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
------------------------------------------------------
For the love of Konkani: Preserving Goa's official language
http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/1895382/report-for-the-love-of-konkani-pr…
With many local dialects on the brink of extinction, Joanna Lobo meets the language conservationists who have taken it upon themselves to preserve Goa's official language.
Social networking site Orkut may have lost its lustre but digging through its remnants throws up a group called Aamchigele Bindaas Community (ABC). It was started to bring together Konkani-speaking people across the world.
The group is now active on Facebook under the name Broad Minded Konkanis (BMK), where people post queries about Konkani words and phrases. "This group has helped members understand the language to a great extent,” says Rajanikanth Shenoy Kudpi, founder and one of the administrators of the 160-member group. BMK has members from Saraswat, Catholic Christian, Bunt, Navayat Muslim, Jain and other communities, who speak Konkani.
“Konkani as a language will definitely be rejuvenated if contemporaries and scholars put in consistent efforts,” says Kudpi.
One such effort was a recent four-day workshop organised by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and Access to Knowledge (A2K) for the students of Goa University and St.
Xavier’s College. “We want to strengthen the Konkani Wikipedia,” says Nitika Tandon, program manager, CIS-A2K.
Tandon quotes the Census Department of India 2001 figures that puts Konkani speakers at 24 lakh but adds that limited documentation is available online.
However, opinion is divided over the language's fate. “I don’t think it's dying,” says Roshan Pai, founder, savemylanguage.org. Pai started the website, a Konkani dictionary that documents the language spoken by the GSB community in and around Mangalore, in 2005
The site is dependent on volunteer contributions — people send in meanings of various words that are validated by others, who also put in different uses or meanings of the words. All the 17,528 words collected (belonging to GSB dialects in Mangalore, Goa, Kerala and Cochin) are stored online.
One of the major factors behind people talking about saving a language has to do with its links to culture. “It is the essence of life and contains a lot of information that has been passed on through the generations,” says Gurudath Baliga, assistant director at World Konkani Centre, Mangalore.
The centre works towards preserving the language by empowering the community that speaks it through tech-related grassroot activities, documenting folklore, appointing teachers in different schools and publishing books. The centre is now working on Konkanverter.com, an in, catholic Christian, ter script translator, and World Konkani Archives, that will serve as a repository for all data and text. With such initiatives, the language is in safe hands.
Thanks
Nitika Tandon
Konkani Wikipedia in the making
http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/konkani-wikipedia-in-the-making/…
Process of uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopaedia will be completed in six months’ time
The Goa University has re-launched a four-volume Konkani Vishwakosh (Konkani encyclopaedia) and announced its plan to upload the same on Wikipedia so as to build the Konkani Wikipedia.
The project is seen as a major stride in Konkani learning, research and production of books. The project, which will involve 42 students of the Konkani Department of Goa University including four designated as Ambassadors of Konkani, will turn students into producers of knowledge rather than mere consumers of knowledge. The University has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) for building up the Konkani Wikipedia.
“Wikipedia is a global phenomenon and a platform to bring people together for making creative activities possible, which in fact, has challenged the monopoly of publishers and created a movement in order to put together knowledge, further making it accessible to public,” said Satish Shetye, Vice-Chancellor of Goa University, speaking at the launch of the project.
Narrating how the project began, Registrar of Goa University V. P. Kamat explained that Mr. Satish Shetye, who took over as Vice-Chancellor over a year ago, happened to notice the huge piles of hardbound volumes of the Konkani encyclopaedia stacked in the Goa University library and wished to digitise the manuscripts and re-launch the encyclopaedia. The idea to upload the whole content on Wikipedia was thus born.
The work for the Konkani encyclopaedia project was commissioned during the tenure of the first Vice-Chancellor B. Sheik Ali. The project was seen as a historical step to document the identity of the State and its people and the history of Goa for posterity. University insiders, however, said that no serious efforts were made to take the invaluable research work undertaken beyond the University. Secondly, because of the lack of human resource and funds, no initiative was taken so far to update these volumes.
