Wikipedia:Bangla WikiMoitree

Bangla WikiMoitree
Formation	2023; 1 year ago
Founder	Wikimedia Bangladesh; West Bengal Wikimedia User Group;

Bangla WikiMoitree is an international network that deals with Bengali culture and heritage or works on thematic-linguistic coordination and collaboration between the Bengali-speaking Wikimedia community, affiliates and informal groups.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Currently there are two affiliates in this network.

Historical background

Historically known as Bengal or Bongo, the history, tradition, culture and language of the people of the present state of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal are the same, but unfortunately, they have been separated by an international border drawn by the colonial powers for almost 75 years. Yet for over a decade and a half, volunteers from Bangladesh and West Bengal have been working together to build Wikimedia projects in different languages spoken in the two regions, including Bengali. Recognized as the national language of Bangladesh and one of the official languages of various parts of India, including West Bengal, Bengali is considered as the fifth most spoken mother tongue in the world due to being the mother tongue of 300 million people. Volunteers from the Wikimedia community came together to form the Wikimedia Bangladesh Chapter and the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group in 2017 to organize their projects further. Wikimedia Bangladesh is currently the only Wikimedia chapter in South Asia. These two cross-border communities have organized various online and offline projects together at different times, including the international conference that celebrated the tenth founding anniversary of the Bengali Wikipedia in 2015. Every year at Wikimania, the two Bengali communities meet for the Bangla Wikimedia to discuss ways to work more closely together.

Why Bangla WikiMoitree?

Although in the past various formal and informal online or offline collaborative projects have been organized between Wikimedia Bangladesh and West Bengal user groups and regional communities in Bangladesh and West Bengal, it has always been felt that there needs to be a closer and holistic relationship with each other to highlight the presence of Bengali language, culture and heritage through digital medium. The discussions on the strategy of the Wikimedia movement have provided a golden opportunity to formally build cooperation in the form of the Bangla Wikimaitree. This cooperation is also keen to build an international that will contribute to the creation of new communities in the northeastern Indian states of Assam, Tripura, Jharkhand, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, etc., and in Bengali-speaking community areas in different parts of the world, where there is no Wikimedia community or volunteer group yet. This will help build Wikimedia communities coming from languages and cultures that are historically closely related to Bengalis in minority languages and/or different regions in the majority Bengali-speaking regions.

workspace

Bangla WikiMoitree will try to work in the following areas

Conducting collaborative programs aimed at enriching the Bengali language and all its dialects, culture and traditions through digital media
Developing timely technology for Bengali language
Establishing closer links between Wikimedia communities in Bangladesh and West Bengal
Helping to build new Wikimedia communities and groups in various Bengali speaking regions including Tripura, North East India including Assam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand
Helping diaspora Bengalis living in different parts of the world to build Wikimedia communities and groups
Providing support to start communities and wiki projects for various minority languages in majority Bengali-speaking regions like Bangladesh, West Bengal and Tripura
To provide support for community building for languages that have historical links with Bengali culture
To provide a strong voice for the issues of all communities, affiliates and informal groups associated with this network to the global community.