ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ସାଧନ (ମାଇକ୍ରୋସଫ୍ଟ ଉଇଣ୍ଡୋଜ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାରକାରୀଙ୍କ ନିମନ୍ତେ): bhashaindia.com/ilit/Oriya.aspx

୫. ଗୋପାଳଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ପ୍ରହରାଜଙ୍କ ଭାଷାକୋଷ: http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/praharaj (ଡାଉନଲୋଡ଼ ନିମନ୍ତେ bitly.com/bhashakosha ଦେଖନ୍ତୁ)

ଲେଖକ ପରିଚୟ: ଶୁଭାଶିଷ ପାଣିଗ୍ରାହୀ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ତ‌ଥା ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ବ୍ୟବ‌ହାର ଉପରେ କାମକରୁଥିବା ଜଣେ ଗବେଷକ । ସେ ଅଧୁନା ବେଙ୍ଗାଳୁରୁସ୍ଥିତ ସେଣ୍ଟର ଫର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଏଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟିର ଆକସେସ-ଟୁ-ନଲେଜ ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମର ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମ ଅଫିସର ଭାବେ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟରତ । ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ କିଟ ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ, କଳିଙ୍ଗ ଇନଷ୍ଟିଚ୍ୟୁଟ ଅଫ ସୋସିଆଲ ସାଇନ୍ସେସ (କିସ), ଭାରତୀୟ ଜନସଂଚାର ସଂସ୍ଥାନ, ଢେଙ୍କାନାଳ (IIMC) ଆଦି ଅନେକ ଶିକ୍ଷାନୁଷ୍ଠାନରେ ସେ କରି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଶିକ୍ଷାର ବିକାଶ ନିମନ୍ତେ ଗବେଷଣା କରୁଛନ୍ତି । ଭାରତ ଓ ବିଦେଶରେ ସେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଉପରେ ଅନେକ କର୍ମଶାଳା ଓ ଆଲୋଚନାଚକ୍ରରେ ଭାଗ ନେଇ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଭାଷାର ଆବଶ୍ୟକ‌ତା ଉପରେ ଆଲୋଚନା କରିଛନ୍ତି । subhashish@cis-india.org ରେ ତାଙ୍କ ସ‌ହ ଇ-ମେଲରେ ଯୋଗାଯୋଗ କରିପାରିବେ ।

Read the article published in Amalekha here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/subhashish-panigrahi-article-in-amalekha

11th Century Kannada Literature Now on Wikisource

subha — 2014-04-06T05:01:14Z

This blog post by Pavithra Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash HI was edited by Rohini Lakshane for DNA. It was first edited by Subhashish Panigrahi, CIS-A2K on the Wikimedia Foundation blog where it was first published.

Click to read the post republished on DNA on March 30, 2014. The original posted on Wikimedia Blog can be seen here.

In Kannada poetry, Vachana Sahitya is a form of rhythmic writing that evolved in the eleventh century and flourished in the twelevth, as a part of the “Lingayatha” movement. More than 259 Vachanakaras (Vachana writers) have compiled over 11,000 vachanas. 21,000 of these verses, which were published in the 15-volume “Samagra Vachana Samputa” by the government of Karnataka have been digitised. Two Wikimedians, along with a Kannada linguist and author O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy, are involved in the Unicode conversions, corrections and writing preface for these verses. The entire work is now available as a standalone project called “Vachana Sanchaya” and ready to enrich Kannada Wikisource.

This project was started a year ago when Kannada Wikimedian Omshivaprakash was trying to help Professor O.L. Naghabhushana Swamy and Kannada author and publisher Vasudhendra access the vachana (verses) of Vachana Sanchaya. Swamy had trouble using publicly available content on Vachanas since the data was in ASCII standard and searching the text was a huge problem. I (Pavithra Hanchagaiah) started to help gather information about vachanas and document it in Unicode by writing scripts for open source software. Further discussions were made to get thousands of vachanas in the form of a database, so that they could be made easily searchable with an index. This demanded that we build a platform supporting all these activities, which would help the linguistic researchers, students and members of the general public who have an interest in reading and studying Vachana literature. With this idea, Omshivaprakash started designing the model, and his colleague Devaraju started building it. In the meantime I was running various scripts to fix errors in conversion of ASCII text to Unicode, confirming that the data was ready to consume by the modules developed for concordance. We spent weekends and holidays executing this project from home. With the constant feedback and guidance from Mr Swamy and Vasudendra, we learnt how concordance of text is used by researchers and what would make it easier for them to research on Vachana Sahitya. Omshivaprakash worked on the architecture of the platform, decided the infrastructure requirements – free and open source software technologies were used to keep the platform active while managing the entire project. I provided critical hacks for digitization and gave feedback through suggestions.

Working System

Currently, the system has around 200,000 unique words in its repository. Vachana Sanchaya is meant for research rather than just a repository of text on the web. While you search the words on our system, you can see who has used the word in all Vachanas. To make the research more readable, we highlight the text searched in each Vachana that would be displayed. To repeat the search for a specific Vachanakara (poet) you just need to click on his name on the graph on the results page. We have used MediaWiki’s jquery-ime input tool architecture that helped us provide a feature to directly enter Kannada text in Unicode for searches. So just type, and get results!

Public Response

We are glad to see people accessing vachanas from our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ channels. There have been approximately 500,000 pageviews to our site in the first few months of our platform’s public launch. Interestingly, commonly searched Kannada words like “ಕರ್ಮ”(Karma en:Work/Deed) , “ಸತ್ಯ” (Sathya -en:Truthfulness ) and “ನದಿ” (River) have resulted in quick and easy results.

