By TCN News,
New Delhi: The ‘Urdu Wikipedia India’ user community organised an ‘Urdu Wiki’ meet up at Thiruvananthapuram in association with the Wikipedia India Chapter and the Centre for Internet Society Access to Knowledge (CIS A2K), Bangalore, also working for the Wikipedia movement in India.
The ‘Urdu Wikipedia India’ is part of the Wikipedia movement in India and working for the Indic language Urdu. Wikipedia is the world’s largest crowd-sourced online free encyclopedia spreading the free knowledge to the society.
“The objectives of this meet up was to share views and preferences on the most effective ways to pursue our shared vision of creating and sharing free knowledge in India and in the Indian languages, particularly in Urdu Wikipedia in the state of Kerala; and to attempt to prepare a road map for a future where the Wikipedia resources are better utilized, its volunteers are better served and progress on its mission is more steadily attained,” Habeebur Rahman Bijli, coordinator, Urdu Study Centre of the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL, government of India) said in a release here.
The Urdu Wiki meet up, held at the initiative of Dr Ataulla Khan Cenjary, HoD, was organized under the auspices of Bijli, who is also the chairman of South Indian Muslim Educational and Charitable Trust.
As part of the tour to Kerala on free software movement in India, Nisar Ahmed Syed, academician social scientist and Wikipedian from Pune, introduced Urdu Wikipedia to Urdu speaking people of Kerala.
Bijli presided over the programme. The Wikipedia Urdu users from Kerala have planned to volunteer for the Wikipedia movement in India. Dr Cenjary, in his introductory speech, emphasized on the importance of language and life skills.
Nisar Ahmed introduced Wikipedia movement in India and importance of free knowledge sharing. He explained about the Urdu Wikipedia, its history and platform. He then conducted a demonstrative workshop to explain the methods of editing in Urdu Wikipedia. He further emphasized the importance of importing Indian culture, languages and heritage to the future generations.
Janardhanan Nair (former Foreign Languages translator at ISRO, Trivandrum), Appukuttan Nair, (retired principal, Trivandrum), Prof Mubarak, University of Kerala, Trivandrum, Parveer Grewal, Wikipedian, Patiala Punjab were among those who participated, the release said.
Many members joined the Urdu Wikipedia India user group, and ‘Urdu Wikipedia Ambassadors’ were selected to bring Urdu Wikipedia to the Urdu speaking areas. The meet up resolved to “Bring Urdu Wikipedia from budding stage to a blooming stage.”