Introduction

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Telugu is one of the five focus language areas of CIS-A2K’s work plan during 2014-15. Since February 2013, CIS-A2K has been working closely with the Telugu Wikipedia community in productively channelizing the efforts to plan and execute collaborative projects on Telugu Wikipedia and Wikisource and in bringing a good ratio of new editors on board. It has been a huge learning experience for the CIS-A2K program to work with the Telugu Wikimedia community. Based on the lessons and challenges in implementing the work plan, it has been decided to further deepen our work in growing the Telugu Wikipedia project and the associated community. The plan starts with a critical overview of the CIS-A2K’s work since March 2013 and presents the plan of activities for the year starting July 2016 to June 2017. In addition to Telugu Wikipedia, efforts will also be put towards further strengthening Telugu Wikisource as part of this plan.

Journey so Far

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New editors coming on board; existing editors contributing with rejuvenated enthusiasm; many collaborative projects were started with sizeable creation of new articles; improvement in the quality of existing articles; regular community meet-ups and community celebrations - all of these led to the steady and holistic growth of Telugu Wikipedia during the last year. CIS-A2K has played a catalytic role in supporting the community through this journey.

The village pump was flooded with unproductive conflicts and by January 2013 there was an undercurrent of burnout in the 20 odd senior but tirelessly committed active editors. CIS-A2K’s support to the Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam organized in consultation with key Telugu Wikipedians Rajasekhar, Rahmanuddin, Malladi Kameswara Rao, Arjunarao C, Sujatha, JVRK Prasad, Bhaskaranaidu, Pranay and Nageshwararao played a key role in resolving many of the unproductive conflicts between members and also brought in a significant improvement in building a collaborative spirit. It also gave an opportunity for the community and CIS-A2K to begin critical introspection on the growth of Telugu Wikipedia and to collaboratively plan and execute projects. This is the biggest factor for the growth of Telugu Wikipedia in the last year.

CIS-A2K played an instrumental role in creating a monthly meeting space for Telugu Wikipedians in Hyderabad and offered its own premises for Bangalore Telugu WP meet-ups. 10 monthly meet-ups were organized since July 2013 which enabled better collaboration among community members and in executing projects.

The table below gives a quick glimpse of the status of each activity that was part of last year’s plan.

Key Activity Sub Activity Status Update
Cultivating New Editors Institutional Partnerships: To partner atleast 2-3 higher education institutions in developing 2 thematic projects Created partnerships with English and Foreign Languages University, University of Hyderabad, National Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management and KBN college. CIS-A2K expects to formalize some of these partnerships in the coming months. Though other partnerships were explored success was limited due to the political uncertainty in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Small City Outreach: Actively spread awareness about Telugu Wikipedia in small cities across AP where internet penetration is high Except for Vijayawada, Guntur and Tiruvur much could not be done due to the uncertain political context.
User Interest Groups: Target and enroll at least 4 existing collectives or groups and motivate them to contribute to Telugu Wikipedia Limited success. Brought on board 10 new editors in the field of theater arts. Around 40 biographical articles, 10 theater related articles were created.
Strengthening Existing Community Capacity Building Meet-ups: To facilitate interactions among community members to create new project ideas, mitigate issues and review periodic growth of Telugu Wikipedia Highly successful. In addition to the monthly meet-ups, three large community meet-ups were organised.
Advanced User Training: 2-3 advanced training programs Successfully organized 2 advanced user trainings. Also CIS-A2K's Train the Trainer program helped three Wikipedians from Telugu Wikipedia Community to enhance their skills who in turn played a key role in organising Tewiki10
Content Generation Telugu Wikipedia Village Project: Revive village project and convert 4000 stub articles to start class articles Successfully revived Andhra Pradesh villages project. Three wikipedians and one Bot account were used to turn around 5000 stub class single lined articles into start class articles.
Making Telugu Content in Public Domain Accessible Survey of books has been done against the plan. Some more work to be done in the coming months.
Content Donation One original research was released under CC license. One renowned author donated a book under CC license. Efforts are on to get more content re-released under CC license.

In addition to this, CIS-A2K has also undertaken the following activities that helped in the growth of Telugu Wikipedia and the associated community.

  • Organized 15 Telugu Wikipedia Training Workshops
  • Telugu Pramukhulu Project (about 1000 articles were created and quality improved)
  • Lilavati Koothullu project (Project on Indian Women Scientists completed resulting in about 100 articles)
  • Monthly tracking of stub article creation and improvement
  • Pothana Telugu Bhagavatam project on Telugu Wiki Source
  • As part of Tewiki10 Target 55555 was started, that aimed at making the total count of articles in Telugu Wikipedia to 55,555 without compromising on quality of articles.
  • Significant media publicity in electronic and print media.
  • Social media campaign for Telugu Wikipedia
  • Supported the planning and execution of Tewiki10 in consultation with Telugu Wikipedia Community.
  • Brought Telugu Wikipedians actively in touch using social media.
  • Created a page with freely available digital resources, which could be used by Telugu Wikipedians.
  • Created Telugu typing tutor.
  • Periodic one-on-one interactions with active Telugu Wikipedians.

There are two significant challenges we faced and therefore two lessons we learned from the 2013-14 work plan. First, is that institutional partnerships could be used for diverse purposes and not just for growing new editors. When CIS-A2K began implementation of its plan, it was mostly looking to partner with educational institutions to bring on board new editors and to harness the student time in producing knowledge in Telugu under the guidance of the faculty. If we strictly assess the results on this parameter, the proposed institutional partnerships were not successful in building new editors and content. After concerted efforts and some failed attempts we realized that not all the institutional partners that we approached were keen to take the Telugu Wikipedia into the classroom. However, they were open to support the open knowledge movement and CIS-A2K’s efforts. For instance, CIS-A2K initially approached the University of Hyderabad (UoH) to introduce a Telugu WEP, which did not materialize. But UoH was glad to offer a central space in the Hyderabad city, at the request of CIS-A2K, to organize various Telugu Wikipedia community events and meet-ups, which in retrospect was a significant contribution. This learning will inform our work across other languages too.

The other key activity that did not go as per plan is the small city outreach program. A key reason for this is the political uncertainty in Andhra Pradesh state for which a resolution is in the offing during the next few months. Another significant challenge is the lack of suitable number of Telugu Wikipedians that could do effective outreach. This prompted CIS-A2K to realize the importance of investing in training a set of enthusiastic Telugu Wikipedians to do successful outreach programs. Towards this CIS-A2K has already executed the Wikipedia Train the Trainer program as part of which three Telugu Wikipedians got trained and are already actively scouting for opportunities to conduct Telugu Wikipedia training programs. CIS-A2K will continue to invest in building a cadre of community leadership that will have a longer term and sustained impact in growing the Telugu Wikipedia. We hope to successfully implement the Small city outreach program during the coming year.

Impact

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In discussing the CIS-A2K program’s impact we have presented below both the tangible and intangible aspects of our efforts in growing Telugu Wikipedia. It is important to note that in showing this impact, CIS-A2K is not trying to take direct credit for the growth of Telugu Wikipedia. The major credit goes to the Telugu Wikipedia community that has welcomed CIS-A2K, engaged with the plans, understood the program’s limitations and optimally utilized the movement resources. However, we believe that we have been a significant catalyst in impacting the growth of the Telugu Wikipedia and to an extent Telugu Wikisource.

Tangible Impact

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There are two ways CIS-A2K is looking at the tangible growth. First, is to compare the growth against planned targets that we had set out last year. The other is to do a year-on-year comparison of the growth against some key metrics.

Growth across Telugu Wikimedia projects
Wikimedia Project No. of Editors No. of Active Editors No. of Articles/entries
Jan 2013 June 2014 Jan 2013 June 2014 Jan 2013 June 2014
Te Wikipedia 555 730 31 59 50,970 58,369
Te Wiktionary 47 61 5 4 73,000 90,274
Te Wiki Source 39 57 2 9 6,425 9,079
Te Wiki Quote 9 14 1 1 283 348
Te Wiki Books 7 9 1 3 54 54
Update against the Goals set last year
Parameters Expected Target
(by June 30, 2014)
Dream Target
(by June 30, 2014)
Actual figure
(As of June 2014)
No. of Editors 755 905 730
No. of New editors 200 350 175
No. of New Active editors 25 40 22
No. of Articles 54,000 55,000 58,369
% age of Articles
above 2KB size
33%
(i.e. about 17,800 articles)
34%
(i.e. about 18,700 articles)
40%
(i.e. about 23,000 articles)
No. of Outreach Events 29 34 15


The growth against most of the parameters is almost as per plan and in some of the targets it has exceeded the dream target. It is important to note that the conversion ratio of new editors in to active editors has significantly improved. However, one could not be more certain of these editors continue to contribute over a long term.

Charts
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Total No. of Articles on Telugu Wikipedia comparing progress across 2012-13 and 2013-14
 
Total Users on Telugu Wikipedia comparing progress across 2012-13 and 2013-14
 
New Articles created per day on Telugu Wikipedia comparing progress across 2012-13 and 2013-14. There is a sharp visible rise in March 2013 accounting to Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam. A similar spike can be seen between August and September when multiple projects like Telugu pramukhulu and Lilavathi kuthullu took off. The rapid growth of articles in November and December is due to the Target 55555 initiative, which was enthusiastically participated by many Telugu Wikipedians to reach a magic article number of 55555 by the time the community celebrated the Tewiki10 in February, 2014.
 
Editors Per Month on Telugu WP. Its very important to sustain this growth.
 
Active Editors Per Month on Telugu WP. Efforts to increase and sustain the growth would be taken up.
 
Very Active Editors Per Month on Telugu WP

Intangible Impact

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The various publicity efforts in print (more than 20 news items) and electronic media (6 television and 1 radio programs) during this year had helped to increase the awareness about Telugu Wikipedia. Some of the active Telugu Wikipedians also got showcased, which gave rejuvenated enthusiasm. Further, efforts put in to utilizing social media (especially Facebook) did have a positive impact in bringing some new editors on board of which one has become an active Telugu Wikipedian. Social media is also acting as an interactive medium and in building community spirit among the Telugu Wikimedians, which was not present before. There is considerable increase in interactions among Telugu Wikimedians due to various subtle efforts put in by CIS-A2K

One notable impact is the newly generated community spirit on Telugu Wikipedia. Although this spirit existed a few years ago, it had gone down recently. The efforts of CIS-A2K have resulted in rejuvenating the community spirit, mostly among the new editors. Some old editors have also become active again.

The diversity of the editors on Telugu Wikipedia has improved considerably during the last year. There is a good mix of active editors across all ages. The gender diversity has also improved. From one woman editor, we now have 5 women editors on Telugu Wikipedia.

There is an increased awareness among authors and writers to publish their works under CC-BY-SA licenses.

Revisiting the Needs Assessment

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In last year’s plan, a detailed analysis of Telugu Wikipedia, Telugu Wikipedia Community and their needs and requirements were analysed and a section on needs assessment was part of the plan. Looking back after one year we can say that many of the needs have been met and some are met partially. Some needs are permanent in nature. Based on the experience and interactions with the community (especially during the Telugu Wikipedia 10th anniversary celebrations), CIS-A2K has revisited the needs of Telugu Wikipedia and the community.

Need Identified (as on March 2013) Status as on June 2014 Further course of action for (July 2014-June 2015)
To diversify the community through sustained Outreach programs and double the number of active editors Successfully met Will be a work-in-progress. More efforts will be required in the coming year.
Catalyze a better conversion rate of new editors to active editors. Successfully met. Should be sustained through this year.
Help the community evolve a cohesive policy in effectively discouraging creation of stub articles Partly met through practice than at a policy level. Should be a focus for this year.
Recognition of the efforts put in by committed and veteran Telugu Wikipedians Successfully met. Newer models to be explored during this year
Lack of Open-Source culture Not met To be taken up during this year.
Technical Support All requests were met. Ongoing

In addition to the above the following emerge as new needs

  • Sustaining the growth achieved so far.
  • Building content, outreach and technological leadership within the community such that the growth will be long term without building dependency on a catalyst program like CIS-A2K.
  • Improve Telugu Wikisource as a content repository for the growth of Telugu Wikipedia
  • Creating resources that could be used by Telugu Wikimedians in growing the community. Ex : Video tutorials for editing Telugu wikipedia, etc.

Implementation Plan

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Cultivating New Editors

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Outreach sessions have shown a fairly good number of new editors. The following activities have been planned for the period July 2014-June 2015

Institutional Partnerships (Higher Education)

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Based on the previous year’s experience of approaching the various higher education institutions the following list is put together. CIS-A2K will focus its energies in building institutional partnerships with the following institutions in developing thematic projects.

Name of the Institution Status
Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada MoU signed
Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad Ongoing discussions with faculty
KBN College, Vijayawada Ongoing discussions with faculty
RGUKT (Idupulapaya, Basara, Nuzvid) Ongoing discussions with faculty
JNTU, Anantapuram Ongoing discussion with faculty
English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad (Formally CIEFL) Discussions through. Formal Agreement to be signed
Hyderabad Central University (HCU), Hyderabad Informal agreement and support continues. To approach Department of Telugu.
TISS, Hyderabad MoU signed
Dravidian University, Kuppam To be explored
Plan

To partner with at least 2-3 of the above institutions in developing thematic projects and create a network of academicians that will actively use Telugu Wikipedia as part of their pedagogy. To reach out to 5 other higher education institutions to conduct Telugu Wikipedia Workshops mainly with an intention to spread awareness and to arrive at possibilities for long-term partnerships.

Execution
  1. Come up with a calendar of events/schedule for each of the institution in consultation with the anchor faculty/s.
  2. Enter into formal agreements with institutions wherever possible.
  3. Introduce and involve key Telugu Wikipedians in advanced conversations.
  4. In collaboration with key Telugu Wikipedians, design and roll-out Workshops and Training programs.
  5. Continuous mentoring, monitoring and evaluation of the new users created under the project with the help of Telugu Wikipedians (i.e. Editor Engagement)
  6. Create social media platforms for visibility of these projects and facilitate need-based technical and online support. For instance, motivate the faculty or student to maintain a blog on the project.
  7. Constant liaison with the anchor faculty/department.
  8. Quarterly review of the project progress with the Telugu Wikipedians mentoring the project.
Projection
  1. Expected to enlist about 150 - 250 new editors on Telugu Wikipedia. Of this, an attempt will be made to convert 15-25 people into active editors.
  2. Will result in creation of new 200 quality thematic articles.
  3. Will result in the expansion and quality improvement of 400 existing stub class articles.
  4. Could become a model to attract the attention of bodies like UGC/Universities/NAAC in actively considering the use of Wikipedia as a pedagogic tool in quality higher education in Indian languages.

Small City Outreach (with Community Collaboration)

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Plan

Actively spread awareness about Telugu Wikipedia in small cities across Andhra Pradesh, where internet penetration is high.

Execution
  1. Do preliminary research on all the small cities in Andhra Pradesh and collect data on the various metrics including: a) No. of Local Cultural Organizations or groups with Knowledge in Niche Subjects, Hobbies and Independent Projects(KINSHIP Groups); b) Educational Institutions and libraries; c) Data on internet penetration, internet cafes (outlets), broadband connections, etc; d) Virtual communities (like FaceBook communities, bloggers, websites); e) Journalists, College teachers, Writers and other members of the local intelligentsia.
  2. Shortlist six potential cities for focussed outreach in consultation with the Community.
  3. Liaison and build linkages with local hosting institutions.
  4. Train a set of enthusiastic Telugu Wikipedians in executing successful Outreach programs.
  5. Design and Roll-out of Wikipedia Training or Orientation programs in these cities.
  6. Focus on involving the new editors in quality improvement of articles on Telugu with small projects like Village Project.
  7. Nurture local contact institution and community to plan and execute future programs, say after 3-4 programs with A2K assistance.
Projection
  1. Expected to enlist about 80-120 new editors on Telugu Wikipedia. Of this an attempt will be made to convert 8-12 people into active editors.
  2. Will spread more awareness about Telugu Wikipedia beyond the metropolitan context.
  3. Will result in 3 local anchor institutions around which the local Telugu Wikipedia Community could organically grow.
  4. Will result in the creation of 100 new articles.
  5. Will result in improving the quality of existing 200 village/block stub class articles on Telugu Wikipedia in a sustained manner.

User Interest Groups (UIG)

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Plan

Target and enrol existing collectives/groups (both physical and virtual) and motivate them to utilize Telugu Wikipedia as a platform. During this year A2K will aim to nurture at least 4 smaller interest groups.

Execution
  1. Identify potential User Interest Groups. A2K team is in conversation with a Women’s writers group in Hyderabad, Bangalore Telugu Literary circle, Kavi Sangamam in Hyderabad, Krishna Jilla Rachayithala Sangham in Vijayawada, Young India Volunteer Organization at Vijayawada, Open Minds at Hyderabad, etc.
  2. Establish linkages between these groups and the enthusiastic members from the Telugu Wiki Community.
  3. Design and roll-out of Wikipedia Training programs in collaboration with Telugu Wiki Community.
  4. Post training program follow-up.
  5. Incubation of smaller thematic projects around specific themes like theatre, literature, politics and current affairs.
  6. Facilitate support and mentoring of the new editors, by the Telugu Wiki Community, to cultivate into active editors.
Projection
  1. Expected to enlist about 80-100 new editors on Telugu Wikipedia. Of this an attempt will be made to convert 8-10 people into active editors.
  2. Will result in the creation of 50 new articles and improvement of 100 articles.
  3. Will result in improving the quality of specific thematic articles on Telugu Wikipedia in a sustained manner and in improving the diversification of content.

Telugu Wiki Bus

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The idea was suggested by Arjuna Rao C, Telugu Wikipedia bureaucrat and was discussed during a Telugu bloggers meet in Bangalore. This is modelled on google bus program in India.

Plan
Main article: CIS-A2K/Draft Work plan July 2014 - June 2015/Telugu Wiki Bus

To undertake a massive travelling outreach program about Telugu Wikipedia to ensure that at least all the cities and about 100 major towns are covered. The bus will have 6 systems/laptops/tablets with internet connection and power back for on the spot training. There will also be a projector to do on site demonstrations of Wikipedia. A Telugu Wikipedia demonstrator/trainer will be travelling on the bus. This is a cross-cutting program and will be taken up by CIS-A2K as a stand-alone project. More details about this project can be seen here.
This project has been put under suspension due to reduced Grant approval from FDC. CIS-A2K will explore funding support to implement this plan within current work plan.

Strengthening Existing Community

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Advanced User Training

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Plan

To train existing wikipedians on advanced editing options on Telugu Wikipedia.

Execution
  1. Community members have approached CIS-A2K asking it to train them in certain areas of advanced editing in wikipedia such as Template creation and usage, use of mediawiki tools, etc.
  2. CIS-A2K would release a documentation on creating and using templates, infoboxes, references and citations.
  3. Design a training plan that could be implemented in a session of couple of hours.
  4. Try to implement the designed training as and where possible.
Projection
  1. This advanced workshop is aimed at strengthening about 20 existing wikipedians.
  2. Help improve wikipedia articles and at the same time.

Training on Copyrights and CC Licenses

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Plan

The need to have a comprehensive understanding of how copyright and Creative Commons licenses work was expressed by many Telugu Wikipedians . CIS-A2K will put in the effort to create useful material in Telugu about Indian copyright and Creative Commons. This is a cross cutting activity that will be taken up by CIS-A2K across 7 Indic languages. For more details see this.

Capacity Building Meet-ups

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Plan

To facilitate more qualitative interactions amongst Community Members, with an aim to a) foster creation of new project ideas; b) periodic review and mitigation of troublesome issues; c) foster a culture of collective review of the expansion of Telugu Wikipedia.

