THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Malayalam Wikipedia has made it big the third time too. A project to upload informative and copyright-free images through
Malayalam Loves Wikipedia
(MLW) has become a hit, with nearly 14,600 images uploaded to Wikimedia
Commons. The third edition, from July 15 to August 31, saw
participation of more than 75 contributors.
Contributions made
by renowned wildlife photographer
N A Nazeer was an icing on the cake
for the project. More than 170 wildlife photographs of Nazeer, which
included rare ones of Nilgiri Marten, Indian bisons, elephants and sloth
bears, were uploaded. Nazeer's friend and photographer
Joseph Lazar
also contributed more than 150 pictures. The pictures are published
using CC-BY SA license by which people can share them giving attribution
to the photographer.
"
I think my pictures in Wikimedia Commons
would inspire more people to enter the field of wildlife photography. I
never had hesitation to make my pictures copyright-free because I have
faith in the nature. The forest will give always provide more
interesting pictures. The other day, I could click a striking
picture of a tiger," said an excited
Nazeer. The forest department had
earlier allegedly used his pictures without giving attribution.
According to
Manoj K, a Wikimedia contributor, who was instrumental in
bringing works of Nazeer to the repository, "
as many as 14,606 pictures
have been uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons. The next big task is to
categorize them. Malayalam Wikipedia community has already begun the
process."
As many as 2,155 images were uploaded during the
first edition of MLW in 2011 and 11,159 pictures during the second
edition last year. The project aimed at creating more contributors for
Wikimedia Commons, the online repository of free-use images, sound and
other media files.