Grants:IEG/Senior Citizens Write in Sanskrit Wikipedia
This project is funded by an Individual Engagement Grant
2. there are 11,410 articles in sa.wikipedia. among them 9,268 articles are stubs. i want to improve those articles.
Project idea[edit]
Sanskrit Wikipedia has very low activities, this project can boot activities in positive manner. In Gujarat, India so many Sanskrit Scholar, who can join this. Just like that.....
In present there are so many Sanskrit Scholars who gives there knowledge free to their Disciples. Many of these scholars already have the computer literacy to be able to easily contribute Sanskrit Wikipedia if they received training in editing.
What is the problem you're trying to solve?[edit]
If Sanskrit Scholars are giving there knowledge for free, then what is the difficulty in bringing such a content on to the Wiki platform ?
(1) There are not many well-researched articles on sa.wikipedia. In August I have seen all single article of sa.wikipedia. In Main page you can see 10,084 articles are in sa.wikipedia. But sa.wikipedia has 11,410 articles. I have clicked on each and every articles most of them were stubs. Stubs were near 9,268. Means articles which have contents are only 2,142. Among those 2,142 articles I found 1,000 articles can't readable or not informative. Some are have only sentences no one can understand what is useful on them. So 1,142 articles are remain. Among them 400 articles are in expandable category. So now 742 readable articles are there in sa.wikipedia. In them also without image, infobox templates and linguistic defects are there. From 2003 to 2015 sa.wikipedia gets only stubs.
(2) Not many Sanskrit scholars are aware of sa.wikipedia.
(3) Sanskrit scholars can't learn about sa.wikipedia unless they are presented with guidance and examples.
(4) Less activity in sa.wikipedia.
What is your solution?[edit]
1. to increase well researched articles in sa.wikipedia with recruit Sanskrit known person in sa.wikipedia.
2. To recruit Sanskrit scholars who have strong research backgrounds, I will have to find scholars from Somnath Sanskrit University. Sanskrit known senior citizens are giving knowledge for "FREE TO EVERY ONE". If they will be aware with sa.wikipedia, than they will defiantly write in sa.wikipedia and they will inspire others too. So in meet up I will tell them about sa.wikipedia and I will inspire them to edit sa.wikipedia. Once they will aware of sa.wikipedia and ready to edit sa.wikipedia.
3. Awareness about sa.wikipedia will not enough for active them in sa.wikipedia. So I will arrange training session to guide them and to do them familiar with sa.wikipedia platform I will arrange editothons.
4. Increasing sa.wikipedia activity is the soul reason to do this project. Now in sa.wikipedia mostly two users are active who are working daily. Some users are doing work in a month twice or trice. Most of activity in sa.wikipedia is vandalism. Some college students of Karnataka are putting content. But that content is garbage value. Reader can't take a single work or sentence from that content. These all useless things can be stopped by more Sanskrit Scholar's activity. If well known Sanskrit person will be active, than positive activity will be increase in sa.wikipedia. Via this project we can find scholars and make them active in sa.wikipedia.
Project goals[edit]
- To increase well researched articles in sa.wikipedia.
- To recruit Sanskrit scholars who have strong research backgrounds.
- To active ancient Samskrit lovers and well known Sanskrit person to edit in sa.wikipedia.org.
- To Increase sa.wikipedia activity.
Project plan[edit]
Activities[edit]
± The First Phase of the project will be from January - March 2016
- During this Phase, I propose to contact Sree Somnath Sanskrit University, Veraval, Gujarat.
- I will presenting the project plan to the concerned and seek their permission for a list : of all the Sanskrit Reader (docent), Sanskrit Scholars and Prized by Government year-wise for the last 4 decades.
- I will categorized that list by Subject and Aria of living. So aria wise I will meet them and contact them. After that in training session I will group them Subject wise.
- After that I will contact of scholars via phone and home visit. In this period I will inspire them to edit sa.wikipedia and why should edit sa.wikipedia.
- I make a list of scholars who are interested in sa.wikipeida editing. Than I will invite them for training. In training session I will group them Subject wise and show how to edit sa.wkipedia. I will make them familiar with edit section. Like Which are the features in edit section and how they can be used. Category, Templates, language link etc too...
