Dear Indic wikipedians
One of the aspects that was raised during the discussions with almost all Indic language wiki communities was the need to build existing communities, motivate existing community members, attract new community members by increasing awareness of projects and communities, and to celebrate all the possible occasions.
I have a suggestion that can contribute to all of these in some manner. The suggestion is to celebrate the anniversaries of Indic language wikipedias. And as you might agree, the first edit date of a wiki is the best * anniversary* that a community can celebrate. I have collected information for the birthdays of each Indic Wikipedia. This is the day on which the first edit happened on the respective language wikipedia. (The *Indian Standard Time* is used while recording the date and time).
I am listing those days below for your reference,
*Indic Language wikipedia*
*Birthday/Anniversary (Date of first edit)*
*Number of active editors*
*Assamese* http://as.wikipedia.org/
*June 02 (2002-June-02) http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
10
*Nepali* http://ne.wikipedia.org/
*June 03 (2002-June-03) http://ne.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
13
*Punjab http://pa.wikipedia.org/i*
*June 03 (2002-June-03) http://pa.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
3
*Malayalam* http://ml.wikipedia.org/
*December 21 (2002-December-21) http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
93
*Kannada* http://kn.wikipedia.org/
*January 12 (2003-January-12) http://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
20
*Bhojpuri* http://bh.wikipedia.org/
*February 21 (2003-February-21) http://bh.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
0
*Hindi* http://hi.wikipedia.org/
*July 11 http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1 (2003-July-11) http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
55
*Kashmiri* http://ks.wikipedia.org/
*July 26 (2003-July-26) http://ks.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=5*
1
*Tamil* http://ta.wikipedia.org/
*September 30 (2003-September-30) http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=5*
85
*Marathi* http://mr.wikipedia.org/
*October 20 (2003-October-20) http://mr.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
44
*Gujarati* http://gu.wikipedia.org/
*December 09 (2003-December-09) http://gu.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
11
*Sanskrit* http://sa.wikipedia.org/
*December 21 (2003-December-21) http://sa.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
16
*Sindhi* http://sd.wikipedia.org/
*December 26 (2003-December-26) http://sd.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
5
*Bengali* http://bn.wikipedia.org/
*January 27 http://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=6 (2004-January-27)http://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=6 *
52
*Urdu* http://ur.wikipedia.org/
*January 27 (2004-January-27) http://ur.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=2*
15
*Odia (Oriya http://or.wikipedia.org/)*
*January 29 (2004-January-29) http://or.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
10
*Telugu* http://te.wikipedia.org/
*January 29 (2004-January-29) http://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
32
*Pali* http://pi.wikipedia.org/
*July 29 (2004-July-29) http://pi.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=1*
0
*Newari* http://new.wikipedia.org/
*October 01 (2006-October-01) http://new.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=4*
1
*Bishnupriya Manipuri* http://bpy.wikipedia.org/
*October 01 (2006-October-01) http://bpy.wikipedia.org/wiki/?diff=2*
2
This list is available in meta also.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_L...
I recommend that we use these anniversary dates to do the following
- Organize a small wikiconfernce or some other major event for the respective language wikipedia - Organize community meetups to celebrate this - Coincide community events around these meetups (such as outreach sessions, photo events, or launching specific WikiProjects) - Invite press to these meetups and use different platforms to spread word about respective language wikipedia.
From the above table we can see that *Assamese* is the first Indic language
wikipedia, and 4 Indic language wikipedias will celebrate *10th anniversary* this year (2012). :) So it is time to get prepared for the celebration.
Happy Birthday Celebrations!
Regards,
Shiju Alex India Programs of Wikimedia Foundation