Dear all: Our annual report is here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedians_of_Goa_User_Group#2020_updates
It's our first year as an affiliate, and liking it.
2020 updates[edit
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedians_of_Goa_User_Group&action=edit§ion=9>
]
Despite the pandemic, the year has been marked by quite a bit of activity
and some new welcome initiatives too. 2020 also marks the first year since
the Wikipedians of Goa User Group was approved, in mid-2019. We have seen
growth of the Wikipedia visibility in Goa and growth of Goa's visibility on
the Wikipedia. We hope that this trend can be sustained and see further
growth. Some initiatives from the last year or so:
- The Discoverer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:The_Discoverer>, Isidore
Dantas
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Isidore_Dantas1&action=edit&redlink=1>
, Konknni Mogi
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Konknni_mogi24&action=edit&redlink=1>
and
other volunteers have been working assiduously on the Konkani Wiktionary
project, which aims at building an open and sharable Konkani dictionary in
cyberspace. A Wiktionary workshop and meet-ups were held at St. Xavier's
College, Mapusa in May and December 2019. Since they had been meeting their
monthly targets in the incubator to keep the project current, the Language
Committee of the Wikimedia Foundation approved the project on 27 March
2020. The Konkani Wiktionary moved to its newly-created site
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gom:> on 21 May 2020. The Wiktionary has
over 2300 entries as of November 2020. Congratulations!
- SerTanmay
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:SerTanmay&action=edit&redlink=1>
, YourTara
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:YourTara&action=edit&redlink=1>,
Julius and team have launched and started the *Wikipedia Weekends*
initiative
on WhatsApp. This is a small group (currently about 14 members) of
coordinators, planners and active networkers who plan and undertake
activities of interest to wider groups and individuals in Goa.
- On October 17, 2020, the *Wikipedia Weekends* organised an hour-long
Google Meet event focussing on Wikimedia Commons and the hows, whys of
sharing content there. Some 26 interested members participated and stayed
with the event through much of it. We are hoping this will result in more
relevant photographs being shared on and from Goa
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Goa&action=edit&redlink=1>.
- On October 18, 2020 (Sunday), another *Wikipedia Weekend* event was
held online, focusing on editing the Wikipedia. Over two dozen enthusiastic
participants took part.
- Fredericknoronha
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fredericknoronha>'s contribution
was acknowledged with his selection as the Wikipedia Editor of the Week
recognition on March 29, 2020.
- To build wider relevance about Goa on the Wikipedia, and greater
interest in Goa for the Wikipedia two initiatives were built offering
ambitious overviews related to the world of w:music
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/music> and w:animal rights
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/animal_rights> respectively. These are: List
of bands in Goa <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bands_from_Goa>
and Animal welfare and rights in Goa
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_and_rights_in_Goa> It is
thought that these issues would not only highlight issues important to the
region of Goa, but also promote more Wikipedia-awareness in Goa itself.
- To promote the relevance of the Wikipedia at the grassroots in Goa, a
collaborative project is being undertaken to build and promote Wikipedia
pages for every village in Goa
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Villages_in_Goa>. This will mean
creating (or improving) for some 340+ villages here. Fredericknoronha has
undertaken to take responsibility for the villages of the sub-district (
*taluka*) of w:Bardez <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardez>, and
currently about seven out of 43 villages are remaining to be created.
- <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Joe_Biden.png>
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Joe_Biden.png>
President Joe Biden by AngFerrao
WGUG has been encouraging photo enthusiasts, artists and other creative
persons to share photos and other material via the Wikimedia Commons.
Alongside is a digital artwork by AngFerrao, a Goan artist, caricaturist
and cartoonist, who shared her sketch of newly-elected w:President Joe
Biden <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Joe_Biden>.
- Goan expat artist Dom Martin has also donated a
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sita_Valles_by_Dom_Martin.jpg>
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sita_Valles_by_Dom_Martin.jpg>
Sita Valles by Dom Martin
copyright-free sketch on Sita Valles, a locally little-known Goan figure
until an entry from the Portuguese Wikipedia got translated into English
and her very unusual story got a lot of attention here.
- Keeping in mind Goa's multilingualism, efforts are being made to work
among different language groups. Besides English and Konkani, the Wikipedia
in Marathi, Portuguese and other languages is also relevant to readers in
Goa, and this has been kept in mind. Potential contributors to different
language groups are invited for events here, while online interaction is
conducted with the PT (Portuguese) Wikipedia members through email and also
a couple of their groups on Telegram.
- Newer Wikipedians have been encouraged to feel at home by encouraging
them to work on themes and topics which they feel strongly about. Some such
initiatives have resulted in the significant improvement of pages devoted
to villages such as w:Raia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raia> and
w:Nachinola <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachinola>, both prominent
villages in Goa, undertaken by LaughingJoe and Sharbelle, respectively.
- Appeals were publicly made via Facebook and other digital fora in the
case of Raia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Raia&action=edit&redlink=1>
for
the sharing of photographs related to the area. This not only build greater
awareness about the work done by the Wikipedia locally, but actually led to
the contribution of a number of suitable photographs, which have also been
used on the relevant page.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipidiecho_Tinto.jpg>
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipidiecho_Tinto.jpg>
Wikipidiecho Tinto, community page for the Konkani Wikipedia
- There is an acute yet challenging need to promote the Konkani
Wikipedia
http://gom.wikipedia.org
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gom:> which
has been facing difficulties due to a lack of sufficient volunteers, and a
possible gap between techies and language experts. It is hoped that the
overall attempts in promoting Goa-related content could also promote some
growth in the Konkani Wikipedia, though more clearly needs to be done on
this front.
- Efforts have also been underway to build visibility for the Wikipedia,
and its approach of creating shareable knowledge, within the Goa region.
YourTara
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:YourTara&action=edit&redlink=1>
has
helped take the message to the media through timely press releases and
updates. The newspapers have also shown an interest in understanding
initiatives undertaken by the WGUG to build a better Goa presence on the
Wikipedia.
- One issue we sometimes face is a difficulty in convincing some English
Wikipedia administrators about the importance of Goa-related issues which
we see as important. Being a small society, which has long lacked an active
media and online media (except more recently), finding suitable citations
even for locally-important issues and institutions or individuals can be a
challenge.
- Efforts were made to encourage people to contribute to the Wikipedia
fundraising drive.
For WGUG
Fredericknoronha