Hello friends,
This is a link I recommend you to bookmark.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Geographical_distribution_of_Indian_Wikipedians
This list is useful for outreach & also whenever someone needs Wiki-Help in
a particular city. It would be great if Wikipedians could update this
list.:)
We have the following completely unrepresented states/UTs:
* Andaman & Nicobar Islands
* Arunachal Pradesh
* Assam
* Chandigarh
* Chhattisgarh
* Dadra, Nagar & Haveli
* Daman & Diu
* Goa
* Himachal Pradesh
* Jammu & Kashmir
* Jharkhand (AngPradesh is in Mumbai)
* Lakshadweep
* Manipur
* Meghalaya
* Mizoram
* Puducherry
* Punjab (oye, ye ki hoya!)
* Nagaland
* Uttar Pradesh
* Uttarakhand
Okay, all you admins, please update your status (Mikey my boy, that means
you too)!
Abroad, we dont have Indic Wikipedians listed for:
* Africa
* Australia
* Asia (other than India)
* Middle East
* North America
* South America
Unless you would like to stay off list, of course that's acceptable too.
May I also request Tinu / list admins to please forward it all the Indic
language & city Wikimedia lists. We need this resource to be as
comprehensible as possible.
Warm regards,
Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------
Hi all,
This is part of the replies of Vishnu four months ago.
---------------------------------------------------
-----------
Me:
And also tell the community, who are all involved in the interview process
and selection process, and why?
Vishnu:
BEFORE EVEN PUBLISHING THE JOB ADVERTISEMENT WE HAD DECIDED TO PUBLISH A
BLOG POST/WRITE-UP ON THE SELECTION PROCESS AND SHARE IT WITH THE WIKIMEDIA
INDIA COMMUNITY AS PART OF OUR TRANSPARENCY MEASURE. ONCE THIS IS UP, WILL
SHARE THE LINK.
Me:
Please make available the job descriptions/roles for all the employees at
meta and share the same in the mailing list.
Vishnu:
YES WE ARE REWORKING THE PROFILES AS THE EARLIER ROLES ARE NO MORE
RELEVANT. WE WILL TAKE THIS UP ON PRIORITY AND PUT IT UP ON META. THE LINKS
TO A2K TEAM MEMBER PROFILES, SHARED EVERY MONTH IN A2K NEWSLETTERS, WILL IN
FUTURE BE LINKED TO THE META PAGES.
--------------------------------------------------------------
If I've missed any updates on this from A2K, let me know.
What happened to the decision? When do you plan to share this, next year?
If so you should have told the community. Don't you think so?
Besides user pages (User pages don't have detailed information about the
job description) there is no proper work details of anybody on meta
officially
. I don't think there is any even off-wiki
. (Profiles at CIS site are not detailed enough to know their works)
We don't know who is responsible for which work!! Who is doing what?
Few more questions..
Why still *2* new recruits are missing even after several months, at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Team<http://bl-1.com/click/load/ADAAMlM2Um8Hb1w7CTw-b0231>
,
Why there is no *monthly reports* updated on meta,
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Reports<http://bl-1.com/click/load/VGRaaABlVmtQOFA3AjA-b0231>
Why there is no *community Mid-year reports* updated,
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Reports<http://bl-1.com/click/load/VmZZawdiAj9ROVUyBDc-b0231>
If there is any report available anywhere, when do you plan to update the
meta pages?
Why there is no response to this, Evaluation results after months? *How
long are your two weeks?*
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:India_Access_To_Knowledge/Work_plan_Ap…<http://bl-1.com/click/load/UGAKOFw5WmcCagZhV2c-b0231>
What about "*Quarterly Community Survey*" mentioned here,
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Work_plan_April_2…<http://bl-1.com/click/load/XW0PPQdiBzoFbVA3VGU-b0231>?
Is there any plan to do this ever?
And on this
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Forum/Archives/2013-08#Terms_.2F_…<http://bl-1.com/click/load/BDRcblQxATwFbQFmUmw-b0231>,
which Shyamal brought it up; I'd like to see something concrete from the
Foundation.
I don't know about off-wiki, but there hasn't been proper communication on
anything on-wiki. If there is a change in plans or updates on any event, we
don't get to see that! Why?
* Who is accountable for all these discrepancies??*
I request the foundation or whoever is responsible for this to make sure
everything goes as it planned or discussed, and let the community know what
is happening regularly on-wiki.
Thanks.
Regards,
Ansuman
The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) Program
invites applications from experienced Wikimedia community members for a
short-term assignment as a 'Community Communications Consultant'. The
duration of this assignment is for 3 months. The consultant will work with
the CIS-A2K team and report to the Program Director CIS-A2K.
*Profile:*
An ideal candidate should:
a) have been a Wikimedian for more than a year.
b) have good understanding of and contribution on Wikipedia, Wikisource,
Wiktionary and Wikimedia Commons projects.
c) have links with at least 5 Indian language Wikimedia community members
d) have good writing skills in English and at least in 2 Indian languages
e) be able to speak/read multiple (at least 3) Indian languages
f) be open to receiving community review of his/her work
Preference will be given to those who:
a) can use python
b) can use various tools for community metrics
c) can actively use social media
*Job Description*
The consultant will:
1.
Do about 60 profile stories on key Wikimedians (especially those who
have not received visibility beyond their language community) from all the
Indian language Wikimedia communities.
2.
Revive Indian community Wikimedia Newsletter.
3.
Undertake research and produce analytical reports based on community
wide metrics.
4.
Any other tasks that may be assigned by the Programme Director, Access
to Knowledge.
*Fee and Payment*
The consultant will be paid a consolidated sum of about Rs. 40,000/- per
month for three months. The consultancy fee will be paid after an
assessment of the work done by the Consultant. The consultancy fee could be
slightly negotiated based on the experience and expertise of a suitable
candidate.
*Other Information*
The position is based in Bangalore and the consultant will need to work
from CIS' Bangalore office.
Applicants are requested to send their detailed CV with a covering letter
(not exceeding 350 words indicating their motivation to take up this
assignment) to *vishnu(a)cis-india.org* . The last date to receive the
applications is November 1, 2013. Applicants are requested to use the
subject “CCC at A2K” while submitting the application
Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed either remotely or in-person.
Only short-listed candidates will be informed by e-mail about the interview
by November 5, 2013.
For all inquiries with regard to this assignment, please write off the list
to vishnu(a)cis-india.org
Best,
Vishnu
Dear all,
We thank you all for your support and collaboration. Please find below the details of our work in the month of September 2013.
Re-release of Konkani Vishwakosh under CC-BY-SA 3.0
Goa University re-released Konkani Vishwakosh under Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA 3.0. To celebrate and further the movement of open knowledge and open access Goa University in collaboration with Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge Programme (CIS-A2K) organised an event on September 26, 2013 at 10 a.m. at the Goa University Conference Hall. Konkani Vishwakosh is a four-volume encyclopedia published by Goa University. It encompasses all the world information in a nutshell with special emphasis and detailed information on Goa, Konkani, Goan culture, folklore, history, geography, etc. By releasing Vishwakosh under Creative Commons license, Goa University is making it freely available to public and giving them the right to share, use and even build upon the work that has already been done. For more on Konkani Vishwakosh re-release see http://bit.ly/19y0EJx
► Announcements
CIS Signs MoU with Goa University: The A2K team at CIS has signed an MoU with the Goa University to digitize the “Konkani Vishwakosh” under the Creative Commons license and build a digital knowledge partnership to enhance digital literacy in Konkani language. See http://bit.ly/1fBZXlR for more details.
Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Project: The Centre for Internet and Society in collaboration with the University of Goa is doing a two-month project on digitization of Konkani Vishwakosh.: http://bit.ly/15Idlh7.
► Video
Wikipedians Speak: Piotr Konieczny: This episode brings you a conversation with Piotr Konieczny, a veteran Wikipedian from Poland. He has contributed to over 514 DYK articles on Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/16jYsBF.
► Columns and Blog Entries
Recap on Konkani Wikipedia Workshop (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Startup Goa Blog, September 9, 2013): http://bit.ly/19KtIwo
ଅବସର ପରର ଦ୍ବିତୀୟ ଜୀବନ, ଅବସର ପରେ ସକ୍ରିୟ ଭାବେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆରେ ଲେଖାଲେଖି ଜାରୀ ରଖିଥିବା ଜଣେ ଡାକ୍ତରଙ୍କ ସହ ଭାବାଲୋଚନା (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Odiapua, September 10, 2013): http://bit.ly/14QQkIo.
Selection of Programme Officer — Pilot Projects, CIS-A2K (by Nitika Tandon, September 10, 2013): http://bit.ly/1fU7Ikl.
Wikipedia reaches Classrooms in Hyderabad (by Syed Muzammiluddin, September 20, 2013): http://bit.ly/18f9n1o.
► Events Organised
A Kannada Wikipedia Workshop in Mysore (University of Mysore, August 6, 2013): This is a report of the workshop conducted last month. Dr. Pavanaja conducted the workshop: http://bit.ly/15LPoKZ.
Indian Language Wikipedia Training Workshop (TISS, Mumbai, August 16, 2013). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was the trainer at this workshop. This workshop was organized as part of the CIS-A2K MoU with TISS. This is also part of the Indian Language Mela being organized by Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education, TISS: http://bit.ly/1ajmH7G.
Indian Language Wikipedia Training Workshop (TISS, Tuljapur, August 24, 2013). Abhishek Suryavanshi was the trainer for this workshop: http://bit.ly/1aHg6AL.
Wikipedia Introductory Workshop (Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Goa, September 28, 2013). Nitika Tandon conducted this workshop. The details will be posted soon.
Train the Trainer — Four-day long Residential Training Workshop in Bangalore (organised by CIS-A2K, Bangalore, October 3 – 6, 2013): http://bit.ly/1f1KOvm.
► Events Co-organised
Digital Resources in Telugu: A Workshop for Research Scholars (co-organised by CIS-A2K and the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad and CILHE, TISS on September 13, 2013). T. Vishnu Vardhan curated and conducted this day-long event for M.Phil and Ph.D students of the EFL University: http://bit.ly/174pugy.
Re-releasing Konkani Vishwakosh & Building Konkani Wikipedia (organised by CIS-A2K and the University of Goa, Conference Hall, Goa University, Taleigao, September 26, 2013): http://bit.ly/18SsChu.
Wikipedia Introductory Workshop (co-organised by CIS-A2K and wikipedians John Noronha and Supriya Kankumbikar, September 27, 2013). Nitika Tandon participated in this workshop.
Odisha: Wikipedia workshop at IIMC, Dhenkanal (co-organised by CIS-A2K and Odia Wikimedia community, September 30, 2013). Subhashish Panigrahi coordinated the entire event along with members of Odia Wikipedia, Dr Subas Chandra Rout, Mrutyunjaya Kar and Sasanka Sekhar Das: http://bit.ly/15NsTjM. This was covered by Odisha Diary (http://bit.ly/1bna9zd), and eOdisha Samachar (http://bit.ly/1aNJvv4).
► Events Participated In
Workshop on e-Content Development (organised by Centre for Staff Training and Development, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad, September 4 – 6, 2013). Vishnu Vardhan gave guest lectures on Open Source to Open Knowledge; Building Knowledge Bases and Platforms via Mass Collaboration on the Internet; e-Content in Indian languages – History, Challenges and Opportunities; Wikipedia Users to Wikipedia Authors – Exploring Wikipedia as an OER Tool; and e-Content, e-Student, e-Faculty – Reimagining classroom in the digital Age: http://bit.ly/16HNZpy.
Kannada Wikipedia Workshop (organised by Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, SDM College, Ujire, September 15, 2013). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was the trainer at this workshop: http://bit.ly/183Atq0.
T. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk on Building Knowledge Bases and Platforms via Mass Collaboration on the Internet (organised by Jadavpur University, School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, and Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University on September 23, 2013). http://bit.ly/163oEpz.
Konkani Wikipedia Workshop (organised by St. Aloysius College, AIMIT, St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Beeri, Mangalore, September 13, 2013). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was the trainer at this workshop: http://bit.ly/1eGviTY.
