CIS-A2K/Research/Study on Content Creation on Punjabi Wikipedia

The main goal of Punjabi Wikimedians User Group is to introduce Wikipedia to more Punjabi people and to reach its goal, Punjabi Wikipedia should have quality content about Punjab. So, this concept note is presented to show the gap between content that presently exists and what is needed.

Concept note of study on content creation on Punjabi Wikipedia

Background/Context

There are two Punjabi Wikipedia editions which are Eastern Punjabi Wikipedia and Western Punjabi Wikipedia. This study will focus on the Eastern Punjabi Wikipedia. The Eastern edition domain came into existence on 3 June 2002, but the first three articles were only written in August 2004. In July 2012, it had reached 2,400 articles. There are currently 33,480 articles on the Gurmukhi Punjabi Wikipedia and the number of registered users on Punjabi Wikipedia is 31,175.
Some of the active registered users got affiliation of Punjabi Wikimedians User Group from Wikimedia Foundation in November 2015 and it was the first affiliated user group from India. Punjabi Wikimedians organised WikiConference India in 2016 at Chandigarh and their members participated in various events and conferences.
This study will analyse various aspects of how content related to Punjab is created on Eastern Punjabi Wikipedia. This research would help in understanding the gap between what kind of content presently exists and what is needed, from the perspective of Punjabi language users.

Research Problem/Objectives

The objective of this study is to understand how much content related to Punjab exists on this Wikipedia; what are challenges for content creation and strategies to address the same. There are articles about Punjabi culture on Punjabi Wikipedia but the need is to analyse them from the perspective of the readers’ mind. This includes examining aspects such as the number of references used in Punjab- related articles or what kind of difficulties editors faced to find out references etc.

Proposed Methodology

The proposed method for this study will comprise of a detailed analysis of selected topics related to Punjabi covered on this Wikipedia. It will include observing a specific set of Wikipedia pages and their growth over a three month period, following conversations on talk pages and within community events, etc. to understand if there are specific challenges to the creation of content on these topics. Interviews with a few selected long-time contributors and administrators will also be conducted to look at aspects such as sourcing Punjabi language material, finding references, digitisation, tagging, etc. to understand where these may offer strategies to address knowledge gaps in these areas of work. Under this research, we will analyze articles about villages and cities in Punjab, Punjabi literature or authors, agriculture and politics in Punjab.

Research Outputs

A short essay with observations and learnings from this exercise: Research:Content Creation on Eastern Punjabi Wikipedia
This will be translated into Punjabi as well.

Timeline

• December: Concept note finalised
• January - February: Analysis of Wikipedia pages
• March - April: Interview questions will be finalised
• May - July - Interviews to be conducted
• August - October: First draft of the research report
• November - December: Review by Research Officer, A2K team, Interviewees
• January - February: Essay finalised
• March: Translation/short blog-post in Punjabi

Update

June 2020

Under this research topic, 5 interviews have been conducted of Punjabi community members and 2 internet users who read the Punjabi language online or search on the internet in the Punjabi language. While initially planned as video-recorded interviews, they were eventually conducted over the phone due to restrictions in place as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic. Most of the interviewees are experienced Wikimedians and they have a good understanding of the free knowledge movement and Eastern Punjabi Wikipedia. Introduction, Context/Background, Objectives and Methodology sections are ready; the first draft of the complete report will be shared with the research manager for review, also with the team and persons interviewed. Once the feedback has been taken, the report/blogpost will be ready for publication.

November 2020

A total of 5 interviews were completed with selected Wikimedians as part of this project. Based on the observations from the interviews, a research report was written and shared with the team and the external reviewer for feedback. Once the review process is completed, a revised and updated report will be shared with the team and respondents for feedback, following which it shall be finalised and published on the relevant Wikimedia platforms.

February 2021

The final research report finalised after reviews: Research:Content Creation on Eastern Punjabi Wikipedia