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

[Ravishankar]

Hi Tinu, Bala and team

Very well written press release. Especially, I would like to appreciate
Tinu's stellar role in media relations for Wikimedia projects in India :)

Ravi

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 11:03 AM, CherianTinu Abraham <tinucherian at gmail.com
> wrote:

> The article is on national editions of The Hindu newspaper and back cover
> page on many editions.
> *
> *
> *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.*
> *
> *
> *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.*
> *
> *
> *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.*
> *
> *
> *Foreign contribution*
> *
> *
> *Contributions were coming in from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Norway, America,
> Canada, Germany and India, Mr. Jeyaraman said.*
> *
> *
> *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.*
> *
> *
> *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.*
> *
> *
> *Categorisation*
> *
> *
> *“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.*
> *
> *
> *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.*
> *
> *
> *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].”*
> *
> *
> *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.*
> *
> *
> *Prize money*
> *
> *
> *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.*
> *
> *
> *A special prize of $150 is for media files on traditional Tamil arts and
> crafts.*
> *
> *
> *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.*
> *
> *
> *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).*
> *
> *
> *
> *
> ** 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
>
> Important Note : The publisher ( The Hindu) 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.
>
>
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