CIS-A2K/Work plan April 2013 - June 2014/Pilot Project – Performing Arts in India
April 2013 - June 2014
This page is created to share CIS-A2K's Annual Work Plan (2013-2014) for Indian language Wikimedia projects. The main objective of this document is to present a detailed plan with projection of outcomes and expected impact of the A2K programme activities. The document has been made in consultation with various stakeholders and keeping in mind the objectives, opportunities and challenges faced by each of the Indian language Wikimedia projects. Feel free to share any feedback.
Overall Support Across Indian language Communities
Pilot Project – Performing Arts in India
Learning and Evaluation
India has a wide range of performing arts. A lot of work is done on performing arts by various individuals and institutions, which offers rich knowledge about the aesthetics, artists, institutions, performance spaces/infrastructure, policies, and so on across various geographies and languages. This pilot is premised on a theme and seeks to create a multi-lingual repository of knowledge on Indian performing arts that is interdisciplinary, dynamic and ever evolving.
- Objective
To form a network of State cultural institutions, University Departments, NGOs, academics, artists, researchers and Wiki Community members that will work towards creating a repository of knowledge on Indian performing arts by using Wikimedia projects as a platform resulting in the creation of high quality content in a time bound manner. Also as a by-product, which will work as an incentive for the various stakeholders, is the offline publication of Indian Performing Arts Encyclopaedia under Creative Commons in at least five Indian languages and English.
- Rationale
Performing Arts is a cross-cutting theme and there is already a lot of ready-made information available along with research and academic writing. It is a cross-cutting theme across languages, institutions and contributors (i.e. one could involve a researcher and a lay person who is an avid spectator). The offline Encyclopaedia is a great motivator for State cultural institutions, University Departments and others alike and would be a win-win scenario for all the stakeholders involved including the Wikipedias (i.e. the Indian language Wikipedias and English Wikipedia).
Implementation Plan
[edit]This project will be executed in two phases. The first would be the Preparatory/Pilot Phase and the second will be the Implementation Phase.
Preparatory Phase (Duration 10-12 months)
[edit]During this phase efforts will be put towards forming a core network of institutions and people that will anchor aggregation, creation and curation of content on Indian performing arts. Once this network is formed the project design will be finalized which will result in a greater role clarity among the various stakeholders. Further, to this an estimate of resources will be arrived at and some test-bed projects will be taken up during this phase.
Based on a preliminary research the A2K team has identified the following key institutions or groups across India that could be part of this network. These are mostly put together based on the contacts and earlier working relations the A2K Team and its Advisor has, and could be revisited and expanded in collaboration with the Indian Wikimedia Community.
| Sl. No. | Name of the Institution | Key point of contact/Principal Investigator(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Department of Theatre Arts, University of Hyderabad | Prof. B. Ananthakrishnan;
Mr. Rajiv Velicheti |
| 2 | Department of Theatre Arts, Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad | Dr. Peddi Ramarao |
| 3 | Association for the Promotion of Puppetry in Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad | Dr. Madhavi |
| 4 | Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore | Mr. Ashish Rajadhyaksha |
| 5 | Ninasam, Heggodu | Mr. Akshara |
| 6 | India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore | Mr. Anmol Vellani & Ms. Arundhathi Ghosh |
| 7 | Puppet House, Dharwad | Dr. Prakash Garud |
| 8 | Centre for Performing Arts, University of Pune | Dr. Shubhangi Bahulikar; and Padmashri Prof. Satish Alekar (Retd) |
| 9 | School of Performing Arts, Foundation for Liberal and Management Education, Pune. | Dr. Ashutosh Potdar |
| 10 | India Theatre Forum, Mumbai | Ms. Sanjana Kapoor; and Dr. Sameera Iyengar |
| 11 | Marg Publications, Mumbai | Ms. Shernaz Vasunia |
| 12 | Sahapedia, New Delhi | Dr. Sudha Gopalakrishnan |
| 13 | Khoj, New Delhi | Ms. Pooja Sood |
| 14 | National School of Drama, New Delhi | Dr. Rustom Bharucha |
| 15 | IGNCA, New Delhi | TBA |
| 16 | Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi | TBA |
| 17 | National Library of India, Kolkata | Prof. Swapan Kumar Chakravorty |
| 18 | School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, Kolkata | Prof. Amlan Dasgupta |
| 19 | Srujanika, Bhubaneswar | Dr. Nikhil Mohan Patnaik, Dr. Pushpashree Patnaik |
| 20 | School of Social Sciences, Goa University | Prof. Alito Siqueira |
- Execution
- Conduct initial meetings with the principal investigators from each of these institutions and share project idea. From the above list, A2K team has over the last couple of months initiated discussions with
- Department of Theatre Arts, University of Hyderabad
- Department of Theatre Arts, Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University
- School of Performing Arts, FLAME
- Sahapedia
- Arrive at a shortlist of core anchor institutions and collaboratively develop a detailed design of the project.
- Conduct a baseline survey through the anchor institutions on the existing material available on performing arts in their respective languages.
- Identify a set of institutions/groups that have ready-made content/archival material pertaining to performing arts and Aggregate available material in respective languages.
- Facilitate Wikimedia community involvement with the core network of institutions and principal investigators to collaboratively participate on specific content/area modules.
- Conduct an analysis of existing performing arts-related articles on English and other Indian language Wikipedias.
- Arrive at an estimate of the resource requirement for Implementation phase roll-out and mobilize funding.
- Create social media platforms for visibility of these projects and facilitate need-based technical and online support. For instance, motivate teachers and student to maintain a blog on the project.
- Projection
- Expected to enlist about 100 - 150 new editors across various Indian language Wikipedias including English. Of this an attempt will be made to convert 30 - 40 people into active editors.
- Assessment of the quality of performing arts-related articles on Wikipedia to be done.
- Will result in significant creation of quality thematic articles that could become base for future roll-out.
- Could become a model to attract the attention of bodies like UGC and foundations to actively consider funding the Implementation phase components of the project.
Implementation Phase (Duration 18 – 24 months)
[edit]During this phase efforts will be directed towards active compilation of articles on various aspects of Indian performing arts. There will be regular meetings, interactions amongst the core institutional partners.
- Execution
- Form and strengthen micro-networks of researchers/groups that would do bulk article generation.
- Conduct a series of Wiki-training workshops for various nodes within the network.
- Conduct Creative Commons license orientation to select groups/institutions that have material on Indian performing arts (e.g. Zonal Cultural Centres; Navakranataka publications; Yavanika; etc.)
- Facilitate Wiki-community involvement with the core network of institutions and principal investigators.
- Continuous mentoring, monitoring and evaluation of the new users created under the project with the help of Key Wikipedians.
- 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.
- Constant liaison with the anchor faculty/department.
- Periodic review of the project progress with the Principal Investigators mentoring the project.
- Projection
- Expected to enlist about 300 - 450 new editors across various Indian language Wikipedias including English. Of this an attempt will be made to convert 80 - 100 people into active editors.
- Will result in significant creation of quality thematic articles of about 3-4000 articles.
- Publication and release of Indian Performing Arts Encyclopaedias in English and 5 Indian languages.