Tell us about Malagasy Wikipedia

MALAGASY

Wikipedia, raki-pahalalàna malalaka

Questionnaire

Contributors

• Wikimedia Statistics can be difficult to interpret. What is your impression, how many steady contributors do you have?
• (malagasy) Mety sarotra vakiana ny statistikan'i Wikimedia. Inona ny tsapanao, firy ny mpikambana mavitrika ao aminareo ?

• Are your contributors mostly native speakers?
• '(malagasy) Mampiasa ny teny nibeazany ve ny mpandray anjaranareo ?'

No, most of our contributors aren't native speakers. But contributors contributors still help us in our project :) (Jagwar)

• Where do your contributors live (regions/country)?
• '(malagasy) Avy aiza ny mpandray anjara no manoratra ?'

I'm from diaspora, I live in France, but most of contributors lives in Madagascar. (Jagwar)

• How common is it that your contributors meet in real life?
• '(malagasy) Matetika ve ianao no mifandray amin'ny mpandray anjara hafa amin'ny tena fiainana ?'

I never met contributors in real life yet (Jagwar)

Other Wikipedias

• Do you have special contacts with other Wikipedias (maybe in related languages)?
• Do you translate a lot from other Wikipedias? Which ones?
• '(malagasy)Manana fifandraisana manokana ve ianao amin'ny wikipedia hafa (miaraka amin'ny teny mifanakaiky amin'ny anao ohatra) ?'
• '(malagasy)Mandika teny avy amin'ny wikipedia hafa ve ianao ? Inona ?'

I translate articles very often, especially from french wikipedia, I also translate from english into malagasy but, It's not as frequent as in french. (Jagwar)

Organization and support

• Is there a Wikimedia chapter in your country? How does your language relate to it?
• '(malagasy)Misy fikambanana wikimedia ve any amin'ny firenenao? Manahoana ny fifandraisana amin'ny teninao ?'
• Are there work groups in other organizations about Wikipedia?

...

Your Wikipedia and the linguistic community

• Is there a language institution for your language, like an Academy, or a club of people interested in your language? Do you have contact with them?
• Who (else) supports you?
• What does the public outreach for your edition look like? Do you have flyers, give lectures, training etc.?
• Do you get feedback from readers?
• What other encyclopedias exist in your language?

Content

• Does your edition concentrate on certain topics, like your region and language, or Latin Wikipedia on Roman history and Christianity?
• Did your edition enjoy text donations, for example from older encyclopedias?

Language

• Is there a generally accepted norm about your language (spelling, dictionary, pronunciation)?
• How do you deal with different spellings, dialects etc. (like B.E. lift and A.E. elevator)?

See also

Main pages

• Tell us about your Wikipedia

Comments

There are difficulties in building a long-term active community : first, the lack and the expensiveness of Internet connexion :

• Quality of Internet connexion is worse than, for example in France, and is more expensive
• Internet connexion in an Internet café is very slow. To load a stub on mg.wikipedia, ~35 seconds were needed. It's to tell how slow the Internet is.
• Internet is very expensive (a large broadband connexion (512k) costs ~$60 three times more than here in France)
• A weak proportion of the Malagasy population has Internet and very few malagasy writes to Wikipedia due to requirements ('barriers') :

Primary barriers are 

• Ability to read and write (25-35% of the population is illiterate) in French (as there is no Op.Sys. in Malagasy yet) : 50% of malagasy people is monolingual in Malagasy.
• Have house with electricity : While electricity in Madagascar is one of the most expensive on the World;
• Have a computer : it costs twice of the average salary;
• Have home telephone : GSM or 3G is very slow, very limited, and very expensive;

Secondary barriers

• Lack of Malagasy content on the Web : almost all Malagasy greatest site are written only in French. And currently, only Google can displays its site in Malagasy.
• Small size (and then, visibility) of Malagasy language contents (Wikipedia) and preference of users to read French-language rather than theirs.
• Lack of motivation (as there is no wage given)
• Lack of Malagasy scientific vocabulary.

Links

• Main/Front page of your Wikipedia: http://mg.wikipedia.org