CIS-A2K/Reports/Newsletter/August 2024

In the Limelight

Doing good as a creative person

In this month’s limelight, we’d like to feature this insightful piece by Omayeli Arenyeka on how to think differently about doing good as a creative person. In this piece, Omayeli Arenyeka explores the concept of the "Creative Savior Complex" (CSC), which reflects an attitude among creatives that can hinder activism by prioritizing personal contributions over genuine community needs. This complex is akin to the "White Savior Complex," where individuals believe they are helping underprivileged groups, often without understanding the actual impact of their actions.

Arenyeka identifies several signs of CSC, including a superiority complex, selfish motivations, and a lack of community consent. They argue that while there are many ways to "do good," creatives must be cautious about how their efforts might inadvertently waste resources or cause harm. In order to meaningfully navigate CSC, Yeli encourages creatives to critically evaluate their objectives when engaging in social impact projects. This involves asking what they truly hope to achieve and understanding their relationship to the communities they aim to assist. The key questions to introspect include whether they are part of the community they are trying to help, how well they understand the issues at hand, and whether they are equipped to address those problems effectively.

Yeli emphasizes that doing good requires more than good intentions; it necessitates a thoughtful approach to ensure that creative efforts genuinely contribute to positive outcomes. There’s a need for creative people to reflect on their motivations and the real impact of their work, acknowledging that their contributions should align with the needs and voices of the communities they seek to support.

Read the full article here

Monthly Recap

Wiki Women Collective - South Asia Call

The Wiki Women Collective, which originated from discussions at the Wiki Women Camp 2023, was officially announced during the Women Summit at Wikimania 2024 in Katowice, Poland. The Wiki Women* Task Force, formerly known as Wiki Women* Collective (WWC) is a forthcoming steering committee to address and prioritize global initiatives focused on closing the gender gap in Wikimedia projects. This project emerges as an outcome of discussions held during the Wiki Women* Camp, with the objective of creating a strategic and collaborative platform. The South Asia call held on 31 August 2024 focused on initiatives to enhance support for female-related projects, ideas, or programs within the Wikimedia community. The deadline for Wiki Women Collective nominations, initially set for August 31, has been extended to address this till September 15. This provides additional time for women Wikimedians to consider how they could contribute to and support the initiative.

Digitizing the Literary Legacy of Sane Guruji

In 2024, to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Pandurang Sadashiv Sane, popularly known as Sane Guruji, a collaborative project was launched to digitise his entire literary works. Organised by CIS-A2K, Pune Nagar Vachan Mandir, and Lek Ladki Abhiyan, the initiative aims to create a comprehensive database of his writings and make them freely accessible on Wikimedia projects. The key steps of this project include:

• Compiling a complete list of Sane Guruji's works and integrating it into Wikidata.
• Identifying and linking existing online books and PDFs.
• Digitizing remaining copyright-free books published before January 1964.
• Uploading verified PDFs to Wikimedia Commons with proper metadata.
• Creating e-books and audio books for wider accessibility.

The project was officially launched on August 15, 2024, with the upload of eight books at Muktangan, Satara, accompanied by an exhibition and performances of Sane Guruji's songs. In the future, we plan to collaborate with educational institutions and organise workshops on audio book creation to further promote his literary legacy.

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  Exhibition of Sane Guruji's books organised by Satara Public Library at Lek Ladki Abhiyan
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  Exhibition of Sane Guruji's books
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  Exhibition of Sane Guruji's books
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  Members engaged in Sane Guruji thematic project on Wiki by Lek Ladki Abhiyan and A2K
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  Social activist Anvar Rajan inaugurates Sane Guruji portal on Wikimedia Commons
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  Social activists, authors, knowledge enthusiasts launch Sane Guruji portal on Wikimedia Commons

A2K at Wikimania

Open knowledge platforms like Wikipedia face a significant gender gap. This underrepresentation of women's perspectives and experiences has tangible effects on the information available online. To address this issue, CIS-A2K launched the 'She Leads' in 2024. 'She Leads' is a month-long initiative aimed at empowering women's leadership within the Indian Wikimedia community.

The Logo of 'She Leads', a support initiative by CIS-A2K.

Nitesh Gill's presentation at Wikimania highlighted the importance of CIS-A2K's "She Leads" program in bridging the gender gap within the Wikimedia movement and promoting women's leadership in open knowledge. In her presentation, Nitesh Gill highlighted the importance of community engagement in bridging the gender gap on Wikimedia platforms. She shared successful strategies and learnings from She Leads 2024. The 'She Leads' program provided support for female Wikimedians to design and implement activities tailored to their communities and projects. By offering assistance in refining activity concepts, assigning mentors, providing guidance in documentation, and offering financial support, the program stands as a commitment to celebrate and empower the leadership of female Wikimedians. Nitesh's insights sparked valuable discussions on best practices for building inclusive digital ecosystems, highlighting CIS-A2K's dedication to promoting open knowledge and cultural diversity. The She Leads program contributes to the creation of a more inclusive and diverse Wikimedia community in India, working towards a more balanced representation of all individuals in the digital knowledge landscape. Alongside Nitesh Gill, our Program Manager Pavan Santhosh represented CIS-A2K at Wikimania 2024. CIS-A2K facilitated the participation of three community members(Nayan Jyothi Nath, Nettime Sujata and Ramjit Tudu) in Wikimania 2024. Stay tuned for more details in our next newsletter.

Multilingual Wikisource

In a partnership with the Tulu community, CIS-A2K is working on a training program led by Satdeep Gill to establish a Tulu Wikisource ecosystem. The Tulu language, spoken by over 3 million people, has a rich literary tradition that deserves wider accessibility. By leveraging Wikisource, a free digital library, we aim to make Tulu literature available to a global audience. By investing in projects like the Tulu Wikisource training, we want to demonstrate the power of collaboration to bridge linguistic divides and foster an inclusive digital ecosystem. As the project progresses, it serves as a model for other language communities seeking to preserve and promote their cultural heritage through open platforms.

Coming Soon - Upcoming Activities

Tamil Content Enrichment Meet

CIS-A2K is collaborating with the Tamil Community for the Content Enrichment Meet scheduled for 28 & 29 September 2024. The focus of this event will be the improvement of articles, which were created through machine translations in the year 2010 and adding references to unreferenced articles.

Santali Wiki Conference

Santali Wiki Regional Conference, a gathering aimed at shaping the future of the Santali community within the Wikimedia movement. Scheduled to take place in Kolkata, India, from September 13-15, 2024, this event marks a significant milestone as the first in-person conference dedicated to Santali language and culture. The theme for the conference is Unity, Empowerment, Knowledge: Bridging Communities. This is a collaborative effort of Santali Wikimedians User Group and Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K). The Santali Wiki Regional Conference will bring together Santali speakers, editors, and enthusiasts from across India. Participants will engage in a dynamic program featuring keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops, training sessions, and collaborative forums.

TTT 2024

We are gearing up for 9th iteration of the annual Train-the-Trainer (TTT) event for the year 2024, co-hosted by CIS-A2K and the Odia Wikimedians User Group. This event, scheduled from October 18-20, 2024, in Odisha, aims to cultivate leadership and training skills among active Indic Wikimedians. TTT 2024 will introduce innovative approaches to enhance engagement and learning among the newcomers as well as existing wikimedians in the movement . The event will be limited to active contributors from the Indic Wikimedia communities. We are in the process of reviewing the scholarship applications- you will hear from us soon!