Deoband Community Wikimedia/Reports/Activity reports/2024
During our third year of recognition, from 16 January 2024 to 15 January 2025, we successfully hosted several programs including 12 DCW Conversation Hours, two Heritage Lens iterations, and actively participated in various conferences including Wikimedia India Summit 2024, Wikimedia Summit 2024, India Strategy Meet, Wiki Technical Training, Wikimedia Technology Summit 2024, Train the Trainer 2024, and the Indic Wikimedia Hackathon in Bhubaneswar. We also hosted two editions of Mehfil-e-Wiki, and incubated our own learning zone.
DCW Conversation Hour
We organised a total of twelve conversation hours in 2024, delving into a wide range of issues with varying perspectives and stories. From organizer lab to user experience and pedagogy, our conversation hours focused on issues such as: A Dive Into The Organizer Lab, Elevating Events: Lessons from Wikimania Singapore, Engage and Retain: Improving User Experience, Partnership Dynamics: Ethical Collaboration Strategies, Wikimedia Ecosystem: Targeted Strategies, Movement Charter: Impact and Implications, Exploring Community Wishlist, Elevate with Evaluation, Impactful Communication Strategies, Sustaining Open Knowledge Initiatives, Wikipedia and AI: Ethical Boundaries in LLM Training and Bridging Pedagogy and Innovation.
Heritage Lens
We conducted two iterations of the Heritage Lens in 2024, bringing in a total of 239 images through this program.
Iteration 3
The third iteration focused on the New Delhi region. It was conducted between 26 to 28 March, 2024, and a travel fellowship was awarded to خوشبو to facilitate its execution. This contributed to the addition of 130 images on Wikimedia Commons.
Iteration 4
The fourth iteration focused on the Delhi NCR region. It was conducted between 20 to 30 August, 2024, and a travel fellowship was awarded to Luma2rk to facilitate its execution. 109 images were successfully uploaded on Wikimedia Commons.
Edit-a-thons and contests
We conducted the second edition of DCW-K Editathon and organized the third drive of Deoband Yoruba Collaborative Project respectively in June and September 2024, bringing in a variety of content on Kashmiri, Urdu and Yoruba language Wikipedias.
DCW-K Editathon
DCW-K Editathon is our flagship edit-a-thon with Kashmiri Wikimedians User Group. We conducted its second drive from 11 to 25 June, 2024. This edition resulted in creation of about 79 articles on Kashmiri Wikipedia related to various Islamic historical topics, personalities, scholars and poets.
Deoband Yoruba Collaborative Project
We organized the third drive of the Deoband Yoruba Collaborative Project from 20 September to 5 October, 2024, with an aim of creating/improving over 100 articles across Urdu and Yoruba language Wikipedias. The drive helped with creation/improvement of 94 articles, addressing the gaps of Yoruba-related content on Urdu Wikipedia, and that of Muslim-academia and history on the Yoruba Wikipedia.
500 edit edit challenge
In November 2023, we idealised an 500 edit challenge at the Wiki Club Jamia. By August 2024, the challenge was completed by 5 users, while several others made smaller, yet impactful, edits.
Workshops
We organised and conducted several workshops and training sessions including:
- Wikimedia Primer: Your First Wikipedia Article: This was an extensive workshop, hosted by the Wiki Club Jamia in collaboration with Eng Res Co, at the English department of the Jamia Millia Islamia, on 26 April 2024.
- Wikimedia Commons: Copyright & Licensing: This in-depth workshop organized on 21 May 2024, aimed to equip its participants with the basic but comprehensive knowledge related to the question of copyright and licensing on Wikimedia Commons.
- Taking Wiki Club Jamia Ahead: Organized on 28 May 2024, as a part of CIS-A2K's She Leads initiative to develop female leadership in the Indic Wikimedia ecosystem. This workshop was supported by the DCW and led by Bloomingbibliophile and Humaira Ali.
- Wikidata 101: Focused on understanding the basic inclusion criteria of Wikidata, this workshop was organized on 26 June 2024.
- Wiki Notability Criterias: Utilising the English Wikipedia Model, this workshop on 21 July 2024, helped participants explore how article-inclusion works on the open-encyclopedia, and how it differs from project to project.
- NPOV and Wikipedia: Organized on 25 October 2024, we explored how the Wikipedia community understands the nuances around neutral point of view and how diverse point of views are incorporated on the encyclopedia.
