CIS-A2K/Reports/CIS-A2K Quarterly Report 1/Konkani

CIS-A2K's partnership with Goa University was one big achievement for Konkani Wikipedia during the quarter of July-Sep 2013. Upon CIS-A2K‘s explicit request, Goa University approved the re-release of Konkani Vishwakosh under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-SA 3.0) to make it freely available to public, giving them the right to share, use and even build upon the work that has already been done. This is a huge step to help preserve Konkani language and culture in the digital era. Konkani Vishwakosh is a four-volume hard copy encyclopedia (3632 pages) published by Goa University; a work that took over 14 years to develop. To celebrate and further the movement of open knowledge and open access, Goa University in collaboration with CIS-A2K organised a big event on 26 September 2013; which helped create awareness and achieve massive media coverage around Konkani Wikipedia.

CIS-A2K has invested time and effort to create Konkani Wikipedia content in all scripts alike - Devanagari, Roman, Kannada. Efforts were put in to built partnerships with other institutes such as St.Xavier's College Goa, Kings School, Rosary College, St. Aloysius College and more.

This page will give you detailed overview of the work accomplished in accordance with CIS-A2K's Konkani Work Plan.

Key Highlights

Signed an MoU with Goa University - Goa University entered into a three year MoU with CIS for building Konkani Wikipedia. As part of this partnership, Goa University and CIS-A2K will work together to help build Konkani Wikipedia and community.

Re-release of Konkani Vishwakosh under Creative Commons License - Upon CIS-A2K‘s explicit request, Goa University approved the re-release of Vishwakosh under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-SA 3.0) to make it freely available to public, giving them the right to share, use and even build upon the work that has already been done. This is a huge step to help preserve Konkani language and culture in the digital era. Konkani Vishwakosh is a four-volume hard copy encyclopedia (3632 pages) published by Goa University; a work that took over 14 years to develop. It encompasses the world’s information in a nutshell with special emphasis and detailed information on Goa, Konkani, Goan culture, folklore, history, geography etc. Four volumes of this encyclopedia can be found on Wikimedia Commons: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4.

43 new articles created in 4 days by 38 MA students - One of the most successful workshop was a 4 day outreach workshops at Goa University, Konkani Departement. Total of 38 MA students attended the workshop. 43 new articles were created on Konkani Wikipedia in the 4 day event. Total of 987 edits, 41 references, 3,90,040 bytes of data was added on Konkani Wikipedia. More details on this event can be found here.

10 outreach sessions, 3 months, 240 participants - About 10 outreach sessions were organised during this quarter across institutes such as Kings School, St.Xavier's Goa, Library Science Department - Goa University, StartUp Goa, Konkani Department - Goa University, Sociology Department - Goa University, St. Aloysius College, Konkani Department Rosary College, Computer Science Department, Goa University.

Active Editors

A sudden spike in number of active editors in Aug 2013 coincides with the time frame when CIS-A2K started implementing it's Konkani Work Plan. Most of the Konkani editors during this time frame came from Konkani Department at Goa University. A 4 day workshop was organised for 37 MA students from Goa University who largely contributed to the growth of active editors in this quarter. The main reason for the decline of active editors in Sep 2013 was the shift of editors from Konkani Wikipedia to Konkani Wikisource to help digitize Konkani Vishwakosh. However, an impressive 43% retention rate was achieved in Sep 2013.

Edits Per Month & Bytes Added Per Month

One would see similar trend in Active Editors, Edits Per Month & Bytes Added Per Month. There was a steep incline in Jul-Aug 2013 because of the initial kick off outreach sessions that A2K programme organised at Konkani Department, Goa University and a decline in Sep due to editor shift from Konkani Wikipedia to Wikisource. Though in the month of September one would see a fall but there was a high retention rate.

Total Number of Articles

There was an average 24% month-on-month increment in total number of articles in this quarter. Aug 2013 shows an increase of 34% while September shows an increase of 15%. Most of these articles were pertaining to Goan culture, towns, folklore or institutions.