Dear all,
Here is the A2K newsletter for the month of April, 2013.
Wikimedia Foundation, beginning from September 1, 2012, awarded the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) a two-year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. Consequently, Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program became the Access to Knowledge (A2K) program of CIS. In the third issue of our newsletter for 2013, we are pleased to bring you updates from the Indic Wikipedia Visualisation project, reports of events organised in Goa, and press coverage of the Kannada Wikipedia Workshop held in Mysore.
The A2K team consists of three members based in Delhi: T. Vishnu Vardhan, Nitika Tandon and Subhashish Panigrahiand one member Dr. U.B. Pavanaja who is working from Bangalore office. Noopur Raval, Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge) has resigned. April 24, 2013 was her last working day. Archives of our newsletters are here.
Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications athttp://bit.ly/TOcXId.
# Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project
Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project #2: Visualising Page Views and Project Pages.
# Blog Entries
Indian WikiWomen celebrate Women’s History Month (by Netha Hussain, April 29, 2013).
Analysis of Konkani Wikipedia: Facts & Challenges (by Nitika Tandon, April 30, 2013).
Odia Wikipedia: Needs Assessment (by Subhashish Panigrahi, April 30, 2013).
# Event Organised
Kannada Wikipedia Workshop (April 29, 2013, Govinda Pai Research Centre, MGM College Udupi). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja led the workshop and gave a talk on Kannada Wikipedia.
# Events Co-organised
The following events were organised in the month of March but reports were written during the month of April. Vishnu Vardhan and Subhashish Panigrahi held meetings with wikipedians:
Kolkata Wiki Community Meetup (organised by CIS and Kolkata Wiki Community, March 14, 2013).
Odia Wikipedia - Cuttack Community Meetup (organised by CIS and Odia Wiki Community, Cuttack, March 16, 2013).
Odia Wikipedia – Bhubaneswar Community Meetup (organised by CIS and Odia Wiki Community, Bhubaneswar, March 17, 2013).
The following event was organised in the month of April. We will be publishing the report soon:
Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam 2013 (organised by Telugu Wikipedia Community and CIS, Hyderabad, April 9 – 11, 2013). Vishnu Vardhan was one of the trainers at the Wikipedia Academy at Centre for Good Governance on April 9, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan spoke about the Access to Knowledge work in one of the sessions of Wikimedia Meeting with Media Heads on April 10, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk on A2K’s plans for the growth of Telegu Wikipedia in 2013-14 at the Telegu Wikipedia general meeting on April 11, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan also gave a talk about Access to Knowledge in the digital era at the Wiki Chaitanya Vedika on April 11, 2013.
*About CIS*
CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. The policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilitieswith ITU and G3ict, and Digital Alternatives with a Cause?,Thinkathon Position Papers and the Digital Natives with a Cause? Report with Hivos, etc. We have conducted policy research for the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on WIPO Treaties, Copyright Bill, NIA Bill, etc.
CIS is accredited as an observer at WIPO. CIS staff participates in the Standing Committee for Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meetings regularly held in Geneva, and participate in the discussions and comments on them from a public interest perspective. Our Policy Director, Nirmita Narasimhan won the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities from the Government of India and also received the NIVH Excellence Award.
*Follow us elsewhere*
· Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter
· Join the CIS group on Facebook
· Visit us at http://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
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 Tandon
Program Manager
Access to Knowledge
The Centre for Internet & Society
Dear all,
Here is the A2K newsletter for the month of April, 2013.
Wikimedia Foundation, beginning from September 1, 2012, awarded the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) a two-year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. Consequently, Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program became the Access to Knowledge (A2K) program of CIS. In the third issue of our newsletter for 2013, we are pleased to bring you updates from the Indic Wikipedia Visualisation project, reports of events organised in Goa, and press coverage of the Kannada Wikipedia Workshop held in Mysore.
The A2K team consists of three members based in Delhi: T. Vishnu Vardhan, Nitika Tandon and Subhashish Panigrahiand one member Dr. U.B. Pavanaja who is working from Bangalore office. Noopur Raval, Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge) has resigned. April 24, 2013 was her last working day. Archives of our newsletters are here.
Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications athttp://bit.ly/TOcXId.
# Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project
Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project #2: Visualising Page Views and Project Pages.
# Blog Entries
Indian WikiWomen celebrate Women’s History Month (by Netha Hussain, April 29, 2013).
Analysis of Konkani Wikipedia: Facts & Challenges (by Nitika Tandon, April 30, 2013).
Odia Wikipedia: Needs Assessment (by Subhashish Panigrahi, April 30, 2013).
# Event Organised
Kannada Wikipedia Workshop (April 29, 2013, Govinda Pai Research Centre, MGM College Udupi). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja led the workshop and gave a talk on Kannada Wikipedia.
