Great article, Santosh. It's particularly good because it references wikipedia in schools and wikisource well. Hisham Mundol India Programs - Wikimedia Foundation
User:Hmundol skype: hisham.wikimedia google talk: [email protected] twitter: @mundol On Mar 23, 2011, at 6:48 PM, CherianTinu Abraham wrote: > The Hindu : "Malayalam's Wiki warrior" > http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article1564461.ece > > Santosh Thottingal has done wonders for Malayalam computing. He is the only > Indian on Wikipedia's recently-expanded language committee > > Santhosh Thottingal has just logged on to the big leagues in cyber world. > This young techie's contribution to the Indian language computing scene, > along with his numerous contributions to Wikipedia (Wiki) projects, is taking > him places. He is the only Indian in Wikimedia Foundation's newly-expanded > 16-member language committee, which was announced on February 28. > > Language committee > > “Wiki hosts 279 languages across the world, including 20 Indian languages. In > addition, there are 20-plus Indian languages in the incubator. The role of > the language committee is to help people start a Wiki in their language, and > it is this committee that approves a request for Wiki in a new language,” > explains Santosh, a Free Open Source Software (FOSS) activist and fan of GNU, > a free Operating System. > > Santhosh has been associated with Wiki projects for two to three years now. > “I have done projects for Malayalam Wiki. I created the software for an > offline distribution of Malayalam Wiki with 500 select articles. It was the > first of its kind from India, and the Government of Kerala distributed the CD > containing this to 60,000 schools in April 2010,” says Santosh. > > Chennai-based Santosh, who works for an IT company, is first and foremost a > free software developer and is also a project administrator for Swathanthra > Malayalam computing, which supports Malayalam for free software. > > For the last five years, he has been working on “Indic language technology > development and associated research.” He developed ‘Dhvani,' a text-to-speech > system for the visually challenged in India, along with a professor from the > Institute of Science, Bangalore. This is a system for 10 Indian languages, > and Pashto language too. It won the FOSS India award in 2008. > > Along with his team of volunteers at Swathanthra, Santosh has developed a > number of free software for Malayalam computing, enabling the use of > Malayalam with GNU and Linux Operating Systems. This project holds the honour > of being the biggest free software project in India in this area. > > Literature buff > > Malayalam Wiki has a sister project called Malayalam Wikisource, where books > with expired copyrights are available and it helps that Santosh is a fan of > Malayalam literature. He helped convert Indulekha, the first novel in of > Malayalam, and Keralapanineeyam to Wikisource. The complete works of Sree > Narayana Guru is also on Wikisource due to Santhosh's efforts. > > Connecting people > > “Cyberspace in Malayalam is a space for Malayalis all over the world to > connect. You see it in Facebook, blogs, Google Buzz, Twitter…. These spaces > are utilised, for politics, for fun, for friendship… In all these ways, it > connects people. For the first time in history, social networking is making > waves. > > “Wiki is one example where Malayalis all over the world have showed their > creativity. In fact, did you know that Malayalam Wiki is rated second in page > depth – a parameter used to measure the activities and content?” asks Santosh. > > Santhosh was in Poland last year as a representative from Indian Wiki for > ‘Wikimania 2010' – Wiki's annual conference. And he is proud about how Jimmy > Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, talked about the Malayalam Wiki's activities > in his keynote speech. > > In Poland, Santhosh conducted a workshop on creating offline Wiki > repositories along with Shiju Alex, who coordinates many advocacy and > outreach activities for Malayalam Wiki and Tinu Cherian, who works in the > administration of English Wiki. > > Santhosh will soon attend a meeting of the language committee in Berlin and > possibly hop over to Israel for this year's ‘Wikimania.' > > This bachelor from Palakkad, son of a farmer and home-maker couple, claims > that he is a “home-made product” – a graduate of the 2005 batch of the NSS > Engineering College, Palakkad. > > Regards > Tinu Cherian > http://wikimedia.in/wiki/In_the_news#March_2011 > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
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