CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter/January 2025
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In the Limelight
[edit]In today's digital landscape, mobile devices have become the primary gateway to the internet, especially in Global Majority countries like India. Mobile applications play a vital role in facilitating access to and contribution of knowledge. Recognizing this, and to address a crucial gap in understanding the user experience, CIS-A2K (Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge) commissioned a user research study focusing on how Indian contributors engage with the Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons mobile applications. The core objective was to evaluate the ease with which users in India can contribute to these platforms via their mobile devices.
The study, conducted by Gopala Krishna A, engaged a diverse group of 53 participants representing 14 different language projects within the Indian Wikipedia community. The researcher sought to gain a comprehensive understanding of how these users interact with the apps, focusing on their specific needs, preferences, and pain points. The ultimate goal was to pinpoint the barriers hindering effective contribution and to identify concrete opportunities for improvement. The research employed a mixed-methods approach, incorporating surveys, in-person training sessions, and in-depth qualitative interviews to gather rich, nuanced data.
The findings revealed a nuanced picture. While users generally valued the Wikipedia app for its positive reading experience and ease of information access, a clear demand emerged for more robust editing functionalities comparable to the desktop version. Contributors voiced specific frustrations with limitations such as the inability to create new articles directly from the app, the absence of a user sandbox environment for drafting and experimentation, the lack of a "Recent Changes" feature for monitoring ongoing edits, and restricted options for adding relevant categories to pages. On the Wikimedia Commons side, users reported significant challenges in uploading photos and managing their contributions effectively. The lack of comprehensive support for multimedia formats, particularly audio and video, was also identified as a major impediment. Language consistency issues also surfaced as a concern, with users noting discrepancies between their preferred language settings and the content displayed within the apps. Finally, feedback from emerging contributors, especially those involved in developing regional language Wikipedias, highlighted the value of existing features like suggested edits but underscored the pressing need for features like an integrated Wikimedia Commons search function within the Wikipedia app. We are hopeful that the insights from this study will further the conversations of contributor engagement and operational constraints of knowledge volunteers within the Indian context.
Dispatches from A2K
[edit]CIS-A2K (Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge) is pleased to announce the release of its annual report for 2023-24. In 2023-24, CIS-A2K strategically deepened its commitment to empowering Indic Wikimedia communities through collaborative, capacity-building initiatives. Recognizing the growing self-sufficiency of these communities, CIS-A2K shifted from direct interventions towards fostering community-led growth, prioritizing strategic partnerships and global collaborations to cultivate sustainable development and enrich Wikimedia projects with Indic language content. With over a decade of experience in open knowledge work in Indic languages, A2K recalibrated its earlier approaches and efforts. This included investing in building long-term sustainable partnerships, focusing on contributions to technology development and related discourse, building upon our leadership-building initiatives, creating spaces for Indic Wikimedia communities to expand their open knowledge network, strengthening global engagement of Indic communities and other efforts in this direction.
Collaborative project design and ensuring alignment with community needs and priorities through continuous efforts to understand the diverse backgrounds, capabilities and direction of communities are part of our team values. CIS-A2K invested in creating language communities a platform for the community to foster strategic planning, nurture essential skills and build connections with a larger language community. This kind of effort not only resulted in communities becoming more active but also building a common understanding that led to content enhancement, partnerships and outreach. Along these lines, Telugu and Santali Community Conferences in which CIS-A2K played a key role as co-organisers resulted in collaborative planning, innovative efforts in community engagement, content development and partnerships. Recognizing the importance of commons contributions in nurturing new communities and leaders, CIS-A2K focused on expanding Wikimedia Commons and visual documentation through community-led workshops and photo walks, facilitated in sustained long-term partnerships with commons wikimedians in regions like Mangaluru and Hyderabad.
