[Wikimediaindia-l] [Press]: The Hindu : "Contest to add files to Tamil Wikipedia gathers steam"

[CherianTinu Abraham]

The article is on national editions of The Hindu newspaper and back cover
page on many editions.
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*The Hindu : "Contest to add files to Tamil Wikipedia gathers steam"*
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2719118.ece?textsize=small&test=2


*The Tamil Wikimedia community has organised an international contest to
get more photos, videos and audios related to Tamil, Tamilians and Tamil
culture to the Tamil Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.*
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*The aim of the contest (themed “Eluthu mattum arivanru” or “Knowledge
beyond text”) is “to increase the quality media content related to Tamil
and Tamilians in Wikimedia projects, to attract non-text contributors such
as photographers, graphic artists, animators, mapmakers and videographers
to Tamil Wiki projects and to create a model precedent for cooperation with
Wikimedia Foundation [WMF] in organising projects,” according to Bala
Jeyaraman, Wikipedia volunteer and lead co-ordinator for the contest.*
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*People may send photos of places where Tamils reside, Tamil people
themselves, studies, heritage symbols, institutions, species (plants and
animals) and Diaspora; temples, places of worship and buildings. They can
send educational resources such as files used to teach in Tamil. Also
invited are maps, graphs, illustrations, diagrams, charts, audio and video
files that contain explanations in Tamil, pronunciation files for Tamil
words and phrases, audio recordings of literary works; audio and video
recordings of Tamil cultural practices, arts, dances or sports.*
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*Foreign contribution*
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*Contributions were coming in from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Norway, America,
Canada, Germany and India, Mr. Jeyaraman said.*
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*Kalaiarasy Kugarajh, who lives in Norway, is one of five persons
co-ordinating the project. She said she was delighted to know that a Tamil
Wikipedia existed. Using an encyclopaedia online was convenient and, being
of Tamil origin, she found getting information in Tamil very useful.*
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*She initially began contributing to the Tamil Wikipedia and then added to
Tamil Wiktionary and other projects. She thought that contributing to Tamil
content online could help Tamil people with limited knowledge of English or
other languages. “Especially, when we live in a foreign country, we lack
the printed version of books, and dictionaries, encyclopaedias in Tamil. To
people who want to refer to something in Tamil or who want the Tamil
meaning for something, or want some old Tamil writings, the Tamil Wikipedia
and the sister projects are much helpful. The Tamil Diaspora can gain a lot
from Tamil Wiki projects,” she said. Besides, storing information online
was necessary and efficient.*
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*Categorisation*
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*“We are categorising the uploads and checking for any copyright
violations. We have already started to make use of the suitable uploads in
Wiki projects continuously too. Finally, we will evaluate the uploads to
select the winners.” The contest, while increasing the media files on
Tamil, would increase awareness among people of the Tamil Wiki as a source
of information and get contributions from them to Tamil Wiki projects in
future.*
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*Chennai student Surya Prakash S, who suggested the theme name of the
contest, has uploaded more than 120 images taken on his campus (Anna
University), photos of film stars and Chennai monuments.*
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*He said: “I just capture images using my cell phone and camera for this
contest. I haven't chosen any subject at all. I just captured images that
are useful for knowledge such as orchids and ‘bonsai' trees in the
“Semmozhi Poonga” [botanical gardens] and some rare herbs from my native
[home].”*
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*He was adding files as he “knows well the status of Tamil content in
Internet.” The Tamil Nadu government should support such initiatives in its
academic institutions to increase the student community's activity in the
free, collaborative encyclopaedia-building project, he said.*
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*Prize money*
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*The Tamil Wikipedia Community and the WMF have sponsored a prize money of
$850 (with nine prizes) for winners. (The first, second and third prizes
are $200, $100 and $50. Three prizes of $100 each are for those uploading
the maximum number of quality entries.*
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*A special prize of $150 is for media files on traditional Tamil arts and
crafts.*
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*Winners would be announced on March 15, 2012 and they would get
certificates with their entries displayed on the front pages of Tamil Wiki
projects, said the invitation to contributors.*
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*The contest (http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/contest, November 15, 2011 to
February 29, 2012) is open to all and is on Facebook (
http://www.facebook.com/tawmc).*
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** People may send photos of places where Tamils reside, heritage symbols,
institutions, plants and animals*
** Tamil Diaspora can gain a lot from Tamil Wiki projects'*


Regards
Tinu Cherian
press at wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news

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