Draft Recommendation #6: Explaining Wikimedia projects usefully in India

A few months ago, at a Wikipedian meet-up in Bangalore, Hari Prasad Nadig [[1]] who works on Kannada Wikipedia, pointed out that the state government of Karnataka was about to launch what press reports described as their "own version" of Wikipedia, in Kannada. The information we had was what we read in the papers: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/39326/kannada-portal-launched-today.html. Further reports suggested that the government of this state had earmarked an amount of Rs 2 crore (appr. US$ 500,000) for it's development.

It is not clear that the Karnataka state government was aware of the existing - and vibrant - Kannada Wikipedia. While there is no indication that there would have necessarily been a confluence of interests between the work of Wikipedians in Kannada and the interests of the government, one cannot help wonder as to what the outcome would have been had there been a greater degree of awareness in government as to what Wikimedia was already doing with and for and in the Kannada language.

In general, it is safe to say that a variety of individuals and institutions within India have the desire to augment public knowledge on the internet in some way or the other. In some cases, the values expressed in the giving might not match those of Wikipedia and related projects under the Wikimedia Foundation; in other cases, they might. In all cases, however, it seems worthwhile that Wikipedians are engaged. This idea could be incorporated in soft focus - which is to say, we - Wikipedians, the India chapter, information activists at large - could stay attuned to possibly interesting developments and intervene as and when necessary.

See my last reply for the draft Draft Recommendation #2: Wikipedia Academies across the country. Some of the points mentioned there are relevant here also.

Government officials and some of our leaders should have some idea about the free software and free society movement and the power of free society. If we have some one there to enlighten our rulers the benefits of free software culture, this is possible. I know that we have people like Pavanaja in Karnataka who can enlighten the officials of Karnataka government about this. But apart from the four south Indian states, how many ther Indian states are really interested in these type of initiatives.

Actually, the point I was trying to make was that it's not at all clear that government administration is capable of running a large contribution-based content operation of any kind; and that state resources devoted to increasing the breadth and depth of public knowledge might be better utilised by distributing them to existing communities, one of which would be us - Wikipedians. Therefore, the more that public organisations recognise that communities and avenues like ours exist, the better for them and us. _ Achal

Taking Shijualex's point from ml.wikipedia discussion :- Tamil Wikipedia contest on cards [1]. We must definitely try this for other wikipedias also --