namaste,

It is with great pleasure that we announce the re-release of first 6 volumes of Kannada Encyclopaedia published by Mysore University under Creative Commons License CC-BY-SA 3.0.

CIS-A2K has been following up with the Mysore University since months requesting them to re-release the encyclopaedia under CC. Being convinced of the importance of preserving the rich culture and heritage of Kannada, Mysore University has approved the conversion into Unicode and re-release of the encyclopaedia under CC to make it freely available to Kannadigas all over the world.

This is a great achievement for CIS-A2K programme and Wikimedia India  community. We are extremely thankful to Prof. K. S. Rangappa, Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University for realising the importance of growing free and open knowledge in Kannada. Thanks are also due to the Mysore University faculty and officials, specifically Prof. S. Ravi (Director, PMEB), Prof C. Basavaraju (Ex Registrar), Prof. N. M. Talawar (Director, Institute of Kannada Studies), Prof Hati Krishne Gowda (then Chief Editor of Mysore University Encyclopaedia project) and others.

CIS-A2K will be converting the encyclopaedia into Unicode and uploading it on Kannada Wikisource; that will feed into articles on Kannada Wikipedia.   

U.B. Pavanaja, MSc, PhD

Programme Officer – Indian languages,

Access to Knowledge program

The Centre for Internet & Society