<p class="story" align="left"><span class="redcap_text">Dear All,</span></p><p class="story" align="left"><span class="redcap_text">Below one news about Bengali Wikipedia in Today's Telegraph<br></span></p><a href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110717/jsp/calcutta/story_14249545.jsp">http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110717/jsp/calcutta/story_14249545.jsp</a><p class="story" align="left">
<i><span class="redcap_text">Now</span> you can log on to Wikipedia for help on your Bengali assignments as well. </i><i>Adda or </i><i>jonaki, Rabindranath or </i><i>nesha, you can find a range of subjects in the Bengali Wiki.</i></p>
<i>
</i><p class="story" align="left"><i>“The Bengali Wikipedia was launched
in January 2004. At present Wikipedia is available in 273 languages, out
of which 20 are Indian. Bengali was the third Indian language in which
Wikipedia was made available,” says Jayanta Nath, administrator of the
Bengali Wikipedia. The archive boasts of both English articles
translated into Bengali as well as articles written by the team just for
the Bengali archives. To access Wikipedia in Bengali, the user has to
type “bn.” instead of “en.” before Wikipedia in the address bar. </i></p><i>
</i><p class="story" align="left"><i>Because it is not
just translation and has its own group working on the content, the
Bengali Wikipedia has an independent character and identity. But while
the English Wikipedia has 3.6 million articles, the Bengali site has
only 22,000 articles. “Our strengths are famous personalities from
Bengal, Bengali literature and Hindu religion,” says Nath. The user base
is also considerably lower compared with the original English online
encyclopaedia — 0.1 million against 1,000 million. “There are about 150
active contributors to the site from places like Bangladesh, West
Bengal, the US, UAE and other places,” says Nath. </i></p><i>
</i><p class="story" align="left"><i>The users are not
always impressed. “I have checked out the Bengali Wikipedia. I find the
articles in English more detailed. Plus, Bengali Wikipedia follows a
very bookish Bengali, not the way we speak it. It is difficult to
follow,” says Saikat Bhattacharya. </i></p><i>
</i><p class="story" align="left"><i>An entry on </i><i>Chokh (eye) in Bengali Wikipedia reads: “</i><i>Chokh pranir alok-songbedonsheel anga o darshanendriya. (The eye is a living being’s photo-sensitive component and visual organ.)”</i></p>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0, 0, 0)">With Warm Regards,</span><br><b style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif">Jayanta Nath</b><br>
Calcutta,West Bengal<br><div>
<br></div><br><br><br>