Hamare Projects

What are we doing & How are we doing it?

 * Main article: Hamare Projects

As evident from details, the larger Hamari Boli Initiative is conceived as a perpetual enterprise striving towards the goals and objectives outlined above. Starting with Phase-I, several ventures and activities are undertaken and several more are planned and will be floated in due course. Longerm roadmap is divided among successive milestones and phases.

Phase I

 * 1) Hamari Boli Wiki
 * 2) English-to-HamariBoli Wiktionary (10k words)
 * 3) Hamara Translator
 * 4) Desi Answers
 * 5) Peace.HamariBoli.com
 * 6) Desi Consortium for Hamari Boli

Hamari Boli Wiki

 * Main article: Hamari Boli Wiki

Hamari Boli Wiki is the nerve center of all activities, projects, ventures undertaken as part of HB Initiative. As the online hub of all activity, the HB Wiki is the platform where all action happens.

We chose Wikia as it is the most advanced platform with ideal features and excellent support needed to execute an enterprise of this mammoth magnitude. Some important features;


 * 1-click sign-up/sign-in and built-in sharing with Facebook
 * Contributor Profiles and Blogs


 * Discussion Forums, Message Walls & Talk Pages


 * Acheivement Badges


 * Q & A Wiki


 * Extensive Help Documentation


 * Built-in CC Licencing


 * Real-time group chat

Currently in Alpha stage, we're setting up the space and inviting Enthusiasts, Scholars, Academics, Wikians, Bloggers, Developers, Designers, Researchers, Students, Professionals, Universities, Institutions, Companies and Associations etc for formal/informal collaboration on various activities and projects under the larger Hamari Boli Initiative.

Though not yet open for public editing, the Wiki is live and accessible to everyone on internet. Will be opening for public editing on 1st January 2015. Currently we're in the process of;


 * Setting up this Wiki
 * Elaborating and documenting various project details.
 * Enlisting volunteers


 * Constituting working committees and various editorial, admin, design, dev teams, support groups etc.

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 * Forming partnerships and alliances with various related groups, organizations, institutions etc.

Desi WordNet

 * Main article: Desi WordNet

Conceptualized as the definitive Lexical Database / Digital Corpus of Hamari Boli, along the lines of Princeton WordNet and Oxford English Corpus, Desi WordNet is the back-bone of HB Initiative. The ultimate objective is creating the most exhaustive lexical resource for all things Hamari Boli, such as Dictionaries, Corpus, Thesaurus etc.

English-to-Hamari Boli Wiktionary v1.0
Roman Hindi-Urdu is already in vogue and the newer generations are all comfortable using it on web, IMs and SMS -Indians & Pakistanis send over 100Million SMSs daily in Roman-. However, the problem is that there's no standardization and for any standard to be widely agreed upon, there needs to be significant content in it. What better than a Dictionary? An ideal match for the obvious reason that it has the most popular appeal. There are over 150Million internet users in the region (and 50Million+ diaspora) and Google Trends reports 5Million+ 'Dictionary' related searches each month from Indo-Pak! The numbers are only expected to grow in foreseeable future. Who wouldn't just love quality, free dictionaries :)

Therefore, our first undertaking is the Hamari Boli Dictionaries Project , idea is to compile open-source Hamari Boli Dictionaries on this wiki (Eng-to-HB, HB-to-Eng, HB-to-HB, HB-to-Major World Languages, HB-to-Major Regional Languages) and publish in collaboration with Wikimedia Foundation at hb.Wiktionary.org! Having words and meanings of words from both modern Hindi and Urdu in roman script, readers of Devanagari, Perso-Arabic and Roman scripts will all benefit equally.