Plans for the Future

Our system is extensible with respect to adding new feature – we have a review desk for researchers to help us with the review of content. Later we will also be adding required references to Vachanas from various research works that have been done around this literature. The content is available to the public through OpenData API and will be distributed as public domain through Wikisource once the review work is complete. This will open up the system for students, developers, researchers and anyone interested in working around building linguistic tools for Kannada and other Indic languages. This system is meant to evolves around other works rather than having to change and re-invent the wheel for more such projects. Vachana Sahitya will further help us to initiate Natural Language Processing (NLP) projects if more researchers get together to tag the words, glossary etc in the coming days. We can also fulfill the need of various language tools like spelling and grammar checker for users through crowd-sourcing the development. The next projects under the “Kannada Sanchaya” are Sarvagnana Vachanagalu and Dāsa Sanchaya which are in the pipeline with initial phases of work underway. Our idea is to extend this platform from Vyasa to Muddanna and possibly the contemporary literature work available in the public domain.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dna-march-30-2014-rohini-lakshane-11th-century-kannada-literature-now-on-wikisource

Digitize any Book in the Public Domain

subha — 2014-04-03T08:41:18Z

The article is about a mass scale digitization project for Kannada WikiSource by two Wikipedians.

This was originally published in Opensource.com on March 27, 2014.

A form of poetry in India called Vachana sahitya is part of the popular Indian language, Kannada. It evolved in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th as part of the religious Lingayatha movement. Since that time, more than 259 Vachana writers, called Vachanakaru, have compiled over 11,000 Vachanas (verses).

21,000 of these verses were digitally published into 15 volumes, called Samagra Vachana Samputa, by the government of Karnataka. These volumes were then turned into a standalone project called Vachana Sanchaya; this project was taken on by two Kannada Wikimedians, a Kannada linguist, and the author O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy—to enrich the Kannada WikiSource. This team used Unicode, a standard of consistency for converting text (and code) into a new format.

Swamy was trying to access these poems, and was having trouble because it was in ISCII, an Indian character encoding standard. We began writing scripts to make the Vachanas (poems) searchable by an index. But, in order to do that well, we had to build a platform for everyone to use: the linguistic researchers, students, and the public at large who are interested in reaching this literature.

Omshivaprakash, a Kannada Wikimedian, worked on the architecture of the platform, decided the infrastructure requirements, and chose the open source software tools to use. I was involved in providing critical hacks for digitization and valuable inputs through suggestions, feedback, and quality assurance.

At present, our repository, Vachana Sanchaya, has around 200,000 unique words that were derived from these poems. The public has been using our repository and accessing Vahanas (poems) from our Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ profiles. There are thousands of people now who read a Vahana as part of their daily routine. Vachana Sanchaya is not just meant for reading the poems, it is also meant for research. So, we have added a way for researchers to help us review the content and will be adding references from various research papers.


Above: A screenshot of the Vachana sahitya page

The most commonly searched words are:

ಕರ್ಮ(Karma: English: work/deed)
ಸತ್ಯ(SathyaEnglish: truthfulness )
ನದಿ(Nadī: English:river)

ಆಂಗೀರಸ, ಪುಲಸ್ತ್ಯ, ಪುಲಹ, ಶಾಂತ,
ದಕ್ಷ, ವಸಿಷ್ಠ, ವಾಮದೇವ, ನವಬ್ರಹ್ಮ, ಕೌಶಿಕ, ಶೌನಕ, ಸ್ವಯಂಭು, ಸ್ವಾರೋಚಿಷ, ಉತ್ತಮ, ತಾಮಸ, ರೈವತ,
ಚಾಕ್ಷಷ, ವೈವಸ್ವತ, ಸೂರ್ಯಸಾವರ್ಣಿ,ಚಂದ್ರಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಸಾವರ್ಣಿ,
ಇಂದ್ರ ಸಾವರ್ಣಿ ಇವರು ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು ಮಂದಿ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣ ಸಹಾಯ[ದ]ವರು. ಹತ್ತೊಂಬತ್ತು ಎಂದರೆ ಪುಣ್ಯನದಿಗಳು.
ಅದು ಎಂತೆಂದಡೆ: ಗ್ರಂಥ

We encourage other projects of this kind to follow our method and use any part of our process that is helpful.

Going foward, we would like to:

Initiate Natural Language Processing (NLP) projects if more researches help to tag words and grow the glossary
Continue work on subsequent, similar projects for Sarvagnana Vachanagalu and Dāsa Sanchaya (work has begun) and Vyasa and Muddann (work not yet started)
Extend this platform to other the contemporary literature works available in the public domain.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/opensource-march-27-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-digitize-any-book-in-public-domain

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: ତିନି ବର୍ଷର ସକ୍ରିୟ ଅବଦାନ ୧୦ ବର୍ଷର ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପକୁ ପୁନର୍ଜୀବନ ଦେଲା

subha — 2014-03-20T11:20:59Z

The post is about the journey of Odia Wikipedia and the last three years of active contribution

