Breaking the barriers of language disparities
Have you ever wondered who writes articles in Wikipedia? You, me and thousands of amazing volunteers from around the world. Yes!
Wikipedia is a web-based, free-content encyclopedia available in 288 different language editions. It allows anyone to edit any page within the wiki, thus written by the active collaboration and contribution of volunteers.
And there’s a thriving community of more than a hundred volunteers in Nepal. The Nepali Wikipedia Community keeps the Nepali version of Wikipedia fresh and alive. With the contributions of the community, there are more than 27,000 articles in Nepali Wikipedia and it’s still growing, with more people contributing and adding new articles every day. While Wikipedia can already be found in Newari, Maithili and Bhojpuri languages, efforts are in to bring Tamang, Awadhi, Limbu, Sherpa and Doteli version of Wikipedia, too. Wikipedia is one of the platforms that can help to decrease language disparity and increase digital presence of the Nepali language.
The Wikipedians of Nepal actively organize and facilitate worldwide Wikipedia events on a local basis. But there are also events that are entirely local, like ‘Wikithon’ and ‘Women Edit-a-thon’ which are competitions held to encourage contributions to Wikipedia. Other events are online and global, like photography competitions.
Two-day Huawei Digital Nepal Conclave 2022
Recently, the Wikipedia Community of Nepal organized ‘Wiki Loves Earth’ and ‘Wiki Loves Monuments’—an international photography competition that saw the submission of over 70,000 photos by more than 3,000 participants from all over the world. An award distribution event was held on March 14 to honor the top 10 photographs of Nepal.
‘Wiki Loves Earth’, a photo contest of natural monuments, became international for the first time in 2014 and was held in 16 countries. The goal of the photo contest is to collect pictures of natural heritage sites, landscapes and ornamental gardens in order to publish on Wikipedia and other Wiki projects. The photos uploaded are free for use and reuse by anyone, anywhere on the Internet.
Many amateur and professional photographers took part in the competition, exploring the hidden treasures of Nepal. When the competition started, the community members didn’t know what to expect, but once the entries started pouring in, they were amazed.
One of the community members was quoted as saying, “When we saw the photos submitted for the competition, we felt amazed to witness the natural diversity that a small country like Nepal could offer. And the best thing is the photos were just a sneak peek of a vast treasure Nepal actually has.”
Similarly, ‘Wiki Loves Monuments’ is a photo contest around cultural heritages.
While these are some of the events organized by the Wikipedia Community, you might be curious why people voluntarily contribute to keep Wikipedia running.
There are many reasons why one contributes to Wikipedia. The most common reason is to volunteer to share knowledge. For some long-term volunteers, their belief that knowledge should be available for free is what motivates and drives them. Many Wikipedia editors point out that they started their editing journey almost by accident when they saw an error or found an article missing.
Normally, Internet-savvy youth don’t like to write in Nepali, and if they do, they don’t know how to type. The mentality of ‘Internet as a commodity of luxury’ still exists in Nepal.
The culture of volunteering is still in a budding stage, and among the handful of people who are eager to volunteer, tight scheduling of electricity frustrates them. Also, the community itself is not well prepared to mentor and retain the editors.
However, despite all these odds, the active contribution of volunteers from remote villages of Nepal has time and again proved the adage ‘Where there is will, there is a way’. Some of the most active volunteers contribute articles by using their mobile phones!
If you want to know how you can contribute to this great resource, trust us, it’s very easy. You can either start by writing a new article, fixing an error in an existing article, or translating an existing article to your mother tongue.
The next time you find an error in Wikipedia, remember that you can contribute to make it better. Start editing at ne.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The community is very welcoming, warm and they meet every now and then. The best way to connect with likeminded Wikimedians is to join the Facebook group. Write an email to nepaliwiki@googlegroups.com or join the mailing list at wikipedia-ne@lists.wikimedia.org.
For more information on Wikipedia Community of Nepal, visit their Facebook page facebook.com/newiki.
The writers are active members of the Nepali tech community and tech enthusiasts from Kathmandu. They can be reached at avinash@avinash.com.np and mail@mjt.com.np.