For example, the entry for "Knowledge" will be;


 * Knowledge
 * = Ilm
 * = Daanish
 * = Idraak
 * = Vidyaa
 * = Gyaan

As above, the full range of Hindi-Urdu is being brought together. All English words have all meanings in Hindi and Urdu. By using the Roman alphabet, it will be accessible to both Nastaliq and Devanagari readers alike and will also be an invaluable resource for new learners of Hamari Boli (Hindi-Urdu).

Version 1: Starting out with 30k+ words compiled by Mr.Waseem Siddiqui, to be transcribed as per Aazad Scheme. We intend to seed version 1.0 with 100k words. Depending on community interest and contribution, the dictionary will keep on expanding like Wikitionary (English Wikitionary at en.wikitionary.org now boasts 2 million plus entries!). New features such as mobile packs, human pronunciation, etymologies, part of speech, synonyms, antonyms, specialized dictionaries etc and support for regional Desi languages and other major world languages will be added in later versions.

Hamara Translator
The web version will not be available offline. Enabling offline access will require a client application like Babylon and Lingoes Translator. Hamara Translator is conceptualized as a 1-Click Desktop Dictionary Look-up Application for offline and program independent access to above published dictionary. Just as Babylon, it will enable instant point n click lookup functionality for any word, anywhere on screen, online AND offline!

Dictionary packs i.e. updates, specialized dictionaries (legal, medical, financial... -- based on wiki) etc. will be released regularly to be used with Hamara Translator.

Hamara Literature
Weighing the current trends, argument can be made that all world languages are being romanized. The process is neither controllable nor reversible. Already waning, it wont be far-fetched to imagine a future where new generations wont recognize neither Devanagari nor Nastaleeq. If that is what is to happen eventually, we must start preserving our literary heritage by transcribing to Roman NOW!

"Hamara Literature" is a straight-forward wiki-based digital preservation platform consisting of simply transcribing Devanagari-Nastaliq works to roman and publishing on this Wiki. Starting with public domain works such as Alif-Laila, Bagho-Bahar, Fasana-e Azad, Kabeer and Nazeer Akbar Abadi's works, over time we aim to digitize entire public domain Hindi-Urdu literature. Will be later extended with a collaborative literary history of Hamari Boli.

Shades of Hamari Boli
A wiki based audio-visual speech corpus of Hamari Boli, documenting and preserving all the many different accents and styles of Hindi-Urdu spoken across South Asia and Desi diaspora worldwide. The inspiration for this came from Amir Khan's groundbreaking and landmark show Satya Mev Jayate where scores of participants from across India recounted their experiences in their native accent and style of Hamari Boli. Besides being phenomenally remarkable in all respects, SMJ content is also invaluable from a linguistic perspective. Ideally, we'd like to start with clips from SMJ Season 1 published on this wiki in "Shades of Hamari Boli" categroy with standard speech corpus data. For this we need permission and would like to request the great Amir Khan and SMJ team on behalf of all Desis to consider releasing season 1 content, research and data under Creative Commons and offer full assistance in open-sourcing the SMJ revolution.

Desi Peace Stimulus

 * Main article: Desi Peace Stimulus

Indo-Pak conflict is the most explosive nuclear threat in the world today. The decades long vendettea is the result of cunning cultivation of enmity thru Education and Media by the establishment and political class. A major problem in bilateral relations is extremely negative sentiments among common-folk, due to establishment propaganda & lack of popular interaction, which the hawks on both sides exploit for political gain. Cross border travel is a nightmare, due to state policies. However, with the spread of mobiles, internet and television, the information stranglehold by establishments is no longer possible and newer generations of Pakistanis and Indians are slowly waking up to reality.

People-to-People communication is an entirely new phenomenon in the context of Indo-Pak relations and is gaining momentum since 2008. The South Asian Region --Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka-- is home to about 1.7Billion people and is one of the fastest growing economic regions with more than 60% population under 25. More than 60% mobile penetration and IT is booming everywhere. India is one of the BRICS nations, and since 2000s, the general economic growth have created a very large urban middle class that is eager to change old politics, willing to look beyond the status quo, optimistic about the fruits of modernization and economic growth and also ever more equipped with tools to voice their opinion and drive large-scale social and economic change.

