Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Digitization of manuscripts and other material for Sanskrit Wikisource and Wikipedia (ID: 21976965)

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NehalDaveND

Please provide the Usernames of people related to this proposal.

RamBot will be under use if needed. But Only for Bot works. Articles/books will be created by NehalDaveND.

Organization

N/A

Are you a member of any Wikimedia affiliate or group, including informal groups like Wiki Fan Clubs, emerging language communities, not recognized Wikimedia groups etc.? Please list them all.

N.A.

M. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.

Digitization of manuscripts and other material for Sanskrit Wikisource and Wikipedia

Q. Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries? (optional)

Local

Q2. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

R. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has.

1. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important.

Sanskrit language is not extensively used in academic, research and everyday channels of discussion. This is due to the fact that the language does not have a wide demographic base of speakers and readers. This has adversely affected the small group of researchers and students who continue to pursue studies in Sanskrit and has created a gap in creation of knowledge resources. Sanskrit Wikipedia and Wikisource, which are doing a good job of disseminating knowledge, are facing the problem of lack of reliable resources that can be used as references. Most of the important resources are under the custody of libraries or form the collection of individual scholars in print form. These resources are not available for the public because of the limited access due to factors such as distance, non availability of data, insufficient experience of handling manuscripts and lack of technical expertise. This proposal aims to address this problem by taking up scanning activities specific to resources that can be used as references and citations for Sanskrit Wikimedia projects. In my volunteer capacity I have identified many scholars and institutions who are in possession of these manuscripts, out of print, out of copyright books and other material that can be added to the Sanskrit Wikisource thus providing new avenues for readers, scholars and editors to engage with our projects.

2. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.

Mapping of the available resources in and around Ahmedabad, Gujrat: This has been an ongoing activity. In my professional capacity as a Faculty member at the Sanskrit department, I have been able to approach many scholars and individual researchers who have agreed to provide the necessary texts/manuscripts for digitisation. Conducting outreach and awareness sessions: These sessions will focus on Sanskrit scholars and enthusiasts who are knowledgeable about Sanskrit but have not contributed to Wikimedia projects. Aim is to ensure that their cooperation can be secured towards scanning of the material, uploading of the material and adding metadata and such. Using of the digitised texts to grow Sanskrit projects on Wikimedia platforms: Once the scanning and uploading activity is completed, the material will be used to create new articles or provide references and citations for existing articles thus increasing the quality of the project. Manuscripts and books will be uploaded to Sanskrit Wikisource and the workflow will be followed to ensure that the books are available to readers

3. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?

Digitisation workshops: I will be digitising approximately _________books and manuscripts. This will be done for the first four months of the activity. I have some leads ready to begin the activity. It will be a main activity of the project to get as many books and manuscripts as possible from other sources as well. Contribution campaign: Once the digitisation activity is completed (scanning, uploading, creation of metadata), my aim is to invite members of the Sanskrit Wikimedia community to contribute to the projects using the material that has been recently added. Whether this will be an individual level effort or at the level of the community will be decided in the due course of time. Awareness activities: As mentioned earlier, I have been able to secure some resources for the project already, it will be crucial to expand these resources and bring institutions, organisations and individuals who are willing to contribute to the digitisation by providing books, manuscripts and other materials.

4. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign or event? If so, please select the relevant campaign below. If so, please select all the relevant campaigns from the list below. If "other", please state which.

Not applicable

5. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

I am applying as an individual for this project but will be working closely with the Sanskrit Wikimedia community and IndiC Wikisource community.

6. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Content Gender gap, Language, Other global topics for impact (topics considered to be of global importance), Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial

6.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.

As mentioned earlier Sanskrit language is not identified as a language that has the most updated information in the present context. By ensuring that larger quantity of material is injected into our projects we can ensure that more topics will be covered and the usage of language related materials will also increase.

7. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.

Not applicable

8. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities?

Linguistic / Language

9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities?

Target participants are both existing Sanskrit Wikimedians who will be engaged during the contribution campaign and also during the digitisation activities. Indic Wikisource community will also be an important stakeholder in this project as their input and advice will be required to ensure the success of the digitisation process. New editors and patrons who can support Sanskrit focused activities will also be a community that will be participating. As of now the activity is only towards uploading and creating awareness towards the material, if this activity is successful a more detailed engagement plan can be created with the community members.

10. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants?

The project will follow the Universal Code of Conduct and ensure that all activities will follow a Friendly Space Policy. Additional efforts will be taken to learn from other activities conducted in India to make any necessary changes or updates to these policies.

11. Please tell us about how you have let your Wikimedia communities know about the planned activities and this proposal. Use this space to describe the processes you carried out to make the community more involved in planning this proposal. Please link the on-wiki community discussion(s) around the proposals.