Click to read the original published on the website of the Brokenscooter

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ୨୯ ଜାନୁଆରୀରେ ଏହାର ୧୦ ବର୍ଷ ପୂରଣ କଲା । ୨୦୦୪ରେ ଏହା ପ୍ରଥମ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଭାବେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେଇଥିଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ, ଏଥିରେ ପ୍ରକୃତ ଅର୍ଥରେ ଲେଖାଲେଖି ୨୦୧୧ରେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେଇଥିଲା । ସେତେବେଳେ ୫୫୦ଟି ଯାହିତାହି ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଏବଂ କହିବାକୁ ଗଲେ ଜଣେ ମଧ୍ୟ ସକ୍ରିୟ ସଭ୍ୟ ନଥିଲେ । ତତ୍କାଳୀନ ପରିସ୍ଥିତିରେ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖରେ ପହଞ୍ଚିବା ଲାଗି ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କୁ ବହୁତ ଅସୁବିଧାର ସମ୍ମୁଖୀନ ହେବାକୁ ପଡୁଥିଲା । ଅଧିକ ଲୋକ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ତଥା ବିଶେଷ ଭାବେ ସୋସିଆଲ ମିଡ଼ିଆ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିବା ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଅଧିକ ଇନପୁଟ ପ୍ରଣାଳୀ ଆସିବା ଦ୍ଵାରା ଏହି ଗୋଷ୍ଠୀଗତ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପଟି ଲୋକଲୋଚନାକୁ ଆସିବାକୁ ଲାଗିଲା । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ଫେସବୁକ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ଏବଂ ଗୋଠ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକମାନଙ୍କର ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଏକ

ସାମାଜିକ ଦ୍ଵାର ହୋଇଥିଲା । ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ଲେଖା ହୋଇ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଥିବା ଲେଖା ଏହି ଭାଷାରେ ପ୍ରାୟତଃ କିଛି ନାହିଁ ବା ବହୁତ କମ । ଅନ୍ୟ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଲୋକମାନଙ୍କ ତୁଳନାରେ ଏହି ଭାଷାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଥିବା ଛବି, ଭିଡ଼ିଓ ଓ ଅଡ଼ିଓ ମିଡ଼ିଆଗୁଡ଼ିକ ବହୁତ କମ । ଏବେ ମଧ୍ୟ ବହୁତ ଲୋକ ସେହି ପୁରୁଣା ଚୋରା ଅପରେଟିଂ ସିଷ୍ଟମକୁ ସେମାନଙ୍କ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରୁଛନ୍ତି ଯାହାକି ସମସ୍ତ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପର ଉନ୍ନତିରେ ଏକ ବଡ଼ ବାଧା ପାଲଟିଛି । ଅଧୁନା ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଅନଲାଇନ ଅବଦାନ ଓ ଅନେକ ଗୁଡ଼ିଏ ଇନପୁଟ ପ୍ରଣାଳୀ ଆସିବାକୁ ଲାଗିଛି । ଅଧିକ ଲୋକ ଓଡିଆରେ ଇଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ବ୍ୟବହାର କରି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜିବା ଆରମ୍ଭ କଲେଣି । ଏହି କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବହୁତ ଗୁଡ଼ିଏ ଲେଖା ଓ ପାଠକ ଦେଇ ଏକ ପ୍ରମୁଖ ଭୂମିକା ଗ୍ରହଣ କରିଛି । ମାସିକ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ଦେଖା ଯାହାକି ବର୍ଷ ବର୍ଷ ଧରି ଲଗାତର କମ ଥିଲା ତାହା ୧୦୦୦ରୁ ୪,୦୦,୦୦୦ ରୁ ଅଧିକ ହେଲାଣି ଯାହା ବେଳେବେଳେ ୫,୦୦,୦୦୦ ମଧ୍ୟ ପହଞ୍ଚିଛି । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଲେଖାଥିବା ସମସ୍ତ ୱେବସାଇଟ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଏହା ସର୍ବାଧିକ । ଦୁଇଦିନ ଧରି ଅଧିକ ଲୋକମାନଙ୍କୁ ଆକର୍ଷିତ କଲାଭଳି ନୂଆ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ସହ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଏହାର ଦଶମ ଜନ୍ମତିଥି ପାଳନ କରିଛି । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିଆଳିଗଣ ୨୮ ଜାନୁଆରୀରେ କଳିଙ୍ଗ ଇନଷ୍ଟିଟ୍ୟୁଟ ଅଫ ସୋସିଆଲ ସାଇନ୍ସେସ ଏବଂ ୨୯ ଜାନୁଆରୀରେ ଇଣ୍ଡିଆନ ଇନଷ୍ଟିଟ୍ୟୁଟ ଅଫ ମାସ କମ୍ୟୁ ନିକେସନ ଏହି ଦୁଇଟି ଶିକ୍ଷାନୁଷ୍ଠାନଠାରେ ଏକଜୁଟ ହୋଇ ଏଥିରେ ସାମିଲ ହୋଇଥିଲେ ।

Odia Wikimedia community is organizing Odisha day on the 29th of this month in Bhubaneswar. More details: http://or.wikipedia.org

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-odia-completes-10-years

Vachana Sanchaya: 11th century Kannada literature to enrich Wikisource

subha — 2014-03-20T11:13:22Z

Kannada Wikipedian Omshivaprakash, Pavithra and I co-authored this article on digitizing Vachana Sahitya, a 11th century Kannada literature on WikiSource.

Pavithra Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash HI, Wikimedians from India are co-authors with Subhashish Panigrahi in this article. This was originally posted on Wikimedia blog and published by GlobalVoices on March 18, 2014.

In the poetry of Kannada (an Indic language), Vachana sahitya is a form of rhythmic writing that evolved in the 11th Century C.E. and flourished in the 12th century, as part of the “Lingayatha” movement. More than 259 Vachanakaras (Vachana writers) have compiled over 11,000 vachanas. 21,000 of these verses which were published in a 15 volume “Samagra Vachana Samputa” by the government of Karnataka have been digitized. Two Wikimedians along with a Kannada linguist and author O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy are involved in the Unicode conversions, corrections and writing preface for these verses. The entire work is now available as a standalone project called “Vachana Sanchaya” and ready to enrich Kannada Wikisource.

This project was started a year ago when Kannada Wikimedian Omshivaprakash was trying to help Professor O.L. Naghabhushana Swamy and Kannada author and publisher Vasudhendra access the vachana (verses) of Vachana Sanchaya. Swamy had trouble using publicly available content on Vachanas since the data was in ASCII standard and searching text was a huge problem. I (Pavithra Hanchagaiah) started to help gather information about vachanas and document it in Unicode by writing scripts for open source software. Further discussions were had to get thousands of vachanas in the form of a database, so that they could be easily searchable with an index. This demanded us to build a platform supporting all these activities, which would help the linguistic researchers, students and members of the general public who have an interest in reading and studying Vachana literature. With this idea, Omshivaprakash started designing the model, and his colleague Devaraju started building it. In the meantime I was running various scripts to fix errors in conversion of ASCII text to Unicode, confirming that the data was ready to consume by the modules developed for concordance. We spent weekends & holidays executing this project from home. With the constant feedback and guidance from Mr. Swamy and Vasudendra, we learned how concordance of text is used by researchers and what would make it easier for them to research on Vachana Sahitya. Omshivaprakash worked on the architecture of the platform, decided the infrastructure requirements – free and open source software technologies were used to keep the platform active while managing the entire project. I provided critical hacks for digitization and gave feedback through suggestions.

Working System Currently, the system has around 200,000 unique words in its repository. Vachana Sanchaya is meant for research rather than just a repository of text on the web. While you search the words on our system, you can see who has used the word in all Vachanas. To make the research more readable, we highlight the text searched in each Vachana that would be displayed. To repeat the search for a specific Vachanakara (poet) you just need to click on his name on the graph on the results page. We have used MediaWiki’s jquery-ime input tool architecture that helped us provide a feature to directly enter Kannada text in Unicode for searches. So just type, and get results!	Vachana Sanchaya Website Screenshot

Working System

Vachana Sanchaya Website Screenshot

Public Response

Plans for the future

ಆಂಗೀರಸ, ಪುಲಸ್ತ್ಯ, ಪುಲಹ, ಶಾಂತ,ದಕ್ಷ, ವಸಿಷ್ಠ, ವಾಮದೇವ, ನವಬ್ರಹ್ಮ, ಕೌಶಿಕ, ಶೌನಕ, ಸ್ವಯಂಭು, ಸ್ವಾರೋಚಿಷ, ಉತ್ತಮ, ತಾಮಸ, ರೈವತ, ಚಾಕ್ಷಷ, ವೈವಸ್ವತ, ಸೂರ್ಯಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಚಂದ್ರಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಇಂದ್ರ ಸಾವರ್ಣಿ ಇವರು ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು ಮಂದಿ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣ ಸಹಾಯ[ದ]ವರು. ಹತ್ತೊಂಬತ್ತು ಎಂದರೆ ಪುಣ್ಯನದಿಗಳು. ಅದು ಎಂತೆಂದಡೆ: ಗ್ರಂಥ

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/vachana-sanchaya-11th-century-kannada-literature-to-enrich-wikisource

Open Source Project Brings 11th Century Kannada Verses Online

subha — 2014-04-06T06:00:47Z

The post was co-authored by Pavithra Hanchagaiah, Omshivaprakash H L and Subhashish Panigrahi and published in the March issue of Foss Force.

Click to read the original published on the website of Foss Force here.

Vachana sahitya is a form of rhythmic writing in Kannada poetry that evolved in the 11th century C.E. and flourished in the 12th century as a part of the Lingayatha movement. More than 259 Vachanakaras (Vachana writers) have compiled over 11,000 vachanas. 21,000 of these verses which were published in a 15 volume set, “Samagra Vachana Samputa,” by the Government of Karnataka, a state in South West India, have been digitized. Two Wikimedians along with Kannada linguist and author O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy are involved in the Unicode conversions, corrections and writing the preface for these verses. The entire work is now available as a standalone project called Vachana Sanchaya and ready to enrich Kannada WikiSource.


Palm leaf of 11th and 12th Century with Vachana poems in Kannada language

This project was started a year ago when Kannada Wikimedian Omshivaprakash was trying to help Professor O. L. Naghabhushana Swamy and Kannada author and publisher Vasudhendra to easily access the vachana (verses) of Vachana Sanchaya. Swamy had challenges in using publicly available content on Vachanas since the data was in ASCII and searching text was a huge problem. Pavithra Hanchagaiah started helping to collect information about about vachanas and document them into Unicode by writing scripts to customize open source software to convert the Kannada fonts from ASCII into Unicode.

After further discussions, it was decided to get thousands of vachanas into a database, making them easily searchable with an index. This required us to build a platform on which this could be done. The fruits of our labors will help linguistic researchers and students as well as the public at large, anybody who’s interested in reading and studying Vachana literature. With this idea, Omshivaprakash started designing the model and his colleague Devaraju started building it. In the meantime, Pavithra was running various scripts to fix errors in the conversion of the ASCII text to Unicode, confirming that the data was ready to be consumed by the modules developed for the concordance. We spent weekends and holidays executing this project from home and would sync up once in a while online.	Pavithra Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash H L

After further discussions, it was decided to get thousands of vachanas into a database, making them easily searchable with an index. This required us to build a platform on which this could be done. The fruits of our labors will help linguistic researchers and students as well as the public at large, anybody who’s interested in reading and studying Vachana literature.

With this idea, Omshivaprakash started designing the model and his colleague Devaraju started building it. In the meantime, Pavithra was running various scripts to fix errors in the conversion of the ASCII text to Unicode, confirming that the data was ready to be consumed by the modules developed for the concordance. We spent weekends and holidays executing this project from home and would sync up once in a while online.

