Outreach Campaign at Hyderabad National Book Fair - 2024-25

The 37th Hyderabad Book Fair will be organized from 2024 December 19 to 29, at the premises of "Kaloji Kalakshetram (NTR Stadium)" in Domalguda, Hyderabad, India. It has been organized by the Hyderabad Book Fair Society since the year 1985. The society was established in the same year by leading publishers, retailers and distributors and organizing Book Fair every year.

The enthusiastic Telugu Wikipedias have been voluntarily setting up stalls every year with the support of state government to promote Telugu wikipedia and digital writing in the language for more than 10 years. This year the Telugu Wikimedians User Group has proposed a project to organize a campaign more widely with the financial support of Wikimedia Foundation.

Project Details

Name of the Project: Outreach Campaign at Hyderabad National Book Fair - 2024-25
Project Organization:Telugu Wikimedians User Group
Project Duration: 2024-11-01 to 2025-02-15
Project Bachground: Many Telugu people search English Wikipedia for the information. They are not aware of the existence of Telugu Wikipedia and do not find much information on Tewiki articles as there is in Enwiki. The awareness that anyone can write and edit on Wikipedia is also very low among the readers. Many people, though want to write are not able to use Telugu typing tools and therefore cannot type in Telugu. Moreover, the the user base growth is very low in Telugu wikipedia. Thus, community felt the need to further spread of awareness of Telugu Wikipedia and also the wiki concept among the people.

Telugu Wikimedians User Group therefore, applied for a rapid grant from the Wikimedia Foundation to give wider publicity to Telugu Wikipedia, to increase awareness and further the userbase.

Objectives of the Project:

To conduct focussed Campaigns to reach communities like teachers, retired citizens, homemakers, University students etc
To provide training on the editing tools and editing on mobile devices
To engage people to make minor edits and see them going live immediately. A follow-up activity is also planned for the same.
To create a group for the new editors and encourage mutual interaction and sustain the editing activities through Wikiprojects, Editathons etc.
To widen the article base on Telugu Wikipedia with a focus towards local content. During 2023-24 Tewiki has started working in this direction. New Editors will be encouraged to participate in the relevant Wikiprojects.

Planned Actitivities: In Hyderabad National Book Fair various book sellers across India participate in the event. 800,000 to 1,000,000 book lovers visit the event every year. These knowledge seekers are the target audience for Tewiki campaign and the following activities are planned at the book fair:

Set up a Telugu Wikipedia booth at the Book Fair with the arrangements like banners, posters, computers, handbook, pamphlets etc.
The booth will be manned by wikipedians experienced both in editing Wikipedia as well as in outreach activities
Booth attendants will explain about Wikipedia and its main concepts. Interested visitors will participate in live editing sessions. These editing sessions will be conducted everyday at the Booth to introduce Wiki editing to the visitors.
Visitors interested in further engagement with Wikipedia will register themselves at the Booth. These visitors will be future prospects for Wikipedia editing
Conduct quick quiz sessions for the visitors and give away small tokens of appreciation
A 2-hour event will be organized to celebrate 100,000 articles of Tewiki at the Central stage of the book fair inviting a community influencer.

Rapid Grant Details

Grant Source: Wikimedia Foundation, USA
Grant Service Provider: CIS/A2K
Grant Applicant: User:Vjsuseela
Application Form

Project Team

Coordinator: V.J.Suseela
Advisers & Project Design: Chaduvari, Pavan santhosh, Yarra Ramarao
Book Fair Stall Management: Pranayraj, Kasyap and Batthini Vinay Kumar Goud
Some more Telugu wikimedians are expected to join in the Team.