Thank you to everyone who took time out to conduct and participate in this workshop. It
sounds like very interesting and useful sessions.
Whenever you get some time, Srikant, do share the ideas about building a stronger
community that were discussed.
I'm quite sure the 714 number will grow rapidly!
Happy Editing!
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia Foundation India Programs
skype: hisham.wikimedia
gtalk: hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter: @mundol
On Apr 18, 2011, at 12:09 AM, Srikant Kedia wrote:
Hi, here is the report of the 3rd Odia Wikipedia
Workshop, Cuttack, 2011, April 03.
The 3rd Odia Wikipedia Academy has been organized on 17April 2011 at Image Institute of
Technology & Management, Cuttack. This was the second outreach academy of Odia
Wikipedia in Odisha and the first one organized in the Silver City, Cuttack in order to
create an awareness about odia wikipedia and to motivate common mass from different
educational and social background to use the same. Odia Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia
with a substantial motive of making knowledge freely available to the masses in Odia
Language, was started way back in 2002. It was among the first four Indian regional
language wikipedia, other three being Asamese, Malayalam, & Punjabi. But due to the
dearth of proper awareness and activism there was a snail pace movement for almost 8
years. Shiju Alex of Malyalam Wikipedia introduced Odia Wiki projects to many fellow Odias
which later motivated them to recapitulate the Odia Wiki movement through the first Odia
Wikipedia Academy, conducted in Bengaluru on 6 March, 2011
Sambidhan Mohanty, Founder, Inmohven along with Ashutosh Kar, a Bangalore based software
engineer and an alumni of the prestigious National Institute of Design formally
inaugurated the event. A Video Tutorial which illustrates and demonstrates the usage &
the complete know-how of odia wikipedia was launched on this occasion. A FAQ Booklet was
distributed among the first time participants of the Wikipedia Workshop. Cuttack based
wikipedian Srikant Kedia took active part in facilitating the event. The whole
Academy/Workshop was conducted in 2 main sections, in the first session Mr. Kar & Mr.
Mohanty introduced Odia Wikpedia to the audience, giving them a brief overview about the
history, development and current status of Wikipedia Movement. The second session,
conducted by Srikant Kedia, focused on how to type in Odia using the
transliteration/Inscript tool, which has been incorporated recently in odia wikipedia;
solving typing issues, searching existing articles, creating articles and editing for
improvement of old article. He also demonstrated the technique of adding content to the
articles by using the commonly used syntaxes, the methodology for adding pictures and
other media files to odia wikipedia. This session was followed by an interactive session
in which the audience interacted with the demonstrators and among themselves. Several
discussions based on several major issues were carried out as well. The participants
included students from the various management & engineering colleges, entrepreneurs,
journalists, writers & College students. At the end of the session contributors came
forward with several suggestions which included motivating more number of students and
freelancers to contribute to Odia Wikipedia.There was a discussion on how to build a
stronger community and the ways to be implemented for improving the articles both in terms
of a standard quality and quantity. The participants also put forth their suggestions on
the ways to tackle vandalism and monitor the wiki user's activities. Many such
activism & events have been planned to be conducted in the coming future with the
involvement of people from all fields of life, who are passionate about the development of
Odia language on the web. Odia Wikipedia can be accessed at
or.wikipedia.org and the
Facebook page for Odia Wikipedia is
facebook.com/OdiaWiki
As of now there are 714 articles in Odia Wikipedia, many of them are yet to be refined
& enhanced with more information and references through larger participation.
--
Thanks & Regards,
Srikant Kedia (User:Odisha1)
Odia (Oriya) Wikipedia Community
Odia Wikipedia Support Mail ID - odiawiki(a)gmail.com
Facebook-
facebook.com/OdiaWiki
Tweet @OdiaWiki
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