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In our tongue
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Find out how Kannada is faring on Wikipedia
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"The free encyclopaedia that anyone can edit." This slogan of Wikipedia sounds like a contradiction in terms. How can something as sacrosanct as an encyclopaedia be edited by everyone?
Wikipedia is a project that has turned this conventional understanding of the nature of knowledge, the way it is generated and disseminated upside down. The online project that began in January 2001 works on the philosophy that nobody knows everything but everybody knows something. And these little somethings can add up to a significant body of knowledge. The fact that Wikipedia has grown through voluntary contributions into the largest (and reliable) reference website on the Internet with over a million articles in English alone and three times more in other languages is proof that it isn't simply a fantastic and impractical idea.
But can any democratic process be democratic enough unless it climbs down from English ivory tower and begins to speak local tongues? So, there are over 200 language editions of Wikipedia, around 100 of which are active. Fourteen editions have more than 50,000 articles each. Along with a few other Indian languages, Kannada too has had a presence in Wikipedia for over two years now.
The Kannada enterprise began when Hari Prasad Nadig, a freelance software developer hailing from Shimoga, became a sys-op with Wikipedia and took it upon himself to create a Kannada component to the portal. The first entry was on Kuvempu, the Kannada literary genius from his home district. Slowly others joined in and the number of active contributors now stands at about 15, many of them NRIs. There are now an impressive 1,270 entries in Kannada now.
Wiki volunteers feel that now is a good time to rope in more people into the enterprise and also help sort out technical and editing problems faced by those who are already in it. So the Kannada Wiki family is meeting the coming Sunday at Nayana Auditoirum. "We need more people with good language skills," says Nadig.
But what keeps so many people interested in Wiki project across the world despite the fact that there's no big money or big credit involved? "An ideological belief that knowledge should be free available to all," says N.A.M. Ismail, another contributor to the Kannada Wiki. "May be even just a zeal to spread information," adds Nadig.
(The Kannada Wikipedia family is meeting at Nayana Auditorium on April 2 at 4 p.m. Call Hari Prasad Nadig on 99452-70698 or log onto http://hpnadig.net/kannada-wikipedia-meet for registration.)
BAGESHREE S.
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