- In end of March I will arrange a training program for Scholars. For that My first preference will be Somnath Sanskrit University's lab. But if that place will be very far for most of scholars, than I will arrange training session in Ahmedabad. If I will arrange in Ahmedabad so university can't help me, than I have to take a lab on rent. I found that lab in Ahmedabad where I can arrange practical session. But my first preference will be uni lab.
± The Second Phase of the project will be from April - June 2016
- In practical session all will be aware about what is sa.wikipedia and how to contribute there. But they would need practical session too for starting. So Will arrange editothon for them. In that editothon their goal will be to improve stub articles. Middle of the April I will arrange First editothon for practice session's participant. That editothon will be online. All participant will be at there own place and will contribute.
- Starting of the May I will arrange second meet up for all scholars. In this some more training will be. Before this meet up I will take feedback regarding editing in sa.wikipeida. Through that I will make a list of problems which contributors had faced during editothon or while editing. So this training session will be fully on their problem and training others topics. Like policy of sa.wikipedia, five pillars, talk style, voting, vandalism etc. After that file uploading method and rules, audio of article name and I will make them aware about License CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Middle of the May I will arrange Second editothon for practice session's participant. That editothon will be online. All participant will be at there own place and will contribute.
- End of the June I will arrange third and last editothon for practice session's participant. That editothon will be online but this time we will meet at lab and all will do editing together. This will be the last stroke to attract and continue them with sa.wikipedia editing.
- Each participant will improve at lease 5 stubs articles in Sanskrit Wikipedia.
Convincing the Scholar to give the content under CC-BY-SA 3.0 license[edit]
This is not easy but it is doable. Most of the Sanskrit Scholars want to publish there own book or article. By this project we will inspire them to publish there research work on sa.wikipedia under CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.
Total amount requested[edit]
- 2,31,200 Rupees (about 3565.98 USD)
Budget[edit]
As the project runs for 6 months.
Below is a summary of the budget for the project. Subsequent tables are detail breakdowns of the various phases.
| Description | Price per unit | # of units | Total (Indian Rupees?) | Conversion to USD |
| Program Management (hours) | ||||
| Prearangement of Scholar list | 120 | 96 | 11520 | 172.8 |
| Contact with scholar | 120 | 350 | 42000 | 630 |
| prepare curriculum for training | 120 | 70 | 8400 | 126 |
| conduct outreach for training | 120 | 48 | 5760 | 86.4 |
| Editathon | 120 | 72 | 8640 | 129.6 |
| follow-up contact after training | 120 | 84 | 10080 | 151.2 |
| SUBTOTAL | 86400 | 1296 | ||
| Expenses for in-person editathon (30 Participant + 5 volunteers + 1 grantee + 4 extra = 40) | 30 Participant + 5 volunteers + 1 grantee + 4 extra = 40 | |||
| Water Bottles | 15 | 80 | 1200 | 18 |
| Laptop (on rent) | 500 | 1 | 500 | 7.5 |
| Projector (on rent) | 500 | 1 | 500 | 7.5 |
| Lunch | 150 | 36 | 5400 | 81 |
| Snacks | 50 | 36 | 1800 | 27 |
| Internet Connectivity | 1500 | 1 | 1500 | 22.5 |
| Venue Changes (Computer Lab) | 20000 | 1 | 20000 | 300 |
| Pen | 10 | 30 | 300 | 4.5 |
| Notepad | 15 | 30 | 450 | 6.75 |
| Transportation of Wikipedians | 1000 | 5 | 5000 | 75 |
| SUBTOTAL | 36650 | 549.75 | ||
| Expenses for in-person editathon | ||||
| Water Bottles | 15 | 80 | 1200 | 18 |
| Laptop (on rent) | 500 | 1 | 500 | 7.5 |
| Projector (on rent) | 500 | 1 | 500 | 7.5 |
| Lunch | 100 | 36 | 3600 | 54 |
| Snacks | 30 | 36 | 1080 | 16.2 |
| Internet Connectivity | 1500 | 1 | 1500 | 22.5 |
| Venue Changes (Computer Lab) | 20000 | 1 | 20000 | 300 |
| Transpotation of Wikipedians | 1000 | 5 | 5000 | 75 |
| SUBTOTAL | 33380 | 500.7 | ||
| GRAND TOTAL | 156430 | 2346.45 | ||
You told me that "for 6 uni your budget was $3,566 and now you doing only one uni and your budget is near $3,000". You knew that budget was copied and pasted. Even I didn't realize that what should be budget and how. You make me realize for this. After that I wrote expenses as per your guidance. I had given up my travelling and accommodation expenses. Because I want to success this project and this project will be success home visit of scholars. I will spend every paisa to active them into sa.wikipedia. I had given to you two examples about garbage value. Among them one article was about Mohamad Raffi. In that article you might have seen that articles well formatted with hiperlinked, infobox, image etc. But that article is garbage value. Not only me every well known Sanskrit person will tell you that. After my project each and every articles which will have completed under this project, those articles would very useful for readers.
