Centre for Internet and Society

ଅନଲାଇନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ଗଢ଼ା

subha — 2016-06-08T02:51:14Z

I wrote this article in Samanya Kathan, an Odia-language portal on June 5, 2016. The article is about the journey of the Odia Wikipedia and was published on the day the contributor community was celebrating the 14th anniversary of the project.

Read the originally published article here

ଜଣାଶୁଣା ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି, ବିଷୟ, ଘଟଣା, ସ୍ଥାନ ଆଦି ବିଷୟରେ ସଂକ୍ଷେପରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ବା ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷର ପରିକଳ୍ପନା। ତାକୁ ପୁଣି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରିବା ପାଇଁ 2001ରେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେଲା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ। ପ୍ରଥମେ ଇଂରାଜୀରେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇ ପରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାକୁ ଏହା ବଢ଼ିଲା। ଆଉ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଉ ଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହବାର ବର୍ଷଟିଏ ପରେ 2002 ମସିହାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ, ଅହମିୟା, ପଞ୍ଜାବୀ ଓ ମାଲାୟାଲାମ ଭାଷାରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେଲା। ପ୍ରଥମ ଚାରୋଟି ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାରେ ତିଆରି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଭିତରୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଗୋଟେ ବୋଲି ଅନେକଙ୍କୁ ଆଜି ବି ଅଜଣା। ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ https://or.wikipedia.org ରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ। ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପାଖାପାଖି 9 ବର୍ଷ ଧରି ସକ୍ରିୟ ସମ୍ପାଦନାର ଅଭାବରୁ 2011 ଯାଏ ଏକ ରକମ ନିଷ୍କ୍ରିୟ ହୋଇ ପଡ଼ିରହିଥିଲା। 2011ରେ ଏଥିରେ ଅନେକ ସ୍ବେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ସମ୍ପାଦକ ବଉଇକିଆଳିମାନେ ଯୋଡ଼ିହୋଇ ଲେଖିବା ଆରମ୍ଭ କରିବା ଫଳରେ ଅଧୁନା ଏଥିରେ 10,619 ସଂଖ୍ୟକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖାସରିଲାଣି। ଆଉ ନିତି ନୂଆ ନୂଆ ଲେଖା ଏଥିରେ ଯୋଡ଼ିହୋଇ ଚାଲିଛି।

ତେବେ ଜଣେ ସାଧାରଣ ପାଠକ ପାଇଁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ କ’ଣ ରହିଛି ତାହା ଜାଣିବା ବେଶି ଜରୁରୀ। ଜ୍ଞାନ ଆହରଣର ବାଟ ପିଢ଼ିରୁ ପିଢ଼ିକୁ ବଦଳେ। ଆମ ପିଲାବେଳେ ଆମେ କାଁ ଭାଁ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର ଓ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ସୁବିଧା ପାଉଥିଲୁ। ଆଉ ସେତେବେଳେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ମିଡିୟମ ସ୍କୁଲର ପାଠାଗାର କିଛି ଗପ ଉପନ୍ୟାସ ବହି ଭିତରେ ସୀମିତ ଥିଲା। ନୂଆ ବହିଟିଏ ଦେଖିବା ଆଗରୁ କାନ୍ଥରୁ ଚୂନ ଝଡ଼ିପଡୁଥିଲା। ହେଲେ ଏବେ ଘରେଘେ ଏକାଧିକ ମୋବାଇଲ ଆଉ ସେସବୁ ପୁଣି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ସୁବିଧା ଥିବା ସ୍ମାର୍ଟଫୋନ ଆସିଲାଣି। ସ୍କୁଲ ପିଲାଏ ଆଉ କିଛି କରନ୍ତୁ ନ କରନ୍ତୁ କିନ୍ତୁ ଗେମ ଖେଳିବା କି ଫେସବୁକ ଆଦିରେ ସାଙ୍ଗମାନଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଚାଟିଂ ଆଦି କରିବାରେ ପୋକ ହେଲେଣି। ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରୁ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ମୋବାଇଲମୁଖୀ ହୋଇଗଲାଣି। ପିଲାଙ୍କଠୁ ବଡ଼ ଯାଏ କାହା ପାଖେ ଆଉ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ ବ୍ରିଟାନିକା ଭଳି ଓଜନିଆ ପୋଥି ଦେଇ କିଛି ଖୋଜିବା ପାଇଁ ବେଳ ନାହିଁ। ତେଣୁ ଏଭଳି ପରିସ୍ଥିତିରେୌଣସି ବିଷୟକୁ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକାଭିମୁଖୀ କରିବାର ସୁବିଧା ବାଟ ହେଉଛି ସେସବୁକୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବା। ତେବେ ଏହା ବହି ବା ଜର୍ଣ୍ଣାଲର ବିକଳ୍ପ ନୁହେଁ। ବରଂ ବହି ସଙ୍ଗେ ଭିନ୍ନ ଏକ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣର ବାଟ ରୂପରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଅଧିକରୁ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖେ ପହଞ୍ଚିପାରୁଛି।

ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ଆହରଣର ସ୍ଥିତି ଭିନ୍ନ। ତେବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପାଇଁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ଅବସ୍ଥା ଯେତେ ଚିନ୍ତାଜନକ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାକୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଅଧିକ ବ୍ୟବହାର ଉପଯୋଗୀ କରିବା ସେତେ ଅଧିକ ଲୋଡ଼ା। 2011 ଜନଗଣନା ତଥ୍ୟ ଅନୁସାରେ ଓଡ଼ିଶାରେ ମାତ୍ର 1.4 ଭାଗ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଖେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ସୁବିଧା ଥିଲା। ଏହି ପାଞ୍ଚ ବର୍ଷ ଭିତରେ ଏହା ବହୁ ଅଧିକ ବଢ଼ିଥିବ। ହେଲେ ସେ ସଭିଏଁ କ’ଣ ସତରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟର ବ୍ୟବହାର କରୁଛନ୍ତି ନା ସୀମିତ କେତୋଟି ସାଇଟ ଭିତରେ ସୀମିତ। ଅଧିକାଂଶ ତଥାକଥିତ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ବ୍ୟବହାରକାରୀ ଫେସବୁକରେ ସାଙ୍ଗମାନଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଭାବ ଦିଆନିଆ କି ହୁଆଟସଆପରେ ପରିଚିତଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଆଳାପ ଅଥବା ଇଉଟିଉବରୁ ଗୀତ ଶୁଣିବା ବାହାରେ ବେଶୀ କିଛି ଜାଣନ୍ତି ନାହିଁ। ଏହାର ମୁଖ୍ୟ କାରଣ ହେଉଛି ସେମାନଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ସବୁଠୁ ବେଶୀ ପରିଚିତ ଭାଷା ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ବେଶୀ ୱେବସାଇଟ ନାହିଁ। ଖବର ପଢ଼ାଳିଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ନା ଭଲ ଖବର ୱେବସାଇଟଟିଏ ରହିଛି ନା ଗବେଷକଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଆମ ଐତିହ୍ୟ ଓ ପୁରୁଣା ଶିଳ୍ପ ବାବଦରେ ପଢ଼ିବା ପାଇଁ ଆମ ମିଉଜିଅମ ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ସମସ୍ତ କଳାକୃତିର ତଥ୍ୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଦିଆଯାଇଛି। ସେମିତି ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟ ଜାଣିବା ପାଇଁ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ନିହାତି ଦରକାରୀ ବିଷୟ ମଧ୍ୟ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ନାହିଁ। ଏଭଳି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ କେଇଶହ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଭିତରୁ କେବଳ ଗୋଟେ କାଗଜର ଖବରଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଇଣଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜି ପାଇହେବ। କାରଣ ବାକି ଖବରକାଗଜର ଲେଖା ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ଭଳି ଆନ୍ତର୍ଜାତିକ ମାନକକୁ ନ ଆପଣାଇ ଆକୃତି, ଶ୍ରୀଲିପି ଆଦି ପୁରୁଣାକାଳିଆ ଅଣ-ମାନକ ସଫ୍ଟଓଏରରେ ଲେଖି ଛବି ଭାବେ କିମ୍ବା ପିଡିଏଫ ଡକୁମେଣ୍ଟ ଭାବେ ସେମାନଙ୍କ ସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ। ସେଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଦେଖିବାକୁ ଭିନ୍ନ ନ ଲାଗିଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଗୁଗୁଲ ବା ସର୍ଚ ଇଞ୍ଜିନରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଖୋଜିହୁଏ ନାହିଁ କିମ୍ବା ମୋବାଇଲ ଆଦିରେ ସଳଖେ ପଢ଼ିହୁଏ ନାହିଁ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ 1930 ମସିହାରେ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ଭାଷାକୋଷ ଭଳି ବିଶାଳ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ରଚନା କାମ ଆଜିଯାଏ ଆଉ କିଛି ହୋଇପାରିନାହିଁ। ଆଧୁନିକ ଟେକନୋଲୋଜି ବ୍ ୟବହାର କରି ଏବେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଅତୀତ ସହ ସନ୍ଧିଟିଏ ତିଆରି କରିପାରିବ। ଏହା ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବେ ଅଣ-ଲାଭକାରୀ ଓ ଏଥିରେ ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ନ ଥାଏ। ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖାଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଲେଖୁଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଏ ସଭିଏଁ ସ୍ବେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ଓ ଲେଖାସବୁ ସେମାନଙ୍କ ସତ୍ବାଧ‍କାରରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ। ତେବେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣ ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟରେ ତିଆରି ହୋଇଥିବାରୁ ଲେଖାସବୁ କପିରାଇଟ ଦେଇ ନ ରୋକିବା ଲାଗି ସେସବୁ କ୍ରିଏଟିଭ କମନ୍ସ ସେଆର-ଏଲାଇକ ଲାଇସେନ୍ସରେ ବିତରିତ। ଫଳରେ ସଭିଏଁ ମାଗଣାରେ ପଢ଼ିପାରିବେ , ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗଗୁଡ଼ିକ ପୁନଃବ୍ୟବହାର କରିପାରିବେ ଓ ଉଭୟ ଲାଭକାରୀ ଓ ଅଣଲାଭକାରୀ କାମରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିପାରିବେ। ଏଥି ସହିତ କୌଣସି ଲେଖାରେ ଭୁଲ ପାଇଲେ ଜଣେ ଲେଖା ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରି ସୁଧାରିପାରିବେ। ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖା ଓ ସମ୍ପାଦନା ପଦ୍ଧତି ଏତେ ଖୋଲା ଯେ ପ୍ରାୟ ସବୁ ଲେଖା ଏକ ନୁହେଁ ଅନେକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ଏକାଠି ଲିଖିତ। ତେବେ ଲେଖାର ମାନରେ ସମତା ରଖିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ କେତେଗୁଡ଼ିଏ ନିୟମାବଳୀ ତିଆରି ହୋଇଛି। ଏଗୁଡ଼ିକ 293ଟି ଭାଷାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ସବୁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପାଇଁ ମୋଟାମଟି ଏକା ହେଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭାଷାଭାଷୀ ଉଇକିଆଳିଗଣ ନିଜ ଭାଷା ଓ ସମାଜର ଆବଶ୍ୟକତାକୁ ଆଖିରେ ରଖି ସେଗୁଡ଼ିକୁ ସାମାନ୍ୟ ବଦଳାଇଛନ୍ତି। ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିବିଶେଷଙ୍କ ବାବଦରେ କିମ୍ବା ଘଟଣା ବାବଦରେ ଲିଖିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଏକପାଖିଆ ନ ହୋଇ ନିରପେକ୍ଷ ଭାବେ ଲେଖିବା ଏହି ନିୟମାବଳୀ ମଧ୍ୟରୁ ଏକ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ନିୟମ। ସେହି ଭଳି ନିଜ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ମତ ବଦଳରେ କେବଳ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ତଥ୍ୟ ଲେଖିବା ଆଉ ଏକ ନିୟମ। ସବୁଠାରୁ ମଜାର କଥା ହେଲା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ କୌଣସି ଦେଶ ବା ସଙ୍ଗଠ ଅଧୀନରେ ନ ଥାଇ ଏହା ଉପରେ ପ୍ରତିଟି ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ସମାନ ଅଧିକାର ରହିଛି। ପୁଣି ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଭିତରେ ସେମାନଙ୍କ କାମକୁ ନେଇ ଦାୟିତ୍ବ ବଣ୍ଟାଯାଇଛି। ବିବାଦ ଉପୁଜିଲେ ବି ସୁଧାରିବାକୁ ରହିଛି କିଛି ସ୍ବେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀଙ୍କୁ ନେଇ ତିଆରି କମିଟିମାନ।

ତେବେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଥିବା ସବୁଯାକ ଲେଖାକୁ ଆଖିବୁଜି ଗ୍ରହଣ କରାଯାଇପାରିବ ନାହିଁ। କାରଣ ପ୍ୟାରିସ ଉପରେ ଥିବା ଲେଖାଟି ଶହେ କି ହଜାରେ ଲୋକ ମିଶି ଲେଖିଥିବା ବେଳେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ବର ଉପରେ ଥିବା ଲେଖାଟି ହାତଗଣତି କେତେ ଜଣ ହୁଏତ ଲେଖିଥିବେ। ଯେଉଁ ଲେଖା ଯେତେ ଅଧିକ ଅଭିଜ୍ଞତା ଥିବା ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ଯେତେ ଘସାମଜା ହୋଇ ଲେଖାହୋଇଥିବ ସେ ଲେଖା ସେତେ ଉଜ୍ଜଳ ହୋଇ ଚମକୁଥିବ। ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧିତ ଲେଖାସବୁରୁ ଇଂରାଜୀ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଭଲ ଲେଖା ଖୋଜି ପାଇବା କଷ୍ଟ। ଆଉ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖୁଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ସଂଖ୍ୟା ପାଖାପାଖି 30 ଭିତରେ। ସାଢ଼େ ଚାରିକୋଟି ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ଯଦି ଏତେ କମ ଲୋକ ଏତେ ବଡ଼ କାମର ବୋଝ ଉଠାଉଥିବେ ତେହେଲେ ସବୁ ଲେଖାର ମାନ ଯେ ଏକା ଭଳି ଓ ସବୁ ଲେଖାରେ ଆବଶ୍ୟକ ସବୁ ତଥ୍ୟ ମିଳିବ ତା’ର ମାନେ ନାହିଁ। ତେଣୁ କେବେ କେବେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ମେଳା ମଉଛବକୁ ଧ ରି ଲେଖାଳିଏ ମିଶି ଗୋଟେ ବିଷୟରେ ଅଧିକ ଲେଖା ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଗଣ-ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରନ୍ତି। ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ ଚଳଣି ଉପରେ ଲିଖିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସବୁ ନବକଳେବର ସମୟରେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଖବରକାଗଜ ଓ ପତ୍ରିକା ଆଦିରୁ ତଥ୍ୟ ସଂଗ୍ରହ କରି ବହୁଭାବେ ଉନ୍ନତ କରାଯାଇଥିଲା। ଏବେ ଏ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସବୁ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ବାକି ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ସବୁଠାରୁ ଅଧିକ ତଥ୍ୟରେ ଭରା। ଏଥିରେ ଲେଖିବାକୁ ଆଗ୍ରହୀ ଓଡ଼ିଆମାନେ https://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CS ପୃଷ୍ଠାରେ ଦିଆଯାଇଥିବା ସରଳ ନିର୍ଦ୍ଦେଶ ପଢ଼ି ନିଜେ ମଧ୍ୟ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ସ୍ଥାନ ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ବିଷୟରେ ଲେଖିପାରିବେ।

ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ହେଉଛି ଏକ ଯାତ୍ରା। ଆଉ ଏ ବାଟ ଅସରନ୍ତି। ଯେତେ େଖିଲେ ବି ସରିବନି କିନ୍ତୁ ଲେଖା ଚାଲିରହିଥିବ। ଆଜି ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ଭିତରେ ଅଳପ ଜଣା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଜଗତର ବାକି ଭାଷାରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ବାକି ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ସଙ୍ଗେ ସମକକ୍ଷ ହୋଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ମଥାକୁ ଟେକି ଧରିବା ପାଇଁ ସପନ ଦେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଲୋଡ଼ା ଅଧିକରୁ ଅଧିକ ହାତ।

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samanya-kathan-subhashish-panigrahi-june-5-2016-article-on-journey-of-odia-wikipedia

ଅବସର ପରର ଦ୍ବିତୀୟ ଜୀବନ, ଅବସର ପରେ ସକ୍ରିୟ ଭାବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖାଲେଖି ଜାରୀ ରଖିଥିବା ଜଣେ ଡାକ୍ତରଙ୍କ ସ‌ହ ଭାବାଲୋଚନା

subha — 2013-09-13T08:38:01Z

This is a column about Dr. Subas Chandra Rout, a noteworthy wikipedian who started contributing to Wikipedia articles on Odia Wikipedia related to medical science after retiring as an Orthopedic Specialist-Assistant Professor of a Medical college.

This guest column by Subhashish Panigrahi was published by Odiapua on September 10, 2013.

