[Wikimediaindia-l] [Press] : Daijiworld : Gurudath Bantwalkar, Hariprasad Nadig to Attend World Wikipedia Conference

[CherianTinu Abraham]

*Daijiworld : Gurudath Bantwalkar, Hariprasad Nadig to Attend World
Wikipedia Conference*

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=109987

*Gurudath Bantwalkar, Hariprasad Nadig to Attend World Wikipedia Conference*
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*Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (FR)*
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*Mangalore, Jul 28: Gurudath Bantwalkar and Hariprasad Nadig of Sampada fame
have been selected for presenting a paper during the Annual Wikipedia World
Conference, Wikimania-2011. The conference is scheduled to be held at Haifa,
Israel, from August 4 to 7 and Gurudath and Hariprasad who co-authored the
paper have been invited by Wikipedia to present their paper on August 6
during the morning session.*
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*The title of their paper is “Resolving a conflict with the help of
Technology: Konkani Wikipedia, Enabling Inter-Script Transliteration”.
Gurudath, who is the Asst Director at World Institute of Konkani Language,
at the World Konkani Centre is an active Wikipedian. He has written several
short stories and poems both in Konkani and Kannada and has also presented
research papers about Konkani language and Culture and other related issues
at various seminars and conventions. He was also instrumental in launching
several online initiatives of the World Konkani Centre.*
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*Hariprasad Nadig is an active Wikipedian, SYSOP and is associated with
Kannada and Sanskrit Wikipedia. Nadig had started Sampada.net in 2005, which
has now emerged as one of the largest internet portals in Kannada. He has
also served as a member in Chapters Committee of Wikipedia Foundation.*
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*Abstract of the Paper Submitted*
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*Usage of multiple scripts in Konkani language has hindered the sharing of
knowledge between the communities that speak the same language but are
separated by the usage of script. Moreover the conflict over the usage of
script in some official situations has created a rift in the language
community. Groups are at loggerheads and the language is losing its ground
in schools mainly because the focus of the activists is shifting to
upholding the script of their choice than popularizing the Konkani Language,
especially in Karnataka State. Since a considerable amount of literature has
been created in some of the major scripts, people who are comfortable with
one script are opposing the other script to agree on a common script.*
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*In the advent of Internet, technology has enabled an accessible knowledge
sharing platform for Indian languages through Unicode. Presently the ability
to ‘Search’ in Indic scripts as well as the ability to do ‘Transliteration’
and ‘Translation’ for the Indian language content has enabled more avenues.*
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*An initial effort to create a Konkani Wikipedia lost its momentum due to
the script conflict. It was a real obstacle for the users to create four
different pages in four scripts for each content page without which the
content created in the language would limit itself for the specific region
where the script is in use. Hence Konkani language Wikipedia is still at the
incubator stage.*
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*Desirable Solution: A system which can allow user to create the content in
the script of his/her choice and allow another user to read the same text in
another script of his/her choice is communities that are facing similar
situations, is the need of the hour. An extension for Media Wiki to
transliterate between scripts would contribute to resolving a major conflict
among Konkani speaking communities and few other Indian language language
communities which are facing a similar issue.*




Regards
Tinu Cherian
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