Learn to Wiki from this academy
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Have you ever faced problems editing Wikipedia? Then here comes an academy that lets you edit, submit or make value additions in articles in the popular online encyclopedia.
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Set up by Kiruba, CEO of Business Blogging Pvt Ltd, the academy in Chennai belies the popular notions of an 'academy', for it involves just a room with a computer, where ardent Wiki users learn the basics of editing Wikipedia and uploading content.u00a0
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The academy helps the users get familiarise with various Wikipedia tags with which they can edit.
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"The academy is first of its kind in India. The other one is in Germany. India ranks top when it comes to accessing Wikipedia. But only a minuscule goes back to edit Wikipedia because they don't know that it's editable or their knowledge can be shared," says Kiruba, who is spearheading the Wikimedia Foundation activities in India.
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Interesting profile
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The profile of those coming to the academy is interesting. "From a 84-year-old retired army man wanting to 'Wiki' to engineering students to professionals, we get a wide range of people," says Kiruba, adding that anyone with a room and a PC can start one academy anywhere India.
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He says the academy is meant for those people who are uncomfortable in editing and adding information to the site.
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"There is one ortho surgeon in Chennai who is now happy sharing his wealth of knowledge in his domain to the world after he learned the basics from the academy," said Kiruba.u00a0
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According to him it is unfortunate that the knowledge of people doesn't get shared just because they don't know the Wikipedia tags. "For instance my dad is a sugarcane farmer. His knowledge on sugarcane farming is fantastic. What if the same knowledge is shared with the world," he said.
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"I am basically fascinated in Wikipedia. Also the Wiki founder is a good friend of mine," he said.
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The academy's classes, which are free, are held two to three hours in a month.
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The foundation
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The foundation is planning to set up Wikipedia academies across India.
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The Wikimedia Foundation India encourages more contributions to regional language Wikipedia, for example, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu etc.
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"The foundation will also take up fundraising for various Wikimedia projects.u00a0 We will focus on encouraging both individual donations and institutional donations. We will also be lobbying with government (both state and central) to include Wikipedia usage in schools and colleges. The foundation will encourage many translation efforts from English to regional language Wikipedia," he said.
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