CIS-A2K/Events/Content generation workshops with Maharashtra Gene Bank project team

The organisations involved in Maharashtra Gene Bank project (MGB) have taken initiative to generate content related to biodiversity under CC-BY-SA in Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia and Wikisource. CIS-A2K is facilitating this process. First online session on 'Introduction to Wikimedia projects' was conducted on 23 October for organisations involved in Maharashtra Gene Bank Project. Total eight members participated in the three hour session. The second session on Wikipedia was conducted on 24 December 2020 for 15 participants. The third session on Wikimedia Commons was organised on 29 December for 15 participants.

Context

The Maharashtra Gene Bank project (MGB) is designed to document the biodiversity and genetic information of various thematic areas like forest, grasslands, marine ecology etc. The expert organisations are working on this for the last 10 years across Maharashtra State. As there is lot of knowledge is created, they have expressed interest in uploading the content in Wikimedia projects for the society at large. There have been few efforts in the past to initiate this process by few organisations. The project page is created in Marathi Wikipedia and a category created in Wikimedia Commons. We are supporting the team of organisations in the design of comprehensive plan of content generation.

Report

IISER, Pune is coordinating MGB project. The preparatory conference calls were done to discuss the agenda for the online session on Zoom. Total eight members from various organisations attended the session. Every member explained the nature of content created under the project. According to this, relevant Wikimedia projects were explained in detail. It was decided to prepare the text in Google doc initially and then transferring the same in sandboxes. The formatting and other Wiki aspects will be reviewed before loading the articles in main namespace. The copyright related issues will be discussed regarding image and audio-visual content. The series of skill building sessions are planned in future.

In the second session held on 24 December, the basics of Wikipedia pillars and editing process were explained. The participants discussed manual of style, the nature of articles to be created and categorisation. The articles prepared in Google doc were presented by few participants. These articles will be moved to sandboxes after curation.

In the third session held on 29 December, basic rules of Wikimedia Commons and uploading process was explained. The participants uploaded images in various newly created categories. The common mistakes in file naming, description and licensing were discussed. Extensive discussion on copyright issues and licensing was done to avoid mistakes during future uploads. The development of category tree was also started considering the requirements of the project.

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  Magur, an endangered fish specie in Gondia, Maharashtra, Central India
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  Short life span species on Konkan plateaus in Maharashtra
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  Medicinal shrub found in dry regions
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  Endangered species on hills of Western ghats
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  Indigenous variety of sheep in Marathwada region of Maharashtra
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