Open Source Related Activities for Non-STEM Branches¶
Our team worked on this list as part of Youth Dreamers Foundation's work to support colleges (STEM and Non-STEM) in Bihar.
| Department | Beginner tasks | Tools/devices needed |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising, Sales Promotion and Sales Management | 1) Create open-source marketing templates (campaign briefs, content calendars). 2) Digitise and annotate public domain advertising archives to build open datasets. |
Phone/computer, free design app (Canva free tier or GIMP), browser |
| Ancient History, Culture & Archaeology | 1) Photograph a nearby monument, mazar or temple (Nalanda, Vikramshila, Vaishali, or one in your own town) and upload it to Wikimedia Commons under a free licence. 2) Mark a monument or a detail related to it on OpenStreetMap. Use the StreetComplete app or the OpenStreetMap editor, which asks simple questions and needs no map-editing skill. |
Smartphone camera, Wikimedia/OpenStreetMap account, StreetComplete app |
| B.Com Accounts | 1) Try out GnuCash. 2) Map local banks, ATMs and accounting firms on OpenStreetMap. 3) Read about your state's budget on PRS. |
Phone/computer, LibreOffice Calc, browser |
| Bachelor of Business Administration | 1) Document a local shop or Jeevika group's business story and publish it under a free licence. 2) Clean and share a local market price list in a spreadsheet. Try out GnuCash. |
Phone/computer, LibreOffice Calc, browser |
| Bachelor of Business Management | 1) Interview a local entrepreneur and publish an open, sourced write-up. | Phone, browser, LibreOffice |
| Bachelor of Computer Application | 1) Try Scratch, a block-based tool with no typing required, to build a small project celebrating a Bihar festival, and share it on the Scratch community. 2) Write a hello-world program in your favourite programming language. |
Computer/tablet, browser, free Scratch/GitHub accounts |
| Bachelor of Library & Information Science | 1) Add your college or local library's book list to Open Library. 2) Scan and upload a public domain Bihar-related old book to Wikisource or the Internet Archive. |
Phone scanning app or scanner, browser, Wikimedia account |
| Bachelor of Tourism & Travel Management | 1) Write or expand the Wikivoyage guide for your town or a nearby heritage site with practical tips. 2) Mark local hotels, dhabas or bus stands on OpenStreetMap with StreetComplete. 3) Upload good tourism photos to Wikimedia Commons. |
Smartphone with GPS, camera, StreetComplete app, Wikimedia account |
| Bengali | 1) Document local stories in Bengali. 2) Record a few Bengali sentences for Common Voice. |
Browser, on-screen Bengali keyboard, Common Voice/Wikimedia accounts |
| Biology | 1) Photograph a plant, bird or insect near your home and upload it to iNaturalist, adding one record to Bihar's biodiversity map. Or just visit iNaturalist and understand how it works. 2) Upload a clear photo of a common local species to Wikimedia Commons and link it from its Wikipedia article. |
Smartphone camera, iNaturalist app, Wikimedia account |
| Biotechnology | 1) Photograph a local crop pest or disease sample for Wikimedia Commons. | Smartphone, browser, Wikimedia account |
| Botany | 1) Photograph local flora (litchi, sal, mango or banyan) and upload it to iNaturalist or Wikimedia Commons. 2) List the plants in your college garden in a LibreOffice spreadsheet and share it publicly. |
Smartphone camera, iNaturalist app, LibreOffice Calc |
| Chemistry | 1) Photograph common lab equipment and release the images on Wikimedia Commons for other students to use. 2) Publish your syllabus publicly. |
Phone, browser, Wikimedia account |
| Economics (Rural & General) | 1) Add current Bihar facts (per capita income, main crops, Jeevika coverage) to Wikipedia with a citation to the Economic Survey of Bihar. 2) Clean a village-level government dataset from data.gov.in, CityFinance or Data For India in a spreadsheet, correcting spellings and blanks. 3) Mark your local haat or mandi on OpenStreetMap. 4) Build and publish open economic visualisations using rawgraphs.io. |
Computer, LibreOffice Calc, browser, Wikimedia/OpenStreetMap/RAWGraphs account |
| Education | 1) Translate a children's storybook into Hindi, Maithili or Bhojpuri on StoryWeaver. 2) Publish your college's curriculum online on GitHub or a wiki. |
|
| Environment and Water Management | 1) Map ponds, handpumps and drains or other features in your village on OpenStreetMap with StreetComplete or other relevant tools, useful given Bihar's flood and groundwater concerns. 2) Write a guide on water conservation for your local community using LibreOffice. |
Smartphone with GPS, StreetComplete app, browser, LibreOffice |
