Dear friends,
We are happy to share the consolidated newsletter for May and June. Apologies for missing out the former, and also for this long newsletter that is not in your language.
Train-the-trainer and Mediawiki training for Indian language Wikimedians
After two iterations of the Train the Trainer in 2013 (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/201...) and 2015 (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/201...) , CIS-A2K organised the third programme during June 15-17 at Bengaluru. The Mediawiki training was designed to help groom technical leadership skills of the technical contributors of the communities. A total of 45 participants, that were selected by a collaborative consultation with the community, took part in these events. The trainers for both the events consisted of subject experts from the Wikimedia community, the free knowledge movement, the free and open source software community and CIS-A2K programme staff.
Check the event page for more details of Train-the-trainer (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program/201...) and Mediawiki training (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/MediaWiki_Training).
Community celebrates birthday of Odia Wikipedia and Odia Wiktionary (by Chinmayee Mishra Community member; Subhashish Panigrahi, CIS-A2K; and Sailesh Patnaik, CIS-A2K)
With the Odia Wikipedia and its sister projects, a handful of dedicated volunteer editors are taking the Odia language to the world outside. The editor community that has recently celebrated Odia Wikipedia’s 14th anniversary in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India is collectively growing two more projects; Odia Wikisource, an online library that already has over 300 volumes of text, and Odia Wiktionary, an online dictionary that has over 100,000 entries. With these live projects and more projects in the pipeline, this community is bringing a digital revolution in Odia by sharing valuable content online and creating many language tools inside and outside the Wikimedia projects.
Read more (https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/06/23/odia-wikipedia-wiktionary-birthdays).
== Event announcements (event announcements and press releases) ==
* Mini Train-the-trainer and Mediawiki Training for Marathi Wikimedians in Pune (http://cis-india.org/openness/events/mini-train-the-trainer-and-mediawiki-tr...) (28-29 May 2016)
* Advanced training for Kannada-language Wikimedians in Bangalore (http://cis-india.org/openness/events/advanced-training-for-kannada-language-...) (28-29 May 2016)
* Garule, Abhinav. "Mini Wikipedia edit-a-thon at TEDSummit 2016, Banff, Canada (http://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-tedsummit-2016...) " (29 June 2016), Banff, Canada
== Project celebrations ==
* Odia Wikipedia completed 14 years (https://or.wikipedia.org/s/xzj) on June 3, congratulations!
* Odia Wiktionary (https://or.wiktionary.org/s/o4n) is completing 11 years on June 16, congratulations!
* Punjabi Wikipedia (https://pa.wikipedia.org) completed 14 years on June 3, congratulations!
== Upcoming events ==
* Wiki Conference India (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016) (August 5-7, call for participation open until July 20). More here ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/Call_for_Participa... ).
== Programme reports (outreach, education programme and community engagement programme reports) ==
* Panigrahi, Subhashish. Santhosh, Pavan. "Online edit-a-thon on incidents in Telugu (http://cis-india.org/openness/online-edit-a-thon-on-incidents-in-telugu) " (11 July 2016) * A week-long online edit-a-thon was organised by the Telugu Wikipedia community to cover popular social, political and other events on the Telugu Wikipedia.
* Harshey, Sohnee. "Developing Open Educational Resources in Indian Languages (http://cis-india.org/openness/developing-open-educational-resources-in-india...) " (28 May 2016)
The Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education (CILHE), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), in collaboration with the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) programme at The Centre for Internet and Society, has been involved in organising workshops on developing open educational resources (OER) in Indian languages with undergraduate and masters students across various institution to introduce students to tools of collaborative knowledge production on the Internet and methods for generating new online content in Indian languages.
* Panigrahi, Subhashish. "Celebrating 13 Years of the Kannada-language Wikipedia (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dna-may-22-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-celebrat...) ". DNA (22 May 2016)
The Kannada-language Wikipedia celebrated its 13th anniversary on February 14 in Mangalore. To celebrate the journey of the project and the community, Kannada Wikipedians gathered at Saint Aloysius College, Mangaluru on May 14.
* Train-a-Wikipedian session reports (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Train-a-Wikipedian) :
Read reports of 29 May (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Train-a-Wikipedian/Sessions/2016-05-...) , 28 May (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Train-a-Wikipedian/Sessions/2016-05-...) , 21 May (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Train-a-Wikipedian/Sessions/2016-05-...) , 19 May (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Train-a-Wikipedian/Sessions/2016-05-...) and, 16 May (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Train-a-Wikipedian/Sessions/2016-05-...)
