Thanks for sharing this. Coverage of the article was good. regards Arun .
On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 9:54 PM, CherianTinu Abraham <tinucher...@gmail.com>wrote: > Thank Srikanth, for sharing this. > > The article can be viewed on epaper : > http://epaper.telegraphindia.com/PUBLICATIONS/TT/TT/2011/09/11/index.shtml > > ( Nice to see Vibhi's photo and huge heading "Wiki Warriors:on the main > page ) > Don't forget to full article on page 13 too. > > > The full text of the article : > > *Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopaedia, has a vibrant > community of editors and contributors in India. And on its 10th anniversary > it is looking to enlarge its base in the country, says T.V. Jayan * > * * > *Vaibhav Jain, 13, looks like any other child. The Delhi resident is crazy > about animated characters Pokémon and Shin-chan, and cheers for the Delhi > Daredevils whenever his home team is playing at the IPL. But looks, as they > say, can be deceptive. Vaibhav assumes a completely different persona when > he is on the Web — that of a vigilant cop waging a war against vandalism. > * > *Vaibhav is one of the 4,200-odd “rollbackers” of Wikipedia — the world’s > largest free and open online encyclopaedia. When he is not studying or > playing, he scours Wikipedia articles for recent editorial changes that are > suspect and reverts them to the original. Vaibhav, who set up his Wikipedia > account earlier this year because he “got bored with social networking sites > and online games”, has a Wiki user page that says it all: “This user reverts > vandalism faster than Rajinikanth…” * > * * > *Seventy-three-year old G. Balachandran from Paravur, Kerala, has a > different story to tell. Paralysed for nearly two decades, this retired > junior commissioned officer of the Indian Army got a new lease of life, > thanks to Wikipedia. When his son presented him with a laptop, Balachandran > started contributing to Wikipedia in Malayalam. “Wikipedia not only helped > me rediscover myself, but also gave me the strength to fight my condition,” > says Balachandran, who has contributed nearly 100 articles to the Malayalam > Wikipedia since 2008 and has more than 2,000 edits to his credit. * > *Vaibhav and Balachandran belong to a vibrant global community of > Wikipedians who contribute to the resource in one way or another. And there > is a growing number of Indians among them — those who have taken it upon > themselves to add, edit and improve Wikipedia in their spare time. * > * > > INDIAN MOVERS: (From top) Vaibhav Jain, K. Ravichandar and G. Balachandran > are part of the global community of Wikipedians * > * > From a little known resource on the Web 10 years ago, Wikipedia has grown > into a mammoth, ever-expanding encyclopaedia with more than 19 million > articles in 282 languages at last count. The English Wikipedia alone has > 3.73 million articles, followed by German (1.28 million) and French (1.14 > million). According to Alexa.com, an Internet information company that > tracks traffic to websites, wikipedia.org ranks fifth in terms of traffic. > More than 14 per cent of global Internet users visit Wikipedia at least once > a day. * > > *India too has been part of the phenomenon, so much so that Wikimedia > Foundation, a non-profit body which manages Wikipedia’s affairs, has decided > to set up its first office outside the US in New Delhi later this year. > “India is our new focus area,” says Bishakha Datta, one of the global > trustees of Wikimedia Foundation. “The experience that we gain from India > will provide us with a blueprint to expand Wiki activities in other > countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.” * > *Right now, Wikipedia is available in 20 Indian languages and 20 other > language versions are under incubation. * > * * > *What sets Wikipedia apart from other encyclopaedia, which are written by > renowned subject experts, is not just that it is free and accessible to > everyone, but also its dynamic nature. Anybody can contribute a Wikipedia > article. “You don’t even need to register to be able to edit 99 per cent of > the pages on Wikipedia,” says Tinu Cherian Abraham, a software engineer > with a Bangalore-based firm, who has been associated with Wikimedia > activities since 2006. Abraham has so far contributed more than 2,000 Wiki > articles and done more than 53,000 edits on the English Wikipedia. * > * * > *However, because of its free and open character, Wikipedia is also liable > to abuse and misinformation being fed into it. And that is where feisty > rollbackers like Vaibhav come into play. Recently, a Wiki article on Team > Anna member Arvind Kejriwal was ambushed by a miscreant