Dear all,
Centre for Internet and Society' Access To Knowledge (CIS-A2K) program
would like to share with you the newsletter below for the month of
September 2015. We look forward to hear any feedback or input you might
have.
In 2013, the interview project “WikipediansSpeak”[1] was launched in
response to observations that many noteworthy Wikimedians were being
underrepresented both locally and globally. Not just them
personally—their work, and the communities they represent, were also
unknown to the Wikimedia community and the outside world. The Wikimedia
Foundation’s fundraising campaigns were the biggest inspiration for the
project. From video-only interviews, this is an attempt at different
ways of interviews, and is the first interview showcasing a Telugu
Wikimedian: Viswanadh B.K., who was an Individual Engagement (IEG)
Grantee last year and has continued to be active in outreach. As part of
the WikipediansSpeak series Individual Engagement Grantee (IEG) grantee
and Telugu-language Wikimedian Viswanadh.BK shares his experience on
digital library movement in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh that his
Individual Engagement Grant (IEG) is bringing. With his grant,
information of over 300K books housed in five libraries in the Indian
state of Andhra Pradesh could be added to a Wikipedia-based catalog that
is now helping Wikipedians to cite and readers to easily locate books.
. . . Read more in the Wikimedia blog at:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/10/09/telugu-library-catalog-project/
== Event organized/participated ==
(CIS-A2K events page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events)
⬤ Software Freedom Day
2015(http://cis-india.org/openness/events/software-freedom-day-2015-bengalu…
The Software Freedom Day[2] was celebrated on September 19 at the Centre
for Internet and Society, Bengaluru. A pledge was taken to help spread
the word about free software to all people, but especially governments,
use, contribute to, and spread open standards, free/libre/open source
software, open APIs, openly-licensed content (including open data, open
access, and open education resources), leading to a vibrant public
domain, and ensure that all of the above are accessible for all,
including persons with disabilities and other marginalised sections of
society.
⬤ Seminar on "Empowering Marathi Schools", Pune
(
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/seminar-on-empowering-marathi-schools-…)
A seminar was organized on 13 September at S. M. Joshi Sabhagriha, Pune
to address the issue of the gradual decline of Marathi schools in
Maharashtra. CIS-A2K Programme Associate
Abhinav Garule attended the event shared his views on how teachers could
encourage students to contribute to Marathi Wikipedia.
⬤ Kannada Wikipedia meetup at CIS Bangalore office
A Kannada Wikipedia meetup was organized on 13 September at CIS-A2K
Bangalore office. 26 Kannada Wikipedians, including 3 CIS-A2K members
attended the meetup. The event page on Kannada Wikipedia may be seen
here (
https://goo.gl/O9HaBp) and here (
https://goo.gl/N9D35Y) are a few
photos from the event.
=== Upcoming events ===
CIS-A2K invites applications from Indian and Indic Wikimedians for the
upcoming Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public
Interest. The event, happening during December 15-17 in New Delhi, is
the most significant event on the calendar for scholars and policy
advocates working on intellectual property from a public interest
perspective. The last date of application is 27 October. Indian and
Indic Wikipedians are welcome to apply in the event page to apply.
== Blog posts ==
⬤ Hasan, Tanveer "CIS brings Nadustunna Charithra magazine under by CC
BY SA license"
(
http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-brings-nadustunna-charithra-magazine-und…)
(2 September 2015)
⬤ Panigrahi, Subhashish. OCR and OER – update
(
http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/education-okfn-subhashish-panigrahi-septembe…)
(25 September 2015)
Panigrahi, Subhashish "Panigrahi, Subhashish "As Odia Wikipedia turns
13, what happens next?"
(
http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-foundation-blog-as-odia-wikipedia-…)
(26 September 2015)
⬤ Panigrahi, Subhashish "Panigrahi, Subhashish "Google's Optical
Character Recognition Software Now Works with All South Asian Languages"
(
http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-softwa…)
(26 September 2015)
⬤ Panigrahi, Subhashish. "Wikimedia contributor shares his Linux story "
(
http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-september-3-2015-subhashish-pani…)
(27 September 2015)
This newsletter is also available on Meta at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter/September_2015
Note:
1.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikipediansSpeak
2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Freedom_Day