The Dept. of Mass Communication and Al-Madhyam(media forum) of St. Aloysius College, in collaboration with The Center of Internet and Society, Bangalore organized a State Level WIKI-ACADEMY in Mangalore.
Head of the Dept. of Mass Communication Rev. Fr. Dr. Richard Rego stated that “Such an event is being held in India for the first time in its history.”
The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau(mixture) of the words ‘Wiki’ i.e., a technology for creating collaborative website, derived from the Hawaiian dictionary meaning ‘fast’ and pedia derived from the local word ‘encyclopedia’.
Wikipedia academies are basically outreach events, designed to coach on topics like, ‘how to contribute to Wikipedia’ and foster a positive impression of Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia has 13 million articles in over 100 languages including several Indian languages.
The workshop was organized by the Volunteer Editors of English and Kannada editions of Wikipedia.
This event was a golden opportunity to participate in the creation of one of the largest repositories of information in the web. Among the audience were Teachers, Working Professionals, Librarians, Scholars and Students, all interested in reading, research or contributing to Wikipedia.
The Program Details:
The event was held in St. Aloysius College at the Eric Mathais Hall, IT block.
THE INAUGURATION:
The WIKI_ACADEMY was inaugurated at 9.00 AM. The chief guests of the event were Dr. Prashanth N.S and Mr. Hariprasad Nadig, Wikipedians, Bangalore.
The Principal, Rev. Fr. Swebert D’Silva, the Head of the Dept. of Mass Communication, Rev. Fr. Dr. Richard Rego and the Student President Of Al-Madhayam, Mr. Anzel was also present, along with the chief guests on the dais.
The faculties of the Dept. of Mass Communication, Faculty and students of St.Aloysius College as well as that of other colleges were present.
The program inaugurated by the Globe Of the logo of Wikipedia. The welcome address was delivered by Ms. Sandhya, all the dignitaries on the dais were welcomed with a floral bonquet. The chief guests were introduced by Rev. Fr. Dr. Richard Rego. Mr. Colin presented before the gathering a brief introduction on Wikipedia.
Rev. Fr. Swebert D’Silva SJ and Dr. Prashanth addressed the gathering.
The Vote of Thanks was proposed by Ms. Wilma D’Souza.
The Main Event:
The first session of the event began with a short introduction of the chief guests by themselves.
Dr. Prashanth N.S, a Doctor by profession, practicing Public Health, has been an active member and editor of Wikipedia from the past five years
Mr. Hariprasad Nadig, a Software Engineer by profession is the Administrator of the KANNADA Wikipedia.
The main session was divided into three tracks:
1. Introduction to Wikipedia
2. Using Wikipedia for academics
3. Various Languages of Wikipedia
Imagine a world where any man can have free access to the collaboration of the sum of all human knowledge.
Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia was developed in 2001. It comprised of a few articles of various subjects put into it not only by experts or professionals but by a group of common people of almost all professions from doctors to lawyers, from scientists to students(even high school students).
Today Wikipedia is extremely popular among all individuals irrespective of profession or course of study. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia easily accessible to all users.
The main aim of Wikipedia is to collect bits of information and form an article. As the popular saying goes “An expert is someone who knows everything about something and nothing about anything else”. No one can expertise in all fields. Therefore Wikipedia collects information which are posted by the users in the form of articles and checks and analyses the points given by the user and this article is published and freely accessible to all users. Wikipedia invites discussion on various topics so that the information published on the articles is up to date and true and is verified. Wikipedia also facilitates the use of references as a proof and to provide more information to the users. Users are also free to edit the information published.
All the changes made to a particular document is recorded in the ‘history’ tab of the particular article.
Here the information never ends and is updated. It is a kind of work in progress. An article in Wikipedia on Bangalore stated with just one paragraph but it comprises of 15 paragraphs.
Wikipedia is a bridge gap between an expert and an amateur. An amateur may be able to present the article published by an expert in a much better way as his communicating skills may be a lot better as compared to that of an expert.
