For the last five years, Wikipedia has been serving the needs of many in local Indian languages, such as Kannada, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati.
Wikipedia, the world’s most sought-after online encyclopaedia, celebrated its 10th anniversary at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies campus on Saturday. The celebration also coincided with the launch of Wikimedia India, the official Indian Chapter of the organisation.
Wikimedia is a non-profit organisation that tries to pull every piece of knowledge known to mankind under one website.
The Indian chapter was registered formally on the January 3 this year, making India the 29th country to have a Wiki chapter. “It’s amazing to see the way India is receiving this application. In fact, out of more than 450 celebrations worldwide, India hosted 95 and also tops the list,” said a Wikipedian, who has been editing and authoring online articles for the last four years.
Wikimedia’s global communication manager, Moka Pentages, said, “India is amazing. There’s such a vibrant community here and this is definitely a growing hub for technology. I definitely see a good future for Wiki-India.” She also shed light on Wikimedia’s plans of setting up an office in India. If this happens, India will be the second country after United States to have a registered Wikimedia office.
For the last five years, Wikipedia has been serving the needs of many in local Indian languages, such as Kannada, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, and Gujarati.
Kannada Wiki was initiated by Hari Prasad Nadig, a software engineer and a Wiki fanatic, in 2006. “I used to author and edit a lot of Kannada and Karnataka-related articles in English when I was asked to establish a Kannada Wiki. Slowly, many others joined hands, and today, Kannada Wiki has such a good viewership,” he said.
Wikipedia in Kannada has been helping many Kannadigas with valuable information. When asked if the Kannada Wiki team is keen on recreating all the English articles in Kannada, Nadig said: “No.” “Right now, we are just Kannada- and Karnataka-centered. We want everything in Karnataka to be covered under this,” he added.
As of January 14, Kannada Wiki has more than 10,000 articles. With an average editorship of more than 80 every month, the team is steaming ahead. “I have no monetary benefits. I spare time for Wiki and write articles for them because it’s an opportunity for me to work on something close to my heart and also to spread Kannada across the globe,” he said.
The anniversary meet also turned out to be beneficial to many Wikipedia users. “Though I have regularly been using Wikipedia for the last four years, I hadn’t known about topics discussed in the seminars,” said Gokul Das, an engineer.
He further added, “I got my first Britannica in 1974 by paying Rs16,000. Recently, the prices have gone up to Rs1.2 lakh. In a money-driven world, Wiki is doing a great job by offering free encyclopaedia to its users.”
“Many Indians who are not familiar with English make use of this online encyclopaedia . It also helps showcase India’s rich culture and tradition,” said Sundar, who has been using Kannada Wiki extensively for a year. With such events and technologies, India is certainly on the highway to success.
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