== Articles/blogs (articles, opinion pieces, analysis pieces ==
* Niranjana, Tejaswini. "Beyond Editor Count: Assessing Quality on Wikipedia (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/beyond-editor-count-assessing-quality-on-wiki...) ". CIS blog (12 June 2016)
Since Wikipedia is considered as the go-to source for different kinds of knowledge by anyone starting off in a particular field of study, and since Indian languages are often the default languages of the classroom in India, strengthening the quality of the material available on IL Wikipedias is certain to have widespread tangible and intangible impact.
* Panigrahi, Subhashish. "ଅନଲାଇନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ଗଢ଼ା (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samanya-kathan-subhashish-panigrahi-june-5-20...) ". Samanya Kathan (3 June 2016)
An overview of Odia Wikipedia and the journey of the project and the contributor community.
* Panigrahi, Subhashish. "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ବିଶାଳତମ ଅନଲାଇନ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ଗଢ଼ିବାର ଅଭିଯାନ (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/suryaprava-subhashish-panigrahi-june-3-2016-a...) ". The Suryaprava (3 June 2016)
Editorial column about the Odia Wikipedia editor community's journey to make the 14 year old project the largest online Odia encyclopedia.
* Panigrahi, Subhashish. "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ: ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ବିଶାଳତମ ଅନଲାଇନ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ଗଢ଼ିବାର ଅଭିଯାନ (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-odia-june-3-2016-subhashish-panigr...) ". Your Story (3 June 2016)
Blog on Odia Wikipedia's 14th birthday.
* Panigrahi, Subhashish. "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ବିକାଶ (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/samaja-subhashish-panigrahi-june-2-2016-artic...) ". The Samaja (2 June 2016)
Editorial column about Odia Wikipedia and how the contributor community is using it as a tool to grow the Odia-language on the Internet.
* Panigrahi, Subhashish. "ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ "ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ" ବିକାଶ ପାଇଁ ଏକାଠି ହେଲେ ପୁରୀର ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀ (http://goo.gl/5uIGj5) ". YourStory Odia. (28 May 2016)
Blog on WikiTungi Puri, an informal collective of the Odia-language Wikimedians living in the city of Puri. It featured interview of an editor Adyasha Sahu.
* Datta, Tito. "Indian English Wikipedian Nvvchar completes 1500 Did You Know articles (http://cis-india.org/a2k/nvvchar-1500-dyk) (8 May 2016)
Indian English Wikipedian User:Nvvchar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Nvvchar) completed 1500 Did you know (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:DYK) articles. This is the second highest on English Wikipedia. This blog features User:Nvvchar's constant effort in featuring many India-related articles on English Wikipedia.
* Shaik, Rahmanuddin. "Images and links matter quality (http://cis-india.org/openness/images-and-links-matter-quality%20Images%20and...) ". 4 May 2016
Wikipedia articles form a criterion for quality when they have more images, illustrations, and citations, etc. An article without these is considered dull. Hence images and external links form a criterion for quality of articles on Wikipedias. This blog post tries to analyse the current scenario of CIS-A2K's five focus language areas and indicates the state of images and links.
== Media coverage (events and activities that we have organised or participated in) ==
* Prasad, Ananta. "The Digital Oxygen for Odia language". MyCityLinks (27 June-7 July 2016)
* "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିଅଭିଧାନରେ ଏକ ଲକ୍ଷ ଶବ୍ଦ (http://sambadepaper.com/Details.aspx?id=263364&boxid=3252992) ". Sambad (18 June 2016)
* "୧୧ ବର୍ଷରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିଅଭିଧାନ, ଯୋଡ଼ିହୋଇଛି ଲକ୍ଷେରୁ ଅଧିକ ଶବ୍ଦ". Prameya (16 June 2016)
* "शंभर वर्षापूर्वीचे ग्रंथ मराठी विकिपीडियावर (http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/maharashtra-times-june-15-cis-a2k-signs-mou-wi...) . Maharashtra Times (15 June 2016)
* Sahu, Diana. "Online space for Odia (http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/Online-space-for-Odia/2016/06/...) . The New Indian Express. (10 June 2016)
* Ambaly, Anwesha. "Youths use tech tools to spread Odia - Plans afoot to promote Unicode fonts and share content online (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160609/jsp/odisha/story_90023.jsp#.V3ujP_l95D...) ". The Telegraph (9 June 2016)
* "ଚଉଦ ବର୍ଷରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ". Dharitri (6 June 2016)
* "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଜୟନ୍ତୀ: ଲିପିବଦ୍ଧ ହେଲାଣି ଲକ୍ଷାଧିକ ଶବ୍ଦ". Samaja (6 June 2016)
This newsletter is also available on Meta-wiki at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter/May_2016
If you want to receive news from this program, please sign-up here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter/Subscribe
Best! Subhashish Panigrahi
Programme Officer, Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K)
Centre for Internet and Society
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