Initiative
Prof. Shetye took a proactive initiative and tied up with Access to Knowledge Programme of the CIS. The four volumes of the 3,632 page Konkani encyclopaedia are being released under Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA 3.0 to support the movement of open knowledge and open access.
Programme Director at CIS’s Access to Knowledge Programme Vishnu Vardhan said that the process of uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopa edia on Wikipedia would be completed in six months’ time. He also stressed on the need to rewrite some of the articles in the encyclopaedia so as to make the content more relevant.
Students of the University involved in digitisation work and rewriting the content see this as an opportunity to learn about digitisation and to write Konkani of global standard, said Madhavi Sardesai, Professor, Department of Konkani at the University. Mr. Vardhan also disclosed plans for a relevant training programme specially co-designed by the CIS as well as the University to put up the content on Wikipedia.
He said that the Goa University is the first in the country to re-license copyright of its content and hailed the initiative towards open knowledge. Though the MoU signed last month would be initially valid for three years, Mr. Vardhan is optimistic that it would go beyond the launch of the Vishwakosh volumes.
Mr. Halarnkar, associated with the Konkani literary movement, who was present at the launch as the editor of the original volumes, welcomed the process of digitisation as relevant, historical and need of the hour. However, he stressed on supervision over the accuracy and accountability while digitising original data and regular updating of the content in the context of the Konkani language, its history and movement.
Thanks
Nitika Tandon
Goa University announces plan to upload Konkani encyclopedia on Wikipedia
http://www.navhindtimes.in/goa-news/goa-university-announces-plan-upload-ko…
PANAJI: The Goa University, on Thursday, re-launched the four volumes of Konkani Vishwakosh (Konkani encyclopedia), and announced its ambitious plan to upload the same on Wikipedia – a free encyclopedia built collaboratively using Wiki software – so as to build the Konkani Wikipedia.
The university has entered into a 3-year memorandum of understanding with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), for building up the Konkani Wikipedia.
Vice Chancellor of Goa University Dr Satish Shetye, speaking during the event held at the university said that Wikipedia is a global phenomenon and a platform to bring people together for making creative activities possible, which in fact, has challenged the monopoly of publishers and created a movement in order to put together knowledge, further making it accessible to public.
“This platform will bring together Konkani speaking people of the world, besides providing an opportunity to learn about digitisation, and write Konkani of global standard.”
Dr Shetye, who incidentally noticed large number of volumes of the Konkani encyclopedia stacked in the Goa University premises, decided to take them to maximum people through their re-launch and upload on the Wikipedia.
The work for the Konkani encyclopedia project was commissioned during the tenure of vice chancellor Prof B Sheik Ali, and was carried out by various people from Dr Manoharrai Sardesai to Dr Tanaji Halarnakar, with the aid of the Konkani department at the university.
The four volumes of the 3,632 page Konkani encyclopedia are being re-released under Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA 3.0 to support the movement of open knowledge and open access. The programme director for the Access to Knowledge Programme of the Centre for Internet and Society, Vishnu Vardhan, speaking on the occasion said that the process of uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopedia on the Wikipedia would be complete in six months time, and includes processes like scanning, digitisation and creating articles as per the requirement of Wikipedia. He also stressed on the need to rewrite some of the articles in Konkani encyclopedia so as to contemporarise their contents.
Vardhan also informed that relevant training programme would be specially co-designed by the CIS as well as the university to put up the content on the Wikipedia.
Goa University is the first university in the country to re-license copyright of its content, and hence can be termed as the ‘Champion of open knowledge’, he observed. Registrar Prof V P Kamat and head of Konkani department Priyadarshini Tadkodkar were also present on the occasion.
Thanks
Nitika
Konkani Wikipedia from Goa University in 6 months
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Konkani-Wikipedia-fr…
PANAJI: Piles of the thick four volumes of Konkani vishwakosh or encyclopedia waiting to be picked up by users at the Goa University (GU) will now attain a modern avatar. The volumes, work on which was first started by renowned Goan writer and academician late Manoharrai Sardessai at GU, will not only be available in digitized format, but will form the base for a Konkani Wikipedia.
Goa University has become the first varsity in the country to enter into a creative commons licence that will allow data produced and copyrighted by an Indian university available to internet users and open to modification, making GU a champion of sorts of free knowledge. The Konkani Wikipedia is expected to be ready for use within six months, officials said.
