India has been warned

[Mancunium]

Aircel again. India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started an inquiry into the Malaysia-based company's corruption of high-ranking Indian politicians in January 2011, was chastised by the country's Supreme Court in October 2013 for its endless delays, and finally presented its charges to the Court in November 2013 (vide supra, with my apologies for the "walls of text" required to present the complexities of the case).

Wikipedia's descriptions are more concise: Aircel#Controversies_and_acquisition_rumours (T-H-L)

Aircel is being investigated by CBI for alleged irregularities in the Maxis takeover. According to CBI, Aircel's previous owner C. Sivasankaran was forced to sell his stake to Maxis by the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in 2005. As a result, Maxis did a quid pro quo investment of Rs. 5 billion in a DTH company owned by the Maran family.[19]

Dayanidhi_Maran (T-H-L)

Dayanidhi Maran (born 5 December 1966, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India) is a politician and one of the prominent members of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. [...] Maran has wide exposure in the fields of media, television, cable technology, political economy and management on account of his visiting seminar and conference in various countries. Maran has interest in playing golf, cricket and tennis.

Dayanidhi_Maran#Controversies (T-H-L)

Maran resigned from Ministry of Textiles after CBI accused Maran, a former telecom minister, of forcing the promoter of Chennai-based telecom company Aircel to sell his firm to Malaysian firm Maxis in 2006.[29] Maran is accused of helping Malaysian firm Maxis Group owned by Kuala Lumpur-based business tycoon T Ananda Krishnan by forcing Chennai-based telecom promoter C Sivasankaran to sell his stake in Aircel in 2006 to Maxis. The CBI, in its statement, alleged that Maran used his power as a telecom Minister to coerce Sivasankaran. On 26 July 2012, CBI, as a part of 2G Spectrum scam, grilled Dayanidhi Maran in connection with controversial Aircel-Maxis deal, which is believed to have fetched him Rs 5.47 billion.[30][31]

The Supreme Court has still not reached a verdict, and Aircel is still screwing its customers, many of whom have no alternative mobile service provider.

Aircel Partners with Wikipedia To Enhance Data Growth in India
Gizbot, 28 June 2014 link

One of the fastest growing telecom operators in India Aircel has recently been focusing on strengthening its ecosystem to drive data growth in most of the circles in India. In an event held in Bangalore yesterday, the company also highlighted its partnerships with other companies to further enhance the data penetration in Karnataka circle and other circles. Aircel after witnessing the 3G users growth of 67% last year, the company said that 45% of the 3G data traffic was contributed by 3G enabled devices, which resulted in a 35% growth in the data consumption last year. Moreover, the company has also been trying to use the partnerships to gain more mobile data users. In the same line, the company, yesterday, announced its partnership with the Wikimedia foundation which runs Wikipedia and other proprietary verticals in a non-profit basis. For the Aircel users, the partnership results in a free access to Wikipedia contents. According to the Aircel, "by April, the agreement resulted in 9% of Aircel users accessing Wikipedia on their mobile phones, which translates into a total of 1.5 Million subscribers."

Yes: it announced its exclusive partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation yesterday, 27 June 2014.

However, the agreement is not new to the Aircel users as this was first announced last year in July. The move is a part of the Wikimedia Foundation's Wikipedia Zero program, which focuses on reaching the billions of people around the world whose primary opportunity to access the internet is via a mobile device. The partnership will help provide Wikipedia to 60 million new users in the region. [...]

Aircel partnership brings Wikipedia Zero to India
Wikimedia blog, 25 July 2013 link

It is our mission to provide free access to knowledge for everyone in the world. It’s only fitting then that today we announced our first Wikipedia Zero partnership launch in India, the world’s second most populous country with over 1.2 billion people. Our new partnership with Aircel will give 60 million mobile subscribers in India the potential to access Wikipedia at no data cost, bringing the program’s global partnership footprint to 470 million subscribers. [...] To meet our commitment to bringing free knowledge to everyone in the world, we need to break down the barriers that prevent access. With Wikipedia Zero officially available today on Aircel in India, we’re one step closer to that objective.
Amit Kapoor
Senior Manager, Mobile Partnerships, Wikimedia Foundation

[Mancunium]

The_Hindu (T-H-L) is a respectable Indian newspaper, founded in 1878. For some reason, it is a big fan of Wikipedia (possibly because English is a Sacred_language (T-H-L) in India, and believed to be the key to worldly success). They are promoting a game for young schoolchildren: encouraging them to browse English Wikipedia, with all its gratuitous pornography and obscene illustrations.

Maybe there's a rule that links via porn articles don't count.

Kremlin —> Tatoo
Send in your paths for the above to school@thehindu.co.in with the subject “Qwikipedia”. Do include your name, class and school!

Is this a trick question? Tatoo is a redirect to Tattoo.

