Odia Wikimedians User Group/Annual Report/2023-2024

Executive Summary

This annual report includes updates on strategic plans, initiatives undertaken and the impact of the same by the Odia Wikimedians User Group (ODW) between Jun 2023 - May 2024. This year saw nine successful edit-a-thons, a partnership with the Odisha state government leading to engagement during an international conference on the Odia language, and other major contribution to Wikimedia projects and movement by other initiatives. During this report's duration, 21M unique visitors visited Odia Wikipedia, the flagship project, and the total number of articles grew by 3K new articles due to the contribution of 13 active editors and 112 total editors.

Key Initiatives

“ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ସମ୍ମିଳନୀରେ 'ଡୋମ୍ ଅଫ୍ ଦ ଫ୍ୟୁଚର୍'ରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆକୁ ନେଇ ସଚେତନ କରାଯାଉଛି। ସାହିତ୍ୟ, ସଂସ୍କୃତି ଓ ରାଜନୀତି ଆଦି ଅନେକ ତଥ୍ୟ ଏଥିରେ ରହିଛି। ଏହା ଉପରେ ଅଧିକ ଜାଣିବା ପାଇଁ ଏହି ଲିଙ୍କରେ କ୍ଲିକ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ। or.wikipedia.org” (trans. “Awareness is being made about Odia Wikipedia in 'Dome of the Future' in Odia Language Conference. Literature, culture and politics etc. contains a lot of facts in this. Click on this link to know more about it. or.wikipedia.org.”)

— Electronics & Information Technology Department, Government of Odisha

• 6th January 2024: Odia Wikimedian Dr. Subas Chandra Rout was awarded the "2023 Cure Award" by the WikiProject Med for being the most prolific medical translator of 2023 with 349 medicine-related articles created on Odia Wikipedia. The Odia Wikipedia articles remains the largest among all the Wikipedias in 32 languages where editors are contributing under the scope of this WikiProject, receiving 87,528 pageviews at the time of reporting.
• Initiated by Wikimedian Sangram Keshari Senapati, the ODW User Group led the Param Vir Chakra Edit-a-thon to honour the military officers awarded with the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military decoration that honours those who have shown distinguished acts of valour during wartime. The edit-a-thon saw an uptake in four other Wikipedias—Angika, Assamese, Kashmiri and Santali—in addition to Odia. Wikimedians created and improved articles about the 21 awardees and other related key articles.

Other Initiatives

• Monthly Online call on the last Sunday

The user group is organizing a monthly call on the last Sunday of every month, to discuss and share the work of the month, experiences and learnings.

• Organized Ratha Jatra Edit-a-thon on Wikipedia and a Photo & Video uploading event on Commons

The user group had restored the Ratha Jatra Edit-a-thon and Wiki Loves Ratha Jatra event on Wikimedia Commons. During this 9-days event, 3 people had created 11 articles on Wikipedia and a total of 312 photos and videos from different places of Odisha (Puri, Bhadrak, Sonepur, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Baripada, Nilagiri, Koraput, etc.) as well as out of India (Cooksville, Maryland and Johannesburg). The twitter to Commons tool developed by Janaranjan Sahu was very useful during to this time for uploading photographs shared on the Twitter handles of Govt. of Odisha in CC-by-SA-4.0 license directly to Commons.

• Organized Indian Independence Day 2023 edit-a-thon

The Odia Wikimedians organized a 3-day long mini edit-a-thon during the Indian Independence day from 14 August to 16 August. 6 uses of the user group joined this event and a total of 27 articles about Indian activists created by translating from English Wikipedia.

• Organized Mahatma Gandhi Edit-a-thon 2023

Odia Wikipedia organized a 3-days long edit-a-thon to created articles related to Mahatma Gandhi from 30 September to 2 October. During this period, a total of 26 articles has been created by 3 users. During this period, the Mahatma Gandhi article on Odia Wikipedia has been improved by Janaranjan Sahu by adding 3,59,456 bytes, which become the longest article on Wikipedia and that article helped the school students of Odisha to know more about Gandhi in their local language.

• Small meet-up and Wikidata Birthday

The user group organized an offline meeting at Bhubaneswar on 29 October 2023 to celebrate the 11th Birthday of Wikidata. The users from Odia Wikimedians User Group joined this celebration.

• Organized Wikipedia Asian Month 2023 edit-a-thon

The Odia Wikipedia community participated in the 2023 Wikipedia Asian Month edit-a-thon. However, the event did not see wider participation and only 2 articles by only 2 users.

• Organized Feminism and Folklore 2024 edit-a-thon

Odia Wikipedia saw active community participation while returning to the 2023 edition of the annual Feminism and Folklore edit-a-thon. Ten Wikimedians created 156 new articles. Most of these articles were biographies of notable women helping bridge the gender gap on Odia Wikipedia.

• Organized Odia Literature 2024 edit-a-thon

To improve articles related to Odia literature, the Odia Wikimedians user group had organized a 15 days long edit-a-thon from 1st April (Odisha Foundation Day) to 15th April (Odia New Year). Later, the timeline had increased to 7 more days and during this period, 3 users had created 31 articles on Odia Books, Odia writers and poets.

• Organized Indian General Election 2024 edit-a-thon

The Odia Wikipedia is the open and biggest online platform to provide detailed data about political history of Odisha. From the result declaration day, the Odia Wikimedians user group has started an edit-a-thon on Odia Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons to create and update data related to the 2024 Odisha Assembly election. The edit-a-thon is going and more then 200 Wikidata items has been updated/created. The target to to update/create more than 400 Wikipedia articles.

