[Wikimediaindia-l] Sharing insights and experiences from Indian language wikipedias - Hindi

[Shiju Alex]

Some of the important points from the discussions with Hindi wikipedians
are captured by
Hisham<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_Languages/Hindi/Discussions/2011>.
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 at 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_Programs/Indic_Languages>,
> 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_Languages/Hindi/Discussions/2011
>
> 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
>
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