Wow, Very happy to see Assamese wikipedia growing :) I
have few friends
from Assam and I keep telling them to start contributing :)
Thanks Shiju for sharing :) very nice report :)
On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 4:07 PM, Shiju Alex <shiju(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Dear All,
2 weeks back I had informed the news of Assamese Wikipedians getting
ready for their first wiki
meetup<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2012-Januar…ml>.
Last
week we had two wiki meetup-cum-workshops for the Assamese language
wikipedia. I got the opportunity to attend both these wiki meetups and
meet
many wonderful Assamese Wikipedians. Here is a brief report about these
meetups.
As some of you might know Assamese wikipedia is the first Indic langiuage
wikipedia <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages>.
The first edit on assamese Wikipedia was happened on 2002 June 02 which
means Assamese wikipedia will celebrate its 10th Anniversary in next few
months. Even though wiki was created in 2002 nothing much had happened in
AS wiki till the beginning of 2011. If you look at the statistical report
for
2010<http://shijualex.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/indian-language-wikipedia…
could see that the number of articles on AS wiki was just over 300
during January 2011. And the number of active users was just 4. But in
2011 many things happened in wiki and many online outreach activities had
done by few community memebers which had resulted in the change of
scenario
for AS wiki. Now AS wiki has more than 1100 articles and close to 20
active
users.
Even though AS wikipedia is in exitence for the past 9 years, only last
week (*2012 January 29* to be exact) Assamese wikipedians got an
oppurtunity to arrange their first wiki meetup. As an after effect of the
first meetup at Guwahati, second meetup also happened just after 3 days in
Tezpur. I am very happy to be part of both these meetups. here is a brief
report of the meetup (This report is based on the meetup reports created
by
Assamese wikipedians* Jyothi*, *Bishnu*, and *Dipankar*)
*Meetup 1 - 2012 January 29 - Venue - Gawahati University Computer
Science Departmen*t
This was the first meetup of Assamese wikipedians and I am very happy to
be part of this historic meetup. Wiki page of this meetup is available in
Assamese
wikipedia<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A7%B1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A6…
(in
Assamese).
The meetup started at 2:30 PM with the welcome speech by
Assamese Wikipedian Jyothi Prasad
(
User:Jpnath008<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%B8%…)
who was the main organizer of the first wikimeetup. After the welcome
speech computer science department HOD Dr. Anjana Kakati Mahanta
inaugurated the first wiki meetup. In the inaguaration speech she
mentioned
that she is very glad that she could host the first wiki meetup of
Assamese
wikipedians and extended support for future wiki meetups also. Then
User:Psneog<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%B8%E0%…
a senior Assamese Wikipedian and Asst. Prof at NIT Silchar, shared
his experience with the Assamese Wikipedia and his vision about the future
of Assamese wiki projects.
After that all the participants introduced themselves. Then User:
Gitartha.bordoloi<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%…
started
the Introduction to Wikipedia session. Some of the important points that
Gitaratha covered in this session are:
- What is Wikipedia?
- What is Wiki?
- History of Wikipedia.
- Introduction to Assamese Wikipedia.
- Present status of Assamese wikipedia
- Current status of Assamese wiki communoity
- Sister projects of Assamese Wikipedia, and so on
Then we started the editing session.
User:Jpnath008<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%B8%…
explained how to approach Assamese wikipedia as a reader and how to
search for articles in AS wiki. He also showed how to open a new account.
This is demonstrated with the help of new user Amrit who created his
account during the session.
Then
User:Simbu123<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%B8%E…
demonstrated
the users how to create an article in Assamese wikipedia and expalined the
basic wiki syntaxes. He also explained about the Narayam keyboard and how
to activate it and how one can write in Assamese script using the Narayam
typing tool.
This is followed by a question answer session. The queries are answered
by experienced Assamese wikipedians. Meanwhile all the guests were served
with tea and Assamese snacks like Tillpitha, Narikolor Ladu, Tilor Ladu,
Sirar Ladu, etc.
The first wiki meetup was wonderful. We finished this first historic
meetup of Assamese Wikipedians by 5 PM.
