Dear all,
Apologies for posting the newsletter in proprietary
format. Reposting the contents of the newsletter as text in the mail.
--The Access to Knowledge Newsletter - Bulletin- March '13--
ACCESS
TO KNOWLEDGE BULLETIN - MARCH 2013
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 of CIS. In the third issue of our
newsletter for 2013, we are pleased to bring you updates from the Indic
Wikipedia Visualisation project, reports of events organised in Goa, and
press coverage of the Kannada Wikipedia Workshop held in Mysore.
The
A2K team consists of four members based in Delhi: T. Vishnu Vardhan,
Nitika Tandon, Subhashish Panigrahi and Noopur Raval, and one member Dr.
U.B. Pavanaja who is working from Bangalore office. Archives of our
newsletters are here.
Wikipedians from various communities can request
for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media,
public relations and communications at
http://bit.ly/TOcXId.
# Indic
Wikipedia Visualisation Project
* Visualising Basic Parameters [1]
(by Sajjad Anwar and Sumandro Chattapadhyay, March 26, 2013): Sajjad and
Sumandro bring you a visualisation of the growth of Indic Wikipedia in
this first post on Indic Wikipedia Visualisation project.
# Events
Organised
* Introductory Wikipedia session at BITS Goa [2]
(organised by CIS, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, Goa,
March 7, 2013). The Access to Knowledge team was invited by Nikhil Dixit
from BITS to organise a Wikipedia editing session. Nitika Tandon led the
editing session.
* Kannada Wikipedia Workshop [3] (organised by CIS,
Institution of Engineers, JLB Road, Mysore, March 24, 2013). Dr. U.B.
Pavanaja led the event.
# Events Co-organised
* Wiki Women's Day in
Goa [4] (organised by the Wikimedia India Chapter and CIS, Nirmala
Institute of Education, Panaji, Goa, March 8, 2013). Nitika Tandon
participated in this workshop held on International Working Women's Day,
and shares the developments in this report.
* Wikipedia Workshop for
Kannada Science Writers [5] (organised by Wikimedia Chapter India,
Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishath and CIS, Karnataka Rajya Vijnana
Parishath Conference Hall, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore, March 17,
2013). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja participated in the event.
# Upcoming Event
(Co-organised)
* Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam 2013 [6] (co-organised with
the Telegu Wikipedia community, Hyderabad, April 9 to 11, 2013). Vishnu
Vardhan is participating in this event as a speaker. A public event will
be held on April 11 from 5.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. at Golden Threshold
(Sarojini Naidu's house) in Hyderabad.
# Events Participated In
*
Wikipedia Women's Workshop Bangalore 2013 [7] (organised by Wikimedia
India, Servelots Infotech, Jayanagar, Bangalore, March 8, 2013). The
event was covered by Kannada Prabha [8] on March 9, 2013. Dr. U.B.
Pavanaja participated in the event.
* Wikipedia at Avenir [9]
(organised by the Wikipedia community, Netaji Subhash Engineering
College, Kolkata, West Bengal, March 11, 2013). Dr. T. Vishnu Vardhan
participated in this event.
# Event Report from Other Organisations
Wikipedia Community members helped the Higher Education Innovation and
Research Applications Programme (HEIRA) of CSCS Bangalore organize a
day-long workshop on 'Digital Literacy' at Ahmednagar College,
Ahmednagar, Maharasthra on January 17, 2013. Tanveer Hasan of HEIRA
shares with us the developments in this report [10].
# Media Coverage
* Kannada Wikipedia Workshop, Mysore [11] (Prajavani, March 25,
2013).
*About CIS [12]*
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 [13] with ITU and G3ict,
and Digital Alternatives with a Cause? [14], Thinkathon Position Papers
[15] and the Digital Natives with a Cause? Report [16] 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 [17], Copyright Bill [18], NIA
Bill [19], 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 [20] from the Government of
India and also received the NIVH Excellence Award [21].
*Follow us
elsewhere*
* Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter [22]
*
Join the CIS group on Facebook [23]
* Visit us at
http://cis-india.org
[24]
*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 [25] or Nishant Shah, Director - Research, at
nishant(a)cis-india.org [26]
_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._
Thank you,
Best,
Noopur
Links:
------
[1]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/indic-wikipedia-visualisation-project-vi…
[2]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wikipedia-session-at-bits-goa
[3]
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/kannada-wikipedia-workshop
[4]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wiki-womens-day-in-goa
[5]
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/wikipedia-workshop-for-kannada-science…
[6]
http://cis-india.org/openness/events/telegu-wiki-mahotsavam-2013
[7]
http://cis-india.org/news/wikipedia-womens-workshop-bangalore-2013
[8]
http://cis-india.org/news/wikipedia-womens-workshop-bangalore-2013
[9]
http://cis-india.org/news/wikipedia-at-avenir
[10]
http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/ahmednagar-marathi-wikipedia-workshop-re…
[11]
http://cis-india.org/news/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-report-in-prajavani
[12]
http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/
[13]
http://cis-india.org/about/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-hand…
[14]
http://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook
[15]
http://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers
[16]
http://cis-india.org/about/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-…
[17]
http://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disa…
[18]
http://cis-india.org/about/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012
[19]
http://cis-india.org/about/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback…
[20]
http://cis-india.org/about/accessibility/blog/national-award
[21]
http://cis-india.org/about/news/nirmita-nivh-award
[22]
https://twitter.com/cis_india
[23]
http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/
[24]
http://cis-india.org
[25] mailto:sunil@cis-india.org
[26]
mailto:nishant@cis-india.org