Grants:IdeaLab/Add Indian Classical Music to Wikipedia

Idealab

Add Indian Classical Music to Wikipedia

Let's bring Indian classical music to Wikipedia!

contact emailUser:Arunasank

idea creator• Arunasank

project manager• Arunasank

this project needs...

volunteer

created on07:10, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

• Indian classical music is vast and full of intricacies, offering a rich variety of learning possibilities for anyone interested in classical music. Besides that, it is also a treasure chest of information on Indian mythology. While Wikipedia has articles on Indian classical music, it does not have music in the form of recordings nor do the corresponding pages cover the finer aspects of mythology hidden in the lyrics of the song. Documentation is also poor on important songs in certain ragas, and their meaning. This is strange and interesting considering the number of people in India who pursue classical music as a more than a casual hobby. If there were some way to get each of these students/enthusiasts to submit a recording/information of some sort, there would be a lot more classical Indian music on Wikipedia. I want to start planning this effort.
• Some forms of Carnatic music, like the Thiruppugazh are practiced mostly by the older generation, who don't know how to edit Wikipedia and/or upload media to Wikipedia Commons. As someone who has been going to Thiruppugazh concerts from a very young age with her grandmother, I can help these veterans to record/upload Thiruppugazh media and important verses to Wikimedia Commons. I am also interested in translating the lyrics of these Thiruppugazh verses to English, wherever applicable, with the help of the community.

What is your solution?

• As someone who has pursued Indian carnatic music for a significant period of time, I want to invest time and care in not just making recordings of my own, but in coordinating with other learners and classical music enthusiasts who will be interested in submitting recordings to Wikimedia commons, which can then be used in relevant Wikipedia articles. I also want to research and locate recordings that are in the public domain and write to and meet professional artists, SPICMACAY and other organisations and institutions that work at spreading classical music and culture who may be willing to volunteer advice and recordings to Wikipedia.
• I am also closely in touch with the elders who practice Thiruppugazh in my city, and know them well enough to suggest this project. I want to hold a few workshops on contributing to Wikipedia and Wikipedia Commons, so that these beautiful Tamil works are not lost forever.

Project goals

• Encourage experienced students of classical music - both vocal and instrumental to submit recordings to Wikimedia Commons/Wikipedia.
• Write to professional artists to find out if they are willing to submit recordings to Wikipedia, since a lot of their work is already available on websites like Youtube.
• Contact institutions and organisations like SPICMACAY, Archive of Indian Music, users on SoundCloud and other music platforms who may be willing to invest time and care in this project, either in the form of advice or with recordings.

Conduct editathons with the help of the women's committee members of the Free Software Movement, Karnataka - to solve the problems of the lack of articles on Carnatic music, and increase the number of female editors on Wikipedia:

• Pages for artists of Indian classical music who currently do not have pages on Wikipedia. Improve all existing articles with sources from their biography and other books to further the content of the articles, instead of relying solely on content available on the Internet. Biographical information of many artistes are limited on the Internet(Example: [1]. Books need to be sourced for the same, and referenced in articles.
• Pages for as many Ragas as possible along with recordings of Arohanam/Avarohanam(at the very least) for Carnatic music, and the equivalent for Hindustani music.
• Talk to the local Thiruppugazh Anbargal Sangam, and work with certain artistes whom I know personally, and help them to make recordings that can be uploaded to Wikipedia Commons.
• Visit as many concerts of amateur singers as possible and ask for permission to record. Endorse the idea of submissions of Classical Music recordings to Wikipedia. Several of these amateur singers happen to be friends and friends of friends, so I am hoping that this will ease the task.

Budget Breakdown

Total : 7736$

Managing

• Emailing collaborators and organisations/following up, emailing WMF, Documenting the process, making guidelines/documentation, curating media uploaded as part of the project - 120 h * 20$/h + 20% taxes = 2880$(120 hours considered spread out during the 6 months of the project, which comes up to 120h/24weeks = 5h/week)
• Identifying areas where pages can be created/recordings uploaded - missing ragas, missing composers, missing artistes, Thiruppugazh divisions to get an estimate of the number/kind of recordings required and the number of pages that will be created(first week): 56 hours * 20$ + 20% = 1344$

Recorder

This is for recording concerts/meeting artistes - (Will also endorse use of a simple phone recorder/app/research ways to minimise white noise). This can be returned to the Wikimedia Foundation once the scope of the project is over for other projects to use.

• Zoom H2n Handheld Audio Recorder - 1 unit - ₹12915 + shipping, if any(Approximately 216$, including shipping)

Editathons

Organise 8 editathons - Train volunteers to create pages - At least 5-10 pages created in each editathon. Obviously the number of produced pages will increase with each passing editathon because participants are more comfortable with Wiki editing.

• Planning: Selecting books/references/online sources/forming outlines/section/sub-section plans - 8 hours * 8 editathons - 64 * 20$ + 20% = 1536$
• Workshop - 5 hours every week(At the FSMK office/other community spaces/colleges, on Weekends) * 8 editathons = 40h * 20$ + 20% = 960$

Local Travel

• To go to editathons/concerts and or visit artistes/collaborators - Monthly Government Bus Pass at ₹1050 * 6(approx 20$ * 6) = 120$

Commons Workshop

Wikimedia Commons + CC Licensing + Recording media and Uploading to Commons Workshops - 2

• Planning - 5 hours * 2 workshops = 10h * 20$ + 20% = 240$
• Workshops - 5 hours * 2 workshops = 10h * 20$ + 20% = 240$

Swag

• T Shirts/Wikipedia memorabilia for the 5 best Editors/top 5 media uploaders - 20$ * 10 = 200$

Get involved

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Endorsements

• This is something that has a lot of potential, especially in India. While Wikipedia has basic data about most ragas in Hindustani and Carnatic styles, including recordings is an excellent idea. Odissi Music, from my home state Odisha, is a several millenia old(arguably older than Hindustani) stream of music, which has classical features just like the other two but has a distinct method unique to it. Though not that well-known, it is classical as well. I would like to add that to into this project. I'm willing to collect recordings from classical artists. Prateek Pattanaik (talk) 16:44, 7 March 2017 (UTC)