(ଶୁଭାଶିଷ ପାଣିଗ୍ରାହୀ)
ଅଧିକାଂଶ ସମୟରେ ଦେଖାଯାଏ ଯେ ଅବସର ପରେ ଚାକିରୀରେ ଥିବା ଲୋକେ ସ୍ଥାଣୁ ହୋଇପଡ଼ନ୍ତି୤ ଅବସର ସମୟ ବିତେ ଟିଭି ଦେଖିବାରେ କିମ୍ବା ଛୋଟ ମୋଟ ଘର କାମ କରିବାରେ୤ ତେବେ ଜୀବନର ଅଧାରୁ ଅଧିକ ସମୟ ଯାହାର କଟିଥିବ ନିଜ ବୃତ୍ତି-ବେଉସା ପାଇଁ ଅବସର ପରେ ତା' ବିନା ବଞ୍ଚିବା କଷ୍ଟକର ହେଉନ‌ଥିବ କି? ଏ ପ୍ରଶ୍ନଟିର ଉତ୍ତର ଦେବା ଆହୁରି କଷ୍ଟ୤ ଅବସରର ଅର୍ଥ ଦୈନନ୍ଦିନ କାମରୁ ବିରତି ନେଇ ସାମାଜିକ, ପାରିବାରିକ ଓ ଜଞ୍ଜାଳହୀନ ଚାକିରୀରୁ ବିରାମ ନେବା୤ ତେବେ ଅନେକଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଏ ବିରାମର ମାନେ କିଛି ନ ଥାଏ୤ ଢିଙ୍କି ସ୍ବର୍ଗକୁ ଗଲେ ବି ଧାନ କୁଟିବା ଭଳି କିଛି ଲୋକ ଅବସର ପରେ ନିଜର ଜ୍ଞାନର ପରିସରକୁ ଆହୁରି ପରିବ୍ୟାପ୍ତ କରାନ୍ତି୤ ଚାକିରୀର ବ୍ୟସ୍ତତା ଭିତରେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣର ସୁଯୋଗଟିକ‌କ ଯେଉଁ କେବେ କେବେ ହାତଛଡ଼ା ହେଇଯାଉଥିବ ତାକୁ ବଢ଼ାନ୍ତି୤ ପୁରା ସମ‌ୟକୁ ବିନି‌ଯୋଗ କରନ୍ତି ଅଧିକ ପଢ଼ିବା ଓ ଅଧିକ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣ କରିବାରେ୤ ଏମିତି ଜଣେ ଡାକ୍ତର ଡା ସୁବାସ ଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ରାଉତ୤ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ଅବସ୍ଥାପିତ ଡା. ରାଉତ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ସରକାରଙ୍କ ଅଧୀନରେ ଅନେକ କାଳ କାମ କରିବା ପରେ ଅବସର ନେଇସାରିଛନ୍ତି୤ ସେ କିଛି କାଳ କିମ୍ସ କଲେଜରେ ସ‌ହକାରୀ ପ୍ରଫେସର ଭାବେ ମଧ୍ୟ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ କରିଛନ୍ତି୤ ତାଙ୍କର ଅବସର ସମୟ ବିତୁଥିଲା ବ‌ହି ପଢ଼ାରେ ଓ କବୀରଙ୍କ ଦୋହାବଳୀକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିବାରେ୤ ଏହି ପଢ଼ାପଢ଼ି-ଲେଖାଲେଖି ଭିତରେ ଥରେ ତାଙ୍କ ଆଖିରେ ପଡ଼ିଲା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ଫେସବୁକ ଗ୍ରୁପ୤ ସେଠି ଦେଖିଲେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ନାନାଦି ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଜଣେ ପ୍ରମୁଖ ସଭ୍ୟ ମୃତ୍ୟୁଞ୍ଜୟ କରଙ୍କର ଆମନ୍ତ୍ରଣ୤ ଜିଜ୍ଞାସୁ ଡାକ୍ତର ମନ ପଚାରିବସିଲା ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ କଣ, ସେଥିରେ ଜଣେ ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକର ଭୂମିକା କଣ, କିପରି ଜଣେ ସେଥିରେ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗମାନ ଲେଖିପାରିବ୤ ମୃତ୍ୟୁଞ୍ଜୟ ଓ ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ସଭ୍ୟଙ୍କ ଆଦର ଓ ସମ୍ମାନ ତାଙ୍କୁ ଆଗଭର କରାଇଲା ଅଧିକ ଜାଣିବା ପାଇଁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବାବଦରେ୤ ନୂଆ ନୁଆ ଜିନିଷ ଶିଖିବାକୁ ମିଳୁଥାଏ୤ ପ୍ରଥମେ ସେ ଏକ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଉଇକିକଥାରେ ନୂଆ ନୂଆ ଅସୁବିଧାକୁ ସାମ୍ନା କରିବା ଭିତରେ ଡା. ରାଉତ ଆରମ୍ଭ କଲେ ନିଜ ସାରାଜୀବନର ସାଇତା ଚିକିତ୍ସା ବିଜ୍ଞାନ ସମ୍ପର୍କିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖିବା୤ ଆରମ୍ଭରେ ଅସୁବିଧା ହେଉଥିଲା ୟୁନିକୋଡ଼ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରି ଲେଖିବାରେ୤ ପରେ ଧୀରେ ଧୀରେ ଅଧିକ ଲେଖୁ ଲେଖୁ ବାଟ ହୁଡ଼ୁଥିବା ଲୋକଟି ପାଲଟିଗଲା ପଟୁ ଲେଖାଳୀ୤ ୪୨ ଟି ନୂଆ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ତିଆରିଥିବା ଓ ଅନେକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗକୁ ଶତାଧିକ ଥର ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରିଥିବା ଡା. ରାଉତ କହନ୍ତି, 'ବାକି ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ଶ୍ରଦ୍ଧା, ସମ୍ମାନ ଓ ସହଯୋଗ ପାଇଁ ମୁଁ ଆଜି ମୋର ପୁରା ଅବସର ଜୀବନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଲେଖିବାରେ ବିନିଯୋଗ କରିଦେଇଛି୤' ଅଗଷ୍ଟ ୭ ରୁ ୧୧ ଯାଏଁ ହଂକଂଠାରେ ଜଗତର ୨୮୬ ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଭାଷାରେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରୁଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ସମାବେଶ "ଉଇକିମାନିଆ ୨୦୧୩"ରେଯୋଗଦାନ କରିଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ଜଣେ ମାତ୍ର ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଥିଲା ଏ ଲେଖକ୤ ସେଠାରେ ଡା ସୁବାସ ରାଉତଙ୍କ ଭଳି ଆହୁରି କେତେ ଜଣ ବୟୋଜ୍ୟେଷ୍ଠ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ସମ୍ପାଦକଙ୍କ ସହ ଭେଟିବାର ସୁଯୋଗ ମିଳିଥିଲା୤ ଆଗାମୀ ଉଇକିମାନିଆ ଯାହା ଲଣ୍ଡନରେ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠିତ ହେଉଛି ସେଥିରେ ଅଂଶଗ୍ରହଣ କରିବାକୁ ଆଗ୍ରହୀ ଡା. ରାଉତ୤ ସେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ଥିବା ବାକି ଯୁବ ସମ୍ପାଦକଙ୍କୁ ଏକାଠି କରି ଅଧିକରୁ ଅଧିକ ସଚେତନତା ତଥା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରିବା ବାବଦରେ କର୍ମଶାଳାର ଆୟୋଜନ କରୁଛନ୍ତି୤ ସହଜରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖିବା ପାଇଁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଚ୍ଚାରଣକୁ ନେଇ "ଲେଖନୀ" ନାମରେ ଏକ କି-ବୋର୍ଡ଼ ଲେଆଉଟ ଆମେମାନେ ତିଆରି କରିଥିଲୁ ଯାହା ସହାୟତାରେ କୌଣସି ବି ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରିପାରିବ୤ ଏଥିରେ ଥିବା ନାନାଦି ଅସୁବିଧାକୁ ଜଣାଇବାରେ ଡା. ରାଉତଙ୍କ ଅବଦାନ କିଛି କମ ନୁହେଁ୤ ଏହା ନିର୍ଭୁଲ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଟାଇପିଂରେ ସହାୟକ ହେଉଛି୤ ଚାକିରୀ ପରର ଅବସର ଜୀବନ ତାଙ୍କର କଟୁଛି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଡାକ୍ତରୀ ବିଷୟ ସମ୍ପର୍କିତ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ସମ୍ପାଦନା ଓ କିଛି ମାତ୍ରାରେ କବୀର ଦୋହାର ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅନୁବାଦ କରିବାରେ୤ ବିଳମ୍ବରେ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବାବଦରେ ଜାଣିଲେ ବୋଲି କହି ମନ ଉଣା କରି ସେ କହନ୍ତି, “ଆଗରୁ ଜାଣିଥିଲେ ହୁଏତ ଆହୁରି କେତେ ଗୁଡ଼ିଏ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗରେ ଲେଖିପାରିଥାନ୍ତି"୤ ନିଜର କୁନି ନାତୁଣୀ ସହିତ ଟିକେ ଖେଳିବା ବ୍ୟତୀତ ବାକି ସମୟ ସେ ଏମିତି ଜଣେ ସ୍ୱର୍େଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ଭାବରେ ଓଡିଆରେ ଜ୍ଞାନର ବିତରଣର ସବୁଠୁ ବିଶାଳ ମାଧ୍ୟମ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ସମ୍ପାଦନାରେ ସମୟ କାଟିବେ ବୋଲି କହନ୍ତି ଡା ସୁବାସ ଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ରାଉତ୤

ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ବାବଦରେ: ସୁଭାସିସ ପାଣିଗ୍ରାହୀ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ସ‌ହିତ ୩ ବର୍ଷ ଧରି ଜଡ଼ିତ ଅଛନ୍ତି୤ ଅତୀତରେ ସେ ଉଇକିମିଡ଼ିଆ ଫାଉଣ୍ଡେସନରେ କମ୍ୟୁନିଟି ଓ ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମ ସ‌ପୋର୍ଟ କନସଲଟାଣ୍ଟ ଭାବେ କାମ କରିଛନ୍ତି୤ ଅଧୁନା ସେ ବାଙ୍ଗାଲୋରଠାରେ ସେଣ୍ଟର ଫର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଏଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟିର ଆକ୍ସେସ ଟୁ ନଲେଜରେ ପ୍ରୋଗ୍ରାମ ଅଫିସର ଭାବରେ ଅବସ୍ଥାପିତ୤ ସେଠାରେ ସେ ଭାରତୀୟ ଭାଷାର ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଓ ସେଥିରେ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖୁଥିବା ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ସମ୍ପାଦକମାନଙ୍କର ବିକାଶ ନିମନ୍ତେ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟରତ୤ ଟେକ୍ନୋଲୋଜି କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ବିକାଶ ଓ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରୀକରଣ ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ ତାଙ୍କର ଅନେକ ଲେଖା ନାନାଦି ସମ୍ବାଦପ୍ତ୍ର ଓ ପ‌ତ୍ରପ‌ତ୍ରିକାରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ୤ ତାଙ୍କୁ subhashshish@cis-india.orgରେ ଇ-ମେଲ ଯୋଗେ ଯୋଗାଯୋଗ କରା‌ଯାଇପାରିବ୤

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odiapua-subhashish-sep-10-odia-wikipedian-subas-rout

ମାତୃଭାଷା ଦିବସ: ଆଜିର ସମସ୍ୟା ଓ ଆହ୍ୱାନ

subha — 2016-02-26T16:52:36Z

The article was published in the editorial section of Odia newspaper the Sambad on February 21, 2016. This piece explains about the challenges of expanding a knowledge base in Odia language and helping it grow beyond just the literature and to a language of knowledge.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/b2eb3eb24b43b2db3eb37b3e-b26b3fb2cb38-b06b1cb3fb30-b38b2eb38b4db5fb3e-b13-b06b39b4db71b3eb28

ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ନିରାପତ୍ତା ଓ ଗୋପନୀୟତାର କୋକୁଆ ଆଣିବ ଫେସବୁକର ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ

subha — 2016-01-28T07:24:19Z

This opinion piece in Odia on Facebook's Free Basics App was published in Your Story. The post highlights several user security and privacy that Free Basics is violating apart from violating net neutrality. It also brings the parallel of Airtel Zero and Free Basics with the Grameenphone project by Mozilla in Bangladesh and the worldwide Wikipedia Zero projects.

This was published in Your Story on January 5, 2016.

ଫେସବୁକର ନୂଆ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ (Free Basics) ଭାରତରେ ଆସିବା ଆଗରୁ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ଭିତରେ ନିଜ ନିରାପତ୍ତା ଓ ଗୋପନୀୟତାକୁ ନେଇ କୋକୁଆ ଭୟ ଖେଳିଲାଣି । ମାଗଣା ୩୦ଟି ଅଭାବୀ ଦେଶରେ ଫେସବୁକ, ଫେସବୁକର ସହପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଓ ବାକି କିଛି ୱେବସାଇଟ ମାଗଣାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବାର ଆଳରେ ଫେସବୁକ ଏ ଅଭାବୀ ଦେଶର ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଅଭାବ ସଙ୍ଗେ ଖେଳୁନାହିଁ ତ? ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ନାଆଁରେ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଏ କେବଳ ଫେସବୁକର ପରିଧି ଭିତରେ ବାନ୍ଧି ହୋଇଯିବେ କି? ଏମିତି ଅଗଣିତ ପ୍ରଶ୍ନ ମନରେ ଉଙ୍କିମାରୁଥିବା ବେଳେ ଟେଲିକମ ରେଗୁଲେଟରି ଅଥରିଟି ଅଫ ଇଣ୍ଡିଆ ଏହାକୁ ଭାରତରେ ସାମୟିକ ଭାବେ ବାସନ୍ଦ କରିଛି ।