The university has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding with the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge Programme, which represents Wikipedia in India, for the Konkani Wikipedia project.
"Professors, students and anyone with expertise or love for Konkani can come forward to help with the project for which training will be provided. Information in the Konkani vishwakosh will also be updated as per the current developments," Vishnu Vardhan of the centre said.
The Wikipedia is the fourth most used property on the internet after Google, Facebook and Yahoo, which acts as an internet based encyclopedia where any of the users can upload new information or update or modify an existing chapter. The Konkani Wikipedia too will offer similar privileges to users and GU's Konkani department and the centre will oversee the process 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 said that GU is glad to associate with Wikipedia which has become a global phenomenon and broken the monopoly of publishers and converted distribution of knowledge into a democratic process.
"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," GU registrar Vijayendra Kamat said. tnn
The Konkani vishwakosh was created over a period of 14 years.
Edited by late Manoharrai Sardessai and later Tanaji Halarnkar. GU staffers Ranjan Naik, Kalpana Naik, Kanchan Mordekar, Surekha Naik, Mukesh Thali and Shailendra Mehta contributed to the compilation process.
Contains four large volumes of 3,632 of total pages.
Konkani vishwakosh or encyclopedia encompasses world information in a nutshell with special emphasis on Goa, Konkani, Goan culture, folklore, history, geography etc.
Wikipedia is available in 20 Indian languages including Telugu, Assamese, Marathi, but not in Konkani so far.
Students, professors and anyone interested in contributing to the project can do so by enrolling online at bit.ly/konkanivishwakosh before October 5.
Thanks
Nitika
Thanks Viswam and Debanjan for the wishes. We are also actively pursuing
similar such efforts in other Indian languages and will share the updates
at an appropriate moment.
CIS-A2K will be starting a social media campaign called "Let Knowledge
Go-around" (LKG) which asks for reform of Indian copyright act, such that
the publicly funded knowledge is made available to public for free. An
immediate outcome of this could be that it could prompt some more state
institutions to release content under CC.
Will share more details of this campaign and seek yours and other community
members support in making this demand as loud as possible.
Vishnu
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 10:03:19 +0530
> From: Debanjan Bandyopadhyay <debastein(a)gmail.com>
> To: "Wikimedians working on India related content on English Wikipedia
> & related projects." <wikimedia-in-en(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-in-en] CIS-A2K MoU with Goa University
> (Announcement)
> Message-ID:
> <CAONLHcgGpT=
> 5HzOcaJeVj7Z2OqHKro_05z7kAKsGwbMcUkq0wQ(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Nice to see that that project finally materialized, congrats to all
> involved.
>
> Regards,
> Debanjan
> On Sep 24, 2013 1:37 AM, "ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ)" <viswaprabha(a)gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > That is a wonderful news not just for Konkani, but the whole of Indian
> > Wikimedian community!
> >
> > Konkani, with its unique demographic patterns, scripts and styles, is one
> > very special and dear sister among the Indian languages under the purview
> > of Wikimedia projects.
> >
> > Having a complete 'pre-built' wikikosh within the realms of Konkani
> > Wikipedia will catapult the project many fathoms ahead on its journey
> to a
> > promising future.
> >
> > My heartfelt thanks to all the people who worked on this, especially,
> > Harriet and Frederick.
> >
> > - Viswam
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 11:49 PM, Vishnu T <visdaviva(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Dear All,
> >>
> >> On behalf of CIS-A2K, I am glad to share with you that GOA University
> has
> >> signed an MoU with CIS-A2K.
> >>
> >> As part of this MoU Goa University and CIS-A2K will work together to
> >> digitize “Konkani Vishwakosh” under Creative Common license and build a
> >> Digital Knowledge Partnership in order to enhance digital literacy in
> the
> >> Konkani language and facilitate collaborative knowledge production and
> >> disseminate the same free of cost through Kokani Wikipedia (currently
> under
> >> incubation). Gos University and CIS-A2K will co-design and jointly
> >> implement relevant training programmes to achieve this objective.
