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CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter/October 2015

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October 2015
A public gathering where Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha was presenting their work.
A young person reading the Marathi Wikipedia brochure at the book exhibition.

1000 Marathi books by Pune based non-profit to come online on Marathi Wikisource with Open Access
As the Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha (MGS), a non-profit organization working for the preservation of the "Peshwa" culture in Maharashtra, and based in Pune, India, celebrated its 121st anniversary recently, the organization relicensed 1000 books for Marathi Wikisource under CC-by-SA 4.0 license so that the books could be digitized and be made available for millions of Marathi readers. Avinash Chaphekar from the organization signed a document permitting Wikimedians to digitize the books on the Wikisource. On this special occasion of the anniversary, a three-day book exhibition was organized starting October 30.

Answering our question "Could you please share with us your ideas of opening these invaluable books for Wikisource? How they are going to be useful for the online readers to learn about the Peshwas?", he says:
These books are of historical importance and cover topics that are rarely covered well anywhere else. This information should reach to more people. Right after our Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommended to read the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin as it contains a lot of messages for a common man, a lady walked to us once and asked if she can read this Marathi. Be it such autobiographies or a poetry book like “Chetavali”, such books that were published by the Sanstha should not be kept closed as a lot many readers are searching for such books. We might not have a very great presence in the media or the Internet. How does any reader who does not know us buy a book? If these books are available online they could at least find and read them.

Event organized/participated

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Odia Wikimedians with guests at the Odia Wikisource's first anniversary at Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Image freely licensed by Coldbreeze16 under CC-BY-SA 4.0.
  • Odia Wikisource 1st anniversary celebration: Odia Wikimedia community celebrated Odia Wikisource's Odia Wikisource's first anniversary at the Institute on Management of Agricultural Extension (IMAGE), Siripur, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Jeeban Panda and Puspashree Pattnaik from Bhubaneswar based non-profit Srujanika presented the organization's journey in digitizing over 150K folios of many Odia-language books. They also announced relicensing Srujanika’s entire publication (over 700 books) under a free license and digitizing them Wikisource. These books include various science publications by the organization over last two decades. In a panel discussion about the "need for digital platforms for Odia books", participated noted linguist Debi Prasanna Pattnaik, Professor Jatin Nayak, Sudhir Pattnaik, Editor, Samadrusti and Anil Pradhan, Editor, Sikhya Sandhan. The community also had a day long discussion about setting priorities and goals for the project in the coordination of the project's administrator Mrutyunjaya Kar (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/or:User:MKar). There was a survey made where Wikimedians reflected their views on various activities.
  • Wikipedia Workshop at Sinhgad Institute of Technology and Sciences: This workshop was aimed at introducing Wikipedia to the engineering undergraduate students use the Marathi Wikipedia to disseminate what they are learning in Marathi-language. About 11 students took part and learned input in Marathi and Wikipedia in various topics of their interest.
  • Marathi Wikipedia Stall at Book Exhibition: As the Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha (MGS), a non-profit organization working for the preservation of the "Peshwa" culture in Maharashtra and based in Pune, India, celebrated its 121st anniversary recently, the Sanstha relicensed 1000 books for Marathi Wikisource under CC-by-SA 4.0 license so that the books could be digitized and be made available for millions of Marathi readers. Avinash Chaphekar from the organization signed a document permitting Wikimedians to digitize the books on the Wikisource.

Upcoming programs

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Train-a-Wikipedian

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CIS-A2K is going to start a new project Train-a-Wikipedian (TAW). In February and June this year, CIS-A2K conducted Train the Trainer (TTT) and MediaWiki Train the Trainer (MWTTT). After conducting these two events, and communicating with the participants the need to start a training program on regular basis was felt and designing the "Train-a-Wikipedian" program was initiated. Initially, the focus would be on five Focus Language Areas (FLAs); a) Kannada, b) Konkani, c) Marathi, d) Odia, and e) Telugu, and the program might be scaled up slowly based on its first pilot implementation. The TAW page on Meta-wiki (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/TAW), a number of topics are listed that are going to be discussed. As not everything could be imparted to every single participant, almost all the training sessions are going to be custom-made where the learners will be independently selecting topics of their own interest. Suggestions and inputs on this program are welcome!

Blog posts

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Media coverage

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Visitors at Book Exhibition event Perugate Bhave High School, Pune.
  1. How to do Guerilla GLAM. University of Otago, 6 October 2015;
  2. ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରର ଆବଶ୍ୟକତା ସମାଜ Full Odisha, 24 October 2015;
  3. Odia Wikisource to Celebrate Its First Anniversary in Bhubaneswar. Mybhubaneswar.com, 24 October 2015
  4. Odia Wikisource celebrates 1st anniversary this 25th October, Bhubaneswar Buzz, 24 October 2015,
  5. "महाराष्ट्र ग्रंथोत्तेजक" होणार लोकाभिमुख, महाराष्ट्र टाईम्स (Maharashtra Times), 24 October 2015;
  6. Odia Wikisource to Celebrate Its 1st Birth Anniversary Today At IMAGE, Bhubaneswar . Odiaportal.in, 25 October 2015;
  7. ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରର ପ୍ରଥମ ଜନ୍ମତିଥି ପାଳନ Odia Pua, 25 October 2015;
  8. Odia Wikisource to celebrate its first anniversary tomorrow!, Odisha Sun Times, 25 October 2015;
  9. Odia language classics could now be read from phones, tablets and of course from computers!, Orissa Diary, 25 October 2015;
  10. Odia Wikisource to Hold 1st Anniversary, The pioneer, 26 October 2015;
  11. Otago Southland are the Coolest, Library and Information Association of New Zealand, 26 October 2015;
  12. Open Access Week round up.. University of Otago, 27 October 2015;
  13. मराठी पुस्तके 'विकिस्रोत'ला, सकाळ Sakaal, 29 October 2015;
  14. महाराष्ट्र ग्रंथोत्तेजक संस्थेमधील एक हजार ग्रंथ ऑनलाइन, सामना Saamana,pg. 10 , 29 October 2015 (Login Required) ;
  15. India & France to digitise manuscripts, artworks & archives, Medianama, 29 October 2015;
  16. एक हजार ग्रंथ ऑनलाइन, महाराष्ट्र टाईम्स Maharashtra Times, 30 October 2015;

Op-eds

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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 research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director at sunil@cis-india.org or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director at sumandro@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its primary donor, Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.

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