User:Hindustanilanguage/Ganesh Paudel
Maithili Wikipedia Questionnaire
1. Can you tell us about your association with this incubator project?
Thanks, I have been regularly editing in Nepali Wikipedia since 2006. When I explored, I found many (5) language Wikipedia spoken in my country but there was no Wiki on Maithili, the second largest user base language of Nepal. I found somebody has put it in the incubator but it was not growing that’s why I started to contribute in it.
I conduct outreach in Wikipedia where I also encourage people to contribute in new projects mainly in Maithili. Contributing in incubating project is harder than in the full fledged wiki, therefore I am helping people to contribute on it.
When I came in contact of Wikimedia foundation, I have been requesting to help for this new project especially to the language team.
2. Currently, there are nine (9) people who've contributed to this project, although not on regular basis. They are as follows:
- बिप्लब आनन्द
- Umeshberma
- Ganesh Paudel
- Anonymous
- नमन भगत
- Eukesh
- Binodworld
- Ggajendra
- Ujjawal Anand
What do you think is the additional scope of contributors for Maithili?
People know that there are many language Wikipedia that serve knowledge but I found most of them do not know that it is available in their language. Even if they explore it, they don’t know that everyone can contribute on it.
We are conducting outreach programs to help people understand this. After this, the number of contributors is increasing gradually. In Maithili, we have seen some passionate contributors like बिप्लव आनन्द (Biplav Anand) in past few months who is not only contributing but also telling people about how to contribute. I am hopeful with the recent development that we will be able to multiply the contributors very soon.
3. Although Maithili is also spoken in India, your profile as well as the profiles of some other users seem to indicate the contributions mostly by Nepali people. How would you deal with that i.e. encouraging more participation for Maithili Wikipedia, especially from Indian Maithili speakers?
We can hope a lot of contribution in Maithili Wikipedia from the native Mathili speakers in India. We can approach them via some language community and via the social media as well. I have requested to the Wikimedia India to pay some attention to languages spoken in either side i.e. Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Bangla and even Nepali. I hope to see a good result in this regard.
4. In one of my blogs (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/06/09/samskrita-bharati-and-sanskrit-wikipedia-the-journey-ahead) I discussed the proactive approach of Samkrita Bharathi in promoting Sanskrit. Do you think there can possibly be a tie-up with some institution for Maithili?
I appreciate the support extended by Samskrita Bharathi for the upliftment of Sanskrit Wikipedia. There are some organization promoting Maithili language which can (and are interested to) support the Maithili Wikipedia. We don’t assume as much as Samskrita Bharati but little support extended to it means a lot at the moment.
5. What is the level of support for Maithili in your country (i.e. school-level education/ university level education)? If so, what are the prominent education centres for the language?
The government has policy of “Education in Mother language” but yet it has not been fully implemented it in school level. Nepal Government has started to publish some school level textbooks in Maithili.
Some Universities teach Maithili language. I believe, there is Maithili Language department at Tribhuwan University.
6. In 2002, Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which allows it to be used in education, government, and other official contexts.Does Maithili have some sort of official status in Nepal?
Maithili is recognized as National language in the constitution of Nepal for long. Currently it is the second largest user base language of Nepal and it used to be the National language of ancient Nepal. This language has got a nationwide recognition and respect.
7. Does the existence of distinct dialects such as Bantar, Barmeli, Musar and Tati in Nepal and Jolaha and Thetiya dialects in India result some sort of impediment in the development of the language Wikipedia?
To my mind, dialects will not create a vital barricade for any language Wikipedia, not to Maithili as well.
8. Is there a demand for Maithili project in Tirhuta script also, considering the fact that there are Wikipedia projects which are divided mainly on the basis of scripts (https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/08/08/two-shades-of-wikipedia-in-punjabi) ?
I am not a native Maithili speaker, therefore I might not be the right person to talk about this. Choosing script is upto the users of particular language wiki. To my mind, there are little people who understand Tirahuta or Mithilakshar. Devanagari is widely used in Maithili writing. Therefore, it will not be a big obstruction to move forward. I suggest to start with Devanagari so that many people can easily read and contribute on it. Later, we can provision webfonts to switch from Devanagari to Mithilakshar as per the reader’s desire.
9. It is indeed satisfactory that the no. of articles in project is increasing. But the average is too small - not beyond one or two lines in most cases. How do you propose the expansion of the stubs to satisfactory levels?
I have been requesting the current contributors to improve the contents rather than starting a new stub. I hope, we will be able to improve the existing articles in near future.
10. Most of the articles seem to be based on places and personalities. As a Wikipedia, it will need to have articles on Science and Technology, History, etc, how do you propose to promote content diversity?
I have started page that suggests about the “minimum required articles on a wiki”. We will pay attention to make diversity on topics. When there will be diversity on contributors, diversity will be reflected in the topics.
11. What are the online sources available helpful to editors (dictionaries, language encyclopedias, old text, etc). Can you give a few examples?
I don’t know about encyclopaedia but Maithili has got its grammar that can maintain the standard of the language. The following links maybe also helpful. *http://bataahmaithil.in/ *http://www.vidyapati.org/ *http://www.videha.co.in/ *http://mithilanews.com/ *http://www.esamaad.com/ *http://www.mithilalok.com/ *
12. Has there been any drive for Maithili Wikipedia - outreach events, informal meetings, online blogs, social media pages/ groups / posts etc? If so, what has been the impact?
Outreaches are conducted with Maithili speaking people but not on the basis of Maithili. Maithili incubator is often mentioned in connection of the regular outreach. Some positive sign are seen in this regard.
13. Apart from Wikipedia, what are Wiki projects do you feel are in the offing for Maithili - Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, etc?
Wikisource will be good to start documentation of ancient works.
14. Are you aware of the response I got from one of Stewards at Meta regarding bringing Maithili as a full-fledged project: "There should be a number of regular contributors (3-5 maybe) over the period of several months. Currently, that is not yet the case. --MF-W 02:52, 22 July 2014 (UTC)" ?
Yes I am. I have recently talked with MF-W in a face-to-face meeting. We hope, we will have this much big community very soon.
15. Could you share any and all ideas - small or big, successful & not-so-successful - that you think can help drive Maithili and other language projects, especially those in incubator?
More outreach is the best method to tell people about how Wikipedia works and how to get new language Wikipedia.
Despite Maithili, I am supporting couple of other language in Wikipedia incubator i.e. Limbu, Gurung, Tamang, Awadhi etc. I suggest each language community to get involved, learn and help to increase the contributing community. I am happy to help them on selecting topics, how to write etc.
If you want Wikipedia in your language come forth, you are the best one to contribute for the growth of your language.