The caterpillar that got Rupert Murdoch
The Hindu, 29 June 2014 link


Rupert Murdoch

[EricBarbour]

Oh hell no, Rupert looks more like this:

Rupert Murdoch

[Mancunium]

Four volumes of Kannada Encyclopaedia digitised
The Hindu, 11 July 2014 link

Articles from the Kannada Encyclopaedia (Kannada Vishwakosha) of the University of Mysore can now be accessed online under the Creative Commons License. The move to make content of the Kannada Vishwakosha accessible is part of the ongoing effort to enrich Kannada content on Internet. The University of Mysore is working with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) to digitise encyclopaedic publications for which the copyrights are owned by the varsity, and to re-release them under the Creative Common License. U.B. Pavanaja of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, who is promoting Kannada content on the Internet, told The Hindu that of the 14 volumes, digitised content of the first four volumes has been uploaded. And, the CIS is awaiting the release of the revised edition of the other two volumes. “Each volume has about 900 pages and hence over 3,600 pages of the Kannada Vishwakosha can now be accessed. What is significant is that people seeking quality information in Kannada can now access reliable content. It is also subject to editing in real time and hence will remain updated,” according to Mr. Pavanaja. [...]

The Centre for Internet and Society signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Mysore in February. The varsity issued a certificate to publish the work under the Creative Common License in May. As per the plan, the digitised content will be made available for everyone through free content distribution platforms like Wikipedia, Wikisource and this is expected to enhance digital literacy in Kannada language while helping in free dissemination of knowledge in Kannada to students, academics, researchers and the general public. As of now, the articles have been uploaded on Wikisource and will shortly be migrated to Wikipedia also. [...] Niranjan Vanalli, Director of EMMRC of the University of Mysore, said digitisation of Kannada Vishwakosha has given a new lease of life to publications. “The 14-volume Kannada Vishwakosha was not available to everyone earlier and was confined to research institutions or libraries. But now that the content is available online, it is accessible to all those who are interested. And, what it is more is that most articles, especially those pertaining to history, art and culture, will be of reference quality and that will act as a major boost to the cause of Kannada language,” he added. Meanwhile, the University of Mysore and CIS will celebrate World Open Knowledge Festival on July 15 at the Kuvempu Institute of Kannada Studies from 11 a.m. to commemorate the event.

Kannada Vishwakosha: link

[Mancunium]

NOW, ACCESS KANNADA ENCYCLOPEDIA THROUGH WIKIPEDIA
Star of Mysore, 16 July 2014 link

Mysore, July 16- The University of Mysore has uploaded six volumes of its Kannada Encyclopedia to the web which can now be accessed by the general public through Wikipedia. The remaining eight volumes will be uploaded gradually. The uploading to the web was launched by Vice-Chancellor Prof. K.S. Rangappa at a function organised at Kuvempu Institute of Kannada Studies (KIKS) in Manasagangotri here yesterday. Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Rangappa advised the students to make best use of internet for gaining knowledge. U.B. Pavanaja, Programme Officer, Centre for Internet and Society said that the varsity had set a benchmark by uploading the encyclopedia which would be a boon for Kannada medium students. KIKS Director Prof. R. Ramakrishna, Wikipedia Convenor Tejas Jain, University Project Director Prof. S. Ravi and others were present.

[Mancunium]

Telugu Wikipedia struggles to stay afloat
The Hindu, 27 July 2014 link

Sujatha, a Chennai-based homemaker, has set for herself the task of updating the Telugu Wikipedia with details of all the districts in Andhra Pradesh. “I asked others but no one joined me in adding ‘edits’. They said they were too busy,” she says. For a language that is spoken by 10 crore people, including a tech-savvy population, content in the 11-year-old Telugu Wikipedia is sparse and growing slowly with 20,000 articles added in the last one decade. T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, Access to Knowledge Programme of Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), said Telugu Wikipedia was lagging behind its other Indian-language counterparts despite there being no other content repository in Telugu. The reason is not lack of writers in the language.

There are 1,000 to 2,000 active Telugu bloggers writing on topics ranging from poetry to politics. In fact, the Telugu Wikipedia was started by such bloggers. But they are reluctant to contribute to the Telugu Wikipedia and prefer blogging because they can see their names after adding the content. Rahimanuddin Shaik, Programme Officer and system operator for Telugu Wikipedia at CIS, said, “You could call it the ‘identity crisis’ of Telugu Wikipedia writers.” In 2006-07, an attempt was made to induce content in the Telugu Wikipedia by injecting 30,000 ‘articles’ by a bot, a Python-based script. They were one-liners about villages in Andhra Pradesh, introduced with the expectation that people would add more content. That effort did trigger 5,000 articles. [...]


For a language that is spoken by 10 crore people, content is sparse

Ten crore = 100 million

[Poetlister]

Maybe virtually all the tech-savvy Telegu speakers also speak English so if they want to contribute they go to the English site, knowing they will get a far bigger audience.

[Mancunium]

The joys of being a Wikipedian
The New Indian Express, 29 July 2014 link

BANGALORE: Radha Krishna, an engineer, had always wanted to share information online so that people who wanted to learn more could just log in and benefit by reading his articles. Eight years ago he started his own website for this very purpose. But he found it hard to maintain the site. He then chanced upon Wikipedia, the largest open-source encyclopedia, which was then just becoming popular in the country. He registered an account on the website and started contributing to it by editing articles and adding references. Krishna, who has contributed over 4000 articles so far, prides himself on being one of the first few Wiki editors from Bangalore.

