South Asia/Newsletter/March 2026
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WIKIDHARA
The echos from South Asia
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Wikipedia 25th Birthday Celebration - Group Photo
St. Aloysius University Celebrates Wikipedia’s Silver Jubilee
Marking a bridge between a 147-year legacy and the digital future, St. Aloysius (Deemed to be University) recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia. Led by the university’s Wikipedia Students Association, the event honoured the world’s largest free encyclopedia as a vital tool for multilingual, open-access knowledge.
Highlights:
- Academic Synergy: The Jesuit institution emphasized the importance of digital literacy and community-driven information in modern excellence.
- A Symbolic Finale: Pro Vice-Chancellor Fr. Melwyn D'Cunha SJ, joined by students and staff, concluded the event with a ceremonial cake cutting.
- The Mission: The celebration underscored Wikipedia’s journey as a volunteer-led global resource that aligns with the university's commitment to social engagement.
WikiClubTech NMAMIT Core Team during the 25th Birthday
Engineering Excellence: WikiClub Tech India Marks Wikipedia@25
WikiClub Tech India celebrated Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary with simultaneous events across five major engineering campuses. The celebrations leveraged an 18-month foundation of student-led chapters and the 'Road to Wiki' program to showcase the power of the Wikimedia ecosystem.
Highlights:
- Participating Institutions: The milestone was marked at Manipal University Jaipur, Garden City University Bangalore, and three campuses in Prayagraj: UIT, United University, and SHUATS.
- The Envoy Model: Execution was led by student Wiki Envoys, who utilized their local campus knowledge to organize independent, scalable events supported by faculty and mentors.
- Building the Pipeline: Beyond the birthday celebrations, the events served as a recruitment drive for the upcoming Road to Wiki Cohort 3, bringing new technical contributors into the movement.
Wikipedia @25 in India
Across India, Wikimedia communities had organized serveral events in multiple regions, including Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Rajasthan. Activities such as edit-a-thons, workshops, meetups, and outreach programs are being held in many cities in India. This initiative brings together communities, affiliates, institutions and individuals to mark the milestone of the 25 years of Wikipedia.
Wikipedia @25 in Bangladesh
The Wikimedia Bangladesh organized the Wikipedia 25 celebration in Bangladesh from featuring virtual sessions followed by a national in-person event in Dhaka. Alongside the main event, regional activities including workshops and edit-a-thons are organized in Dhaka, Rajshahi, and Pabna.
Fergusson college students working on English Wikisource under NEP assignment
Integrating Open Knowledge Practices in Education: Advancing NEP 2020 through Wikimedia Ecosystem
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 encourages a transition from rote learning to experiential and participatory education, yet institutions often face challenges in enabling real-world knowledge creation. In response, the Open Knowledge Initiatives (OKI) implemented two pilot projects integrating Wikimedia platforms into higher education. These initiatives demonstrated how open knowledge ecosystems can increase digital literacy while contributing to open knowledge.
Highlights: OKI facilitated two pilot projects in partnership with Wikimedians and educational institutions based in Ratnagiri and Pune.
- From Gogate Jogalekar College, Ratnagiri, a total 17 Sanskrit language students worked on Sanskrit Wikisource and proofread 574 pages.
- From Fergusson College, Pune, a total 8 philosophy students worked on English Wikisource and proofread 431 pages.
A couple sharing the memory of their wedding in the Marcha dialect of the Rongpo language of India
OpenSpeaks Archives Boosts 100+ Wikimedia Projects
OpenSpeaks Archives, a collaborative digital initiative for low-resourced languages, has successfully enhanced over 800 pages across 100 Wikimedia projects. By partnering with native speaker communities, the project integrated multimedia contributions in 17 languages and dialects across India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
Impact & Innovation:
- Multilingual Expansion: Contributions enriched key platforms including Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wiktionary, significantly increasing the visibility of regional South Asian dialects.
- New Open-Source Toolkit: To support future documentation, OpenSpeaks released a suite of tools, including a Subtitler editor, a Captioning Guide for accessibility, and a four-chapter educational toolkit hosted on Wikiversity.
- Wiki Loves Languages: In collaboration with the Odia, Santali, Dagbani, and Igbo Wikimedian User Groups, the initiative launched its second campaign to boost global coverage of diverse languages and their speakers.
Wiki Loves Fish - Workshop at St Aloysius University
Wiki Loves Fish Workshop at St. Aloysius University
The Wiki Loves Fish initiative documents edible marine fish diversity along the coast of Mangaluru and enriches Wikimedia with freely licensed images. As part of the Wiki Loves campaigns, it encourages contributors to upload images of available local fish diversity to Wikimedia Commons. A workshop was held at St. Aloysius University, Mangaluru, on 20 February 2026.