Pavithra Hanchagaiah and Omshivaprakash H L

With constant feedback and guidance from Mr. Swamy and Vasudendra, we learned how a concordance of text is used by researchers and what would make it easier for them to do their research. Omshivaprakash worked on the architecture of the platform, decided the infrastructure requirements and managed the entire project. Free and open source software technologies were used for keeping the platform active. Pavithra was involved in providing critical hacks for digitization and offered valuable input through suggestions, feedback and Q&A.

Working system

At present, the system has around 200,000 unique words in the repository. It was an extensive learning process, as we used our free time to solve real time issues. Moreover, it was a work of the Kannada language that needed quick attention. Vachana Sanchaya is meant to be more than just a repository of the text online; it’s meant to be a tool for researchers.

For example, as a user searches the words on our system, he or she can see who has used the word in which Vachanas. To improve readability, the searched text string is highlighted in each Vachana that is displayed. To repeat the search for a specific Vachanakaara, the user needs only to click on his or her name on the graph provided on the result page. We have used the MediaWiki jquery-ime input tool architecture that helps us provide the user with the ability to directly enter Kannada text in Unicode for a search.

Public response

We are glad to see people accessing vachanas from our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ channels. Thousands read them every day and it has become a part of many people’s daily routine. There have been more than 50,000 page views on social networks and 500,000 page views on our site in the first few months after our platform’s public launch. Some of the most commonly searched Kannada words are “ಕರ್ಮ”(Karma en: Work/Deed), “ಸತ್ಯ” (Sathya en: Truthfulness) and “ನದಿ” (River).

ಆಂಗೀರಸ, ಪುಲಸ್ತ್ಯ, ಪುಲಹ, ಶಾಂತ,
ದಕ್ಷ, ವಸಿಷ್ಠ, ವಾಮದೇವ, ನವಬ್ರಹ್ಮ, ಕೌಶಿಕ, ಶೌನಕ, ಸ್ವಯಂಭು, ಸ್ವಾರೋಚಿಷ, ಉತ್ತಮ, ತಾಮಸ, ರೈವತ, ಚಾಕ್ಷಷ, ವೈವಸ್ವತ, ಸೂರ್ಯಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಚಂದ್ರಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಇಂದ್ರ ಸಾವರ್ಣಿ ಇವರು ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು ಮಂದಿ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣ ಸಹಾಯ[ದ]ವರು. ಹತ್ತೊಂಬತ್ತು ಎಂದರೆ ಪುಣ್ಯನದಿಗಳು. ಅದು ಎಂತೆಂದಡೆ: ಗ್ರಂಥ

– An example of a vachana from the Vachana Sanchaya project.

Plans for the future

Our system is extensible with respect to adding new features. We have a review desk for researchers to help with the review of content. Later we will be adding required references to Vachanas from various research works on this literature. The content is available for the public through OpenData API and will be distributed in the public domain through WikiSource once the review work is complete. This will open up the system for students, developers, researchers and anyone interested in working to build linguistic tools for Kannada and other Indic languages.

This system will evolve so it can be used for other literature projects. Vachana Sahitya will further help us to initiate Natural Language Processing (NLP) projects if more researches get together to tag the words, glossary, etc. We can also add various language tools such as a spell checker and grammar checker through crowd-sourcing development. The forthcoming project under the “Kannada Sanchaya” are Sarvagnana Vachanagalu and Dāsa Sanchaya which are already in the pipeline. Our idea is to extend this platform to include works from antiquity (Vyasa, for example) to the early 20th century (e.g., Muddanna) and possibly even include contemporary literature that’s available in the public domain.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/foss-force-open-source-project-brings-11th-century-kannada-verses-online

Odia Language's Presence in Digital Media and Wikipedia's Role

subha — 2014-03-05T11:36:46Z

କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା (Odia language in computer) is an essay published in Odia newspaper "The Samaja's Sunday supplement" on March 2. It is about the journey of Odia language in the digital era and the challenges faced during digitization of books and manuscripts.

It also focusses on the new technological advancements that allow users to interact and share knowledge on the internet in Odia language. It briefly explains about Odia Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that is written by voluntary editors and the massive knowledge production by opening up platforms like these that allows real-time collaboration for editorship in regional languages.

A scanned version of the article is reproduced below. A higher resolution of this article could be read in The Samaja e-Paper.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/the-samaja-subhashish-panigrahi-march-2-2014-odia-language-presence-in-digital-media

Odia Wikipedia: Three Years of Active Contributions Gives Life to a Ten Year Old Project

subha — 2014-02-04T08:56:35Z

Odia Wikipedia has carved its mark as the largest online encyclopedia in Odia language that is edited by a volunteer editor community.

This was published by HASTAC on January 31, 2014.

By 29th of January this year it is 10 year old and 5000 articles rich. Though this was started as one of the first four Indic language Wikipedias. In 2011 there were only 550 articles with practically no contributors. The initial Wikipedians struggled to reach out to more people. Luckily, with more people coming on the Internet – primarily on social media platforms, collaboration became easier. Odia Wikipedia’s facebook page and group became the social gateway to get used to working within the Odia language. This is one of the languages which has very little online presence when it comes to having content as Unicode text. Many people still struggle with the outdated pirated operating systems installed in their computers which added more hurdles in the way of all the community led Wikipedia outreach programs. There has been more developments in recent days in language input and online contribution in Odia. More people started searching for online content using Odia in Unicode. This is where Odia Wikipedia played a crucial role in promoting a massive growth in content which is reflected in the readership. Monthly page views which remained consistently low over the years started growing from less than 1000 to more than 400,000 and at times hitting the 500,000 mark. This is the highest among all the websites that have Odia content. With a variety of new projects and more contributors than ever, Wikipedia Odia happily celebrated its its 10th anniversary over two days. Odia Wikipedians gathered in two different educational institutes; Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences in Bhubaneswar on the 28th of January and Indian Institute of Mass Communication in Dhenkanal on the 29th.

Day 1

First day of Odia Wikipedia 10 began with the traditional Chhena poda by noted linguist Padmashree Dr. Debiprasanna Patnaik. Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) has recently collaborated with The Centre for Internet and Society for the resource gathering, documentation and archival of 62 tribal communities of Odisha and neighboring eastern Indian states and initiating Wikipedia projects in the indigenous tribal languages. The first few phase of the workshop brought about 15 students pursuing their masters in Arts, Science and Commerce disciplines and 10 faculty members.

This project also will also dovetail into the Mother Tongue based Multilingual Lab that has been set up in the institute to foster educational materials in tribal languages. Dr. Patnaik spoke to these contributors about the native languages and the importance of documenting language and cultural heritage online. Subrat Prusty, General Secretary of Janasammilani and founding member of Odia Biswabidyalaya gave a talk on the factors that have diminished the native languages and how collaborative efforts could revive dying languages through a 5000 word free-license dictionary in Odia. With the audio recording of Dr. Patnaik introducing himself, Odia Wikipedians inaugurated the Voice intro project as the first Indic language project. Odia Wikipedians interacted with the students and teachers at KISS to get their inputs on the kind of knowledge imparted by introducing Wikipedia editing. Later these will streamline the process of writing to the linguistic team for pledging for the classical language status of Odia.

Day 2

The second day of Odia Wikipedia 10 was celebrated in the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) Dhenkanal campus . Students who had participated in the series of Odia Wikipedia workshops earlier in the year took part in this event. Sampad Mohapatra, a TV and print media journalist inaugurated the event by lighting Dipa and cutting a birthday Chenapoda. Mohapatra shared his experiences on how the entire media industry relies on Wikipedia for collecting information and how contribution in regional languages will benefit the students through more job availability in the regional media. Professor Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee who heads the institution shared the way accessing knowledge is slowly moving to internet based search. He discussed strategies of how bringing more online content in regional languages will help the academia and the students. Usha Padhee, Secretary of Mass Education Department, Odisha Government distributed awards to the top Wikipedia contributors. She later presented on the role of media in educating society and Open Educational Resources in new tools of imparting knowledge.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/hastac-january-31-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-odia-wikipedia

CIS-A2K, KIIT University and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences sign MoUs

subha — 2014-02-03T06:24:18Z

KIIT University, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences and the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoUs) for furthering Odia Wikipedia.

Dr.Achyuta Samanta, Founder-Chairman of KIIT and KISS inaugurated both the collaborations formally. Dr. Sasmitarani Samanta, Registrar, KIIT and Surjya Kanta Mohanty, Chief Operating Officer, KISS signed the MoUs of KIIT and KISS respectively whereas T. Vishnuvardhan, Programme Director, CIS-A2K was there to sign in both the MoUs on behalf of CIS along with Subhashish Panigrahi, Programme Officer, CIS-A2K. Odia Wikipedians Dr. Subas Chandra Rout, Shitikantha Dash, Jnanaranjan Sahu and Sailesh Patnaik, senior faculty and management members; Prof. Parthosen Gupta, Professor-KIIT School of Management, Sucheta Priyabadini, Joint Registrar, KIIT Santosh K. Pani, Dean-KIIT School of Electrical Engineering and other staff members from KISS were there for this event.

The event was held on January 11, 2014 from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/cis-a2k-kiit-university-kaling-institute-of-social-sciences-mou

Train The Trainer Programme for Wikipedians

subha — 2013-11-18T08:24:52Z

Twenty Wikimedians from 10 cities speaking 8 languages attended the 4-day Train-The-Trainer (TTT) programme conducted last month by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge programme (CIS-A2K) at Bangalore. The programme aimed to improve and enhance Wikipedians' skills for outreach and community-building activities.

The article by Subhashish Panigrahi was edited by Rohini Lakshane and published in DNA on November 14, 2013.

Twenty Wikimedians from 10 cities speaking 8 languages attended the 4-day Train The Trainer (TTT) programme conducted last month by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge programme (CIS-A2K) at Bangalore. Twenty active Indian language Wikimedia communities spread across the world are moving ahead the bandwagon of collaborating with each other and carving their mark on the world's largest encyclopaedia and its other sister projects. Apart from editing Wikipedia articles, some Wikimedians devote their time to bringing new blood into the community and fostering it, so that the community grows. Indian language Wikimedia communities need to empower Wikimedians who would lead the outreach activities locally in their vernacular communities. The idea of the TTT programme was born out of this need.

The TTT programme kicked off on October 3 with Wikimedians from Punjab, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. They delivered presentations on various topics: Why the society needs Wikipedia; Wikipedia in Indian languages; How articles about diseases and other common medical science topics could be improved to help people; etc. Their presentation delivery skills were assessed by CIS-A2K's Director and Manager and they were offered individual assessment and feedback. Personal trainer Sachin Nagarajappa spent time with Wikimedians discussing mistakes that trainers do while conducting workshops and gradual improvement techniques for impactful outreach. Malayalam Wikimedian Viswanathan Prabhakaran held a session on "Crowd Sourcing from the Future" explaining various layers of crowdsourced projects.