| Environmental Science | 1) Record a wildlife or plant sighting near you on iNaturalist. 2) Log a littering or waste hotspot with a geo-tagged photo on OpenLitterMap. |
Smartphone with GPS, iNaturalist/OpenLitterMap apps and accounts |
| Geography | 1) Map your village's roads, ponds or embankments on OpenStreetMap with StreetComplete, which helps flood planning along the Ganga or Kosi. 2) Photograph and geo-tag a local landmark for Wikimedia Commons. 3) Check out projects on CoRE Stack. |
Smartphone with GPS, StreetComplete app, Wikimedia account |
| Hindi | 1) Proofread an old Bihar-related book on Hindi Wikisource. 2) Translate a children's storybook into Hindi on StoryWeaver, openly licensed for any child to read. |
Browser, Wikimedia/StoryWeaver accounts |
| History | 1) Photograph a historical plaque or site and upload it to Wikimedia Commons. 2) Write about your visit to a historical site in your regional language and post it on your wiki. |
Phone camera/scanner, browser, Wikimedia account |
| Home Science | 1) Add a Bihar packaged food (sattu, thekua, litti mix) to Open Food Facts by scanning the barcode and photographing the label. 2) Write up a family recipe such as litti chokha or dahi chuda with photos for the Wikibooks Cookbook or your college wiki, openly licensed. 3) Digitise and upload vintage textile patterns to the Internet Archive or Wikimedia Commons. |
Smartphone camera, Open Food Facts app, Wikimedia account |
| IT | 1) Write a short beginner's how-to guide for a free and open source tool you learned, and publish it openly. | Computer, browser, LibreOffice |
| Legal Studies | 1) Use OpenStreetMap to map local public notaries, legal aid clinics, courthouses and police stations. 2) Read about your state's budget on PRS. 3) Learn about RTIs. |
Browser, Wikimedia account |
| Maithili | 1) Record a Maithili folk song or sentence for Common Voice. 2) Write a local story in Maithili and post it on your college wiki. |
Phone/computer, Devanagari keyboard, browser, Common Voice/Wikimedia accounts |
| Mathematics | 1) Try out PhET simulations. 2) Draw a geometric figure in GeoGebra, a free browser tool, and release it on Wikimedia Commons. |
Phone/computer, GeoGebra (browser-based), Wikimedia account |
| Music | 1) Record a Chhath geet or Sama-Chakeva song and upload it to Wikimedia Commons under a free licence. | Phone with mic, browser, Wikimedia account |
| Personnel Management and Industrial Relations | 1) Analyse open datasets on regional wages or labour statistics on Kaggle or other platforms. | Browser, Wikimedia account |
| Physics | 1) Redraw a simple textbook diagram on paper or in a drawing app and release it on Wikimedia Commons for free reuse. 2) Try out PhET simulations. |
Phone/tablet, drawing app or scanner, browser |
| Political Science | 1) Read the Wikipedia article on the Champaran Satyagraha or the JP Movement. 2) Read about your state's budget on PRS. 3) Mark your panchayat bhavan or polling booth on OpenStreetMap with StreetComplete. |
Smartphone/browser, StreetComplete app |
| Psychology | 1) Add a Hindi or Maithili translation of a basic psychology term to Wiktionary. 2) Proofread a mental health awareness article on Wikipedia for accuracy and clarity. 3) Record a few Hindi or Maithili sentences on Mozilla Common Voice, which helps build voice tools for people who cannot read or type. |
Phone or computer with mic, browser, Common Voice account |
| Public Administration | 1) Add sourced details of a Bihar scheme (Jal Jeevan Hariyali, Jeevika) to Wikipedia. 2) Transcribe a page of an old Bihar government gazette on Wikisource. 3) Mark your block office or panchayat bhavan on OpenStreetMap. |
Browser, Wikimedia account, StreetComplete app |
| Sanskrit | 1) Record a short audio pronunciation of common Sanskrit terms for Wikimedia Commons. | Browser, Devanagari keyboard, Wikimedia account |
| Social Science | 1) Help build a survey in Hindi to collect information on social problems in your region. | Smartphone, browser, Formbricks account |
| Sociology | 1) Record a local proverb or saying in Bhojpuri, Maithili or Magahi for Mozilla Common Voice. 2) Write about a local custom or festival, such as Chhath or Sama-Chakeva. Publish it on your college's wiki page. 3) Mark a community space (chaupal, akhara, temple) on OpenStreetMap. |
Phone with mic, browser, Common Voice/OpenStreetMap accounts |
| Urdu | 1) Record a few Urdu sentences or a couplet's recitation for Common Voice. | Phone/computer, on-screen Urdu keyboard, browser, Common Voice account |
| Zoology | 1) Photograph or record a local bird or animal and upload it with location to iNaturalist. 2) Add your area's species checklist to your college's wiki. 3) Record a bird call on your phone and share it on Wikimedia Commons. |
Smartphone camera/mic, iNaturalist app |