I have been writing on Odia Wikipedia since 2014, and since 2017, I have been writing for #100wikidays. In February 2024, I completed this 25th time. During that time, I had published a blog on Diff about my journey.
I write blogs on Diff and other platforms to highlight the contributions of fellow volunteers. I record podcasts with the volunteers from Odia and other community members regarding their work and other things. Here are a few links.
I have written a few articles in local (Odia language) newspapers regarding the Wikimedia movement. Apart from this, in collaboration with the PR team from WMF, I wrote and translated a few articles to get published. A few articles in the local newspapers were published through my contacts.
Apart from Wikipedia, I contribute to Odia Wikisource, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons. With more than 400K edits on Wikidata, I focus more on updating labels in Odia language and creating items about the Odia language film industry and actors. I usually collect signatures, photographs, and videos of notable personalities from different events I attend and upload those to the Commons. Most of them are being used by various media and publication houses.
I have been organizing different online edit-a-thons in collaboration with the global team and local edit-a-thons, limited to Odia Wikipedia only. A few highlights from the year 2023-present, are mentioned below:
I have organized 11 edit-a-thons including a few local edit-a-thons only on Odia Wikipedia. The first edit-a-thon, “Feminism and Folklore 2023”, was a global edit-a-thon that started on 1 February 2023 and ended on 15th April 2023. Apart from organizing, I have participated as a volunteer and contributed a few articles along with the jury job. I have been organizing this edit-a-thon continuously since 2020.
Link: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1pcm
Apart from organizing the “Feminism and Folklore 2023” edit-a-thon, I organized a half-day-long workshop for the new volunteers by the sport of the edit-a-thon team. Seven volunteers joined this mini-workshop, and a few of them are contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.
Link: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1qe2
In April 2023, I attended the Wiki Conference India for the first time, and there I presented a presentation on “Wiki Loves Literature” with one of the Punjabi Wiki User Group members.
Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Loves_Literature.pdf
After Wiki Conference Indian, we had planned for a community call every month. I led this initiative and started the community call in July 2023, where the community members join the call on the last Sunday of the month and discuss the new problems and achievements together.
Link: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1rk4
The 2nd edit-a-thon was “Ratha Jatra Edit-a-thon," which was revived after 2016. This edit-a-thon was organized on both Odia Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons in June 2023. On Odia Wikipedia, a few articles were created, but a number of new volunteers joined the movement and uploaded media files like photos and videos of Ratha Jatra from various places, including India and outer places like Cooksville, Maryland and Johannesburg, etc.
Link: on Odia Wiki: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1qyp
Link: on Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Ratha_Jatra_2023
In August 2023, I organized an edit-a-thon named “Indian Independence Day edit-a-thon 2023." This edit-a-thon was also organized after 5 years after 2018, which was also an initiative by me back then.
Link: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1rqx
Blog on Diff: https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/09/05/a-three-day-edit-a-thon-to-remember-the-sacrifices-of-indian-freedom-fighters/
Odia is the second largest language contributed to by Lingua Libre, with 131,377 recordings. I had a contribution of over 59K recordings. In July 2023, I had recorded more than 56K words. During this process, I recorded all the articles available on Odia Wikipedia and other major information along with words in Odia.
Link: https://lingualibre.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Ssgapu22
In September 2023, I organized another edit-a-thon named “Param Vir Chakra Edit-a-thon,” and with this edit-a-thon, I worked with other Indic Wikimedia communities like Angika, Assamese, Kashmiri, Santali, Malayalam, Punjabi, and Telugu. The aim was to create/translate articles about the Param Vir Chakra recipients of India. And we successfully achieved our goal before the target period.
Link: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Param_Vir_Chakra_Edit-a-thon
In October 2023, I organized “Mahatma Gandhi edit-a-thon 2023” only on Odia Wikipedia, which was initially organized by CIS-A2K in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic period. This was a 3-day long small edit-a-thon, but during this short period, only 3 members, including me, created 26 articles related to Mahatma Gandhi.
Link: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1sng
We, the Odia Wikimedians User Group, organized an offline meeting at Bhubaneswar on 29 October 2023 to celebrate the 11th birthday of Wikidata. I coordinated with the newspaper and web portals to publish the news.
Link: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1t1e
In November 2023, I participated in "Wikipedia Asian Month 2022" as an organizer and writer. Since 2018, I have been organizing this yearly edit-a-thon on my home wikipedia.
Link: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1t1j
In 2023-24, I was a part of “Indic Oral Culture 2023-24.” Initially, I was a part of their previous project and joined the workshop at the Central University of Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, India, as a trainer in 2022. I recorded audio and videos of Odia folk songs. Apart from recording the content for more than one hour, I transcribed the files in Odia and translated them into English.
Link:https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Indic_Oral_Culture_2023-24
In November 2023, I participated in "Wikipedia Asian Month 2023" as an organizer and writer. During this edit-a-thon, I created 20 articles. Since 2018, I have been organizing this yearly edit-a-thon on my home Wikipedia.
Link: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1ot5
2024 begins with a big collaboration with the Government. of Odisha. The government officials invited the Odia Wikimedians User Group to participate in the “World Odia Language Conference 2024." There, we got a stall to present about Wikipedia and showcase our work to the public for 6 days. I was a part of the members, and we conducted a survey regarding Wikipedia among visitors, where some administrative officers and eminent personalities from various fields like entertainment, literature, business, etc. filled out that form. Apart from that, we had developed a timeline to showcase at the Future of Dome at the Odia Language Conference.
https://shubhapallaba.in/timeline/
In June 2024, after the Indian General Election results, I organized an edit-a-thon on Odia Wikipedia to update the election results on both Wikipedia and Wikidata. During this 30-day-long campaign, we created 93 articles as well as updated 269 articles on Odia Wikipedia and updated more than 500 Wikidata items.
Link:https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1v3j
In July 2024, I organized “Ratha Jatra Edit-a-thon 2024," after 2023 on both Odia Wikipedia and Wikimedia Common. On Odia Wikipedia, a few articles were created, but like the previous year, a number of new volunteers joined the movement to upload photos and videos of Ratha Jatra from various places.
Link: on Odia Wiki: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1vuy
Link: on Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Ratha_Jatra_2024
In October 2024, the CIS-A2K team collaborated with Odia Wiki UG to organize TTT 2024 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha. I was one of the members of the organizing team, where I worked on the ground and logistics. Apart from this, I presented my journey on #100wikidays and other works to inspire the participants. Link: https://youtu.be/0JugMDkTDTk
In October 2024, I had participated and worked as a co-organizer for the Wikidata Twelfth Birthday data-a-thon on Wikidata. Our UG led the last weeks’ task (Music albums). In this campaign, I had uploaded all the basic details of Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya (a Model English Medium school in Odisha, India by the Govt.) and some music albums, especially used in movies.
In November 2024, I participated in "Wikipedia Asian Month 2024" as an organizer and writer.
Link: https://or.wikipedia.org/s/1wmm
In November 2024, I was one of the co-organizers for the “Wiki Loves Language.” This project is going on.
