Affiliate Applicant
This group is currently in the process of applying to become a Wikimedia movement affiliate to the Affiliations Committee. To find the list of active Wikimedia affiliates, please visit the formal list of Wikimedia Movement Affiliates.
Introduction: Affiliation is being sought for a Wikimedia User Group Goa. Located on the west coast, Goa is the smallest State in India (population 1.6 million, area 3700 sq km), with an unusual past. It was a Portuguese colony for four and half centuries. Even prior to Portuguese times, it has been a meeting centre for cultures, a trading port, and more. Hence it has a rich and interesting history. Among other things, it has a very rich archive, whose documents are connected with many parts of the world, including East Africa, West Asia, and Far East Asia, covering regions from Mozambique to Ormuz to Macau. Keeping this in mind, the proposed Wikimedia User Group Goa aims to be an open group, welcoming all languages and people of all cultures, infact anyone who could add to the content from and about Goa.
The WGUG (Wikipedians of Goa User Group) welcomes all interested in promoting Goa-related content on any of the Wikipedias (including, and especially, the Konkani Wikipedia). There will be no charges for membership. All members will need to follow the rules set in place by the community at any given point of time, for the smooth running of the community. Basically two firm rules (i) no off-topic posts and (ii) no rudeness in discussions or postings.
To join the WGUG, leave a note for any of the persons mentioned alongside. Or contact us via WhatsApp (+91-9822122436), and we'll add you to the group which has been fairly active and helpful over recent months.
WGUG is planning photo-walks in 2019 to boost Goa-related images on the Wikipedia.
WGUG is working to organise mini-trainings for language-based academies in Goa, to encourage sharing of content via the Wikipedias in varied languages.
WGUG holds occasional meetings at the Central Library, Panjim, or at other venues. Please see the Konkani Wikipedia 'Tinto' (village pump) for announcements.
Attempting to build traction enough to enable Konkani Wiktionary to grow out of incubation.
Currently (as of April 2019), this network coordinates its activities also through a WhatsApp groups, which helps for speedy communication. See details in next para.
--Fredericknoronha (talk) 10:42, 27 April 2019 (UTC) (fredericknoronha2 at gmail.com) or +91-9822122436. We welcome you to our WhatsApp network via the earlier number. At the time of suggesting its formation, the WGUG has among its active members [@The Discoverer] (Administrator of the Konkani Wikipedia), Fr Luis Gomes (Administrator of the Konkani Wikipedia), Darshan Kandolkar and Isidore Dantes1 (active translator from Konkani to English, who has also released under the Creative Commons a English-Konkani dictionary he co-authored with the late Joel D'Souza). There are many others who have contributed to the Konkani Wikipedia, and Wikipedia posts in general on Goa, especially students of Goa University (Konkani Department) and Nirmala Institute of Education (a teachers' training college) between 2012 and date, the very determined network Hariette Vidyasagar and others. All are welcome and invited to be part of this venture, though certain criteria (in term of volunteering on the Wikipedia/Wikimedia, etc) might be set in place as criteria for membership and/or elections. Please add your names here. Or if you know someone who has been active earlier, and might be willing to rejoin and be active once again, kindly point them to this page.[reply]
Despite the pandemic, the year has been marked by quite a bit of activity and some new welcome initiatives too. 2020 also marks the first year since the Wikipedians of Goa User Group was approved, in mid-2019. We have seen growth of the Wikipedia visibility in Goa and growth of Goa's visibility on the Wikipedia. We hope that this trend can be sustained and see further growth. Some initiatives from the last year or so:
The Discoverer, Isidore Dantas, Konknni Mogi and other volunteers have been working assiduously on the Konkani Wiktionary project, which aims at building a open and sharable Konkani dictionary in cyberspace. A Wiktionary workshop and meet-ups were held at St. Xavier's College, Mapusa in May and December 2019. Since they had been meeting their monthly targets in the incubator to keep the project current, the Language Committee of the Wikimedia Foundation approved the project on 27 March 2020. The Konkani Wiktionary moved to its newly-created site on 21 May 2020. The Wiktionary has over 2300 entries as of November 2020. Congratulations!
SerChevalerie, YourTara, JadeMaveric and team have launched and started the Wikipedia Weekends initiative on WhatsApp. This is a small group (currently about 14 members) of coordinators, planners and active networkers who plan and undertake activities of interest to wider groups and individuals in Goa.
On October 17, 2020, the Wikipedia Weekends organised an hour-long Google Meet event focussing on Wikimedia Commons and the hows, whys of sharing content there. Some 26 interested members participated and stayed with the event through much of it. We are hoping this will result in more relevant photographs being shared on and from Goa.
On October 18, 2020 (Sunday), another Wikipedia Weekend event was held online, focusing on editing the Wikipedia. Over two dozen enthusiastic participants took part.