On the next day, groups of Wikimedians were assigned the task of delivering a Wikipedia editing session to the audience as if the latter were new editors. Sachin conducted an advanced presentation skill improvement workshop based on inputs gathered from participants and the assessment of the group presentations. Veteran Wikimedian Hari Prasad Nadig shared lessons on "Challenges and Opportunities in building an Indian Language Community online". FOSS activist and CIS Executive Director Sunil Abraham conducted two sessions: "A spectrogram-based activity to simplify the criticality of Neutral Point of View" and an interactive session on offline and online outreach, "Speed Geeking". These were followed by one-on-one discussions on improving presentation skills.

	Typing in Indian languages is not easy, especially with the many typing layout standards used in the public and private sectors in India. CIS-A2K's Programme Officer Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted a session on the Unicode standard for Indian languages, its use and fonts in different operating systems. Social media expert and Wikimedian Tinu Cherian shared the secrets of popularising Indian language Wikipedias and bringing outstanding contributors to the limelight. He also spoke about how the media played an important role in showcasing initiatives for free encyclopaedic content contribution in India, and shared tips on using the social media. CIS-A2K's Programme Director Vishnu Vardhan shared case studies of making Wikipedia workshops interesting, interactive and fun. Viswanathan and CIS-A2K's Programme Officer Subhashish Panigrahi demonstrated how to set up a handheld digital camera-based prop to easily digitise books without using a scanner.

Typing in Indian languages is not easy, especially with the many typing layout standards used in the public and private sectors in India. CIS-A2K's Programme Officer Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted a session on the Unicode standard for Indian languages, its use and fonts in different operating systems. Social media expert and Wikimedian Tinu Cherian shared the secrets of popularising Indian language Wikipedias and bringing outstanding contributors to the limelight. He also spoke about how the media played an important role in showcasing initiatives for free encyclopaedic content contribution in India, and shared tips on using the social media. CIS-A2K's Programme Director Vishnu Vardhan shared case studies of making Wikipedia workshops interesting, interactive and fun. Viswanathan and CIS-A2K's Programme Officer Subhashish Panigrahi demonstrated how to set up a handheld digital camera-based prop to easily digitise books without using a scanner.

The most vital part of Wikipedia articles is citing references. Wikimedian Shyamal Lakshminarayan demonstrated how finding sources of references and citing them on Wikipedia could be made easier using various tools. Board member of the Wikimedia Foundation and writer Achal Prabhala shared stories of documenting orally continued traditions in Kerala and South Africa for building references on Wikipedia. He also shed light on how copyright laws evolved in the context of copyright issues that Wikipedia contributors face, and on content donation on WikiSource and other platforms.

Wikimedia India's founding member and veteran Telugu Wikimedian Arjuna Rao Chavala spoke about the history and future plans of Wikimedia India.

The participants then went to M.G. Road Boulevard to see the weaving work by Gandhians, a philately exhibition on Gandhi, and spent some time with Namma Metro's staff to learn about the operations of the Metro. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja and Kannada Wikimedian Om Shivaprakash guided the Wikimedians to the office of Deccan Herald-Prajavani where they observed the newspaper production process and learnt about the use of Kannada Unicode fonts in newspaper printing. The editor and staff of Prajavani learnt about the use of the Wikimedia Commons as a free media repository. The Wikimedians left Bangalore with happy faces with the hope of cultivating more editors in their communities.

Link to the meta page here

More pictures here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dnaindia-november-14-2013-subhashish-panigrahi-train-the-trainer-programme-for-wikipedians

Train the Trainer Program

subha — 2013-11-18T07:52:26Z

Wikipedians, about 20 of them, from 10 different cities, speaking 8 different languages, joined together for the first ever four days "Train the Trainer Program" organised by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team in Bangalore from October 3 to 6, 2013.

Read the original published on the Wikipedia meta page

CIS-A2K organised the residency training program to build capacities amongst different language Wikimedia communities. A good diversity of Wikipedians from various language communities such as Bengali, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Odia, came over for the event.

CIS-A2K identified two prominent reasons for organizing the event: (1) Limitations of a virtual sphere, and (2) Limited number of Wikipedians leading outreach activities.

Limitations of a virtual sphere
Most open source communities face problem of a lack of time and space for sharing ideas in a non-virtual sphere. Similary Wikipedians, who are voluntary contributors and authors of the articles posted on Wikipedia merely get time and opportunity to meet fellow editors because of the limitations of a virtual platform on which Wikipedia is built. There are twelve active Indian language Wikimedia communities that are spread across the world and moving the bandwagon of collaborating with each other and carving their historic mark of compiling the world's largest encyclopaedia and its other sister projects. To keep this movement alive there is a need of cross-sharing ideas of working together for a common goal and strengthening the leaders of these communities.

Limited number of Wikipedians leading outreach activities
Only a handful of Wikipedians devote their time in leading outreach activities and bringing new blood to the community. Indian language Wikimedia communities are in need of empowering Wikipedians who would lead outreach sessions in order to expand their editor community and strengthen their language projects.

The inception of this program began with the discussion of organizing a training program for the Wikipedians who are willing to conduct more activities in their home cities. Finally on October 3, 2013, Bangalore heard the voices of prominent Wikipedians from Punjab, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. The Wikipedians delivered presentations on various topics such as — why Wikipedia is needed for the society, why Wikipedia in Indian languages, importance of starting new Wiki projects and so on.

Their presentation delivery skills were judged by Vishnu Vardhan and Nitika Tandon and all other community members present. They gave individual assessments and feedback for improvement towards the end of the day. Personal trainer Sachin Nagarajappa spent time with Wikipedians discussing mistakes that trainers do while conducting workshops and gradual improvement techniques for impactful outreach. Wikipedia is built on the concept of crowdsourcing and Malayalam Wikimedian Viswanathan Prabhakaran carried out a session about “Crowd Sourcing from the Future” explaining the various layers of crowdsourced projects.

