College of Engineering Pune students to co-author Wikipedia-India

A total of 843 students of the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) will soon get an opportunity to contribute to the popular search engine, www.wikipedia.org.

A six-month semester was recently kicked off at the college, thanks to a joint venture between the CoEP and the Wikipedia team, through their Indian representative, Wikimedia (national programmes) India. 

While briefing mediapersons on Wednesday, director of CoEP, Anil Sahasrabudhe, said students from seven disciplines — mechanical, electrical, electronics and telecommunication, production, computer, information technology, and mathematics — would undergo the course.

“After the students complete the six-month course, they would need to contribute to the website. They would be given internal marks for these assignments,” he said. 

Wikimedia consultant Hisham Mundol, who also attended the press briefing said, “We are inviting students and educators in India to join us in this mission by taking part in the India education programme. Information about India and contribution by people from India are not adequately represented on Wikipedia, and we want to change that.” 

According to Mundol, the national programme in India has its genesis in a similar pilot project, a public policy initiative started by Wikimedia in the US that was received well. Mundol said that a total of four colleges in Pune, CoEP, Symbiosis School of Economics, SNDT Women’s University and Modern College of Engineering would be part of the Wikimedia initiative.

“Our goal is to encourage professors and teachers in Pune to join a growing global community of educators, who use Wikipedia as a teaching and learning tool in their classrooms,” he said.