Tewiki Pandaga-2024/Strategy

(Telugu Wikipedia's 20th Anniversary Celebrations)
26-28 January 2024, Visakhapatnam, India

Future Strategy

The 20th Anniversary of Telugu Wikipedia was celebrated jointly by the Telugu Wikipedia Community and CIS-A2K as Tewiki Pandaga 2024. It was decided to celebrate two decades of the Telugu Wikipedia, along with the recognition, recreation and a critical analysis of the efforts of the past two decades and the design of future strategy.
On this occasion, the analysis was done in various ways:

On Day 1 of the event afternoon, Telugu Wikimedians formed five groups with the guests who were part of knowledge creation, and broadcasting in Telugu. They discussed what should be done to develop knowledge in Telugu in the future and how they can partner with individuals and organizations in that regard.
CIS-A2K examined the Telugu Wikipedia activities and presented their review. A2K employee, Punjabi Wikimedian Nitesh Gill examined and prepared a report on OnWiki and OffWiki programs for the future development of Telugu Wikimedia projects and the pros and cons of these programs.
Further, on the invitation of CIS-A2K, a group of Telugu Internet authors volunteered to conduct an unbiased review of the quality of Telugu Wikipedia articles and presented a report.
Telugu Wikimedians shared their thoughts and opinions about Tewiki, on Day 2 of the event.

We examined, analyzed and summarized these discussions of 5 groups and review reports. A strategy is built based on them for the future development of Telugu Wikipedia and sister projects. However, the topics and ideas of this future activity, and their prioritization are mainly based on the internal discussion of Telugu Wikimedians, The reports and discussions served as justification and sources to project strategic action. The future activity and analysis are broadly presented here as following 7 topics.

Future Activity

The number of Wikimedians should be increased: Efforts should be made to increase the number of active Wikimedians by many times.
1. Outreach programs need to be expanded: Most Wikipedians started writing or restarted after 2013 due to outreach programs organized by individuals or organizations. Therefore, more extensive outreach programs should be undertaken to increase the number of Telugu wikimedians.
2. Focussed Outreach Programmes: Outreach should be done to groups focussing the Degree and PG level students learning Telugu, Teachers, Retired employees and Journalists who have more opportunities and skills to participate in Telugu Wikimedia projects. The Telugu community may receive support from the Department of Language and Culture Government of Telangana in this matter.
3. Raising awareness about Tewiki: Efforts should be made to raise awareness from time to time about Tewiki and writing in Tewiki. To bring awareness about Tewiki in the media, Tewikipedians need to post about Tewiki on social media and publish books about Tewiki's efforts.
Increasing Quality and Diversity in Telugu Wikipedia: The team that examined Telugu Wikipedia, the writers, and the long-time administrators unanimously agreed that Wikipedia's quality needs to be improved.
1. Quality Check: According to a report issued by a group of Telugu internet writers who conducted a quality check on articles in Telugu Wikipedia, articles in Telugu Wikipedia have serious flaws in linguistic quality. Efforts should be made to ensure the corrections are carried out and the new writers write better language.
2. Basic research should not be presented in articles, and substantiation with references should go up: Inaccessibility of sources is a problem besides, acquiring the skills to construct an article with the help of sources is another problem. In this regard, it is required to take the help of archival organizations like the Manasu Foundation and research groups like Anveshi.
3. Various Projects discussed are as follows:
  1. Creating and maintaining good articles to feature "article of the week" on the front page for 53 weeks in 2025.
  2. Conducting a comprehensive project, to rationalise categories since the taxonomy is chaotic.
  3. To organize the project of Telugu movies and Telugu movie songs in collaboration with the Manasu Foundation and create accurate and quality information about the movies.
  4. To undertake and complete a project to develop comprehensive information in all articles by choosing a topic such as historical context, movies, literature, or geographical places.
Planning to help, training and encouragement: Many members say that in Tewiki, there is encouragement and help from fellow community members, but this help is still not enough, they should help, train and encourage whenever they want, but it should be done in a planned way. Some of the projects worth doing in this regard are:
1. Updating/creating help pages.
2. Creating videos on what to do and how to do work in Tewiki
3. Adoption of newbies by experienced Wikimedians
4. Running a Tewiki Badi and taking video classes on various topics about writing in Telugu Wikimedia projects.
5. Promotion by giving titles like Wikipedian of the Month/Wikipedian of the Year by setting strict criteria
Harassment and attacks should be stopped and administration should be improved: Harassment in OffWiki events, attacks on moderators on OnWiki, use of disrespectful language in discussions and rudeness discourage users. Some say that they are facing problems due to the measures being taken to curb them, but others say that administration is not possible without these measures. The number of administrators who take administrative action and the number of users who actively participate in discussions are also low. Some of the project ideas that came up in this regard:
1. More newcomers should be made managers. For this purpose, the current managers should teach them management values and aspects systematically, enabling them to succeed in the management proposal.
  1. Plans should be made to involve more members in discussions.
  2. IP Blockages should be properly discussed and a solution should be found.
  3. Harassment and attacks should be examined and resolved.
Work on Technical aspects/issues, future challenges and opportunities due to technological development:
1. Mobile editing and making efforts to solve them
2. Setting up a system to send a message to the creator when redirects are created to red links
3. Twinkle template correction
4. Fixing tools that stopped working when the visual editor defaulted
5. Automated back-and-forth data movement between Wikidata and Wikipedia Info-boxes
6. Designing a tool to detect typos and grammatical errors in Telugu
Efforts on sister projects and awareness: Telugu Wikipedia is lacking focus on other sister projects. Awareness should be increased to fill the gap. Projects to be done for:
1. Digitization of the books scanned by Manasu Foundation which are out of copyright and included in Wikisource.
2. Efforts should be made to have appropriate pictures in every Telugu Wikipedia article. Adding what is already in Commons to the Tewiki, otherwise working to get those photos into Commons
3. Efforts to prepare audio books and audio articles
Diversity should be fostered Efforts should be made to increase the participation of women in Tewiki. The Tewiki community should use its experience, contacts and skills to help minority languages (Gondi, Kolami, Banjara, etc.) in Telugu states. We need to identify the areas where there is less number of Tewiikimedians and increase awareness about Tewiki.

