Dear all,
Wikimedia Foundation, beginning from September 1, 2012,
awarded the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) a two-year grant of INR
26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. Consequently,
Wikimedia Foundation's India Program became the Access to Knowledge
(A2K) program [1] of CIS. In the first issue of our newsletter for 2013,
we are glad to introduce you to our new programme director, Vishnu
Vardhan, provide you an update of the Access to Knowledge (September to
December 2012) Report, the Indic Languages Wikipedia Statistical Report
2012 and reports of the events organised in Goa in the month of December
2012. Archives of our newsletters are here [2].
Wikipedians from
various communities can reqDeuest for outreach programs, technical bugs,
logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications at
http://bit.ly/TOcXId [3].
# CIS Office in Delhi
* The A2K team [4]
consists of four members: T. Vishnu Vardhan [5], Nitika Tandon [6],
Subhashish Panigrahi [7] and Noopur Raval [8].
# New Project Director
for Wikipedia Project
* T. Vishnu Vardhan [9] is the new Programme
Director-Access to Knowledge at CIS. Vishnu has over the last 11 years
worked in various capacities as researcher, grant manager, teacher,
project consultant, information architect and translator. Vishnu managed
the Art, Crafts and Culture [10] portfolio of Sir Ratan Tata Trust [11]
and also worked as Research Coordinator at the Centre for the Study of
Culture and Society [12] in Bangalore.
# Distinguished Fellow
*
Tejaswini Niranjana [13], a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of
Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore, and Visiting Professor at Tata
Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai is joining our team as an
Adviser to the 'Access to Knowledge' programme. She will guide the A2K
team in expanding the Indian language Wikipedias and in increasing the
number of active editors through strategic partnerships with Higher
Education institutions across India.
# Events Organised by CIS:
Note:
The events in Goa were organized in the month of December 2012. However,
reports were published the following month.
* Two-day Wiki Workshop
in Goa University: An Introduction [14] (by Nitika Tandon, January 15,
2013).
* Wikipedia in St. Xavier's College, Mapusa, Goa [15] (by
Nitika Tandon, January 19, 2013).
* Promoting GLAM in Goa [16] (by
Nitika Tandon, January 24, 2013).
* Konkani in Wikipedia Incubator --
Taking it to the Next Level [17] (by Nitika Tandon, January 25, 2013).
* A Wiki Workshop at Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad
[18] (RKGIT, Ghaziabad, January 17, 2013).
* Odia Education Program
[19] (Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal, Orissa, January
26, 2013).
* Odia Wikipedia 9th Anniversary Celebration [20] (Academy
of Media Learning, Samantha Vihar, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, January 29,
2013).
# Meeting
* Bringing Konkani Encyclopedia in Public Domain
[21] (by Nitika Tandon, January 22, 2013).
# Event Participated
*
Celebrating the success of Wikipedia in Wikipedia Summit Pune 2013 [22]
(organized by Wikipedia Club, Pune, January 12 - 13, 2013).
# Media
Coverage
* First Odia Wikipedia Education Program concludes at IIMC,
Dhenkanal [23] (Odisha Diary Bureau, Dhenkanal, January 27, 2013).
*
Odia Wikipedia's 9th Anniversary and Workshop on Application of Odia in
Media [24] (Sambad, January 30, 2013).
*About CIS [25]*
CIS was
registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent,
non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research
programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness,
Internet Governance, and Telecom. The policy research programmes have
resulted in outputs such as the e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for
Persons with Disabilities [26] with ITU and G3ict, and Digital
Alternatives with a Cause? [27], Thinkathon Position Papers [28] and the
Digital Natives with a Cause? Report [29] with Hivos, etc. We have
conducted policy research for the Ministry of Communications &
Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry
of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice
and Empowerment, etc., on WIPO Treaties [30], Copyright Bill [31], NIA
Bill [32], etc.
CIS is accredited as an observer at WIPO. CIS staff
participates in the Standing Committee for Copyright and Related Rights
(SCCR) meetings regularly held in Geneva, and participate in the
discussions and comments on them from a public interest perspective. Our
Policy Director, Nirmita Narasimhan won the National Award for
Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities [33] from the Government of
India and also received the NIVH Excellence Award [34].
*Follow us
elsewhere*
* Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter [35]
*
Join the CIS group on Facebook [36]
* Visit us at
http://cis-india.org
[37]
*Support Us*
Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on
the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and
Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage,
Bengaluru - 5600 71.
*Request for Collaboration*
We invite
researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and
as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and
improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research
collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at
sunil(a)cis-india.org [38] or Nishant Shah, Director - Research, at
nishant(a)cis-india.org [39]
_CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia
Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation
and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma
Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and
support for most of its projects._
Links:
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[1]
http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan
[2]
http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters
[3]
http://bit.ly/TOcXId
[4]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge/Team
[5]
http://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team
[6]
http://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team
[7]
http://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team
[8]
http://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team
[9]
http://cis-india.org/about/people/our-team
[10]
http://www.srtt.org/institutional_grants/arts_culture/overview.htm
[11]
http://www.srtt.org
[12]
http://www.cscs.res.in
[13]
http://cis-india.org/about/people/distinguished-fellows
[14]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/two-day-wiki-workshop-in-goa-university
[15]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wikipedia-in-st-xaviers-college-goa
[16]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/promoting-glam-in-goa
[17]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/konkani-in-wikipedia-incubator
[18]
http://cis-india.org/openness/wikipedia-workshop-at-rkgit-ghaziabad
[19]
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-education-program-at-iimc-dhenkan…
[20]
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-9th-anniversary-celebra…
[21]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/bringing-konkani-encyclopedia-in-public-…
[22]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/celebrating-the-success-of-wikipedia-in-…
[23]
http://cis-india.org/news/orissa-diary-january-27-2013-first-odia-wikipedia…
[24]
http://cis-india.org/news/sambad-e-paper-january-30-2013-odia-wikipedia-wor…
[25]
http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/
[26]
http://cis-india.org/about/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-hand…
[27]
http://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook
[28]
http://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers
[29]
http://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-…
[30]
http://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disa…
[31]
http://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012
[32]
http://cis-india.org/about/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback…
[33]
http://cis-india.org/about/accessibility/blog/national-award
[34]
http://cis-india.org/about/news/nirmita-nivh-award
[35]
https://twitter.com/cis_india
[36]
http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/
[37]
http://cis-india.org
[38] mailto:sunil@cis-india.org
[39]
mailto:nishant@cis-india.org