Dear all,

Below is the details of the activities by the Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge program (CIS-A2K).

Andhra Loyola College and the Centre for Internet & Society sign MoU for Better Net Access

Andhra Loyola College (ALC) and the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to steward the growth of Telugu Wikipedia and to make available free knowledge in Telugu to all Telugus across the globe.

Highlights:
* Ten theosophical books authored by Rev. Fr. P. Jojaiah, SJ released under free license (CC-BY-SA-4.0).
* For the first time an educational institution in the state of Andhra Pradesh is signing an MoU with CIS-A2K to work collaboratively to qualitatively improve Telugu Wikipedia.
* ALC faculty and students to create free e-content in Telugu on Telugu Wikipedia.
* Digital content from the fields of Botany, Physics, Chemistry, Telugu, Statistics, Ethics and Religion, Music and Dance to be produced on Telugu Wikipedia.

Blog Entries:
* We are Wikipedia (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Global Voices Online, June 18, 2014): http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/we-are-wikipedia
* OpenGLAM at Wikimania 2014 (by Subhashish Panigrahi, OpenGlam, August 27, 2014): http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/open-glam-august-27-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-open-glam-at-wikimania-2014

News and Media Coverage:
CIS-A2K team gave its inputs to the following media coverage:
* Now, Christ students will contribute to Wikipedia (by H.M.Shruthi, Deccan Herald, August 5, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/news/deccan-herald-shruthi-august-5-2014-now-christ-students-will-contribute-to-wikipedia
* CIS-A2K Signs MoU with Andhra Loyola College in Vijayawada (Eenadu, August 15, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/cis-mou-with-alc-coverage-in-eenadu
* ALC signs MoU for better net access (The Hindu, August 15, 2014): http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-august-15-2014-alc-signs-mou-for-better-net-access

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

About CIS:
Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization 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/CISA2K
CIS 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 the 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 the 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 bulletin is also available on Meta-wiki at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_to_Knowledge/Newsletter/August_2014

Thank you all for your kind support and collaboration!

Subhashish Panigrahi
Access To Knowledge
Centre for Internet and Society
@psubhashish