Fredericknoronha's contribution was acknowledged with his selection as the Wikipedia Editor of the Week recognition on March 29, 2020.
To build wider relevance about Goa on the Wikipedia, and greater interest in Goa for the Wikipedia two initiatives were built offering ambitious overviews related to the world of w:music and w:animal rights respectively. These are: List of bands in Goa and Animal welfare and rights in Goa It is thought that these issues would not only highlight issues important to the region of Goa, but also promote more Wikipedia-awareness in Goa itself.
To promote the relevance of the Wikipedia at the grassroots in Goa, a collaborative project is being undertaken to build and promote Wikipedia pages for every village in Goa. This will mean creating (or improving) for some 340+ villages here. Fredericknoronha has undertaken to take responsibility for the villages of the sub-district (taluka) of w:Bardez, and currently about seven out of 43 villages are remaining to be created.
President Joe Biden by AngFerrao WGUG has been encouraging photo enthusiasts, artists and other creative persons to share photos and other material via the the Wikimedia Commons. Alongside is a digital artwork by AngFerrao, a Goan artist, caricaturist and cartoonist, who shared her sketch of newly-elected w:President Joe Biden.
Goan expat artist Dom Martin has also donated a Sita Valles by Dom Martin copyright-free sketch on Sita Valles, a locally little-known Goan figure until an entry from the Portuguese Wikipedia got translated into English and her very unusual story got a lot of attention here.
Keeping in mind Goa's multilingualism, efforts are being made to work among different language groups. Besides English and Konkani, the Wikipedia in Marathi, Portuguese and other languages is also relevant to readers in Goa, and this has been kept in mind. Potential contributors to different language groups are invited for events here, while online interaction is conducted with the PT (Portuguese) Wikipedia membmers through email and also a couple of their groups on Telegram.
Newer Wikipedians have been encouraged to feel at home by encouraging them to work on themes and topics which they feel strongly about. Some such initiatives have resulted in the significant improvement of pages devoted to villages such as w:Raia and w:Nachinola, both prominent villages in Goa, undertaken by LaughingJoe and Sharbelle, respectively.
Appeals were publicly made via Facebook and other digital fora in the case of Raia for the sharing of photographs related to the area. This not only build greater awareness about the work done by the Wikipedia locally, but actually led to the contribution of a number of suitable photographs, which have also been used on the relevant page.
Wikipidiecho Tinto, community page for the Konkani Wikipedia
There is an acute yet challenging need to promote the Konkani Wikipedia http://gom.wikipedia.org which has been facing difficulties due to a lack of sufficient volunteers, and a possible gap between techies and language experts. It is hoped that the overall attempts in promoting Goa-related content could also promote some growth in the Konkani Wikipedia, though more clearly needs to be done on this front.
Efforts have also been underway to build visibility for the Wikipedia, and its approach of creating shareable knowledge, within the Goa region. YourTara has helped take the message to the media through timely press releases and updates. The newspapers have also shown an interest in understanding initiatives undertaken by the WGUG to build a better Goa presence on the Wikipedia.
One issue we sometimes face is a difficulty in convincing some English Wikipedia administrators about the importance of Goa-related issues which we see as important. Being a small society, which has long lacked an active media and online media (except more recently), finding suitable citations even for locally-important issues and institutions or individuals can be a challenge.
THE FOLLOWING is a list of some of the activities that took place between Jan 1, 2021 and Dec 31, 2021:
Networks are active on WhatsApp and some other social media (Facebook) to connect and promote Goa-related Wikipedia activities in Goa.
These networks include groups for general Wikipedians, for those interested in photography, for Konkani Wikipedians, for those supporting the Konkany Wiktionary, and also a smaller core group to coordinate online meetings and other activities.
All interested membes are welcome to join these groups.
We have also been networking with Wikipedians who are active in the different scripts/dialects space of Konkani (Devanagari, Roman and Kannada scripts). However, there are only a few such individuals, and it has been a bit of a challenge to keep activities up and about during the pandemic year. Goa faced an intense second way of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2021.
Our earlier plan to cover all the villages of Goa with one Wikipedia page each has been successfully undertaken for the two sub-districts of Bardez and Ponda. The latter has been completed in the early part of January 2021, which falls outside the period of reporting but is mentioned here nonetheless.
Wikipedians have been encouraged to click and share photos of Goa where possible. Some lady members of the group (Sharbelle Fernandez, DonnaAvita, and others have contributed). We need to scale up such initiatives however.
Fredericknoronha has converted about 66,000 photos of his (on Flickr) https://flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ to the Creative Commons, SA license, to make the same compatible with the Wikipedia requirements. He is awaiting some technical support so that these photographs can be uploaded in a batch to the Wikimedia Commons, with permission to edit the captions post-uploading (and deleting photos) for ease of operations.
