Grameenphone (GP) announces free Wikimedia mobile site access for all GP customers, at the joint Wikimedia Bangladesh-GP gala event marking 10 years of Bengali Wikipedia and the finale of the nationwide Wikimedia Bangladesh and GP content development competition.
The gala event featured Wikipedia founder Mr. Jimmy Wales, Grameenphone Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Mr. Allan Bonke, and Wikimedia Bangladesh representative Mr. Munir Hasan.
Speaking on the occasion, Grameenphone CMO Allan Bonke told those present that the collaboration with Wikimedia Bangladesh was to develop more content in Bengali. “To create more Internet users we need to not only work on the development of relevant content, but learn to provide this content in the language that makes sense to the majority of the people in the country,” he added.
The GP CMO also announced that Wikimedia mobile sites (m.wikipedia.org) would be accessible free of data charges for all GP subscribers, for a rich knowledge experience.
As part of the joint competition, representatives from Grameenphone and Wikimedia Bangladesh visited seven regions and ran sessions for students, providing practical guidance on how to edit Wikipedia and inspiring them to edit Wikipedia. In all, 400 students participated in the competition, of which 21 from seven regions were recognized at the gala event.
Wikipedia Founder, Jimmy Wales, said, “Wikipedia was created so that every single person on the planet can have free access to the sum of all human knowledge. We must grab every opportunity to take down any barriers to accessing knowledge, whatever that might be such as affordability, language or creating content that people need. It gives me huge pleasure to be part of the 10 year celebrations of Bengali Wikipedia, and to celebrate the amazing efforts of so many people - Wikipedians, Grameenphone and Wikimedia Bangladesh - to increase access to knowledge for everybody.”
Wikimedia Bangladesh representative, Munir Hasan, said, “The past 10 years have seen such great content created on Bengali Wikipedia, which has become a vital resource for relevant and valuable information for the people of Bangladesh. Our mission is to grow this content, and we are delighted to work with Grameenphone, encouraging thousands of young people to become Wikipedians and to create thousands of new articles.”
The top 10 winners of the competition were recognized for their contribution with a special commemorative crest and a certificate. The top three winners were also presented a MacBook Pro, an HP Laptop, and an iPad Air respectively for their contributions.
Bangladesh has seen huge increases in the number of people using the Internet in recent years. In 2009, Internet subscribers in Bangladesh accounted for 0.4% of the population or just 617,300 subscribers. In Bangladesh, by the end of 2014 that number had grown dramatically to 42.76 million thanks in part to initiatives addressing the numerous barriers such as affordability, network access, literacy and relevant content to access.
Last year Grameenphone announced its ambition to attain 50 million Internet subscribers to its network before 2019. To that effect, it has run a number of initiatives to increase awareness of the Internet and access, including giving free access to Wikipedia to all Grameenphone customers. The initiative, called Wikipedia Zero, is a collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that supports Wikipedia and its sister projects, in alignment with Wikimedia's mission to provide access to knowledge and information to everyone. As a result of the collaboration, millions of people across Bangladesh have been able to access Wikipedia for free.