Komal Khatokar, on the other hand, has not spent as much time on the site as Krishna. This 19-year-old B Com student of Christ University had to contribute one article to the Indian language Wikipedia last year as part of her assignment in a language of her choice, Sanskrit. She says, “I wrote an article on G V Iyer, who was the first person to direct a movie in Sanskrit.” But it did not stop there. Last May, she took up an internship project with The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), which acts as a catalyst for the Wikipedia movement in India. She wanted to explore the world of Wiki writing. “I took part in a project to add articles from the Kannada encyclopedia online. We uploaded over 1200 articles, which will go live on the main website in October.” Komal now edits copies on the site and despite her hectic college schedule, wants to continue contributing to Wikipedia in any way that she can.

Anybody with an Internet access can edit an article on Wikipedia. Globally, the English Wikipedia has over 4 million articles and there are over a million registered users. And in Bangalore, from just 10 members five years ago, there are now over 100 registered volunteers who contribute to the website on a daily basis, says Vishnu Vardhan, from CIS and adds, “Now, the maximum number of Wikipedians from India are from Bangalore and majority of the founding members of the Wikimedia India Chapter are also from here.” [...]

Jeph Paul is not a Wikipedian in the traditional sense of the word. Why? Because he doesn't contribute or edit articles on the website. What he does is very technical. He develops tools and gadgets for Wikipedia in India to enhance user experience. Jeph got involved when Wikipedia started providing grants of up to $30000 to people who wanted to improve the usability and functionality of the website. Jeph applied and received $500 for his project. His project was simple -- he created a visual representation of how an article evolved. He explains, “There are over 100 editors who pore over just one article and modify it — the edits can be a sentence that is rewritten, a reference link added or citations made. But the changes are a lot and minute. I created a tool where people could see what changes are made and how the article evolves over a period of time.” [...]

Wikipedia Caveats

Wikipedia, globally ranked sixth among all the websites based on web traffic, has laid down a list of rules and guidelines which users are required to follow. For instance, when one edits articles, one should avoid personal opinions. Komal cites a recent furore when there were slanderous remarks made against actor Ambarish. “Such personal opinions should be reserved for blogs. Wikipedia is a public domain website. Hence, when you become a contributor, you have a certain responsibility. You should refrain from portraying biased sentiments through your articles,” she observes. Contemplating on this, Komal adds that Wikipedians should not fabricate content. "They should only include what’s already published and authenticate it using a credible source," she adds. [...] When in doubt, the Wikipedians assert, it is always best to take help from other editors and collaborators through the ‘Talk’ option on the website or through monthly meetings. [...]

Since 2010, the Bangalore Wikipedia community has conducted over 40 meet-ups, according to Vishnu. “This helps increase participation among all volunteers, improves engagement and understanding of the work that is being done on an ongoing basis,” he opines. Apart from this, their main focus is to get more people to join the fray through ‘Wiki Academy’ which travels to different organisations in the country to get people acquainted to the website and give them hands-on training on editing articles. [...]

Refrain from portraying biased sentiments and fabricating content.

[thekohser]

I'd love to see examples of some of Radha Krishna's 4,000 new articles. No links were provided by the The New Indian Express.

Maybe someone could ask the newspaper's employee, Nagarajan Gopalan (T-C-L).

[Mancunium]

Bringing wiki home
The free online encyclopaedia has many contributors in Bangalore
The Hindu, 4 August 2014 link

Apart from the everlasting enslavement to Google, another website that netizens cannot do without is Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia that allows users across the world to post entries and carry out edits on the articles posted on the site. Right from challenging and getting your facts checked in a bet with friends, to getting last-minute nuggets of information before a research paper, Wiki is the go-to resource. Didn’t ‘Lungi dance’ in Chennai Express, have the lines urging you to read up about thalaiva on Wikipedia? The resource is also used to check the authenticity of information and wild rumours that inundate the net at regular intervals. Being the tech capital of the country, Bangalore leads the way as far as wikipedians in India are concerned. Metroplus talks to a few prominent wiki contributors for the lowdown on how they joined and participated in the wiki movement.

K.Ravichander, IT professional
"There were many Wikipedians in Bangalore. Some of us were born and brought up in Bangalore while many others made it home since our jobs were based in the city. [...] I used to debate regularly in Orkut communities and found people referring to Wikipedia articles to prove teir point. That’s how I first came across Wikipedia. It was in September 2006 that I started to write for Wikipedia and I have spent many years as a Wikipedia editor. From my childhood, I've always loved to write and Wikipedia gave me an opportunity to be read. [...] Common folk like me could write for Wikipedia, interact with other Wikipedians, some of whom were experts in the field and gain expertise ourselves. It has been a fulfilling experience."

Ramesh NG, IT professional
"I have been active in Malayalam Wikipedia (ml wiki) since 2008. I have made some 16K + edits in ml wiki. I learnt about ml wiki from blogs and friends, I started with making some minor edits in 2006 but became active only in 2008 after I discovered new tools that made it easy to work in Malayalam."

Tinu Cherian, PR and digital media consultant
"I am one of the most active Wikipedians in India and one of top six Indian editors on English Wikipedia by number of edits. I am one of very few Indian administrators on English Wikipedia and have over 53,000 edits. I have started more than 2,000 articles. [...] I am a member of Wikimedia Foundation Communication Committee and have worked as a volunteer for media relations for Wikimedia for more than six years. I have represented India in various Wikimania and Wikimedia Conferences in Poland, Germany, Israel and Hong Kong. Bangalore has a large Wikipedia community. Almost till a year and half ago, we used to have regular Wikimeetups in Bangalore. [...]"

A great forum to meet and share knowledge.

[thekohser]

Bringing wiki home
The free online encyclopaedia has many contributors in Bangalore
The Hindu, 4 August 2014 link

I think you missed the most insightful quote:

For a good Wikipedian, all you need is passion and perseverance.

No knowledge or talent required!

[Poetlister]

Bringing wiki home
The free online encyclopaedia has many contributors in Bangalore
The Hindu, 4 August 2014 link

I think you missed the most insightful quote:

For a good Wikipedian, all you need is passion and perseverance.

No knowledge or talent required!

Of course you don't need knowledge. All you need to do is be able to quote a source and hope it's reliable.

[Mancunium]

Now, Christ students will contribute to Wikipedia
Deccan Herald, 5 August 2014 link

The department of languages at Christ University has set a precedent by including contribution to Wikipedia as a part of the undergraduate course work. Introduced last year on a pilot basis, the programme is all set to get a new outlook this year. As a part of the initiative, students are required to submit an article to Wikipedia in an Indian language (the second language subject chosen). The languages offered are Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and Tamil. Earlier, much to the chagrin of lecturers, students were most often found rehashing material online for their assignments. On the contrary, the students will now be contributors for online content. But this is just one of the outcomes. Through this, the department has not only set out to enrich the regional language resources online, but has also turned students into knowledge producers. [...] As per the redesigned format this time, in their first semester, students will digitise one page of an existing piece of literature in the Indian language concerned. This has been included to help them gain typing skills, apart from strengthening vocabulary. In the second semester, students will be digitising four or five pages of literature. In the III semester, they will have to write one assignment in the second language of their choice and the fourth semester will be dedicated to an article (in Indian language) on the theme of their choice from any core subject. T Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, Access to Knowledge at Centre for Internet and Society (the university is implementing the programme in coordination with this organisation), sees this as an initiative for production of knowledge in Indian languages. “From the past several years, there have been talks about how there is no production of knowledge in Kannada (or other regional languages). This is a step towards it.” [...]

2 comments

Deccanjam • 4 days ago
Wikipedia is a source of knowledge which has to be authentic and as such provided by experts. Students who are in learning stage cannot provide authentic information all the time and to force them to contribute to Wikipedia is not good thinking. All contributions by students to Wikipedia should carry the teacher or professors's name and action should be taken against such professors if contributions to Wikipedia fail the websites standards. Let the students and professors both take pains to post authentic contributions, otherwise the entire exercise will dilute Wikipedia's reputation.

Paneendra Kumar • 3 days ago
wikepedia is highly biased.

[Mancunium]

Nitish launches drive to add more Wikipedia pages on Bihar
The Hindu, 15 August 2014 linkhttp://www.thehindu.com/news/national/o ... 321865.ece[/link]

The former Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, launched a “Bihar on Wikipedia” campaign on Friday to “strengthen Brand Bihar.” “We know much about Bihar’s golden history, culture, great personalities, traditions and astonishing stories, but the world connected to the Internet doesn’t. We are launching the ‘Bihar on Wikipedia’ campaign for them to ‘strengthen Brand Bihar,’” Mr. Kumar posted on a social networking site. Asking what people of Bihar were giving back to the State and doing for future generations, Mr. Kumar, who was Chief Minister for almost nine years, invoked Internet users, especially the youth, to participate in the campaign. In his message, he asked them to write about their village or town, its unique culture, history, development, eminent personalities and about every important aspect of the State to enrich the dialogue on Bihar. “This will not only be a positive step towards creating Brand Bihar, the people of Bihar spread across the globe will also be able to contribute in increasing the prestige of their State through it,” he said. Mr. Kumar said it was time “we publicise the truth and strengthen Brand Bihar.” “Different types of myths about our State have been circulated, but the correct thing remains unknown. Let us unite on the occasion of Independence Day and do something to increase our prestige and strengthen our identity in the world.

Nitish_Kumar (T-H-L)


Janata Dal (United) and former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

[Mancunium]

Wiki Loves Monuments: bringing open to Pakistan
Creative Commons Blog, 25 August 2014 linkhttp://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/43600[/link]

Wiki Loves Monuments is one of the most successful free culture events worldwide. A global photo competition organized by local Wikimedia chapters and groups, it has been running since 2010 and has grown larger each year. For 2014, we speak to Saqib Qayyum from Wikimedia Pakistan about how the event will help promote the commons to new communities.

Tell us about Wikimedia in Pakistan, and Pakistan’s open community.

Wikipedia is the 7th most most visited website in Pakistan and is known by the vast majority of the more than 30 million Internet users in the country. Despite having financial and social challenges, Pakistani people are embracing the Internet and the growth rate of internet users is on the rise. Surprisingly, however, the English language edition of Wikipedia has only a thousand or so registered volunteer editors from Pakistan. When you compare it with the overall number of internet users in the country, this figure is miniscule. The most disappointing fact is that out of those thousand or so registered editors, less than 100 – mostly students – actively contribute to the world’s largest free encyclopedia. The people of Pakistan are not contributing as much to Wikipedia as they should. The national language Urdu is also underrepresented on the internet and is experiencing an online stagnation. The Urdu edition of Wikipedia has more active editors from India than from Pakistan. There’s a strong need to encourage people to get involved with Wikipedia and push them to collaborate and exchange useful digital materials freely online. [...]