A discussion was held on the Konkani Wikipedia and its future in a run-up to a Wikipedia Board elections, where one of the Konkani speakers (Col Ashwin Baindur) was contesting elections, and used the opportunity to raise important issues.
Konkani Wikictionary project is continuing under the leadership of volunteers led by Denzil Simoes.
A Konkani dictionary donated to the Wikimedia Commons is awaiting technical conversions to make it easier to access. The dictionary has been created and donated by Isidore Dantas (with the late Joel D'Souza).
Wikipedians of Goa User Group re-sought recognition, after running into some difficulties. We were recognised as a user group, but lost the same because our (limited number of) key members were active, and could not file our annual reports on time.
On 24 Sept 2024, we were informed that our application had been reviewed, and as a result, the Affiliations Committee "would like to invite you for a live interview with AffCom. This interview will take approximately 60 minutes". @SerChevalerie and @Fredericknoronha met the committee on 30 Oct 2024, and responded to their queries on the activities and priorities of the group. A decision is expected by the end of 2024.
This talk was held recently in Goa:
As members of the Wikipedians of Goa User Group, Tanmay and his team have successfully created Wikipedia articles not only in English but also in Konkani. Their goal is to document every village, tradition, and cultural practice of Goa on Wikipedia. Join us to learn how you can contribute and help build and share this valuable information, for everyone and by everyone. Tanmay Pereira Naik is a software engineer on weekdays and a community builder on weekends. He is a part of multiple tech and non-tech communities in Goa.Join us in a conversation with Tanmay Pereira Naik this MOG Sunday!đ Date: Sunday, September 22nd, 2024đ Time: 11:30 AM onwardsđ Venue: Museum of Goa, Pilerne Industrial Estate
'Free Entry RSVP is compulsory Please WhatsApp your name on 7722089666 to register
This was the Museum of Goa announcement on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/museumofgoa/p/DAAkUydoAuz/'
You can find almost the full talk here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYLTGEqwOyshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP_htvTEDMQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylzRBejyf8Ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWQ5q4nYof4
The 2030 movement strategy recommendations are here!
Greetings! We are pleased to inform that the 2030 movement strategy recommendations have been published on Meta-wiki. Over the last two years, our movement has worked tirelessly to produce these ideas to change our shared future. Many of you participated in the online conversations, hosted strategy salons, attended regional events, and connected with us in-person at Wikimania. These contributions were invaluable, and will help make our movement stronger for years to come.Â
The finished set of 10 recommendations emphasizes many of our core values, such as equity, innovation, safety, and coordination, while tasking us jointly to turn this vision into a reality. These recommendations clarify and refine the previous version, which was published in January this year. They are at a high strategic level so that the ideas are flexible enough to be adapted to different global and local settings and will allow us to navigate future challenges. Along with the recommendations, we have outlined 10 underlying principles, a narrative of change, and a glossary of key terms for better context.
The recommendations are available in numerous languages, including Arabic, German, Hindi, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish for you to read and share widely. We encourage you to read the recommendations in your own time and at your own pace, either online or in a PDF. There are a couple of other formats for you to take a deeper dive if you wish, such as a one-page summary, slides, and office hours, all collected on Meta. If you would like to comment, you are welcome to do so on the Meta talk pages. However, please note that these are the final version of the recommendations. No further edits will be made. This final version of the recommendations embodies an aspiration for how the Wikimedia movement should continue to change in order to advance that direction and meet the Wikimedia vision in a changing world.Â
In terms of next steps, our focus now shifts toward implementation. In light of the cancellation of the Wikimedia Summit, the Wikimedia Foundation is determining the best steps for moving forward through a series of virtual events over the coming months. We will also be hosting live office hours in the next coming few days, where you can join us to celebrate the Strategy and ask questions! Please stay tuned, and thank you once again for helping to drive our movement forward, together. RSharma (WMF)
Hi everyone. The time has come to put Movement Strategy into work and we need your help. We are inviting South Asian communities, Indian Wikimedians, and anyone else interested to join a region-focused conversation on Movement Strategy and implementation. Please join us on Friday Oct. 30 at 19.30 / 7:30 pm IST (Google Meet).
The purpose of the meeting is to get prepared for global conversations, to identify priorities for implementation in 2021, and to plan the following steps. There are 10 recommendations and they propose multiple 45 initiatives written over two years by many Wikimedians. It is now up to communities to decide which ones we should work on together in 2021, starting with local and regional conversations. Global meetings will take place later in November when we will discuss global coordination and resources. More information about the global events will be shared soon.
What is work youâre already doing that is aligned with Movement Strategy?
What are priorities for you in 2021?
What are things we should all work on globally?
We would not be able to grow and diversify as a movement if communities from South Asia are not meaningfully involved in implementing the recommendations. Join the conversation with your questions and ideas, or just come to say hi. See you on Friday October 30.