I explained there how from 2003 to 2015 sa.wikipedia got only stubs. I need one chance to prove that this project can work and sa.wikipedia can be activated by Scholars. You asked me why 72 hours for editathon ? I had told you that among scholars no one will be familiar with English. Most of Scholars are familiar with Sanskrit, Gujarati and Hindi. Moreover aim of this project is improvement of Sanskrit related articles and in other languages we don't have Sanskrit related articles like Shlokas with अन्वय, भावार्थ etc. So I will have to manage material for all the participants before editothan and also I will have to provide material for their practice. At editathon time I will have to ready for manage every participants ether that online or offline.
I had explained that my first preference will be uni lab for this task. But if no one will ready to do long journey, than I will have to do that training session in Ahmedabad. If I meet each and every person so may they will ready to come uni. This all things are dependent on my hoe visits.
Prearrangement of scholar list is also very important part of this project. Every one knows uni's workers are very busy on their own works. Moreover the data of scholar is not an easy job. Like some ex student comes into office and asking give me old scholars name with address and without any question they will give me list of Scholars. now you may aware that for list I will have to give explanations, feasibility etc and convince them for support. I am very sure that they will help but some time is need for this process. After that they will give me a list in that list 30 scholars will not there. But in that list will be more than 100 scholars. First I will phone them and after that I will go their home.
In my opinion I will have to work in a week 50 hours and if I add that in budget, that will be very high total. Moreover if I will do individual outreach via phone, than 30 scholar may not come to this session. Because if I want to 50 teachers of Sanskrit, it is quite easy work. But if I going to find scholars so it is problematic. They scholars are giving their knowledge free, but without any reason they will not spend time with any stranger like me. Once they will meet me and know that this work is very good, than they will agree to come training session. In phone there is chance but without any personal conversation I am not sure they will come.
Other thing is, there is a difference to work with Teachers, Students and Scholars. I should not say this but I do. Before I try to active some Sanskrit teachers into sa.wikipedia and they added only garbage values. I have example of students here.
These more than 140 students are added garbage values in sa.wikipedia. I put most of their articles in Delete category. So I have selected this senior related work. I can go to school or college. But that will be only to showcase work like this. The reason is Sanskrit is not a mother language of any India. All are saying in their own mother tongue. So teacher are translating topic from Sanskrit to mother tongue. That's why teachers and students are not have enough knowledge of Sanskrit Grammar etc..
You can't read or understand Sanskrit. If I will put this kind of garbage value, you may not aware what I have done. (You means community too.) For Ex.
This article has garbage value. If you are Sanskrit scholar and you are reading this article, than you will not open sa.wikipedia second time. These were the problems. Now one hand I want to solve the biggest problem of sa.wikipedia and other hands community can't see fruit of my project. These two things are situational, no one responsible for this. I want to do this project because I can see the fruit. But others may not see it. I tried so much for this proposal and you also told that its okay to withdraw. But I want to try till rejection. I know 99% they will reject this but may one see fruit which I am seeing.
Community engagement[edit]
sa.wikipedia's editors will be fully arranged with this project. After decision and arrangement will do project work. Meet ups, editothon and help will be done by participants. Some sa.wikipedians who not in Gujarat they will guide and help scholars. Also they will monitor all activity of this project. With help of them we will make problem list for second meet up.
Most important thing for community is being touch with Experienced and Scholars. Now in sa.wikipedia all editors are youth. We need path for built up and boot sa.wikipedia. We need linguistic, content and topic related guidance. With these things we can create proper and useful articles and this thing can be happen by this project. So all editors will try to inspire seniors and learn so much from them. In Sanskrit it called "परस्परदेवो भव".
Sustainability[edit]
After this project we as a community will get new Sanskrit experienced editors.
Good Article Creation ability = Sanskrit-knowledge + Wiki.knowledge.
