# 2023: Highlights

*As a person with access to the privileges of society, only providing income tax is not enough; we should help others without any expectations.*

## Achievements 🎉

### Volunteering 🙋🏻‍♂️

* My questions and answers on [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/users/5014656/soumendra?tab=profile) crossed 1 million views. Currently, 1.2 million views. I ended up in the top 22% of contributors worldwide in 2023. The previous year, I was in the top 25%.
    

![Stackoverflow profile](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1703933642368/f318eec8-00df-498a-8ce5-9b9d013fbc6d.png align="center")

* I have written [29 Odia Wikipedia articles](https://pageviews.wmcloud.org/userviews/?project=or.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&namespace=0&redirects=0&start=2023-01-01&end=2023-12-29&user=Soumendrak&sort=views&direction=1&view=list&user=Soumendrak) about Indian Space Programs, Param Vir Chakra recipients, AI, and other awards.
    

![The latest 15 articles of 2023](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1703931815440/10fc34d8-ebf3-4fdb-bcc1-44ad89e6ff44.png align="center")

* I attended two Wikimedia conferences, the [Wiki Tech Summit](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2nd_Wikimedia_Technology_Summit), and the [Wiki India Conference](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2023).
    
* We have organized the most prominent [Python programmer's conference](https://in.pycon.org/2023/) in India with 1200+ attendees. This year, I have become a core member CFP lead. Back in PyCon 2019, I was a CFP reviewer.
    
* I have started an [AI newsletter](https://odishaml.substack.com/) under Odias in the AI/ML brand with ~1500 subscribers.
    
* There has been a 50% increase in Twitter followers, from 500 to 750+.
    
* There has been a 20% increase in LinkedIn followers, from 6000 to 7100.
    
* I have reached Level 8 in Google Maps local guide with 7 million views on photos. It took me four years to reach from level 7 to level 8.
    

![Map Local Guide](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1703932372817/78974747-1b1c-4926-93ec-9c1969075181.png align="center")

* Become a member of the Open Street Map Foundation. Also, at the time of writing reached rank# 4 in India as per contributions in the last two months.
    

![OSM Contributions](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1703932473834/a4206881-71d4-4d8a-bbf3-f42bb6188a84.png align="center")

* I started publishing my photos on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@soumendrak) for free, got 15,000+ views, and the images were used 50+ times by others.
    

![Unsplash stats](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1703932082566/70d12da8-128d-48ff-90f5-e34f16df67da.png align="center")

* 20% more people requested my uploaded images on Wikimedia Commons. 1.7 million lifetime views till now.
    
* Overall, there has been a 45% increase in views [on my public contributions](https://www.soumendrak.com/souls-touched) from 12.5 million to 18.1 million.
    

![Souls Touched webpage screenshot](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1703932714103/f107125a-6d9d-4a45-ac14-4ce5e6007512.png align="center")

### Academic 📚

* I have completed my **M. Tech in Data Science** from BITS Pilani this November. Since 2021, all weekends have been used by this course.
    
* Resuming academics after nine years of work experience with all these side volunteering activities was inaccessible. Thanks to my wife, mentor, and manager for helping at every front.
    

There are a few setbacks as well. However, I managed to come over those. I hope 2024 will be full of excitement, new challenges, and many things to learn.