Tamil Wikipedia will be richer by 1,200 articles, thanks to the ‘Wikipedia Thagaval Pakkangal Poti' competition, organised as part of the Ninth World Tamil Internet Conference and World Classical Tamil Conference 2010.
Competition
The Tamil Nadu Government and Tamil Wikipedia conducted the competition for college students and members of public to increase Tamil content in the online free encyclopaedia.
They invited students of arts, science, engineering, medical, agricultural, law, physiotherapy, sports and para-medical colleges to participate in the competition and offered prizes.
The managers said the participants could come up with articles on any topic other than those already in Tamil Wikipedia, based on facts, and those that did not incite caste, religious or communal disaffection.
They provided the word count and also font details.
Entries
M. Anto Peter, Member, Ninth World Tamil Internet Conference, says 329 engineering, 81 medical, 65 veterinary science, 28 law, 225 arts, 11 physical education, 290 agriculture science and 35 education students and 136 members of the public had their entries approved.
As many as 2,720 persons had registered for participation.
A 31-member jury from across the world evaluated and approved of the articles.
Mr. Peter says the Internet Conference committee is engaged in the process of uploading the articles and the task will get over before the beginning of the Conference on June 23.
Cash prizes
While inviting articles for the competition, the committee also announced cash prizes for the best three entries.
These will be announced on June 16.
P.W.C. Davidar, one of the committee members and Secretary, Information Technology, Tamil Nadu Government, says the aim of the competition is to continue increasing Tamil content in Wikipedia even after the Conference and create awareness on the same.
At present, Tamil Wikipedia, as per Wikimedia Foundation, has 19,126 articles, making it the 67{+t}{+h} largest Wikipedia by article count.