# Events Co-organised
The following events were organised in the month of March but reports were written during the month of April. Vishnu Vardhan and Subhashish Panigrahi held meetings with wikipedians:
Kolkata Wiki Community Meetup (organised by CIS and Kolkata Wiki Community, March 14, 2013).
Odia Wikipedia - Cuttack Community Meetup (organised by CIS and Odia Wiki Community, Cuttack, March 16, 2013).
Odia Wikipedia – Bhubaneswar Community Meetup (organised by CIS and Odia Wiki Community, Bhubaneswar, March 17, 2013).
The following event was organised in the month of April. We will be publishing the report soon:
Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam 2013 (organised by Telugu Wikipedia Community and CIS, Hyderabad, April 9 – 11, 2013). Vishnu Vardhan was one of the trainers at the Wikipedia Academy at Centre for Good Governance on April 9, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan spoke about the Access to Knowledge work in one of the sessions of Wikimedia Meeting with Media Heads on April 10, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk on A2K’s plans for the growth of Telegu Wikipedia in 2013-14 at the Telegu Wikipedia general meeting on April 11, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan also gave a talk about Access to Knowledge in the digital era at the Wiki Chaitanya Vedika on April 11, 2013.
*About CIS*
CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. The policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilitieswith ITU and G3ict, and Digital Alternatives with a Cause?,Thinkathon Position Papers and the Digital Natives with a Cause? Report with Hivos, etc. We have conducted policy research for the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on WIPO Treaties, Copyright Bill, NIA Bill, etc.
CIS is accredited as an observer at WIPO. CIS staff participates in the Standing Committee for Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meetings regularly held in Geneva, and participate in the discussions and comments on them from a public interest perspective. Our Policy Director, Nirmita Narasimhan won the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities from the Government of India and also received the NIVH Excellence Award.
*Follow us elsewhere*
· Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter
· Join the CIS group on Facebook
· Visit us at http://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
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 Tandon
Program Manager
Access to Knowledge
The Centre for Internet & Society
[pardon the cross-post and English-only post at this time]
Hello everyone,
*This is a reminder that there are 2 days left to apply to attend the first
Program Evaluation & Design Workshop, which will take place in Budapest,
June 22-23. Applications close at 12 AM PST May 17.*
Please review this recent blog announcing the event:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/05/09/program-evaluation-workshop-budapest/
*Wikimedia community members, chapter staff/volunteers, solitary volunteers
- anyone who is a program leader is encouraged to apply. Please note, we
have only 20 slots available and limited funding to support attendees. If
you do apply, you must email me at sarah(a)wikimedia.org if you are
requesting funding before/after you apply. *
We will be filming our workshop, so don't fret if you cannot attend this
first one, or aren't accepted to attend this time.
*You can get a better taste for the event through our evolving Meta Event
page: *
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Evaluation_and_Design/June_2013_Work…
Thank you Wikimedia Magyarország for your support and assistance.
-Sarah
--
*Sarah Stierch**
Wikimedia Foundation Program Evaluation & Design Community Coordinator
*Donate<http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Donate/en&utm_source=&utm_…>
today
and keep it free!
Visit me on Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SarahStierch>!
Dear all,
The Wikipedia Workshop Mumbai took at The Playce, Mulund on Sunday,
4th May, 3013. It was a general workshop about Wikipedia. It was the
first Wiki workshop around the Thane-Mulund area. People who came in
actually did not know events like these happen.
We started with the workshop by introducing Wikipedia to the
participants. Rohini, Manan, Karthik went ahead explaining the
participants the various principles and philosophies of Wikipedia.
Participants showed a lot of interest and had lots of questions. It
was more of an interactive session as there were lesser participants.
Nevertheless it was quite impactful.
We then had lunch. Post which we had a short editing session. The
workshop went on well in spite of less people attending it.
I'd like to thank the whole Mumbai Community for their support and
would love to conduct a workshop again.
Thanks,
Regards and cheers,
Krutikaa Jawanjal
Dear All,
The A2K team is organising an IRC on 13th May 2012, Monday from 8.30pm - 9.30 pm on: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#wikimedia-in.
The main agenda for IRC is to discuss the A2K Work Plan for the year 2013-2014 [1] that we had shared with you earlier. We'd like to hear comments/suggestions from as many of you as possible. This mail is to invite each one of you to join us for this IRC and help improvise our work plan. Just incase you'd like to join but cannot due to prior commitments please drop me a private message and we'll arrange a call with your separately.
Looking forward to see you tomorrow at IRC!
Thanks
Nitika Tandon
Program Manager
Access to Knowledge
The Centre for Internet & Society
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Work_plan_April_20…
Free Software Movement Maharashtra - Outcome of preparatory meeting
The preparatory meeting for formation of 'Free Software Movement
Maharashtra' was a success. The meeting was held at the Indian
Institute of Technology Bombay on 4th May 2013. 44 people participated
in it.
