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West Bengal Wikimedians/Reports/Annual Activities/2022

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Overview

Nature and Environment

Wiki Loves Butterfly - Phase V (second half)

5 states
27 districts
35 field-works
2767 uploads
23 valued images
304 quality images
11 featured images
84 articles
7 new participants
₹ 654492 spent

Heritage

Wiki Loves Monuments 2022 in India

1 month
5796 images
409 participants
312 new users
₹ 70,422.66 spent
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

The user group organized Wiki Loves Monuments photographic competition in India for the fifth consecutive year during the entire month of September, 2022 to increase the media content of different built heritage structures located in India. This year, we have brought a new member in the organizing team to take care of the promotion and jury selection process of the national competition. For the first time, we have engaged professional photographers from outside of Wikimedia volunteer community as jury members and oriented them with the judging process. We have also added few features in the tables of monuments to display the columns for co-ordinates with dynamic maps and locator images for districts, so that participants can have ease to locate the monuments on maps and identify the right monuments to upload. Unfortunately, we had to remove Wikidocumentaries based upload feature as the site was undergoing major maintenance.

This year, 409 photographers uploaded 5,796 images in total, out of which 6.19% of total uploaded images are used in different Wikimedia sites till now. 76% of all the uploaders were new users. The ten winners were selected by the jury members within deadline. Like previous year, this year too, prizes were also declared for the photographer with highest number of uploads and also for the photograph of an monument located in West Bengal which gets into top 10 of the national contest. The user group designed the prizes and sent the promised gift vouchers, swag materials and digital certificates to the winners. The user group will continue to organize this competition again in 2023.
DesiBoy101 for working in the background to enrich data!

Wiki Exploration Program

7 phases
9 districts
__ places
__ uploads
₹ 132,073 spent

The user group has been running a program to proactively search and document heritage sites in a cost-effective way in multiple phases. For the last five years, small teams were sent to different areas locate in the state of the West Bengal under this program. Last year, Amitabha Gupta planned and executed 7 phases covering 9 districts of the state. A Sony ILCE-7M3 camera and a Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS lens were purchased and assigned to Amitabha for the purpose. A drone operator was also assigned in 3 phases to get aerial videos and images of the monuments. The team covered heritage structured in the districts of Hooghly, Bankura, Purulia, Howrah, Nadia, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, North 24 Parganas and Paschim Medinipur.

Wiki Explores Semaphore Towers - Phase I

  • A Semaphore tower at Baitalkuli
    A Semaphore tower at Baitalkuli
  • Bird's eye view of a Sempahore tower at Arrah
  • Drone video of the interior of a Sempahore tower at Palsara
  • 360° aerial video of a Semaphore tower at Sindurpur
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
Main article: Wiki Explores Semaphore Towers - Phase I
Semaphore or the optical telegraph was a communication system during the times before telegram ws invented. It was a relay system to send and receive information by sending and receiving signals to the adjacent towers and was introduced in India by the British in early 19th century with a plan to link the then Calcutta to Chunar Fort. After the advent of electric telegraph, semaphore towers were no longer in use, and fortunately few are still standing erect. A phase of exploration was planned to specifically focus on these Semaphore towers which were located in West Bengal. 3 districts were covered to document 9 Semaphore towers. A drone operator was assigned to take aerial videos. 228 media files were uploaded and data of these toweres were created on Wikidata.

Wiki Explores Howrah - Phase II

  • An at-chala temple with char-chala porch at Dhasa
    An at-chala temple with char-chala porch at Dhasa
  • Terracotta figurine of Shiva on a temple at Ganeshpur
    Terracotta figurine of Shiva on a temple at Ganeshpur
  • Terracotta figurine on a temple at Garh Balia
    Terracotta figurine on a temple at Garh Balia
  • An at-chala temple at Mellak
    An at-chala temple at Mellak
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
Main article: Wiki Explores Howrah - Phase II
After a brief phase last year, another phase was organized this year to document built heritage structures located in Howrah district on 14th and 15th November, 2022. In this phase, the villages of Banuchak, Dakshin Maju, Dhasa, Ganeshpur, Garbalia, Garh Bhabanipur, Ichanagari, Kalikata, Kanupat, Kulia, Kurchi Binodbati, Mellak, Naikuli, Narikelberia, Narna, Penro Harishpur, Sitapur and Udaynarayanpur along with census towns of Amta and Khalor were covered and 623 images were uploaded. Wikidata items of all these built heritage structures have already been created and linked with relevant categories.

Wiki Explores Purba Bardhaman - Phase IV

  • A deul at Khatnagar
    A deul at Khatnagar
  • Terracotta relief on a Dolmancha at Shyamsundar
    Terracotta relief on a Dolmancha at Shyamsundar
  • Terracotta relief on an at-chala temple at Hat Gobindapur
    Terracotta relief on an at-chala temple at Hat Gobindapur
  • An at-chala temple at Baikunthapur
    An at-chala temple at Baikunthapur
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
Main article: Wiki Explores Purba Bardhaman - Phase IV
The fourth phase of Wiki Exploration was organized to document heritage structures located in the villages of Ambana, Amra, Baikunthapur, Bamunara, Bhaita, Bharatpur, Chhora, Debpur, Dignagar, Hatgobindapur, Kayrapur, Khatnagar, Maro, Nasigram, Panduk, Rayan, Saktigarh and Shyamsundar in the district of Purba Bardhaman from 17th November, 2022 to 19th November, 2022. 611 images were uploaded and Wikidata items of all the built heritage structures located in these villages have already been created and linked with relevant categories.

Wiki Explores Paschim Bardhaman - Phase I

Wiki Explores North 24 Parganas - Phase I

  • An at-chata temple in Kanchrapara
    An at-chata temple in Kanchrapara
  • A terracotta panel depicting a breastfeeding mother in Halisahar
    A terracotta panel depicting a breastfeeding mother in Halisahar
  • A pancharatna temple in Gobardanga
    A pancharatna temple in Gobardanga
  • Sculpture of a sitting lion at a ghat in Panihati
    Sculpture of a sitting lion at a ghat in Panihati
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
Main article: Wiki Explores North 24 Parganas - Phase I
It was decided to document the heritage structures located in the district of North 24 Parganas in an organized way. The municipal cities of Bhatpara, Gobardanga, Halisahar, Kanchrapara, Khardah, North Barrackpore, Panihati along with the villages of Barakpur and Gopalanagar were covered and 461 images were uploaded. Wikidata items of all these built heritage structures have already been created and linked with relevant categories.

Wiki Explores Nadia - Phase II

  • A temple with Jor-bangla architecture in Birnagar
    A temple with Jor-bangla architecture in Birnagar
  • Decorative element at a Zamindar house at Barnia
    Decorative element at a Zamindar house at Barnia
  • A bronze idol of a Hindu goddess at Juranpur
    A bronze idol of a Hindu goddess at Juranpur
  • Terracotta reliefs on a temple at Matiari
    Terracotta reliefs on a temple at Matiari
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
Main article: Wiki Explores Nadia - Phase II
The second phase of the Wiki Explores Nadia was a two-days field-documentatopm to seek and document the archaeological and historical sites in the villages of Aranghata, Barnia, Bhajanghat, Bilwagram, Birohi, Gobindapur, Juranpur and Subarna Behar; census towns of Kulia, Matiari and Phulia and municipality cities Birnagar and Chakdaha located in the district of Nadia district from 23rd and 24th January, 2023. In this phase, 458 media files were uploaded on Wikimedia Commons so far. Wikidata items of all these built heritage structures have already been created and linked with relevant categories.

Wiki Explores Paschim Medinipur - Phase III

The third phase of the Wiki Explores Paschim Medinipur ran for three days in January, 2023 by which heritage places located in Basanchhara, Bhairabpur, Birsingha, Brahman Basan, Harirampur, Hosenpur, Jaykrishnapur, Kadirpur Fakirbazar, Kamargere, Kashiganj, Khordda Bishnupur. Lakshmipur, Mahakalpota, Manglai Shyamballavpur, Rabidaspur, Rampur, Sahachak, Sarberya, Shridharpur, Singhachak, Suratpur and Surnarayanpur along with a temple in the municipal city of Chandrakona. Till now, 743 images have been uploaded and more images will be uploaded in due course. Wikidata items are also being created.

Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
Main article: Wiki Explores Paschim Medinipur - Phase III
Aritra Biswas, Dibyendu Biswas, Anirban Dey, Alinda Bardhan, Sujoy Das and Mukut Tapadar!

Culture

Wiki Loves Food 2022 in India

1 month
593 images
96 participants
47 new users
₹ __ spent
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
The user group organized a month long public photo competition named Wiki Loves Food 2022 in India on Wikimedia Commons from 1st November, 2022 to 30th November 2022 for the second consecutive year. The event got little attention from food photographers this year as the restricted diet on central banner failed to provide visibility to the event, which affected the event on a very negative way. Due to that, the number of submitted photographs were drastically decreased compared to last year and the jury members failed to select 10 winners from the competition from that small pool. In this competition, 96 photographers uploaded 593 photographs, out of which 4.15% distinct images were used in different Wikimedia sites. The user group designed the prizes and sent them to the winners. Due to the low participation, it has been decided to not organize the event in coming few years.

Filmi music datathon

15 days
15 enrollments
3720 new items
6800 edits
2410 new references
  • Filmi music became the top musical genre after the datathon
    Filmi music became the top musical genre after the datathon
  • 1634 films were linked with their songs
    1634 films were linked with their songs
  • 522 playback singers were linked with their songs.
    522 playback singers were linked with their songs.
  • 322 composers were linked with their songs.
    322 composers were linked with their songs.
  • 294 lyricists were linked with their musical works.
    294 lyricists were linked with their musical works.
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

During the occassion of the 10th birthday celebration of Wikidata, the user group organized a 15 days long data-thon focusing on music produced and used in Indian films in different languages. Indian films are famous worldwide for their musicals, popularly known as filmi music and although it has effects on contemporary Indian culture, the musical genre is still very much underrepresented on Wikidata and that's why the user group wanted to bridge some data gap. Although the enrollments were very few, the datathon managed to get 6800 edits, create 3720 new items on film songs along with 2410 new references. At the end of the datathon, filmi music was the top genre for musical works on Wikidata with 4897 items and 1634 items of films were linked with their songs. 522 playback singers, 322 composers and 294 lyricists were linked with their filmi musical works at the end of the datathon.

Distribution of film songs spread over years grouped by their languages at the end of the datathon.
Moebeus for your guidance and help!

GLAM

Research Institute of World's Ancient Traditions, Cultures and Heritage

1 Wikimedian-in-Residence
sponsor: CIS-A2K
  • Group of Mishmi people photographed by Benjamin Simpson in 1860
    Group of Mishmi people photographed by Benjamin Simpson in 1860
  • An elderly Adi lady leading a folk song
    An elderly Adi lady leading a folk song
  • A documentary film on Adi people
  • A headgear made of made of bamboo & horn-bill beak used by Nyishi people
    A headgear made of made of bamboo & horn-bill beak used by Nyishi people
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

A GLAM project has been initiated at the Research Institute of World's Ancient Traditions, Cultures and Heritage (RIWATCH) located in the village of Khinjili near the town of Roing at Lower Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh in the North-eastern part of India. RIWATCH has an ethnographic museum and a collection of photographs, audio and video files depicting the rich cultural tradition of different tribes and indigenous people of Arunachal Pradesh and North East India at large. CIS-A2K had made contact with the institute back in 2019 for a possible GLAM project but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting nation-wide restriction of movement, further communication was postponed. Communication with the institute was resumed again on January 2022 and after receiving their positive response, it was decided to have a field visit during the month of March, 2022. West Bengal Wikimedians User Group was formally approached to help facilitate and execute the partnership. Kime Rilla, a resident of Itanagar and a close associate with RIWATCH, was given Wikimedia training by the user group personnel and assigned as Wikimedian-in-Residence (WiR) for the GLAM partnership. Vijay Swami, the executive director of the institute, has released all RIWATCH digital contents under CC-BY-SA 4.0 license. Slow internet is the major challenge of this GLAM project which has hindered the smooth uploading of the media files on Wikimedia Commons. A scanner was also provided by CIS-A2K to the institute to digitize the collection of Tibetan Buddhist canon which was presented to the institute from Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. The digitization is currently stalled due to the non-availability of the WiR due to her professional career and another alternatives are being sought.

The digitized version of 1st volume of Tengyur. There are 224 volumes of Tengyur and 108 volumes of Kangyur present in the musuem which are getting digitized.
Subodh (CIS-A2K) for making contact with RIWATCH and arrangeing for logistics and
Mr. Vijay Swami for hosting us and providing valuable logistics to inititate and run the program!

Bengalee Association Bihar

1 Wikimedian-in-Residence
₹ 4663 spent
Primary meeting with Bengalee Association Bihar
Bengalee Asssocaiation Bihar is an organization based in the city of Patna in the neighboring state of Bihar created during the British colonial rule to protect the rights and preserve the language and culture of the Bengali speaking population residing there. Among its many activities, this organization took the responsibility of publishing the oldest English weekly published from Bihar named Behar Herald since 1938, which started its journey in 1875. Even if the journey of the newspaper was not very smooth due to lack of resources, the quality of its reporting was held in high esteem, with frequent publications of articles from renowned personalities from all over the country.A initiative was taken by the user group to engage with the organization for a GLAM partnership to digitize Behar Herald, which were in a very dire condition without any maintenance due to lack of resources. After the organization authorities have kindly agreed to have their collection digitized, a short visit was taken to check the current condition of the newspapers, catalogue them and to discuss logistics and strategies to run a digitization program. A rapid grant proposal was funded recently to purchase a scanner and assign a Wikimedian-in-residence (WiR) to complete the digitization project. The scanner has been purchased recently and a person has already been identified to be trained as WiR. The digitization is expected to start very soon.
Dr. Bir for everything!

International Museum Day 2022 Wikidata competition

14 days
305 enrollments
1660 new items
5642 edits
9710 new references
sponsor: VSN
Main article: International Museum Day 2022/bn
Wikimedia Austria invited West Bengal Wikimedians User Group to organize a Wikidata competition concerning museums located in West Bengal during the occasion of the International Museum Day 2022 from 4th May, 2022 to 18th May, 2022 along with different other affiliates from around the world. Volunteer Supporters Network had offered to sponsor the prizes for the 3 top winners for the West Bengal competition. A dynamic map locating museums in West Bengal were created by Wikimedia CH. An outreach dashboard was also created to track the progress for the West Bengal competition. The competition created 1660 new items, added 9710 new reference statements and 1.9 million new words placing it within the top 3 countries/regions where most content was produced along with Germany and Poland.
Manfred Werner (WMAT) for inviting us and sending the prizes and
Ilario for creating the map for museums in West Bengal!

History and Legacy

Subhas Chandra Bose 125th birth anniversary campaign

12 months
₹ 0 spent
  • Azad Hind newspaper with news of Bose laying foundation stone of Azad Hind Memorial in Singapore
    Azad Hind newspaper with news of Bose laying foundation stone of Azad Hind Memorial in Singapore
  • A declassified document by Government of India on wherabouts of INA treasury.
    A declassified document by Government of India on wherabouts of INA treasury.
  • A declassified document on activities and death of Subhas Chandra Bose from War Office UK
    A declassified document on activities and death of Subhas Chandra Bose from War Office UK
  • A declassified CIA document erroneously depicting Rashbehari Bose as brother of Subhas.
    A declassified CIA document erroneously depicting Rashbehari Bose as brother of Subhas.
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
23rd January, 2022 marked the 125th birth anniversary of Indian freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose. The user group had been running a campaign to bring reference materials related to Bose for last 2 years which continued until 23rd January, 2023. In this second year, the main focus was to bring archival documents related to Bose which are declassified by various governments. The most prominent of these included the documents declassified by the Government of India which is popularly called as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose papers. The metadata of the documents were created on Wikidata and files were uploaded on Wikimedia Commons using OpenRefine and Pattypan. Apart from the declassified documents, 260 issues of the English edition of the organ of the Indian Independence League named Azad Hind published from Singapore during the Japanese occupation in 1944 and 1945 were also uploaded on Wikimedia Commons. The newspaper provided unique perspective of the Indian National Army and people involved in the Indian freedom struggle operating from South-east Asia during World War II along with their relation with the Axis powers.

Rabimas proofread competition

3 months
20 participants
4962 proofread pages
₹ 4428 spent
The user group organized a 3-months long proofreading contest on Bengali Wikisource from 9th May 2022 to 8th August 2022 celebrating the occasion of the birth and death anniversary of Nobel laureate author Rabindranath Tagore. This was the fourth iteration of the same event which happened last year. 33 books written by Tagore were selected for the participants to proofread. 21 people enrolled and 20 people actually participated in the contest proofreading 4962 pages in total. The promised prizes were designed by the user group and sent to the winners.

Swadhinatar Amrit Mahotsav proofread campaign

1 month
10 participants
1142 proofread pages
₹ 0 spent
File:Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (English) logo.svg
15th August, 1947 marked the 75th anniversary of Indian independence from British colonial rule and the nation entire celebrated the day through different programs. The user group also took part in the celebration in its way by running a proofread campaign on Bengali Wikisource for books related to the Indian independence struggle. 11 such books were identified for the campaign, for which 10 participants proofread 1142 pages in total.

Indic Wikisource Proofreadathon - Bengali Wikisource version

15 days
8 participants
1105 proofread pages
sponsor: CIS-A2K
CIS-A2K organized a 15-days long proofread contest from 1st March to 16th March 2022 on all Indic language Wikisource projects. West Bengal Wikimedians User Group decided to co-organize it locally only for Bengali Wikisource. 11 books, all written by female writers, were selected for the competition. 6 people enrolled, and 8 people actually participated in the contest proofreading 1,105 pages in total. The prizes were taken care of by CIS-A2K officials for all participating Wikisource communities including Bengali Wikisource winners.
Jayanta (CIS-A2K) for organizing the event and sending the prizes!

Bangladesh Liberation War proofread competition

1 month
24 participants
3524 proofread pages
₹ 2583 spent
West Bengal Wikimedians User Group worked together with the Wikimedia Bangladesh chapter under the collaborative banner of the Bangla Wikimoitree to organize a proofread competition on Bangladesh Liberation War during the month of December, 2022 to commemorate the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. 15 volumes of a documentary book series named Bangladesher Muktijuddho: Dalilpatra (Bangladesh Liberation War: Documents) were focused for this competition to generate reference materials on the subject. 24 participants proofread 3524 pages within the timeframe. The winners were declared and prizes were sent by the user group and the chapter accordingly depending on the nationality of the winners.

Vocabulario em Idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez

sponsor: WMUK
Vocabulario em Idioma Bengalla e Portuguez is the first Bengali grammar book which was written by Manuel da Assumpção, a Portuguese missionary and was published in 1743 from Lisbon, Portugal. It is the first Bengali grammar book ever published and hence has high historical significance. There are very few copies of this book available worldwide, out of which, two copies are there in the British Library. Although there were few attempts to manually copy the entire book in the 1920s, but the book did not have any digital version anywhere on the web and that is why, it was decided to get it digitized and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The British Library was contacted and quotation of the digitization service was requested. Wikimedia UK was requested to pay the cost of digitizatization, which they kindly agreed. After the digitization and payment, the British Library sent a batch of jpg files containing the pages of the book. It was soon identified that some of the pages were missing and the information was shared with the library, for which they digitized the missing pages from another copy and sent it back to us. The jpgs were converted to a pdf file and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, an item on the edition was created on Wikidata and an index page was created on Bengali Wikisource for users to proofread.
Lahariyaniyathi for connecting with WMUK and
Daria Cybulska (WMUK) for sponsoring the digitization cost!

Community Support and Sustainability

Infrastructure support

1 camera
1 scanner
1 laptop
internet for 2 volunteers
₹ 360900 spent
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
Main article: West Bengal Wikimedians/Asset
The user group has heavily invested on building infrastructure support to run its projects for a long time. A Sony ILCE-7M3 camera and a Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS lens were purchased to support Wiki Exploration Program. A CZUR 18 Pro scanner was also purchased to start the digitiization with the GLAM partner Bihar Bengalee Association. The user group has also purchased several reference books on built heritage, flora and fauna of the region to build a future library and engage Wikimedians to generate more referenced quality content on the subjects. Apart from this, the user group also provided internet support for a year and a laptop for three long term volunteers upon their request.

Bangla WikiMaitree

Main article: বাংলা উইকিমৈত্রী
The user group continued its engagement with Wikimedia Bangladesh to work on the collaborative network and a futuristic thematic-linguistic hub in South Asia named Bangla Wikimoitree (Bangla Wikifriendship) which was created last year. Regular monthly online meetings were held since its formation and a physical meeting happened at Wikimedia Summit 2022 in Berlin. The proofread competition on Bangladesh Liberation War was held jointly under the banner in December, 2022 and several more plans are getting discussed to engage closely with each other this year.
Tarunno for long discussions and future plans!

Supporters and Partners

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