Indian Languages Mela (organised by Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education, TISS, Mumbai, September 20-21, 2013). Tejaswini Niranjana, T. Vishnu Vardhan and Dr. U.B. Pavanaja participated in this event: http://bit.ly/16hdTLb
'Digital Humanities and Higher Education' (organised by School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, September 2013). Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana gave a talk.
► Media Coverage
'Help Konkani Wikipedia come out of incubation' (Deccan Herald, September 13, 2013): The article talks about the relative lack of content in Konkani Wikipedia. “To get it out of incubation, many should write Konkani articles for Wikipedia,” Dr. Pavanaja was quoted as having said: http://bit.ly/152vA0g.
Konkani Vishwakosh relaunch tomorrow (The Hindu, September 26, 2013). A coverage of the re-release of the Konkani encyclopaedia under Creative Commons license: http://bit.ly/18VgnEN.
Goa University re-releasing Konkani encyclopaedia on Sept 26 (The Times of India, September 24, 2013): Goa University and CIS-A2K re-released the four volume 3632 page Konkani Vishwakosh (encyclopaedia) in Goa: http://bit.ly/18VgnV8.
Goa University announces plan to upload Konkani encyclopedia on Wikipedia (Navhind Times, September 27, 2013):http://bit.ly/174rmpA.
Konkani Wikipedia from Goa University in 6 months (The Times of India, September 27, 2013): Goa University becomes the first varsity in India to allow data produced and copyrighted by an Indian university to be used by internet users. Professors, students and anyone with expertise or love for Konkani can come forward to help with the project for which training will be provided, says Vishnu Vardhan: http://bit.ly/19EYl5T.
Konkani Wikipedia in the making (by Prakash Kamat, The Hindu, September 29, 2013): Goa University re-launched a four-volume Konkani encyclopaedia and will upload it on Wikipedia. The process will be completed in six months times, says Vishnu Vardhan: http://bit.ly/18jiG1B.
For the love of Konkani: Preserving Goa's official language (by Joanna Lobo, DNA, September 29, 2013): Konkani has 24 lakh speakers as per the Census Department of India 2001 but online documentation is limited. CIS-A2K wants to strengthen the Konkani Wikipedia, says Nitika Tandon: http://bit.ly/1bV5XWH.
Goa University to make available online Konkani Wikipedia, within 6 months (by Jagran Josh, September 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/18ROmfb.
Goa University Partners CIS India to Build Konkani Wikipedia (by Apurva Chaudhary, Medianama, September 30, 2013): http://bit.ly/1bsZW4u.
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 Muzammiluddin Syed, one member Nitika Tandon in Delhi and one Advisor Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana. Archives of our newsletters can be accessed here (http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters). Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications at http://bit.ly/TOcXId.
About CIS
The 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
Support Us
Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 5600 71.
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(a)cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at nishant(a)cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu(a)cis-india.org
CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.
Thanks
Nitika
Dear All,
Konkani Vishwakosh is now freely available to download on Goa University's website under Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA 3.0. [1]
As many of you know CIS-A2K has been following up with the University for the past couple of months to re-relase the encyclopedia under CC. Upon CIS-A2K' explicit request, Goa University has approved the re-release to make it freely available to public and thus preserve Konkani language and culture in the digital era.
This is a great achievement for the CIS-A2K Programme and we are extremely thankful to Dr. Satish Shetye (Vice-Chancellor, Goa University) for seeing the significance of growing open knowledge movement in Goa and Konkani. Thanks are due to the GU faculty, specifically Prof. Alito Sequeira; Prof. Madhavi Sardesai; Prof. Priyadarshini Tadkodkar; and Dr. Gopakumar. A special thanks goes to Wikipedians Harriet Vidyasagar, Frederick Nooronha and Seby Fernandes for their constant support.
If anyone would like to receive a copy of the Vishwakosh please send us a mail off list and we'll courier a CD your way.
Thanks
Nitika Tandon
[1] http://library.unigoa.ac.in/?q=node
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Events/Konkani_Vi…
A special 'thank you' to Rohini Lakshane for working on this article.
