Wikimedia Bandung Community held a competition titled “WikiMekar” in 2023. This was a part of WikiTeroka 4.0 organized by Wikimedia Indonesia. I and Hayati Mayang Arum were the committees of the competition.
The WikiMekar was a competition that emphasized content-addition on city/regency articles in West Java and Banten Provinces of Indonesia, which are the homeland of Sundanese people. This competition aimed to enrich the knowledge of each city/regency on Sundanese Wikipedia. As we know, Sundanese Wikipedia has a few contributors, which made the quality of articles not too good, particularly on regional articles such as city and regency articles. Therefore, we hoped that through this competition, the quality of articles would get better. On the other hand, this competition aimed to dig into certain knowledge and uniqueness of each city/regency in West Java and Banten.
Based on the etymology, WikiMekar consisted of two words, “Wiki” and “Mekar”, Wiki means Wiki project especially Sundanese Wikipedia, and Mekar means “to develop”, “to enrich”, and “to elaborate”. Additionally, mekar is also a term for a flower, which means “to blossom”. WikiMekar was also acronym for “Wikipédia Ngamerdékakeun Artikel Daérah Administratip” which means Wikipedia: Freeing the administrative division articles.
WikiMekar was held from 1-28 February 2023. There were 21 people who registered, and 12 of them contributed and finished the competition. Most of them were native speakers of Sundanese language.
The scoring system of this competition was based on bytes added by each participant, excluding templates. For every 10,000 bytes addition to an article (with valid references), the participant got 10 points. The participant with the most points became a winner. There were six positions for winners. The first to third winners received a smartphone as prize and the fourth to sixth winners received a shopping voucher.
In total, there were 26 city/regency articles developed and 1,296,973 bytes were added. The content added into the articles including the history of the city/regency, etymology, education, government, economy, and socio-cultural aspects. In addition, the participants added pictures that made the articles more comprehensive. One of the most comprehensive article developed by the participant was Kabupatén Lebak.
Eventually, there were six winners of this competition. The winners consecutively were setyadirja, Sofi Solihah, Pijri Paijar, YogiYY, Shinta Jasmen, and Kepadalisna.
Sofi Solihah, one of the winners, said that she was glad to join the competition because she could get to know more about the profile and uniqueness of each city and regency. Also, she was enthusiastic about enriching the content on Sundanese Wikipedia, which was a way to preserve the local language.
In conclusion WikiMekar was one of efforts to foster and promote regional knowledge on the local language Wikipedia. This was boosting the content and the participant quickly and gave a new experience for the users.
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