BhashaIndia Expert Chat #3 Chat Expert : Shubhranshu Choudhary

The third BhashaIndia Expert Chat took place on the 13th of April 2006, between 5:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M. Mr. Shubhranshu Choudhary was the expert featured in the third BhashaIndia Expert chat and he fielded a number of queries related to the following topics in the chat: Management of a Community Website in Hindi Community Building Through Indic Computing Below is the transcript of the chat:

Abhishek[CPM] (Moderator) : Welcome the "Management of a Community Website in Hindi & Community Building through Indic Computing" Chat. The chat will begin at 5:00 PM.

BIChatModerator (Expert) : Dear BhashaIndia Chat participants, its my pleasure to welcome you all to the third edition of the Online Microsoft BhashaIndia Expert Chat with Mr Shubhranshu Choudhary

BIChatModerator (Expert) : It's my privilege to introduce Mr Shubhranshu Choudhary , a media and information professional with a difference. Mr. Shubhranshu Choudhary has extensive experience in the field of journalism, having worked with some of the biggest names in media, such as the Guardian newspaper and the British Broadcasting Corporation. He has also been actively writing for a number of print and online publications. In addition to this, Mr. Shubhranshu Choudhary is the founder of CGNet, a group of people who are working to build community participation in development in the Central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. CGNet aims to achieve this goal through the empowerment of the community through information exchange. They currently run a website www.cgnet.in, which is a bilingual community portal for Chhattisgarh. The site is primarily in Hindi and Chhattisgarhi, which are the two most commonly spoken languages in the region. CGNet runs primarily as an online community through the website and the mailing list, with periodic meeting.

BIChatModerator (Expert) : A few rules:

BIChatModerator (Expert) : Please refrain from sending any private messages to the expert during the chat This chat will last for one hour. During which time, our Experts will respond to as many questions as they can. Please understand that there may be some questions we cannot respond to due to lack of information or because the information is not yet public. We encourage you to submit questions for our Experts. We ask that you stay on topic for the duration of the chat. This helps the Guests and Experts follow the conversation more easily. We invite you to ask off topic questions after this chat is over. Please use the radial button "submit a question" to ask any questions to the expert. The lower right corner, next to the chat input box, is a check box. Please use that for your questions to be logged as a question to the expert. Thanks

BIChatModerator (Expert) : Please use the radial button "submit a question " to ask any questions to the expert. The lower right corner, next to the chat input box, is a check box. Please use that for your questions to be logged as a question to the expert.

BIChatModerator (Expert) : Dear BhashaIndia Chat participants, we request you to start submitting your questions now.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:When did you start using Hindi on your website and what has been your experience with it? A: We started the website around a year back. Apart from the portal, as part of the CGNet project we meet face to face once a year for what we call the "Dream CG meet". In the first dream CG meet we realized that if we shift to local language only then will the junta be able to join us.

Shubhranshu Choudhary(Expert) : Q:How did the idea to form cg net take shape? A: The idea was to have it rooted to the locality hence the birth of CGNet. We would like a duplication of CGNet in all states viz. MPnet, UPnet, Orissnet

Shubhranshu Choudhary(Expert) : Q: What is CGNet? A:CGNet is short of "Chhattisgarh net". It is a Peoples Website of Chhattisgarh state. Please visit http://www.cgnet.in to learn more about CGNet, its members and the work we are doing.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:What were the issues you were faced with, having chosen Hindi as the language for your website? A:Scores of technical problems. For starters, Hindi has so many fonts in use now and to translate from one font to the other was our biggest test. Like initially when we started out, each member used his/her own Hindi font. When such articles are forwarded for posting we were faced with a then Herculean task of having to standardize all the input articles into one unique font, in our case the Mangal font. As you can imagine, we spent more time in sorting out such technical glitches. Font was the biggest problem and it still remains. Many of our users get access to the site only from Internet Cafes, from where they can’t see the site in itself, as all café systems do not come with Unicode support.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:Hi. Do you think that the technological support/availability for Indic language website is better now than when you started? A: Yes definitely. Also we have a number of techies in CGNet. They helped us a lot. Microsoft was very helpful. They provided us with the TBIL converter which was very effective in maintaining the site

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:How do you see the limited availability of Hindi software affecting the popularity of sites like CGNet A:Things are improving from the time we started out. From our point of view, we are mainly associated with the rural community and it would be better if Windows 98 is more Indic language friendly

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:What were the significant achievements of CGNet in last two years and where do you wish to take it from here? A:Cgnet is a Citizen journalism platform...Our aim is to try and get people to start talking as they did in their village Panchayats before. It is a sort of e-Panchayat. And I think we have done well with the membership growing from 0 to 500 plus now.

BhashaIndiaModerator (Expert) : Dear BhashaIndia Chat participants, we request you to kindly wait while Mr. Choudhary finishes answering the query at hand.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:How good is the community participation in CGNET ? Is it possible for someone who does not know English to make effective use of CGNet online platform? A:Community participation has tremendously increased after we included Hindi computing. We can also use Chhattisgarhi which is the local language of Chhattisgarh. Now we are trying to get illiterates to participate with the help of audio and video training as the tribals have a long oral history which is what needs to be promoted. We are trying to get illiterate adivasis (tribals) to come online. We had a training session last month and would like to do many more. We call them barefoot journalists. We feel the last person should make use of technology to leapfrog in front. They can upload audio files, sms and pictures which we are already doing. Apart from that we want the community radio stations when they are up and running, to download from CGNet. This will then be an Online Alternative News platform and the last mile connectivity to the illiterate people will be done by radio where internet connectivity does not penetrate.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:What exactly do you mean when you say that Indic computing will accelerate community building? A:Majority do not know English. And there would be no point in preaching in a foreign tongue. So if we want to make use of technology as a medium for communication for these people - it will have to be in their own language. And once that bond is built, reaching out to one another is more easy, which is what is community building.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:Did you face any issues related to fonts as you're targeting community who may have Win 98 with them? Do you use Unicode in CG NET? A:Yes we do. When we get our inputs in non-Unicode fonts we convert it them to Unicode with the help of TBIL converter. Out site is built completely on Unicode.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:It is your future plan but what motivated you to form cg net. any political ambition in future? A:When people talk that is politics. We feel politics can not be left to Politicians and so is journalism. So we want to use new technology to people to start talking and deciding about their future. CGNet (http://www.cgnet.in) is intended to be a people’s website for the state of Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarh, like most of India has traditionally followed the concept of a gram sabha. Our aim is to bring back the participation of the community in the democratic process through effective communication The major languages spoken are Chhattisgarhi and Hindi, so the medium of communication should be in one of these two languages.

BIChatModerator (Expert) : Dear BhashaIndia Chat paricipants it would be simpler for Mr Shubhranshu Choudhary to answer your questions if we could have the questions a little more slowly.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:Sir, you have stated in your interview that you plan to use CGNET as a base for newsgathering of an alternate nature within the members of the group. How will this start off and how will Indic computing come in useful here? A:We did a survey in Chhattisgarh and found mainstream media gives only 2% space to 10 people's issues we want to work on. Hence we felt the need for an alternative platform. We neither want nor can compete with mainstream media. We raise issues, which mainstream media does not or can not raise.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:But to even use Indic computing, they require a minimalist knowledge of using computers or any gadget for that matter. Are the people willing to step out of their archaic living and experiment with these? A:You are right here. We are trying to teach tribal people in Chhattisgarh the very basic computing skills where by they can go to nearby NIC center and upload their audio recordings etc. Like I have said before, tribals have a strong oral tradition and new technology should help them. Changing one’s lifestyle is no doubt a daunting task, but the interest grows when we teach them how useful technology can be in their lives.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:If asked to summarize some of the major achievements of CGNet , what would they be? A:The major achievements are People have started talking again There is a platform now which is not based on advertising. It is plainly a space for the community, by the community...like our old Panchayat ghar, where we can discuss and decide our own future. CGNet is probably the only online community in India which also meets offline from time to time. We have groups working on 10 people's issues headed by one editor and few members. We would like them to work as a Shadow cabinet for the state... Coverage of Chhattisgarh, in both the national and international media has gone up many folds after CGNet. I see this as a major achievement.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:What help have you got from BhashaIndia in your community building effort? A:BhashaIndia was a big help. We couldn't have done anything without TBIL converter which was kind of god's gift to us. Please have a look at the BhashaIndia site. They have lots of tutorials which help in almost any language problem that you might have with Indic computing.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:Again the bottleneck is the internet connectivity (or the lack of it) in the tribal/rural areas. Do you think the state government needs to invest more of its resources in that direction? Do you have plans to take CGNet beyond the online space? A:We feel that the last mile connectivity can be done only by radio. We can't expect a population where annual average income is less than Rs.10, 000 to have a computer. We feel that every district in the country should have a community radio of their own and the community radio stations should get the news from platforms like CGNet who in turn gather the news from barefoot communicators from all over. The State must work on more connectivity but that alone will not solve the problem. We will always have to mingle with wireless and radio to efficiently reach the masses.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:Could you give us a brief overview of Hindi computing usage at CGNet, in terms of content types and volume of data? A:We would like to keep as much content in Hindi as possible. We have been quite successful in the fulfillment of this aim. But in some districts of Chhattisgarh literacy rate for women is still 20%. Since the state of Chhattisgarh has traditionally had a strong oral culture, we are aiming at ultimately providing most of the content in audio format. We would like this website to be linked with Community Radio stations all over the state. But the government policy on radio limits us. So we rely on text and audio on the website as our primary medium. We host content contributed by members living in Chhattisgarh or outside. Most of it is in Hindi. To maximize access, we are using Microsoft's Indic computing as a standard. The advent of UTF and the Mangal font, along with the tools that support content creation and management on this platform have proved to be very helpful. Contributions are in different fonts and formats. We convert it to the UTF standard, and upload to the website as web pages.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:Do u have any future plan for on-line sale of Chhattisgarh specialties on CG net? A:Yes. We plan to make a Chhattisgarh haat on CGNet. That may work in making CGNet an economic viable experiment. We need to train people on how to use technology. We think farmers and artisans sitting in remote areas can be helped to connect with people sitting in far off areas. For example there are places in Chhattisgarh which have never used chemical fertilizers -now this will be example purest form of organic fertilizer. Instances like this can be promoted through CGNet and that is what we are working towards.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:What tools do you use most often? A:We use a number of tools supported by the Indic framework. For example we use the TBIL font converter to convert between fonts. We have of late used WEFT (Web Embedding Fonts Tool) to embed the fonts that we have used into the page itself in EOT (Embedded Open Type) format to ensure that the end user does not have to download the font. The Hindi IME is available for download at BhashaIndia, which we use extensively now

