Submissions/Expanding the scope of Tamil Wikipedia beyond Asia

After careful consideration, the Programme Committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2015 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this July.

Submission no.

6004

Title of the submission

Expanding the scope of Tamil Wikipedia beyond Asia

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)

Presentation

Author of the submission

R S Vignesh Raj

E-mail address

classicalraj@gmail.com

Username

vraj24

Country of origin

United Kingdom

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Sheffield Hallam University

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

Classical Tamil is natively spoken by about 75 million people and is official in Singapore, Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu and is a recognized minority language in Malaysia, French Reunion Island, Mauritius and South Africa. Although Tamil is one of the top 20 languages spoken in the world today, native Tamil speakers in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka see the dominance of English in South East Asia as a challenge for people to rely on Tamil. The sharp urban- rural divide in Tamil Nadu is an interesting study where the urban folks prefer to use English while the rural folks prefer Tamil. The literacy level in Tamil varies depending upon the region. Unlike other parts of the world where the knowledge of the official language is mandatory, Tamil Nadu offers the convenience to skip Tamil which is again another challenge that Wikipedia could help overcome by making the learners experience a pleasant and an enjoyable one not just for the native Tamil speakers but also to non native speakers who are keen on learning the language. This paper presents innovative approach to expand the scope of Tamil Wikipedia beyond Asia to cater to the global Tamil diaspora which would enable to stay connected with their language and roots. In addition to that it could serve as an excellent 'one stop reference' point for kids living in non- Tamil speaking regions of the world. The paper makes certain suggestions and recommendations in terms of how this should be approached in order to make it more effective and is critical to an extent about 'free' edits by the users.

Track

Education outreach

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)

30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

No

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests

Request to include bilingual presentation slides in English and Tamil. It would be a nice gesture if permission is granted for presentation in Tamil along with English translations.

Interested attendees

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1. #~~~~ (C.R.Selvakumar)
2. #~~~~hariharan.p1988
3. I think that a crucial way to do outreach in India is to do outreach to NRIs. Blue Rasberry (talk) 00:48, 1 March 2015 (UTC)
4. Rsrikanth05 (talk)