Submissions/Tamil Wikipedia: A Study of The Challenges and Potentials in Relation to Socio-Cultural Context of the Tamil Community

From Wikimania 2010 • Gdańsk, Poland • July 9-11, 2010
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Information

This is an open submission for Wikimania 2010.


Title of the submission
Tamil Wikipedia: A Study of Challenges and Potentials in Relation to the Socio-Cultural Context of the Tamil Community
Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, panel, presentation)
Presentation
Author of the submission
R. Mayooranathan
E-mail address or username (if username, please confirm email address in Special:Preferences)
Mayooranathan - rmayooranathan@gmail.com
Country of origin
Sri Lanka
Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)
No
Personal homepage or blog
No
Abstract (please use no less than 300 words to describe your proposal)
Wikipedia as a multi-lingual project works with a common goal to help spreading knowledge throughout the world. However, differences in contexts between language communities, brought about by various historical and socio-cultural factors, create varying needs, pose unique challenges, and demand different methodologies to achieve the intended goal. An understanding of these factors and their impact would be beneficial in directing the development of Wikipedias.
Keeping the above in mind this study will analyze Tamil Wikipedia in relation to the socio-cultural context. It will discuss specific needs of the Tamil community, in relation to spreading of knowledge, and the relevance of Wikipedia in catering these needs. It will outline various challenges faced by this effort, and measures taken by Tamil wikipedians to meet the same. It also will identify the potential of Tamil Wikipedia and possible role it can play for the benefit of the community.
Information for this study will be drawn partly from various related publications. Tamil Wikipedia discussion pages have fair amount of valuable information in the form of user opinions, discussions on current problems and challenges, information about offline activities to promote the project and much more. Few research articles and studies on Tamil Wikipedia and other related online materials also will be consulted.
Although different language communities have their own sets of requirements and challenges, several of them share many of these in common. Therefore this study is expected to be relevant and useful for many other language Wikipedias.


Track (People and Community/Knowledge and Collaboration/Infrastructure)
People and Community
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
Yes
Slides or further information (optional)
Will be submitted if approved.


Interested attendees

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  1. --Ravidreams 18:37, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  2. --Shijualex 11:35, 20 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  3. El Ágora 00:04, 21 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Tinucherian 06:49, 21 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Gurubrahma 18:39, 21 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Kocio 13:25, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Aphaia 19:10, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Arrto 07:33, 3 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  9. --Bishdatta 08:49, 3 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  10. aprabhala 10:58, 3 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  11. Arjunaraoc 08:36, 7 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]