Social Media and internet in general has already changed how common indians and pakistanis connect and communicate directly. More that 175,000 indians and pakistanis interact daily on Facebook alone, something that was unimaginable only a few years back as cross-border travel has been almost impossible since at least 1965. The civil society on both sides has been very responsive and should be aplauded for seizing the opportunity in time and taking initiatives for creating dialogue across the board. Organizations and initiatives like Aman ki Asha, IPSS and Romancing the Border are most energetically creating awareness and platforms to articulate and propagate the case for Indo-Pak friendship and coopereation.

Another important feature of the trend is the level of diaspora engagement, who in general have better intercultural exposure and are more connected and active on social media. The 50Million+ South Asian diaspora is the 2nd largest after Chinese, and has become a significant force in its own right. With social media and open-source, they are far better informed and equipped with tools to contribute in more active and positive roles towards the shared goal of regional development and security by promoting and popularizing greater South Asian awareness and solidarity.

All of the above creates a very conductive, promising and optimistic environment for creating political will by shaping and driving popular opinion in favour of normalizing ties between India and Pakistan. In this age of Media and hyper-connectivity, public opinion is most crucial in shaping government policies, therefore, in our opinion, public diplomacy is the single most significant contributor in determining the future of the nascent wave of goodwill, what we call the Desi Peace Stimulus. We believe that now is the time to expand the scope and reach of the budding Indo-Pak peace stimulus by inviting and involving all South Asian nations and channelling into a Pan South Asian Peoples Movement for greater regional security and economic development. With various ventures and initiatives under HB initiative, we aim to facilitate and nurture the invaluable trend by;
 * Advocating and promoting the case for Indo-Pak peace as a prerequisite for overall South Asian development and security.


 * Creating opportunities and platforms for people to people communication and collaboration engaging not only Indians & Pakistanis but all Desis equally on open-source ventures of equal value for all.


 * Practically visualizing the bountiful future that greater South Asian cooperation and collaboration promises with opensource research media (videos, infographics, animations etc)

Current initiatives under DPS are;
 * Documenting the entire peace stimulus with Wiki based open-text and audio-visual archives, tracking, analysing and sharing results using Open Data model.

Seventh Official UN Language
South Asia is home to 1.7Billion Desis and 400+ regional languages, written using 20+ distinct writing systems. Just like Mandarin, Hamari Boli is the most widely spoken and used language in the Indo-Pak subcontinent and With 1Billion+ speakers worldwide, ranks only 2nd to Mandarin. Just as Arabic is the language of the Arab World, Hamari Boli is the lingua franca of the Desi World. Not just Indo-Pak but entire South Asia indeed i.e. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Mauritius, Srilanka, Afghanistan and the 50Mn+ Desi Diaspora worldwide. The very name "Hamari Boli" (Our Langauge) is neither Shudh Hindi nor Saaf Urdu and brings an air of familiarity for all desis and reinforces the idea of it being "The Desi Lingua Franca". Recognition and adoption of Hamari Boli as the 7th Official UN Language will greatly help creating a pan South Asian awareness leading to greater Desi solidarity.

Desi Consortium for Hamari Boli

In light of the above, Hamari Boli undeniably deserves being adopted as the 7th Official UN Language. We're petitioning the UN in this regard, undertaking and offering full assistance in terms of funds and all the many project needs. To the end, we're setting up a formal consortium dedicated to HB adoption, strongly urging and inviting all SAARC governements to join the "Desi Consortium for Hamari Boli", the formal body constituted to pursue, advocate and promote the case for Hamari Boli to be adopted as an official UN language alongside Arabic, Chinese ( Mandarin), English, French, Russian & Spanish.

