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CIS-A2K/Indic Languages

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CIS-A2K

CIS-A2K (Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge) is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape.
If you have a general proposal/suggestion for Access to Knowledge team you can write on the discussion page. If you have appreciations or feedback on our work, please share it on feedback page.

One of the highest priority area for the India Programs is to drive the growth of Indic language projects. This will be measured in both the size and the health of the communities (for example, number of editors, number of active editors, number of newbie editors, number of outreach sessions, and so on) as well as the size and quality of the projects (for example, number of articles, article size, number of edits per article, number of readers, and so on)


Introduction

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With the selection of a dedicated team member for this initiative, [1], it is intended to start the process of developing and executing a comprehensive, structured Indic languages plan. This process includes assessing underlying potential of Indic languages, understanding Indic language projects, identifying determinants of success (through learnings from both positive and non-so-positive experiences), establishing a priority for Indic languages, designing and implementing pilots for Indic language projects and transferring learnings across all Indic language projects is now commencing.

This process is designed to be collaborative and we welcome participation from as large and diverse a group as is possible. It will be run on this meta page. Please feel free to add comments, ideas, etc. to the talk page. Please do participate in the various meetings we will be organizing (both on-the-ground as well as online.)

Guiding principles

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As outlined in the India Programs page, the team in India is intended to be a very lean operation (in terms of human and financial resources.) Its activities must be therefore be carefully determined to deliver maximum impact. In this context, 3 key questions serve as the filter for all direct activities by India Programs, including for Indic Languages.

  • Does the activity have scale? ...not just in future, but indeed, immediately? While medium to long term scale is usually inevitable, it is essential that even in the short term activities (including pilots) are delivered to scale.
  • Does the activity represent capability support to the community, as compared to "capacity support"? This difference is that India Programs could never contribute more than a miniscule share of the volunteer time and effort in, for instance, conducting outreach. However, India Programs can and will provide support in aspects of capability that the community could access. For instance, aspects of outreach design and messaging would be prime candidates for India Programs.
  • Does the activity have sustainability through adoption/adaption by the community? It will be sub-optimal of the initiative ceases after the direct involvement of India Programs. All initiatives of India Programs must therefore be such that have sustainability at the heart. For instance, an education-based program should attempt to create an environment where Wikipedia editing is integrated into the classroom teaching module for years after any pilot is concluded.

Indic Language Wiki Projects

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It is useful to understand the current state of the various projects and communities - and to share this with the community on an ongoing basis to keep track of progress. Regular (monthly) Metrics of the size & health of the communities (e.g., number of editors, number of active editors, number of newbie editors, number of outreach sessions, etc.) as well as the size & quality of the projects (e.g. number of articles, article sizes, number of edits per article, number of readers, etc.)

Following are the Indic Languages which has wikipedias.

Wikipedia Speakers (Crores) Active Editors* First edit date (Birthday) Village pump Mailing list
Hindi 40 77 2003-07-11 (July 11) Village pump Mailing list
Bengali 30 (8.3 Cr in India) 131 2004-01-27 (January 27) Village pump Mailing list
Marathi 9 20 2003-05-01 (May 01) Village pump Mailing list
Telugu 8 44 2004-01-29 (January 29) Village pump Mailing list
Tamil 6.6 138 2003-09-30 (September 30) Village pump Mailing list
Urdu 6 (5.2 Cr in India) 43 2004-01-27 (January 27) Village pump Mailing list
Kannada 4.7 59 2003-06-12 (June 12) Village pump Mailing list
Gujarati 4.6 11 2003-12-09 (December 09) Village pump Mailing list
Sindhi 4.1 8 2003-12-26 (December 26) Village pump No mailing list
Bhojpuri 3.85 2 2003-02-21 (February 21) Village pump No mailing list
Malayalam 3.7 72 2002-12-21 (December 21) Village pump Mailing list
Oriya 3.1 11 2004-01-29 (January 29) Village pump Mailing list
Punjabi 2.9 64 2002-06-03 (June 03) Village pump Mailing list
Assamese 1.3 11 2002-06-02 (June 02) Village pump Mailing list
Nepali 1.3 (29 Lakhs in India) 30 2002-06-03 (June 03) Village pump Mailing list (google group)
Kashmiri 0.5 0 2003-07-26 (July 26) Village pump No Mailing list
Newari 0.08 1 2006-10-01 (October 01) Community portal (couldn't find VP) No mailing list
Bishnupriya Manipuri 0.045 0 2006-10-01 (October 01) Village pump No mailing list
Sanskrit 0.005 13 2003-12-21 (December 21) Village pump Mailing list
Pali - 0 2004-07-29 (July 29) Community portal (couldn't find VP) No mailing list
Maithili - 3 Village Pump Mailing list
Konkani - 2

* Active editors as on November 2015.

New Indic languages in which wikipedias can be started are of two types.

  1. Indic language wikipedias under incubation
  2. New Indic languages in which wikipedia can be started (of course in incubator in the first phase)

Indic language wikipedias under incubation

Angika Awadhi Badaga Bhili Bodo Chhattisgarhi Dogri Kanikkaran Kokborok
Kumaoni Kutchi Manipuri (Meitei) Mizo Rajasthani Santali Saurashtra Tamang Tulu

Current activities

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Way forward

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Notes

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  1. [1] Shiju Alex