- Conflict of Interest in Wikipedia Editing: This workshop explored a wide-range of issues such as undisclosed paid-editing, ethics, neutral point of view, the use of talk-pages, and the wider case of conflicts of interest according to the English language Wikipedia. This was organized on 11 November 2024.
- Scope of Wikimedia Commons: Organized on 30 November 2024, we explored the larger Scope Question of Wikimedia Commons, understanding what should usually be uploaded.
- Wikimania 2025 Orientation Call: Held on 5 December 2024, this orientation call, helped our volunteers understand the ifs and buts required for filling in Wikimania scholarship forms!
- Wikipedia Article Creation: This was organized on 8 December 2024. Participants learned using Articles for Creation (AfC) Wizard of English Wikipedia, and manual of style. This included a live demonstration about writing and submitting a draft for review and including citations to reliable sources.
- Handling Vandalism on Wikipedia: Organized on 12 December 2024, this workshop was presented by User:Raydann, an active Wikipedian who majorly contributes on English Wikipedia. Raydann gave a live demonstration using several anti-vandal tools such as Ultraviolet.
DCW Progress Prism and other meetups
We organized two editions of DCW Progress Prism, respectively on 15 April and 28 September 2024. These conversations explored the administrative functions of the DCW and helped formulate our subsequent activity plans. These also helped in realizing the need for a governance board. Together with the Kashmiri Wikimedians User Group, we initiated Koshur Collective in June 2024, and conducted two in-person meetups for it. The first on 9 June in Verinag Spring, and the second on 15 December in Qazigund.
Having established the Wiki Club Jamia in October 2023, and then subsequently Wiki Club AMU and Wiki Club Deoband in May and July 2024, respectively, we organized several COT-only and extended meetups, and other collaborative throughout the year. On 6 August 2024, we celebrated our third year anniversary at The Eden Rooftop in New Delhi.
Wiki Club Jamia
Wiki Club Jamia hosted the first two editions of Mehfil-e-Wiki on 5 September and 14 November 2024 respectively. The club had an extended meetup of its COT members on 20th of September 2024 at Tikona Park, in New Delhi, attended by over 17 members.
Wiki Club AMU
Wiki Club AMU organized several COT meetups throughout the year to sustain its interests. The first COT meetup was held on 13 July 2024, the second on 31 August 2024, the third on 13 October 2024, and the last on 22 December 2024.
Wiki Club Deoband
Wiki Club Deoband was founded on 2 July 2024, and has had a few COT meetups for its sustainability. Having first met in Deoband on its inception date, the club also organised meetups and workshops between 6 and 8 October 2024.
Wikidata 12
Celebrating Wikidata and organising thematic label-a-thons has been one of our engaging activities since 2022. We organised several decentralized events in 2024 in Aligarh, Deoband and Delhi.
Conference and event participation
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In 2024, we represented at the Wikimedia Summit, and also participated in the pre and post Summit events co-organized by the CIS-A2K, aiming to engage with the broader Indic community. These included the Wikimedia India Summit 2024 in New Delhi during March 23 and 24, 2024 and the India Strategy Meet in Mohali during June 28 - 29, 2024. Aafi also received a scholarship from CIS-A2K to attend the Wiki Technical Training that took place in Chennai, in June 2024.
Our volunteers Aafi and Numis Zuhair received full scholarships to attend the Wikimedia Technology Summit 2024, that took place in Hyderabad between 4th and 5th October 2024. Additionally, Khaatir and Numis Zuhair received full scholarships to attend the 2024 edition of Train the Trainer, held in Bhubhaneswar, in October 2024. Aafi was given a scholarship to attend the Indic Wikimedia Hackathon in Bhubaneswar, where he mentored development of a tool that could automate translation-markup.
Internship Programs and Capacity Development
As outlined in our Leadership Development and Skills Infrastructure Program, we mentor students and budding creative professionals in communications and graphic design. Our Graphic Internship has been succefully running since February 2023, and we are currently mentoring our third graphic intern. Our Conversation Hours provide an extensive platform to the student community to learn and explore the dynamics of communications and managing events and conversations. Through these conversations, several students associated with our Wiki Clubs have worked closely with our Conversation Hours, and gained valuable skills from these conversations!