Analysis

The analysis is based on the Tewiki 20th Anniversary / Discussions and Notes on Future Strategy

How are Wikimedians starting in Telugu?
- 25 people responded -six Of these, started between 2003-10, four between 2011-15, four between 2016-19 and eleven started after 2020.
- Out of these, people started writing on Wikipedia when they were introduced by organizations (14), the number of those who accidentally searched on the Internet stands second (6), those who started in English Wikipedia and came to Telugu, and those who joined through blogs were three each. It is worth noting that the outreach in Tewiki has gained momentum since 2010. Between 2010 and 23, more than 74 % of these members who started writing in Tewiki came directly or indirectly through outreach activities of the organization. Between 2003-10, more people came to Tevike through the background of blogs or blogs.
With what kind of spirit are you working with Wiki? What are the reasons for quitting?
- Most felt that having a community to work with, encouragement, discussions and support. 100WikiDays, 10 Articles a Day, 1000WikiCommons Days - Challenges like this inspire newbies to become Wikimedians (two have done so) and inspire newbies to stick with Wikimedia projects.
- The idea of increasing information in Telugu inspired him; another said that meeting Wikimedians who are working hard in many languages at a national level was the turning point in their Wiki career, and another opined that they can get a complete a course a digital certificate on Wikipedia. More than half of the speakers through the activities organized by organizations such as IIIT(8) and CIS-A2K(7). Especially, all the women who attended the meeting were directly, indirectly, through grants, organizations and individuals started knowing about Tewiki.
- A total of three Wikimedians had previously created an account, forgotten about it, and restarted it after one to four or five years. However, it was pointed out that they continued because they got strong help from at least one person to write again in Tewiki. At least seven veteran users name more than three Wikimedians who say they have been helped. However, it is noteworthy that all those who provide extensive assistance are men and six are managers. If there is no increase in the number of mentors, many newcomers cannot be retained.
- When asked if they wanted to stop working on the wiki, 5 members responded positively. The reasons are - personal attacks in external events, unfair propaganda by individuals on Tewiki, accusations online, and management putting stereotype instructions on the articles they wrote in the beginning but lack of people telling them how to develop the article and remove them.
- Nine (seven men, two women) said they never wanted to quit while three said they had to take a break. There are two reasons for taking a break: one - is busy with work, and the second is busy with studies and exams.
What's there to dislike in Wiki?
- Most disliked the wiki because of the lack of quality and variety. The language in the articles is not good, the names are created incorrectly, there are too many fake articles, there are links to English articles on the first page, there are fewer articles about science and technology, basic research is included, and sources are not used.
- Problems in management and problems of management were also mentioned like -IP restrictions, while others mentioned not being active in discussions on Wikipedia. Harassment, bad comments, bad discussions and attacks On-Wiki and Of-wiki etc.
- Few members say that the lack of awareness about Wiki in society.
How do you want to be in the future? What do you want to do?
- Increase the number of Tewikemidians: for this, outreach programs should be done extensively and training programs should be held regularly. Many Wikipedians have decided to organize outreach programs and training to meet this goal.
- Many members opined that it is necessary to increase the quality and diversity of the Tewiki, They shared ideas to improve the quality of language in Telugu Wikipedia, streamline the categorization, undertake a good article project, etc. Several Wikipedians said they would review and improve problematic Wiki pages, work for the betterment of articles, and add articles on medicinal plants etc.
- Support, training and encouragement should be planned for newcomers to stay in the field and existing ones to improve their skills. Members expressed that support should be improved in a planned manner, training should be provided regularly, and diversified efforts should be made to encourage.
- Raising help pages, audios and videos, recruiting veteran Wikimedians, and organizing programs like Wikipedians of the Month/Wikipedians of the Year. At least four Wikimedians have expressed their willingness to work on training and helping newbies. However, few prepared training tutorials, gadgets etc.
- Harassment and attacks should be reduced. Administrators need to improve safety/control measures in OffWiki events and on OnWiki programs. Lack of respect in discussions and rudeness discourage users.
- The number of administrators and the number of actively participating Wikimedians are also less. More people should participate in discussions. There should be a systematic method for making new managers. Harassment and attacks should be widely discussed and if necessary explored for new solutions. Collective effort should increased.
- Efforts should be made to resolve the present and future technical problems of Tewiki. These range from fixing the twinkle device issue to making mobile editing easier for users. Ideas for projects such as fixing the twinkle template, setting up a system to send a message to the creator when redirects to red links are created, fixing tools that stopped working, making the visual editor the default, automating data transfer between Wikidata and Wikipedia info-boxes, and devising a tool to indicate typos and grammar mistakes in Telugu. The three members revealed that they will work on solving technical problems and increasing information using technological opportunities.
- Some felt that the awareness about sister projects is also low, thus the sister projects should also be given focus like digitization in Telugu Wikisource, the inclusion of words in Telugu Wiktionary, and the inclusion of photos in Wikimedia Commons. This includes new ideas like designing audiobooks and creating audio articles.
What are the people and organizations willing to join us?
- Mamidi Harikrishna, the director of the Telangana language and culture department is interested in providing sources to create articles related to various fields. He said that if they want to conduct Telugu Wikipedia training and awareness programs for the following groups across Telangana, Telugu students, teachers at degree and PG levels; various cultural organizations and their members; Senior Citizens Organizations; and Journalists.
- MV Rayudu, the co-founder and administrator of the Manasu Foundation suggested that the details of movies and movie songs created by the Manasu Foundation can be taken to improve articles on movies. Out-of-copyright books from the Manasu Foundation archive can be added to Wikisource.
- Kakarla Sajaya and other Anveshi members may have further discussions about working with Anveshi, a research organization that deals with various issues related to women and gender.

