Apologies for the draft that was sent by mistake. Below are the complete newsletters.

OCTOBER

Odia Wikisource goes live!

After a long wait of the project in incubation, Odia Wikisource (https://or.wikisource.org) went live on October 20. Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) congratulates all the wikilibrarians whose persistent effort for bringing new contributors and digitizing books made this happen. CIS-A2K is also honored to be instrumental for bringing about more than 40 books relicensed under Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-by-SA 4.0) license by reaching out to authors and copyright holders. The first Odia Wikipedia campus program at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) was implemented where 43 students under the guidance of 9 faculty were trained to digitize books of iconic Odia author Dr Jagannath Mohanty that were relicensed earlier this year. Collaboration with Wikimedians Manoj Sahukar and Shitikantha Dash has resulted encoding converters that convert other encoding to Unicode. This has helped to bring new wikilibrarians to digitize Odia classic "Odia Bhagabata" on Wikisource.


Op-ed:

1. ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ବିକାଶରେ ପ୍ରତିବନ୍ଧକ ଓ ସମ୍ଭାବନା (Subhashish Panigrahi; Samaja; October 13, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/subhashish-panigrahi-october-13-2014-editorial-in-samaja


Blogs:
1. More Than 40 Million People Await the Launch of Odia Wikisource (Subhashish Panigrahi; Global Voices and Wikimedia Blog; October 21, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/global-voices-subhashish-panigrahi-october-18-2014-more-than-400-million-people-await-launch-of-odia-wikisource
2. Odia Littérateur Ramakrushna Nanda's 4 Books Now Available Under a Creative Commons License (Subhashish Panigrahi; October 22, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/ramakrushna-nanda-four-books-under-cc-license
3. Open Access Platform to Save the Odia Indian Language (Subhashish Panigrahi; Opensource.com; October 22, 2014): http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/open-source-subhashish-panigrahi-october-22-2014-open-access-platform-to-save-the-odia-indian-language
4. Odia Wikisource Goes Live! (Subhashish Panigrahi; October 26, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/odia-wikisource-goes-live
5. Samskrita Vaibhavam (Shubha and Sayant Mahato; October 30, 2014): http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/samskrita-vaibhavam
6. Tulu Wikipedia Workshop cum Editathon at Udupi (Dr. U.B.Pavanaja; October 31, 2014): http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/tulu-wikipedia-workshop-cum-editathon-at-udupi
7. The event was covered by V4News.com (http://v4news.com/enliven-the-tulu-viki-fidia-first-and-then-add-tulu-to-the-8th-schedule-dr-ug-pavanaja-bangalore-rep-in-udupi/) and Mangalore Today (http://www.mangaloretoday.com/newsbriefs/2-Day-Workshop-on-Tulu-in-internet.html).
8. Converting from nonUnicode (Nudi, Baraha, ...) font encoding to Unicode Kannada (Dr. U.B.Pavanaja; October 31, 2014): (http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/converting-from-non-unicode-nudi-baraha-font-encoding-to-unicode-kannada)


Events Co-organized:

1. Sangeet Baithak: A Hindustani Music Resource Donation Event in Mumbai. (Organized by CIS-A2K and Khayal Trust; Shivaji Park, Dadar, Mumbai; October 7, 2014): (http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/sangeet-baithak)
2. Indian Women in Science Wiki edit-a-thon (Organized by IndoBioScience and CIS-A2K; Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; October 11, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/india-women-in-science-wiki-edit-a-thon
3. Ada Lovelace Edit-a-thon 2014 (Organized by IndoBioScience and CIS-A2K; Urban Solace; October 14, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/ada-lovelace-edit-a-thon-2014


News and Media Coverage:
CIS-A2K team gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

1. Enliven the Tulu Viki Fidia first and then add Tulu to the 8th Schedule : Dr.UG Pavanaja, Bangalore Rep. in Udupi (V4News.com; October 15, 2014): http://v4news.com/enliven-the-tulu-viki-fidia-first-and-then-add-tulu-to-the-8th-schedule-dr-ug-pavanaja-bangalore-rep-in-udupi/
2. Wikipedia can establish Tulu in a wider way (Mangalore Today; October 17, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/mangalore-today-october-17-2014-wikipedia-can-establish-tulu-in-a-wider-way
3. Pushing women scientists (Renuka Phadnis; Hindu; October 19, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/the-hindu-renuka-phadnis-october-19-2014-wikipedia-editathon-attempts-to-raise-awareness-of-the-contribution-of-indian-women-to-science
4. Wiki Media Foundation keen on developing Urdu Wikipedia (Nisar Ahmed Syed; October 22, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/karnataka-muslims-nisar-ahmed-syed-october-22-2014-wiki-media-foundation-keen-on-developing-urdu-wikipedia
5. Wiki Media Foundation keen on developing Urdu Wikipedia (Siasat Daily; October 24, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/siasat-daily-october-24-2014-wiki-media-foundation-keen-on-developing-urdu-wikipedia


Participation in Events:
Barcamp Bangalore (Organized by SAP Labs; Bangalore; October 12, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja and Rahmanuddin Shaik took part in the event. (http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/barcamp-bangalore)

This newsletter could also be read on Meta (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_to_Knowledge/Newsletter/October_2014)

