User:Hindustanilanguage/बिप्लब आनन्द

Maithili Wikipedia Questionnaire

1. Can you tell us about your association with this incubator project?

-- I am a native speaker of Maithili so I associate with this project. I am annoyed because there are more than 40 Million Maithili Speakers in world but it is still in incubator. At the beginning I associate with Nepali Wikipedia then I know about the incubator and feel that this should be out from Incubator.

2. Currently, there are nine (9) people who've contributed to this project, although not on regular basis. They are as follows:

• बिप्लब आनन्द
• Umeshberma
• Ganesh Paudel
• Anonymous
• नमन भगत
• Eukesh
• Binodworld
• Ggajendra
• Ujjawal Anand

What do you think is the additional scope of contributors for Maithili?

--- Information flow about the emergence of Maithili Wikipedia is not quite enough though we are working hard on this so there is very much scope that contributors for the project will increase.

3. Although Maithili is also spoken in India, your profile as well as the profiles of some other users seem to indicate the contributions mostly by Nepali people. How would you deal with that i.e. encouraging more participation for Maithili Wikipedia, especially from Indian Maithili speakers?

---We are also aware of that fact so we guys are working out to make the involvements from Indian Maithili speakers as well.

4. In one of my blogs (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/06/09/samskrita-bharati-and-sanskrit-wikipedia-the-journey-ahead) I discussed the proactive approach of Samkrita Bharathi in promoting Sanskrit. Do you think there can possibly be a tie-up with some institution for Maithili?

---Actually in current scenario within Nepal and India there are only government run institute that offer courses in Maithili as far as academic is concerned but there are few groups of local and regional level that are involved for the promotion of the language. So with the availabilities of information in Maithili language in the popular Wikipedia those groups can involve more enthusiastically for the promotion of the language.

5. What is the level of support for Maithili in your country (i.e. school-level education/ university level education)? If so, what are the prominent education centres for the language?

---I have mentioned in previous question also that in our country support for Maithili language is limited to university level education only though there are significant territories of both the countries where Maithili language is used as language of communication for day to day life.

6. In 2002, Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which allows it to be used in education, government, and other official contexts.Does Maithili have some sort of official status in Nepal?

--Yes in Nepal As per Part 1, Section 5 of Interim Constitution of Nepal 2063 (2007) the Maithili language is included in Constitution. After official language Nepali, the Maithili is the second most used language (11.7%) in Nepal and also got the official status in most of the Terai Region of Nepal.

7. Does the existence of distinct dialects such as Bantar, Barmeli, Musar and Tati in Nepal and Jolaha and Thetiya dialects in India result some sort of impediment in the development of the language Wikipedia?

---We do not feel such impediment so far.

8. Is there a demand for Maithili project in Tirhuta script also, considering the fact that there are Wikipedia projects which are divided mainly on the basis of scripts (https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/08/08/two-shades-of-wikipedia-in-punjabi) ?

---Currently we are not come to that fact but we cannot ignore it completely.

9. It is indeed satisfactory that the no. of articles in project is increasing. But the average is too small - not beyond one or two lines in most cases. How do you propose the expansion of the stubs to satisfactory levels?

--- Yes I agree with you. But we are trying hard to make those stubs full as the contributor increment shown in the test page in recent months. Soon we will make it full length article and many articles are in the process too.

10. Most of the articles seem to be based on places and personalities. As a Wikipedia, it will need to have articles on Science and Technology, History, etc, how do you propose to promote content diversity?

---In both of the countries there are lots of native Maithili speaker's people who are doctors and engineers so we are working out for their involvements on the page for the technical contents.

11. What are the online sources available helpful to editors (dictionaries, language encyclopedias, old text, etc). Can you give a few examples?

--- There are some resources available online but it wont fulfil all the requirements. There is only one dictionary (Kalyani Maithili Dictionary) and few online blogs and websites that are working for Maithili language, Maithili news, old texts, Maithili culture etc.

12. Has there been any drive for Maithili Wikipedia - outreach events, informal meetings, online blogs, social media pages/ groups / posts etc? If so, what has been the impact?

--- There is few social media blog of Maithili. But there is no any outreach events done for the particular work. But very soon (most probable at the end of this month) some of us and Maithili Sahitya Parisad Saptari Nepal are going to organize an event. It will definitely help us to make a good community for the project.

13. Apart from Wikipedia, what are Wiki projects do you feel are in the offing for Maithili - Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, etc?

--- Firstly we are focusing for the Wikipedia only. After the significant growth of the community we will work for other Projects.

14. Are you aware of the response I got from one of Stewards at Meta regarding bringing Maithili as a full-fledged project: "There should be a number of regular contributors (3-5 maybe) over the period of several months. Currently, that is not yet the case. --MF-W 02:52, 22 July 2014 (UTC)" ?

--- Yeah I’m aware of the response you got from MF-W. Currently we are working to make a good community in the Maithili Test Page.

15. Could you share any and all ideas - small or big, successful & not-so-successful - that you think can help drive Maithili and other language projects, especially those in incubator?

-- Tough one for me. Wikipedia is the source of knowledge. You have to be passionate about your language and culture. There are many projects in incubator in different language. But only few have good number of contributors. So I like to request all especially those who have access to the internet to start involving in Wikipedia. I am ready to assist anytime to the level that I can do.