Grants:Project/Tamil Wikimedia-Noolaham Foundation/Multimedia Documentation of Traditional Trades and Crafts of Eastern, Northern and Up-Country Sri Lanka/Profile

This project is funded by a Project Grant

proposal

people

timeline & progress

finances

midpoint report

Natkeeran

Natkeeran - Natkeeran is a long term contributor to Tamil Wikimedia (since 2005) projects. He is a bureaucrat in Tamil Wikipedia and an admin in Tamil Wikibooks and Tamil Wiktionary. Natkeeran has a special interests in documenting trades and crafts, and has extensive experience organizing and coordinating Tamil Wikipedia online and offline projects, including workshops, essay and media contests. He is also active in community documentation projects, and the volunteer Technical Lead of the Noolaham Foundation. He is working as an Application Developer with the Digital Scholarship Unit at the University of Toronto - Scarborough. Natkeeran is originally from Sri Lanka, and currently based in Toronto, Canada.

Mayooranathan

Mayooranathan - Mayooranathan is one of the pioneering contributors to Tamil Wikipedia. He got the project started. He is a bureaucrat in Tamil Wikipedia and an admin in Tamil Wiktionary. He has been active contributor to Tamil Wikimedia projects over 14 years (since 2003). Mayooranathan has extensive experience organizing and guiding the projects through growth sprouts and challenges. He received the respected Tamil Literary Garden's (tamilliterarygarden.com) Lifetime Achievement Award in Tamil (Iyal Virudhu) for his contributions to Tamil Wikimedia projects. He is a retired architect. He is currently based in Jaffna, Northern Sri Lanka. He has a special interest in documenting cultural heritage of Tamil speaking communities of Sri Lanka.

Sivakumar

Sivakumar - Sivakumar has been an active Tamil Wikimedia contributor since 2010. He is an admin in Tamil Wikipedia. He was the lead organizer of first few Tamil Wikipedia workshops in Sri Lanka, including at the Eastern University. He is a passionate documentar and has special interest in education oriented digital resource development. He is currently working at the South Eastern University of Sri Lanka as a Senior Assistant Registrar. He is based in Kalmunai, Eastern Sri Lanka.

Sundar

Sundar - Sundar is one of the earliest contributors to Tamil Wikipedia. He is a bureaucrat in Tamil Wikipedia. He had studied and provided strategic direction to Tamil Wikimedia projects. He is a Data Engineer at Facebook. He is from TamilNadu, India, and currently works in the US.

Gopi

Gopi - Gopi is one of the founding directors of Noolaham Foundation. He has been active in the documentation and archiving sphere for over 12 years. Recently, he has led the Noolaham Foundation's oral history project. He is also a contributor to Tamil Wikipedia and is an admin. He is originally from Sri Lanka, and currently based in Perth, Australia.

Parvathisri

Parvathisri is a teacher from Tamil Nadu, India and an active contributor and admin in Tamil Wikipedia. She took part in Wikimedia teachers training across Tamil Nadu. She contributed numerous multimedia materials related to trades and crafts from TamilNadu for the Tamil Media Contest. She also expanded several articles in this field such as Tamils Textile Arts - https://ta.wikipedia.org/s/78f and Tamil Bamboo Crafts - https://ta.wikipedia.org/s/hgx. She brings field knowledge and outreach expertise to this project.

Ravidreams

Ravidreams - Ravidreams has been a strong advocate for Wikimedia and Free and Open Source software and cultural movements for more than 12 years. He served as the Program Director for Wikimedia India where he executed GLAM partnerships with the support of State Government of Tamil Nadu. Disclaimer: He currently works for the Wikimedia Foundation as Strategic Partnerships Manager and is also part of the Project Grants Committee. His engagement in this project will be purely in a volunteer capacity. He will recuse himself while the Project Grants Committee decides about this project.

Mu. Elangovan

Elangovan - Dr. Mu. Elangovan is an Assistant Professor of Tamil at the K. M. Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Puducherry - India. He has a special interest in Tamil folklore and folk arts. He has written several books, including about Tamil folklore and folk arts. He regularly conducts Tamil Computing/Internet/online content introductory workshops throughout TamilNadu and Puducherry. He has helped introduce Tamil Wikimedia and community projects to thousands of students. He also undertakes field work to document important researchers and and their work in the fields of Tamil studies and arts. He will bring field work planning, execution and folklore expertise to this project. He will be a liaison contact with the academia. He will also provide assistance with online and media outreach.

Ramanaish

Ramanaish - Ramanaish is a Project Director at Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training, Sri Lanka. He has worked on large projects for Red Cross and ADB/World Bank as Lead Evaluator and Project Director. He brings a wealth of strategic planning, project management, and institutional development expertise and experience to the project. In addition, he will provide input with respect to how this project can be designed as a resource to facilitate trades and skills development in Sri Lanka. He has been a volunteer adviser to Noolaham Foundation since 2011.

Balasundaram

Balasundaram - Prof. E. Balasundaram is a research scholar in the fields of social sciences, cultural studies and history. He is a senior researcher with over four decades of research experience in these fields. He has undertaken numerous field studies, including pioneering field work researching the origins of village names (இடப்பெயர் ஆய்வு). He has written more than ten books in these fields, and some of his works are candidates to be included in Tamil Wikisource. He established the Tamil Folklore Society at the Jaffna University in 1989, and his students Arunthavanathan, Visakarupan, Balasivakumaran were very active in preserving folk arts. Originally from Eastern province of Sri Lanka, he worked in the Northern province, and currently works as Professor of Tamil at Annamalai University's Toronto - Canada campus. Prof. E. Balasundaram brings research expertise, academic rigour, field work experience and extensive contacts from all three regions to this project.

Thamilini

Thamilini - Thamilini is a documentary artist, multimedia producer and researcher with anthropology background. "Her works stem from the intersection of art and anthropology with a focus on gender, forced migration, and transnational identities. She holds a BA (Hons) in Social Anthropology from the University of Kent, UK and a MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University, Canada. Her works have been exhibited in Colombo, Canterbury, London, New York and Toronto." Thamilini brings her multimedia and documentary expertise to this project. She is originally from Sri Lanka and will be visiting Sri Lanka (for another project) this summer and would be able to directly contribute in the field.

Srikanthalakshmi

Srikanthalakshmi is the chief librarian at Jaffna University. She has more than 30 years of librarianship experience. She is the president elect of the Sri Lankan Library Association. She has created several authoritative reference resources in the fields of documentation and library science. She has done research related to handicrafts and base materials classification. She will provide academic input and contacts for this project.

Seran

Seran is an Information Technology professional with engineering background. He was awarded with 'Ashoka youth venture', a global community of young social entrepreneurs. He has been active in documentation and preservation work as a volunteer for more than 10 years. He was one of the leading organizers for many projects including Tamil Documentation Conference and epallikoodam.org project. He was formerly the General Manager with Noolaham Foundation and currently serves as a Directory in volunteer capacity.