Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Bangladesh/2021
Report of activities: 2021[edit]
Amar Ekushey Article Contest[edit]
The Amar Ekushey Article Contest 2021 was organized this year, starting on International Mother Language Day (February 21) and it ended on April 11, aiming at improving the quality of existing articles on Bengali Wikipedia. In this year’s contest, we specially invited the participants to work on the articles representing women, their rights, and violation of those rights in the week of International Women’s Day. A list was created mainly from the stub article category. There are many articles on Bengali Wikipedia with no significant information, but the importance of those articles is indisputable as they are some really fundamental topics. It has been a long-term community desire to organize something like this. Through this contest, articles on different areas including science, technology, biography, environment, philosophy, etc. are chosen and improved. Articles like Sound, Environmental engineering, Electric current, Sadness, Edgar Allan Poe, etc. were improved through this contest. In the week of International Women’s day, a new category was added and the participants improved the articles like Wife, Domestic violence, Equality feminism, etc.
The contest was not easy, as individual participants had to translate at least 2000 words-long articles into Bengali; but considering various aspects, it was much needed to ensure the quality of these articles. A total of 220 articles from 127 contributors got improved in the whole contest. According to the rules of the contest, contributors need to translate the whole article from English to Bengali; and following them, a total of 114 articles got accepted for the contest. The articles were reviewed by the experienced Wikipedians and further checked by the organizing team.
A research study on the occasion of Bengali Wikipedia’s 100,000 articles[edit]
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On December 25, 2020, Bengali Wikipedia (https://bn.wikipedia.org/) crossed the long-desired milestone of 100,000 articles, bringing a moment of enormous pleasure. The Bengali language edition of the world’s largest encyclopedia, which started its journey in January 2004, overcame various phases and finally achieved the milestone in December 2020. In scientific literature, there are thousands of research studies on Wikipedia, but Bengali Wikipedia was hardly a part of those. Therefore, a study was been conducted as we considered it the time to look back – how was the journey? What were the probable positive catalysts? Did everyone get a chance to join this journey? No grant was received for the study, it was entirely voluntary. The paper got accepted and later was presented in Wiki Workshop 2021, held online due to the pandemic. In the study, the growth of Wikipedia on the basis of the number of active editors, total articles, etc., has been analyzed along with a special focus on the gender gap.
A special session following the study[edit]
A seminar on various aspects of the study was held on November 12, 2021 where various discussions happened on the results of the research and possible future activities. Both volunteers, chapter's board members, advisor were present in the seminar. The program was held in Zoom platform.
Wiki Education Program[edit]
Wikimedia Bangladesh organized the country’s first Wiki Education Program of its kind with the students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). In collaboration with BUET Energy Club, a co-curricular club of the university, this program aimed at involving future engineers to share their knowledge on the largest online encyclopedia.
The plan to organize an Education Program in Bangladesh is now new. Multiple plans were in the pipeline but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant transition in the country’s education system, and we had to postpone those in-person programs in 2020. Analyzing the situation, we understood the lack of feasibility in organizing the pre-planned large-level education program offline. Later, in August 2020, we organized our first online workshop with the students of BUET to check the feasibility of organizing one at the online platform. The workshop was followed by a short edit-a-thon where the participants created new engineering-related articles in Bengali Wikipedia. This pilot event encouraged us to organize an official program with the cooperation with university’s club.
We officially began the event on February 21 this year, and it continued up to May 11. 25 students from 8 different departments of the university participated in this non-graded co-curricular event and they created 103 new articles on Bengali Wikipedia. The articles include various fundamental topics including Electrical energy, Crystallographic defect, Delocalized electron, etc. Each of the students selected three 1500 words, or two 1500 words and three 300 words-long articles from English Wikipedia. The topics of these articles were part of their course curriculum in any previous semester. On top of translating an article, it was needed to add at least a new paragraph in the Bengali Wikipedia article along with relevant references from their academic textbook or journals, which wasn’t present in English Wikipedia. Tutorials on how to create new articles, how to add references, etc. were provided to them and during the whole period, they were being mentored by myself (author of this article), as the coordinator of the whole event. The students who were able to finish their tasks properly will receive certificates and souvenirs from the organizers.
Through this program, Bengali Wikipedia got 103 new and rich quality articles on the various engineering, architectural, and urban and regional planning topics.
Edit-a-thons[edit]
- World Environment Day Edit-a-thon 2021: A 72-hour long edit-a-thon was organized on 5th June to enhance the content on environment with special focus on snake. A total of 41 articles were submitted and 25 Wikipedian participated.
- Wiki For Human Rights: WikiForHumanRights edit-a-thon run from 30 April 2021 to 10 May. 26 users created 108 new articles on Bangla Wikipedia.
Workshops[edit]
#Wiki4Climate[edit]
An online workshop has been held at the Bangladesh University of Engineering (BUET) to increase information on Wikipedia, the largest online encyclopedia on climate change and its effects on the environment and people. On April 29, BUET students participated in an online workshop organized by Wikimedia Bangladesh in association with Environment Watch: BUET Club.
Everyone has the right to a safe, healthy and sustainable environment. But climate change is having an adverse effect on all of this worldwide. One of the prerequisites for taking any action in this case is proper information. On the occasion of World Earth Day on 22nd April, various programs are being organized worldwide under the slogan 'Right to Healthy Environment'. The purpose of all these programs is to add the necessary information to Wikipedia so that people can get reliable information. Following this, BUET organized 'Wiki for Climate: Bengali Wikipedia Workshop'. The workshop discusses how Wikipedia, the world's largest encyclopedia, works, and how anyone can contribute by adding the necessary information to Wikipedia. The workshop was held online due to the ongoing COVID-19 global epidemic. The workshop was conducted by Ankan Ghosh Dastidar on behalf of Wikimedia Bangladesh.
WikiMeetup[edit]
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, all the meetups took place in online platform.
Online WikiMeetup[edit]
Total 05 WikiMeetup arranged. First meetup arranged in January to celebrate Bangla Wikipedia's 17th birthday. Bangla Wikipedia contributors from all over the world joined there.
In May, another meetup arranged to create awareness regarding the Wikipedian's online safety and information security. The event was only for the registered users.
In February, first ever meetup arranged for the Wikipedian's of Mymensingh Division. In that meetup the participants took deaccession to organize a Wikipedia Community for the division. In March, they arranged another meetup to have a discussion regarding the formation of the community. Later in September they arranged a meetup to finalize the committee of the Mymensingh Wikipedia Community.
Online magazine: WikiBarta[edit]
Wikimedia Bangladesh continued publishing the online magazine named WikiBarta. In Wikidata: WikiBarta (Q55905601). 2 issues have been published in 2021. National and international wikimedians wrote in these issues. Interviews of contributors both from regional and international level were published regularly.
