Digitizing and Disseminating Cultural Heritage - a Pilot Project
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.
As the title indicates, this is a pilot project which may be iterated as a full fledged project, with enhanced list of activities and deliverables. This project has been funded by Wikimedia Foundation.
Details of the project
[edit]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 | Patriotic | 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 |
The planned activities include editing, cleaning, converting these content into open format acceptable to Commons and then uploading them. In this pilot project, a small portion of the huge available content will be uploaded.
Activities
[edit]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. Editathons to add articles to Kannada and Tulu Wikipedias related to Cultural Heritage.
People
[edit]Organisers
[edit]- Program Manager and Resource Person: Dr. U.B. Pavanaja
- Research Partner and Advisor: Prof S.A. Krishnaiah, Expert in Folklore, Archives, Udupi
- Patron: Prof Sojan George, Principal, Dr G. Shankar Govt. Women's First Grade College & Post Graduate Study Centre, Udupi
- Co-ordinator: Prof. Yogesh D. H., Dr G. Shankar Govt. Women's First Grade College & Post Graduate Study Centre, Udupi
- Resource Person: Prajna
Participants
[edit]Here is the list of students/editors who are participating in this project:
| No. | Participant | Article in Kannada Wikipedia |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amrutha M D | ದಿಮ್ಸಾಲೆ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 2 | Ashwini | ಚೌಡಮ್ಮನ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 3 | Bhagyashri R Madar | ಹರಿಗೆ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 4 | Bhavana R A | ಸರ್ಪಕೋಲ |
| 5 | Deekshita | ಕಾಡ್ಯನಾಟ |
| 6 | Jeevitha | ಗೊಂಡರ ಮಂಡಲ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 7 | Kavanashree R | ಪುರವಂತಿಕೆ |
| 8 | Keerthi | ಹೆಳವರು |
| 9 | Keerthi Bovi | ತಾರ್ಲೆ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 10 | Pavitra G Naik | ಎರುಕೋಲ |
| 11 | Poornima | ಮಾಯಿದ ಪುರುಷೆ |
| 12 | Pragathi K P | ಕುದುರೆ ಕೋಲ |
| 13 | Prajna | ಸೋಣದ ಜೋಗಿ |
| 14 | Pratibha S T | ಮದಿಮ್ಮಯ ಮದಿಮ್ಮಲ್ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 15 | Rakshitha Sebina Katti | ಬಾಲೆ ಸಾಂತು |
| 16 | Ranjita | ಪಟಾ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 17 | Ranjitha | ಕುಡುಬಿಯರ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 18 | Renuka | ಯರವರ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 19 | Reshma | ಸಿದ್ಧಿಯರ ಕುಣಿತಗಳು |
| 20 | Sangeetha N | ಗೌಳಿಗರ ಕುಣಿತ |
| 21 | Sunitha | ಕಾಡುಗೊಲ್ಲರ ಗಣೇಪದ |
| 22 | Trupti | ಬುರ್ರಕಥಾ ಮೇಳ |
| 23 | Yashaswini naik | ನಗಾರಿ |
Community Members
[edit]Community members participating, helping, in execution of this project:
- Arpitha Hegde
- Akshitha achar
- Apoorva poojay
- Rakshitha Kulal
- ವಿಕಾಸ್ ಹೆಗಡೆ | Vikas Hegde (talk) 11:16, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
Editathons
[edit]- Workshop cum editathon-1 held on Aug 15 & 16, 2025 at Dr G. Shankar Govt. Women's First Grade College & Post Graduate Study Centre, Udupi. Photos are here.
- Workshop cum editathon-2 held on Oct 11 & 12, 2025 at Dr G. Shankar Govt. Women's First Grade College & Post Graduate Study Centre, Udupi. Photos are here