[Wikimediaindia-l] The world in Bangla -Telegraph

[Jayanta Nath]

Dear All,

Below one news about Bengali Wikipedia in Today's Telegraph
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110717/jsp/calcutta/story_14249545.jsp

*Now you can log on to Wikipedia for help on your Bengali assignments as
well. **Adda or **jonaki, Rabindranath or **nesha, you can find a range of
subjects in the Bengali Wiki.*
* *

*“The Bengali Wikipedia was launched in January 2004. At present Wikipedia
is available in 273 languages, out of which 20 are Indian. Bengali was the
third Indian language in which Wikipedia was made available,” says Jayanta
Nath, administrator of the Bengali Wikipedia. The archive boasts of both
English articles translated into Bengali as well as articles written by the
team just for the Bengali archives. To access Wikipedia in Bengali, the user
has to type “bn.” instead of “en.” before Wikipedia in the address bar. *
* *

*Because it is not just translation and has its own group working on the
content, the Bengali Wikipedia has an independent character and identity.
But while the English Wikipedia has 3.6 million articles, the Bengali site
has only 22,000 articles. “Our strengths are famous personalities from
Bengal, Bengali literature and Hindu religion,” says Nath. The user base is
also considerably lower compared with the original English online
encyclopaedia — 0.1 million against 1,000 million. “There are about 150
active contributors to the site from places like Bangladesh, West Bengal,
the US, UAE and other places,” says Nath. *
* *

*The users are not always impressed. “I have checked out the Bengali
Wikipedia. I find the articles in English more detailed. Plus, Bengali
Wikipedia follows a very bookish Bengali, not the way we speak it. It is
difficult to follow,” says Saikat Bhattacharya. *
* *

*An entry on **Chokh (eye) in Bengali Wikipedia reads: “**Chokh pranir
alok-songbedonsheel anga o darshanendriya. (The eye is a living being’s
photo-sensitive component and visual organ.)”*


-- 
With Warm Regards,
*Jayanta Nath*
Calcutta,West Bengal
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