Some of the important points from the discussions with Hindi wikipedians
are captured by
Hisham<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_…11>.
Thought of sharing that here also.
*Motivators for joining Indic Language Projects*
- Awareness mostly through search engines not through outreach or media
- It's not been about parochial (sic) notions about preserving culture
or a language or lofty ambitions about knowledge access; but about core
Wikipedia basics of building a knowledge repository
- Wanting to stay away from antagonistic, aggressive en-wp edit
environment
- Helping the Indic language project - as the number of volunteers were
low (especially when compared to en-wp which has higher numbers of
volunteers)
*Community*
- Very low community meet up attendance
- Not finding meet-ups as they are currently run useful as the
discussions are not engaging or relevant
- Collaboration is weak (especially on articles) - and more about process
*Activities*
- Doing a lot of clean up after damage done by bots
- Categorisation, copyvio clean ups
- Perform a different role on Indic projects (a lot of support work
instead of article content) as compared to their roles in en-wp (where they
edit articles on subjects of interest)
*Barriers*
- Technical issues are not *such* a major challenge; though awareness
that technical solutions exist is low.
- Basic awareness of projects
- Lack of reliable sources online
*Suggestions*
- Media coverage on Indic language media vehicles (e.g., local language
newspapers, etc.) to build basic awareness of the very existence of Indic
language projects as well as invitation to edit
- Tie-ups with education system of various kinds (colleges, teachers,
state government bodies, etc.)
Shiju
On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 12:24 PM, Shiju Alex <shiju(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Dear Indic Language Wikimedia Community members,
As part of the Indic Languages initiative of India
Programs<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Pro…es>,
I have been having detailed discussions with a wide range of Indic language
wikipedians for the past few weeks. Yesterday I shared the summary of
discussions with few Assamese Wikipedians which helped us to understand the
current situation of Assamese wikipedia. Thank you for the discussions
and ideas that emerged on the mailing list and the talk page.
Today I'm particularly excited to share a summary of the discussions I've
been been having with *Hindi wikipedians*. It is available here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_…
I will be honest and confess that I was not sure about the level of
engagement I would have with Hindi wikipedians because the community is
relatively quiet in public forums. I'm really pleased to report that I was
very pleasantly surprised by the broad-based, insightful, and constructive
communications. Hindi community might be silent but they are active and
full of powerful ideas. We have seen wonderful Hindi wikipedians like
Anirudh in WCI. Even though the current community strength of Hindi
wikipedia might not be good cosidering the huge speaker base of Hindi, I am
sure the situation will change soon.
Even if you are not involved in Hindi projects, I invite you to read this
report because the points raised are applicable to all Indic languages.
Personally, as someone who has been passionate about Indic languages for
many years now, I found the discussions very educative and informative and
thought-provoking. I have learnt a lot from these discussions and I hope
you find them as useful as I have. I want to thank Hindi community for
their time and their fantastic inputs.
Remember most of the issues the Hindi editors raised are applicable not
only to Hindi but for all the Indic languages. So it is important that
other Indic language communities take lessons from it while building the
community.
As mentioned before, I've edited the discussions to protect
confidentiality as well as to remove any specific personal comments.
Inviting your active participation in these discussions (either on talk
page or in the mailing lists).
Warm Regards,
Shiju Alex