ଗତ ଦୁଇ ସପ୍ତାହ ସାରା ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ । ସାରା ଦେଶରୁ ଲୋକେ ନିଆଁରେ ପତଙ୍ଗ ଝାସ ଦେଲା ଭଳି ଫେସବୁକର ନୂଆ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ “ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ’ (Free Basics) ବିରୋଧରେ ଭିନ୍ନଭିନ୍ନ ଧରଣର ମତ ଦେଇଚାଲିଛନ୍ତି । ପ୍ରଧାନମନ୍ତ୍ରୀ ମୋଦିଙ୍କ ଆମେରିକା ଗସ୍ତକାଳରେ ସେ ସେଠାରେ ଜୁକରବର୍ଗଙ୍କ ସାଙ୍ଗେ ଭେଟି ଫେସବୁକର ମିଳିତ ସହଯୋଗରେ ଭାରତରେ ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣ ଓ ସୂଚନା ପହଞ୍ଚାଇବା ବାବଦରେ ଆଲୋଚନା କରିଥିଲେ । ଆଉ ଫେସବୁକକୁ ଏହା ଭାରତରେ ନିଜର ଚେର ମୋଟା କରିବାକୁ ଏକ ଭଲ ବାଟ ଦେଖାଇଲା । ଫେସବୁକର ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠାତା ମାର୍କ ଜୁକରବର୍ଗ ଏ ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ ବାବଦରେ ଘୋଷଣା କରିବାର ଦୁଇ ସପ୍ତାହ ନ ବିତୁଣୁ ଟେଲିକମ ରେଗୁଲେଟରି ଅଥରିଟି ଅଫ ଇଣ୍ଡିଆ (ଟ୍ରାଇ) ପାଖରେ ସାଢ଼େ ଚାରି ଲକ୍ଷ ପାଖାପାଖି ଇମେଲ ଏହାକୁ ରୋକିବା ଲାଗି ପହଞ୍ଚି ସାରିଲାଣି । ଜନନେତା ଓ ଇନଫୋସିସର ସହ ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠାତା ଙ୍କଠାରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ମିଡ଼ିଆନାମାର ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠାତା , ଭେଞ୍ଚର କ୍ୟାପିଟାଲିଷ୍ଟ , ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଆକ୍ଟିଭିଷ୍ଟ , ଙ୍କ ଯାଏ ସଭିଏଁ ଏହା ପଛରେ ଫେସବୁକ ଲାଭକରୀ ମନୋଭାବ ନିହିତ ଅଛି ବୋଲି କଡ଼ା ନିନ୍ଦା କରି ଲେଖିଲେଣି । ତେବେ କ’ଣ ଏ ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ? କାହିଁକି ଏତେ ବିବାଦ ଏ ସରଳ ସୁବିଧା ବିରୋଧରେ?

ଫେସବୁକ୍‍ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରୁଥିବା ଊଣା ଅଧିକେ ସଭିଏଁ ଜାଣୁଥିବେ ସେ କେଡ଼େ ଅଠାକାଠି! ଫେସବୁକର ପ୍ରାୟ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀ ହେଲେ ଯୁବବର୍ଗ । ତେବେ କି ଯୁବା କି ବୁଢ଼ା ଫେସବୁକରେ ପ୍ରାୟ ଲୋକେ କେବଳ ମଜାମଉଜ ଲାଗି ଆସିଥାନ୍ତି । ଆଉ ଏଥିରେ ଖୁବ୍‍ କମ୍‍ ସମୟରେ ଏତେ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ସଙ୍ଗେ ମିଶିବା, ଗପିବା ଓ ଏତେ ଅଧିକ ମଉଜ ପାଇ ଅନେକେ ଫେସବୁକ ପ୍ରେମରେ ପଡ଼ିଯାଆନ୍ତି । ସରଳ ଭାଷାରେ କହିଲେ ଫେସବୁକ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଏକ ହାଟ ବଜାର । ଲୋକେ ସେଠି କିଛି ସମୟ କାଟିବା ପାଇଁ, ଚିହ୍ନା-ଅଚିହ୍ନା ଲୋକଙ୍କ ସହ ମିଶିବା ପାଇଁ, ଆଳାପ-ଆଲୋଚନା ପାଇଁ ଏକାଠି ହୁଅନ୍ତି । ଅଧିକାଂଶ ଆଲୋଚନା କେବଳ ମଉଜ ପାଇଁ ହେଲାବେଳେ କିଛି ଉପଯୋଗୀ ଆଲୋଚନା ମଧ୍ୟ ହୋଇଥାଏ । ଫେସବୁକ ଏକ ବିଶାଳ ଲାଭକରୀ କମ୍ପାନୀ । ଏହାର ଆଉ ଏକ ସହ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ହେଲା ହ୍ୱାଟସ୍‍ଅପ୍‍ । ଏହା ଅନଲାଇନ ଚାଟିଂ ପାଇଁ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରାଯାଏ । ଫଟୋ ଭିଡ଼ିଓରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ସାଧାରଣ ଚାଟିଂ ନିମନ୍ତେ ଏହା ଖୁବ୍‍ ଜଣା ।

ନିକଟରେ ଫେସବୁକ Internet.org ନାମକ ଏକ ସହ-ସଙ୍ଗଠନ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରିଛି । ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ ହେଲା ଏ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଡଟ ଅର୍ଗ ଅଧୀନରେ ଏକ ଯୋଜନା । ତେବେ ଫେସବୁକ ଓ ଫେସବୁକର ସହ-ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ସବୁକୁ ଅଭାବୀ ଦେଶମାନଙ୍କରେ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକପ୍ରିୟ କରିବା ଲାଗି ସେସବୁକୁ ବିନାମୂଲ୍ୟରେ ପହଞ୍ଚାଇବା ପାଇଁ ଏ ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ । ଭାରତ ସମେତ ଜଗତର ୩୦ଟି ଦେଶରେ ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ ଜରିଆରେ ମାଗଣା ସୀମିତ ଫେସବୁକ ସୁବିଧା ଦେବା ଏହାର ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟ । ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ ଜରିଆରେ ଆଉ କିଛି ମାଗଣା ୱେବସାଇଟ ମଧ୍ୟ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ହେବ । ତେବେ ଏଠାରେ ଅନେକ ପ୍ରଶ୍ନ ମନରେ ଉଙ୍କିମାରେ । ଏ ମାଗଣା ୱେବସାଇଟ ସବୁ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଲୋଡ଼ା କି ନା ତା’ର ସିଦ୍ଧାନ୍ତ କିଏ ନେବ - ଫେସବୁକ ନା ବ୍ୟବହାରୀ? ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ ଅଧୁନା କିଛି ଦେଶରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ହୋଇଥିବାବେଳେ ଫିଲିପାଇନ୍ସରେ ରହୁଥିବା ଜଣେ ଭାରତୀୟ ଜିତେଶ ଗୋସ୍ୱାମୀ ନିକଟରେ ନିଜେ ନିଜ ମୋବାଇଲରେ ସେଠାର ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ ଇନଷ୍ଟଲ କରି ଯାହା ମତ ଦେଇଛନ୍ତି ତା’ ଭାରି ଚିନ୍ତାର ବିଷୟ । ସାଧାରଣ ଫେସବୁକର ଅଧାରୁ ଅଧିକ ସୁବିଧା ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସରେ ନାହିଁ । ଏଥିରେ ଫେସବୁକ ବାହାରେ ଥିବା ଭିଡ଼ିଓ ମାଗଣାରେ ଦେଖିହେବନି କି ଖବର ଆଦି ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ପଢ଼ିହେବନି । ପୁଣି ମାଗଣାରେ ମିଳିବାକୁ ଥିବା ବାକି ୱେବସାଇଟ ସବୁ ବାଛିବାରେ ଫେସବୁକର ଏକଚାଟିଆ ଅଧିକାର ରହିବ । ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଏ କ’ଣ ଚାହାନ୍ତି ନ ଚାହାନ୍ତି ତାହା ଫେସବୁକ ନିର୍ଣ୍ଣୟ କରିବ ।

ଆଉ ‘ଗରିବ ମାଇପ ସବୁରି ଶାଳୀ’ ନ୍ୟାୟରେ ଗରିବଙ୍କୁ ମାଗଣା ତିଅଣର ସୁଆଦ ଚଖାଇ ଫେସବୁକ ସେମାନଙ୍କୁ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଯୋଗାଇବା ଆଳରେ କେବଳ ଫେସବୁକର ପରିଧି ଭିତରେ ବାନ୍ଧି ରଖିବ । ଫେସବୁକ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ, Mozilla ଭଳି ଖୋଲା ସଫ୍ଟଓଏର ବ୍ୟବହାର କରେନାହିଁ କି ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଉଦ୍ୟମରେ ତିଆରି ନୁହେଁ । ଏହା ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବେ ଏକ ଲାଭକାରୀ କମ୍ପାନୀ । ତେଣୁ ଫେସବୁକର ସବୁ କାମ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ସ୍ୱାର୍ଥ ନୁହେଁ, ବରଂ ନିଜ ସ୍ୱାର୍ଥ ହାସଲ ପାଇଁ । ଅଭାବୀ ଦେଶର ଲୋକଙ୍କ ମନ ଜିଣିବା ପାଇଁ ଓ ନିଜର ବ୍ୟବହାରୀ ସଂଖ୍ୟା ବଢ଼ାଇବା ପାଇଁ ଏହା ଫେସବୁକର ଏକ ମସୁଧା ବୋଲି ଅନେକ ଚିନ୍ତାଶୀଳ ଲୋକେ ମତ ଦେଇଛନ୍ତି । ଫେସବୁକର ଏହି ଏକଚାଟିଆ କାମ ନେଟ ନିଉଟ୍ରାଲିଟି ବା ନେଟ ସମାନତାର ପକ୍ଷପାତୀ । ପକ୍ଷପାତ ନ କରି ସବୁ ୱେବସାଇଟକୁ ସମାନ ଭାବେ ଗଣିବା ନେଟ ସମାନତା ନାମରେ ଜଣା ।

ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସରେ ଥିବା ନାନାଦି ଭୁଲ ବିଷୟକୁ ଭଲ ଭାବେ ତନଖି କରିବା ପାଇଁ ନିକଟରେ ଟେଲିକମ ରେଗୁଲେଟରି ଅଥରିଟି ଅଫ ଇଣ୍ଡିଆ (ଟ୍ରାଇ) ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସକୁ କିଛିକାଳ ପାଇଁ ବାସନ୍ଦ କରିଛି । ଚତୁର ଫେସବୁକ କେବେ ଚାଷୀମାନଙ୍କୁ ପାଣିପାଗ ଜାଣିବାରେ ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ ସାହାଯ୍ୟ କରିବ ତ କେବେ ଅଭାବୀ ଭାରତୀୟଙ୍କୁ ପରସ୍ପର ସହ ଯୋଡ଼ିବାରେ ସାହାଯ୍ୟ କରିବ ବୋଲି ଦେଶସାରା ସହର ବଜାର ସବୁଠି ଜୋରଦାର ପ୍ରଚାର ଚଳାଇଥିଲା । ସବୁ ଖବରକାଗଜରେ ପୂରା ଫରଦ ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ଆଉ ସବୁ ବସ୍‍ ରହିବା ସ୍ଥାନରେ ବଡ଼ବଡ଼ ହୋର୍ଡିଂ । ଆଉ ଏଥିରେ ସଭିଙ୍କୁ ଅନୁରୋଧ ଥିଲା ଏକ ନମ୍ବରକୁ ମିସକଲ ଦେଇ ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସକୁ ସମର୍ଥନ କରିବା ପାଇଁ । ଏ ପ୍ରଚାର ପ୍ରସାରରେ ୧୦୦ କୋଟିରୁ ଅଧିକ ବୋଧେ ଖର୍ଚ୍ଚ ହୋଇଥିବ । କେଉଁଠୁ ଆଦାୟ ହେବ ଏ ପଇସା ?

ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସର ମାଗଣା ଫେସବୁକ ଓ ବାକି ୱେବସାଇଟକୁ ସୁବିଧା ଦେବାର ଏ ଆଳ ବିରୋଧରେ ଝଡ଼ ଉଠିଛି । ଫେସବୁକର ମିସକଲ୍‍ ଅଭିଯାନର କଡ଼ା ଜବାବ ଦେବା ପାଇଁ http://savetheinternet.in ଓ http://fsmi.in ନାମକ ଦୁଇଟି ୱେବସାଇଟ ପକ୍ଷରୁ ଜନସାଧାରଣଙ୍କୁ ସଚେତନ କରାଯାଇ ଟ୍ରାଇ ପାଖକୁ ଇମେଲ ପଠାଇବା ପାଇଁ ଅନୁରୋଧ କରାଯାଇଥିଲା। ଫେସବୁକର କୋଟିକୋଟି ଟଙ୍କା ଖର୍ଚ୍ଚର ମିସକଲ ଅଭିଯାନରୁ ୧୦ଲକ୍ଷ ସମର୍ଥନ ମିଳିଥିବାବେଳେ ବିନା ପଇସାରେ ସାଢ଼େ ଚାରିଲକ୍ଷରୁ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକ ଇମେଲ ଜରିଆରେ ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସକୁ ବିରୋଧ କରି ଟ୍ରାଇକୁ ଇମେଲ କରିଛନ୍ତି । ତେବେ ଫେସବୁକର ଏହି ସମର୍ଥନ ସଂଗ୍ରହକୁ ଟ୍ରାଇର ସଭାପତି ଆରଏସ୍‍ ଶର୍ମା ଘୋର ନିନ୍ଦା କରି କହିଛନ୍ତି, ଏଯାବତ୍‍ ଫେସବୁକ ଯେଉଁ ୧୪ ଲକ୍ଷ ଲୋକଙ୍କୁ ପ୍ରଭାବିତ କରି ସେମାନଙ୍କୁ ମିସକଲ୍‍ ଜରିଆରେ ସମର୍ଥନ ଆଣିଛି ତା’ ମୂଲ୍ୟହୀନ । ୧୦୦ କୋଟି ଟଙ୍କାର କି ଅପଚୟ! ସେତିକି ପଇସାରେ ଶହେ ହଜାର ଲୋକଙ୍କୁ ମାଗଣାରେ କିଛି ଉପଯୋଗୀ ସାଇଟ ଦେଖିବା ସୁଯୋଗ ଦେଇଥିଲେ ଆହୁରି ଭଲ ହୋଇଥାନ୍ତା ।

ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସରେ ଲୁଚି ରହିଥିବା ସବୁଠୁ ବଡ଼ ବିପଦଟି ହେଲା ଫେସବୁକର ତଥ୍ୟ ସଂଗ୍ରହ କାରସାଦି । ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଏ କି କି ସାଇଟ ଦେଖିଲେ, କାହା ସଙ୍ଗେ ଗପିଲେ ସେସବୁ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ଅଗୋଚରରେ ଟିକିନିଖି କରି ହିସାବ ରଖିଥାଏ । ସଳଖେ କହିଲେ ଫେସବୁକରେ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀ ବାପୁଡ଼ାର ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ବୋଲି କିଛି ରହିବ ନାହିଁ । ଫେସବୁକ ଆରମ୍ଭରୁ ଶବ୍ଦସମ୍ଭାରରେ ଭରା ଏକ ଲମ୍ବା ବିବରଣୀରେ ତଥ୍ୟ ସଂଗ୍ରହରେ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ କୌଣସି ଅଭିଯୋଗ ନାହିଁ ବୋଲି ଖୁବ୍‍ ଚତୁର ଭାବେ ତାଙ୍କଠୁ ଅନୁମତି ନେଇଯାଏ । ଅନଭିଜ୍ଞ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଟିର ପାଠଘର ଯାହା ସେଥିରେ ସେ ଏ ଫିକର ବୁଝିବ ବା କିପରି? ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଓକିଲ ଇବେନ ମଗଲେନ ଓ ମିସି ଚୌଧୁରୀ ଏକ ଲେଖାରେ ଦୁହେଁ ତନ୍ନ ତନ୍ନ କରି ବିଶ୍ଳେଷଣ କରିଛନ୍ତି ଏ କଥା । ପ୍ରଶ୍ନ ଉଠେ ଯେ ଫେସବୁକ ଧନୀ ଦେଶରେ ଏଭଳି ବେପରୁଆ ଅପସାହସ କରିବ କି ?

ଏହିଭଳି ଆଉ ଏକ କୁଟିଳ ବିଷୟ ଥିଲା ଏଆରଟେଲ ଜିରୋ । ଏଆରଟେଲ ଜିରୋ ଆଉ ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ ଭିତରେ ବଡ଼ ସମାନତା ହେଉଛି ଉଭୟ କମ୍ପାନୀ କିଛି ୱେବସାଇଟଙ୍କଠାରୁ ବିପୁଳ ପରିମାଣରେ ପଇସା ନେଇ ସେ ୱେବସାଇଟ ସବୁକୁ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ମାଗଣା ଯୋଗାଇଥାନ୍ତି । ଏଥିରେ ସେବା ଯୋଗାଣକାରୀ ଓ ମାଗଣାରେ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ପାଖେ ପହଞ୍ଚୁଥିବା ୱେବସାଇଟ ସବୁଙ୍କ ସିଧାସଳଖ ସ୍ୱାର୍ଥ ନିହିତ ଥାଏ । ପାଠକଙ୍କୁ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣ କରିବାର ତୁଚ୍ଛା ବିଜ୍ଞାପନ ତଳେ ଯେ ଏତେ ଫନ୍ଦି ରହିଛି ତାହା ପାଠକ ବାପୁଡ଼ା ବା ଜାଣିବ କେମନ୍ତେ ? ଆଉ ଧନୀ ଦେଶରେ ଏଭଳି ଫିକର ସହଜେ ଧରାପଡ଼ିବ ବୋଲି ଫେସବୁକ ଭଳି କମ୍ପାନୀ ୩୦ଟି ଅଭାବୀ ଦେଶକୁ ଥୋପ କରିଛି ।

ତେବେ ମାଗଣାରେ କିଛି ୱେବସାଇଟ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବା କିଛି ନୂଆ ନୁହେଁ । ଅତୀତରେ ବାଂଲାଦେଶରେ Mozilla (ଫାୟାରଫକ୍ସ ଭଳି ନାନାଦି ଖୋଲା ଓଫ୍ଟଓଏର ପରିଚାଳନା କରୁଥିବା ସଙ୍ଗଠନ) ଗ୍ରାମୀଣଫୋନ ନାମକ ଯୋଜନା ଜରିଆରେ ୫ ଲକ୍ଷରୁ ଅଧିକ ଲୋକଙ୍କୁ ଦିନକୁ ୨୦ ଏମ୍‍ବିର ଡାଟା ଦେବା ସାରା ଜଗତରେ ଆଲୋଚନା ବିଷୟ ହୋଇଥିଲା । Mozilla ଓ ମୋବାଇଲ ସେବା ଯୋଗାଣକାରୀ ଟେଲିନର ଏଥିପାଇଁ ପ୍ରଶଂସାର ପାତ୍ର ହୋଇଥିଲେ । ଅନେକ ଦେଶରେ ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକେ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟରେ ଜାଣିବାକୁ ପାଉନଥିବାରୁ ଏସ୍‍ଏମ୍‍ଏସ୍‍ ଓ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଯୋଗେ ସାଧାରଣ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ସମ୍ପାଦିତ ଅନ୍‍ଲାଇନ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ, ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଜିରୋ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଜରିଆରେ ମାଗଣାରେ ଯୋଗାଇଦିଆଯାଉଛି । ଭାରତରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ପରୀକ୍ଷାମୂଳକ ଭାବେ ଏହି ସୁବିଧା କେତେକ ସ୍ଥାନରେ ଦିଆଯାଇଛି । ତେବେ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣ ପାଇଁ ଏହିଭଳି ଉଦ୍ୟମ ସବୁରି ଆଦର ପାଆନ୍ତି । କିନ୍ତୁ ନିଜ ସ୍ୱାର୍ଥ ହାସଲ ନିମନ୍ତେ ଜଗତର ହିତ ନାମରେ ଗରିବଙ୍କ ଗରିବୀକୁ ଥୋପ କରି ଫେସବୁକ୍‍ର ଫ୍ରି ବେସିକ୍ସ କେବଳ ନିନ୍ଦା ପାଇଛି ।

ନିକଟରେ ଭର୍ଜରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ଏକ ଲେଖାରେ ଫେସବୁକ କାଳିମାଭରା ଆଉ ଏକ କଥା ନଜରକୁ ଆସିଛି । ଫେସବୁକ ଅତୀତରେ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ନିଉଜ ଫିଡ଼ରେ ଅଲଗା ଅଲଗା ଅନୁଭୂତିର ନିଉଜ ଫିଡ଼ ଛାଡ଼ିଥାଏ । ଅର୍ଥାତ ଜଣଙ୍କ ନିଉଜ ଫିଡ଼ରେ କେବଳ ତାଙ୍କ ସାଙ୍ଗମାନଙ୍କ ଦୁଃଖଭରା ପୋଷ୍ଟସବୁ ଲଗାତର ଆସୁଥିବ । ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ମୁଡ଼ ଜାଣିବା ଗବେଷଣା ନାଁରେ ଏ କୁଟିଳ ଚିନ୍ତା ଯେ କେତେ ଘାତକ ତାହା ସହଜେ ଅନୁମେୟ । ଫେସବୁକର ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଏମିତି ନୀତି ଅନେକଙ୍କୁ ଅଜଣା ଓ ଏସବୁ ବ୍ୟବହାରୀଙ୍କ ଗୋପନୀୟତା, ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ତଥ୍ୟ ଓ ନିରାପତ୍ତାକୁ ପାଦରେ ଦଳି ଦେଲାଭଳି । ଲୋକଙ୍କ ସମର୍ଥନ ପାଇବାକୁ ହେଲେ କିଛି ପରିମାଣରେ ସଚ୍ଚା ହେବାକୁ ଯେ ପଡ଼ିବ ଏ କଥାଟି ଫେସବୁକ ଏବେଠୁ ହେଜିଲେ ଆଗକୁ ମଙ୍ଗଳ ହେବ ।

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/b2cb4db5fb2cb39b3eb30b40b19b4db15-b2ab3eb07b01-b28b3fb30b3eb2ab24b4db24b3e-b13-b17b2ab28b40b5fb24b3eb30-b15b15b41b06-b06b23b3fb2c-b2bb47b38b2cb41b15b30-b2bb4db30b3f-b2cb47b38b3fb15b4db38

An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at KMBB College, Bhubaneswar

subha — 2012-12-07T22:40:32Z

The Centre for Internet and Society along with Odia Wikipedians in Bhubaneswar organized an Odia Wikipedia workshop on November 18, 2012. It was held in KMBB College of Engineering. Odia Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia in Odia language which everyone can edit.

