[Wikipedia-AS] Wiki meetups in Assam - A small report

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