You can see now sa.wikipedia don't have proper rules like other wikipedia has. Ex. News for main page, voting related rules etc... But after this project we can contribute in sa.wikipedia and as well as we can start this kind of work also.
Measures of success[edit]
Need target-setting tips? Note: in addition to your project-specific measures of success, you will also be asked to report on some Global Metrics at the end of your final report. Please keep this in mind as you plan, and we'll support you as you begin your project.
- Success will be measured based on the number of edits, stub article improvements, number of uploads, number of attendees and how effectively we engage our audience on our social media platforms.
- We also hope to improve at least 150 stub articles of Sanskrit Grammar, History, Literature etc which are currently not in Googd article's list of Wikipedia.
- We expect maximum of these stubs articles improvement and put them in good article's list.
- Get a minimum of 15 active editors for the entire project.
- Increased community engagement.
- A feedback form will be used to gather feedback on each event which provide insights about the event and to pin what went wrong and how to best improve that before the next event.
Get involved[edit]
Participants[edit]
- User:NehalDaveND- User of Sanskrit Wikipedia. Who have experience of more than 2 years in Wikipedia and Sanskrit Teaching Field work experience is 10 years. Participant of Hindi Wiki Conference 2015 , TTT Bengaluru 2015.
- Volunteer I am interested in this project. Now my Ph.D. (विद्यावारिधिः) Research is running from Shree Somnath Sanskrit University, Veraval. I Passed M.Phil. (तत्त्वाचार्यः) also. and I have 6 years experience of sanskrit translation and typing work. My Contributions in wikipedia from last 1.5 years. Udit Sharma (talk) 11:18, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
- Volunteer M.A. Student from Somnath Sanskrit University. RAMKRISHNA RAVAL (talk) 05:39, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
- Volunteer My Experience : Accounts, Computer Graphics, Book publishing and Sanskrit teaching. I am volunteer of Samskrit Bharati last two decades. I am also a project manager of Samskrit Bharati Gujarat. Sshihora (talk) 05:55, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
- Volunteer Now my P.hd is pursuing from Hemchandracharya University, Patan, Gujarat, India. I have completed my M.phil from Somnath Sanskrit University. Now I am also professor of Sanskrit. I am volunteer of Samskrit Bharati since 5 years. Yograj (talk) 06:01, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
- Volunteer I am living in Jamnagar Gujarat. I have studied from Bhagawat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad which a college of Somnath Sanskrit University. Now I am a government teacher at Jamnagar. Jshastri2000 (talk) 06:08, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
Community Notification[edit]
Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. Need notification tips?
- Mailing List
The Wikimedia Sanskrit community has been notified via the mailing list wikimedia-sa
lists.wikimedia.org
Endorsements[edit]
Do you think this project should be selected for an Individual Engagement Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. (Other constructive feedback is welcome on the talk page of this proposal).
- Community member: add your name and rationale here.
Support - अनेके विद्वासः सन्ति, ये संस्कृतविकिपीडिया-जालस्य विषये किमपि न जानन्ति । ते अनेन प्रकल्पेन सक्रियाः भविष्यन्ति । तथा च संस्कृतविकिपीडिया-जाले शुद्धानां लेखानां यः अभावः दरीदृश्यते, सः दूरीभविष्यति । अतः अहमेनं समर्थयामि । RAMKRISHNA RAVAL (talk) 13:58, 8 October 2015 (UTC)
- Support - This work is very good. Many Scholar will be active via this project. Yograj (talk) 14:07, 8 October 2015 (UTC)
- Support - My strongly support to this project. I thing it will change the present situation of Sanskrit Wikipedia. There are so many Guruji and Sanskrit Scholars who can join sa.wikipedia. But they don't know about this great platform. This project will find and inspire theme for Sanskrit Wikipedia. Best greeting to this project. Jshastri2000 (talk) 14:15, 8 October 2015 (UTC)
- Support – This can give golden future to sawiki.☆★Sanjeev Kumar (talk) 17:39, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
- Support – My strongly support to this project. This project is good future for sawiki. Sshihora (talk) 07:41, 13 October 2015 (UTC)
- Support – अनेन प्रकल्पेन संस्कृतविकिपीडिया-अन्तर्जाले ज्ञानवृद्धानां सक्रियतायां सत्यां संस्कृतविकिपीडियाजालस्य वृद्धिः भविष्यति इत्याशया मे समर्थनम् । Udit Sharma (talk) 11:13, 19 October 2015 (UTC)