Submissions/Javanese Wikipedia

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2013.

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An example of modern usage of Javanese script. It reads
Wikipediya
Bauwarna mardhika

Submission no.: 1014
Subject no.: A1

Title of the submission: Javanese Wikipedia and Javanese script

Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, panel, presentation): Presentation

Author of the submission: Bennylin

E-mail address: Wikipedia email form

Username: Bennylin

Country of origin: Indonesia

Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.): Community member

Personal homepage or blog: http://bennylin.github.io/transliterasijawa

Abstract

Few people ever heard of w:Javanese language, usually confused with Java (computer programming) or Japanese language, and even fewer have heard about w:Javanese script, usually confused with JavaScript. But it's a language with 80+ million speaker, mainly in w:Java island, the densest island in the world, and the largest of hundreds of languages in Indonesia. Javanese language is thriving -- it has its own Wikipedia (40 000+ articles) and several sister projects --, but the Javanese script, one of the oldest script in Southeast Asia, needs a lot of love.

Detailed proposal (Edited 16 April because of recent development of Javanese script in Wikipedia and WMF's grant)

This is a resubmission from 2012 program, which was strongly accepted (garnered 4 Strong Accept and 5 Accept from the committee members) [1]

A little bit background: the Island of Java, as the densest island in the world, comprises not only Javanese people, but also of other ethnic group indigenous to the island (i.e. Sundanese) who have distinct language and culture. But the Javanese people is the majority group, and Javanese language is the largest Austronesian language as well as the largest regional language of Indonesia, even though it doesn't have any official status anywhere. Within the long history of the language, it has evolved into many dialects and also writing forms. It used Arabo-Javanese script (Pegon), Sanskrit-based Javanese script (Aksara), and also Latin alphabets.

Now, Javanese Wikipedia and Wiktionary have existed since 2004, as long as Indonesian ones, but its growth has stalled. Wikimedia Indonesia recently has organized a project to revitalize the Javanese Wikipedia, and it seems that it was successful. But it is still in question whether the current editors are able to attract new editors or not, since nowadays Javanese people tend not to use their own language anymore, being replaced by the Indonesian language, especially in writing. The presentation will skim through recent initiatives by government to reintroduce the language in public spaces, as well as recent development of 2013 school curriculum where the study of the local languages will be abolished.

In regards with the writing forms, even though the Javanese script still being taught at school, but in public practically it has been replaced by Latin alphabets, and to make matter worse, until today it still to some degree hasn't been supported by almost all software, despite it already has it's own Unicode assignment (since 2009). Therefore, the editors cannot enter Javanese script script easily, and old documents has to be painstakingly transliterated to Latin first. The presentation will explore what it means to the editors, as well as the effect on its sister projects (Javanese Wiktionary and Wikisource).

I will talk about the writing competition that was held in Javanese Wikipedia as well as my initiative to bring Javanese script to Javanese Wiki-projects, walking through the audience from the start of the initiative, to the help I received from fellow Wikimedians and developers, to the real world application, and then back to the benefits for Wikimedia movements. Hopefully it will help other projects who are trying to include multi-script in the projects they're contributing at.

If the timing allows, I will also give a review of the grant I received: meta:Grants:IEG/MediaWiki and Javanese script and its result. Also the effect of Wikidata on Javanese Wikipedia.

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

Slides or further information (optional): http://prezi.com/sxmzn_hq-iar/wikipedia-bahasa-jawa/

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Interested attendees

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TroyDHunter.
Jeromy-Yu Chan, COIC (talk) 14:16, 30 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Amire80 (talk) 13:19, 20 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Mimihitam (talk) 09:33, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
were you able to present this last year? -- Phoebe (talk) 02:08, 11 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately no, Phoebe, but this year I'm resubmitting it again after a lot of development. It's certainly worth the wait... Thanks for all who're interested in this submission! Bennylin (talk) 11:58, 16 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Amqui (talk) 20:37, 25 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
sats 08:13, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
CT Cooper · talk 23:54, 28 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
--Chandres (talk) 13:45, 9 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Ijon (talk) 00:00, 16 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sbouterse (talk) 18:42, 17 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
--Spring Roll Conan ( Teahouse · Contributions ) 14:58, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
--Ecce Ralgis (háblame) 23:53, 9 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
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