Go malayalis!!! Proud to be one ;) On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 5:30 PM, CherianTinu Abraham <tinucher...@gmail.com>wrote:
> *The National / UAE : " Eager to preserve language, Indians from Kerala > embrace Wikipedia"* > > http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/south-asia/eager-to-preserve-language-indians-from-kerala-embrace-wikipedia > > * Eager to preserve their language, Keralites have eagerly responded to > Wikipedia's request for submissions in their native language Malayalam.* > * > * > *The campaign to expand Wikipedia offerings in Indian languages is aimed > at boosting the website's exposure in India, which, when compared to the > rest of the world, remains relatively small.* > * > * > *Of the scores of regional languages in India, Nepali and Hindi speakers > have posted the most articles on Wikipedia in these languages. But an > active online community of expatriate Keralites has made Malayalam the > fastest growing regional language version of Wikipedia.* > * > * > *Keralites are proud of their language and culture. That devotion is > driven partly by the Indian government's efforts to promote Hindi, a North > Indian language, as the lingua franca of India.* > * > * > *In December last year, there were 90 active editors for the > Malayalam-language website. There are now 564. Many joined when Wikipedia > launched a campaign dubbed, "Malayalam loves Wikipedia" that solicited > articles and photos from Keralites.* > * > * > *Wikipedia hopes the campaign could become a model to garner similar > responses from other regional language speakers in India.* > * > * > *Many of these new editors for the Malayalam Wikimedia site came from > Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. More than 15 per > cent of all photo and text contributions came from Keralites based in the > Gulf, such as Simy Nazarath, a software sales manager in Dubai. "You do > it so that the language does not die," he said.* > * > * > *Wikipedia is the fifth most visited site in the world, where content is > generated by 90,000 readers from across the world. Despite the global > popularity of Wikipedia, the site remains relatively unknown in India. > Every month, 400 million people visit the site, but only 14 million are > from India.* > * > * > * > * > *"The potential in India is enormous," said Hisham Mundol, a consultant > for Wikimedia Foundation's India programmes. The Wikimedia Foundation is a > non-profit organisation that pays to operate Wikipedia.* > * > * > *Despite India's potential, getting Indians to read or write articles in > their native language is difficult. "It is a case of the chicken or the > egg," said Mr Mundol. "People don't write because there are not enough > readers but people don't read because they think pages in their regional > language don't exist."* > * > * > *But Malayalam Wikipedia is bucking the trend. It is the most rapidly > growing regional language site in India. That is driven partly by the fact > that Kerala has the highest literacy rate in the country — 93.9 per cent, > according to the 2011 Census of India. English is the language of > instruction in most private schools, while the government school courses > are taught primarily in Malayalam.* > * > * > *Mr Nazarath finds the process of creating articles deeply rewarding. "It > is quite fulfilling because if you look at it, not even the best of > encyclopedias in the Malayalam language available in India has this many > articles."* > * > * > *The Kerala government spent the last 20 years working on an > encyclopaedia in Malayalam, but has managed to produce only 3,300 articles. > In contrast, Malayalam Wikipedia now has more than 20,000. The state > government has eagerly embraced the efforts of the Wikipedians, opening its > archives to the website's amateur historians.* > * > * > *Mr Nazarath is one of the longest serving editors of Malayalam > Wikipedia. He has written more than 400 articles since he began in 2006.* > * > * > *Mr Nazarath's areas of interest is Indian and Keralite history, > especially medieval and ancient history. He both translates from English > pages and writes new entries from references in Malayalam history books.* > * > * > *Now, Wikimedia is trying to engage India's elderly to preserve mythology > or artists to write about folklore or interest groups to contribute more > about fabric and craft techniques. "The opportunities are huge, but the > question is how do we identify which ones to pursue," said Mr Mundol.* > * > * > *Mr Mundol said that the success of Malayalam Wikipedia could prove to be > a benchmark for future efforts by the Wikimedia Foundation in India.* > * > * > *"With the Malayalam projects, the emphasis was on community building, on > getting new editors."* > > Regards > Tinu Cherian > pr...@wikimedia.in > http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news > > *Important Note *: The publisher ( The National ) of the above news > article owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to kindly not > reproduce or circulate the content further. The information is only shared > only with an internal community who have been featured on this article. > All copyrights are duly acknowledged. > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > > -- - Arjun
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