Dear all,
Centre for Internet and Society' Access To Knowledge (CIS-A2K) program would like to share with you the newsletter below for the month of September 2015. We look forward to hear any feedback or input you might have.
In 2013, the interview project “WikipediansSpeak”[1] was launched in response to observations that many noteworthy Wikimedians were being underrepresented both locally and globally. Not just them personally—their work, and the communities they represent, were also unknown to the Wikimedia community and the outside world. The Wikimedia Foundation’s fundraising campaigns were the biggest inspiration for the project. From video-only interviews, this is an attempt at different ways of interviews, and is the first interview showcasing a Telugu Wikimedian: Viswanadh B.K., who was an Individual Engagement (IEG) Grantee last year and has continued to be active in outreach. As part of the WikipediansSpeak series Individual Engagement Grantee (IEG) grantee and Telugu-language Wikimedian Viswanadh.BK shares his experience on digital library movement in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh that his Individual Engagement Grant (IEG) is bringing. With his grant, information of over 300K books housed in five libraries in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh could be added to a Wikipedia-based catalog that is now helping Wikipedians to cite and readers to easily locate books.
. . . Read more in the Wikimedia blog at:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/10/09/telugu-library-catalog-project/
== Event organized/participated ==
(CIS-A2K events page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events)
⬤ Software Freedom Day 2015(http://cis-india.org/openness/events/software-freedom-day-2015-bengaluru)
The Software Freedom Day[2] was celebrated on September 19 at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru. A pledge was taken to help spread the word about free software to all people, but especially governments, use, contribute to, and spread open standards, free/libre/open source software, open APIs, openly-licensed content (including open data, open access, and open education resources), leading to a vibrant public domain, and ensure that all of the above are accessible for all, including persons with disabilities and other marginalised sections of society.
⬤ Seminar on "Empowering Marathi Schools", Pune
(http://cis-india.org/openness/events/seminar-on-empowering-marathi-schools-p...)
A seminar was organized on 13 September at S. M. Joshi Sabhagriha, Pune to address the issue of the gradual decline of Marathi schools in Maharashtra. CIS-A2K Programme Associate
Abhinav Garule attended the event shared his views on how teachers could encourage students to contribute to Marathi Wikipedia.
⬤ Kannada Wikipedia meetup at CIS Bangalore office
A Kannada Wikipedia meetup was organized on 13 September at CIS-A2K Bangalore office. 26 Kannada Wikipedians, including 3 CIS-A2K members attended the meetup. The event page on Kannada Wikipedia may be seen here (https://goo.gl/O9HaBp) and here (https://goo.gl/N9D35Y) are a few photos from the event.
=== Upcoming events ===
CIS-A2K invites applications from Indian and Indic Wikimedians for the upcoming Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest. The event, happening during December 15-17 in New Delhi, is the most significant event on the calendar for scholars and policy advocates working on intellectual property from a public interest perspective. The last date of application is 27 October. Indian and Indic Wikipedians are welcome to apply in the event page to apply.
== Blog posts ==
⬤ Hasan, Tanveer "CIS brings Nadustunna Charithra magazine under by CC BY SA license" (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-brings-nadustunna-charithra-magazine-unde...) (2 September 2015)
⬤ Panigrahi, Subhashish. OCR and OER – update (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/education-okfn-subhashish-panigrahi-september...) (25 September 2015)
Panigrahi, Subhashish "Panigrahi, Subhashish "As Odia Wikipedia turns 13, what happens next?" (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-foundation-blog-as-odia-wikipedia-t...) (26 September 2015)
⬤ Panigrahi, Subhashish "Panigrahi, Subhashish "Google's Optical Character Recognition Software Now Works with All South Asian Languages" (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-softwar...) (26 September 2015)
⬤ Panigrahi, Subhashish. "Wikimedia contributor shares his Linux story " (http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-september-3-2015-subhashish-panig...) (27 September 2015)
This newsletter is also available on Meta at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter/September_2015
Note: