User:Jayanta (CIS-A2K)/P2022

Over-all Background edit

  • Why is Wikisource important?

Wikisource is a much larger project than Wikipedia. Consider any public library: The encyclopedia shelf or quick reference section (Wikipedia) is less than one per cent of the whole library (Wikisource). Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. The project holds works that are either in the public domain or freely licensed; professionally published works or historical source documents. There is a very shortage of Indic language content on the online website. But we have enriched literacy content in Indic languages. But the presence of the Indic language is not very good. If Indic Wikisource will create searchable content in Indian languages, it will increase the percentage of internet presence in online content. There are many books, magazines and newspapers in the Indian language in printed form, it is still not available online in a searchable format. This will reduce the knowledge gap among the Indian people.

  • How Indian Wikisource community grew in the last few years?

From 2018, the cis-a2k started an Indic Wikisource Community Consultation program for Indic Wikisource Community. Then we conducted language level Wikisource workshop for different languages like Hindi, Assamese, Tamil, Marathi & Sanskrit. The last workshop was conducted Advance Indic Wikisource training in 2019. The full effect and progress graph below with language basis subdomain.

  • What was the role of A2K?

The role of A2K is to support the community in all respect for increasing Indic language content curation through Wikisource including scanning projects, Conducting workshops, one to one help, Indic Wikisource Helpdesk etc.


  • What was our strategy?

The following strategy we have planned to follow.

Indic Wikisource proofread-a-thon edit

  • The idea and past work done

Last two years CIS-A2K team has been conducting the all India level Indic Wikisource proofread-a-thon and it is the main flagship interaction with the community and content creation of our Indian old literacy heritage. 12 Indic language communities have been engaging in this contest in India. Out of 12 communities, 9 communities are most active except Odia, Malayalam and Kannada.

  • How? When? Iterations?

In each year we will conduct Indic Wikisource proofread-a-thon in the month of March and August as per Requests for comment for Indic Wikisource Proofreadthon. In most of the cases, 9 communities are most active except Odia, Malayalam and Kannada. , have been participating in this major contest. For inactive communities like Odia, Sanskrit, Malayalam and Kannada, we have a different plan to improve and grow the community strength. The plan is to conduct a proofread-a-thon and local advance training via online one to one and offline workshops. challenge and achieve.

During the last 4 Indic Wikisource proofread-a-thon, we have learned a few points face challenges.

  • Sometimes the communities were not prepared for the contest and not participated due to personal issues, and all 12 indic language communities have few active participants. The active participant most of the cases below 5. For the inactive communities like Odia, Sanskrit, Malayalam and Kannada, below 2.
  • There are no major scan PD books available to proofread like Odia, Sanskrit, Malayalam and Kannada. Compare to Wikipedia, the Wikisource project is still now not popular among the Indic Wikimedian.
  • We are trying to figure out the Infrastructural Needs of Indian Language Wikisource Communities, the response is very less from the community. So we can not plan the future program for the communities very well targeted.
  • There are some limitations in workflow in Wikisource.
  • There are no good contest tools in Wikisource, except Indic Wikisource contest tools developed by Indic-TechCom.
  • There are some very active communities like Hindi, Assames Bengali Marathi Tamil Telugu, & Gujarati who participated very last 4 Indic Wikisource proofread-a-thon.
  • Projected metrics.

The project metric for the coming year is targeted.

  • Proofread = 10000
  • Validate = 100
  • Participants =150
  • Books = 200

Scanning Center setup in language cities edit

Last four years the A2K team conducted and established the two scanning centres in Maharastra, one was Lek Ladki Abhiyan volunteers at Vigyan Ashram and another was Lek Ladki Abhiyan, Satara. Then another two scanning partnerships developed at Digitisation Collaboration with Gokhale Institute and Pune Nagar Vachan Mandir.

  • The idea and past work done

After successfully running the four scanning centres in the Maharashtra state of India. We are going to establish a few scanning centres in Major cities like Kolkata, Goa, Guwahati, Bengaluru. This will help for different language communities where they will scan their book easily. A2K is exploring institutional partnerships pan India, including libraries and academic institutions. We will utilise those scanning centers to scan the old Public domain documents. We will consult with 12 Indic language communities to build up with different institutions and libraries and personal book collectors in pan India.

  • How? When? Iterations? Projected metrics.
  • We will find the main book source library for institutional partnerships in different cities.
  • Minimum 4 library or institutional partnerships will be done for this in a different language.
  • Targeted Metric

In the coming year, we will set up the scanning centre in the major 4 cities.

