[Wikimedia-l] [CIS-A2K] October 2015 Newsletter

[Subhashish Panigrahi]

Dear all,


Centre for Internet and Society' Access To Knowledge (CIS-A2K) program
would like to share with you the newsletter below for the month of
October 2015. We look forward to hear any feedback or input you might have.



== 1000 Marathi books by Marathi-language 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?", Mr Chaphekar
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. 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 ==

(CIS-A2K events page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events)

⬤ Konkani-language books from Konkani-language culture center Mannd
Sobhaann to enrich Konkani Wikipedia:
(http://cis-india.org/openness/konkani-language-books-from-konkani-language-culture-center-mannd-sobhaann-to-enrich-konkani-wikipedia)
Mannd Sobhaann (http://www.manddsobhann.org/), a private organization
working for unification of Konkani people around the world, preservation
and promotion of Konkani language and culture, has recently relicensed 3
of their published books under a CC-by-SA 4.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) license. Erik Ozario,
founder of the organization has kindly permitted to open these books
under free license so they get digitized on Konkani Wikisource
(https://wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page/Konkani) and contribute in
enriching the Goan Konkani Wikipedia (https://goo.gl/780B6r). Thanks to
our friend Harriet Vidyasagar
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Outofindia) for helping in acquiring
these books.

⬤ Odia Wikisource 1st anniversary celebration: (https://goo.gl/nXRmvr)
Odia Wikimedia community celebrated 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:
(https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Workshop_in_Sinhgad_Institute_of_Technology_and_Science,_Pune#Project_Aim)
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.


== Upcoming events: Train-a-Wikipedian ==

CIS-A2K is going to start a new project Train-a-Wikipedian (TAW,
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Train-a-Wikipedian). In February
and June this year, CIS-A2K conducted Train the Trainer (TTT,
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K/Events/Train_the_Trainer_Program) and
MediaWiki Train the Trainer (MWTTT,
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MWTTT). After

[Wikimedia-l] 15 years! Help us add what's missing

[Heather Walls]

Dear everyone,

Help us collect the 15 best things about the Wikimedia movement (and
Wikipedia) from the last 15 years!

Community members all over the world and the Communications team, have been
preparing to celebrate the start of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement.
On January 15, 2016, it will have been 15 years of collaborating,
collecting, verifying, and making knowledge free for the whole world.

As part of our annual report, we plan to once again share stories -- this
time celebrating the joy of knowledge and discovery. We want to include
some of the most amazing, strange, cool, and unbelievable things about the
last 15 years.

There is a page started on Meta.[1] We know they balance to enWP right now,
so we are especially appreciative of additions about the rest of the
movement. Please add things we've missed, make corrections to anything
that's not correct, and commenting on your favorite.

Thanks so much for taking the time to improve this!

The WMF Communications team


1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_15/15_years



-- 
*Heather Walls  *Wikimedia Foundation
annual.wikimedia.org 
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