and his name was > changed to Neelabh Kaushik. However, the watchful Vaibhav caught the fraud > in no time and rolled it back. * > * * > *Developing events find their way to Wikipedia almost instantaneously, > thanks to more than 1,40,000 registered editors around the world who > contribute and edit Wiki articles free of charge. “Everyone can be an editor > on Wikipedia,” quips Hisham Mundol, a consultant with Wikimedia > Foundation, who is slated to head its India operations. “We genuinely feel > that with inputs from various quarters, Wiki articles can be more rounded,” > adds Datta. * > * * > *The policy has paid off, with a growing number of online editors and > contributors adding their bit to the burgeoning resource. Take K. > Ravichandar, who is an employee of Karnataka Bank in Bangalore. He wrote > about Melattur, a tiny town in Tamil Nadu that is famous for a unique form > of dance drama called Bhagavatha Mela. “Very little was known about this > dance form till my article in Wikipedia,” says Ravichandar, who has made > more than 35,000 contributions to the resource by way of articles and edits. > * > * * > *It’s the energy and enthusiasm of people like Ravichandar, Vaibhav and > others that’s spurring the Wikimedia Foundation to woo India in a big way. > Apart from setting up an office in Delhi, the foundation is also organising > its first ever WikiConference in India in November this year. The > conference, to be held in Mumbai, is expected to become an annual feature > and will draw up a road map to develop Wikipedias in “Indic” languages, says > Pranav Curumsey, one of the Wikimedians behind the meet. The conference > will also discuss how to make Wikipedia available offline to schools in > rural India, which do not have Internet access, reveals Curumsey. More than > 400 Wikimedians from India are expected to participate in the conference. > * > * * > *“The Wikimedia movement is strong and vibrant in India. But we need more > people to join us,” says Abraham. “People from India can make an important > contribution to global knowledge, and we want both Indians and the broader > world to benefit from that.” * > *Indian Wikimedians say they face some challenges in achieving these > objectives. First, the general public is mostly unaware of the fact that it > can actually edit Wikipedia articles. Second, most people do not know that > Wikipedia is available in many of the Indian languages. * > *But some point out that Indian language Wikipedia often fall short in > terms of quality and quantity. Among the Indian languages, Hindi has the > largest number of articles — 99,815. This is followed by Telugu (48,000), > Tamil (35,700) and Marathi (34,400). Malayalam and Bengali are two other > Indian languages that have been witnessing some active contributions in > recent times. * > * * > *“It’s not just the number of articles; the depth of the content is also > important. For instance, though Malayalam Wikipedia has only 19,000 > articles, I would say that they are of far better quality than those in the > other Indian languages,” says Bala Jeyaraman, a Coimbatore-based > Wikimedian who played a significant role in expanding the Tamil version. * > * * > *Shiju Alex, a Bangalore-based technical writer, who has played a pivotal > role in the Malayalam Wikipedia movement, says there is a need to take the > movement beyond Wikipedia. “Wikipedia is just one of the many products from > the Wikimedia community. There are sister products like Wikisource, which > involves digitalisation of old books, Wikictionary which deals with > dictionary development in a particular language, and so on,” says Alex. * > *Mundol, reveals that in an effort to expand Wikimedia’s reach in India, > the foundation has plans to work with Indian college students. As part of a > pilot project, students from two colleges in Pune have been roped in to > create content in academic subjects. “The programme, taken up with the > consent and involvement of the college administration, will also be used for > the internal assessment of volunteering students,” says Mundol. * > * * > *Clearly, in its 10th year, Wikipedia is all set to go from strength to > strength in India. > * > ** > > Regards > Tinu Cherian > > > > > On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Srikanth Lakshmanan > <srik....@gmail.com>wrote: > >> http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110911/jsp/7days/story_14492284.jsp >> >> -- >> Regards >> Srikanth.L >> http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#Sep_2011 >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list >> Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > >
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