Relicense task force for Indic author edit

After Good initiated project Re-licensing and Digitisation in Maharashtra, India, we have decided to initiate the India relicense task force program to all India levels for all Indic languages with the support of different language communities. We will support the community and find out the way out to contact the author, who is willing to donate the book to Wikisource.

  • Around 29 August 2022: Initial meeting to initiate basic developments of the project.
  • Around 10 September 2022: Online call for Indian Wikimedia community narrating the idea and inviting inputs.
  • Projected metrics.:

In the coming year, we will re-license the 10 books in different languages.

NDLI publication of Wikisource edit

  • The idea and past work done

National Digital Library of India (NDLI) is a central government project under the Ministry of Human Resource Development that aims to collect and collate metadata and provide a full-text index from several national and international digital libraries, as well as other relevant sources. It also functions as a digital repository of textbooks, articles, videos, audiobooks, lectures, simulations, etc. The huge resource, it contains, can be useful to enrich Wikimedia projects in various ways. Also, integrating Wikisource and Wikidata contents into NDLI websites will bring more visibility and attention to the projects.

After the finalization of the MOU, in March 2020,National Digital Library of India (NDLI) published the Wikisource book on their website. They have published about 1160 books on their website, in different languages.

  • challenges/achieve.

National Digital Library of India published 1160 books from Wikisource in different languages as on 31st December 2021

  • How? When? Iterations? Projected metrics.

In the coming year, we will release about 500 books on their platform from Wikisource.

Help to community edit

Indic Wikisource Helpdesk & Intensive Personalized Wiki Training edit

  • The idea and past work done

Indic Wikisource Helpdesk and Intensive Personalized Training were formed to help Indic Wikisource users. We have different helping/discussion channels on different platforms like Facebook, Messenger, Telegram, whats-apps, etc. But we realized that we should have a centralized platform for discussing/helping about Indic Wikisource. That's we have created Indic Wikisource Helpdesk in January 2019.

  • challenges/achive.

CIS-A2K also set up dedicated discussion Indic Wikisource Helpdesk for Indic Wikisource communities for discussing Wikisource-related topics as a place to get quick help. CIS-A2K has resolved/discussed 3 issues in last year from July 2021 to December 2021. Sometimes community members are more comfortable in the social media channels like Telegram etc rather than posting help to the helpdesk.

  • How? When? Iterations?

The same support will continue for the Indic Wikisource community in coming years to notify each two-month direct message to talk page and Indic Wikimedia language mailing list.

  • Projected metrics.

Targeted Help for the community as per demand and Intensive Personalized Training will be done a minimum 4 times in one to one sessions.

Wikisource:Transcription Projects edit

  • The idea and past work done

This project idea is specific for Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam Wikisource language communities. As per Stats in March 2022, the without scan support pages ware found in Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam are 23657, 21153,9288 and 6156 respectively. It is shown as substandard quality control on stats. So we will help the community to find out scan books online or scan the books from Library to support and increase the quality.

  • challenges/achieve.

Some of the books may not available online. we have to find the library to scan the proper books.

  • How? When? Iterations?

We will try to communicate with the community regarding this project. With the community's help, we will find the books. Proofread part will be done by the respective community.

  • Projected metrics.

In the coming year, we will 50 books will be uploaded for community proofreading.

Wikisource apps edit

  • The idea and past work done

We are working along with Tamil Wikimedia to create an application to access Wikisource on smartphones ie Android, iOS. With the advancement of mobile and other pervasive technology, many readers currently access the Wikimedia project including smartphones and similar hands hold devices. Wikisource Apps allow users to interact with Wikisource without using the website.

There are many apps for various platforms (Android, iOS, Windows,) in various Wikimedia projects (Commons, Wikipedia) for reading and editing.But no Apps are available for Wikisource (read, contribute). CIS-A2K has initiated this app in 2021 as a Wikisource focus area. In 2017 Community Wishlist Survey, a wish was for Mobile app for sister projects and got vote 46. CIS-A2K is realised that we should work around these Apps. This might be more or less phab:T165495, but it was fixed and closed without creating one Wikisource Apps.

  • challenges/achieve.

We have already started developing the Wikisource Apps in the last two months.

  • How? When? Iterations?

Likely the Apps will be released in August 2022.

  • Projected metrics.

Apps will be release in August 2022 and iOS app will be developed after August 2022.