How did you get involved with the open source and Creative Commons movements?

When I wonder why people are not very interested in open educational resources such as Wikipedia or other movements that promote free and open content, I imagine one factor might be due to the low literacy rate in Pakistan, or the deficiency in human rights educational initiatives in the country. Many people who know me over the internet assume I am a university student or a professional in the information technology sector, but the fact is I’m actually a college dropout and work part-time in my family-owned manufacturing company and deal with overseas clients. [...] Many people, and even my family, ask why I’m involved in the Wikimedia movement, as it doesn’t play a role in building my career and is not connected to my line of work. In short, they think I am wasting my time. I disagree. I believe in the free exchange of ideas and knowledge in this ever changing world and vehemently advocate for the principles of collaboration, openness, transparency and consensus which lay the groundwork for innovation and growth. Since discovering Wikipedia and Creative Commons as a teenager, I have made it a point to actively promote the concept of free knowledge and open content as I believe the free culture movement can bring broad and positive social change in Pakistan. [...]

What do you hope to achieve with the Wiki Loves Monuments Pakistan competition?

[...] With Wiki Loves Monuments Pakistan, I’m trying to encourage people in Pakistan to contribute to Wikipedia and motivate them to use Creative Commons licensing. It takes a lot of time and energy to edit an article on Wikipedia, but it’s pretty simple, fun and easy to take a photograph and upload it. I believe once people participate in Wiki Loves Monuments Pakistan they will eventually start to contribute to Wikipedia, which is amongst the most successful products of the open and free internet. [...]

How do people get involved?

Participating in Wiki Loves Monuments Pakistan is really straightforward. Lists of eligible sites to be photographed have been made available online on Wikipedia. All you need to do is register an account on the Wikimedia Commons media repository, choose the sites from the list to photograph, take photographs of your chosen sites and upload the photographs to Wikimedia Commons. That’s it! By getting involved in the competition you are helping to document Pakistan’s rich cultural heritage for current and future generations, and helping to contribute towards the expansion of free knowledge for all. Additionally, by participating in the Wiki Loves Monuments Pakistan competition, you may be eligible to win a fantastic cash prize and even become part of a growing community that believes in making knowledge freely available to all.

Saqib Qayyum
Wikivoyage: linkhttps://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/User:Saqib[/link]

Wikimedia Community User Group Pakistan: linkhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedi ... p_Pakistan[/link]

My advice to photographers in Pakistan would be: stick to the list of eligible monuments. Individuals may forcibly object to being photographed, or to the photographing of women, children, and religious events. Members of the military, and of the internal security and police forces, may believe that the photographing of soldiers and law enforcement officers is a criminal act, and may decide that the photographing of bridges and other transportation and information infrastructure is a threat to national security, or even a terrorist activity.

[Mancunium]

Tamil Wikipedia to publish two seminal works
Encyclopaedias Kalaikalangiyam and Kuzhandaigal Kalaikalangiyam will be published under Creative Commons licence
The Hindu, 3 September 2014 linkhttp://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/che ... 374149.ece[/link]

In a move that could considerably bolster the freely-available database of Tamil articles online, Tamil Wikipedia has been given the licence to produce the entire collection of two seminal encyclopaedia works, under Creative Commons. Tamizh Valarchi Kazhagam (Tamil Development Council), an autonomous institution of the State government, recently granted permission to Tamil Wikipedia volunteers to publish its encyclopaedia works, Kalaikalangiyam and Kuzhandaigal Kalaikalangiyam. [...] Explaining the significance of the permission, veteran Tamil Wikipedia author and volunteer, C.R. Selvakumar of University of Waterloo, said Kalaikalangiyam and Kuzhandaigal Kalaikalangiyam, both ten-volume sets of books, are among the highest accomplishments in the field of knowledge literature in the country. [...] “The articles are of the highest order of accuracy and publishing them on Tamil Wikipedia will open them up to several millions of readers,” said Prof. Selvakumar. V.C. Kulandaisamy, chairman of Tamil Valarchi Kazhagam, said Kalaikalangiyam is the first regional language encyclopaedia work in the country. “More than 2,000 knowledge scholars were involved in preparing it. It was done in the good-fashioned way of meticulous fact-checking and extraordinary care was taken before preparing its first edition. A lot of articles were even submitted in English and painstakingly translated into Tamil,” he said.

Tamil Wikipedia strategy

Both Kalaikalangiyam and Kuzhandaigal Kalaikalangiyam have been scanned and uploaded onto the Tamil Virtual Academy website as image files at http://tamilvu.org/library/kulandaikal/lku00/html/ lku00ind.htm. However, this suffers from limitations as a text keyword search is not possible. Tamil Wikipedia community’s plan is to type in all the articles but the sheer scale of data — 10 volumes of Kalaikalangiyam running to a length of 7,407 pages, and 10 volumes of Kuzhandaigal Kalaikalangiyam running to a length of 969 pages — poses a challenge. A. Ravishankar, an active member of the Tamil Wikipedia community, is banking on scores of new volunteers taking up typing the two encyclopaedias as articles in the Wiki Source database. Prof. Selvakumar hopes to approach schools and colleges to scout for volunteers. “It will also help students improve their knowledge. Though these encyclopaedias are old, they are treasure troves of information,” he said. [...]

