On the 25th International Mother Language Day, we set out to promote software localization, and access to knowledge in local languages. With the help of our volunteers, we organised events at seven colleges across three days in Vijayawada and one online session to advocate for broader access to technology and knowledge in Telugu.
We translated Aaron Swartz’s Guerilla Open Access Manifesto into Telugu and unveiled it in colleges, distributed copies of it to students, and read it out together. You can read it at: గెరిల్లా ఓపెన్ యాక్సెస్ మానిఫెస్టో. Around 1000 copies of it were distributed and the translation was done by Rahman, more popularly known by his username tuxnani on the internet.
On 20th February, we conducted sessions at Nalanda Degree college, Potti Sriramulu College of Engineering & Technology, and Lakkireddy Balireddy College of Engineering. And on 21st February, we organised sessions at Vijaya Institute of Technology for Women, Andhra Loyola College, and Andhra Loyola Institute of Engineering and Technology. A reading session on Open Access Manifesto was conducted at KL University and in a school on 22nd.
We emphasized the need of making software accessible to the general public through localization, introduced Telugu language Wikimedia projects, demonstrated how to contribute to Wikipedia, and in a few colleges, conducted hands-on editing workshops through the Wikipedia mobile app. All thanks to Khyathi, Rahman, Karthik, Niharika, Sripath, and myself for volunteering and organising these.
The online session featured Wikimedian and author, Pavan Santhosh where he discussed the state of Telugu language, and the importance of availability of information and knowledge in Telugu. Around 30 people joined the session which was moderated by our volunteer Malli.
Students found the history behind Mother Language Day to be interesting and some of them tried editing Wikimedia projects curiously. We faced some hindrances with IP address based blocks during Wikimedia account creation but the mobile app was simple to use with the suggested edits feature to add descriptions and captions to articles and images.
More photos on Wikimedia Commons – Category:International Mother Language Day by Swecha AP