WikiCast

This is a **proposal for a new** Wikimedia sister project.
WikiCast
Status of the proposal
Status	rejected
Reason	no interest in a decade. Pecopteris (talk) 04:41, 19 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Technical requirements
	v; t; e;

India has a huge population (1.2 billion) and diversified culture and languages. India currently has the largest illiterate population of any nation on Earth. It currently has over 100 million Internet users (8% of population), which rank third on most internet users list. In view of this situation, there is desperate need of some solution to disseminate Wikipedia's knowledge.

Looking in to the these two extremities, we propose WikiCast where we will make a one minute informative audio visual “Do you know ?” clips which can be broadcasted on public displays in trains, buses, molls, schools and on TV channels. These clips will also be made available on web and mobile. This will make the Wikipedia basic knowledge available to the illiterate people and also help attract viewers to Wikipedia for further information. The project also aims to develop tutorials based on the screencast of the Wikipedia to help the new editors learn by themselves. These tutorials can also be used in wiki academies. By dubbing the content in local languages, the model can be scaled to cater the wide community.

The project WikiCast – India will seek to reach out the knowledgebase from Wikipedia to the masses with the help of audio visual medium and make people aware of Wikipedia. It also aims to provide the self learning tutors in the local languages to help new Wikipedia editors.

Objective

To provide the information from Wikipedia through audiovisual medium
To deliver the information from Wikipedia to the people who did not have internet access.
To deliver the information from Wikipedia to illiterate people
To deliver the information to children who can not access Wikipedia
To promote Wikipedia through audiovisual mediam.
To create audio visual tutorials for new editors
To make masses aware about Wikipedia

Preamble

Literacy in India

Literacy in India is key for socio-economic progress, and the Indian literacy rate grew to 75.06% in 2011 from 12% at the end of British rule in 1947. Although this is greater than sixfold improvement, the level is well below the world average literacy rate of 84% and India currently has the largest illiterate population of any nation on Earth. This makes use of Wikipedia through audiovisual medium an ideal choice.

Internet users in India

With increasing affordability of PCs and internet penetration, India is all set to have 121 million internet users by December 2011, according to a study by internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB .

"A 100 million internet users is considered a critical landmark for the country. With this internet use, India is expected to enter a critical period of growth with the possibility of becoming the largest internet using country in the world in this decade," as per the study.

Even with just 8% of its 1.2 billion population online, India is outranked by only the USA and China in the list of countries with the most Internet users.

India currently has about over 100 million Internet users, and the number will increase to 300 million by 2014, - The Wall Street Journal.

Statistics about Internet usage considering cities :

10 cities has 37% of the total numbers of Internet users in India.
Top ten cities having most number of Internet users are Mumbai, Delhi, Banglore, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Surat and Nagpur.
Mumbai has most number of Internet users nearly 3.24 million
Three metro cities (Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur) in top 10 are from Maharashtra shows largest internet user population is Marathi speaking community.

Considering the illiteracy on one hand and the booming internet users on the other hand in India, the use of the audiovisual medium for providing information from Wikipedia and using same platform for promoting Wikipedia to attract internet users for more information and contribution is proposed in WikiCast - India project.

Wikicast

Pilot experiment

The project was created by Juliana Paul-Hummel. The details of contract was made between Wikimedia Deutschland and Berliner Fenster (the company who is responsible for Public TV in Berlin). A beta-version, sent in 2010 as a pilot, was very successful. 2012 a whole program will be sent in Berlin. Wikimedia Deutschland will use this program for fundraising. (Check the example here)

Wikicast - India

The WikiCast - India project aims to create the audiovisual content for two major applications:

Clips for Public information: In WikiCast – India project, we will create the one minute video clips from the content based on information in Wikipedia which are of common interest to the local audience and publish it on screens in public transport, public places and schools. We will also look forward to broadcast it through TV channels, web and mobiles ( Check the example here)

Tutorials for beginners: The new editors require help to start editing the Wikipedia. The tutorial videos will be useful to them for learning how to edit Wikipedia and learn to use Mediawiki. We will try to make the screencast-based video tutorials to help the new editor for self learning. This will help to reduce the pressure on the amount of wiki academies to be conducted and ideal for the individual user. This can be also used as a courseware for the wiki academies. (Check the example here)

By dubbing the content in different languages, it can be scaled to spread the idea for different language communities and reach the grassroot level. As a sample, we will make all the content available in Marathi language since the India Marathi language speaking people is the largest internet user community.

Methodology

Selection of topic:

The topic for creation of video clip will be chosen based on the common interest so that it will appeal to the masses. Selection of content: Based on the topic the content from the wikipedia will be selected and the related relivent images will be selected from commence.

Script:

Based on the vailable content and images a script for the video will be written to best fit in the given time line and also present nicely.

Clip/Tutorial Video:

Based on the script the animation of the content will be created and rendered in different formats which can cater to the broadcast, web and mobile formats.

Voice over:

The content will be given a suitable voice over and/or background music to make it attractive.

Review:

Once the clip is ready it will be send for review before publishing. If any corrections are suggested by reviewer they will be incorporated. This will insure the quality of the clips.

Publication:

Once the clips are ready they will be made available in public domain through the broadcast, web and mobile platforms

Awareness:

The awareness campaign will be run to deploy the clips at various places like public transports, public places, schools, TV channels, Web etc.

Social Impact

It will deliver the information from wikipedia to the people who did not have internet access.
It will deliver the information from wikipedia to illiterate people
It will deliver the information to children who can not access wikipedia
It will make masses aware about wikipedia
It will attract the viewers to wikipidiya for further information
The self learning tutorials will help to create more editors.
The self learning tutorials will reduce the load on wiki academies.

Sustainable

Initially volunteer from the community will participate in the selection of content and the review process. As the project become operational the volunteer will start contributing in the script writing and clip creations.

The volunteer will also start the translation to other languages and once the project idea gets popularized then more people will join in and it will become complete volunteer driven activity.

Scalable

Once the reference content is created in one language then it can be translated in other languages and thus it can be scaled in to large number. Different communities can start the localization projects to make the content available in there languages. As a example we will convert the English content in Marathi language as a part of the project.

Outcome

More wikipedia knowledge dissemination through the public visibility.
More people will get attracted to the wikipedia for further information
School children will start visiting wikipedia
With the help of self learning tutorials more editors will be trained very easily
The load on wiki academies will reduce
The wiki academies will use the tutorials as a support material