Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia (Project Tiger 2.0)

In 2017–2018, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and Google collaborated to start a pilot project in India, working closely with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). This project, titled Project Tiger was aimed at encouraging Wikipedia communities to create locally relevant and high-quality content in Indian languages. The name Project Tiger was chosen to reflect the Indian metaphor of a tiger representing a strong, or brave person (Baagh in Hindi, Puli in Tamil, etc).

Through this project, support was provided to active and experienced Wikipedia editors in the form of Chromebook donations, and stipends for Internet access. Additionally, a three-month-long edit-a-thon was conducted, as well as a language-based contest on Indic Wikipedia that aimed at addressing existing Wikipedia content gaps.

After listening to feedback and discussion with Wikimedia volunteer communities, Wikimania conference 2018 in Cape Town, Wikimedia Foundation decided to expand this pilot into something called the “GLOW” program—Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation is working with Wikimedia affiliates and volunteers in India, Indonesia, Argentina, the Middle East, North Africa, and Nigeria to include 10 more languages.

In India, the second iteration of Project Tiger is to start in the month of July 2019. This project will be called Project Tiger 2.0.

Program timeline

The program will have three distinct phases:

Needs assessment (March 2019)

After Project Tiger 1.0, CIS-A2K conducted Project Tiger Community Consultation program to understand what went well and what did not go well during the entire program. In two days program, we came to know how can we conduct the second iteration better. These are the feedbacks we got.

• Community wants to be involved in the preparation/suggestions of topics. They felt the first list google provided didn’t resonate. In addition to the Google list, they want a community list as well. Suggestion: To get the list from Google and begin curation early.
• Community ambassadors will be selected for each community. The ambassadors will do outreach to the community and discuss the topics list and drive curation.
• Topics List: how does google arrive at the list - are they doing popular searches during a specific period and if so what is the time frame they use? If a current affair issue comes up as the project is ongoing can google provide updated topics list?
• Community developer committee: Fountain tool to count bytes. May tweak it to count the number of resources/citations etc. This might be a better way than just counting bytes. Community members will form 4 person committees to develop metrics, scripts, tools. WMF data analyst can work with the committee on this. CIS not yet fully clear on this, but will keep WMF appraised of committee’s development and plans.
• Chromebook feedback: Community need better hardware support. Community requested for better hardware like a laptop, which works on windows and capable of offline works.

After the community consultation, CIS-A2K conveyed these feedbacks to the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia Foundation also worked on these feedbacks, and they conveyed the message to Google.

Distribute resources

To provide laptops and internet stipends for existing editors who need support to contribute more actively. 50 basic model Acer Chromebooks and Internet stipends for 100 contributors are available for distribution. Provided resources are the sole property of the beneficiaries and should be used for the betterment of the movement. The applications will be reviewed by a committee consisting of Indic Wikimedians and representatives from the participating organizations. Shortlisted applicants will be contacted via their talk pages and email address. Editors who received the Chromebook support previously are not eligible to receive Chromebook support this time. However, internet support receivers can apply.

Article writing contest

The Indian language Wikipedia communities that express interest to participate in the contest will come together and develop a writing contest focused on content gaps. Participating language communities would compete for three months. Besides individual prizes for top contributors, the winning community will be supported to get an exclusive capacity building training event to improve their skills for contributing to Wikipedia.

Edit-a-thons and requests

Communities are encouraged to conduct if they have ideas regarding organizing offline events like workshops in Indic languages or edit-a-thons to increase participation in Project Tiger 2.0. In order to make a request for an event, please visit this page.

Participating organisations and communities

(Interested communities and user groups can sign up below)

