Community Resources and Partnerships/India General Support Project/Digitizing and Disseminating Cultural Heritage

statusWithdrawn

India General Support Project

Digitizing and Disseminating Cultural Heritage

proposed start date2025-06-01

proposed end date2026-05-31

applicant• Pavanaja

organization (if applicable)• N/A

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Universal Code of Conduct

Applicant information

Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required): Pavanaja

Are you a first-time applicant? (required)

You are applying as a(n). (required): Individual

Are your group or organization legally registered in your country? (required): N/A

Please provide links to the following documents if they are available

These documentation can be provided in your local language(s), no translations required.

Organizational website
Detailed financial reporting and/or audits
Documentation of the governance structure, board list, governance processes
Documentation of the general assembly decision on your plan

Main proposal

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required): Digitizing and Disseminating Cultural Heritage
3. Proposed start date. (required): 2025-06-01

4. Proposed end date. (required): 2026-05-31

5. Does your organization or group have an Affiliate or Organizational Annual Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required): No

6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required): No

7.1. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required): India

7.2. If your project includes in-person activities, are there any international participants travelling to India for them? (required): No
7.2.1. List all countries of participation. (required)

N/A

7.3. Will the project be transferring funds to any international participants? (required): No
7.3.1. List all international participants receiving funding and their countries. (required)

N/A

8. What are your programs, approaches, and strategies? What are the challenges that you are trying to address and how will your strategies support you in addressing these challenges? (required)

Cultural heritage is a priceless asset that connects us to our past, enriches our present, and shapes our future. Across generations, invaluable traditions, folklore, music, performances, literary contributions, and historical narratives have been preserved through audio, video, and visual media. However, a vast portion of this cultural wealth remains inaccessible to the global community due to copyright restrictions or limited digital availability.

This project aims to bridge this gap by systematically transforming a rich repository of audio, video, and images related to folk traditions, cultural heritage, and literary and historical figures into freely accessible content under Wikimedia Commons’ open licensing framework. By partnering with Prachya Sanchaya Samshodhan Kendra, Udupi, Karnataka, India, an organization that possesses an extensive collection of such media, we will curate, digitize (if necessary), and legally release this treasure trove for public use.

Through this initiative, we envision not only preserving these cultural artifacts but also making them universally accessible, ensuring that they can be utilized for research, education, and creative endeavors. Wikimedia Commons serves as an ideal platform for this endeavor, offering a globally recognized, open-access repository where this content can be freely shared, remixed, and repurposed by enthusiasts, scholars, and the general public.

This project will enable the meticulous conversion of these cultural materials into freely licensed formats, ensuring compliance with Wikimedia Commons' guidelines while upholding ethical and legal considerations. This initiative will empower communities by giving them access to their own heritage, fostering cultural appreciation, and facilitating knowledge sharing on a global scale.

This project also aims to get some articles written in Kannada and Tulu Wikipedias about the artifacts and other materials depicted in the digitized materials like images, audio and video files.

Prachya Sanchaya Samshodhan Kendra, Udupi, Karnataka:

Founded in 2001 and registered in 2014 in Udupi, Karnataka, Prachya Sanchaya Samshodhana Kendra (National Trust for Computation & Archival of Oriental Media, NTC-AOM)) collaborates with Karnataka Folklore University to publish multimedia works. The initiative focuses on both preserving the past and securing the future. It plans to establish a Folkloristic Field Education department and the Tagore & Arnold Bake, Shivaram Karanth Archives Restudy Center, while also conducting archaeological studies of Tulu and Kannada inscriptions.In collaboration with ethnomusicology experts, NTC-AOM is researching Arnold Bake's 1938-1939 materials, including 768 audio recordings and photographs, to enhance the preservation of India's cultural heritage. They plan to establish the Bake 1938 Restudy School for further study. PSSK aims to create an inclusive platform for youth and cultural enthusiasts to contribute to preserving our heritage. They invite participation in developing educational packages focused on community development and cultural diversity, featuring archives of palm-leaf manuscripts, Tulu songs, 155 Kannada and Tulu inscriptions, and 15,000 pages of Dasa Literature (miscellaneous hand written).

Partial list of content available with PSSK and ready to be released under CC-BY-SA-

Ser No Details Category (Yakshagana/Folk/..) Filetype (MP3/MP4/..)

1 Freedom fighters interview clips Patriatic Rare video

2 Arnold Bake Restudied Clips Yakshagana/Kangilu Rare video

3 Tulu Epics related Ritual Bhuta related Rare video

4 Tulu Arts /dance , Including Kerala Sarpam Kali/Naagmandal Rare video and audio

5 Folk Instruments -Photos-writeup Ethnomusicology Video/MP4 and MP3

6 Puppetry South India Performance Rare documentaries

7 Murals Kaavi paintings photos Paintings/Drawings Intangible Documents

8 Agricultural Paddy Bundellings Mudi Kattuvudu General/Interview Rare video mpeg/mp4

9 Karanth and AK Ramanujam related General Rare video mpeg/mp4

10 Tulu Paaddana /Gender studies General narration/research Audio in Cassettes

11 Palm Leaf Manuscripts Tulu/Kannada Documentation Scanner required

12 Paper Manuscripts Dasa Sahitya related Cataloguing 15,000 pages Scanner required

9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)


