Software

• Drawing SMC Logo Using Metapost: Santhosh Thottingal shares an experiment to draw the SMC logo using metapost code.

Research

Santhosh Thottingal  presented his reserach paper on Parametric type design in the era of variable and color fonts at the Graphematik 2024 Conference. The talk was all about integrating  Donald Knuth's ideas in MetaFont and subsequently in MetaPost (often seen as legacy techniques from the pre-GUI era of type design) to modern trends of variable fonts.  The story on the creation two variable, color fonts Malini and Nupuram was explained in detail with the methodology, workflow, and insights gained from this process.

In News

• The first book printed in Indian language types turns 446 years.

• Google launches new competition to finetune Gemma to local languages and contexts. Details here.
• Zerodha announces FLOSS/fund: $1M per year for free and open source projects.
• A report on the cyber attack on Internet Archive.
• Tulu language gets its Wiktionary and  Wikisource  Tulu Wiktionary. A news report on same is here.

Community Notes and Events

• Debutsav 2024 was held at Model Engineering College , Thrikkakara on 2nd October 2024

• A two day national seminar was  organized by Tapasam (താരതമ്യപഠനസംഘം), at Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady along with a memorial lecture on Scaria Zacharia on OCtober 1, 2 2024. The seminar focused on the theme "Changing Technologies and the Malayalam Language (മാറുന്ന സാങ്കേതികവിദ്യകളും മലയാള ഭാഷയും)". Presentations  "Wikis and Knowledge Sharing in Digital Malayalam"(വിക്കിയും വൈജ്ഞാനിക വിനിമയങ്ങളും ഡിജിറ്റൽ മലയാളത്തിൽ) by Manoj Karingamadathil, ‘Malayalam in Unicode: Some Linguistic and Cultural Thoughts (യൂണിക്കോഡിലെത്തിയ മലയാളം: ചില ഭാഷാസാംസ്കാരിക വിചാരങ്ങൾ)’ by Kavya Manohar,  Malayalam Typography: Past and the Present (മലയാളം ടൈപ്പോഗ്രാഫി ചരിത്രവും വർത്തമാനവും) by Suresh Suruma, ഡിജിറ്റൈസേഷൻ എന്ത്, എന്തിന്, എങ്ങനെ by Shiju Alex, ഭാഷാസാങ്കേതികവിദ്യയും മലയാളത്തിന്റെ മാറ്റങ്ങളും by Prof.Achuthsankar S. Nair were part of the Seminar series.

• The 3rd Wikimedia Technology Summit (WTS 2024) was held at Hyderabad, India on October 4, 5 2024. Manoj Karingamadathil, Jinoy Jacob, Ranjith Siji etc participated from the Wkimedians of Kerala User Group and FOSS Community. Manoj Karingamadathil shared the story of Open Data Kerala Project "Connecting Data Inspiring Change". Ranjithsiji offered a workshop on "Tools and Gadgets for Editing Wikipedia, Commons and Wikidata" and Jinoy Jacob (Gnoeee) offered the "OpenRefine Workshop: Working with wikitext and structured data on Wikimedia Commons".

According to Manoj Karingamadathil,
The Wikimedia Technology Summit 2024, hosted by the International Institute of Information Technology - Hyderabad (IIIT-H), was a rewarding experience for our volunteers. We were warmly welcomed onto the IIIT campus and had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Jawahar and Dr. Rajakrishnan, both esteemed researchers in linguistics and machine learning. The team was equally delighted to connect with CK Raju, a prominent figure deeply engaged with the Swathanthra Malayalam Computing Community.

• Anish Anilkumar was a panelist at Drupal Camp Pune discussing  'Fostering Growth of Drupal Communities in India'.  He shared the issues faced by local communities, along with some insights and future outlook.

According to Anish,

It was an informative discussion, which gave a new energy to organize community activities. I was able to highlight Kerala's unique communities and activities, along with issues and opportunities we face.

• A Wikimedia workshop has been organised at Thrissur by Wikimedians of Kerala User Group and Sahya Digital Conservation Foundation to train new contributors and engage existing ones on Wikimedia projects. The event was held at Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, Thrissur on 12-13 Oct 2024.

• The WikiGranthaShala community is excited to resume its typing efforts on Malayalam Wikisource (വിക്കിഗ്രന്ഥശാല). You can contribute  by typing a few pages from Thiruvithamkoor Charitram (History of Travancore), a book created by S. Subrahmanya Iyer, the Second Teacher at the Kottayam Girls' High School Practicing Branch, is now available for transcribing. Originally printed in 1899 at the Sree Shanmukhavilas Press in Thiruvananthapuram. For clarifications/help join the Telegram group: https://t.me/+t9_PWuHAKPUzNTg0

• Final results of the Wiki Loves Onam 2024 photography campaign which took place on Wikimedia Commons from 1st September 2024 to 30th September 2024. You can have a glimpse of the winners at the commons winners page (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Onam_2024/Winners).
• The Wikimedians of Kerala User Group has submitted a bid to host WikiConference India 2025. If you are interested in Wikipedia, you can share your opinion and support. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2025/City_Selection/Interests#Kochi
• Wordpress Kerala Community Announce WordCamp Kerala and the event will take place in the historic coastal city of Kozhikode on November 9, 2024 (Saturday) at the Malabar Marina Convention Centre. https://kerala.wordcamp.org/2024/. Anish Anilkumar will speak on "Malayalam Localization in WordPress" at the event.
• The Wikidata project's 12th anniversary and the KDE project's 28th anniversary were celebrated together at  IBM,Infopark, Kochi. The Kochi Foss community and Wikimedians of Kerala user group jointly organized a cake-cutting ceremony to mark these special occasions. Clicks by Dharwishr and is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

• State of Map (SotM) Kerala 2024 (16-17 Nov) will be held at Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU), Wayanad. SotM Kerala is the annual gathering of OpenStreetMap Volunteers in the region and Submit your proposal of Talks & Workshop and be part of the movement! Submit your proposals by 4th Nov 2024.
• Hiran Venugopalan donates Rs. 10,2000 for CMDRF through the design mentoring fundraiser.