Odia Wikipedians gathered in the temple city of Bhubaneswar on November 18, 2012 to organize the third Odia Wikipedia workshop in KMBB College of Engineering. KMBB College of Engineering is a BPUT affiliated engineering college supported by Ama Odisha, an organization working for media, communication and development of Odia language. Dr. Dhanada Mishra, Director-Academics, KMBB and a veteran educationalist and open source source enthusiast supported this event. Forty-five students from KMBB attended this workshop. The agenda for the two-and-a-half hour session was to educate students about open source movement, journey of Wikipedia and how to contribute to Odia Wikipedia and how it would help them. Nine active Odia Wikipedians joined to support this event.

Dr. Mishra began the session by introducing Odia Wikipedians to the students. He spoke about Open source movement, how the community supports various open source projects, how Wikipedia was started and how it is essential for students to take part in such activities. Subhashish Panigrahi briefly spoke about the history of Odia wikipedia, how it grew up in the recent years to its present state. Odia Wikipedian Manoranjan Behera discussed about how everyone can contribute to the Wikipedia.

To explain the easiness of typing in Odia, some of the students were invited to write text on a board and test the typing tool on Odia Wikipedia. A new article about the college was created and one of the students wrote few sentences. Wikipedians explained the importance of creating user accounts and demonstrated how to search an article, how to create an article and the basics of editing an article. A Question and Answer session was held for students to put their queries. At the end of the session, contact details were shared with the students and the Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/OdiaWiki) of Odia Wikipedia was shown so that students could continue editing and remain in touch with fellow wikipedians.

Odia daily “The Sambad” covered this event.

Presentation: Copy of Introduction to Wikipedia! on Prezi
Video:

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odia-wikipedia-workshop-organized-in-kmbb-college-bhubaneswar

An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at Academy of Media Learning

subha — 2013-07-17T07:06:59Z

Odia Wikipedians were invited to Academy of Media Learning (AML), Bhubaneswar for a guest lecture and a workshop on contributing to Odia Wikipedia. The event was organised by the Centre for Internet & Society on November 10, 2012. This is a report about the activities in AML.

Soon after Odia Wiki community got felicitated by OdishaDiary.co for Youth Achievement Award for their outstanding contribution for Odia language many institutions have started taking the work of the wikipedians with more seriousness. To empower the community with more activities active members took part in a discussion to start more long term projects like "education programs". In early November, a couple of meetups and workshops were organized in different institutions in Odisha. One of those institutions in Academy of Media Learning. It is a budding institution for journalism and digital media in the city of Bhubaneswar. The institute is led by the Founder-CEO of this institution Nilambar Rath, a veteran journalist and news producer and Saumya Parida, Executive Editor and journalist in the Odia media circle. Subhashish Panigrahi of CIS was invited to AML along with other fellow Wikipedians for a guest lecture and workshop about "Contibution to Wikipedia and its Benefits for Students".

Odia wikipedians like Ansuman Giri, Manoranjan Behera and Diptiman Panigrahi also came over for the event.

Meeting with Nilambar Rath and Saumya Parida

Prior to the lecture and workshop, wikipedians discussed about the education program with the faculty members on how it is essential to engage students in such a program. Subhashish explained the older education programs for other language and the recent Odia Wikipedia Education Program initiated at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal. During this meeting Mr. Rath also suggested to include more linguists and Odia language professors in the community who would guide on standards of language, writing style and grammar as Odia Wikipedia is being accessed more on a daily basis by the main stream media.

Workshop

There were a small set of enthusiast communication students gathered for the event. Subhashish took them through a presentation explaining about Wikipedia, how people like them contribute to Wikipedia and make it grow day by day and how Odia Wikipedia was started. The participants were surprised to see Odia Wikipedia for the first time! Even being communication students and working closely with Odia media they have never came through it. After the presentation he emphasized about the reason why we are focusing on long term support programs like "education program" and how it would be beneficial for students. Students were given a small break for asking queries before a training workshop on editing Odia Wikipedia. One of the students was invited to create his user account. Wikipedians explained how to type in Odia using the typing scheme. Few of the students were invited to edit and make small changes in various articles. Going forward, students were shown Chatasabha and the facebook group page to ask queries online.


A picture of the participants at the Odia Wikipedia workshop at Academy of Media Learning

Picture credit: Manoranjan Behera

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odia-wiki-workshop-at-aml

A Wikipedia Workshop at NMAIT

subha — 2013-01-04T16:30:28Z

The Centre for Internet & Society, Delhi collaborated with Metawings Institute to spread the words about Wikipedia for Indian languages. A one-day workshop was organized to educated the students on contributing to Wikipedia on December 21, 2012. About 170 engineering students took part in this event.

The workshop began with interaction with the students about their understanding. I asked few questions like what is Wikipedia, who edits articles on Wikipedia, is it paid or free, did they ever try to edit Wikipedia, etc. I took them through a presentation to explain basics of Wikipedia, five pillars, notability and copyright issues related to vandalism. One of the students were called to create his user account. Students were showed the simpler sign up process. To explain how articles are edited we introduced errors in the article on Bengaluru and made it the capital of India for few minutes! Students were explained how Wikipedia editors correct mistakes like these in real time and correct facts are published in Wikipedia. A majority of the students asked about the authenticity of articles which is open to anyone. So I got a chance to refresh the page and show how the error introduced was reverted within a few minutes.


Above is a picture of the participants from the Wikipedia Workshop at Karkala

The session went on with such interaction and students were explained more about the importance of citing references to add credibility to the facts they can add on Wikipedia articles.

We also had Dr. Ashok Kumar, prof, Computer science department, a wikipedian and columnist for Kannada newspaper Udaya Vani. Dr. Kumar introduced Kannada Wikipedia to the students. At the end of the session I had a discussion with him about organizing more workshops for Kannada Wikipedia and supporting participant students. Special thanks to Metawings for finding the venue and supporting for the event.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-workshop-at-nmait

A Wiki Workshop at Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad

subha — 2013-01-22T03:09:25Z

The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team organized a Wikipedia workshop at Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology (RKGIT), Ghaziabad in collaboration with Metawings on January 17, 2013. Subhashish Panigrahi summarizes the happenings from the one-day workshop in this blog post.

As part of the soft skill development training program, RKGIT, an engineering college is working on a series of activities to empower the students with practical approach and competence for their professional life. We were invited to conduct a workshop for the students of mechanical engineering and help them understand the real reasons for contributions to Wikipedia as a volunteer.

Some of the focus areas we set for the workshop were:

Number of students not to exceed 60 to make sure that we get enough time and space to interact actively and pay individual attention.

Number of coordinators to support with logistics to conduct the workshop smoothly.
Active participation of teachers.
Arrangement of internet labs with multiple IP addresses for smooth user account creation.

Around 65 mechanical engineering students from second and third year participated in this workshop. We began the workshop with an interactive discussion about their practical relation with Wikipedia as students and the usability and difficulties that they face. I presented about some important facts about Wikipedia and voluntary contribution in different ways. During and after the presentation students asked a lot of questions about the notability and authenticity of articles, collaboration vs. fights among editors, references and its significance, etc.

There was a short break to make way for students to settle in the internet lab for a hands on training session. We faced problems with the LAN and 3G network for mobile broadband which made this session longer than expected. There were problems for creating accounts because of the Internet explorer and X based systems and the students couldn't create their user accounts. So, we had to manage with them contributing anonymously from IP addresses. Despite these unexpected technical problems all of them edited various articles. Some of them tried to vandalize and observe the quick reversal of the vandals.

Subhashish presenting about Wikipedia to the participants

I had a discussion with the director about conducting more such workshops, especially technical workshops where students can code and contribute to MediaWiki.

Quick links:

Presentation used for this workshop: www.slideshare.net/psubhashish/you-can-also-wikipedia
English Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org (Click here to create an account on Wikipedia)

Presentation

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/wikipedia-workshop-at-rkgit-ghaziabad

‘A Good Day for the Internet Everywhere': India Bans Differential Data Pricing

subha — 2016-02-25T01:21:27Z

India distinguished itself as a global leader on network neutrality on February 8, when regulators officially banned “differential pricing”, a process through which telecommunications service providers could or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services offered based on content.

The article was published by Global Voices on February 9, 2016

In short, this means that Internet access in India will remain an open field, where users should be guaranteed equal access to any website they want to visit, regardless of how they connect to the Internet.

In their ruling, Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) commented:

In India, given that a majority of the population are yet to be connected to the internet, allowing service providers to define the nature of access would be equivalent of letting TSPs shape the users’ internet experience.

#TRAIFreesInternet | Key take aways from TRAI’s ruling on Net Neutrality pic.twitter.com/xlFsLb3bZ6

— CNN-IBN News (@ibnlive) February 8, 2016

The decision of the Indian government has been welcomed largely in the country and outside. In support of the move, the World Wide Web Foundation's Renata Avila, also a Global Voices community member, wrote:

As the country with the second largest number of Internet users worldwide, this decision will resonate around the world. It follows a precedent set by Chile, the United States, and others which have adopted similar net neutrality safeguards. The message is clear: We can’t create a two-tier Internet – one for the haves, and one for the have-nots. We must connect everyone to the full potential of the open Web.

A blow for Facebook's “Free Basics”

While the new rules should long outlast this moment in India's Internet history, the ruling should immediately force Facebook to cancel the local deployment of “Free Basics”, a smart phone application that offers free access to Facebook, Facebook-owned products like WhatsApp, and a select suite of other websites for users who do not pay for mobile data plans.

Facebook's efforts to deploy and promote Free Basics as what they described as a remedy to India's lack of “digital equality” has encountered significant backlash. Last December, technology critic and Quartz writer Alice Truong reacted to Free Basics saying:

Zuckerberg almost portrays net neutrality as a first-world problem that doesn’t apply to India because having some service is better than no service.”

When TRAI solicited public comments on the matter of differential pricing, Facebook responded with an aggressive advertising campaign on bill boards and in television commercials across the nation. It also embedded a campaign inside Facebook, asking users to write to TRAI in support of Free Basics.

TRAI criticized Facebook for what it seemed to regard as manipulation of the public. Facebook was also heavily challenged by many policy and open Internet advocates including non-profits like the Free Software Movement of India and the Savetheinternet.in campaign. The latter two collectives strongly discouraged Free Basics by bringing public opinion where Savetheinternet.in alone facilitated a campaign in which citizens sent over 2.4 million emails to TRAI urging the agency to put a stop to differential pricing.

Alongside these efforts, 500 Indian startups including major ones like Cleartrip, Zomato, Practo, Paytm and Cleartax also wrote to India's prime minister Narendra Modi requesting continued support for net neutrality—on the Indian Republic Day January 26.

Stand-up comedians like Abish Mathew and groups like All India Bakchod and East India Comedy created humorous and informative videos explaining the regulatory debate and supporting net neutrality which went viral.

Had differential pricing been officially legalized, it would have adversely affected startups and content-based smaller companies, who most likely could never manage to pay higher prices to partner with service providers to make their service available for free. This would have paved the way for tech-giants like Facebook to capture the entire market. And this would be no small gain for a company like Facebook: India represents the world's largest market of Internet users after the US and China, where Facebook remains blocked.

The Internet responds

There have been mixed responses on social media, both supporting and opposing. Among open Internet advocates both in India and the US, the response was celebratory:

This order shows the power of citizen involvement in policymaking. Policymakers are forced to listen if citizens engage. #NetNeutrality

— Pranesh Prakash (@pranesh) February 8, 2016

I think this is not just a good day for the Internet in India. It's a good day for the Internet everywhere #TRAI #savetheinternet

— Anja Kovacs (@anjakovacs) February 8, 2016

India is now the global leader on #NetNeutrality. New rules are stronger than those in EU and US. https://t.co/D6g68k2xaI

— Josh Levy (@levjoy) February 8, 2016

There are also those like Panuganti Rajkiran who opposed the ruling:

A terrible decision.. The worst part here is the haves deciding for the have nots what they can have and what they cannot.

When you buy a car, it's fulfilment of aspiration. After that, the next guy who buys a car is just traffic. Let's regulate. #NetNeutrality

— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) February 8, 2016

Soumya Manikkath says:

So all is not lost in the world, for the next two years at least. Do come back with a better plan, dear Facebook, and we'll rethink, of course.

The ruling leaves an open pathway for companies to offer consumers free access to the Internet, provided that this access is truly open and does not limit one's ability to browse any site of her choosing.

Bangalore-based Internet policy expert Pranesh Prakash noted that this work must continue until India is truly — and equally — connected:

The pro-#NetNeutrality campaign shouldn't rest until every poor family in India has full and free access to the Internet. #ZeroRating

— Pranesh Prakash (@pranesh) February 8, 2016

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/global-voices-subhashish-panigrahi-february-9-2016-a-good-day-for-the-internet-everywhere

30 Books of Odia Author and Historian Jagannath Prasad Das to Come Online on Odia Wikisource

subha — 2016-01-03T11:19:12Z

The article was published in Discover Bhubaneswar, a web portal on Odisha on December 4, 2015.

Odia author and cultural historian Jagannath Prasad Das has recently permitted to re-license under a free license Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0 for 30 volumes of his notable works. The author, popularly known as “J P” or “JP Das” has been honored with Saraswati Samman and Sahitya Academy award for his significant contribution in fiction, historical research of Odisha’s cultural heritage in his books Puri Paintings, Chitra-Pothi and Palm-leaf Miniatures apart from his Odia books “Prathama Purusa” and “Bhabanatha O Anyamane”.

“I made a rather late and hesitant entry into the internet and digital world, but it has since become an integral part of my life. My introduction to digital books was through Srujanika’s digitised version of Purnachandra Odia Bhashakosha – all of 95,00 pages in seven volumes — which was impossible to handle on the writing table. That made me think how wonderful it would be to have all Odia books available on the internet that could be easily accessible to every interested reader”, says Das.

“As a beginning I decided to put my own writings on the internet. Many of our young Odia writers are are quite active on the social media. I hope they will take the initiative to get more and more Odia books available on the internet with the help of Odia Wikisource”, he adds.

This contribution opens up a whole new window to his books being accessible to readers for free online. Recently the scanning of the original books were made by the Bhubaneswar based non-profit and science education research organization Srujanika which will now be made available after converting them into text form.

Apart from Dr Das, many other notable individuals like Padma shree Debi Prasanna Pattanayak, Dr Subrat Prusty, Manoj Panda, Bharat Majhi and organisations like Aama Odisha, Manik Biswanath Smrutinyasa have taken the noble step of sharing their works online with free licenses using Odia Wikisource as a platform.

Odia Wikisource, a sister project of the Odia Wikipedia, is available online at or.wikisource.org. There are over 238 books already and all of the books are either under Public Domain or under the above mentioned Creative Commons Share-Alike license which gives the freedom of accessing the works for free, reuse them and even correct if any mistakes found, of course following the guidelines made by the Wikisource community. Currently about 10 Wikisourcers are actively contributing to digitize books of various genre, ranging from science to fiction to even the Odia classics.

With more authors generously opening up their work online, it feels like they are worried of the books becoming obsolete from the new generation leaving them with no way to learn about their own language and literature. Regional languages like Odia are facing the struggle to selling more books with the growing trend of English-centric education and rat race for jobs. In such a tough situation more popular Odia literary content is certainly going to give a boost to readership and will take the language to more people.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discover-bhubaneswar-30-books-of-odia-author-and-historian-jagannath-prasad-das-to-come-online-on-odia-wikisource

14 Odia books re-released under Creative Commons license

subha — 2014-05-06T06:26:29Z

This blog entry by Subhashish Panigrahi (originally published in Wikimedia Foundation's Blog) was edited and re-published by Rohini Lakshane in DNA on April 26, 2014.

Read the article published in DNA on April 26, 2014.

Odisha became a separate state in British India on April 1, 1936. Odia, a 2,500 year old language recently gained the status of an Indian classical language. The Odia Wikimedia community celebrated these two occasions on March 29 in Bhubaneswar with a gathering of 70 people. Linguists, scholars and journalists discussed the state of the Odia language in the digital era, initiatives for its development and steps that can be taken to increase accessibility to books and other educational resources. 14 copyrighted books have been re-licensed under the Creative Commons license and the digitization project on Odia WikiSource was formally initiated by an indigenous educational institute, the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS). Professor Udayanath Sahu from Utkal University, The Odisha Review’s editor Dr. Lenin Mohanty, Odisha Bhaskar’s editor Pradosh Pattnaik, Odia language researcher Subrat Prusty, Dr. Madan Mohan Sahu, Allhadmohini Mohanty, Chairman Manik-Biswanath Smrutinyasa and trust’s secretary Brajamohan Patnaik along with senior members Sarojkanta Choudhury and Shisira Ranjan Dash spoke at the event.

Eleven books from Odia writer Dr. Jagannath Mohanty were re-released under Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license by the “Manik-Biswanath Smrutinyasa” trust, a trust founded by Dr. Mohanty for the development of the Odia language. Allhadmohini Mohanty formally gave written permission to Odia Wikimedia to release and digitize these books. The community will be training students and a group of six faculty members at KISS who will coordinate the digitization of these books.	Group photo of Odia wikimedians participating in the advanced Wikimedia workshop at KIIT University.

Eleven books from Odia writer Dr. Jagannath Mohanty were re-released under Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license by the “Manik-Biswanath Smrutinyasa” trust, a trust founded by Dr. Mohanty for the development of the Odia language. Allhadmohini Mohanty formally gave written permission to Odia Wikimedia to release and digitize these books.

The community will be training students and a group of six faculty members at KISS who will coordinate the digitization of these books.

Group photo of Odia wikimedians participating in the advanced Wikimedia workshop at KIIT University.

“Collaborative efforts and open access to knowledge repositories will enrich our language and culture,” said linguist Padmashree Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak as he inagurated the event. Dr. Pattanayak and Odia language researcher Subrat Prusty from the Institute of Odia Studies and Research also re-licensed three books (Two Odia books; “Bhasa O Jatiyata“, “Jati, Jagruti O Pragati” and an English book “Classical Odia”) based on their research on Odia language and cultural influence of the language on other societies under the same license. KISS is going to digitize some of these books and make them available on Odia Wikisource.

An OpenType Odia Unicode font, “Odia OT Jagannatha” designed by Sujata Patel from Odialanguage.com was released under the OFL license. This is the first Odia OpenType font that the community actively tested. A new Odia offline input tool called “TypeOdia” by Wikipedian Manoj Sahukar was also released for public distribution. DVDs containing the font, the input tool, Odia language dictionaries, offline Odia Wikipedia in Kiwix, Wikipedia editing guide, ISCII to Unicode font converter, various free and open source software packages and Ubuntu operating system.

Active Odia Wikipedian and Admin Mrutyunjaya Kar gave the inaugural speech. Subhashish Panigrahi from the Center for Internet and Society read the annual report and vision of Odia Wikipedia. Chief guest Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak discussed about the efforts put forth that brought the Odia language as the sixth Indian classical language. A large majority of Odia publications are not available on the internet and readers are devoid of easy accessibility. He further discussed the process of digitization for preserving valuable books that are out of print and the old palm leaf manuscripts. Professor Udayanath Sahu presented on the process, progress and implementation of machine translation project in Utkal University.

Experienced Wikimedians conducted an advanced Wikipedia workshop on the second day of event at KIIT University, Bhubaneswar. It was attended by a majority of the existing Wikimedians from the community including new Wikipedians who signed up for the Odia Wikipedia Education Program at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal. Mrutyunjaya Kar presented on WikiData and various tools for linking and accessing information in multiple languages on various Wikimedia projects.

	Experienced Wikimedians conducted an advanced Wikipedia workshop on the second day of event at KIIT University, Bhubaneswar. It was attended by a majority of the existing Wikimedians from the community including new Wikipedians who signed up for the Odia Wikipedia Education Program at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal. Mrutyunjaya Kar presented on WikiData and various tools for linking and accessing information in multiple languages on various Wikimedia projects.

Ansuman Giri discussed advanced technical aspects such as the use of various gadgets, proper categorization, how to use subpages, how to auto-list archive pages, customizing WikiLove feature, user rights modification, including how important it is to cite biographies of living persons with secondary sources, etc. Shitikantha Dash discussed copyright and issues regarding uploading images and other media files on Wikimedia Commons.

Dr. Subas Chandra Rout presented on “notability, referencing and creating citations for the notable topics.” Subhashish Panigrahi discussed the work plan for the year, failure of program projects, collective learning and the dos and don’ts of community building.