> >>
> >> CIS-A2K is grateful for the support and encouragement received from the
> >> Goa University Vice-Chancellor Dr. Satish Shetye; Prof. Alito Siqueira;
> >> Prof. Priyadarshini Tadkodkar; Dr. Madhavi Sardesai; Dr. Gopakumar; and
> >> other faculty of Goa University.
> >>
> >> We are also equally grateful to Wikipedians Harriet Vidyasagar and
> >> Frederick Noronha who have engaged with CIS-A2K team and been a constant
> >> source of support.
> >>
> >> Wish us best of luck!
> >>
> >> Vishnu
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Wikimedia-in-en mailing list
> >> Wikimedia-in-en(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-en
> >>
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-in-en mailing list
> > Wikimedia-in-en(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-en
> >
> >
>
Dear All,
On behalf of CIS-A2K, I am glad to share with you that GOA University has
signed an MoU with CIS-A2K.
As part of this MoU Goa University and CIS-A2K will work together to
digitize “Konkani Vishwakosh” under Creative Common license and build a
Digital Knowledge Partnership in order to enhance digital literacy in the
Konkani language and facilitate collaborative knowledge production and
disseminate the same free of cost through Kokani Wikipedia (currently under
incubation). Gos University and CIS-A2K will co-design and jointly
implement relevant training programmes to achieve this objective.
CIS-A2K is grateful for the support and encouragement received from the Goa
University Vice-Chancellor Dr. Satish Shetye; Prof. Alito Siqueira; Prof.
Priyadarshini Tadkodkar; Dr. Madhavi Sardesai; Dr. Gopakumar; and other
faculty of Goa University.
We are also equally grateful to Wikipedians Harriet Vidyasagar and
Frederick Noronha who have engaged with CIS-A2K team and been a constant
source of support.
Wish us best of luck!
Vishnu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sowmyan Tirumurti <tsowmyan(a)wikimedia.in>
Date: Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 12:29 PM
Subject: FDC grant application
To: wmin-members(a)googlegroups.com
The FDC grants process has begun. We have already sent in a letter of
intent. We are now moving to the next phase of making the application.
For those who do not know about the FDC grant, this provides for staff,
office, and infrastructure. We have considered opening a office in
Bangalore, with a meeting room cum training center, where about 10
computers will be available for users / trainees. We can use this for city
community meets, wikiacademies, editathons, hackathons, etc.
This measure is to provide for a formal office for the Chapter in India,
and give ourselves a exclusive address to meet compliance issues better.
The facility is also expected to be more centrally located within the city
so that members and other Wikimedians do not find it difficult to visit the
office.
Yet another infrastructure proposal that has been considered is to have a
scanning facility to meet digitization requirements that can enable
wikisource, and other wikimedia commons file generation
We invite members suggestions towards major initiatives that can be taken
as part of our activities in the Calender year 2014. Kindly send in your
suggestions in the next 10 days. We would like to have discussions on the
suggestions in the week after. We will add financial measures to the
proposals in the third week. In the fourth week we will submit to WMF.
This is an open brain storming. Every one can build on the ideas of every
one else. Here is the webpage where you can add your suggestions.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/FDC_Proposal_2013
Regards,
Sowmyan
Executive Manager
Wikimedia Chapter, Bangalore
+91 96329 11650
Dear All,
CIS-A2K would like to invite you to our first monthly IRC to receive
feedback on our work. We are slowly rolling out the work-plans that we
have developed with your collaboration and input. We have received
some useful feedback from some of you on Meta specifically on two
important aspects, which informed the agenda for this IRC.
IRC details:
Channel: #Wikimedia-in
Date: September 5, 2013 (Thursday)
Time: 8-9 pm
Agenda:
What more measures can CIS-A2K take to increase community participation?
Pilot Projects - Discussion on possible topics, strategies of
execution and community involvement.
Any specific aspect of CIS-A2K's work that majority of the community
members, present for IRC, would like to discuss.
For those who are attending IRC for the first time please check this
link to join: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IRC/Tutorial
--
Best!
Subhashish Panigrahi
Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge
Centre for Internet and Society
@psubhashish