World Book & Copyright Day 2020: Celebrating the wonders of open licensing and collaboration with a very special new book
Posted by Pallavi Kamath on April 23, 2020World Book & Copyright Day is an international initiative to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. By championing books and copyright, UNESCO stands up for creativity, diversity and equal access to knowledge.1
Aparna Kapur, Editor at Pratham Books, writes about the making of ‘The Novel Coronavirus: We Can Stay Safe’ - made possible through an amazing collaborative effort.
‘The Novel Coronavirus: We Can Stay Safe’ is a book aimed to help children better understand what they can do to stay safe during this pandemic. The book isn't just special because it was created in ten days, or because it's available in five languages. What makes this book remarkable is that it involves thirteen of India's best children's book writers and illustrators, and characters from seven of Pratham Books' most popular books - all released under the CC BY 4.0 license, and free to read on StoryWeaver.
Above everything else, artists define themselves by their work. Their words, their pictures, their design -- these are closest to their hearts. So when creators agree to release their work under Creative Commons, it is their way of showing their trust in the publisher, and a commitment to a common goal. In our case, that goal is 'to see a book in every child's hand'.
For the last 15 years, Pratham Books has been working towards this goal by publishing affordable openly licensed picture books, and making them available for free on StoryWeaver - ensuring they can be accessed and enjoyed by children all over the world, some of whom may not otherwise have had access to books. This has helped us create a sense of community with our creators. Which is why when we asked them to be a part of this project, nearly everyone responded within minutes, telling us that they would be happy to.
In the current state of things, when everyone needs to stay indoors as much as possible, the value of digital content is hard to ignore. The internet is helping all of us stay connected to each other, but also to things that give us joy and comfort. By openly licensing content, we aren't just removing the locks from our doors, we are throwing the door wide open and welcoming everyone in.
The book is already available in five languages. And with the CC BY 4.0 license, and the community-based StoryWeaver platform, people all over the world will be able to translate it, or use the images to make their own posters or books, or download a PDF and share it with people.
Multilingual. Generous. Collaborative. Worldwide.
When open licensing is done right, it can do wonders.
Read, download, translate ‘The Novel Coronavirus: We Can Stay Safe’ on StoryWeaver here.
A big thank you to the wonderful team of creators and experts who made this possible.
The book is written and illustrated by Bijal Vachharajani, Deepa Balsavar, Jayesh Sivan, Lavanya Naidu, Maegan Dobson Sippy, Meera Ganapathy, Nimmy Chako, Priya Kuriyan, Rajiv Eipe, Renuka Rajiv, Sanjana Kapur, Sheena Deviah and Sunaina Coelho. Thank you to Anirban Mahapatra, Dr N S Prashanth, Shambhavi Naik and Dr Tanya Seshadri for their help with fact-checking.
फॉंटच्या जाचकतेतून अखेर मुक्ती
Posted by Remya Padmadas on October 13, 2017
Sushrut Kulkarni, has 20 years experience in the field of computer networks and websites. He is a technical writer and translates and writes in Marathi, Hindi, English and German. He writes for various reputed publishers, newspapers, documentaries and radio.
One of the major technical hurdles for regional languages was fonts. That sphere was dominated by proprietary and non-standard fonts.
मराठी आणि अन्य भारतीय भाषांना कॉंप्युटरवर रुळायला बराच काळ जावा लागला. याचं मुख्य कारण म्हणजे फॉंट वापरण्यातले तांत्रिक (आणि आर्थिकही!) अडथळे होते. सुरुवातीला केवळ वृत्तपत्रं आणि प्रकाशनसंस्थांकडेच कॉंप्युटरवर मुद्रण या मुख्य उद्देशानं मराठी वापरलं जात असे. वेगवेगळ्या कंपन्यांनी तयार केलेले फॉंट वेगवेगळ्या प्रमाणांवर आधारित असल्यानं एका कॉम्प्युटरवर टाईप केलेलं दुसऱ्याला त्याच्या कॉम्प्युटरवर वाचणं अनेकदा शक्यच होत नसे. दरवेळी फॉंट बसवणं किंवा ते विकत घेणं शक्य नव्हतं. यामुळं प्रादेशिक भाषांमधलं लेखन इंटरनेटवर उपलब्ध व्हायलाही खूप वेळ लागू लागला.
यावर उपाय सापडला तो युनिकोडच्या (Unicodeच्या) रुपानं! युनिकोड ही जगातल्या कुठल्याही कॉम्प्युटरवर (किंवा मोबाईल फोनवर) वाचता येईल अशी एक लिहिण्याची पद्धत आहे. कॉम्प्युटर क्षेत्रातील काही कंपन्यांनी आणि तज्ज्ञांनी एकत्र येऊन ३ जानेवारी १९९१ रोजी युनिकोड कॉन्सर्टियमची स्थापना अमेरिकेत केली. या सर्वांनी मिळून फॉन्टसाठी एक विशिष्ट मानक (स्टॅंडर्ड) बनवलं. यापुढं फॉन्टस्‍चा जो विकास आहे तो या युनिकोड आधारावर होईल असं ठरवण्यात आलं. त्यामुळं कुठल्याही फॉन्टमध्ये जगातल्या अनेक भाषा सामावता येऊ लागल्या. आता बहुसंख्य युनिकोड फॉंट नि:शुल्क उपलब्ध असल्याने इंटरनेटवर इंग्रजीखेरीज अन्य भाषांमध्ये देवाणघेवाण मोठ्या प्रमाणावर शक्य झालेली आहे.
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The Rosetta Foundation and StoryWeaver
Posted by Remya Padmadas on February 20, 2017
The Rosetta Foundation was launched on September 21, 2009, at the Action for Global Information Sharing (AGIS) ’09 Conference in Limerick, Ireland, by the President of the University of Limerick, Professor Don Barry. Its primary purpose is to make information available to individuals all over the world irrespective of their social status, linguistic or cultural background, and geographical location. The organisation's name is based on the Rosetta Stone. In 196 BC, the text of the Rosetta Stone was carved in Egyptian and Greek using three scripts - Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek. The Rosetta Stone was written in these scripts to make sure that everyone in the world at the time could understand it. The Stone was discovered in 1799 in a small Egyptian village called Rosetta, which gave the stone its name. We spoke to Stefania Tringali, Production Coordinator about the foundation's work work and their collaboration with StoryWeaver.
What is your mission?
We work to relieve poverty, support healthcare, develop education and promote justice through equal access to information and knowledge across the languages of the world. Like the Rosetta Stone, the aim of The Rosetta Foundation is to provide equal access to information to as many people as possible.
Why is translation / making the world more open and inclusive so important?
We believe access to information in your own language is a fundamental and universal human right – one that The Rosetta Foundation is committed to preserve and protect.The multilingual information we facilitate makes a real difference in people’s lives. But the reality is that nearly three-quarters of the world’s population still has no access to vital information in their own language. The Rosetta Foundation will continue working hard on their behalf in 2017 and beyond, because access to information in your own language is a fundamental human right.
How are StoryWeaver and The Rosetta Foundation's mission and purpose aligned?
StoryWeaver and The Rosetta Foundation have worked together on six translation projects for a children’s book series into seven languages. We believe that we have a lot in common in our mission and vision. Both of our organisations work for equal access to the intellectual resources and believe that languages shouldn’t be an obstacle in this process. It was a great pleasure for us to work together and cooperate for the “Freedom to Read” campaign: it was a great chance for our volunteers to use their skills to promote equality and empower children all over the world.
The Rosetta Foundation logo is by Source, fair use: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27129018)
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