Regards,
Nitika
Konkani Vishwakosh (encyclopaedia) relaunched with a free license, may boost Konkani Wikipedia
http://www.dnaindia.com/blogs/1901806/post-konkani-vishwakosh-encyclopaedia…
The Konkani Vishwakosh was re-released under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license last month at an event held at Goa University, Taleigao. The digital version of the Vishwakosh (encyclopaedia) will be available in a few months. Under the license, the Vishwakosh could serve as a source of reliable references for the Konkani langauge Wikipedia, which is currently under incubation.
Last month, Goa University re-released a four-volume encyclopaedia, Konkani Vishwakosh under a free license. The encyclopaedia presents information about the world with an emphasis on the Konkani language, Goan culture, the folklore, history, and geography of Goa, etc.
What does the open license mean?
The Konkani Vishwakosh was relaunched under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 (Creative Commons-Attribution-Share Alike 3.0) license. The Creative Commons licenses are a legal tool for copyright owners to manage rights and permissions for their works. Under the CC-BY-SA 3.0, users are free to reuse, modify, build upon, and redistribute content from the Konkani Vishwakosh, as long as they attribute it. The same license also applies to any work created by using content from the Konkani Vishwakosh. Licensing the sources of knowledge is a way of enabling access to knowledge, especially for those who may have little or no access to it.
Relevance to Wikipedia
One of the cornerstones of Wikipedia is the use of citations. All writing on Wikipedia must be supported by reliable and independent references. Any editor may challenge and removed unsubstantiated content on Wikipedia. The Konkani Vishwakosh could serve as a vast and versatile source of references for articles in the Konkani language Wikipedia, which is currently under incubation. Content from the Vishwakosh could go into the building of the Konkani Wikipedia as the text on Wikipedia too is available under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.
Digitisation of Konkani Vishwakosh
The Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team and Goa University together have undertaken a project to digitise the Vishwakosh over a period of two months (October and November 2013). They have made a call for volunteers to type out pages from the encyclopaedia in the Devanagri script. More about the project here.
Links to press coverage, and report of the launch event by CIS-A2K.
Goa University Partners CIS India To Build Konkani Wikipedia
http://www.medianama.com/2013/09/223-goa-university-partners-cis-india-to-b…
The Goa university has entered into a three year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) for building the Konkani Wikipedia, reports navhindtimes.
As part of this partnership, Goa University will be uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopedia and the Konkani wikipedia is expected to be available in six months. It appears that the partnership with CIS India includes processes such as scanning, digitization, and creating articles as per requirement of Wikipedia. CIS India has also called out for volunteers for a period of three months to help them digitizing the Konkani encyclopedia.
This is quite notable since most of the development in digitizing documents in Indian language did not include Konkani language, which is spoken in western coast of India. Besides, since the university will upload the Konkani encyclopedia on Wikipedia, it will allow users to search through texts. Most of the digitization projects just scan the books and upload the pages in image format, which makes it difficult to search or perform any kind of data related query.
Last year in May, Wikipedians were digitizing Indian language, out-of-copyright texts online, trying to address the comparative paucity of Indic language texts online. Wikisource is a repository of documents and archived material that serves as a reference source for Wikipedia, and a means of improving access to information sources. Of the 64 languages Wikisource is available in, 8 are Indian: Tamil (stats), Malayalam (stats),Telugu (stats), Kannada (stats), Sanskrit (stats), Marathi (stats), Bengali (stats) and Gujarati (stats). Note that most of these Indian language Wikipedia’s receive active contribution from CIS India under its CIS-A2K program.
Wikipedia had recorded 43.5 million pageviews in Indian language wikis, as of October 2011. In June 2013, the Hindi language Wikipedia had received monthly pageviews of 7.8 million, Tamil language Wikipedia had received 5.2 million pageviews, among others. So there’s clearly a demand to access information in local languages.
That said, while more languages are being added to the list, it should be seen that the articles in these languages do not contain just one or two sentences. According to an analysis by Shijualex.in, many articles posted under Indian language Wikipedia were under 2kb, indicating that it contained only couple of sentences.
Thanks
Nitika
Konkani writers resolve to form all-India forum at JKS conference
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=192381
Mangalore, Oct 1: Jagotik Konknni Songhotton (JKS) organized an All-India Konkani Writers’ Conference on Sunday, September 29 at Kalaangann.
As many as 78 Konkani writers from Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and various regions of Karnataka, attended the conference.
