Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Bangladesh/2018

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The celebration for the 14th Anniversary of Bengali Wikipedia was held in Bangladesh Bangladesh National Museum, Dhaka and a restaurant in Rajshahi. Wikimedians from different parts of Bangladesh joined in the celebration. Wikimedia Bangladesh organized the programs. The celebration news was covered by almost every notable media outlet in Bangladesh.

Report of activities: 2018

14th Anniversary of Bengali Wikipedia

Wikipedia's 17th birthday celebration

On the occasion of Wikipedia's 17th birthday on Junuary 15, we organized a meetup in Dhaka and Wikipedians clebrated the day afterwards. 5 Wikimedians participated the event.

Ekushey Wiki gathering across Bangladesh

Ekushey Bangla Wikipedia Gathering: On 21 February 2018, Wikimedia Bangladesh hosted gatherings in 6 cities of Bangladesh (Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Comilla) to observe International Mother Language Day. Wikipedians of Bangladesh were standing in a public place with banners asking passersby to contribute to the Bangla Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The day has a special meaning to Bangladeshis, as UNESCO established 21 February as International Mother Language Day as a tribute to those who were killed in the 21 February 1952 Bangla Language Movement demonstration and the ethno-linguistic rights of people around the world. The First gathering was held back in 2007 in Dhaka. Since then, Bangladeshi Wikimedians have been doing it annually. The event was covered by most of the national dailies of Bangladesh.

Annual General Meeting

AGM 2018: The first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Wikimedia Bangladesh was held on 27 January 2018 at Bangladesh National Museum Auditorium. It was presided over by Shabab Mustafa. The AGM included a presentation of WMBD's organizational activities and financial statements from 2017. The election of the executive committee of the chapter WMBD was held at the AGM. Members of WMBD reelected the 9 members of the executive committee. The members are: Munir Hasan, Ali Haidar Khan, Tanvir Rahman, Shabab Mustafa, Tanweer Morshed, Nahid Sultan, Nurunnaby Chowdhury (resigned), Moheen Reeyad, Masum Al Hasan. The new executive committee is valid for two years, from 2018 to 2020.
- Images of the meeting at Commons
- WikiBarta news

Arabic–Bengali Cultural Exchange Program

Details: Arabic–Bengali Cultural Exchange Program is a content exchange program between Arab and Bengali community. It is a part of the content exchange program between Arab and other communities. In this program, wikipedians from both communities will exchange the most important articles from their respective languages and translate them in their own as a token of friendship. This will contribute in reducing the cultural as well as content gap and strengthen the bond between Arab and Bengali community. This exchange program is supported by Wikimedia Bangladesh. 2018 edition of the program was started on 16 September, 2018 and ended on 16 October, 2018. Participants of both community created almost 70 articles altogether in Bangla and Arabic Wikipedia.
- meta page
- WikiBarta news

Bangla Wikipedia article contest 2018

'2018 edition': Wikimedia Bangladesh is organizing this annual 2 months long article contest since 2015 during International Mother Language Day. The occasion (Language Movement and the month) itself has the significant meaning to the Bengali speaking people so we believe it is a great opportunity to promote Bangla Wikipedia to the readers and have some of them on board with this contest. During the contest participants are asked to translate a full article into Bengali from a specific list. The main focus of the article contest was not only to add quality articles in Bengali, all the articles created through this contest were also important from encyclopedic perspective. So we also have closed some gap of important topics on Bengali Wikipedia. The competition continued from 1 of February to 31 of March 2018. Through the competition, 400 new articles have been added to Bangla Wikipedia, these include important topics related to history, art, information & technology, engineering, science, geography, geology and meteorology, society, social problems and political science, literature, music, film, health and medical etc. A total of 700 users joined Bangla Wikipedia. 95% of them are complete newbies. There were some coverage about the contest in the media.
- Contest page

