Odia wikipedia turning 15 this week

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There exist 23 Indian-language Wikipedias, and the oldest one is turning 15

Born in 2002, the Odia-language Wikipedia is celebrating its 15th  birthday
on June 3.

Subhashish Panigrahi

The Odia-language Wikipedia is celebrating its 15th birthday on June 3.
Born in 2002, just a year after the English Wikipedia, the first ever
Wikipedia went live. Odia might not be there in  the Google Translate, but
as one of the three oldest languages of the Indian subcontinent it also has
the oldest Indian-language Wikipedia. June 3 marks first ever edit in
Odia-language by an anonymous editor.

Along with Odia, Assamese, Malayalam and Punjabi Wikipedia were also born
in the same year. Today, there exist 23 Wikipedias, the latest entrant to
the family being Tulu, in 23 different Indian languages.

Odia Wikipedia is a compendium of 12,619 encyclopedic articles written by
only a handful volunteer editors, also known as Uikialis (Odia for
Wikipedian or Wikipedia editor). Though the project is 15 years old, it was
dormant for about nine years until a couple of editors started actively
contributing and building a community around it in 2011.

Slowly these editors spread out, reached out to more people, and the
content sprawled to more subject areas when subject experts started
contributing related to their domain expertise. Just like any other
Wikipedia, Odia Wikipedia is never going to be complete, but will continue
to mature.

When there are over 350 articles related to Medicine, there are only two
articles related to feminism. The reason behind that is simple. A
Wikipedian would often contribute to either a subject area that they are
interested in, or an expert in. For instance, when a veteran doctor and
assistant professor of a medical school translated hundreds of
medicine-related articles, there were not many editors to do the same for
the articles about feminism.

Not all the editors are subject experts themselves, many Wikipedians--like
Pritiranjan Tripathy who has contributed the largest number of biographical
articles, and Sangram Kesari Senapati who has written several articles on
Indian movies and actors--actually contribute for articles that they are
personally interested in.

The contributor community of these Wikipedians have also worked in bringing
two other Wikimedia projects--Odia Wikisource, an online library of
freely-licensed books, and Odia Wiktionary, a dictionary with the meanings
of native words that are equivalent of foreign language vocabulary. Though
the community is small, there is a wide mixture of people of all
professions, most importantly open source software developers. This has
helped the community build many tools that they themselves and the larger
society is using.

One of them is a converter that helps anyone convert text typed in legacy
encoding systems into Unicode, a universal and contemporary alphabet
encoding standard. There are hundreds and thousands of text in multiple
non-standard legacy encodings that has been typed in the recent past, and
are being typed currently by writers, publications, journalists and media
houses. Because of the use of such diverse encoding systems, the content is
never searchable on the Internet nor reproducible.

This converter has transformed the state of the language on the web. This
and many other software that have been developed by the community have been
released under open licenses along with the source code. Many of the
software are also built in collaboration with the global and other
Indian-language open source contributors.

Globally, there are 285 active Wikipedias in diverse world languages and
each of these Wikipedias is looked up by millions of viewers every single
moment. In India, Wikimedia India chapter, Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) at
the Centre for Internet and Society, Punjabi Wikimedians, West Bengal
Wikimedians User Group, and Karavali Wikimedians are designated as movement
affiliates that operate with some institutional framework managed by
either/both volunteers and paid professionals.

But outside these collectives, there exist a few thousand volunteers that
have been constantly driving the open movement in their native languages.

Author bio:

Subhashish Panigrahi is a Bangalore-based educator, communications,
partnership and community strategist, and a long time Free/Libre and Open
Source advocate and contributor. He has worked over six years in global
nonprofits like Mozilla, the Centre for Internet and Society

Contact: +91 8050515339, [email protected]