As I understand this, the two encyclopedias will be read-only resources in WikiSource. If they were to be incorporated into Tamil Wikipedia, as the author of this article seems to think, all that meticulous fact-checking and extraordinary care would soon be destroyed.

The url given here for the Tamil Virtual Academy library tells me: "Access forbidden! You don't have permission to access the requested directory. There is either no index document or the directory is read-protected." The Tamil Virtual Academy (erstwhile Tamil Virtual University) seems like it is already a good resource: linkhttp://tamilvu.org/[/link].

[Mancunium]

Knowledge Freedom Fest at Cusat From Friday
Indian Express, 23 September 2014 [link]http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/ ... 444593.ece[/link]

KOCHI: Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom and Cusat Students Union will jointly organise a Knowledge Freedom fest from September 26 to 28 on the university campus. A three-day wikimedia fest will be held as part of the fest. Wikimedia is conducted in order to create awareness on Wikipedia and associated ventures in the field of software development. The fest is being organised as a part of DAKF’s state-level convention. Those who attend the fest will get a glimpse of several aspects of the online encyclopedia. They will also be taught how to be a part of the ventures. There will also be facilities for newcomers to be consumers of the online knowledge giant ‘Wikipedia’. The visitors will be shown how to read and write Malayalam on computers and mobiles. A handbook for those who would like to contribute continuously to the knowledge portal will also be handed over along with badges and key chains to publicise the event. On September 26, a Wikimedia seminar will be held in which experts in Wiki initiatives will conduct classes. Classes will also be held for those with low vision on the use of computers. Those interested in attending the wikimedia seminar may register through the website http://sc.dakf.in in advance. A digital poster making competition will be held. Prizes will be distributed on September 27. To increase the number and ensure the quality of feminist writings in Malayalam Wikipedia, a month-long drive is also being conducted.

For details, visit https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:DAKF_SC2014. or call at 9447006466.

Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom
Geek's Log, 19 March 2011 [link]http://ajithvs.blogspot.ca/2011/03/dakf ... ledge.html[/link]

DAKF (Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom) is a association of IT workers and IT users formed on 2008 Dec 21 at Naresh Pal Centre,Ernakulam dist', Kerala,India.It works to encourage and promote FOSS and knowledge freedom. DAKF is centred in Kerala and is very much interested in FOSS meets. It is definitely not an apolitical organization and joins political activism with a free movement for its immediate ends. [...]

[Mancunium]

105 Kannada books released under Creative Commons
Contents will now be available in Wikisource for use by everyone
Bangalore Mirror, 29 September 2014 linkhttp://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalor ... 741895.cms[/link]

Kannada book lovers will now be able to legally download more than 100 books that have been released by the state government under the Creative Commons licence. The treasure trove, which includes a good mix of classics and rhythmic writings, have been digitised by the Department of Kannada and Culture and some of them put up on Wikisource, the website from where details for Wikipedia pages are sourced. The licence entitles anyone "to use the work in a commercial product or otherwise, and to modify it according to their needs." The licence is not limited to use in Wikipedia. The initiative, which aims to enrich Kannada language and culture, is the brainchild of UB Pavanaja, a Bangalore-based writer. Pavanaja, along with some other Wikipedia contributors, approached the department to digitise and re-release Kannada classics. The department then decided to give CC licence to 105 books last month. With this licence, the source copy (soft copy) of the books will be made available.

The books released by the department include 35 volumes of the Samagra Dasa Sahitya (complete Dasa literature), 15 volumes of Samagra Vachana Samputa (complete Vachana literature), 36 volumes of Rigveda Samhita, Kumaravyasa Bharata, Jaimini Bharata, Nalacharitre and Mohana Tarangini. Soon, all these will be available for anyone who wants to read them online. "According to India's copyright laws, any book will be out of copyright after 60 years. So technically, classics are out of copyright but this applies to the text only. But when someone publishes even a classic, they hold the copyright to the information they have keyed in and edited," said Pavanaja who is also a member of the advisory committee to the state government of Kannada software development. "What the department has given is rights to re-published versions of the classics and also the commentary, criticism, essays on these classics they have published. Any information that is out of copyright is uploaded to wikisource.org. They have given us soft copies of some of the books. The rest of the books for which CC licence is provided will have to be typed again and uploaded to Wikisource." [...]

In another related development, Mysore University has released six of the 14 volumes of its encyclopedia. Four of these will be available for anyone to read online, modify and use it. The Hampi Kannada University has a huge 29-volume encyclopedia. Sources say the university is in the initial stage making this available on Creative Commons.

The initiative is the brainchild of UB Pavanaja

[Mancunium]

Authentic version of Tamil Wikipedia
Deccan Chronicle, 16 October 2014 linkhttp://www.deccanchronicle.com/141015/n ... -wikipedia[/link]

Chennai: The Tamil Virtual Academy (TVA) will soon come out with a more ‘authentic version’ of the Tamil Wikipedia, there being many errors in the existing information in cyber space. Prof P.R. Nakkeeran, director, said on Tuesday that the academy had embarked on a project to document the arts, culture and heritage of Tamil Nadu online along the lines of Wikipedia. In the first phase, it would document the history, tradition, significance, paintings, sculptures and rituals of five Chola temples in Tamil Nadu, including Tirupullamangai in Thanjavur district, Tirunanipalli, near Mayildatururai, Thiruppazhanam in Thanjavur district, Melakadambur, near Chidambaram and Tiruvirkolam (Cooum), near Chennai. Prof Nakkeeran said that their team would soon shoot visuals of all the five temples, which would be three-dimensional videos and pictures with high class content.