This micro project was supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. The project coordinators, Dr Hariprasad Shetty, Head of the Department of Zoology, and Santhosh Notagar, Head of the Department of Computer Animation at St. Aloysius University, Mangaluru, jointly led the session for students of the Wikipedia Students Association.
Students who completed the WikiLearn Course
WikiLearn Course Completion Ceremony at Mangaluru, India
In March 2026, the St. Aloysius University Wikipedia Association completed the WikiLearn (WK001) course, a specialized program focused on expanding the digital footprint of the Kannada language. The initiative trained a diverse group—including students, staff, and association leadership in the technical and ethical standards of the world’s largest encyclopedia.
Key Outcomes:
- Digital Skills: Participants gained practical expertise in content creation, editing, and uploading media, while adhering to Wikipedia’s core pillars of verifiability and neutrality.
- Cultural Preservation: A primary focus was placed on documenting local culture and promoting multilingual knowledge to ensure Kannada heritage is accessible globally.
- Collaborative Learning: The program saw active participation from the Association President, Mr Santhosh Notagar; the Vice President, Ms Prithvi Saldahna; and the Advisor, Dr Hariprasad Shetty, highlighting a campus-wide commitment to lifelong learning. By empowering students and faculty to become active contributors, St. Aloysius is directly addressing the digital gap in regional language content, ensuring South Asian history and culture are represented accurately online.
Group photo of participants of In-person Developer Skill Development 2026
New Tech Talent: Developer Skill Development Program Concludes
Following five months of intensive online contribution, the Developer Skill Development Program successfully concluded its latest cohort. The initiative was designed to bridge the gap for new technical contributors, moving them beyond entry-level tasks to complex, impactful projects.
Highlights:
- Project Showcases: From March 27-29, 2026, successful participants gathered in Delhi for an in-person finale to present their technical contributions.
- Strategic Networking: Developers connected directly with industry leaders and key stakeholders within the Wikimedia movement.
- Sustainable Growth: By focusing on advanced skill-building, the program strengthens the technical infrastructure of open-source knowledge in the region.
Key takeaway:
A significant step by the Indic Media Wiki Developers User Group in cultivating a new generation of technical experts equipped to sustain and innovate South Asian digital platforms.Vipin SJ, Senior Partnerships Manager at WMF at the First episode of WikiTalks podcast
Voices of the Movement: Wikimedians of Kerala Launch 'WikiTalks'
The Wikimedians of Kerala User Group has launched WikiTalks, a new podcast series designed to raise global awareness about the Wikimedia ecosystem and its diverse community.The podcast serves as a platform to amplify the insights of those working within the movement, specifically targeting Wikimedians and the general public across South Asia.
Episode 1 Spotlight:
- The Guest: The series kicked off with Vipin SJ, Senior Partnerships Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation.
- Key Insights: Vipin shared his personal journey within the movement and discussed the critical role of strategic partnerships and collaboration in strengthening the global open-knowledge network.
- Where to listen: Insights from WikiTalks are being integrated into Wikimedia projects, making these regional success stories accessible to a global audience. Doccumented on Wikimedia Commons and the meta page by the Wikimedians of Kerala User Group.
South Asia Open Community Call - April 2026
The community call in April will focus on the Annual Plan of the Wikimedia Foundation. It is an opportunity for South Asian communities to share their thoughts and feedback, and also hear from the Foundation's staff about the movement’s key global priorities, needs, and efforts.
Registration Link - South Asia Open Community Call, April 2026
WikiConference India 2026
WikiConference India 2026 is the fourth edition of the national-level conference that brings together Wikimedians and stakeholders engaged in Indic-language Wikimedia projects and the broader movement across India and parts of South Asia. The conference will take place in Kochi, Kerala from 4th - 6th September 2026. The theme for WCI 2026 is 'Reimagining the Knowledge Commons' - Community Leadership in an Evolving Wikimedia Ecosystem.
DCW Conversation Hour
Youth Engagement in Wikimedia - 40th edition of our DCW Conversation Hour, will explore why young people should contribute to Wikimedia in 2026. We will dive into the fresh initiatives needed today, highlighting the core reasons to get involved and the many ways to take action. This edition features Ndahiro Derrick Alter, the founder and executive director of Wikimedia Rwanda.
Tools - Global Mass Rollback
Global Mass Rollback is a newly developed open-source tool hosted on Wikimedia Toolforge. It enables users with global rollback or steward rights to revert the most recent edits of a particular user across multiple Wikimedia wikis in a single operation.