TL;DR: 'Wiki Loves Bangla' is a new yearly photo competition organized by
Bangla WikiMoitree (a wikimedia thematic network and aspiring hub) aimed to
reduce the content gap regarding Bangla Culture and Heritage. Competition
result links are at bottom of this email.
---
People of Bengali ethnicity live all around the world, but the majority of
the population live in Bangladesh and India. Bengali Wikimedians from all
over the world have been enriching the Wikimedia projects in the Bangla
language hand-in-hand for the past two decades.
In 2022, the longest-running Wikimedia project Bangla Wikipedia turned 18.
To celebrate the 18 years of sustained collaboration between Bangla
Wikimedians, the Wikimedia Bangladesh Chapter
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Bangladesh> and West Bengal
Wikimedians User Group
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/West_Bengal_Wikimedians> of India had
decided to designate this long relationship as a formal collaboration
network and named it "Bangla WikiMoitree
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bangla_WikiMoitree/en>." Later "Bangla
WikiMoitree" was categorised as a Wikimedia thematic network and aspiring
hub for Bengali culture and language.
Despite Bangla being the 5th most spoken language and Bengalis being the
third-largest ethnic group (est. population of 300 mil in 2023), we have a
significant content gap about Bangla Culture and Heritage in Wikimedia
projects.
In the 3rd in-person meeting of "Bangla WikiMoitree" (held in Singapore
during Wikimania 2023) we agreed that more organised and long-term work is
needed to reduce this content gap. So we started planning to design a
program, named "Bangla Culture and Heritage Collation Program" (in Bangla,
"????? ???????? ? ?????? ??????? ????????").
In January 2024, we launched the 1st flagship project under this program, "Wiki
Loves Bangla
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Bangla_2024/en>" (
in Bangla, "?????? ?????? ????").
Wiki Loves Bangla is an annual international photography competition around
Bangla culture and heritage. This competition will be held yearly on a
different theme each year. The subject of the first edition was Bengali Food
and Cuisine, which aimed to highlight the diversity of Bengali cuisine by
improving the quality and quantity of images of Bengali food available
around the world.
In this edition, the contest attracted significant participation with over
2,100 images of Bengali food and culture from 212 participants, reflecting
the enthusiastic engagement with the initiative. We believe this
competition has substantially enriched Wikimedia Commons with a wealth of
Bengali food photos, which will greatly enhance the illustration of
Wikipedia articles in the future.
You can check the top 10 winning photos on commons: https://w.wiki/9XAb or
on the official website: https://wikilovesbangla.org/galleries/ .
???????? (Thank You.)
On behalf of Bangla WikiMoitree-
Shabab Mustafa
[User:Tarunno]
Bangla WikiMoitree (a wikimedia thematic network and aspiring hub) aimed to
reduce the content gap regarding Bangla Culture and Heritage. Competition
result links are at bottom of this email.
---
People of Bengali ethnicity live all around the world, but the majority of
the population live in Bangladesh and India. Bengali Wikimedians from all
over the world have been enriching the Wikimedia projects in the Bangla
language hand-in-hand for the past two decades.
In 2022, the longest-running Wikimedia project Bangla Wikipedia turned 18.
To celebrate the 18 years of sustained collaboration between Bangla
Wikimedians, the Wikimedia Bangladesh Chapter
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Bangladesh> and West Bengal
Wikimedians User Group
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/West_Bengal_Wikimedians> of India had
decided to designate this long relationship as a formal collaboration
network and named it "Bangla WikiMoitree
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bangla_WikiMoitree/en>." Later "Bangla
WikiMoitree" was categorised as a Wikimedia thematic network and aspiring
hub for Bengali culture and language.
Despite Bangla being the 5th most spoken language and Bengalis being the
third-largest ethnic group (est. population of 300 mil in 2023), we have a
significant content gap about Bangla Culture and Heritage in Wikimedia
projects.
In the 3rd in-person meeting of "Bangla WikiMoitree" (held in Singapore
during Wikimania 2023) we agreed that more organised and long-term work is
needed to reduce this content gap. So we started planning to design a
program, named "Bangla Culture and Heritage Collation Program" (in Bangla,
"????? ???????? ? ?????? ??????? ????????").
In January 2024, we launched the 1st flagship project under this program, "Wiki
Loves Bangla
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Bangla_2024/en>" (
in Bangla, "?????? ?????? ????").
Wiki Loves Bangla is an annual international photography competition around
Bangla culture and heritage. This competition will be held yearly on a
different theme each year. The subject of the first edition was Bengali Food
and Cuisine, which aimed to highlight the diversity of Bengali cuisine by
improving the quality and quantity of images of Bengali food available
around the world.
In this edition, the contest attracted significant participation with over
2,100 images of Bengali food and culture from 212 participants, reflecting
the enthusiastic engagement with the initiative. We believe this
competition has substantially enriched Wikimedia Commons with a wealth of
Bengali food photos, which will greatly enhance the illustration of
Wikipedia articles in the future.
You can check the top 10 winning photos on commons: https://w.wiki/9XAb or
on the official website: https://wikilovesbangla.org/galleries/ .
???????? (Thank You.)
On behalf of Bangla WikiMoitree-
Shabab Mustafa
[User:Tarunno]