Subhashish Panigrahi

Half of the world's languages are estimated to die in a century's time. Indigenous languages are under serious threat in the most linguistically diverse regions like India where 250 languages died in just 50 years. When the information and contribution of indigenous speakers are missing from the knowledge commons, the imminent threat of neo-colonization of the Internet might lead to a situation where a vast majority of world's minority languages will be wiped off forever. UNESCO has identified 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL) to educate people all over the world about preserving and helping grow the use of languages that are in danger. What can Wikimedians really do to bring more indigenous speakers as contributors and grow open knowledge repositories in the respective languages? The answer is probably complicated as many indigenous languages might not be viable to start a Wikipedia Incubator because of the lack of reliable content or adequate technical resources to contribute online. But where do we start from?

Other people: Anass Sedrati Kristen Tcherneshoff

Most Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects have a very little focus on building educational content for new contributors. It's time to recognize the lack of such resources as a movement-level gap that affects bringing new blood in the community. Though simply having the user guides does not solve the issues of sustainability of new editors, it is a good starting point. The Odia Wikimedians User Group started working shyly on a project to create video tutorials for the new editors. Though providing good quality user guide was always a focus for the community since the very beginning, video tutorials were never given too much of importance and hence there were only a handful of those because of the interest of a few Wikipedians. The idea to create some good quality short video tutorials was discussed in 2016 and then later got emphasized by a relatively new Wikipedian [[:w:or:ବ୍ୟବହାରକାରୀ:Soumendrak|User:Soumendrak]] in early 2019. The project is shaping up with an emphasis on storytelling and not just a guide with on-screen action. People, after all, are in the core of the Wikimedia movement.

Other people: Soumendra Kumar Sahoo