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_/  Frederick Noronha  http://about.me/noronhafrederick http://goa1556.in
_/  P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter @fn Fcbk:fredericknoronha
_/  Hear Goa,1556 shared audio content at
https://archive.org/details/goa1556
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<div dir=3D"ltr"><div class=3D"gmail_quote"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div>There exi=
st 23 Indian-language Wikipedias, and the oldest one is turning 15</div><di=
v><br></div><div>Born in 2002, the Odia-language Wikipedia is celebrating i=
ts 15th =C2=A0birthday on June 3.</div><div><br></div><div>Subhashish Panig=
rahi</div><div><br></div><div>The Odia-language Wikipedia is celebrating it=
s 15th birthday on June 3. Born in 2002, just a year after the English Wiki=
pedia, the first ever Wikipedia went live. Odia might not be there in =C2=
=A0the Google Translate, but as one of the three oldest languages of the In=
dian subcontinent it also has the oldest Indian-language Wikipedia. June 3 =
marks first ever edit in Odia-language by an anonymous editor.=C2=A0</div><=
div><br></div><div>Along with Odia, Assamese, Malayalam and Punjabi Wikiped=
ia were also born in the same year. Today, there exist 23 Wikipedias, the l=
atest entrant to the family being Tulu, in 23 different Indian languages.</=
div><div><br></div><div>Odia Wikipedia is a compendium of 12,619 encycloped=
ic articles written by only a handful volunteer editors, also known as Uiki=
alis (Odia for Wikipedian or Wikipedia editor). Though the project is 15 ye=
ars old, it was dormant for about nine years until a couple of editors star=
ted actively contributing and building a community around it in 2011.</div>=
<div><br></div><div>Slowly these editors spread out, reached out to more pe=
ople, and the content sprawled to more subject areas when subject experts s=
tarted contributing related to their domain expertise. Just like any other =
Wikipedia, Odia Wikipedia is never going to be complete, but will continue =
to mature.</div><div><br></div><div>When there are over 350 articles relate=
d to Medicine, there are only two articles related to feminism. The reason =
behind that is simple. A Wikipedian would often contribute to either a subj=
ect area that they are interested in, or an expert in. For instance, when a=
 veteran doctor and assistant professor of a medical school translated hund=
reds of medicine-related articles, there were not many editors to do the sa=
me for the articles about feminism.</div><div><br></div><div>Not all the ed=
itors are subject experts themselves, many Wikipedians--like Pritiranjan Tr=
ipathy who has contributed the largest number of biographical articles, and=
 Sangram Kesari Senapati who has written several articles on Indian movies =
and actors--actually contribute for articles that they are personally inter=
ested in.</div><div><br></div><div>The contributor community of these Wikip=
edians have also worked in bringing two other Wikimedia projects--Odia Wiki=
source, an online library of freely-licensed books, and Odia Wiktionary, a =
dictionary with the meanings of native words that are equivalent of foreign=
 language vocabulary. Though the community is small, there is a wide mixtur=
e of people of all professions, most importantly open source software devel=
opers. This has helped the community build many tools that they themselves =
and the larger society is using.=C2=A0</div><div><br></div><div>One of them=
 is a converter that helps anyone convert text typed in legacy encoding sys=
tems into Unicode, a universal and contemporary alphabet encoding standard.=
 There are hundreds and thousands of text in multiple non-standard legacy e=
ncodings that has been typed in the recent past, and are being typed curren=
tly by writers, publications, journalists and media houses. Because of the =
use of such diverse encoding systems, the content is never searchable on th=
e Internet nor reproducible.</div><div><br></div><div>This converter has tr=
ansformed the state of the language on the web. This and many other softwar=
e that have been developed by the community have been released under open l=
icenses along with the source code. Many of the software are also built in =
collaboration with the global and other Indian-language open source contrib=
utors.</div><div><br></div><div>Globally, there are 285 active Wikipedias i=
n diverse world languages and each of these Wikipedias is looked up by mill=
ions of viewers every single moment. In India, Wikimedia India chapter, Acc=
ess to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) at the Centre for Internet and Society, Punjabi =
Wikimedians, West Bengal Wikimedians User Group, and Karavali Wikimedians a=
re designated as movement affiliates that operate with some institutional f=
ramework managed by either/both volunteers and paid professionals.</div><di=
v><br></div><div>But outside these collectives, there exist a few thousand =
volunteers that have been constantly driving the open movement in their nat=
ive languages.</div><div><br></div><div>Author bio:</div><div><br></div><di=
v>Subhashish Panigrahi is a Bangalore-based educator, communications, partn=
ership and community strategist, and a long time Free/Libre and Open Source=
 advocate and contributor. He has worked over six years in global nonprofit=
s like Mozilla, the Centre for Internet and Society</div><div><br></div><di=
v>Contact: +91 8050515339, <a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]" target=
=3D"_blank">[email protected]</a></div></div></div><div><br></div>-- <b=
r><div class=3D"gmail_signature" data-smartmail=3D"gmail_signature">_/_/_/_=
/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/=
_/<br>_/<br>_/ =C2=A0Frederick Noronha =C2=A0<a href=3D"http://about.me/nor=
onhafrederick" target=3D"_blank">http://about.me/noronhafrederick</a> <a hr=
ef=3D"http://goa1556.in" target=3D"_blank">http://goa1556.in</a><br>_/ =C2=
=A0P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter @fn Fcbk:fredericknoronha<br>_/ =
=C2=A0Hear Goa,1556 shared audio content at <a href=3D"https://archive.org/=
details/goa1556" target=3D"_blank">https://archive.org/details/goa1556</a><=
br>_/<br>_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/=
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/</div>
</div>

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