[Wikisource-l] QR Codes for Wikisource texts

Discussion:

Bodhisattwa Mandal

2017-07-06 12:32:40 UTC

Hi all,

Can we create a Wikisource specific QR code generator tool for the NS0
pages?

People often forget the urls or sometimes doesn't know the way to search
texts in Wikisource. If we can generate qr codes, that would also benefit
libraries from remote places or readers who don't have computers in their
possession .

I think it will definitely increase the viewership of the site to a
significant amount. What's your opinion regarding this?

Regards,
Bodhisattwa

Asaf Bartov

2017-07-07 02:22:18 UTC

Permalink

Certainly, this can be done.

Could you elaborate a little more about the use scenarios you are imagining?

A.

On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 5:32 AM Bodhisattwa Mandal <

Post by Bodhisattwa Mandal
Hi all,
Can we create a Wikisource specific QR code generator tool for the NS0
pages?
People often forget the urls or sometimes doesn't know the way to search
texts in Wikisource. If we can generate qr codes, that would also benefit
libraries from remote places or readers who don't have computers in their
possession .
I think it will definitely increase the viewership of the site to a
significant amount. What's your opinion regarding this?
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
_______________________________________________
Wikisource-l mailing list
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikisource-l

Bodhisattwa Mandal

2017-07-07 05:22:11 UTC

Permalink

Hi,

There has been significant decline in library readerships in India.
Libraries are remaining almost empty throughout the day. I believe, that is
because, with the increasing usage of internet, there has been a change in
behaviour about reading physical books. People are preferring to remain
online and get information from the internet, rather than to stay in a
library and study there. The libraries are not also coping with this
scenario and not upgrading themselves, and losing readers.

Also, the smart phone penetration in India is also increasing. It has been
estimated almost one third of Indian citizens will use smart phone by 2019
and that's a huge number. Nowadays, many people who do not have computers,
have smartphones with cheaper internet than before. But many of them
doesn't know how to search a book in internet, even if does find some book,
tends to forget the urls, and unfortunately almost nobody knows anything
about Wikisource, even from the academy.

Now, if we have a QR code generation system for Wikisource, we can
collaborate with the town libraries or college libraries, send them the
codes and help them build a QR code library of books. They can give the
codes to readers according to their demands, which will redirect them to
Wikisource. We can also generate QR codes for every book we work on and
upload them to Commons with a suitable title, creating a QR code library
ourselves, thus making the codes google searchable and accessible to the
readers. In every case, the viewership of the site will increase.

Regards,

Post by Asaf Bartov
Certainly, this can be done.
Could you elaborate a little more about the use scenarios you are imagining?
A.
On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 5:32 AM Bodhisattwa Mandal <

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Gerard Meijssen

2017-07-07 05:32:43 UTC

Permalink

Hoi,
In Reasonator every item incuding content from Wikibooks have their QR-code.
Thanks,
GerardM

https://tools.wmflabs.org/reasonator/?&q=237572

Post by Bodhisattwa Mandal
Hi,
There has been significant decline in library readerships in India.
Libraries are remaining almost empty throughout the day. I believe, that is
because, with the increasing usage of internet, there has been a change in
behaviour about reading physical books. People are preferring to remain
online and get information from the internet, rather than to stay in a
library and study there. The libraries are not also coping with this
scenario and not upgrading themselves, and losing readers.
Also, the smart phone penetration in India is also increasing. It has been
estimated almost one third of Indian citizens will use smart phone by 2019
and that's a huge number. Nowadays, many people who do not have computers,
have smartphones with cheaper internet than before. But many of them
doesn't know how to search a book in internet, even if does find some book,
tends to forget the urls, and unfortunately almost nobody knows anything
about Wikisource, even from the academy.
Now, if we have a QR code generation system for Wikisource, we can
collaborate with the town libraries or college libraries, send them the
codes and help them build a QR code library of books. They can give the
codes to readers according to their demands, which will redirect them to
Wikisource. We can also generate QR codes for every book we work on and
upload them to Commons with a suitable title, creating a QR code library
ourselves, thus making the codes google searchable and accessible to the
readers. In every case, the viewership of the site will increase.
Regards,

Post by Asaf Bartov
Certainly, this can be done.
Could you elaborate a little more about the use scenarios you are imagining?
A.
On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 5:32 AM Bodhisattwa Mandal <

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Ilario Valdelli

2017-07-07 05:38:39 UTC

Permalink

In all of your discussion I have not undertood why someone should go to the
library to have a qrcode while it is available online.

Kind regards

Post by Asaf Bartov
Certainly, this can be done.
Could you elaborate a little more about the use scenarios you are imagining?
A.
On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 5:32 AM Bodhisattwa Mandal <

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Wikisource-l mailing list
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikisource-l

Sam Wilson

2017-07-07 05:47:31 UTC

Permalink

I have done this sort of thing (once only, but it was useful I think). It was a report in the local library, that is now on Wikisource, and I slipped a single loose leaf into the front of it that explained that a digital version was available on Wikisource and what address to find it at. That would have been a good place to have a QR code. (Although, it's also a use case that would is served by those library catalogues that permit user annotations, such as http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27433064 .)
As for redirecting to Wikisource based on a QR code, I have an inkling that User:Pigsonthewing and User:Gnangarra were talking recently about a Wikidata-based QRpedia system, that would embed the Wikidata ID into the QR code rather than the Wikipedia page name. Then, the qrpedia software would redirect to the relevant language Wikipedia based on the sitelinks. I imagine that this software (and I'm not sure it exists beyond planning stage yet) would pretty easily be able to instead redirect to Wikisource or any other project.
âSam

In all of your discussion I have not undertood why someone should go to the library to have a qrcode while it is available online.>
Kind regards

There has been significant decline in library readerships in India. Libraries are remaining almost empty throughout the day. I believe, that is because, with the increasing usage of internet, there has been a change in behaviour about reading physical books. People are preferring to remain online and get information from the internet, rather than to stay in a library and study there. The libraries are not also coping with this scenario and not upgrading themselves, and losing readers.>> Also, the smart phone penetration in India is also increasing. It has been estimated almost one third of Indian citizens will use smart phone by 2019 and that's a huge number. Nowadays, many people who do not have computers, have smartphones with cheaper internet than before. But many of them doesn't know how to search a book in internet, even if does find some book, tends to forget the urls, and unfortunately almost nobody knows anything about Wikisource, even from the academy.>> Now, if we have a QR code generation system for Wikisource, we can collaborate with the town libraries or college libraries, send them the codes and help them build a QR code library of books. They can give the codes to readers according to their demands, which will redirect them to Wikisource. We can also generate QR codes for every book we work on and upload them to Commons with a suitable title, creating a QR code library ourselves, thus making the codes google searchable and accessible to the readers. In every case, the viewership of the site will increase.>> Regards,

Could you elaborate a little more about the use scenarios you are imagining?>>>
A.

Can we create a Wikisource specific QR code generator tool for the NS0 pages?>>>> People often forget the urls or sometimes doesn't know the way to search texts in Wikisource. If we can generate qr codes, that would also benefit libraries from remote places or readers who don't have computers in their possession .>>>> I think it will definitely increase the viewership of the site to a significant amount. What's your opinion regarding this?>>>> Regards,
Bodhisattwa
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Bodhisattwa Mandal

2017-07-07 06:02:35 UTC

Permalink

Hi Ilario,

It's related to digital literacy. Not everyone knows about the process of
online search of books or how to find QR codes.

When readers check small libraries for those books, which the libraries
don't have, they return empty handed. Instead, if we provide the libraries
with QR codes, the readers will be satisfied and libraries can retain their
readers.

Regards,

Post by Ilario Valdelli
In all of your discussion I have not undertood why someone should go to
the library to have a qrcode while it is available online.
Kind regards