Around 35 people had attended this meetup. I am sure for the first meetup
35 attendees is a very big number. That itself shows how people are
waiting
for these type of outreach programs across various regions of India.
Wiki page of this meetup page with more details are available in
Assamese
wikipedia<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A7%B1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A6…
.
I would like to specially congratulate
User:Jpnath008<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%B8%…
for
taking all the efforts to make this first meetup a reality. Also Users
Chaipu and Gitartha had helped very much to release the first edition of
the Assamese Wikipedia FAQ booklet. User Bishnu has helped to create the
Assamese wiki presnetaion. Thanks to all of them for making the first
meetup a success.
Few photographs from this meetup are uploaded to Commons. It is available
here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Assamese_Wikimedians_Meetup_Guwa…
*Meetup 2 - 2012 February 01 - Venue - Tezpur University Computer Science
Department *
The Meetup began at 11.30 a.m with the welcome speech by user Dipankar
Chetia. The CS Departmental Head of Tezpur University Utpal Sarma has
also
attended this meetup. The welcome speech was followed by the introduction
of all the attendees. During the introduction the Assamese Wikipedia FAQ
booklets were distributed among the participants. Most of the attendees
were new to Wikipedia or to Assamese Unicode writing.
After Welcome speech and introduction, CS Department Head of Tezpur
University Utpal Sarma gave a short speech on the importance of Assamese
content in web and expanding the Assamese Wikipedia.
After this Dipankar Chetia gave a presentation on different Wikimedia
projects and present scenario of Assamese Wikipedia. The presentation also
provided a basic introduction of Assamese Wikipedia to the new people.
This is followed by a small editing session which is lead by Bishnu
Saikia. Bishnu did the editing session in the following order.
- Bishnu first showed the particptants how to approach wiki as a
reader and how to search for articles in Assamese wiki
- Introduced narayam typing tool that is integrated to Assamese
wikipedia
- Explained the particpants the different compontents of a wiki page
(article page, discussion page, edit, page history, and so on)
- Invited one of the the participant and helped him to create a new
user account.
- Showed the basic wiki syntaxes. This is done by creating the new
article বৌদ্ধ
ধৰ্ম<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8C%E0%A6%A6%E0%A7%8D%E…AE>.
following are the wiki sysntaes showed during this session.
- Bold/Italic
- heading levels
- Section editing
- Hyper linking
- Bullet list
- Numbered list
Bishnu handled the session so well and in a systemetic way so that users
are able to follow it easily. Bishnu also answered all the quries raised
by
new users during this session.
After this a small session on the topic “Assamese Unicode writing and the
typing tools” by Pallab Pran Goswami (Editor of Assamese online Magazine
Nila Chorai) was also there. Few other participants like Dwijen Mahanta
and
editor of online magazine Gonit Sora Pankaj Jyoti Mahanta shared their
thoughts regarding different aspects of Assamese Wikipedia.
In the Meetup it was decided that the active Wikipedians of Tezpur region
will soon form a Wikipedia (voluntary) group. They also decided
to organise a wiki workshop outside Tezpur university Campus very soon so
that more common people will be able to join the AS
wiki introductory session. The meetup ended with Tea and Snacks by 1 PM.
After the conclusion of the meetup some interested participants learned
about wiki templates and some other tools from Bishnu Saikia.
Special thanks to Dipankar for making all the arrangements for this
meetup.
Total number of participants were* 78*. There were almost 12 active or
semi active (or non-active) AS wikipedians for the Meetup.
Wiki page of this meetup with more details is available in Assamese
wikipedia<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A7%B1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A6…
(in
Assamese).
Few photographs from this meetup are uploaded to commons. It is available
here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Assamese_Wikimedians_Meetup_Tezp…
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I thank all Assamese wikipedians for these wonderful meetups.
Assamese wikipedians are wonderful (Forgot to tell Assam is beautiful :)
). With many great users joined the project I am sure Assamese wikipedia
is
going to achieve great heights. Soon AS wiki wiki celebrate its 10th
anniversary. I am sure community will have big plans to celebrate it.
Regards
Shiju
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