Panaji: In a bid to create more content for Wikipedia in Konkani language, Goa witnessed its first mini edit-a-thon on Saturday at the Goa State Central Library.

Organised by the Goa Wikipedia Group, a few volunteers gathered at the library to add to the existing database of the free online encyclopedia that is based on a model of openly editable content.

“We want to enlarge the Konkani Wikipedia space because it is in a bad shape, right now. If there are not enough articles on the platform, Wikipedia might derecognise the language,” said lexicographer Isidore Dantas.

He was one of the volunteers who attended the event, vowing to submit one article per day to the platform.

“At present, we are starting with translating existing English articles on Wikipedia into Konkani. We will later add fresh articles,” he said.

While most of the volunteers who attended the event were from Nirmala Institute of Education, Dantas said the Goa Wikipedia Group has reached out to the Goa Konkani Akademi, Dalgado Konknni Akademi and the Konkani Bhasha Mandal seeking voluntary contribution from member writers.

The Konkani Wikipedia, which was started some years ago, already has a few of articles written in both Romi Konkani and Devanagiri scripts.

Writers in the Kannada script have also been slowly contributing to the platform, Dantas said.

