CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter/August 2017

August has been a month of orientation workshops across our Marathi and Kannada Focus Language Areas with introductory workshops at educational institutions.

Workshop on Wikimedia Projects at Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College, Satara

Participants at the workshop

A Wikimedia Workshop was on 4 August 2017 at the Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College in Satara to introduce the Wikipedia and its sister projects to the students. A Wikimedia Workshop was conducted at the the Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College in Satara. The workshop provided an introduction to students on the various Wikimedia projects. The workshop also aimed to equip them with Wikipedia editing skills. However, owing to time constraints the editing component has been postponed.

The workshop saw at an attendance of 30 participants, with 20 women participants. The Principal of the institution, Ms. Sunita Pawar said, "Wikipedia is good platform for students to do online assignments. We are eager to integrate it in academics." A discussion on integrating academic assignments with Wikimedia Projects was conducted to develop the basic theme and concepts.

Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal

A Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon was conducted at the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal in Satara on 4 August 2017. The organisation, working on issues of women's rights, gender, justice and violence against women, was given an introduction to editing on Wikipedia.

Voluntary organisation Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal is eager to implement innovative projects for the students and field activists. It has decided to integrate Wikimedia Projects and training modules for capacity building of students and movement volunteers. To get the overall introduction of Wikimedia Projects and basic skills, this workshop was organised for faculty and selected students. The edit-a-thon was attended by 10 female and 5 male participants.

Participants learning mobile editing.

Sana Patel, a participant emphasises, "I realised the need to contribute gender related content. It is very important to write about women's issues and laws'. The edit-a-thon resulted in 13 new editors discovering Wikipedia for the first time. 20 articles were improved and five images were uploaded. A follow-up workshop on building content on women-related issues has been planned with the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal as well as other like-minded organisations in Satara. Onkar Tapase, a participant opines, "as a journalist, I see a great potential to contribute"

Marathi Wikipedia Workshop at MGM Trust's College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Aurangabad

A Marathi Wikipedia workshop was recently conducted at the MGM Trust's College of Journalism and Mass Communication at Aurangabad. The workshop aimed to introduced Marathi Wikipedia to the students of the college and equip them with the process of editing the same. The workshop was attended by 10 female participants and 15 male participants.

"It was happiest moment for me, when I created new article on Pashmi, [a] species of dog. I added [an] image also." says Shivani Joshi a participant at the workshop. While 21 new editors were introduced to Wikipedia, 60 articles were improved and 15 images added. Another participant, Randhir Patil who added content on water-related articles says, "This content can be used as training material by field workers.

Orientation Program at Kannada University, Hampi

A Kannada Wikipedia Orientation Program was conducted at Kannada University Hampi on 31 August and 1 September 2017.

A Kannada Wikipedia orientation program was conducted at the Kannada University in Hampi recently wherein the participants where introduced to the various Wikimedia projects in Kannada. The participants were doctoral research students of the Dravida Samskruti Adhyayana Kendra of which 5 were male and 1 female.

Working on Wiktionary, the students added 3300 words to their sandboxes, which will be moved to the main space on Wiktionary.

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