On Mar 19, 2012, at 7:16 PM, Giri RAO wrote:
> But we may also have to take care of references
Absolutely, Rahim. That is relatively easy. To start with, after the stub of an article, we can immediately include the references of the English article. The doctor (or other expert) simply speaks in Telugu (with a mix of English words -- what s/he would do with a Telugu-speaking patient).
Please don't read into this reply any discouragement of your initiative and your idea. Any form of constructive participation is of course welcome and we should encourage far and wide involvement. (fyi, making audio files of articles is something that is extraordinarily useful especially for the visually challenged. It does present some problems like edits and updates - but it's a great start.)
I would caution that while you are exploring this route - and I understand the issues you are perceiving of getting editors with adequate Telugu writing skills - it's not AS bad as you might think. Just imagine the numbers. 5 new editors is a 20% addition to the December Telugu active community size. I urge you to look at the challenge as what can be done in small, baby steps. A couple of outreach sessions in medical colleges in Hyderabad (and I'm suggesting Hyderabad because there are already at least 5 active, passionate and helpful community members to support newbies) - might have a total of 50 folks attending. If we are able to get 2-3 of them to start editing, it'll be a wonderful addition to the community. You'd be amazed how 1-2 people become 2-5 and then become 5-10.
Many related questions arise. What about changes, edits, updates?
Another aspect to keep in mind is even if it is going to be done on audio format, the doctor (or other expert) will still need to "script" what he or she is going to say. Even if they use the English articles as a starting point, the biggest effort is going to be articulating it in Telugu. ...If this is done, then that itself is a huge amount of work covered. Presumably, they will have to write it down BEFORE they start recording. It's only a little bit additional effort to put it on a wiki page instead.
I'm just saying that reliable information becomes available almost immediately. That's the first aim. It seems like a worthwhile goal.
I agree fully - and like I said, please don't read this as discouragement. Do read it as a pointer that getting Telugu editors is not impossible - but does require a bit of effort. If we get editors to join the community, they can create, improve and update these articles - and of course cover so many other topics related to Telugu / state culture or otherwise.
Regards
Giri
******
A Giridhar RAO, PhD (agiridhar.rao@gmail.com & agrao99@yahoo.com)
703 Alpine Heights, 6-3-1085/1 Raj Bhavan Road, Somajiguda, Hyderabad 500082, India. 17°25'21.70"N 78°27'35"E
******
On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 15:58, రహ్మానుద్దీన్ షేక్
<nani1only@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 3:42 PM, Giri RAO
<agiridhar.rao@gmail.com> wrote:
Many thanks, Hisham! The quick response is much appreciated.
A friend made an interesting suggestion. Since it is (increasingly) difficult to find writing skills in the Indic languages, why not get people to produce audio files which are made available on the Indic Wikipedias? These can then be transcribed at leisure. A doctor from an English-medium background may hesitate to write things down in Telugu, but may not have a problem _talking_ about an issue. Also, the readers' literacy in Telgu would not be a barrier then. Thus, high-quality information on "Hypertension", for example, can become available as an audio file. A few months later, the text too appears.
What does the group think?
Its really a good idea. But we may also have to take care of references
Regards
On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 13:22, Hisham
<hisham@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi Giri
The top 300 articles are viewed more than 1 lakh times every month. ...If I am not mistaken, EACH article is viewed at least 1 lakh times a month.
ISB went very well, thank you!
best
On Mar 18, 2012, at 10:08 AM, Giri RAO wrote:
Dear Hisham
The other evening you rapidly gave us some statistics on some 85 medicine-related articles attracting several million hits every month. Could you repeat those numbers, please? And point me to the source? (Haven't found the numbers in Laurent and Vickers' JAMIA article.) I wanted to share the numbers with some doctor-friends, to see if they can use the stats to mobilize their students.
Hope the ISB session went well!
Cheers
Giri
******
A Giridhar RAO, PhD (agiridhar.rao@gmail.com & agrao99@yahoo.com)
703 Alpine Heights, 6-3-1085/1 Raj Bhavan Road, Somajiguda, Hyderabad 500082, India. 17°25'21.70"N 78°27'35"E
******
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