Suggestions in Table

S.No	Topic	Sub-Topics	How to implement/suggestions
1	Increase the number of Telugu Wikimedians	Extensively conduct outreach programs
		Spread through media
		Outreach programs to Special Social Groups
		Efforts on sister projects, increasing awareness
2	Increase the quality of language in Tewiki	Increasing the quality of Language
		Adding categories, editing mistakes	May Collaborate with the Manasu Foundation, Anvesi etc.
		Efforts to write good articles and their improvement
		Improving categorization
		Design of various projects to enhance the quality
3	Training	Updating/creating help pages
		Creation of videos on what to do and how to do it on Tewiki.
		Adopting new, experienced Wikimedians.
		Conducting training classes regarding writing in Telugu Wikimedia projects through Tewiki School (తెవికీ బడి)
		Operating strict measures in writings and encouraging Wikimedians with titles like - Wikimedian of the month or Wikimedian of the year etc.
4	Control the harassments, attacks and improve the administration	Some more new Wikimedians to be made as administrators
5	Work on Technical matters/issues	Examining the issues related to Mobile editing and trying to resolve
		Correction of red links	Creating a system to automatically send messages to the creator, when redirects are done to red links
		Correcting Twinkle template	Launch of New Twinkle
		Making the visual editor default and correcting the stopped applications
		The automatic data transmission between Wikidata and Wikipedia Infobox
		Design of a device to automatically detect and correct spelling and grammar mistakes in Telugu.
6	Focussing on sister projects and increasing awareness on them	Digitization of copyright-free books taken from Manasu Foundation into Wikisource
		Efforts should be made to include pictures in every Wikipedia article by either adding from the Commons or adding to the Commons.
		Creation of audiobooks, audio articles
7	Increase Diversity		Increasing women's contributions Telugu wikimedians need to help the minority languages like Gondi, Kolami, Banjara etc. existing in Telugu states, with their experience, contacts and skills. Identify the areas, where Telugu Wikipedians are fewer and increase the awareness programs

Community members' views on this topic are invited to the discussion page.

* * * * *