Execution

Facilitate 12 offline meetings/events over the next one year and club these with a particular project or theme based edit-a-thon events. Organise/facilitate Google hangouts/Skype calls and IRCs. We'll aim to organise/facilitate minimum of three meetings in the next one year in addition to the above.

Projection

These Community Building efforts will further strengthen the community spirit among the Telugu Wikipedians.

Thewiki Pushkarotsavam (TeWiki 11)

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Plan

To celebrate 11 years of Telugu wikipedia at Hyderabad/Tirupati/Vizag. Bring in all active Telugu Wikipedians across globe.

Execution
  1. Create a platform for celebrating a congregation of wikipedians. Plan a 2-3 day event that would also benefit the venue city.
  2. Use this as an opportunity to train some of the new active Telugu Wikipedians.
  3. Use this as a platform to link the new and old Telugu Wikimedians.
  4. Organize introspection sessions with the community on the growth and development of Telugu Wikipedia.
  5. Chart out plans for the year 2015
  6. Bring other Indic Wikimedians to create strong inter-language networks and projects.
Projection
  1. Biggest congregation of Telugu Wikipedians.
  2. About 70 existing Telugu Wikipeidans to be trained on 3 new concepts/tools that has come into vogue recently.
  3. Almost all active wikipedians would be asked for feedback on plans implemented so far and take inputs from them for forthcoming plans.
  4. An overall discussion on Telugu wikipedia’s growth by Telugu wikipedia community members.

Content Generation and Quality Improvement

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Most of these projects were discussed at the community level and have been agreed upon. Groups of Telugu Wikipedians will be taking lead in executing these projects. CIS-A2K will offer need based support and resources

Sahityam Vedika (Literature Portal)

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Plan

To help bring out major Telugu literary works and their details onto Telugu wikipedia.

Execution
  1. Telugu literature is very rich, and there are notable writers and their works which have significant encyclopedic value, yet not written anywhere. A complete portal of Telugu Literature could be a lifetime task. But this portal tries to bring in at least 500 articles on authors and their works.
  2. CIS-A2K will provide necessary resources for the successful completion of this project.
  3. Publicize this project nationally and globally through blogs, social media, etc.
  4. Provide analytical and technical support for the project.
Projection
  1. At least 500 above start class articles on Telugu wikipedia.
  2. Improvement of 200 existing articles
Plan

To have articles on all Indian districts with an aim to bring in at least start class articles.

Execution

These are the geographical articles that would be significant in terms of tourism and information. During a community level discussion at Tewiki10, Telugu wikipedians agreed to take the lead to create articles on all districts in India.

  1. CIS-A2K will get useful information and resources that could enrich these articles.
  2. Provide an evaluation framework for assessing the quality of the articles.
Projection

About 500 start class articles will be created.

Plan

Support the Telugu Wikipedia community in converting thousands of stub articles into start class articles.

Execution
  1. There are many village articles that were generated by bots on Telugu Wikipedia. Some of the Community members have actively proposed to expand these articles by including publicly available data about the villages (like census, geo-location, etc).
  2. The A2K team will work towards procuring and collating relevant data on these villages through RTIs and other means and facilitate the quality improvement of articles.
  3. Facilitate at least 3 edit-a-thons on this particular theme towards improving quality of articles.
Projection

To potentially improve the quality of about 4000 stub class village articles.

Telugu Writers Project

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Plan

To create quality articles on notable Telugu writers.

Execution

This project is linked to the content donation by Katha Nilayam, an entity that has been working for more than 3 decades to systematically keep record of all the Telugu story writers and stories. Using their database CIS-A2K will design and develop a project to create quality articles on notable Telugu writers.

  1. Collect, collate data on at least 1000 notable Telugu story writers.
  2. Develop a basic article structure/template.
  3. Make the articles available to Telugu Wikipedians who can further develop these and create articles on Telugu Wikipedia.
  4. Provide an evaluation framework for assessing the quality of the articles created.
Projection
  1. This would bring in at least 900 above start class quality articles on notable Telugu story writers on Telugu Wikipedia.
  2. Improve 100 existing articles.

