User:Mlg426
Rapid Fund pilot: Echoes of the Script
[edit]Project Hub
[edit]Echoes of the Script (Indus falsifiability lab)
Michael Grasa (User: mlg426) — independent researcher and 2025 Emergent Ventures grantee building open Indus-script “micropackets” (annotated images, A/B overlays, falsifiability sheets and ledgers) for Commons, Wikidata & Wikipedia. All outputs are released under CC BY 4.0 / CC0.
Affiliation & recognition: Emergent Ventures (Mercatus Center, George Mason University) – 2025 grantee; contributed paper on the Indus falsifiability sheet accepted for the “Decipherment of Ancient Scripts: Indus, Gilgit and Sankha” session at the Government of India’s Gyan Bharatam conference in New Delhi (Ministry of Culture / ASI); nominated for the 2026 Mozilla Fellowship (Mozilla Foundation).
Partners & institutional conversations: Kingsport Public Library (TN, USA) – 2026 pilot site for public “Echoes of the Script” activities; Indus River Valley Institute (IRVI, Islamabad, Pakistan) – Pakistan’s first culture, heritage and identity think tank, in early conversation about following the Zenodo falsifiability archive and sharing open Indus materials.
Open data backbone: Zenodo community “Indus Valley Script: Falsifiability & Open Test Archive” (launching January 2026) – hosts the Falsifiability Test Sheet (v1.0), worked examples, and reviewer response forms used in this Wikimedia pilot.
About the pilot
[edit]I am an independent researcher working on undeciphered scripts, especially the Indus script. My focus is falsifiability and transparent testing rather than claiming a decipherment. For this Wikimedia pilot I am building open, reusable tools (overlays, confidence scoring, falsifiability sheets, and ledgers) that help editors and readers engage with Indus inscriptions more critically. Over the grant period I will apply this workflow to a series of Indus objects on Commons and Wikidata, completing a falsifiability sheet for each object, making the corresponding edits, and recording the before/after diffs. All test sheets and logs will be mirrored into the Zenodo archive launching in mid-January 2026, where a small working group of scholars—beginning with contacts at the Indus River Valley Institute (IRVI) and other independent researchers—can inspect, reuse, or challenge the method.
Budget (USD $4,900)
[edit]- Decipherment / Content (50%) — $2,450
- Outreach Materials — Seed Prep (50%) — $2,450
**Print-ready bundle** (flyer, handout, “how it works”) — $1,100 **Meta how-to page + kit packaging** — $600 **Accessibility & caption QA** — $450 **Measurement & reporting (Dashboard/SPARQL notes)** — $300
Timeline (10 weeks, on-wiki only)
[edit]- W1–2: select 3–5 images; set up Meta project page; finalize sheet v1; begin sheet v2
- W3–4: build micropackets; upload to Commons; add Wikidata statements; start progress log
- W5: improve ≥5 Wikipedia pages (captions, alt-text, citations, placements)
- W6: tighten overlays; QA captions/alt-text; first metrics snapshot
- W7–8: finish remaining packets; prepare print-ready outreach PDFs
- W9: review Wikidata; finalize categories and links
- W10: measurement summary + short learning report on Meta
Measurement & licensing
[edit]Tools: Programs & Events Dashboard / #Micropackets2026, Commons categories & file usage, Wikidata Query Service (SPARQL), XTools Article Info, PetScan/GLAMorous2; Meta status table. Licensing: all outputs released under CC BY 4.0 / CC0; sources limited to open-licensed museum images.
Pilot status & invitation
[edit]Hi all,
I’m Michael (User:Mlg426 on Meta and Commons). I previously shared that I’m working on neutral Indus-script “falsifiability sheets” to help editors and readers test readings without claiming a decipherment.
Quick update: my first small pilot is now live on Commons, using an open-licensed photo of an Indus-script seal from the Indian Museum, Kolkata, and I’m preparing a few more examples based on images from Indian museum collections. If any India-based editors or GLAM contributors are interested in stress-testing the approach or advising on what would be most useful for India-related articles, I’d be glad to listen and adjust.
Thanks for your time, Michael – m:User:Mlg426
== Key open outputs (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0) ==
- Reclaiming India’s Knowledge Legacy Through Manuscript Heritage (conference paper, 18 October 2025).
– Describes the New Delhi conference presentation, the overlay approach, and the first falsifiability sheet. – ~62 views / 54 downloads on Zenodo (as of 8 Dec 2025).
https://zenodo.org/records/17382309
- A Neutral Falsifiability Ledger for Indus Script Research: Methodology and Pilot Design (5 November 2025).
– Core method paper defining the neutral falsifiability ledger and pilot design for Indus script research. – ~187 views / 186 downloads on Zenodo (as of 8 Dec 2025).
https://zenodo.org/records/17535134
- Indus Valley Script Falsifiability Ledger v3: Collaboration-Ready Multi-Rater Sheet for CL2 “buffalo” and Related Seals (7 December 2025).
– Collaboration-ready multi-rater worksheet for CL2 “buffalo” and related seals. – ~23 views / 21 downloads on Zenodo (as of 8 Dec 2025). – Also mirrored on Wikimedia Commons as a working sheet.