CIS-A2K/Work plan July 2015 - June 2016/Tulu Wikipedia
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CIS-A2K (Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge) is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape.
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Introduction
[edit]Tulu is a language spoken by about 2 million people Tulu language. It is spoken by people in the coastal Karnataka. There is a significant population of Tulu speakers residing outside Karnataka, mainly at Mumbai and in the Gulf countries. It is mainly written using Kannada script. Tulu Wikipedia is in incubation since 2007. CIS-A2K had made efforts towards bringing Tulu Wikipedia out of incubation in its previous work plan.
Journey so far
[edit]CIS-A2K held three meetings in Mangalore and one meeting at Udupi with Tulu language writers, academicians, scholars, teachers and general public. CIS-A2K team member has participated in the above mentioned meetings including the World Tulu Conference held at Mangaluru and gave a presentation about Tulu Wikipedia and Tulu Unicode. CIS-A2K actively participated in setting up and managing an information counter during the World Tulu Conference. Article about Tulu Wikipedia and Unicode written by CIS-A2K team member was published in Udayavani, most popular Kannada daily in coastal Karnataka. Workshops and edit-a-thons were organised at Mangaluru and Udupi with greats success. An interview with two active Tulu Wikipedians was broadcast by Spandana TV which is a popular TV channel in coastal Karnataka. CIS-A2K played an important role in bringing media attention towards the Tulu Wikipedia. All these activities have resulted in increased awareness about Tulu Wikipedia, increase in number of articles and number of editors.
Here is the growth of Tulu Wikipedia in table form:
| Month | Total articles | Total editors with more than 10 edits | Editors with at least one edit |
| Mar 2014 | 147 | 8 | 31 |
| Jul 2014 | 365 | 19 | 50 |
| Feb 2015 | 827 | 69 | 124 |
CIS-A2K intends to come up with a different strategy regarding content donation in Tulu as there are no encyclopedic works have been published.
Implementation plan
[edit]We had intended to bring Tulu Wikipedia out of incubation but the project needs to meet certain prerequisites and CIS-A2K would be organising events and programs to meet these minimum standards. Tulu Wikipedia project is still in the incubator stage as there is a dearth of active Wikipedia editors. CIS-A2K tried to engage the community with initiatives such as edit-a-thons and spreading awareness but the interest generated by these events does not last long. There is also a lack of reference materials such as Vishwakosha and other compendiums from which references can be provided to the new articles. Hence many of the articles that get created are stub class articles. The need of the hour is to sustain Tulu Wikipedia editors is to build a vibrant and active editor community that takes charge of the project and increase the number of good quality articles and translate MediaWiki system messages. CIS-A2K's activities will be focusing around these goals. These are still valid and efforts will be continued towards achieving the goal.
Cultivating new editors
[edit]Institutional partnerships (ongoing)
[edit]CIS-A2K partnered with Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy, Regional Research Centre at Udupi, Rashtra Kavi Govinda Pai Samshodhana Kendra, Akhila Bharata Tulu Okkoota and Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management towards conducting workshops and edit-a-thons at Mangaluru and Udupi. These will be continued this year also.
Institutional partnerships (under exploration)
[edit]Efforts will be made to establish partnerships with institutes and academies working towards preserving and promoting Tulu. Some notable institutions are Kerala Tulu Academy, Rani Abbakka Adhyayana Kendra at B C Road, Dept of Tulu of Dravidian University at Kuppam and the archives at Shri Dharmasthala. Efforts were made during last year towards partnering with these institutions but not much progress could be achieved. The institutions that CIS-A2K approached for enriching Tulu Wikipedia were receptive to the idea but due to a host of reasons such as the clash of academic calendar, non availability of volunteers, apprehension of point persons at the institution level regarding free and open nature of resources have proved to be some of the major problems that have hampered the growth of Tulu Wikipedia.
Outreach programs
[edit]Outreach programs which included presentations, workshops and edit-a-thons have been able to capture the public interest. However the participants are not continuing on Wikipedia post the outreach sessions. CIS-A2K is revising its strategy of conducting introductory workshops and engage the participants on a focused basis by providing them hands on reference material and technical support for better familiarity with the process. CIS-A2K is planning to groom institutions and organisations in a continuous manner based on the interest and outputs produced during the outreach programme. We hope that this continuous engagement shall lead to fruitful partnerships. Efforts will be made to expand the outreach programme to other parts of coastal Karnataka during this plan year.
Projected outcomes
[edit]Increase total number of articles to minimum 1200. Have minimum of 5-6 active editors per month. Organise regular Tulu Wikipedia community meet-ups.