“	We hope that more authors will come forward and re-release their books under CC-BY-SA license. The Odia community is excited to see or.wikisource.org go live. A few Wikipedians are even interested in typing their favorite free licensed books to make them available on Wikisource. I believe it’ll be challenging to train the KISS students to type and proof-read the written texts. In the CISA2K’s draft plan, the goal to have the number of editors seems overestimated. The students need to have some knowledge about Wikimedia and how it works in general before they start working. We hope that the books will be digitized properly and in coming days more users will join us in the process as we will have more free books in Odia Wikisource. I appeal to the Odia people to be a part of the Odia Wikimedia community and make Odia Wikisource a successful project, we need all the time you can devote. :-)	”
Ansuman Giri, Odia Wikipedian

Copyright notes: "A group photo of Odia wikipedians at kiit conference hall on 30th march 2014.jpg", "Odia wikipedian mrutyunjaya kar and ansuman giri on 30the march 2014.jpg" by Jnanaranjan Sahu , under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons, "Release of DVD containing Odia font, open source tools and Offline Odia Wikipedia.jpg" by Ahemadullah Shaikh , under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported, from Wikimedia Commons.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dna-rohini-lakshane-april-26-2014-14-books-re-released-under-creative-commons-license

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

8 Challenges for Improving Indian Language Wikipedias

subha — 2016-03-29T17:05:15Z

After more than 10 years in existence, the Indian-language Wikipedias still are not known to many Indian language speakers. Wikipedia became the largest encyclopedia in history as a result of thousands of volunteer editors.

The article was originally published in the Wire on March 17, 2016 and later mirrored on Opensource.com on March 28, 2016.

Whereas native-language Wikipedias are becoming game changers in other corners of the world, the scenario in India is skewed. While speaking at the "BHASHA: Indian Languages Digital Festival," a day-long discourse at New Delhi on Indian languages and their state in the new media (especially on the digital platforms), I shared challenges that Indian language Wikipedias are facing.

1. Language communities

Many native Indian language speakers do not know how to search online using language typed in their script. Because Google's home page does not display their language script as an option, people often think that their language does not exist on the Internet. Google now has nine Indian languages. But this does not stop a Santali or Manipuri speaker from searching in Unicode Ol chiki (script for Santali) or in Unicode Meithei (script for Manipuri). Google and other search engines will display content in any script on the Internet, but not knowing this keeps many people off the Internet, which also means off of Wikipedia.

2. Wikipedia's editor community

Wikipedia is created by people like you and me. From writing to editing, everything happens voluntarily. Many people do not understand that they can correct mistakes and help improve Wikipedia articles. The Wikipedia editor communities for several Indian languages are really small. Although these languages are spoken by millions of people, only a handful of editors contribute in editing the Wikipedia in these languages. As of January 2016, the Hindi Wikipedia had only 89 editors, whereas Hindi falls right behind English on the list of top languages by number of native speakers.

3. Language input in computer

A majority of people in India do not know how to type in their own language. Also, there is little documentation for users to learn about language input. Even though many government-run schools in India are seeing more computers and have Internet access, native language input and several other basic computer training are not widely taught in schools in all states. Free software for language input is available, and the challenges of typing in Indian languages (PDF) that existed in the past are mostly resolved.

4. Language input in mobile devices

With more than 1 billion people in India (PDF) with mobile phones, the 15% Internet penetration rate will soon grow at a faster pace. This growth and tough competition is compelling telecom service providers to drop data charges, which will help more Indians get access to the Internet. If these people are not educated about native language input, then they will be stuck inside an English-centric Internet rather than being able to navigate in their own languages. Many Indians who have smartphones need full Indian language support—and especially built-in input methods—to contribute in their own language Wikipedia.

5. Low availability of Indian-language content on the Internet

Lack of native language content on the Internet is a barrier to accessing knowledge. For example, let's look at my state Odisha. The Kerala (Indian state) government's official tourism portal is available in Odia and other Indian languages, but the Odisha government's tourism portal has no information in the Odia language today. Our languages are largely neglected in our own states.

6. Mismatch of conventional and new media

Many conventional media houses still use non-standard variants of ASCII/ISCII script encoding systems instead of adopting the Unicode standard. As a global standard, Unicode can help unify the world and has been available for Indian languages for almost 25 years. But many of our print media have failed to adopt this, and many popular Indian-language newspapers still aren't available in Unicode.

7. Lack of open access

Much information online, including content created by the government, is under copyright licensing. The pay-wall gardens and copyright restrictions keep information closed and prevents people from sharing content. Wikipedia content, on the other hand, is available under Creative Commons Share-Alike licensing, which allows anyone to use the content (and even distribute commercial copies of it). The idea of opening up content under free licenses can help information reach countless additional people.

8. Accessibility

India has more than 60-million people with hearing impairments. Many people with physical disabilities need good text-to-speech and speech-to-text engines. And these software solutions must be free, so that anyone, regardless of their finances, can contribute to Wikipedia in their own languages.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-march-28-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-8-challenges-for-improving-indian-language-wikipedias

4 tips for DIY makers

subha — 2016-11-22T02:36:39Z

I started learning stencil printing and hand lettering this year, and became quite enthralled with it. These age old techniques really add something special to postcards, which I usually send to myself, my wife, and my friends while traveling.

The article was published in Opensource.com on November 18, 2016

Of course, I started considering how I could make the artwork from these postcards open to others.

First, I take a picture of the postcard and upload it to Wikimedia Commons under a free license, usually Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 or CC BY-SA 4.0 International. These two licenses allow anyone to use the image of my artwork for both non-commercial and commercial purposes, modify and remix them. And uploading to Wikimedia Commons puts my artwork in a place where many people will see it.

Sometimes, I capture the postcard-making process as well, and upload those images to Wikimedia Commons.

If you're considering making your DIY project open, here are four main considerations:

1. To share or not to share?

Deciding whether to share your craft project or image might be an easy "sure, why not?" but you may be wondering "but, is it useful to others?"

My opinion is that yes, everything you make could be interesting to others, so why not make it open? There is certainly something in every maker activity that is worth sharing publicly. When I was making a stamp that was quite special and personal, and I did not want the whole world to see it because it was personal, but I did capture the stamp carving process for others to see. You might want to ask around friends and other people in any maker community you are part of. Also, try asking yourself what really would matter to other people so that you can share only useful outcomes and tips rather than sharing everything.

2. Choosing a license

I wrote about three tips for sharing your work online. And there are many other resources out there, including Creative Commons and GitHub.

A simple rule of thumb is: Except content that clearly indicates the work is released under a free license, or that the copyright has lapsed and the work is in the Public Domain, you can assume content is not freely/liberally licensed.

3. Where to share

There is almost a platform to share anything these days. Most popular multimedia platforms support Creative Commons-licensed works, like YouTube and Vimeo for video, Flickr for images, Medium for writing, Jamendo for music, and many more. Wikimedia Commons, mentioned above, is a sister project of Wikipedia and the world's largest multimedia repository; it allows original works to be uploaded and shared by Copyright holders and others of works like images (.jpg, .png, .gif), presentations (.pdf), videos (.webm and .ogv), and audio files (.ogg).

Know of more places to share works? Let us know in the comments.

4. Meet birds of feather and exchange ideas

There are tons of global and local events that bring people of all maker interests under a single roof.

An event that I love is Mozilla's Maker Party. I have been to one in my city of Bengaluru, India and can guarantee it is lots of fun!

Events like this help connect you with other makers who live nearby.

Tell us about your experience

I hope these tips have helped. Do you have other tips to share? Leave us a comment.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/opensource-november-18-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-4-tips-for-diy-makers

3 Copyright Tips for Students and Educators

subha — 2016-10-07T00:42:06Z

Copyright is a really complicated topic, and when it comes to online use of creative works, accidentally crossing the line between fair use and a copyright violation is easy. How do you know what is copyrighted? Recently Frederico Morando (Creative Commons, Italy) and I presented a training session on understanding copyright policies at Wikimania 2016, which was originally proposed by Wikipedian User:Jim Carter. We covered topics such as fundamentals of copyright, exclusive rights, Berne convention, copyleft, Creative Commons licenses, Public Domain, fair use, and copyfraud.

The blog post was published by Opensource.com on August 16, 2016. This got mentioned in Wikipedia's newsletter "The Signpost". This was mirrored by Wiki Edu on October 5, 2016. The post republished can be read here.

In this article, I'll look at three copyright tips to keep in mind when you're thinking about using content—even for academic purposes— you find online.

1. Most of what you find on the Internet is copyrighted.

Except content that clearly indicates the work is released under a free license, or that the copyright has lapsed and the work is in the Public Domain, you can assume content is not freely/liberally licensed. A few popular free and open licenses include GNU General Public License (GPL), BSD licenses, Apache License, Mozilla Public License, and SIL Open Font License. If a work mentions the license, usually the license is explained or links to terms for using the work. Spending a little time to find out what license the work is under beats spending time and money on a copyright infringement case later.

2. Fair use can be your friend, but not always.

Fair use means you might be permitted to make limited use of a copyrighted work without prior permission from the copyright holder. The fair use policy varies from country to country. As explained in the Stanford University Libraries site, commentary/quotes and criticism, and parody are cases that often fall under fair use.

Wikipedia article images related to recent music albums, movies, and even people who are deceased are used under fair use policy. Click on a recent movie poster appearing in a Wikipedia article and check the copyright section for an example explanation of why the use on Wikipedia qualifies as fair use.

^{Example Wikipedia explanation for fair use of an image.}

Fair use also gives some freedom to scholars to use copyrighted work for academic research. To be in a safe side if you are not sure your use falls under "fair use," reach out to the copyright holder and get formal permission before using their work.

3. search.creativecommons.org helps streamline Creative Commons content searches.

Where do you go to search for images, illustrations, and other content with Creative Commons licensing? Most images turned up using a search engine are copyrighted and not licensed liberally, for example. A better way to search is using search.creativecommons.org.

You can choose Creative Commons-licensed content from several sites, such as Flickr, Google Images, Wikimedia Commons, and Europeana. You can also specify whether you want to use the content for commercial purposes, or to modify, adapt, and build upon work.

^{Image credit likeaduck. CC BY 2.0}

Note that you still will need to check which Creative Commons license the content uses. As explained in an article by Richard Fontana:

The Creative Commons suite includes licenses that implement various policies. Some, like CC BY and CC BY-SA, are normatively consistent with corresponding permissive and copyleft families of free software licenses. Others, however, particularly its “NC” (no commercial use) and “ND” (no derivative works) licenses, are in conflict with basic principles of free software and free culture. I am not alone in lamenting the application of the Creative Commons umbrella brand to cover licenses with such disparate qualities. One consequence has been a general confusing dilution of the meaning of “openness” in the context of cultural works. A more specific problem is the evidence of confusion on the part of content authors interested in applying Creative Commons licenses to their works, and resulting confusion by those interested in making use of such works. Too often a work is labeled as being licensed under “a Creative Commons license”, without specifying accurately, or specifying at all, which free or nonfree policy the author sought to apply.

If you still cannot find content—images, for example—with free licenses, but you find copyrighted content that fits your academic need, you can reach out to the content creator or copyright holder for permission. Often copyright holders allow usage of their work for non-commercial purposes, such as academic research and publication.

Do you have other sources you recommend for finding Creative Commons or Public Domain content? Let us know about your favorite resources in the comments.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/3-copyright-tips-for-students-and-educators