Submissions/Writing about Asia: An Indonesian Experience

After careful consideration, the programme committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2013 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this August.

Submission no.: 1004
Subject no.: A3

Title of the submission: Writing about Asia: An Indonesian Experience

Type of submission: presentation

Author of the submission: Chris Woodrich

Country of origin: Canada (resident of Indonesia)

Affiliation

E-mail address: chris_woodrichhotmail.com

Username: Crisco 1492

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract

Editors on the English Wikipedia and other European-language projects face numerous difficulties when writing about Asian culture and history. Westerners may be unable to read or access the sources, while Asians writing about their own countries using these Wikipedias face language barriers. Opportunities for collaboration are few, as editors with the ability and drive to expand Asia-related articles are limited. It is hoped that attendees will be able to use the speaker's experience writing about Indonesia on the English Wikipedia to combat systemic bias (about Asia or other topics) on their home wikis.

Detailed proposal

Editors on the English Wikipedia and other European-language projects face numerous difficulties when writing about Asian culture and history. Westerners are often unable to read or access the sources: sources are likely to be in the country's native language, offline, or (in the case of historical articles) in hard-to-access libraries and archives which may or may not be indexed. Accessing and understanding these sources is cost prohibitive to many Wikipedians. Images likewise may be difficult to obtain: the copyright laws can be difficult to understand and freely-licensed images, on Commons or Flickr, are few.

Asians writing about their own countries face many of these same problems: they may not have access to paper sources or archives, and images can be difficult to find. The main difference for Asian writers is the language barrier: for them, it is not reading the sources that is difficult, but expressing what the sources say in an manner – both linguistically and contextually – that is accessible to international audiences. What they consider common knowledge may not be so for a reader in Boise or Manchester.

On European language wikis there are often (unintentional) community barriers which hinder collaborative editing. Fellow Wikipedians with the necessary language skills, source access, and interest to expand an article can be rare, although some countries (such as Japan and China) will have a higher degree of interest. Although copyeditors and reviewers are available, there may not be the same level of interest as for an article familiar to editors and readers. As such, an article's main contributor will likely be working alone for text and images.

This presentation is intended to help editors interested in writing about Asia, both Westerners and Asians, by providing examples from the writing process of two featured articles about Indonesia on the English Wikipedia: Albertus Soegijapranata and Terang Boelan. Discussion will center on the acquisition of sources and images, provision of contextual information, and reviewing. It is hoped that attendees will be able to use the speaker's experience to combat systemic bias (about Asia or other topics) on their home wikis.

Track: Wikis in Asia

Length of presentation/talk: 25 Minutes

Language of presentation/talk: English

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: Yes, if the scholarship is available

Slides or further information (optional)

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I would like to see more Indonesian projects promoted in the Wikimedia community. Blue Rasberry (talk) 08:58, 19 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Template:Like! Bennylin (talk) 12:36, 16 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
أمير إ. أهروني 20:48, 5 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Der Fussi 13:44, 2 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Now you have three FAs! +en:? (film) Bennylin (talk) 12:36, 16 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
SarahStierch (talk) 20:45, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Jeromy-Yu Chan, COIC (talk) 22:47, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
sats 08:15, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
CT Cooper · talk 01:02, 29 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Phoebe (talk) 22:30, 30 April 2013 (UTC) I would find this most interesting if there were any take-away lessons about how to make cross-culture editing easier -- tools, resources? What are the barriers?[reply]
Mimihitam (talk) 22:18, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]