Category	Yes/No
Education	Yes
Culture, heritage or GLAM	Yes
Gender and diversity	No
Community support and engagement	No
Participation in campaigns and contests	No
Other	No

Education

9.1.1. Select all your programs and activities for Education. (required): Wikimedia Commons programs; Other programs and activities if any: N/A
9.1.2. Select all relevant audience groups for Education. (required): Vocational, tertiary, or higher education, Teachers or professors; Other groups if any: N/A

Culture, heritage or GLAM

9.2. Select all your programs and activities for Culture, heritage or GLAM. (required): Supporting institutions to open up their collections, data, metadata, and research, Partnering with institutions, professional associations, and allied organizations to raise awareness of open culture, ethical sharing, and related issues; Other programs and activities if any: N/A
10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required): The activities will be-

1. Signing a MoU between Karavali Wikimedians User Group and Prachya Sanchaya Samshodhana Kendra (PSSK) regarding releasing the content in CC-By-SA

2. Releasing the content in CC-By-SA

3. Collecting materials from PSSK

4. Editing/cleaning the content

5. Digitizing/converting the material into open format compatible with Wikimedia Commons

6. Uploading the content to Wikimedia Commons

Steps 1 and 2 will be one time activity. Steps 3 to 6 will be repeated over the duration of the project. There are micro-steps in these major steps, viz, travel of the program manager to Udupi, sitting of program manager with and vetting of the final content by Advisor for the project, transfer of the content to the program manager, bringing the content from Udupi to Bengaluru, and finally, uploading the content.

7. Editathon to add articles to Kannada and Tulu Wikipedias related to some of the materials uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

11. Describe your team. (required)

Name: Dr. U.B. Pavanaja Role: Principal Program Manager (Paid staff) Username: Pavanaja. Responsibilities: Overall management and coordination of the project activities. Manage the budget, finance, spending, accounting and reporting. Design and roll out the program. Negotiate with PSSK. Draft the MoU and get it executed. Travel to Udupi every month to interact with the Advisor for vetting the converted content, bring the content to Bengaluru and upload the content using broadband Internet. Design and role out the editathon for adding articles mentioned in the timeline.

Name: Prof.S.A. Krishnaiah. He is an international folk artiste, writer, scholar and resource person of Karnataka and South Indian folk arts, and tribal arts , He studied the folk life of minstrels and bards, and itinerants.He is notable figure in Karnataka Folk Theater and Indian Puppetry. He has documented over 5,000 hours of recordings over three decades. He has collaborated with various scholars and participated in international projects, including workshops and directing puppet shows at festivals in Zurich. Role: Advisor (Paid staff). Responsibilities: Overall advisor for the project. He will be overseeing and organizing the material available with PSSK. He will be vetting the converted final content before uploading them to Internet.

Role: Resource person-1 (Paid staff) Responsibilities: Has two responsibilities. 1) Coordinating with PSSK, with Resource person-2, Program Manager and Advisor. 2) Collecting material from PSSK. Dividing the content between Resource Persons. Editing and converting the content into the format acceptable by Wikimedia Commons. Collecting the converted content from resource Person-2. Handing over the content to Program Manager.

Role: Resource Person-2 (paid staff). Collecting material from Resource Person-1, editing, converting the material and handing over the converted content to Resource Person-1.

12. Will you be working with any internal (Wikimedia) or external partners? Describe the characteristics of these partnerships and bring a few examples of the most significant partnerships. (required)

I will be working with an educational institution. They will provide the computer lab with Internet connection needed for editathon. Student participants form these institution will be briefed on use of Wikipedia as a platform of learning and those interested will be recruited as participants. Additionally, members of Karavali Wikimedians User Group will be participating in the editathon to add articles to Wikipedia.

13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required): Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Coordinate Across Stakeholders, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

Metrics

Wikimedia Metrics

14. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)

14.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.

All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.

Participants, editors, and organizers
Metrics name	Target	Description
Number of all participants	30	N/A
Number of all editors	30	N/A
Number of new editors	20
Number of retained editors	10
Number of all organizers	3	N/A
Number of new organizers	0	N/A

14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)

Contributions to Wikimedia projects
Wikimedia project	Created	Edited or improved
Wikipedia	100	100
Wikimedia Commons	5000	0
Wikidata	100	100
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia

Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)

Other Metrics

15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required): No


Other Metrics	Description	Target
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

Budget

16. Will you have any other revenue sources when implementing this proposal (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required): No

16.1. List other revenue sources. (required)

N/A

16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required): N/A

17. Local currency: Indian Rupees (INR)

18. What is the requested amount in Indian Rupees? (required): 2387659 INR

19. Does this proposal include compensation for staff or contractors? (required): Yes

19.1. How many paid staff members and contractors do you plan to cover with this General Support Project? (required): Yes.

3

19.2. How many FTEs (full-time equivalents) in total will be covered with this General Support Project? (required): 3

19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Project if any. (required only for returning applicants): NA

20. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this General Support Project. (required)


Budget category	Amount in local currency
Staff and contractor costs	1414000
Operational costs	272200
Programmatic costs	1686200

21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

[1]

Additional information

22. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)

By submitting this proposal request you agree with the Institutional Partner Privacy Policy, Application Privacy Statements, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

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