The conference was organized with the intention of bringing together writers of all the five scripts of Konkani and also to probe the possibilities of forming an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum.
Roy Castelino, treasurer, JKS, welcomed the gathering. The secretary general of JKS, Eric Ozario, explained the purpose of the conference and the need for forming an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum. Tomazinho Cardozo, ex-speaker of the Goa Assembly and president, JKS, spoke about the injustices done to writers in the Roman script.
Dr Pratap Naik, Konkani activist, spoke of the progress in the writ petition filed in the Goa bench of the Mumbai high court, seeking rectification of the Official Language Act of Goa, to include the Roman script.
Valerian D’Souza, Marcel D’souza and Eric Ozario explained the progress in the writ petition filed in the high court of Karnataka against the Sahitya Akademi, seeking equal treatment to all scripts of Konkani.
Nitika Tandon, programme manager, The Centre for Internet & Society, spoke about Konkani Wikipedia and the need for the participation of the Roman and the Kannada script writers.
The conference resolved to form an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum, which would protect the interest of Konkani literature and Konkani writers of all scripts. An ad-hoc committee was formed to discuss and decide upon the immediate steps to be taken towards the formation of the Forum.
A book compiling short stories written by Kevin D’Mello, Karkala, titled ‘Chondda ani Gorbh’, was also released on the occasion.
Victor Mathias conducted the proceedings of the conference.
Thanks
Nitika
Goa University to make available online Konkani Wikipedia, within 6 months
http://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/goa-university-to-make-available-online-…
Thick heaps of the four volumes of Konkani language ‘vishwakosh’ or encyclopedia , till now available only in hard copy, will now attain a modern access. The four volumes of encyclopaedia work, initially started by prominent Goan writer and academician late Manoharrai Sardessaiat of Goa University, will now be accessed in digitized format, alongside forming a base for a Konkani Wikipedia.
As mentioned by officials, the Konkani Wikipedia is to be ready to access within upcoming six months. With this, Goa University has turned out to be the first varsity in the nation to enter into a creative commons licence that will permit copyrighted produced data by an Indian university accessible to internet users and open to modification (wiki), making Goa University a victory of sorts of free information.
The university has signed a three-year MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge Programme. This centre represents Wikipedia in India, and now also the Konkani Wikipedia project.
After Google, Facebook and Yahoo, Wikipedia is the fourth most used asset on the internet which operates as an internet based encyclopaedia. Over Wikipedia, any of the users can upload new information and can also update or amend an existing topic. The Konkani Wikipedia is also planned to offer similar privileges to its users. GU's Konkani department and the centre will manage the development from the university campus.
"The Konkani vishwakosh covers all realms of knowledge like any other encyclopedia. The Konkani Wikipedia will act as a digitized repository of knowledge for future generations and Konkani speakers across the world. I look forward to the pleasure of going to the internet and clicking away to access a Konkani Wikipedia," GU vice-chancellor Satish Shetye said.
Shetye told, GU is delighted to relate with Wikipedia, which has become a global trend breaking the monopoly of publishers and transforming the way of sharing of knowledge into a democratic process.
GU registrar Vijayendra Kamat mentions, "At present, it takes time for a page with information in a regional language to download because they are usually found in the form of scanned pages, which are accessible as images and not text. The Konkani Wikipedia will make the text accessible as is the case of any English text on the internet”,
The Konkani vishwakosh, containing four large volumes of total of 3,632 pages,
is a work of period of 14 years. It was edited by late Manoharrai Sardessai followed by the editor Tanaji Halarnkar. For the compilation process, GU Staff members, Ranjan Naik, Kalpana Naik, Kanchan Mordekar, Surekha Naik, Mukesh Thali and Shailendra Mehta contributed to it.
Konkani vishwakosh or encyclopedia covers, concisely presented world information with special weight given on information on Goa, Konkani, Goan culture, folklore, history, geography etc. The Wikipedia is offered in 20 Indian languages that includes Telugu, Assamese, Marathi, but not in language Konkani so far.
Interested Students, Professors or anyone else could contribute to this Konkani Encyclopaedia project by enrolling online at bit.ly/konkanivishwakosh, before 05 October 2013.
Thanks
Nitika