The Malayalam Wiki Community is in high spirits.
The programme, ‘Malayalam Loves Wikimedia’ event organised as part of improving the database as well as to attract more Malayalam speaking users to the Wikimedia movement is a big hit.
As many as 2,155 copyright-free licensed images have been contributed to Wikimedia Commons within a short period of 23 days. Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files. Inspired by the success of Wikimedia events such as ‘London loves Wikimedia’, the programme ‘Malayalam Loves Wikimedia’ was organised to create awareness about copyright-free images, Wikimedia Commons and to attract more Malayalam speaking users to the Wikimedia movement.
As many as 75 Malayalis, majority of them non-wikimedians, participated in the event which was organised between April 2 and April 25.
The wikimedians selected April considering the Assembly election at that time.
According to them, the election was the perfect time to capture the images of the notable politicians and important personalities of Kerala.
The speciality of the event was that many non-wikimedians, who were eager to contribute to the Wikimedia, got an opportunity to be part of it.
The 2,155 copyright-free images uploaded are on diverse topics. This includes images of famous personalities, buildings, places, equipment and even popular snacks.
Second standard student Sai K Shanmugam was the youngest contributor.
He provided 14 images to the Wikimedia Commons.
The highest number of uploads was on April 25, the last day of the event. As many as 343 images were uploaded on that day.
“This is not the first time Malayalam wikimedians are contributing to the Wikimedia Commons. During the past few years we have contributed more to 6,000 free-licensed images to Wikimedia Commons. Through this event we have added another 2,000. We are planning for more topic-based events in the near future,” the organisers said.