मैं संस्कृतविकिपीडिया के समुदाय को अधिक से अधिक सक्रिय करना चाहता हूँ। परन्तु इसकी बहुत सारी समस्या हैं -

1) जो संस्कृत जानते हैं वो कोम्प्यूटर नहीं जानते। 2) जो दोनो जानते हैं, वो ये करना चाहते। 3) जो दोनों जानते हैं, वो जानते ही नहीं कि विकिपीडिया क्या है। 4) विद्यार्थीओं तक पहुंच नहीं है, क्योंकि अच्छे लेखों की कमी के कारण उनको आकर्षित करना सम्भवन नहीं। यदि अच्छे लेख उनके पढने के लिये हो, तो वो उसके लिये आये और हम उन्हें इस मुक्तज्ञानकोश की उपयोगिता और उद्देश को समझा पाएं, ताकि वो समझे और करें। परन्तु इसके लिये उन तक पहोंच बनानी पडेगी।

उक्त सब के लिये केवल आउट रिच करना पर्याप्त नहीं, उनके लिये अच्छे लेख बनाना, जो ज्ञान अभी सभी के लिये उपलब्ध नहीं वो यदि वो विकि पर रहेगा, तो हो सकता है कुछ लोग इसके साथ आए, तो एक प्रायस है कि स्कैनिंग से लेख और पुस्तक निर्माण हो सके। जो ज्ञान को और ज्ञानवान् को आकर्षित करे। योजनाएँ तो इतनी सूक्ष्मता से सोची है कि बता नहीं सकता, परन्तु ये सोपान पूरा हो तो रिपोर्ट कदाचित् इसको सन्दर्भ के साथ बता सकूं।

12. Are you aware of other Rapid Fund proposals in your local group, community, or region that are being submitted and that align with your proposed project?

No

If yes:

12.1 Did you explore the possibility of doing a joint proposal with other leaders in your group?

N/A

12.2 How will this joint proposal allow you to have better results?

N/A

13. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedia partners to implement this proposal? Required.

Yes

13.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.

These partnerships are not official in nature. They have been developed due to my engagement as a faculty member teaching Sanskrit language. The partnership/collaboration will lead to wards finding primary material ensuring that access is provided for digitisation and scrutiny of copyright violations if any.

14. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of THREE options that most apply.

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge

15. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?

I hope to learn more about the content gap that is prevalent in Sanskrit Wikimedia projects. This gap is not theme based but general lack of content. If we can identify strategies to bring more content that would help us in forming new plans of action. It is also important to learn and document the process of digitisation that can be used by other Sanskrit Wikimedians.

16. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following spaces provided.

Main Open Metrics Data

Main Open Metrics	Description	Target
Articles	I will write 20+ articles in first 4 months. All articles will be according to Wikipedia policy and best.	20
Scanning	4 manuscripts and 4 rare books will be uploaded. I can do more but for the timeline it will be done.	8
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

17. Core quantitative metrics.

Core Metrics Summary

Core metrics	Description	Target
Number of participants	Students, teachers, scholars, researchers and parents. I will try online and offline. They all will be related to Sanskrit Language and Yoga. मैं नहीं जानता मैं समझा पाऊँगा कि नहीं। परन्तु ये कुछ इस तरह से काम करेगा। 1) व्यक्तिगत रूप से शिक्षकों और प्राध्यापकों को लिखने के लिये प्रेरित करूँगा। सम्भावना है कि व्यस्तता के कारण वे अधिक न लिखें, परन्तु उनको पुरी प्रक्रिया समझाना सरल है। 2) शिक्षक को साध कर विद्यार्थीओं को भी लिखने के लिये कार्यशाला करवाई जाएगी। उसके लिये अच्छे सन्दर्भ ग्रन्थ उनको दिये जाएंगे, जो स्केन किये गये होंगे। 3) पि.एच.डी और संशोधन के लोगों को एक भिन्न स्तर पर इसको समझाया जाएगा, जिससे वो न केवल इसका उपयोग करें अपि तु अपने वांचन को और लेखन को बढाने के लिये इसमें लेख इत्यादि भी बनाएँ और परिष्कार भी करें। 4) उनके द्वारा ही प्रचार भी करवाया जाएगा कि आवश्यकता पडने पर संस्कृतविकिपीडिया की कार्यशाला कहीं भी उचित समय पर हो सकती है। मैं विविध कार्यशालाओं से 100 लोगों को प्रेरित करने का प्रयास करूंगा।	100
Number of editors	मैं प्रयास करूंगा कि नये लोग जुडे परन्तु मेरा उद्देश्य पुराने लोगों को भी पुनः सक्रिय करना रहेगा। तो दोनों प्रकार के लोगों को मैं जोडने का प्रयास करूंगा। कम से कम 5 नए लोग जुडे तो मुझे सफलता का अनुभव होगा।	5
Number of organizers

Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project

Wikimedia Project	Description	Target
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

17.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.

लेख तो बनते ही रहेंगे. ये लेख की संख्या से अधिक उसकी शुद्धता (भाषा, सन्दर्भ, लिंक, प्रारूप, सरलता) पर ध्यान दिया जाएगा।

18. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support.

गुणवत्ता का मापन ही श्रेष्ठ होगा। संख्या तो प्रतिदिन 10 लेख बना सकते हैं, परन्तु संतोष अच्छे लेख बनाने से आयेगा। तो बाइट, सम्पादन नहीं परन्तु शुद्धता, अच्छी सूचना, सन्दर्भ और उपयोगिता महत्त्वपूर्ण होगी। बाकी तन्वीरजी की सहयता सर्वदा लगेगी।

19. & 19.1 What is the amount you are requesting from Wikimedia Foundation? Please provide this amount in your local currency.

162000 INR

19.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

2516.22 USD

20. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.

• Book1.xlsx

File uploaded.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

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