Learning patterns/Rejuvenating a dormant Wikipedia in incubator into an active live Wikipedia

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Rejuvenating a dormant Wikipedia in incubator into an active live Wikipedia

problemTulu Wikipedia started as an incubator project in 2008, there was some activity in 2008-09 and remained almost dormant till 2014. It needed to be made live.

solutionA brand new active community was created which worked hard and made Tulu Wikipedia live.

creator• Pavanaja

created on06:19, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

Tulu is a Dravidian language of southern India. Tulu Wikipedia was in incubation from 2008. There were some activity during 2008-09 and it became almost dormant till 2014. All the original editors who were active during the initial days were no more seen anywhere. Major requirements to move a Wikipedia from incubator to a live Wikipedia are - the need of an active editor community with about 5-10 active editors, minimum 500 articles and translations of most important strings.

What is the solution?

To achieve these a totally new set of active editor community need to come into existence. Tulu people were made aware of Wikipedia and its importance. Tulu is one of the Dravidian languages spoken by about 3 million people mainly in the south coastal districts of Karnataka state and Kasaragod district of Kerala state of India. Tulu has a rich culture preserved mostly as oral tradition. Bringing this huge knowledge into digital domain helps in preserving them. Bringing world knowledge on a day to day basis into Tulu (or any language for that matter) is one way of growing that language. These were made to known to Tulu people by way of many meetings, outreach activities and media mentions. Social media played an important role in this propaganda. Many outreach activities, meetings, workshops and editathons were organised. Due to all these efforts many people became editors of Tulu Wikipedia and relentlessly added articles to Tulu Wikipedia which was in incubation. Some set of people worked on translations and policy decisions. All these efforts resulted in Tulu Wikipedia becoming live in Aug 2016.

Lessons learnt

• Creation of awareness among people is most important step
• Make use of print, electronic media & social media
• Make the people to understand how Wikipedia helps in preserving and growing their language
• Motivate people to write to Wikipedia
• Keep the community alive –meetups, social media, WhatsApp group
• Appreciate good work

Things to consider

• Applicable to less known language
• For languages where less encyclopedic content is available

When to use

• For Wiki projects in incubation

Endorsements

I eulogize this project , it is unique idea to promote nascent stage to worth source. I am endorsing him in support of his work plan for Tulu language. --BHARATHESHA ALASANDEMAJALU (talk) 05:01, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

I support this project.-- --Vishwanatha Badikana (talk) 16:52, 22 March 2017 (UTC).

I support this project.-- --Lokesha kunchadka (talk) 05:44, 23 March 2017 (UTC).

I support this project.-- --Kishorekumarrai (talk)

See also

External links

• Blog: Making of Tulu Wikipedia Live
• Presentation slide deck of 4C Conference at Chennai, January 27-28, 2017