Wiki Loves Monuments 2018

Inside Guthia Mosque.
Photograph: Azim Khan Ronnie
Museum of Independence, Dhaka.
Photograph: Pallab Kabir
Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.
Photograph: Shahriar Amin Fahim
SAARC Fountain.
Photograph: Azim Khan Ronnie
Shaheed Minar of Jahangirnagar University.
Photograph: Syed Sajidul Islam
Hardinge Bridge.
Photograph: Shahriar Amin Fahim
Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.
Photograph: Nazmul Hasan Khan
Pancha Ratna Govinda Temple.
Photograph: Abdul Momin
Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.
Photograph: Nazmul Hasan Khan
Guthia Mosque.
Photograph: Amdad Hossain

Bangladesh took part in the international Wiki loves monuments photography competition for the 3rd time in September 2018. During the competition, a total of 377 Bangladeshi participants uploaded 4784 freely licensed photographs of different monuments and sites in Wikimedia Commons. Among all the participants, 83% were new to Wikimedia projects. A Bangladeshi participant named Aminul Joy uploaded more than 1500 photographs alone. Out of the 4784 Bangladeshi photographs, the jury of the Wiki Loves Monuments Bangladesh Contest have selected the 10 winning photographs. They were then sent to the international team where 4 photos from WLEBD placed in Top 15.

Wiki Loves Earth 2018

Bangladesh has taken part in the international Wiki Loves Earth (an annual international photographic competition around conservation areas of the participating countries) photography competition for the second time in 2018. The main motivation behind participating the competition is that most of the protected area in Bangladesh don’t have photographs under the free license and we wanted to create a database of freely licensed photographs of all the protected sites of Bangladesh in Wikimedia Commons; Wiki Loves Earth offered a unique opportunity in this regard.

Pelicans, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park.
Photograph: Abdul Momin
Purple Nymphaeaceae, commonly called 'water lilies' with fly at Baldha Garden.
Photograph: Azim Khan Ronnie
Jamuna Bridge West Bank Eco-Park.
Photograph: Ashraful Islam Shimul
Blue Bottle Fly, Baldha Garden.
Photograph: Azim Khan Ronnie
tarantula, National Botanical Garden of Bangladesh.
Photograph: Apu Jaman
The wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola), Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park.
Photograph: Abdul Momin
Satchari National Park.
Photograph: Abdul Momin
Chestnut-tailed starling, Satchari National Park.
Photograph: Md shahanshah bappy
Pelicans, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park.
Photograph: Md shahanshah bappy
Late spring view of Dulahazra Safari Park.
Photograph: Syed sajidul islam

During the competition, a total of 371 Bangladeshi participants uploaded more than 2800 freely licensed photographs of 44 (of the 51 government listed protected sites of Bangladesh) different protected sites in Wikimedia Commons. Out of the 2800 photographs, the jury of the Wiki Loves Earth Bangladesh contest have selected the 10 winning photographs. They were then sent to the international team where 3 photos from WLEBD placed in Top 15.

Wikidata's 6th Birthday celebration and activities

To celebrate Wikidata's sixth birthday, Wikimedia Bangladesh organized a number of events both offline and online. Among them were birthday celebration, meetup, datathon andlabel-a-thon. Event page

Meetup and celebration: Dhaka Wiki meetup, Oct. 2018
Label-a-thon: wikidata:Wikidata:Sixth Birthday/Label-a-thon, Barishal and wikidata:Wikidata:Sixth Birthday/Label-a-thon, Chittagong (23 October)
Datathon: Wikidata:Sixth Birthday/Datathon, Bangladesh (29 & 30 October)

Santali Wikipedia launching ceremony

The Santali Wikipedia is the Santali language version of Wikipedia. The site was launched on 2 August 2018. From the very beginning Wikimedia Bangladesh organized Wikipedia meetup and workshop for Santali Wikipedians of Bangladesh to achieve this historic milestone. To celebrate the launch of Santali Wikipedia, Wikimedia Bangladesh hosted a launching ceremony on 10 August 2018 in Dhaka. 12 Wikimedians were present at the ceremony.

Photos of the event

Workshops

Wikipedia workshop at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, February: Sylhet Wikipedia community organized the workshop at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. It was held on 28 February 2018 at Gallery 2 of IICT building of the university and attended by about 30 students of the university. Ashik Shawon conducted the workshop on behalf of of WMBD with the help of the university students.
- Event page
- Photos of the event

Wiki workshop for women at Swedish Embassy, March: Wikipedia workshop for women working with development organizations held in Dhaka. Wikimedia Bangladesh and Swedish Embassy in Dhaka jointly organised the workshop styled “Wikipedia Workshop for Driven Communication” where resentatives from 20 women right organizations attended. Swedish Ambassador to Bangladesh Charlotta Schlyter inaugurated the workshop “World’s largest online encyclopedia Wikipedia contains about 90 percent of the content written by men which is 4 times more than women. The Swedish Embassy has organized to remove this incompatibility in Wikipedia,” Charlotta Schlyter said. Wikimedia Bangladesh Executive Member Shabab Mustafa, Administrators Nahid Sultan, Nurunnabi Chowdhury and Ibrahim Hossain were, among others, present on the occasion.

Women in Wikipedia Workshop at Rajshahi College, March: Wikimedia Bangladesh organized a workshop especially for women to increase women's participation in Wikimedia projects at Rajshahi College. Nahid Hossain of the then community director (regional operations), Wikimedia Bangladesh conducted an hour long workshop at the Computer Lab of Rajshahi College. Around 20 women participated in the workshop and they were taught how to edit Wikimedia projects and how to get involved.
- Event page
- Photos of the event.

Workshop on Wikipedia in University of Rajshahi, November: In the University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi Wikipedia Comunity and Institute of Education and Research of the university jointly organized a workshop for the student of the university. WMBD president Shabab Mustafa, general secretary Nahid Sultan, board member Masum Al Hasan and adviser Goutam Roy were present. Teachers of the university also participated. Around 60 students participated in the workshop. Most of them were newcomers. The event was covered by local and notional dailies.

WikiMeetup in Dhaka

February: The WikiMeetup at Martyred Intellectuals Memorial of Mirpur area in Dhaka took place on 10 February 2018. About 10 wikipedians from Dhaka area took part in the meetup. Wikipedia activities in Dhaka and future working plan were discussed in the meetup.
- February-Event page
April: The 3rd WikiMeetup of Dhaka in 2019 took place on 6 April. 10 wikipedians took part in the meetup.
- April-Event page
- Photos of the events, April 2018
July: The 4th WikiMeetup of Dhaka in 2019 took place on 13 July. 10 wikipedians took part in the meetup.
- July-Event page
- Photos of the events, July 2018
August: The 5th WikiMeetup of Dhaka in 2019 took place on 10 August. Wikipedians discussed about the WLM 2019 Photography contest in Bangladesh and other general things.
- August-Event page
- Photos of the events, August 2018
September: The 6th WikiMeetup of Dhaka in 2019 took place on 28 September.
- September-Event page
- Photos of the events, September 2018
October: The 7th WikiMeetup of Dhaka in 2019 took place on 26 October.
- October-Event page
- Photos of the events, October 2018

WikiMeetup in Rajshahi

April: The first WikiMeetup at Rajshahi took place on April, 2018. About 8 wikipedians from Rajshahi community took part in the meetup. Wikipedia activities in Rajshahi and future working plan were discussed in the meetup.
- Meetup Page
- Photos of the event, April
September: The second WikiMeetup at Rajshahi took place on September, 2018. 7 wikipedians from Rajshahi community took part in the meetup. One of the advisers of Wikimedia Bangladesh Goutam Roy was also present in there. Wikipedia activities in Rajshahi and future working plan regarding WLM and Bengali Wikivoyage were discussed in the meetup.
- Meetup Page
- Photos of the event, September
December: The last meetup in 2019 of Rajshahi Wikipedia Community was held in University of Rajshahi campus on 3 December, 2018. About 10 wikimedians were present there. They discussed about the annual activity of the community and made some plans for upcomming year.
- Event page, December
- Photos of the events, December 2018

WikiMeetup in Cumilla

April: The 1st WikiMeetup of Cumilla Wikipedia Community took place on 20 April 2018. 6 wikipedians from Cumilla district took part in the meetup. Wikipedia activities in Cumilla and future working plan were discussed in the meetup.
- Event page
- Photos of the events.
September: The 2nd WikiMeetup of Cumilla Wikipedia Community took place on 22 September 2018 . 5 wikipedians from Cumilla district took part in the meetup.
- Event page
- Photos of the events, September

Photowalks

Rajshahi: To collect photo for WLM, Rajshahi community arranged a Wikipedia photowalk during the month of September. 3 wikimedians from Rajshahi community took part in the meetup.
- event Page
- Photos of the event
Cumilla, January: WMBD organized a day long photowalk in Cumilla district of Bangladesh on 13 January. 6 Wikimidians of Cumilla took part in the photowalk.
- event Page
- Photos of the event
Cumilla, September: WMBD organized a day long photowalk in Cumilla district of Bangladesh on 22 September. Wikimidians of Cumilla took part in the photowalk.
- event Page
- Photos of the event
Barishal: WMBD organized a photowalk in Barishal district of Bangladesh on 13 October. 3 photographers of Barishal took part in the photowalk.
- event Page
- Photos of the event
Lalmonirhat: WMBD organized a photowalk in the border town of Lalmonirhat district of Bangladesh on 21 September. 2 photographers of took part in the photowalk.
- event Page
- Photos of the event

Edit-a-thons

#WikiGap 2018: Wikimedia Bangladesh and the Swedish Embassy jointly organized an online edit-a-thon named #WikiGap on 8 March to enrich women’s articles in Bengali Wikipedia and to make the internet more gender equal. 33 Wikipedians created 70 new articles during the edit-a-thon.
- Event page
- article list

BNWIKI OAweek Edit-a-thon 2018 web banner

Bangla Wikipedia Open Access Week Edit-a-thon 2018: Wikimedia Bangladesh hosted a week long edit-a-thon during international open access week at Bangla Wikipedia. The edit-a-thon aimed to increase contents on Open Access related topics as well as enhance the quality of the existing contents in the Bangla Wikipedia.
- Event page

2018 Bangladeshi general election edit-a-thon: The main purpose of the edit-a-thon was to create and upgrade various articles related to the election/politicians on Bengali Wikipedia on the occasion of the eleventh parliamentary election in Bangladesh. One of the goals of this edit-a-thon is to ensure that all articles of the new parliamentarians who are elected after the December 5 election are in Bengali Wikipedia. 19 Wikipedians participated the edit-a-thon and 77 new articles had been created through it.
- Event page
Bangladesh Liberation War edit-a-thon: Wikimedia Bangladesh hosted this online edit-a-thon to enhance the quality of Bangladesh Liberation War related articles. The main focus was to enhance the article quality of all gallantry awards winners especially Bir Sreshtho, Bir Uttom, Bir Bikrom and Bir Protik.
- Event page

Others

The Comilla community has been established. The Khulna community is also started working.
Wikivoyage has been launched in Bengali.
Collaboration with the most popular Bengali daily Prothom Alo: They released about 400 feature articles about Bangladesh Liberation war fighters. Talks with them about potential partnerships are going on. WikiBarta news
The top-level domain name .বাংলা (romanized as .bangla) for Wikipedia and Wikimedia is now live. This domain is meant for web addresses in the Bengali language. বাংলা is transliterated to bangla, but the web addresses will end in বাংলা. After verifying the application, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited has assigned two domains ‘উইকিপিডিয়া.বাংলা’ (transliteration: wikipedia.bangla) and ‘উইকিমিডিয়া.বাংলা’ (transliteration: wikimedia.bangla) to Wikimedia Bangladesh.
Wikimedia Bangladesh started publishing a new online magazine called WikiBarta. In Wikidata: WikiBarta (Q55905601)
In collaboration with WMBD, Bangladesh Air Force has donated all pictures on their website to Wikimedia Commons.