Groups/Proposals/Surakarta

= MediaWiki Group Surakarta ꦩꦺꦢꦶꦪꦮꦶꦏꦶꦒꦿꦸꦥ꧀​ꦯꦸꦫ​ꦏꦂꦠ​ = This group dedicated to promote MediaWiki as a tool for writing Javanese script (not to be mistaken with JavaScript) — called Carakan — as well as publishing it online. Surakarta or Solo is the center of Javanese culture and boast a wealth of Javanese literature. We are supporting the Javanese Wikimedia projects, such as Javanese Wikipedia, Banyumasan Wikipedia, Javanese Wiktionary, Javanese Wikisource (incubator)

Areas of collaboration:


 * Training
 * Promotion
 * Localize Universal Language Selector (or Narayam and WebFonts) for Javanese projects
 * Develop and maintain Javanese script "keyboard" through MW extensions
 * Bug solving for Javanese projects (and in broader terms) helping other native Indonesian scripts (Balinese, Batak, Bugis, etc).
 * Translate Wikipedia interface into Javanese script, via http://translatewiki.net/
 * Wikidata

A little bit background: Javanese script was used to print Javanese text before WWII, but fell into disuse as soon as the Republic proclaimed its independence and replaced exclusively by Latin script used by Indonesian language. Javanese script could be rendered into Latin script easily and almost perfectly, and is not as time consuming (to print or to read) for those who cannot read Javanese script, but it can't be said the same for the other way around. (Probably) due to the complexities of the script, and the availability of Latin replacement, there has been little effort prior to 2002 to create a font for Javanese script, much less to register it to Unicode. Only in 1 Oktober 2009 did Javanese script entered Unicode 5.2 (codepoints U+A980–U+A9DF, 91 characters), and in mid 2010 an openly-distributed smartfont was made. Only then can people write in Javanese script in computer.

Note: Group Surakarta is not exclusive for the city of Surakarta/Solo. The name is chosen because it reflected the cultural center of Java. In the future we would like to reach a broader community, that is Indonesia and beyond (in SE Asia).

Activities

 * We are going to help to implement Universal Language Selector (or Narayam and WebFonts combo) for Javanese projects and test it properly
 * We will give talks in universities and high schools about Wikimedia projects, MediaWiki software and their role in preserving Javanese language/script/literature.
 * We will work with the government of Surakarta to further promote Javanese script in government computers. (see commons:Category:Javanese script in Surakarta for public display of this script)

News

 * 2011-04-24: Our Facebook group was made https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia.solo (using Indonesian language)
 * 2012-08-15: Stumbled upon a freely-licensed Javanese Unicode font. Made announcement in Javanese Wikipedia to enable WebFont in the project.
 * 2012-09-04: The discovery leads to the need for writing in Javanese script. After making a simple Narayam keyboard, made another request to bugzilla to enable Narayam in the project.
 * 2013-01-01: Our Facebook page was made https://www.facebook.com/jv.wiki (using Javanese language — Latin and Carakan)
 * 2013-01-21: Group proposal submitted to the Affiliations Committee.
 * 2013-01-21: Proposal announced to wikitech-l.

Time of period for which we request recognition
We request initially a recognition period of 1 year

Who is interested
As promoters
 * Bennylin: Javanese and Indonesian projects contributor for 8+ years. Serving as steward in Meta, working to promote the Southeast Asian languages projects through Wikimedia Indigenous Languages. Not affiliated with Wikimedia Indonesia. Currently developing Javanese keymap (bugzilla:39960) through MediaWiki, because it is the only software that can support a script as complex as Javanese alphabet. I am also interested in preserving the wealth of literature in Javanese language, mostly can be found in libraries and museums in Surakarta, which otherwise would have to be transliterated to Latin script — and spreading that knowledge through Wikimedia projects. Have worked with MediaWiki extensively and currently maintaining dozens of sites in MediaWiki.

As members
 * Your signature here.

Other endorsements
 * Your signature here.