Wikisangamotsavam-2016

Wikisangamotsavam-2016, the fifth annual gathering of users and well wishers of Malayalam Wikimedia projects, will take place from 26,27,28 December, 2016 in Kanjangad,Kasargod Kerala. Updates can also be seen on Facebook here.

The annual meetup of malayalam wikipedia well wishers and users Wikisangamolsavam-2016 was conducted from Kanhangad, Kasargod from Padnekkad Good Sheperd Church auditorium on December 26, 27, 28 with various programmes. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia. Wikipedia is accessible in 295 different languages. English Wikipedia with above fifty lakh articles scored highest. Malayalam Wikipedia begin its journey in 2012 and currently giving an indispensable contribution to the educational zone. IT@school tuitor Vijayan Rajapuram and few teachers made a very good effort for conducting the Wikisangamotsavam-2016. In the initial stage Vijayakumar Blathur, Sachil Lal and Sajal Karikkan also gave good assistance. The session wind up with an expectation of arround fifteen new active wikipedians.

An estimated overview of the Wikisangamotsavam is given below.

The Sangamotsavam was conducted with some specifc aim. Kasargod district is the border of Kerala and Karnataka. So there are various folk arts and cultures which they follow. More than seven different languages are used by people and Kasargod is a district with most of the village name comes in thulu and kannada. Information related to these villages were either not updated or incomplete in wikipedia. The main objective of Sangaotsavam was to find skilled writers. Around fifteen members registered their names including teachers and students. We have not invited anyone of them. If they are active in editing for atleast six monhs, we can conclude that the sangamotsavam was successful. By providing learning camps we will be able to inspire new users. Another decision was to conduct the Wikipedia meetups as a public programme so that it will reach the publics easily. We were able to provide classes related to Kasargod district during this programme.

The first day of Sangamotsavam, 26th started with the class of Sathyasheelan Master on the topic 'Technological Empowerment of Disabled'. He explained how to survive blindness and participate in wikipedia. His class was a wonderful experience for all because he explained very well about wikipedia works with examples even if he is fully blind. He introduced some softwares for disabled and explained how to type Malayalam, English and Hindi for blinds as well as to find spelling mistakes commited. He also explained how to listen a wikipedia article those who cannot read it.

Next was the class by M A Rahman Master on the topic Freedom of Knowledge. Its all about thinking of free knowledge and features of media that distribute knowledge. He explained about the present condition of the society and environment, where individuals have deep knowledge and libraries with them but not ready to publish.

Next topic was about the possibility of open street maping which is also famous as encyclopedia like wikimedia projects. This class helped the users to think how open street maping can be used in wikipedia. Mr. Ranjith explained this can be used in wiki voyege, another wikimedia product and we have to make an effort for that.

Next was the class about school wiki by Shabhareesh Master. He explained about evaluating the possibility of wikipedia as well as school wiki. The articles in school wiiki are to be increased and information about all schools should be widely expanded. He spoke about the requirement of a media to publish the arts work of students like poems, stories, colash, drawings etc. As the softwere of wiki project and school wiki is media wiki, learning of editing will be useful for wikipedia in future. He concluded the discussion reveling Malayalam Wikipedia users should assist the teachers who works for IT@ school, when ever requirement arise and it is essential to have a cooperation between school wiki and wikipedia for better acheivements.

The main session started on 27th tuesday morning 10 am at the presence of Kanganhad corporation chairman Mr. V V Rameshan and Kasargod Loksabha representative Mr. M P Karunakaran. Mr M P Karunakaran formally inaugrated the function. CIS representatives Manasa from Chennai and Ting Yi from Thai wan also arrived for the function. Both Manasa & Ting- Yi was there for the function still the final day.Malayalam Wikipedia started in 2002 December 21st. We celebrated the birthday of Wikipedia by cutting cake and distritributed among the members. Celebration started by Mr. M P Karunakaran by cuting the cake and gave to Aatmika, youngest representative of Sangamotsavam.

Here we discussed about the past one year's wikipedia activities and future programmes and reporting. We have shared the observations and done the documentation. Each and every users participated in this equally. This was very useful for new users. Then we discussed about the last year Sangamotsavam's report in which some errors occured in cost. That affected badly on this year's CIS support. All users perception was, it is good to think this will be the last Sangamotsavam of Malayalam Wikipedia.

This topic was presented by the Wikipedia user Irvin. It was such an amazing presentation which include a photo exhibition. It includes the name of dinosers, discription and Wikipedia link.These posters were availablein Wikipedia Commons. N number of subject based questions arised from the audience shows how excellent the presentation was. Irvin duly answered for all those. This class was informative as well as attracted the new users to Wikipedia.

Next programme was a video speech by Mr Anwar Sadath, a science writer and Executive Director of IT@ school. He explained about the working of Malayalam Wikipedia and school wiki jointly and sharing fredom of knowledge. A small portion of discussion was about the activities of IT@school.

Team from Mozilla gave a very good class. They conducted a question answer session in which first prize attained by Ranjith Siji and second by Achu Kulangara. They affixed a stand and banner on the stage.

• WikiSangamotsavam