Hi all

Apologies for the delayed report.


Odia Wikimedia Community had a very eventful, exciting and constructive
weekend last week!  i want to share with you a report of 3 (yes THREE!)
outreach sessions and the community meet up held between March 30 and April
1. Odia Wikipedia Editing Workshop - Anugul - March 30
*Summary*
An "Editing Odia Wikipedia" workshop was conducted on 30th March at the
National Institute of Computer Education, Nalconagar, Anugul. It was
attended by 14 newbies. Odia WikipedianMrutyunjay
Kar<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:MKar> conducted
the workshop by introducing Odia Wikipedia to the newbies. (In fact,
Mrutyunjay single-handedly organized the session and most of the audience
were his work colleagues who he had told about Odia Wikipedia.)  He talked
briefly about Wikipedia, five pillars and policies. Then there was a
demonstration session on how to edit Odia Wikipedia. One of the attendees
was called up to create his own account and then Mrutyunjaya demonstrated
basics of editing by interacting with the audience.  Once we had shown
everyone this, we invited those who were interested to stay for a more
detailed and hands-on editing to stay, and told everyone else they were
free to leave.  A few of the audience left the lab, and the remaining 9
created their user accounts. 4 of the new wikipedians have made small but
significant edits.
*Challenges & Solutions*


  - An issue that was faced was that newbies initially had problems typing
  in Odia.  We requested the newbies to check the *Typing
Help*<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:Help:Typing> page
  to understand the key combination. Mrutyunjaya explained how they can
  improve by gradual exercise, using the "Show Preview" option and that
  making corrections is allowed on Wikipedia.


*Next Steps*

  - Mrutyunjaya will personally interact with the new editors, either
  1-on-1 or in groups to give them more support on editing and to address
  doubts
  - Mrutyunjaya could conduct more physical meetups in Anugul where help
  more newbies with editing

*Lessons*


  - Mrutyunjaya's initiative to reach out to his colleagues and friends to
  introduce them to Odia Wikipedia and to encourage them to learn about
  editing by attending the session is really interesting because it increases
  the chances of like-minded folks attending outreach sessions.
  - When we do outreach sessions, it will be nice to share a small note
  about the session (with some useful links) beforehand - so that interested
  participants can read up and be more aware even before the session starts.
  - The idea of splitting the outreach session is very good because it
  allowed only the most committed to stay and allowed us to give them much
  better training.


*Odia Wikipedia (Medical) Editing Workshop - Cuttack - March 31*

*Summary*

A outreach session was organized in SCB Medical College, Cuttack - to try
and get newbies to join Odia Wikipedia community, and specifically to
support the *WikiProject Medicine
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:WP:MED>* (where
we are trying get the top 70-80 health related articles created in Odia
Wikipedia.  21 Medical students attended the session which was attended by
Odia Wikipedians
Jnanaranjan<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:Jnanaranjan_sahu>,
Srikant Kedia, Kamalakanta & Subha. Jnananranjan explained briefly about
basics of Wikipedia. One of the student newbies was invited to create a
username. Students were called for demonstration editing. 4[1] of them
created usernames. Subha talked briefly about the *WikiProject
Medicine*<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:WP:MED> and
aim of the project. Student participants had queries about authenticity of
articles, automatic translations, etc.

*Challenges & Solutions*

  - Some of the medical students asked questions like "How will editing
  Odia Wikipedia help for our career?" or "What I will gain from editing
  Wikipedia?"  These are standard questions that we all get and we answered
  them by telling them about how it will help their understanding of their
  subjects, will improve their writing skills, give them a larger audience
  for their work, improve their research skills and because it is so much
  fun!  We also spoke about the social benefits of a project like medical
  articles on Odia Wikipedia and the social.
  - Lack of computers resulted in a more theoretical discussion rather
  than a practical editing.

*Next Steps*

  - A proper editing workshop will be organized after the exams are over
  (in a month) where the students who have attended this session could learn
  more and do live editing. Local Odia Wikipedians will support them.  This
  time, we will figure out how to make sure that everyone who attends has
  access to a computer.
  - Emails with quick instructions will be send on 4th April to the
  students with specific links to encourage working on various articles from
  the project page.
  - Welcome messages have been left on the talk pages of all new editors,
  and community members will stay in touch with them.