Monthly Stub Article Tracking

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Plan

To track and improve stub articles on a monthly basis

Execution
  1. Track the stub articles and the editors who created them using a bot and generate list.
  2. Reach out to stub creators and encourage them to improve the articles.
  3. Create a week long edit-a-thon to improve these stubs.
  4. Design and run a competition to recognize those who improve the maximum number of stubs.
  5. CIS-A2K will assess the impact of this project with periodic analysis.
Projection

To potentially improve the quality of about 400 articles.

Content Donation/Release under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License

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Institutional Partnerships

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CIS-A2K will also focus its energies in building institutional partnerships with the following institutions towards getting large Telugu Content Donation/release under creative commons license.

Name of the Institution Status
Manasu Foundation Ongoing discussions
Katha Nilayam Discussions successful. Plan to be charted.
Telugu Akademy To be explored
Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University Ongoing discussions.
Andhra Bharati To be explored
Andhra Saraswata Parishat To be explored
Andhra Pradesh Grandhalaya Parishad Ongoing discussions
Yuva Bharathi To be explored
Plan
To partner with at least 3-4 of the above institutions in getting large Telugu content donation/re-release under Creative Commons license. This will enrich the Telugu Wikisource project and will also help in creating quality articles on Telugu Wikipedia.
Execution
  1. CIS-A2K will put in efforts towards formalizing the content donation or releasing them under CC license agreements with the institution.
  2. Organize public events or functions which would encourage other institutions to follow suit.
  3. Digitization of collections if required
  4. Conversion into unicode wherever possible.
  5. Make available all the donated content on Telugu Wikisource
Projection
  1. To release at least one major Telugu database under CC license.
  2. To make available 50,000 digitized folios for Telugu Wikisource

Typing Sprint on Telugu Wikisource

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Plan: To organise typing and proofreading sprint to enrich Telugu Wikisource. Execution : Identify encyclopedic books that are available in the public domain or under a free license Creating typing sprints and proof-reading competitions on Telugu Wikisource Track the progress and trends Projection :

  1. About 20 books to be made searchable on Telugu Wikisource.
  2. Could help in improving quality of about 100 articles.

Dictionary Donation

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Plan: CIS-A2K is in conversation with a Lexicographer, who has worked on various dictionaries, to re-release them under an appropriate Creative Commons license. Execution : 1. Signing of the CC re-release agreement with the lexicographer in a public event 2. Upload these books on commons and Wikisource 3. CIS-A2K will work towards making these books available in Unicode Telugu 4. In collaboration with the Telugu Wikimedians these will be used to populate thousands of entries on Telugu Wiktionary. Projection :

  1. As some of the dictionaries are of specialized thematic nature like scientific terms, engineering terms, these would be a huge value addition to the growth of the Telegu wiktionary project.
  2. Also these could benefit numerous students in the higher education sector who are facing challenges understanding technical and scientific terms and increase the popularity of Wikimedia projects.
  3. This donation could also trigger other authors and publishers to consider re-releasing more Telugu content under Creative Commons license.
  4. Increased public and media visibility will draw attention to the importance of Creative Commons in the Telugu speaking regions.

Telugu Quran Donation

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Plan

CIS-A2K is in conversation with the translators of Quran to re-release the translation texts under CC-by-Zero license.

Execution

1. Signing of the CC re-release agreement with the translators in a public event 2. Upload these texts on Commons and Wikisource 3. CIS-A2K will work towards making these books available in Unicode Telugu

Projection

This would enrich Telugu wikisource and help in growing the community around it.

Individual Donations from Telugu Writers

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Plan

CIS-A2K is in conversation with various noted Telugu writers from all fields to re-release the translation texts under CC-BY-SA 4.0 license.

Execution

1. Signing of the CC re-release agreement with the writers in a public event 2. Upload these texts on Commons and Wikisource 3. CIS-A2K will work towards making these books available in Unicode Telugu through typing sprints and code conversion

Projection

This would enrich Telugu wikisource and help in growing the community around it.