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:How do you plan to make it viable, free and impartial as a platform and also provide an impact worthy platform by influencing the influencers? A:Chhattisgarh is a Tribal dominated state, rather it was created for its tribal nature, but astonishingly we are yet to find tribal journalists in mainstream media. This probably tells a lot. We would like to train as many people as we can who have concern for the state and would like to work as Citizen Journalists whom we call rural barefoot communicators. We hope this way we can make a more democratic media platform and then community Radio networks when they are legal and up and running will help us reach the last person. So in essence, it is a platform by the last person which also reaches to the last person, with little help of technology and very little money

BIChatModerator (Expert) : Dear BhashaIndia Chat participants, we request you to keep your queries contained to the topic under consideration, in the interest of maintaining the structure of the chat.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:While working with Hindi content, have you come across or developed any shortcuts or tricks to work more efficiently that you would like to share? A:While working with any new tool for languages, it is very important to keep an open mind. One example that comes to mind: Recently we were trying to convert the SV Surya font to Mangal, and direct conversion was not working. With hit and trial one of our members found that. It is possible to convert SV Surya to another font called Kruti Dev and then convert from that to Mangal. These things can only be found out through regular use. But it is very important to stay perseverant and to not give up. Experimentation is a must. These days there are communities like BhashaIndia online, working for Indic Computing, which are proving to be very helpful

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q: How different is hosting language content online from static content in print ? A:With online content, more emphasis can be laid on localization, both geographical as well as in terms of people. Local content can be generated in a manner that is economically feasible. There is really no comparison because so far the commercial media i.e. print and television is driven by advertising and business and is therefore economically unfeasible for people with a small community and small budget. The internet provides a brilliant solution to the economics of spreading information. Also, it enables two way communications, which is more beneficial for community participation.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:How could it be made more feasible for developers to work on Indic Computing? A:Many communities together could probably make the development of software feasible. It may be possible for many communities to combine and fund development on tools which could then be used by everyone. But this will require more participation from people in Indian language computing. We would like clones of CGNet to come up in other states and they can help each other. All the north Indian states including Maharashtra use the same Devanagari script.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:If its an e panchayat, why should this site evade the possibility of making itself viable by offering services? A:I restate what I have said earlier. We want to concentrate on the subjects where mainstream media does not want to venture. But thanks for your suggestion; we shall see how things come forth.

BIChatModerator (Expert): : Dear BhashaIndia Chat participants, we request you to refrain from asking the same question repeatedy. Please wait your turn while Mr Shubhranshu Choudhary finishes answering the query at hand.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:Any plan for a Job search engine? A:Yes, we have a jobs section in CGNet which is getting increasing popular. It is a big way to attract the youth.

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert) : Q:Did you happen to find any methods to ease the usage of Hindi on a portal during your building of CGNet ? A:Using Hindi is still not easy. Lots and lots of work need to go into it. Converters as they are require lot of work too

Abhishek[CPM] (Moderator) : Dear Participants, Thank you for your active and enthusiastic participation. We will continue the series of interactions on the BhashaIndia Expert Chat Series with many more experts to come We thank Mr. Shubhranshu Choudhary for being here with us and answering so many user questions in such a short time

BIChatModerator (Expert) : Dear Participants, Thank you for your active and enthusiastic participation. We will continue the series of interactions on the BhashaIndia Expert Chat Series with many more experts to come We thank Mr. Shubhranshu Choudhary for being here with us and answering so many user questions in such a short time

BIChatModerator (Expert) : Thank you all and we look forward to seeing you at the next chat

Shubhranshu Choudhary (Expert): : Thank you very much, all the participants for your time and patience. Thanks BhashIndia for this opportunity. Have a nice evening. namaste

BIChatModerator (Expert) : Namashkar...and Good Day