*Lessons*

  - The idea of doing outreach in medical colleges to support the Medicine
  project is very interesting and should be pursued.  Many times, we conduct
  outreach sessions but we leave it completely open to newbies to figure out
  what that they want to edit.  Some times this works, but many times, they
  are just lost about what to edit.  An idea of doing an outreach session to
  encourage them to edit a particular set of projects has a lot of potential.

  - Also, since they are joining a WikiProject straight away, there will
  hopefully be greater changes of interactions with existing community
  members so that the newbies can build relationships and get support.
  - This session was not adequately planned and even though 21 students
  attended - which is great (!) - it was all last minute.  Going forward, we
  should try and plan these sessions with more time and get interested
  participants more aware by sending brief write-ups about Odia Wikipedia and
  the purpose & benefits of attending the outreach session.
  - Lastly, getting everyone to have computers or laptops is a must.  Even
  if everyone does not have a laptop, we must encourage newbies to come up
  and create accounts and do live edits.  Otherwise, it is just theory,
  theory, theory.

*Odia Wikipedia Editing Workshop - Bhubaneswar - April 1*
*Summary*

This workshop was conducted on April 1 - which happens to be the Odisha day
(or the foundation day of Odisha). It was attended by 20 newbies. The
workshop started with a formal inauguration and opening talk about Odisha
day by Manoranjan <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:ManXii> . Then Odia
Wikipedian Mrutyunjay Kar <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:MKar> presented
and explained the "Basics of
Wikipedia"<http://prezi.com/ljk3w0m44w6x/copy-of-introduction-to-wikipedia/>.
One of the participants were asked to come and create an user account and
basic editing was demonstrated.  After this, there was a press interaction
with Kanak TV, MBC TV and STV - 3 local TV channels. There was a 10 minute
tea break - after which newbies were encouraged to ask questions. Each
experienced wikipedians were assigned to 2/3 new wikipedians - and they all
then worked in groups to create their usernames and helped with basic
editing. 13 participants created their user accounts[1] and of the new
wikipedians actively edited several articles.[2][3][4]. This also includes
a very young editor (around 15 years old) who was until then just a reader
of Odia Wikipedia.  With little guidance he has started contributing to
several articles. [5] (His father later got in touch with the organisers
and thanked them for helping his son get excited by typing in Odia!)

*Challenges & Solutions*

  - Most of the newbies had an initial struggle because fo lack of
  experience in typing in Odia. We requested the newbies to check the *Typing
  Help* <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:Help:Typing> page to understand
  the key combination. Mrutyunjaya explained how they can improve by gradual
  exercise, using the "Show Preview" option and that making corrections is
  allowed on Wikipedia.  They were also pointed to the page in the physical
  FAQ Booklet page for guidance.
  - Many newbies were still on Windows XP - so community members had to
  fix the font related issues.*
  *

*Next Steps*

  - Emails will be sent to all those who attended with instructions for
  further editing by local Odia Wikipedians who conducted the sesssions.
   Odia Wikipedians will try to stay in touch through regular talk page
  messages with all those who created user accounts.
  - We will also connect with the participants by creating a facebook
  group so that it is easier for them to ask questions and feel part of a
  community, in a more casual setting like facebook.

*Lessons*

  - More focus on editing during outreach sessions instead of just talking
  randomly about Wikipedia - and giving individual attention to newbies
  during the session.
  - It is really important to focus on how handholding of newbies will
  happen after the outreach session, instead of just leaving them all alone.


*Notes*

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 New Username
creations<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%B2%E0%AC%97/newusers>
  2. ↑ User:Errajkishor<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%85%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8/Errajkishor>
  3. ↑ User:Arup
Samal<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%85%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8/Arup_Samal>
  4. ↑ User:Ucsahoo<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%85%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8/Ucsahoo>
  5. ↑ User:Saileshpat<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%85%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8/Saileshpat>

*Odia Wikipedia Community Meet-Up - Bhubaneswar - April 1**Summary*

The community meetup was held up to brainstorm about how to build the Odia
wiki community and to identify issues & solutions that community members
were facing.  We also wanted to celebrate sucesses and have some fun!
Despite several physical outreach events, Odia Wikipedia Community is still
lagging behind in getting newbies to join and stay in the community.
However, there are many examples of better results from successful turn up
from online outreach programs.