The agenda of the meeting was:
1. Discussion on the importance free software and knowledge as a commons
2. Discussion about the need for a movement in the free software domain
3. Forming an organising team to take forward activities in Maharashtra
4. Listing and approving of action items for the next few months
The participants were welcomed by Vikram Vincent, Member, General
Council, FSMI and Prof. Puru Kulkarni moderated the session.
Prof. Kannan Moudgalya inaugurated the first agenda point by talking
about the FOSS initiatives at IITB and the efforts to connect with the
teachers and students from all over the country. Prof. D.B. Phatak
explained about the role of Aakash and the need for large scale
efforts to localise knowledge. He raised several points of importance,
two of which are the need to create strong business ecosystems in the
FOSS domain and the need for the end users to have the freedom to
choose the products and services they want. Dr. T. Jayaraman of TISS
highlighted the efforts of TISS in opening up knowledge and the
challenges that arise out of such initiatives. He extended support
both from himself personally and also of his colleagues at TISS for
furthering the free software movement. Dr. Vivek Monteiro spoke a few
words on the universalisation of knowledge. Venkatesh Hariharan of
Knowledge Commons intervened in the discussions and provided the
theoretical framework for knowledge as a commons. Kiran Chandra,
General Secretary of FSMI, detailed the need for a strong people’s
movement in the free software domain. He emphasised on the guiding
principles of FSMI which allowed it to take up issues of human concern
and society.
The recent mandate of AICTE (to all its institutes) to implement Microsoft's
Office365 suite of collaboration tools was discussed.
A link to AICTE's announcement is here:
http://www.aicte-india.org/downloads/AICTE_notice%20_3_.pdf
Kiran Chandra pointed out FSMI's response to this, which is available at the
following link:
http://fsmi.in/content/fsmi-representation-aicte-against-deal-microsoft
The possible effects of the implementation of the mandate to use
Office 365 were discussed and there was unanimous agreement towards
demanding reasons for the same from AICTE, through legal means and
using RTIs etc., along with an agreement to oppose such an initiative.
The meeting then called for volunteers to form a core team who would drive the
activities for the next few months towards initiating the Free
Software Movement Maharashtra. A team of 18 members was created, and
Dr. Puru and Vikram will coordinate the same. The members of the
organising team are Dr. T. Jayaraman, Mrunmayee Tayade, Rajesh Kumar,
Nikita Belavate, Rahul Maganti, Deepak Pacha, Arun Khan, Siji Sunny,
Kiran Eranki, Prof. Shishir Jha, Dinesh Jain, Rahul Muttu, Pradeep
Mohandas, Krutikaa Jawanjal, Karthik Nadar, one for ERP-next. The
meeting had representation from several organisations such as IITB,
TISS, FSMI, Wikipedia, Knowledge Commons, DA-IICT, ILUG-BOM, Somaiya
and other colleges.
The ‘Free Software Movement Maharashtra' with the domain name of
http://fsmm.in was declared functional.
The following points were chosen as action points in near future:
1. FOSS sessions in colleges and schools
2. GNOME Marathi popularisation and supporting respective groups
already working in this domain.
3. Office 365
4. Any other that may be feasible as and when opportunity arises.
Photographs of the meeting. Courtesy of Venky
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116931769998801651977/albums/58745079553…
Dear All,
In our effort to increase transparency with the working of CIS-A2K
programme, we are sharing with you the A2K Programme Budget along with the
Utilization for the period Sept. 2012 to February 2013 [1]. We intended to
share this with you by mid April, but it got delayed, as we felt the need
to propose revisions to the budget in the context of the A2K Work Plans.
Apologies for this delay.
The proposed revisions to the budget along with some notes are here [2]. We
would appreciate your feedback and suggestions on this. Based on the
feedback received from you, we will approach the Wikimedia Foundation
seeking for approval of the revised budget. It will be very useful to hear
from you on the proposed revisions to the A2K grant budget before May 20,
2013.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Warmly,
Vishnu
Programme Director
Access to Knowledge Programme
CIS
[1]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF-A2K_Grant_Budget_and_Utilization…
[2]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF-A2K_Revised_Budget_(draft)_and_U…
Dear Friends in Mumbai,
Thinking of the yummy aam ras and puri that we get in Mumbai during this
time. I am coming to Mumbai to taste some of it :-)
Will be in Mumbai from May 6 evening to May 8 evening. Mostly in South
Mumbai on 6th and 7th and at TISS and IIT on 8th.
Will be free on 6th and 7th evenings and 7th and 8th mornings. If some of
you can find time, it would be lovely to meet either one to one or in a
small group. Let me know your convenience. You can either PM me or reply
on the list.
It would be nice to discuss the plans Mumbai Wiki community has for the
next quarter or so and if and how A2K can collaborate and cooperate with
you.
Also if you would like to send your WMI membership forms to Somyan, I will
be able to carry it back to Bangalore.
Looking forward to meeting some of you soon.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Warmly,
Vishnu