“Much content on Wikipedia needs correction. Anybody can contribute to our website, we will verify the authenticity of the information and upload it as we need to provide correct information online. TVA is expected to complete the project within a year’s time,” he added. In the next phase, the academy will document more temples and sculptures in the state. “Tamil Nadu is not only famous for temples, but for sculptures, rock and cave inscriptions too. We will also reach inaccessible parts of the state to document these and upload them onto our website. This is a continuous process,” he said. Welcoming the government’s initiative, former principal of Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai and renowned artist G. Chandrasekaran said that nobody had done an extensive documentation of Tamil Nadu’s culture and history online as envisioned by the TVA. “Wikipedia does not have most of the details that the academy plans to have online. Wikipedia has only details of a few things from Tamil Nadu; we need to have a large amount of information about Tamil Nadu online to be on par with people in other parts of the world,” he said.

[Mancunium]

Pakistan must fill in the missing jigsaw pieces of Wikipedia
by Saqib Qayyum Choudhry, Dawn, 15 October 2014 linkhttp://www.dawn.com/news/1137919/wiki-i ... saw-pieces[/link]

What you know can be imparted to thousands of people on the Internet, impacting countless lives and events, while spreading better awareness of Pakistani topics across the globe. The predominant way that happens these days is, of course, Wikipedia. Wikipedia — the online encyclopedia that covers nearly everything — and its popularity has a lot to do with the fact that it's free, noncommercial, and has become more than an authority on virtually every possible subject. Available in almost 300 languages, it aims to give mankind access to the sum of all human knowledge in their respective languages. [...] In Pakistan, Wikipedia is the one of the most popular sites amongst the country's 30 million Internet users. Hundred of thousands of us visit it daily, and millions visit the site monthly, but despite our addiction to the site, Pakistan-related topics are seriously under-represented on Wikipedia. Of about three million monthly edits to the English Wikipedia from across the globe, only a tiny 8,000 are from Pakistan. [...]

In this regard, Pakistan is lagging way behind other countries in the world. Of the more than 20,000 Pakistan-related articles, fewer than 50 are deemed to be of high quality. Most articles are extremely short, written poorly and lack balanced, reliable information. [...] Then, there is the language issue. Because most of our Internet users browse the Web in English, our national language, Urdu, is extremely under-represented on Wikipedia; only around 1 percent of Pakistani visits are to the Urdu Wikipedia. Much of the editing in our languages is done from outside of Pakistan, even though people living here would obviously have the most reliable, detailed knowledge of the country. In comparison, India enjoys much better coverage, e.g. India-related topics tend to be more detailed and developed. Wiki editors for India have made their country far more visible on the Web than Pakistan is. In a dramatic example, the 2008 Mumbai attacks have more than a dozen articles on Wikipedia, but the 2007 Karachi bombing has only one article — even though both events resulted in similar casualties. The ongoing war in northwest Pakistan, which has over 50,000 civilian casualties plus more as its background, has the most unsatisfactory coverage.

I would like to request all Pakistanis out there to join this international project; use your knowledge to let each other and the outside world know everything about Pakistan. You get to decide what you'll contribute, as long as it's accurate and balanced. Existing community members are more than willing to answer your questions and help, if you ask. Access to free knowledge, and the task of preserving knowledge related to Pakistan, is too important to ignore. And when you can so easily be a part of this grand scheme, there's no real excuse for not chipping in. If you like the idea of sharing knowledge, or are not satisfied with things you see on Wikipedia, please join in and just do it yourself. You can do this without registering — but registering is quick, private, and easy, and lets you communicate with other editors around the world. It can be a fun, social and educational activity, all for the very noble cause of conveying the right information on Pakistan.


The writer is a volunteer Wikipedia editor and representative of Wikimedia affiliate in Pakistan. He can be reached at saqib.qayyum@hotmail.com. And tweets @WikimediaPK.

[Poetlister]

Pakistan

[Mancunium]

Pakistan

India enjoys much better coverage, e.g. India-related topics tend to be more detailed and developed. Wiki editors for India have made their country far more visible on the Web than Pakistan is. In a dramatic example, the 2008 Mumbai attacks have more than a dozen articles on Wikipedia, but the 2007 Karachi bombing has only one article — even though both events resulted in similar casualties. The ongoing war in northwest Pakistan, which has over 50,000 civilian casualties plus more as its background, has the most unsatisfactory coverage.

Sixty-seven years after Partition, Pakistan still defines itself as "not India", and Bangladesh still defines itself as "not India, and not Pakistan either"; the countries in this cultural/historical region are inextricably intertwined. I blame the witless partition, and its horrific consequences, on the egos of these two people:

The India I refer to in this thread is the subcontinent of India, formerly united as the Empire of India (Burma is not part of the subcontinent, was detached from the Indian Empire in 1937, and is being personally screwed over by Jimbo, so it has its own thread).



Don't ask to see more recent maps: India, Pakistan and China each has its own theory of where the borders are.

