Wikimedia Kazakhstan

Dear friends,

This page is dedicated for the discussion of the chapter Wikimedia Kazakhstan. The chapter would be created for enthusiastic people, who are interested in developing Wikimedia projects in Kazakh (Qazaq), English and Russian languages.

This page created by group of Kazakh Wikipedians who are genuinely interested in promoting projects of Wikimedia Foundation in Kazakhstan. In April 2011, the first meeting of Kazakh Wikipedians was held in Almaty (Kazakhstan) where Local Chapter creation issue had been discussed. Participants of the meeting decided to launch online forum on this issue where all users would express their views. So far all users appeared to support the initiation of the Local Chapter in Kazakhstan.

Now the group working according to the step-by-step Chapter Creation guide. By Kazakh legislation it is required to have at least 10 people to found a non profit organization with membership. We have much more than the requirement. After discussing goals and mission of the organization and careful studying fundamental documents of some local other chapters' draft of (statute) bylaw of Wikimedia Kazakhstan was formed (to find the text of the draft in English go below).

Future plans

Nowadays, we feel strong demand from academic community and enthusiastic people to participate in projects of Wikimedia Foundation (technical support, seminars, forums, trainings etc.).

We have already started to work. But in order to proceed faster and with more confidence and to draw public attention we really need to be recognized as a local chapter.

In the end of May we are planning to start public compaign in Kazakhstan. We hope that our action will be the start point in promoting wikimedia projects in Kazakhstan. We are planning to work close with kazakh youth organizations, academic groups, mass media representatives. And for this reason to draw attention and trust we would like to make social advertisement, street banners, produce promotion stuffs (t-shirts, pens, bags, hats etc) with Wikimedia official trademarks.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration. We look forward to hearing from you and eager to respond to your questions and comments. We hope to start our mutual cooperation as soon as possible.

We do have some ideas about what to begin with:

Massive Content Upload

There is a 15 volume freshly edited and printed Kazakh encyclopedia (approximately 50 000 articles).

We have already agreed with a "Kazakh Encyclopedia" (state run institution responsible for editing and publishing Kazakh encyclopedia) to put all that paper based encyclopedia articles into the Wikipedia.

We have formal letter stated (addressed to Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.) that "Kazakh Encyclopedia" as an institution that holds all rights is agreed to publish all their articles in Wikipedia and they accept all the consequences. So we already have all 15 volumes of Kazakh encyclopedia as a digital (Word) files.

If we could put all 50 000 articles in a short period of time, that we believe may work as a powerful trigger to start big Wikipedia movement in Kazakhstan.

Event for 100K articles

This year we are celebrating 20th anniversary of Kazakhstans' state independence. Formal date is December 16, 2011. We are planing to come up with large scale public promotion. Title could be something like "100 000 Wikipedia articles to 20th anniversary". It is open secret that issues of independence and state identity in post Soviet countries closely related to language issues. Self suitability of languages getting more and more depended on amount and quality of content in that language on the internet. Great importance belongs to encyclopedia articles that serve as a bricks to built intellectual power of the nations.

Updates: what is going on

Events

On June 16, 2011 in Almaty, Kazakhstan chapter creation initiative group organized the first WP events. It had been press-conference and presentation of the web-page with kazakh video & PDF tutorials and start of Wiki-campaign dedicated to 20th independence anniversary. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the WMF Mr.Ting Chen, Head of Kazakh Encyclopedia Mr. B.Zhakyp, Parliament deputy Mr. M.Abenov (internet advocate), co-founder of Wikibilim Foundation Mr.Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, deputy chair of JS "KazKontent" (state agency responsible for development of Kazakh internet) had participated in the event. Also Mr.Ting Chen held a seminar on Wikipedia and WMF development.

Mass upload

Since April, 2011 quantity of articles in KKWP increased 4 hold. Today (June 23, 2011) we have around 36 000 articles. Last two weeks we are growing at 700 articles per day in average. We are doing our best to keep that pace. Today there are approximately 200 active kazakh wikipedians who are participating in mass uploading of articles from Kazakh Encyclopedia and translating articles from other languages.

Next step that might be very helpful to improve our work would be our recognition as a Local Chapter. Particularly it would make better opportunity for us to collaborate with government and other partners and to raise founds for our work. Previously we applied for local chapter recognition as a Wikimedia Kazakhstan. But to start our work we had to register one non-profit which is Wikibilim foundation. We have learned from Mr.Ting Chen that it is possible to proceed for recognition as Wikibilim instead of registering another organization. So if it is not much trouble we would like to submit Wikibilim's bylaw as a bylaw of chapter. In two days we will submit draft of the new bylaw to you consideration on our meta page.

Update

20 June 2011 – Start summer practice with International IT University. WB provided tutorial on how to contribute on Wikipedia.
4-7 August, 2011- WikiBilim team participated in Wikimania-2011 conference
14-16 September, 2011- WikiBilim team participated in "Digital Communications Kazakhstan 2011" Exhibition, Astana
15-17 September, 2011- WikiBilim team participated in Creative Commons Global Summit 2011 in Warshaw, Poland
14 September, 2011- WikiBilim organized presentation of Wikimedia projects and established wiki-club with Nazarbayev University, Astana
27 September, 2011- WikiBilim organized presentation of Wikimedia projects and run wiki-club with Kazakh National Pedagogocal University for Girls, Almaty
28 September, 2011- WikiBilim organized presentation of Wikimedia projects and established wiki-club with Kazakh Nationa Academy of Art named after T.Zhurgenov, Almaty

List of participants and supporters

Please add your name below if you would like to help out or take part.

Ashina (talk • contribs • email)
Alash Arman (talk • contribs • email)
Rauank (talk • contribs • email)
Талшын (talk • contribs • email)
Gulnur (talk • contribs • email)
Aselhan (talk • contribs • email)
Zhumabek (talk • contribs • email)
Inkar (talk • contribs • email)
Eldoskz (talk • contribs • email)
Mheidegger (talk • contribs • email)
Nurbek Matzhani (talk • contribs • email)
Sj (talk • contribs • email)
Sanzhar (talk • contribs • email)
e_zhalgas (talk • contribs • email)
Saken Sukhanov (talk • contribs • email)
Qisybay Alibek (talk • contribs • email)
Ayauly (talk • contribs • email)
Sanzhar Kenzhekhan 01:16, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Gulzat246 (talk • contribs • email)
Nick jan (talk • contribs • email)
Polat Alemdar (talk • contribs • email)
Daniyar (talk • contribs • email)
Aktoty25 (talk • contribs • email)
Kaiyr (talk • contribs • email)
Arystanbek (talk • contribs • email)
Alibek2030 (talk • contribs • email)
GanS NIS (talk • contribs • email)
Нұрлан Рахымжанов (talk • contribs • email)