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