1. --:अरविंद धरेप्पा बगले -Marathi Wikipedia 11:48, 7 September 2019 (UTC) Hopefully this edition of Project Tiger motivates our contributors to enrich the wikipedia and move it forward.
2. --:ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ-Kannada Wikipedia last year Kannada wiki's participation was not as expected, hopefully this time we can be more involved.--★ Anoop✉ 19:58, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
3. --:ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡିଆ-Odia Wikipedia Odia Wikipedia will improve and increase the quality and quanity of her Articles better than the last phase. --Soumendrak (talk) 14:02, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
4. --:हिन्दी विकिपीडिया-Hindi Wikipedia Hindi Wikipedia will participate in this iteration of project tiger. Hopefully our performance will be better than previous one.--Hindust@ni^{क्या करें? बातें!} 17:22, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
5. --:اردو ویکیپیڈیا-Urdu Wikipedia. Muhammad Shuaib (talk) 14:31, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
6. --:తెలుగు వికీపీడియా-Telugu Wikipedia- Telugu Wikipedia will participate in this iteration of Project Tiger. We'll work to improve articles related to Andhra Pradesh & Telangana.--IM3847 (talk) 14:55, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
7. --:ತುಳು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ - Tulu Wikipedia --Pavanaja (talk) 04:15, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
8. --:ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿਕੀਪੀਡੀਆ-Punjabi Wikipedia Punjabi Wikimedians are going to participate in Project Tiger 2.0. We were the winners in the previous Contest. Hopefully we will perform better than last year. Nitesh Gill (talk) 05:22, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
9. --:മലയാളം വിക്കിപീഡിയ - Malayalam Wikipedia This year we will try our best to get more articles and editors onboard. Ranjithsiji (talk) 08:04, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
10. --:w:mr:QueerEcofeminist Marathi Wikipedia - QueerEcofeminist ^{"cite! even if you fight"!!!} [they/them/their] 05:06, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
11. --:অসমীয়া ৱিকিপিডিয়া--Assamese wikipedia There was no participation from our side last time. Hopefully this edition of Project Tiger motivates our contributors to enrich the wikipedia and move it forward. Gitartha.bordoloi (talk) 05:43, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
12. --:தமிழ் விக்கிப்பீடியா Tamil Wikimedians are going to participate in Project Tiger 2.0. We were the runners in the previous Contest. Hopefully we will perform better than last year. --பார்வதிஸ்ரீ 18:15, 28 August 2019 (UTC).
13. --:বাংলা উইকিপিডিয়া--Bengali Wikipedia Bengali Wikipedians are going to participate in Project Tiger 2.0. Hope to do much better than previous year specially regarding community involvement. ---Sumita Roy Dutta (talk) 14:42, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
14. --:ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ ᱣᱤᱠᱤᱯᱤᱰᱤᱭᱟ-Santali Wikipedia Last year we were in incubator , this will be the 1st opportunity that santali Wikipedia will be participating in project tiger.So this year we will be experincing with all excitement. R Ashwani Banjan Murmu (talk) 02:19, 7 September 2019 (UTC)
15. --:संस्कृतविकिपीडिया-Sanskrit Wikipedia - Sanskrit Wiki community will actively participate in Project Tiger 2.0. --Sayant Mahato ^talk 13:21, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
16. -:ગુજરાતી વિકિપીડિયા-Gujarati Wikipedia--Harshil169 (talk) 07:21, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

1. Kannada Wiki had 17 Users contributing 249 Articles, standing at 10'th place. Most contributions came from Students, which is quite heartening. Santali Wiki, coming from Incubator in 2018 to 566 articles in 2019 is nothing short of miraculous achievement. Though I can't see the Ol Chiki Alphabets,.. I can feel the energy level must be quite high. Santali is the one community to watch out for. On a related note, Kannada chugging ahead of Marathi & Malayalam gives a sense of pride (taking nothing away, from these 2 vibrant communities, from whom Kannada has always drawn inspiration) --Mallikarjunasj (talk) 13:18, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

FAQs

1. What is the role of Wikimedia Foundation and Google in this project?

Google and the Wikimedia Foundation are interested in increasing the content available in Indian languages online and see each other as valuable partners in supporting this. Google is aiding this project by supporting the cost of the pilot program through a grant. They are also providing valuable information on topics that the Indian language internet users are seeking.

2. What will be the role of CIS, Wikimedia India chapter, user groups, and communities in this project?

CIS will be the implementing partner for this program in India. They will do the needs assessment, coordinate the process of distributing laptops, internet stipends, individual prizes and facilitate the community capacity development after the contest is over. CIS-A2K will have a non-voting representative on the review committee for distributing the resources.

Wikimedia India chapter has expressed interest in supporting this program. Chapter will play an active role in outreach engaging communities and individuals to participate in this program.

User groups and communities will inform and help the community members to make use of the support offered. The communities will coordinate among themselves to design and conduct the contest. They will also conduct outreach events and edit-a-thons encouraging the communities to participate in the article writing contest.

3. Is participation in this program mandatory/limited/conditional?

No. Existing editors who would benefit from the support for Chromebooks and internet access can apply individually. It is not necessary for them to take part in the contest for article creation either as an individual or along with their community.

4. Can we create articles of our own interest?

This program has a special focus to create articles that are most sought out by users online but not yet present in Indian language Wikipedias. By this focus, we hope to serve as many people with free knowledge. Therefore, we encourage you to choose topics of interest from the suggested list of articles. The list of topics will be added soon. However, we will be thrilled to provide more topics if the community would like to have an internal focus in any selected category. For example, if a community wants to write more on health, politics or current affairs, we would try to get more topics from those categories.

5. What are the rules for the contest?

Based on past successful collaborations like Project Tiger Editathon 2018, Wikipedia Asian Month and Punjab Edit-a-thon, we are proposing that a contest can be held to encourage content creation. However, we fully acknowledge that this is best managed by the communities themselves. Therefore, we are looking forward to the communities to come together and run the contest after framing appropriate rules, facilitate participation and declare results.

6. Last year I received the Chromebook. Can I apply again?

No. Whoever received Chromebook support in Project Tiger 1.0, are not eligible to apply this year. We would like to support more Indian Wikimedians with hardware. However, you can apply for the internet and participate in the contest.

Attribution

The application process, structure, and associated page templates for the resource distribution are closely based on Hardware donation program. Thank you, Asaf :D

Reports

• Supporting Indian Language Wikipedias Program/Report

Social Media

• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Instagram

Contact

Please post your questions on the talk-page. You may also email us at titocis-india.org for any query and clarification.

See also

• Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not about winning