Policy Efforts

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CIS-A2K will put some policy efforts in the two Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The following efforts are planned.

  1. As part of this we will collaborate with the Telugu Wikimedia community and other like-minded organizations (like FSMI, FSF, etc) in creating draft submission for the govt. of AP and Telangana towards the growth and improvement of open knowledge in Telugu.
  2. Submissions will be made before to some Ministries to consider publishing publicly funded content under CC0.
  3. Submissions will be made requesting the government to license all text books under CC0.
  4. Submissions will be made for the Department of Education to bring curriculum changes to include Telugu Wikipedia and sister projects.
  5. CIS-A2K will also try to hold various orientation sessions for bureaucrats and senior government officials on the importance of Free and Open Knowledge and FOSS.

Goals

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Goals for July 2014 - June 2015

Parameters As on June 30, 2014 Expected Target by June 30, 2015 Dream Target by June 30, 2015
No. of Editors 730 950 1100
No. of New editors 175 (during last year) 220 370
No. of Active editors 59 90 120
No. of Articles 58,369 65,000 68,000
% age of Articles above 2KB size 40% 50% 55%
No. of Outreach Events 15 15 20
No. of Books Donated NA 100 500
No. of Folios Digitized NA 80,000
No. of Institutional Partnerships NA 3 7

Activity-wise Break-up of Targets

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Telugu Wikipedia
Activity No. of New Articles No. of Existing Articles Quality Improved No. of New Editors No. of New Active Editors No. of Events No. of Partnerships built (Institutions/Groups)
Institutional Partnerships (Higher Education) 200 400 150-250 15-25 8 3
Small City Outreach 100 200 80-120 8-12 6
User Interest Groups 50 100 80-100 8-10 4
Advanced User Training 100 (template namespace) 200 (templates to be improved) 2
Training on Copyright and CC licenses 2
Capacity Building Meet-ups 12
TeWiki 11 1
Sahityam Portal 500 200
India districts project 500
Telugu Wikipedia Village Project 4000
Telugu Writers Project 900 100
Monthly stub article tracking 400
Typing Sprint on Telugu Wikisource 100
Total 2,350 5,700 310-470 31-47 36 3
Telugu Wikisource
Activity No. of Items Donated No. of New Articles No. of Events No. of Institutional Partnerships
Institutional Partnerships (Content) 50 50,000 (folios in TE Wikisource) 2 3
Typing Sprint on Telugu Wikisource 2,000 (folios typed)
Dictionary Donation 15 1
Telugu Quran Donation 6 6,000 (folios to be added to TE Wikisource) 1
Total 71 58,000 3 4

Budget

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Expenditure Item FDC Support (INR) FDC Support (US$) Other Sources and in kind Support (INR) Other Sources and in kind Support (US$)
1 PO x 40% * 282,240/- 4,566.87 - -
1 PD x 10% ** 144,000/- 2330.04 81600 1,320.35
Travel and Stay *** 200,000/- 3,236.16 100,000/- 1,618.08
Volunteer Support 100,000/- 1,618.08 50,000/- 809.04
Events/Meet-ups/Workshops 200,000/- 3,236.16 400,000/- 6,472.32
Consumables/Printing/Stationery/Swag 100,000/- 1,618.08 - -
Miscellaneous 21,600/- 349.51 - -
Total 1,047,840/- 16,954.90 631,600/- 10,219.80

Notes:
* 40% time of S. Rahimanuddin as Program Officer who will anchor this plan at CIS-A2K
** 10% of T. Vishnu Vardhan’s time as Program Director, CIS-A2K
*** Expenses incurred by the CIS-A2K program team towards executing the plan

List of Contributors

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During one of the evenings of the Tewiki 10 event (on February 15, 2014) some of the active Telugu Wikipedians converged to introspect the growth of Telugu Wikipedia in the last year and to discuss the potential projects and activities that could be executed in the coming year. A similar discussion was held on March 8 evening after the Women’s day edit-a-thon in Hyderabad. CIS-A2K is thankful to the below Telugu Wikipedians who actively took part in these discussions. These discussions have significantly informed the above plan.

References

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