Indic Wikisource Speak: Dr. Hrishikes Sen

CIS : Tell us about yourself, When did you join Wikimedia movement? And What are the projects you are involved in?

Hrishikes: Joined in March, 2007. In Wikisource since 2012.

CIS : What are the methods or workflow you follow to contribute to your language Wikisource?

Hrishikes: Method: I work slowly; try to give meticulous attention. Don’t skip pages usually. Work page-by-page upto the last, even if a page is problematic. Come back to previously worked pages time and again, and correct any mistake.

CIS : How is the awareness about Wikisource in your language Wikimedia community?

Hrishikes: Awareness is present in the community, but there is disinclination to work in Wikisource, because of templates and other formatting issues.

CIS : We see there’s a growth in Indic Wikisource movement (showing Amir’s stats), what kind of help does the community need to grow?

Hrishikes:  There are plenty of people engaged in digitising Bengali books. Plenty of pirated digitised books are available online. We need to tap into that catchment area. I think, if we can prepare high-grade pdf versions of our completed works and spread those to various online non-wiki reader communities, we are likely to get good contributors.

CIS : What are the challenges do you face while contributing to the project? Or social challenges while reaching out to authors or publishers.

Hrishikes: I like this project. Main issue is getting the time: extracting time from real life commitments. I have not been active in author/publisher liaison.

CIS : How would you describe the future of Wikisource? What are your personal goals for it?

Hrishikes:The main problem is: everybody wants to download books and read them offline. Hardly anyone wants to read online. That attitude is going to stay. So we need to concentrate on giving this to the customers. Books downloaded from our site (transcribed books, not scans) should be of very high quality. If we can achieve this, the future may be good.

CIS : Please share one remarkable work which is available at your domain and you had contributed.

Hrishikes: There are many more ,

• Bengali Wikisource শকুন্তলা (সিগনেট প্রেস সংস্করণ),  রাজমালা (ভূপেন্দ্রচন্দ্র চক্রবর্তী) ,জীবনানন্দ দাশের শ্রেষ্ঠ কবিতা ,ফুলমণি ও করুণার বিবরণ , পোকা-মাকড় , গৌড়রাজমালা ,

• Hindi Wikisource: कपालकुण्डला

• English Wikisource : Chandra Shekhar Collected Physical Papers,  The Bird of Time , Nil Durpan,  Folk-tales of Bengal , The Constitution of India (Original Calligraphed and Illuminated Version) , Calcutta: Past and Present , The History of the Bengali Language ,  The Pālas of Bengal