---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 20:10:26 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam Friends: Please spread the word. Arun Wikipedia is a global non-profit movement to collaboratively build a free encyclopaedia containing the sum of human knowledge. Tamil Wikipedia was started in 2003. It can be accessed in your computers and cell phones at http://ta.wikipedia.orghttp://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=4185&qid=328339. Contributors from all over the world are meeting in Chennai on September 29th, 2013 to celebrate the 10 years of Tamil Wikipedia. Till date, Tamil Wikipedia has 935 contributors collectively adding 55,745 articles containing over 2 crore words. Tamil Wikipedia is the biggest online collaboration project in Tamil and ranks first or second among Indian language Wikipedias in terms of several quality metrics. Contributors from diverse professions aged between 11 and 77 contribute daily to Tamil Wikipedia from across the world. There are about 1,75,000 page views to the website daily. A number of websites and mass media cite the information from Tamil Wikipedia. Some schools have dedicated periods for students to browse Tamil Wikipedia and improve their knowledge in science, history, geography, tamil and mathematics. Among Wikipedia's sister projects, Tamil Wiktionary is the biggest in India with 2,83,000 words and ranks 16th among global wiktionaries. Tamil Wikinews and Wikisource are other actively growing projects. Despite having made such an impact, Tamil Wikipedia has much of its potential untapped. Some Wikipedias in languages with speakers fewer than Tamil population have more contributors. Tamil Wikipedia can be as useful as the English Wikipedia if at least a few thousand contributors sign up. Apart from writing articles, contributions are required in creating illustrations, developing software tools, capturing photographs and translating articles. Teaching computer based Tamil typing in schools, releasing government documents and other publications from universities in public domain for unrestricted use, introducing Tamil Wikipedia in school syllabus are some measures that can add fuel to Tamil Wikimedia movement. As part of the celebrations for the 10th anniversary of Tamil Wikipedia, an essay contest with prizes worth 30,000 Indian Rupee has been launched. The anniversary celebrations are happening on September 29 (Sunday) from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm at the TAG Auditorium, College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna Universityhttp://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=4186&qid=328339. There will be free workshops on contributing to Wikipedia and discussions about the growth of Tamil Wiki projects. It is also an occasion to meet a cross-section of Tamil Wikipedia contributors from across the world. Everyone interested in the future of Tamil online is welcome to the event. Given that modern era is a knowledge era, developing Tamil Wikipedia is among the foremost needs for the future of Tamil society. MEDIA FILES THAT CAN BE FREELY USED 1) Event Page in English https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:10koodal/enhttp://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=4186&qid=328339 2) Event Page in Tamil https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:10koodalhttp://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=4187&qid=328339 3) Facebook page for the event https://www.facebook.com/events/330424000428376/http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=4188&qid=328339 4) Tamil Wikipedia 10th anniversary logo <https://upload.wikimedia.org/ wikipedia/ta/e/e3/Tamil_wiki_10th_anniversary_4.png>https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta/e/e3/Tamil_wiki_10th_anniversary_4... 5) Event invite in English <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta /4/41/Meetup-invite-ta-wiki-10-english.png>https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta/4/41/Meetup-invite-ta-wiki-10-engl... 6) Event invite in Tamil <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta /f/fa/Meetup-invite-ta-wiki-10-tamil.png>https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ta/f/fa/Meetup-invite-ta-wiki-10-tami... Thanks and regards, T. Vishnu Vardhan Programme Director - Access to Knowledge Centre for Internet and Society Unsubscribehttp://crm.cis-india.org/index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/mailing/optout&reset=1&jid=642&qid=328339&h=7c7bbd63442b7cd9 #194, Second 'C' cross Domlur Second Stage Domlur Bangalore, 560071 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.