[Poetlister]

The India I refer to in this thread is the subcontinent of India, formerly united as the Empire of India (Burma is not part of the subcontinent, was detached from the Indian Empire in 1937, and is being personally screwed over by Jimbo, so it has its own thread).

I see. What about Ceylon/Sri Lanka?

Don't ask to see more recent maps: India, Pakistan and China each has its own theory of where the borders are.

True. The Economist complains that it is censored in India by not being allowed to print maps that suggest that the Indian claim to borders is in any way disputed.

[Mancunium]

'Wikipedia' in Maithili language approved
Himalayan Times, 16 October 2014 linkhttp://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.p ... sID=430642[/link]

KATHMANDU: The initiative of developing a 'Wikipedia' in Maithili language has been materialised. The Language Committee of the Wikipedia Foundation has endorsed 'Wikipedia in Maithili Language' which was brought out after six years of assiduous efforts, said the Wikipedia Nepal. With the construction of Maithili page of the Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia in Maithili language has also begun. 'Wikipedia' is an online encyclopedia where anyone can contribute with write-ups and editing. Wikimedia Nepal Chairperson Ganesh Poudel said the Wikipedia in Maithili language, which has been on test since 2008, has acquired endorsement after six years. It has been learnt that Bimplab Anand of Rajbiraj alone has contributed articles and write-ups in more than 800 topics in the Wikipedia. One can view and also add information to Maithili Wikipedia through mai.wikipedia.org. Linguistic Professors Yogendra Yadav and Shiva Bhushan Lal and journalist Dharmendra Jha submitted a report this week after assessing the contents of the Maithili Wikipedia. Wikipedia has been so far developed in 287 languages in the world.

Maithili_language (T-H-L)

[Mancunium]

Pushing women scientists
Wikipedia edit-a-thon attempts to raise awareness of the contribution of Indian women to science
The Hindu, 19 October 2014 linkhttp://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/ban ... 517035.ece[/link]

Ask anyone to name an Indian scientist and the answer is likely to be a man, and not a woman scientist. To let more people know about the unsung heroines of science in India, a workshop called the Ada Lovelace Edit-a-thon 2014 was held here recently. At least 15 participants added content about women scientists over two days to Wikipedia as the first step in bringing public awareness about them. The edit-a-thon (a large number of people adding or modifying content on Wikipedia at once) concluded on October 14, which was Ada Lovelace Day, an international day to celebrate the achievements of women in science, technology and maths. The event was organised by BioScienceIndia Programme, a non-profit science outreach initiative, and Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society.

Participants added information about at least 40 women scientists. Information on 80 more would be added in a year’s time, said Nandini Rajamani, Co-director, BioScienceIndia Programme. The aim, however, is to go beyond edit-a-thons, to examine issues that have not received the attention they deserve. Women scientists in India are not on par with men for several reasons (see info box) and the “leaky pipeline” theory is used to describe their decreasing visibility. Vishnu Vardhan, Director, Access to Knowledge team, CIS, said the aim is to motivate a new and younger generation of women scientists. Karthik Ramaswamy, visiting scientist at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and a participant in the edit-a-thon, said science in India has a ‘diversity problem’ with Indian women and minorities represented inadequately. “There are very few women scientists among faculty of science institutions because they have no role models. Hopefully, this (presence on Wikipedia) will provide them with role models,” he added.


Participants at the Ada Lovelace Edit-a-thon 2014 workshop held in Bangalore last week. At least 15 participants
added content about women scientists over two days to Wikipedia as the first step in bringing public awareness about them.

There is no info box, which presumably would have explained the "leaky pipeline theory".

[Mancunium]

PakistanEdits: Tracking Pakistan on Wikipedia
PakistanEdits is a unique initiative that monitors Pakistani contributions to online data reserves.
by Anum Pasha, The Express Tribune, 25 October 2014 linkhttp://tribune.com.pk/story/779352/paki ... wikipedia/[/link]

Meet Irfan Ahmed, the man behind @PakistanEdits — a Twitter account that has recently been making waves on social media through its automated live tweets on Wikipedia edits related to Pakistani content. [...] @PakistanEdits came about as a hobby for Ahmed but quickly transpired into an aggressive online social movement. [...] “I realised it was imperative to observe the edits anonymous Pakistanis are making on Wikipedia, and their contribution to Pakistan’s online data reserves, information and knowledge sharing,” he explains. [...] In less than a few weeks, @PakistanEdits has live tweeted over 15,772 times. This confirms that Pakistanis are spending a considerable amount of time editing Pakistan-related content on Wikipedia. Currently, a large percentage of the contributions are related to political vandalism and self-promotion. “I’m trying to ensure that Pakistani contributors realise that the modifications are reviewed by Wikipedia and unauthentic, non-credible data is automatically scrubbed out,” says Ahmed.

[... examples of Pakistani vandalism ...]

@PakistanEdits has also been endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation Pakistan affiliate, represented by Saqib Qayuum. [...] “Pakistan is under-represented and this has disadvantaged the Pakistani image on Wikipedia,” says Qayyum. [...] The content that is deemed substandard is be due to a number of reasons such as lack of authentic information and data, poor writing skills and intentionally misleading content that can taint Pakistan’s image. [...] According to Qayyum, less than 50% of the total contributions to Urdu Wikipedia come from Pakistan. “The rest originates from US and India, surprisingly.” [...]