The first day ended with a task where different language Wikipedians formed groups to prepare presentations for the following day.


Above: Wikipedians Satdeep Gill, Shyamal Lakshminarayan and Shubha during at the CIS-A2K Train-the-Trainer Program (by Subhashish Panigrahi, CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Groups were given a challenge of imagining the audience as new wikipedians. Five groups presented on the second day. Sachin conducted an advanced presentation skill improvement workshop based on the inputs from the participants and the assessment of the group presentations. Veteran Wikipedian Hari Prasad Nadig shared learnings from Challenges & Opportunities in building an Indian Language Community online. Open source activist and CIS's Executive Director Sunil Abraham conducted two sessions — a spectrogram based activity to simplify the "Criticality of Neutral Point of View" and an interactive session called “Speed Geeking” on offline and online outreach followed by a one-on-one discussion on the presentation skill improvement.

Typing in Indian languages is not easy especially when it comes to multiple typing layout standards followed in the public and private sectors in India. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted a session on Unicode standard for Indian languages and its usefulness with a brief context on the fonts and their different operating systems. Social media expert and Wikimedian Tinu Cherian shared the secrets of popularizing Indian language Wikipedias and bringing outstanding contributors to the limelight, how media played an important role in showcasing initiatives for free encyclopaedic content contribution in India and tips of social media. With fun activities Vishnu Vardhan shared case studies of making Wikipedia workshops interesting. Wikimedia Foundation board member and writer Achal Prabhala shared stories of documenting Oral traditions in Kerala and South Africa for Wikipedia referencing and how copyright laws evolved in the context of copyright issues that Wikipedia contributors face. Achal also threw light on content donation on WikiSource and other platforms that would be useful for people to consume for knowledge production on diverse platforms where Wikipedia could play a central role. Viswanathan and Subhashish Panigrahi demonstrated how to set up a handheld digital camera based prop to easily digitize books without using any scanner and then create electronic books.

The most vital part of Wikipedia articles is referencing. Wikimedian Shyamal Lakshminarayan demonstrated how finding sources of references and citing them for the facts on Wikipedia could be made easier through detailed research and by using several tools available. Wikimedia India's founding member and veteran Telugu Wikipedian Arjuna Rao Chavala gave a talk about the history and future plans of Wikimedia India. Wikipedians then went to M.G. Road boulevard to see the weaving work by Gandhians, Philately exhibition on Gandhi and spent some time with Namma Metro's staff to know about the metro operation. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja and Kannada Wikipedian Om Shivaprakash guided Wikipedians to the office of Deccan Herald Prajavani where they got to see the entire newspaper production and spent time with the technical staff to learn about the use of Kannada Unicode fonts for newspaper printing. Editors and staff at Prajavani got to know about the use of WikiCommons as a free image repository.

The four action filled days involved learning new concepts, training on presentation skills, collaborating to create outreach documents, sharing stories from different language communities, understanding new mediums of outreach, meeting Wikipedians from different cities and also having lots of fun. Wikipedians left Bangalore city with happy faces and we hope to cultivate new editors in their communities.

List of Participants

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/train-the-trainer-program

Priyadarshini Tadkodkar on Konkani language

subha — 2014-01-31T06:20:11Z

CIS-A2K team interviewed Priyadarshini Tadkodkar about Konkani language. She speaks how editing/contributing to Konkani Wikipedia would help students.

Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team was there in Goa University to conduct a four day long Konkani Wikipedia workshop for the MA Konkani students. During these days Subhashish Panigrahi of CIS-A2K caught up with Dr. Priyadarshini Tadkodkar, Head, Konkani department of Goa University and asked about the brief history of Konkani language. In this video Dr. Tadkodkar shares the origin and movements that has affected Konkani, influence of other languages on it and the documentation process of the language. The Census Department of India, 2001 figures put the number of Konkani speakers in India as 2,489,015. Out of these, around 6 lakh were in Goa, 7 lakh in Karnataka, 3 lakh in Maharashtra, 6 lakh in Kerala and rest live outside of India, either as expatriates or citizens of other countries (NRIs).

Video


Above: Video of Priyadarshini Tadkodkar speaking on Konkani language

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/priyadarshini-tadkodkar-konkani-language

WikipediansSpeak: Piotr Konieczny

subha — 2013-09-18T12:22:36Z

WikipediansSpeak is a video interview show hosted by Subhashish Panigrahi at the Centre of Internet and Society. It brings you series of posts about Wikipedians across the globe. Wikipedians are those voluntary contributors who write Wikipedia articles, correct mistakes made by other wikipedians and share knowledge for free to the world.

Video production: Subhashish Panigrahi, Access To Knowledge Programme (Centre for Internet and Society), CC-BY-SA 3.0

This episode brings you a conversation with Piotr Konieczny, a veteran Wikipedian from Poland. He has contributed to over 514 DYK articles on Wikipedia. Being a sociologist and academician Piotr has always tried to divert attention more students, academicians, researchers, scholars to contribute to Wikipedia. I first met Piotr during WikiSym + OpenSym Conference at Hong Kong and again at Wikimania 2013. It was the beginning of my Wiki-experience of meeting more researchers and scholars who are also Wikipedians. Piotr is now based in Seoul and where he is teaching Informational Sociology at the Hanyang University (한양대학교). His keen interest in using Wikipedia as a teaching tool and Wikipedia’s impact in social movement brings the expanse of diversifying Wikipedia’s outreach to masses. In academia he proposes for Wikipedia Education Programs that converts the users of Wikipedia to contribute who elsewhere use it just as a tool to accessing knowledge. If a small portion of the subject experts start contributing to Wikipedia then there would be a big change in this world.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedians-speak-piotr-konieczny