Kicking off the consortium on the occasion of Indo-Pak's 65th independence anniversary, with an online petition requesting the United Nations on behalf of all Desis. Please sign and share with everyone you know.

Peace.HamariBoli.com
Sub-domain as part of Stanford Peace Innovation Lab's PeaceDOT initiative. Developed as a portal covering happenings under DPS, here we'll be publishing reports, resources, directories and indexes related to DPS.

Aman Pages
A wikipedia style encyclopedia documenting DPS with articles in Hamari Boli about related organizations, initiatives, publications, individuals, events, projects, ventures etc

Desi Language Labs
Starting with "Hamara Translator", Desi Language Labs is a language tools development platform, specializing in open source Apps/APIs for use with HB Wiki content & data, Translation & Transliteration engines, language localization software/web tools and services for organizations, companies, institutions and governments.

Hamara Translator v1.0 is DLLs first undertaking, will be extended later into a Complete Applications Suite for seamless & effortless 1-click Dictionary lookup across devices and operating systems with apps for Mobiles, iPads/Tablets, iPhones etc.

As everything else, all content and data is opensource..

Open Desi Initiative

 * Main article: Open Desi Initiative

As affirmed above, one of the overarching objectives of the Hamari Boli Initiative is to address the Indo-Pak Education Emergency. We believe that the traditional modes, methods and channels of education are bloated with establishment propaganda and all kind of other bureucratic non-sense. Still almost entirely neglected in Indo-Pak, free, open-source textbooks like FlexBooks, content like Wikipedia, Instructional Media & evalutation tech like the Khan Academy are most promising approaches to ensure same quality education to everyone, everywhere at a fraction of cost and hassle than what the traditional system requires. That is what we hope to accomlish under the ODI banner over next three years with the following;

Desi Educators Network
Online platform for educators, academics, social entrepreneurs, policy makers, students and parents to collaborate towards developing and distributing open-source curricula for primary and secondary students in South Asia.

Open-source Text Books
A hybrid of FlexBooks and Wikibooks models. Neatly organized in curricula format and freely available via internet. Written in a "Modernized Hamari Boli" these textbooks will be arranged such that teachers and students following various primary & secondary curricula will be able to find all material required to master respective curriculum. Initial focus will be completing science subjects for Primary and Secondary standards in Hamari Boli. HB Books will in turn inspire and galvanize similar initiatives among other Desi languages

Language Learning
Proficiency in English language is almost a must for a successful academic and professional career anywhere in South Asia. In recent years, English teaching has become a very profitable business and hundreds of thousands of students spend countless money and efforts into learning it thru overcharged books/media and so-called 'Language Institutes' mushrooming everywhere. We'll be adapting/developing free, open-source books, instructional media (videos, animations etc) and testing platform for English learning in Hamari Boli for all Desi learners. Same model will be replicated rightafter for Hamari Boli learning material

Khan Academy Hamari Boli
Hamari Boli version of the world famous "www.KhanAcademy.org",



<p style="font-size:13px;">The first ever global classroom, available 24x7 online, absolutely free to everyone, everywhere! already being hailed as "the Next Revolution in Education", Khan Academy brings the best quality education to everyone regardless of cultural or class backgorund..

<p style="font-size:13px;">Ultimate objective is to port the entire English Khan Academy Platform (Videos + Testing + Evaluation + Reporting) to www.KhanAcademyHamariBoli.com for Desi Learners & Teachers worldwide.. just as Khan Academy, Khan Academy Hamari Boli will also be 100% Free & Open-source for everyone, everywhere!

Hamari Boli Wikipedia
Who doesnt love Wikipedia! An invaluable blessing for knowledge seekers everywhere. In fact the HB Initiative started with a very simple idea of translating the English wiki into Roman Hindi-Urdu, research for which led to the genesis of Hamari Boli. HB translation of English Wikipedia is our most goal in the long-run. However, getting there needs the WordNet and Aazaad Standard thoroughly worked out.