South Asia/Newsletter/April 2026
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WIKIDHARA
The echos from South Asia
Awareness Programme at Government First Grade College, Carstreet, Mangaluru
Wikimedia and Preserving the Living Heritage: Awareness Programme
The programme featured an expert talk by Dr. Vishwanatha Badikana, focusing on creating awareness about preserving Tulu culture through Wikimedia platforms. Participants were introduced to the importance of documenting cultural practices, improving the quality of Tulu-related content, and protecting traditional knowledge, including language and terminology, for future generations.
Highlights:
- Awareness on Preservation: The session focused on preserving Tulu culture and traditional knowledge through Wikimedia projects.
- Importance of Documentation: Participants learned about accurate information sharing and proper documentation practices.
- Encouraging Contributions: Students were encouraged to actively contribute towards preserving and promoting Tulu heritage for future generations.
Wiki Love Fish Prize Distribution
Wiki Loves Fish Prize Distribution Ceremony at St Aloysius University
The Wiki Loves Fish prize distribution ceremony was held on 30 April 2026 at St Aloysius University. Coordinators awarded winners with prizes and certificates for their valuable contributions. The event encouraged students to continue participating in Wikimedia campaigns and open knowledge initiatives.
Highlights:
- Recognition of Contributors: Winners were recognized for documenting aquatic biodiversity and contributing quality images to Wikimedia Commons.
- Community Participation: The event brought together active student contributors, coordinators, and faculty members.
- Promoting Open Knowledge: The ceremony highlighted the role of Wikimedia campaigns in experiential learning, digital skills, and future participation in open knowledge initiatives.
Banner of the workshop
Community Language Documentation and Archiving Training
OpenSpeaks is organising a workshop series on recording and archiving Adivasi/tribal and other low-resourced languages. The programme includes seven hourly online sessions focusing on planning, consent, credit, recording, editing, saving, and sharing content through archives and Wikipedia/Wikimedia projects. In addition to the online sessions, an in-person event will be held in Kochi on 7 September 2026.
Highlights:
- Workshop Series: The online sessions will take place on 18 May, 1 June, 15 June, 29 June, 13 July, 27 July, and 10 August at 6 PM IST.
- Focus on Language Preservation: The training will cover ethical documentation practices, archiving methods, and sharing knowledge through Wikimedia projects.
- Participation Opportunities: Applicants can apply to attend only online sessions, both online and in-person sessions and only in-person event.
Group photo with workshop participants
Wiki Club SATI Documents Women's Stories through Feminism and Folklore Workshop 2026 in Vidisha
Wiki Club SATI organised the Workshop on Feminism and Folklore 2026 on 21 March 2026 in Vidisha, as part of the global Feminism and Folklore campaign. Twenty-one first-time Wikipedia contributors collectively created 20+ new articles on women in regional languages. The event featured talks by Suyash Dwivedi and Riddhi Sharma, covering Wikipedia editing and Wikimedia Commons uploads.
Highlights:
- Empowering New Contributors: Twenty-one first-time Wikipedia contributors collectively created 20+ new articles on women in regional languages.
- Community-Led Initiative: The workshop was organised by Aanchal Patel under Wiki Club SATI (South Asia Technical Initiatives).
- Celebrating Participation: The event achieved 100% attendance from registered participants and concluded with a celebratory cake-cutting ceremony.
Wiki Loves Schools Logo
Wiki Loves Schools campaign
Wiki Loves Schools is a campaign to collect and add high-quality, freely licensed images and other media of educational institutions around the world to Wikimedia Commons. By doing so, the campaign aims to enrich school-related articles on Wikipedia and create a comprehensive visual record of schools for public use. The first edition focused on schools in the state of Kerala.
Highlights:
- Strong Community Participation: The campaign concluded on 31 March 2026 with impressive contributions from 174 participants.
- Large Media Contribution: A total of 4,870 files were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons during the campaign.
- Geotagged Documentation: The campaign also resulted in 2,884 geotagged files, helping improve location-based educational documentation.
Theyyam Logo for Wiki Loves Theyyam
Wiki Loves Theyyam 2026 invites contributors
Wiki Loves Theyyam 2026 is a public photo campaign aimed at documenting the magnificent traditional ritual dance of Kerala. By contributing high-quality photographs to Wikimedia Commons, participants can help preserve this important cultural and divine heritage for future generations.
Highlights:
- Documenting Cultural Heritage: The campaign focuses on preserving Theyyam traditions through freely licensed photographs on Wikimedia Commons.
- Ongoing Community Campaign: The campaign is currently active and will conclude on 17 May 2026.
- Growing Contributions: More than 350 files have already been uploaded by contributors so far.
Participants at Wikisource Summit 2026
Wikisource Summit 2026
The Wikisource Summit 2026 was a two-day offline meetup and workshop organized for enthusiasts and contributors of the Wikisource project. The event focused on introducing various aspects of Wikisource, discussing future roadmaps, and fostering collaboration among South Indian Wikisource communities.
Highlights:
- Regional Collaboration: Representatives from Tulu Wikisource, Tamil Wikisource, and Malayalam Wikisource presented talks during the summit.
- Community Gathering: The event brought together Wikisource contributors and enthusiasts to share experiences and discuss future plans.
- Hosted at University of Calicut: The summit was organized on 17 and 18 April 2026 at the C.H. Mohammed Koya Central Library Hall, University of Calicut.
- Coordination: The event was coordinated by Wikimedians of Kerala User Group, along with Sahya Digital Conservation Foundation and Wikimedia Community.
WikiConference India 2026 Announces Theme: Reimagining the Knowledge Commons
WikiConference India 2026 has announced its official theme, "Reimagining the Knowledge Commons," with the sub-theme "Community Leadership in an Evolving Wikimedia Ecosystem." The conference will bring together Wikimedia communities across India and South Asia to discuss the future of open knowledge, community collaboration and evolving digital ecosystems. Building on the spirit of Namukku Othukoodam (Let us come together), the event aims to foster conversations around participatory knowledge models, regional languages, and community-led innovation.
System architecture diagram for WikiScriptSync
Tool for Tracking Script Updates – WikiScriptSync
WikiScriptSync is a Toolforge-based application developed to address a key gap in the Wikimedia developer workflow—tracking updates to JavaScript and CSS gadgets maintained in external repositories. The tool monitors public GitHub and GitLab repositories and notifies maintainers via their Wikimedia talk pages when changes are detected. By reducing missed updates and deployment delays, it improves reliability across multi-wiki gadget deployments. The project was developed as part of the Developer Skill Program India 2025.
The tool runs scheduled checks to detect file changes using hash comparison, ensuring no file content is stored. It integrates with Wikimedia OAuth for authentication and uses a bot account to deliver structured notifications on Meta-Wiki. Designed with a security-first approach, WikiScriptSync does not perform automatic publishing, ensuring humans remain in control of decision-making. The tool is actively deployed on Toolforge and supports mapping of source files to multiple destination wiki pages.
2026 Ombuds commission
Two experienced Wikimedians from South Asia, Chinmayee Mishra and Jnanaranjan Sahu, have been appointed to the Wikimedia Ombuds Commission for the 2026–28 term. The Ombuds Commission investigates complaints related to violations of the privacy policy and the use of CheckUser and Oversight tools across Wikimedia projects on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
Highlights:
- User Chinmayee Mishra has been active in Wikimedia since 2016, contributing to open knowledge, regional language content, gender equity, and community engagement initiatives.
- User Jnanaranjan Sahu has been involved with Wikimedia since 2011 and contributes as an administrator, Toolforge developer, mentor, and community organizer within the Odia and Indic Wikimedia communities.