Wikipedia @10, aims big on Indian languages

Bangalore, Jan 15: Wikipedia has turned years 10 young and has managed to spark an unprecedented passion among Indians to revive their native languages.

The internet giant that aims to provide free access to all available human knowledge, has struck a chord with the Indians who are excited about having the opportunity to contribute to the cause in their mother-tongue.

At an event in Bangalore to celebrate the occasion and spread awareness about contributing to Wikipedia, quite a lot of enthusiastic men and women arrived to lap-up the Wikipedia concept and learn how to contribute to it.

The event saw a huge interest in contributions to Wikipedia through various Indian languages. Contributions to Wikipedia in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Bengali languages is growing everyday. Speakers of Oriya and Urdu, also showed a huge interest in reviving their language communities on Wikipedia.

Held at the NIAS, Bangalore, the small but rapidly growing Wikipedian community also put forth a brief presentation of their attempts to revive Sanskrit language in Wikipedia. The ancient language, which is nearly extinct in mainstream India, according to a report by the Wikipedian community is still alive and kicking in Wikipedia courtesy some people in France and some in North-Indian cities.

Wikipedia is expected to open its new office in the couple of months with a small staff in one of the biggest cities in India.

Wikipedia has 410 mn visitors every month and in its recent fund raising efforts from donors, the website raised $16 mn.

OneIndia News