CIS-A2K/Events/Wikimedia session with Santali Wikimedians at Visva-Bharati University

Context

The discussions with Santali Wikimedians on collaborations and partnerships started during the Santali Wiki Regional Conference held in September 2024 at Kolkata. Prof. Ramu Hembram from Santali department, Visva-Bharati University showed keen interest in understanding Wikimedia projects, relicensing and digitisation of Santali literature. Few students from the department also attended this conference.

Process

Prof. Ramu approached us for a Wikimedia session to guide the Wikimedians group for taking up collaborative programs and developing partnerships. Through the discussions, the Wikimedia session was arranged on 7 December 2024 in the University campus.

Event report

With the initiative of Wikimedian Bodi Baski and Prof. Ramu Hembram, a Wiki Akhada (Club) has been formed in Santali Department of Visva-Bharati University. The group of Wikimedians have started working on Wikipedia and Wiktionary projects. They are building Wiktionary in incubator. For developing the knowledge repository and reference resources in Santali language, the team is interested in digitisation of literature.

The Wikimedia session on various aspects such as digitisation, relicensing, building database of language in Wiktionary and Wikidata Lexemes was conducted. The live demonstration of adding lexicographical data in Wikidata was done by Bodhisattwa Mandal. A2K member Subodh Kulkarni discussed opportunities for partnerships and collaborative projects. The digitisation potential at the department library was explored. The mapping of Santali literature would be initiated in near future. Around 15 students including Ph. D. scholars attended this session.

Gallery

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  Wikimedia session with the Santali Wikimedians in Visva-Bharati University (7 Dec 2024)]]
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  Bodhisattwa explaining Wikidata Lexemes in a Wikimedia session with the Santali Wikimedians in Visva-Bharati University
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  Informal chat with Santali Wikimedians