Post by Bodhisattwa Mandal
Hi,
There has been significant decline in library readerships in India.
Libraries are remaining almost empty throughout the day. I believe, that is
because, with the increasing usage of internet, there has been a change in
behaviour about reading physical books. People are preferring to remain
online and get information from the internet, rather than to stay in a
library and study there. The libraries are not also coping with this
scenario and not upgrading themselves, and losing readers.
Also, the smart phone penetration in India is also increasing. It has
been estimated almost one third of Indian citizens will use smart phone by
2019 and that's a huge number. Nowadays, many people who do not have
computers, have smartphones with cheaper internet than before. But many of
them doesn't know how to search a book in internet, even if does find some
book, tends to forget the urls, and unfortunately almost nobody knows
anything about Wikisource, even from the academy.
Now, if we have a QR code generation system for Wikisource, we can
collaborate with the town libraries or college libraries, send them the
codes and help them build a QR code library of books. They can give the
codes to readers according to their demands, which will redirect them to
Wikisource. We can also generate QR codes for every book we work on and
upload them to Commons with a suitable title, creating a QR code library
ourselves, thus making the codes google searchable and accessible to the
readers. In every case, the viewership of the site will increase.
Regards,

Post by Asaf Bartov
Certainly, this can be done.
Could you elaborate a little more about the use scenarios you are imagining?
A.
On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 5:32 AM Bodhisattwa Mandal <

Post by Bodhisattwa Mandal
Hi all,
Can we create a Wikisource specific QR code generator tool for the NS0
pages?
People often forget the urls or sometimes doesn't know the way to
search texts in Wikisource. If we can generate qr codes, that would also
benefit libraries from remote places or readers who don't have computers in
their possession .
I think it will definitely increase the viewership of the site to a
significant amount. What's your opinion regarding this?
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
_______________________________________________
Wikisource-l mailing list
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikisource-l

_______________________________________________
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Bodhisattwa Mandal

2017-07-08 19:02:18 UTC

Permalink

Italian Wikisource community had a discussion
<https://it.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Wikisource:Bar&oldid=1590896#QR-code_per_le_opere_di_Wikisource>
to deploy Extension:QrCode <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:QrCode>
in 2015, but as it was unmaintained, the task
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T106792> got stalled.

After some digging, I got two more QRCode extensions.
* QRLite <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:QRLite>
* Quick Response <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T50329>

Can anyone suggest if one of these can be deployed?

Post by Bodhisattwa Mandal
Hi Ilario,
It's related to digital literacy. Not everyone knows about the process of
online search of books or how to find QR codes.
When readers check small libraries for those books, which the libraries
don't have, they return empty handed. Instead, if we provide the libraries
with QR codes, the readers will be satisfied and libraries can retain their
readers.
Regards,

Post by Ilario Valdelli
In all of your discussion I have not undertood why someone should go to
the library to have a qrcode while it is available online.
Kind regards

Post by Bodhisattwa Mandal
Hi,
There has been significant decline in library readerships in India.
Libraries are remaining almost empty throughout the day. I believe, that is
because, with the increasing usage of internet, there has been a change in
behaviour about reading physical books. People are preferring to remain
online and get information from the internet, rather than to stay in a
library and study there. The libraries are not also coping with this
scenario and not upgrading themselves, and losing readers.
Also, the smart phone penetration in India is also increasing. It has
been estimated almost one third of Indian citizens will use smart phone by
2019 and that's a huge number. Nowadays, many people who do not have
computers, have smartphones with cheaper internet than before. But many of
them doesn't know how to search a book in internet, even if does find some
book, tends to forget the urls, and unfortunately almost nobody knows
anything about Wikisource, even from the academy.
Now, if we have a QR code generation system for Wikisource, we can
collaborate with the town libraries or college libraries, send them the
codes and help them build a QR code library of books. They can give the
codes to readers according to their demands, which will redirect them to
Wikisource. We can also generate QR codes for every book we work on and
upload them to Commons with a suitable title, creating a QR code library
ourselves, thus making the codes google searchable and accessible to the
readers. In every case, the viewership of the site will increase.
Regards,

Post by Asaf Bartov
Certainly, this can be done.
Could you elaborate a little more about the use scenarios you are imagining?
A.
On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 5:32 AM Bodhisattwa Mandal <

Post by Bodhisattwa Mandal
Hi all,
Can we create a Wikisource specific QR code generator tool for the NS0
pages?
People often forget the urls or sometimes doesn't know the way to
search texts in Wikisource. If we can generate qr codes, that would also
benefit libraries from remote places or readers who don't have computers in
their possession .
I think it will definitely increase the viewership of the site to a
significant amount. What's your opinion regarding this?
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
_______________________________________________
Wikisource-l mailing list
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikisource-l

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--
Bodhisattwa