Becoming a Wikipedia Trainer: Challenges and Stories of Writing Cultural Heritage Articles on the Sundanese Wikipedia

Community Synergy in the Wiki Cagar Budaya 3.0 Series

Developing and maintaining a regional language Wikipedia project always has its own challenges. However, it becomes a deeply meaningful journey when undertaken together. Some time ago, I had the opportunity to be a trainer in the WikiLatih Sundanese Wikipedia event held in Tasikmalaya.

This training is part of the Wiki Cagar Budaya 3.0 series, an initiative supported by a Rapid Fund grant from the Wikimedia Foundation that specifically focuses on documenting cultural heritage in West Java and Banten, Indonesia. This event in Tasikmalaya felt very special because its implementation was the result of a close collaboration between two driving communities: the Wikimedia Bandung Community and the Kuluwung Community. The presence of the Kuluwung Community as a local partner provided tremendous energy in embracing the participants and ensuring the event ran smoothly.

Why West Java and Banten Cultural Heritage?

In line with the main objective of Wiki Cagar Budaya 3.0, the focus of our training was to document various buildings, sites, and cultural heritage structures scattered across the West Java and Banten regions. The selection of this theme was not without reason. The West Java and Banten regions possess extraordinary historical and cultural wealth, but unfortunately, many historical sites or cultural heritages still lack adequate documentation or articles on the internet. Writing about these cultural heritages on the Sundanese Wikipedia serves a dual purpose: preserving the historical information of the sites while simultaneously maintaining the existence of the Sundanese language in the digital realm.

Training Dynamics: Enthusiasm and Challenges

As a trainer, standing in front of the participants in Tasikmalaya left a profound impression on me. The event was attended by around 15 participants with diverse backgrounds, ranging from university students, teachers, and local cultural activists, to high school students with an interest in writing. Their enthusiasm was palpable from the very beginning of the event.

Of course, transforming enthusiasm into an encyclopedic article comes with its own set of challenges. When the practical session began, I observed several obstacles that the participants had to face. The first challenge was the issue of references; the history of many local cultural heritages is primarily passed down orally, making it difficult to find reliable and verifiable written sources that meet Wikipedia’s standards. The second challenge was the language barrier. Writing in everyday Sundanese is certainly different from writing in a standard and neutral encyclopedic Sundanese. We had many discussions regarding the selection of appropriate equivalent words or technical terms. Moreover, in its daily use, the Sundanese language has a lot of diversity, commonly referred to as “Basa Sunda Wewengkon” (regional Sundanese dialects).

Celebrating Achievements and Future Hopes

Despite facing technical and language difficulties, the participants’ eagerness to learn successfully overcame these obstacles. As a trainer, the most satisfying moment was guiding them as they clicked the “Publish” (Terbitkeun) button for the first time.

Through this collaboration in Tasikmalaya, we successfully edited and initiated around 15 new articles about cultural heritage in West Java and Banten. Some of the articles successfully created and developed by the participants include Bumi Ageung Cikidang, Pendopo Tasikmalaya, and Masjid H. Bakri Tasikmalaya; for more details, you can visit Category:Artikel WikiLatih WCB 3.0.

This WikiLatih event is clear proof that synergy is the key to the Wikimedia movement. The support from Wikimedia Indonesia through Wiki Cagar Budaya 3.0, as well as the collaboration between the Wikimedia Bandung Community and the Kuluwung Community, has not only succeeded in enriching the article repository on the Sundanese Wikipedia but also in cultivating new seeds of volunteers.

It is my hope that this small step, which started in Tasikmalaya, does not stop here. Hopefully, in the future, more people will be moved to participate in preserving their cultural heritage and mother tongue through Wikimedia projects.

Urang lestarikeun budaya, urang majukeun basa Sunda! (Let’s preserve our culture, let’s advance the Sundanese language!)