10th founding anniversary of ‘Bangla Wikipedia’ celebrated

The 10th Founding Anniversary of ‘Bangla Wikipedia’ was marked with a daylong event at Daffodil International University (DIU) on Saturday.
Wikimedia Bangladesh, a local organisation of Wikimedia Foundation that conducts the Wikipedia activities in Bangladesh, organised the celebration programme in association with DIU at the university auditorium.
State minister for ICT division Zunaid Ahmed Palak inaugurated the programme as the chief guest while DIU vice chancellor Prof. Dr. M. Lutfar Rahman was a special guest.
The event was moderated by Nurunnaby Chowdhury Hasive, administrator of Bangla Wikipedia and director of Wikimedia Bangladesh.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, “The youth of Bangladesh lack nothing in knowledge and talent - all they need is a good platform to facilitate their potentials. Bangla Wikipedia is exactly the kind of a platform the youth of the country need."
He also said, as the 8th most spoken language of the world, Bangla should not lag behind.
He promised his best support to accelerate the activities of Bangla Wikipedia through joint campaign programme of Wikimedia Bangladesh and ICT Division in 118 universities of the country and in 64 districts.
The daylong programme included seminar and workshops for volunteers and contributors of Wikipedia. Director of Wikimedia Bangladesh Nahid Sultan, treasurer Ali Haider Khan Tonmoy, and members Shabab Mustafa, Nasir Khan Saikat, and Tanweer Morshed conducted the workshop.
The volunteers of Bangla Wikipedia of Kolkata, India participated in the event as well.
Winners in the best picture and best Wikipedians catagories were awarded in the last segment of the event. Renowned writer Anisul Haque distributed the prizes among the winners at the closing ceremony. DIU science and IT faculty dean Prof. Dr. S. M. Mahbub Ul Haque Majumder, and president of Wikimedia Bangladesh Munir Hassan were also present at the closing ceremony.
Earlier, to mark the 10th founding anniversary of Bangla Wikipedia, a special “Wikipedia Editor’s Gathering” was held in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barishal, Sylhet and Rangpur where different techniques to add data in Bangla Wikipedia were discussed.