• Participated in World Odia Language Conference by the Govt. of Odisha

The Govt. of Odisha had invited the Odia Wikimedians User Group to participate at the World Odia Language Conference held on 6-8 February in 2024 at Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar. A few members from the user group attended this event and showcase about Odia Wikipedia, Wikidata and other Wikimedia projects to create awareness among people and basically among school children and college students.

• Timeline of Eminent Odia people

By collaborating with the Govt. of Odisha, the Odia Wiki UG had developed a timeline to showcase at the Future of dome at Odia Language Conference.

• Wikipedia Awareness Survey Form

The Odia Wikimedians User Group had shared a Google form among the people visited the Future of Dome hall at the language conference, where more than 50 interested participants gook part of in this survey including some administrative officers of Odisha Govt and famous personalities like Padmashree Sudarshan Pattnaik.

• Participated in the Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2024

Organized by Wikimedia Ukraine in cooperation with Ukrainian Institute and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, two Odia Wikimedians participated and created content for two articles on this theme.

• Participated at Wiki Technical Training 2024

Organized by CIS-A2K, two Odia Wikimedians (Chinmayee Mishra and Ssgapu22) participated at the Wiki Technical training held at Chennai on 22-23 June and one user (Jananranjan Sahu) attended the event as a trainer Wikimedia Ukraine in cooperation with Ukrainian Institute and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, two Odia Wikimedians participated and created content for two articles on this theme.

• Planning Ratha Jatra 2024 edit-a-thon on both Wikipedia and Commons

Blogs

• Senapati, Sangram Keshari; Wikisource, Odia; Commons., Wikimedia (2024-02-25). "Marking the 25th round of My #100WikiDays Writing Adventure on Odia Wikipedia". Diff. Retrieved 2024-02-27. 
• Panigrahi, Subhashish (2023-11-22). "GLAMwiki Learning: Adding 700 Visual Artists’ Records to Getty and Citing Authority Data on Wikidata". Diff. Retrieved 2023-11-23. 
• Panigrahi, Subhashish (2023-10-24). "Growing Getty’s Coverage of Visual Artists from India and Wikidata’s Citations". Creative Commons Blog. Retrieved 2023-10-26. 
• Senapati, Sangram Keshari (2023-07-20). "Odia Wikimedians User Group restored the Wiki Loves Ratha Jatra Edit-a-thon and Photo-a-thon after 7 years". Diff. Retrieved 2023-08-16. 

In the news

• "ଜାତୀୟ ସ୍ତରରେ ଚମକୁଛନ୍ତି ଅଲିଭା, ଚିନ୍ମୟୀ". Prameya Epaper (in Odia). 2024-03-17. Retrieved 2024-03-18. 
• Behera, Pramod (2024-02-27). "ଉଇକିପିଡିଆ ନିଶାରେ ସଂଗ୍ରାମ : ଲଗାତାର ୨୫୦୦ ଦିନ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖିଥିବା ପ୍ରଥମ ଓଡ଼ିଆ". ଉଇକିପିଡିଆ ନିଶାରେ ସଂଗ୍ରାମ : ଲଗାତାର ୨୫୦୦ ଦିନ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଲେଖିଥିବା ପ୍ରଥମ ଓଡ଼ିଆ (in Odia). Retrieved 2024-02-27. 
• "ବିଶ୍ୱ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ସମ୍ମିଳନୀରେ ଭଦ୍ରକ ବିଧାୟକ ସଞ୍ଜିବ ମଲ୍ଲିକଙ୍କ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଷ୍ଟଲ୍ ପରିଦର୍ଶନ #OdiaWiki". YouTube. Retrieved 2024-02-06. 
• "ବିଶ୍ୱ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ସମ୍ମିଳନୀରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବାବଦରେ ସଚେତନତା ଶିବିର". Salandi Samachar- Online New in India, E-paper News. 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2024-02-06. 
• "Dome of the future: ସେଲ୍ଫି ନେଉଛେ ରୋବୋଟ୍, କବିତା ପଢ଼ୁଛେ ରୋବୋଟ୍, ବୁଲି ବୁଲିକରି ହାତ୍ ମିଲଉଛେ ରୋବୋଟ୍...". YouTube. Retrieved 2024-02-05.  (interview of Wikimedian Chinmayee Mishra)
• "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ସ୍ବେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀଙ୍କ ସାକ୍ଷାତକାର". Youtube. Salandi Samachar. Retrieved 2024-02-05. 
• "ଦିନକ ପରେ ଇତିହାସ". Sambad. Eastern Media Limited. 2024-02-02. Retrieved 2024-02-02. 
• Mishra, Swayangprajna (2024-01-19). "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିଆଳି ଡ. ସୁବାସ ଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ରାଉତଙ୍କୁ ମିଳିଲା "୨୦୨୩ କିଓର୍ ଆୱାର୍ଡ଼"". Argus News. Retrieved 2024-01-19. 
• Das, Praveen (2023-08-15). "Odia Wikipedia Touches Record Heights; How It Helped People During COVID-19". odishabytes. Retrieved 2023-08-16. 
• "The 11th Birthday of Wikidata was celebrated in Bhubaneswar by the Odia Wikimedians User Group". Odisha Diary (in en-IN) (Bhubaneswar). 30 October 2023. Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.  CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
• "Odia Wikimedians User Group Celebrates 11th Birthday of Wikidata". The News Insight (in en-IN). 30 October 2023. Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.  CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
• "Odia Wikimedians User Group Celebrates 11th Birthday of Wikidata in Bhubaneswar". Biswabani (in en-IN) (Bhubaneswar) (Bhubaneswar). 1 November 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023.  CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)