Type of site Non Profit Owner Sahapedia.org Website www.sahapedia.org | Available in English Revenue Non Profit | |
Slogan(s) An Open Encyclopedia on Indian Culture and Heritage | ||
Sahapedia is an open online multimedia knowledge resource[i] on the arts, cultures and histories of India (and broadly, South Asia) based on both curated and crowd-sourced content. ‘Saha’ (Sanskrit for ‘together with’), is an invitation to explore together the richness of the cultural landscape. On the Sahapedia portal people can read articles, watch videos, listen to interviews, and browse image galleries. Users can also explore historic sites and natural spaces through virtual walks, timelines and interactive maps.[ii] It is both a resource and a platform in that registered users may log into a personal work space from where they can submit material for curation and form communities of interest. It is also an online archive that hosts a library, cultural events calendar and news.
History
Sahapedia was registered as a not-for-profit Society in June 2011 under the Societies Act of 1860. S. Ramadorai (Former Vice Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services, and Chairman, National Skills Development Agency) is the President and mentor of Sahapedia. Sudha Gopalakrishnan (Founder Director, 2003–07, National Mission for Manuscripts, Government of India and UNESCO-empanelled expert on intangible cultural heritage) is the Vice President and Executive Director of Sahapedia.
The organization is guided by a panel of advisors who are eminent scholars and experts. Since the inception of the project in 2010, a qualified team of researchers and designers based in New Delhi has been working to develop Sahapedia. The team has established the conceptual, design and legal framework of the project. Sahapedia has had an active online presence for the last three years, and it has received positive feedback from users. Based on this, information architecture and development experts worked together to build Sahapedia’s unique technology platform, which was launched on April 23, 2016.[i]
Vision
Sahapedia’s goals are to inform, educate and act. It aims to foster knowledge, encourage engagement and generate action towards understanding and revitalising the diverse aspects of Indian culture. It envisions itself as an open resource which facilitates conversations between scholars and students, artists and enthusiasts, and serves as a platform for independent researchers and collectors. The encyclopedia seeks to make the best use of the digital medium’s potential for cross-referencing across domains and subjects, encouraging non-linear exploration that illuminates new connections and new ramifications. It also integrates activities and services including research, documentation, digitisation and conservation.[i]
Mission
The organization is working on areas like developing a digital library (monographs, out-of-print scholarly work, old journals, unpublished reports); linking with online archives of texts, recordings, translation; curating material that makes tourism more meaningful, creating resources for education responsive to local histories and needs, developing scholarly resources (editing online journals, teaching old scripts online), and making the best use of digital interactives to explain formal techniques in fields such as music, architecture, textile, etc. The idea is to create ‘a movement for engaging with culture, as the collective legacy of people, by encouraging local documentation and upload on Sahapedia.’[i]
Work
The core of Sahapedia is the encyclopedia that addresses ten domains: the areas covered come under the categories of Knowledge Traditions, Visual and Material Arts, Performing Arts, Literature and Languages, Practices and Rituals, Histories, Institutions, People, and Natural Environment. The research and editorial team identify subjects for the encyclopaedia, visit libraries and consult experts to arrive at an outline for its treatment, write to scholars for articles or request them for interviews, go on field visits for documentation and compile links to online resources and suggestions for further reading. Sahapedia also works with affiliates who are experts in their field and can curate modules that cover various aspects of a particular subject.
Ongoing Projects
Oral history: Documents interactions with artists, scholars and practitioners. The project also records performances, events, activities, lectures, demonstrations and seminars.
Library: Makes available archival material relating to history, literature, music and the performing arts under the Creative Share-alike License.
Built heritage: Documents heritage sites and spaces in India with a view to covering both academic studies and experiential accounts.
Maps project: Encourages people to participate in the cultural mapping of India and South Asia by marking cultural sites, forms, practices and events in their areas.
Heritage education: It has partnered in the Heritage Education efforts of the Central Board of Secondary Education involving 12,900 schools, by creating an interactive web resource for children on the CBSE website.[i] Besides, the collaboratively-created encyclopedia database will be available as an offline tool for distance and rural education.
Institutional collaborations: Sahapedia is in partnership with numerous national and international organisations with regard to specific projects. Collaborations have been forged with the Ministry of Culture, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Archaeological Survey of India, the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, National School of Drama, the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the International Information Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region, UNESCO.[ii]
External Links
Sahapedia.org, Official website
Youtube,
Facebook,
Twitter,