Wikimedia India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SKP group of Educational Institutions, Tiruvannamalai to take up Wikipedia research.
A.Ravishankar, Program Director, Wikemedia India and K.Karunanithi, Chairman, S.K.P Group of Institutions signed the MoU on Wednesday. A joint press release states that Wikimedia Foundation (USA) runs Wikipedia Education Program in more than 70 countries to encourage growth of Wikimedia projects.
Aim of the program is to make educators and students to contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in an academic setting. More than 20 Indian languages have Wikimedia projects but they lag behind in content due to lack of internet and computer penetration, lack of freely available computing tools for Indian languages and availability of higher education predominantly in English etc.
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To address the issue of lack of freely available computing tools for Indian languages, Wikimedia India has partnered with SKP Group of Institutions for Wikipedia specific research with a focus on Indic language computing.
Wikimedia India will facilitate the setup of a Language Computing Lab at SKP Group of Institutions apart from working to provide adequate learning opportunities for students and faculties in the technologies they work under this partnership.