*Times of India : "Malayalam community to organize Wikisangamotsavam"* http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/social-media/Malayalam-community-to-...
*If you have an entry on Wikipedia, you have arrived, almost.
If regional flavor is the true measure a knowledge collective's cultural roots and authenticity, Malayalam Wikipedia, driven by over 130 active participants, has made its presence felt among those who live by internet.
Now, these knowledge bees are coming together for the first time. WikiSangamotsavam, a two-day annual conference for Malayalam Wikipedia members and the general public, will be held in Kollam on April 28 and 29.
It's going to be an event with a lot of buzz. Experts will discuss topics such as copyrights of government documents and freedom of knowledge. There would be Wiki-workshops for the public and a parallel WikiConference for schoolchildren. Paper presentations on e-malayalam, free and open knowledge, copyright and cyber-freedom are the other highlights.
The online section which began in 2003 boasts of volunteers who diligently contribute information on a daily basis.
Contributors such as Neha Hussain, a medical student from Kozhikode, are waiting for WikiSangamotsavam.
Hussain is a testimony to that fact in Kerala, women give equal competition to men in all spheres.
The community has an equal number of women contributors. "While the rest of our data signifies a majority of men as online contributors, the Malayalam community sets a different trend that equals out the ratio. Our youngest member, Neha Hussain, in addition to contributing information as a volunteer, also translates articles from English to Malayalam for the benefit of regional readers," says Noopur Raval, who works with Wikipedia in Delhi.
Raval is quite upbeat about WikiSangamotsavam. "This is an initiative by community members such as Ramesh N G and Anoop Narayan. Our statistics show that the highest level of participation on Wikipedia comes in from the Malayalam community. I believe it is the love for knowledge and the satisfaction each of the volunteers gets, knowing that the public accesses information that is put up by them. It keeps the members going. The high level of general awareness among Malayalis ensures transparency of reports that are of relevance to the public," says Raval.
The Malayalam Wikipedia is the only community that has also had adequate co-operation from the government too - so much so that they have worked on and put of translations of some of the rarest files, Vignana Kosham for example, to ensure everybody has access to it.
WikiSangamotsavam will be inaugurated by the vice-chairman of Council for Science and Technology-Kerala, Dr V N Rajashekhara Pillai on April 28, at the District Panchayat Hall, Kollam.*
Regards Tinu Cherian press@wikimedia.in http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
Important Note : Non-commercial reproduction for informative purposes only. The publisher (Times of India ) of the above news article owns the copyrights of the article / content. All copyrights are duly acknowledged.