As the community is very small, the biggest idea we discussed is how to do
more effective online outreach.  (There are several examples of newbies
joining due to online outreach - such as Suratha [1], Chinmaya Dash[2],
Manoranjan [3], Prasanta Bhunya [4] - who are all active editors now.  Subha
had shared his experiences of reaching out to folks on facebook who were
writing in Odia and introducing them to Odia Wikipedia and then giving them
online editing advice as well as sharing tips and useful links.)
*Next Steps*


  - The Facebook group <http://facebook.com/groups/odiawiki> will be used
  more effectively to bring more new editors.  It was emphasised that
  facebook would be used only as an online gateway for Wikipedia related
  discussions and only to invite newbies to Wikipedia. Wikipedia discussions
  must always happen on village pumps and talk pages only.  Newbies will be
  encouraged to have all wiki discussions on wiki itself, as soon as possible
  - Noopur will be asked to provide support on facebook by providing
  advice and tips on how to use facebook most effectively, and working
  closely with interested community members.
  - On-line chatting - where experienced Odia Wikipeidans could help out
  newbies to learn editing - will be made more frequent.
  - Standard presentations/tools in Odia will be prepared that can be used
  for online outreach (presentations, pdf cheatsheets, transliteration
  Roman-Odia Key combinations, revised FAQ booklet, etc.)
  - Chatasabha <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/or:WP::CS>, a platform for
  inviting newbies by answering their questions through an easy-to-find tab
  Odia Wikipedia homepage was shared - and it was agreed to use this for
  newbie interaction and support.
  - It is really important to improve collaboration and Wikiprojects are a
  really great way of doing this.
User:Shisir_1945<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%85%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8/Shisir_1945>
   started WikiProject
Science<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%89%E0%AC%87%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%AA%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%A1%E0%AC%BC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%86:%E0%AC%89%E0%AC%87%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%AA%E0%AD%8D%E0%AC%B0%E0%AC%95%E0%AC%B3%E0%AD%8D%E0%AC%AA_%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%9C%E0%AD%8D%E0%AC%9E%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8>.
    On Wikiprojects, it is important to divide tasks based on time
  availability and personal interests so that there is better coordination
  and motivation.


*Challenges & Solutions*

  - The available documents which community members share with newbies
  have too much text and they need to be simplified and illustrated with
  screenshots and How-To's.
  - Mrutyunjay asked what was the best way to answer questions like what
  will people gain from contributing to Odia Wikipedia, as well as the
  reducing level of interest in local languages.  It was suggested that
  a limited, interested bunch of people should be targeted for outreach - and
  if we invest time in the most committed and motivated, we will get enough
  people who have the right mindset and abilites.
  - The fact that Odia Wikipedia is not too well known was discussed and
  it was agreed to try and build contacts so that the message can be spread
   (via web, print and other media) about the project and the community.
   Also, the message should include the fact that People still are unaware of
  its existence and the fact "They can also edit Wikipedia".
  - The current typing tool has some issues which need rectification.

*Lessons*

  - This was a really useful meetup - and there were 3 reasons for it.
   Firstly, everyone was encouraged talk.  Secondly, there was a specific
  agenda that everyone stuck to.  Thirldy - we had FUN!
  - After meetups, it is important that there are clear plans of action -
  and each individual community member knows exactly what he or she is going
  to be doing. Experienced editors should focus community building and not
  only on individual editing.  This includes outreach sessions, hand-holding
  newbies and starting / managing Wikiprojects.

*Notes*

  1. ↑ User:ସୁରଥ_କୁମାର_ପାଢ଼ୀ<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%85%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8/%E0%AC%B8%E0%AD%81%E0%AC%B0%E0%AC%A5_%E0%AC%95%E0%AD%81%E0%AC%AE%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%B0_%E0%AC%AA%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A2%E0%AC%BC%E0%AD%80>
  2. ↑ User:ଚିନ୍ମୟ
ଦାଶ<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%85%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8/%E0%AC%9A%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%A8%E0%AD%8D%E0%AC%AE%E0%AD%9F_%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%B6>
  3. ↑ User:ManXiii<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%85%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8/ManXiii>
  4. ↑ User:Prasantabhunya<http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%BF%E0%AC%B6%E0%AD%87%E0%AC%B7:%E0%AC%85%E0%AC%AC%E0%AC%A6%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%A8/Prasantabhunya>


Thanks and regards
Mrutyunjay Kar
Jnanaranjan Sahu
Manoranjan Behera



--
ଧନ୍ୟବାଦ ସହ
ମୃତ୍ୟୁଞ୍ଜୟ କର
Odia Wikipedian

_______________________________________________
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l