NOVEMBER

55 Works of Iconic Indian writer released under Free Licence to benefit Wikisource

Kannada is a language spoken by 40 million people in Karnataka – one of the four southern states of India.The Kannada Wikimedia community, in collaboration with CIS-A2K, are enthusiastic about having almost all of the works of Niranjana re-licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 on the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava. Niranjana was a prolific Indian author and activist, and wrote more than 60 books over the course of his career. These works will be digitized and made available on Kannada Wikisource (https://kn.wikisource.org), allowing Kannada speakers to freely access the diverse set of works. Niranjana’s works give a rich glimpse into social, political, and cultural history of Karnataka from the 1940s to 1990s; they can be used as a potential resource for creating and improving articles on Kannada Wikipedia (https://kn.wikipedia.org). Read more: http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/55-works-of-iconic-indian-writer-released-under-free-licence-to-benefit-wikisource


Op-ed:

Odia Wikisource, its Potential (Subhashish Panigrahi; Samaja; November 17, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/the-samaja-november-17-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-odia-wikisource-its-potential


Blogs:

1. Odia author Nirmala Kumari Mohapatra's 21 books relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0 (Subhashish Panigrahi; November 17, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/odia-author-nirmala-kumari-mohapatra-21-books-under-cc
2. Nineteen Books Published by Ama Odisha Relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0 (Subhashish Panigrahi; November 25, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/nineteen-books-by-ama-odisha-relicensed


Event Co-organized:

Odia Wikisource Sabha 2014. (Co-organized by CIS-A2K and Odia Wikimedia Community; November 28, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event. (http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikisource-sabha-2014)


News and Media Coverage:
CIS-A2K team gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

1.ಭಾಷಣದಿಂದ ಭಾಷೆ ಉಳಿಯಲ್ಲ, ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲೇ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಿಗುವುದು ಅಗತ್ಯ: ಪವನಜ (Just Kannada; November 23, 2014).
2. Kannada Wikipedia Presentation in Mysuru (Prajavani; November 24, 2014).
3. Now, Tulu set to be promoted through Wikipedia articles (Hindu; November 24, 2014).
4. ‘Tulu Wikipedia’ in incubation stage, 600 articles uploaded, says U.B. Pavanaja (Ravi Prasad Kamila; Hindu; November 26, 2014).
5. Sahu, Diana (5 December 2014). "Access to Rare Books Made Easy". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 5 December 2014. (http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/Access-to-Rare-Books-Made-Easy/2014/12/05/article2555236.ece)
6. Odia Wikisource launched in Odisha capital. (Odisha Sun Times; November 28, 2014): http://cis-india.org/openness/news/odisha-sun-times-november-28-2014-odia-wikisource-launched-in-odisha-capital
7. [http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/orissa-diary-november-28-2014-odia-wikisource-aims-to-bring-valuable-and-rare-books-on-the-internet Odia Wikisource aims to bring valuable and rare books on the Internet] (Odisha Diary; November 28, 2014).
More press coverage in the event page: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/quk


Participation in Event:
1. A Seminar on E-publishing of Odia Books (Organized by Molybtech Technology Solutions; November 30, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi was a speaker. (http://cis-india.org/openness/news/seminar-e-publishing-odia-books)


CIS-A2K:

Wikimedia Foundation has funded A2K to anchor the growth of the Wikimedia movement in India. The A2K team consists of six members, four of them being based in Bangalore: T. Vishnu Vardhan, Dr. U.B. Pavanaja, Subhashish Panigrahi and Rahmanuddin Shaikh. One team member Nitika Tandon has left the organisation -- We wish Nitika all the best in her career. We also have one Advisor, Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana working with us.
Archives of our newsletters can be accessed here (http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters). Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programmes, technical bugs, logistics-merchandise and media, public relations and communications here (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Requests).


About CIS:

The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organisation that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.


Follow us elsewhere:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2KCIS
Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cis.india
Visit us at: https://cis-india.org


Request for Collaboration:

We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org.CIS is grateful to its primary donor, Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.


This newsletter could also be read on Meta (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_to_Knowledge/Newsletter/November_2014).


Thanks,

Subhashish Panigrahi
Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge
Centre for Internet and Society


On 16 December 2014 at 13:39, Subhashish Panigrahi <psubhashish@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,

Our sincere apologies for the delayed posts. Below are the newsletters for the months of October and November 2014.

OCTOBER

Odia Wikisource goes live!

After a long wait of the project in incubation, Odia Wikisource (https://or.wikisource.org) went live on October 20. Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) congratulates all the wikilibrarians whose persistent effort for bringing new contributors and digitizing books made this happen. CIS-A2K is also honored to be instrumental for bringing about more than 40 books relicensed under Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-by-SA 4.0) license by reaching out to authors and copyright holders. The first Odia Wikipedia campus program at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) was implemented where 43 students under the guidance of 9 faculty were trained to digitize books of iconic Odia author Dr Jagannath Mohanty that were relicensed earlier this year. Collaboration with Wikimedians Manoj Sahukar and Shitikantha Dash has resulted encoding converters that convert other encoding to Unicode. This has helped to bring new wikilibrarians to digitize Odia classic "Odia Bhagabata" on Wikisource.

Blogs:



--
Subha