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Submissions/The Usage of Aymara on the Internet

From Wikimania 2013 • Hong Kong

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.
3071
Subject no.
C2
Title of the submission
The Usage of Aymara on the Internet
Type of submission
presentation
Author of the submission
Elias Quispe Chura
Country of origin
Bolivia
Affiliation
E-mail address
ilaies2012@gmail.com
Username
Eliasquispe1
Personal homepage or blog
www.yaticha.wordpress.com
Abstract

Aymara was relegated for many years, whereas now it is motive of pride. That’s why in El Alto, Bolivia, the Jaqi Aru members are engaged to promote the usage of Aymara language on the Internet. All this is done through projects of translation and the creation of new contents using digital means. And with that, we want to contribute and enrich the contents in our native language on the cyberspace to prepare the land for the future generations, as there are only a few works in it.

We had many productive activities, for example: on May 3 – 4, 2012, we went to Oruro to give workshops to school teachers about how to use Blogs, Wikipedia, and Social Networks in Aymara. These activities really encouraged them to speak and write, and consequently, they engaged to teach their students. After these experiences, we can say that the Aymara is around the world, and due to that several people have visited and commented about our works. Even some of them want to learn our mother tongue. That means that using our language on the Internet, most of people can change their attitudes positively.

Detailed proposal

Objectives General objective

  • To preserve and promote the usage of Aymara language on the Internet in El Alto, Bolivia.

Specific objectives

  • To create and use digital tools, such as blogs, social networking sites, and wikis to spread our native language.
  • To do frequent campaigns to increase content in Aymara language on the cyberspace.
  • To build up strong relationships with universities, superior institutions, media and Ministry of Education to contribute to the language teaching using new digital tools of the Internet.

Backgrounds

Everybody knows that Bolivia is a country of different identities, languages and cultures. One of them is Aymara. It is spoken in the Andean region of South America. It is estimated that there are more than 2 million speakers of our language. According to New Constitution of Plurinational State of Bolivia, “Official languages of the state are Spanish, and all languages of nations and indigenous communities.” It implies that there are 36 native languages in the country. That’s why we as youngers decided to support with human resources and knowledge to work in favor of our language and culture.

The use of Social Networks

You can find the Jaqi Aru community on social networking sites like:

  • Facebook
  • Hotmail
  • Twitter
  • Gmail
  • Flickr
  • Youtube
  • Skype

We have been using them to communicate ourselves, link featured articles on Facebook and receive comments and posts of friends.

Blogs

The team is writing in Aymara and Spanish on the group blog about traditions and customs in their local communities. Team members are also uploading photos and videos to their Flickr and Youtube accounts and posting them on the group collective blog.

Translations

In a partnership with Global Voices Online, the team from Jaqi Aru is translating the Spanish or English version of Global Voices Online into Aymara.

Video Subtitling (Spanish-Aymara)

Community members have already subtitled videos available online, as well as original productions.

What is Wikipedia Aymara?

It’s another site in our language where we have posted approximately 700 articles written in Aymara. The contents in our language are enhancing day after day. But we think it’s not enough, and for that we will keeping working until reaching our aims.

Allies

  • Native Speakers
  • Professionals
  • Rising Voices
  • Organizations
  • Institutions
  • Municipalities
  • Radio Station(s)
  • TV Stations

Difficults

There weren’t many sponsorships for Jaqi Aru project.

Solutions

In spite of everything, we kept working with our own resources. At the same time we have been looking for another supports.

Challenges and achievements

  • One of the challenges we have faced is that many people have still been denying to speak in their mother tongue.
  • We have already reached to set the first backgrounds for the future generations.
  • A lot of native speakers of Aymara have felt proud when they all heard that their language was showing via Internet.

At present, we are translating the platform of Facebook into Aymara. And as team, we hope to perform more projects related to our mission and vision.

Track
Length of presentation/talk
20 Minutes
Language of presentation/talk
English
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
Yes
Slides or further information (optional)
Slide/Data show
Special requests
Nothing in special


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  1. Yes! Please! This is one of the best and the most important proposals. Seriously. It may seem obvious to a lot of people in "the Global North" that people use Facebook and Gmail, but it's not obvious at all for Bolivia, and information about this is crucial for the development of the Wikimedia movement there. អមីរ ឯ. អហរោណិ 07:46, 12 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Man77 (talk) 20:16, 17 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
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