CIS-A2K continued its support for oral culture projects, providing guidance on project implementation to preserve and share oral traditions. Digitization and relicensing initiatives remained a key focus, demonstrated by the launch of the Tulu Wikisource and a partnership with the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group to advance Wikisource and GLAM projects. Technical outreach efforts empowered communities with the resources and expertise needed to manage their projects effectively, supported by training workshops and Learning Calls. A user research study on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons app usage in India informed an independent project aimed at enhancing the Wikimedia Commons mobile app, specifically addressing the challenges faced by Indic language contributors. Through transparent and inclusive movement communications, CIS-A2K prioritized community ownership, fostering strategic partnerships, and delivering targeted support to cultivate thriving, self-sufficient Wikimedia communities and expand access to free knowledge in Indic languages.
The full annual report is available here
Monthly Recap
[edit]Learning hours Call
[edit]The third Learning Hours call held on January 24, 2024, focused on the tools- Phabricator and Outreach Dashboard. The Programs & Events Dashboard is a centralised tool for managing programs that aim to grow and engage the Wikimedia community, such as edit-a-thons, training workshops, campaigns, and other Wikimedia related activities. The dashboard not only tracks the contributions made by participants but also provides valuable insights into the impact of these activities across various Wikimedia projects. Phabricator is an open-source software development platform. In Wikimedia, it is used for project management, software bug reporting, tracking issues and feature requests of Wikimedia and related tools/software. The CIS-A2K Learning Hours is an initiative designed to enhance the skills of Indic Wikimedia community members by introducing essential tools that are useful in contributing to their projects and gathering insights about their communities. Stay tuned for details of the next call.
She Leads Bootcamp 2025
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The She Leads Bootcamp 2025, held in Bengaluru from January 31 to February 3, aimed fostering leadership among women Wikimedians in India. Building on the 'She Leads' support initiative launched last Women's Day, the bootcamp aimed to empower female Wikimedians and cultivate women's leadership within the Indian community.
The 'She Leads' initiative is an ongoing effort to provide a platform for women to design and implement activities aligned with their goals, fostering a more inclusive and diverse Wikimedia community. The Bootcamp brought together women leaders from different communities to facilitate their growth and development. We'll be sharing more details in the coming newsletter.
Wikisource Reader App
[edit]We are happy to announce the development of the Wikisource reader app for Android phones, with a test version nearly ready. This app is something the Wikisource community has wanted for a long time, and it's hoped it will attract more readers to Wikisource. Special mention goes to Bodhisattwa and Sai Phanindra for playing key roles in developing this app.
The app uses information from Wikidata, a large, open knowledge base, to help organize and categorize the books. To be included in the app, a book needs to be fully proofread and validated, and have certain information, like the title and author, stored on Wikidata.
Initially, the app will focus on English, French, and Bengali books, as these languages already have their book information on Wikidata. More languages will be added later. A special tool has been created to gather and organize the book information for the app. The app will show books in a digital format called "epub." It will let you browse fully proofread books, filter them by language or type, search for books by title or author, and download them to read offline. You'll also be able to share links to the books, track your reading progress, change the font size, look up words, and switch between light and dark reading modes. The app will also be available in multiple languages. Currently, developers are working on improving how the books look within the app, refining the design, and fixing any issues.
In the near future, the team plans to connect with the Wikisource communities to explain how to get books included in the app and gather feedback. They will also discuss the next steps with everyone involved and plan to release the app on the Google Play Store, followed by other app stores.
Coming Soon - Upcoming Activities
[edit]Participation in Wikisource Conference
[edit]The Wikisource Conference 2025 will take place from February 14-16, 2025, in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. After nearly a decade-long wait since the last conference in Vienna in 2015, this event aims to enhance global collaboration among Wikisource contributors under the theme Wikisource: Transform & Preserve Heritage Digitally. Angajala Muralikrishna and Subodh Shasikumar Kulkarni will be attending the Wikisource Conference on behalf of CIS-A2K. Stay tuned for more information in our upcoming newsletter!