Grants/Gujarati Wikisource 1st Anniversary/Report

Activities
Wikisource Subdomain for Gujarati was granted on 27th March 2012. To celebrate its successful completion of first year, the event was planned on 31st March. This occasion was taken as opportunity to perform an outreach program for Gujarati Wikisource, Wikipedia and other wikiprojects. Ahmedabad is the largest city of Gujarat and hence many events are organised in the city every now and then, hence we selected a smaller city Junagadh for the event. Junagadh is famous for its contribution in the field of literature hence it could easily be linked with Wikisource. Rupayatan, an educational institute which is a boarding school based on Gandhian philosophy, known as Ashram Shala expressed its willingness to host the event. Rupayatan is a home to the prestigious Narasinh Mehta Award, which is awarded in the field of Literature by Government of Gujarat, so this way it was very good partner for the event. Few other local organisations also joined the event, e.g. Giants Group of Junagadh, Webgurjari, Shri Yuvak Mandal of Zanzarda village, Student Association and Jay Balaji Group of Junagadh. There were presentations made on the information on what Wikisource, Wikipedia and other wikiprojects, history of Gujarati Wikisource and its progress so far and detailed presentation on Wikisource’s structure, with screen captures of various aspects of user experience. There were more than 100 attendees, including wikipedians, Teachers, college students and librarians. At the end of program after the keynote address, certificates were awarded to the active contributors of Wikisource and key contributors of Wikipedia. Another event was organised, in continuation to accommodate more people and focusing on youth, the same evening. This event was on a special invitation from Zanzarda Yuvak Mandal. Around 30 young people attended this event where they were shown how to create their user name, how can they start contributing, etc. This was all done with the help of offline presentation.

Outcome
The biggest outcome of the event could be considered as the fact that Rupayatan, the host organisation opened its doors for any and all out future events. Not only that, they have offered us excess to their libraries. Similarly, Libraries of Junagadh also offered their assistance in providing us with the books that we could use to digitise on Wikisource. Event provided a good opportunity to meet the wikimedians with each other, who otherwise are located in different geographic regions. This was a platform where they shared ideas with eachother and exchange of knowledge also happened. Libraries, and some schools and colleges already invited us to do presentations in their organisations in next academic year, as this time of the year is busy with preparations for examinations, etc.

Measures of Success
Will measure success mainly from the site hits. I am trying to gather the data for the month of April, which will hopefully show increase. However, we have increased interest and enquiries about the Wikisource in specific since than. A few users also joined Wikisource since than.

Lessons learnt
Being submitted separately.