KOLKATA: In an effort to enthuse people to become regular contributors to its site, Wikipedia will launch a campaign at the Kolkata Book Fair
next year. It has already booked a stall and lined up an awareness
programme to sign up volunteers. Incidentally, Kolkata fares poorly when
it comes to contribute to the world's biggest online encyclopedia. At
present, the city has only five contributors.
Wikipedia needs
people from Kolkata to contribute voluntarily not only to the mother
website but also to its Bengali link, Banglapedia. "We would hold
workshops where we would give presentations about how to edit existing
material on Wiki/Banglapedia. The biggest incentive for any contributor
is that, the moment he/she writes a piece or edits something, it gets
updated and is published for the world to see," explained Jayanta Nath,
chief of Banglapedia.
The Book Fair authorities have already sealed the deal and are looking forward to this heavyweight participant.
"Wikipedia's participation will add glamour to the fair," said Tridib Chatterjee, general secretary of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild.