IIIT-H takes up project Telugu Wiki

Hyderabad: The Project Telugu Wiki, a volunteer driven effort making reference material available in Telugu on the Wikipedia, will gain steam in days to come with efforts being made to rope in more volunteers to generate content. So far, about 1,200 volunteers have been trained in creating content in Telugu. Targeted efforts will be made […]

Hyderabad: The Project Telugu Wiki, a volunteer driven effort making reference material available in Telugu on the Wikipedia, will gain steam in days to come with efforts being made to rope in more volunteers to generate content.

So far, about 1,200 volunteers have been trained in creating content in Telugu. Targeted efforts will be made to rope in teachers, writers and poets and others who can generate content in Telugu.

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IIIT-H has undertaken ‘Project Indic Wiki’ to increase the content on Wikipedia in Indian languages. The IIIT team designed and developed software programs and micro content development tools for generating articles in different domains like technology, history’s, personalities, and others.

In this project, the Digital Media wing under the IT Department, is collaborating with IIIT-H to bring awareness on Wikipedia and to substantially increase the number of articles in Telugu Wikipedia. It also interacts and works with the Telugu Wikipedia ecosystem including Government departments, Telugu universities, journalists, students to prepare a strategy for enrolling members from all walks of life to voluntarily contribute to the project. It also conducts capacity building sessions trainings and workshops apart from looking for technology solutions for bulk creation of content in Telugu, among others. It also conducts Te-Wiki internship programmes.

The number of active Internet users in India is inching towards 900 million. Relatively lower costs of data and smartphones available in lower price points apart have been the main reasons for the growth in the number of Internet users. “Internet is maturing and now older generations have started using it. They want content in regional languages. This is where having content in Telugu becomes important. While there is some content already available, the scope ahead is huge across Telangana history, culture, art, architecture, economy, polity and other segments. These have to be available on public platforms for easy and free access,” said Dileep Konatham, Telanagana Digital Media Director.

Wikipedia is among the popular encyclopedias on the Internet. It first started with English in 2001 and currently is available in more than 300 languages. Telugu was first used in wikipedia in December 2003 by Venna Nagarjuna, who is known for Padma, a system for transforming text in Indic scripts among open-source and proprietary formats. Building on this and the efforts of several volunters, now, more than 75,000 pages have been made available on the platform. Any Unicode Telugu font input system may be used for the Telugu Wikipedia.

As part of the efforts to garner attention, it also set up a stall at the ongoing Hyderabad Book Fair at NTR Stadium near Indira Park. This is the second occasion that it is present at the fair, the first time being in 2019. IT and Industries Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan launched the stall on Saturday.

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