ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:ଜନ୍ମତିଥି ୯/ପ୍ରେସ ବିଜ୍ଞପ୍ତି/en
This is a news article to be used for press release for Odia Wikipedia's 9th anniversary.
Odia Wikipedia, one of the first Indian language Wikipedias is celebrating the 9th year of success this 29th January. It was first started in 2004 and saw the first edit on 29 Januay 2004. The most intriguing fact about Wikipedia's users is slightly less than 50% of them who use Wikipedia everyday have no clue about the people who actually write and edit articles on Wikipedia. Though the number of readers of English Wikipedia is pretty high there are Wikipedias in 290+ world languages and 20+ Indic languages. It is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, modify and add information.
When most of the internet users from eastern India moved to the Silicon valley of India in search of jobs the bondage with Odia language and its use started dying. It affected Odia Wikipedia as well. Though the project happened to be one of the earliest Indian Wikipedias it saw a dormancy for over 6 years. 2011 saw gathering of few enthusiasts from Odia diaspora based in Bengaluru to contribute to Odia Wikipedia. April saw the first Odia Wikipedia workshop in Bhubaneswar. Since then there was no way of looking back. With handful of voluntary editors Odia Wikipedia saw a rise of 550 odd articles to 3321 articles. Back then in 2011 the number of visitors were 0.7 lakh per month which has gone up to 3.9 lakh by the end of December 2012. What exactly brings people to contribute to Odia Wikipedia despite of all the difficulty to type in Odia using a Romanized keyboard and Wikipedia doesn't pay a single penny for this? “Editing Wikipedia is like an addiction to those who contribute to it regularly. The only thing they care for is their language. An Indian language can never sustain without a prominent online presence, and Wikipedia being World's largest online encyclopedia and 5th most visited website and being free serves the best platform for any contribution to our languages”, says Subhashish Panigrahi, Programme Officer, Centre for Internet and Society, a non profit which works for promoting Wikipedia in India under a grant from Wikimedia Foundation.
“Wikipedians who have been contributing to Odia Wikipedia are of different age groups, stay in different cities and still they collaborate and write on the same platform. I reside in Bhubaneswar and write articles about diseases in the morning. Someone staying in Nalconagar corrects my mistakes by the evening. Is not it exciting? I'm really enjoying my full time contribution to Wikipedia,” says overwhelmed retired professor Dr. Subas Rout. Odia wikipedians have organized over 20 workshops nation wide and reached out to many people. “This year we have initiated a Wikipedia Education Program for the students of IIMC, Dhenkanal which would run for few months and would be part of their curriculum”, says Mrutyunjaya Kar who has been contributing since last two years.
For their outstanding contribution Odia Wikipedia community was awarded for the youth achievement award from OdishaDiary.com. Odia Wikipedia aims to reach out to more readers and to them who are excited to contribute to Odia language in some way. “In the future we are planning to reach to the government asking for including editing Odia Wikipedia to make part of the school curriculum so students develop the ability of research and documentation while studying and they become part of this global platform for sharing knowledge”, express two students Shitikantha Dash and Jnanaranjan Sahu. Odia Wikipedia could be accessed at: or.wikipedia.org. For any support users can visit fb.com/groups/odiawiki and ask for support.