The Photologue of the Tamil Wikipedia Academy

Amongst all the Wikipedia Academies held earlier, I would rate this Tamil Wikipedia as the one which had the highest learning quotient. About 15 interested folks had turned up to learn about how to contribute to Tamil Wikipedia. We learnt what it takes to contribute to Tamil Wikipedia while also learning some shocking statistics that almost made me put my head down in shame. 

While Tamil Wikipedia has close to 17,000+ articles, most of these have been contributed by a small team of 50 Wikipedians.  In other words, there are only around 50 Tamil Wikipedians worldwide, out of which only about 10 are consistently active 

Most contributions to Tamil Wikipedia are done by Srilankan Tamils who live in other countries like Canada, US and Malaysia.  It's a matter of shame that we in Tamilnadu don't do much. A situation that must be changed. 

Telugu Wikipedia leads the pack with 42,000+ articles.  Once again, most of the contribution is by people living outside India. 

That's what put in the seed for having more Wikipedia Academies that will encourage more regional language contribution from people within India.  

We had two experienced Wikipedias, Ravi Shankar and Ganesh, who took the time and effort to come teach. In my opinion, both of them deserve huge praise because they signify the very spirit of the Wikipedia community : The willingness to share knowledge. 

After the initial introduction to Wikipedia, Ravi suggested the team split into two teams so that there can be better attention and interaction. This worked wonders.  It was a very interactive learning session more driven by Q&A. 

There were two learning hurdles to cross.  The first is typing in Tamil. While all the participants knew Tamil and how to write, very few knew how to type in Tamil. The audience were taught transliteration techniques where one can type in Tamil and the software automatically converts into Tamil.  

The second hurdle is learning how to edit Wikipedia.  I must say that for a total fresher, Wikipedia editing can be a steep learning curve. No, I'm not talking about simple spelling correction. I'm talking about adding a new article, adding reference articles, adding new photographs etc. Now, lets not even go near adding tables and including templates.  Those are *waay* too complex.   

It's a good thing that Wikimedia Foundation is seriously looking at simplifying the editing into a WYSIWYG (simple visual editing) method. 

Ravi, who did his doctorate in Netherlands, showed exceptional love for both the language and Wikipedia. He had a natural teaching aptitude and patiently handheld the newcomers through the world of Wikis. 

A huge shout of appreciation should also go to Natkeeran, a tamilian living in Cananda and a prolific Wikipedian, who showed exceptional interested in getting eveyone together for this academy. Even though he was thousands of miles away, he constantly wrote in with encouragements and proactively wrote to many people to come volunteer to teach.

The local neighbourhood newspaper played an important role in spreading the message. While the English Wikipedia Academies always had better response in terms of attendance, I realized that it was difficult to reach out to people interested in Tamil Wikipedia through the blog network. That's when I realized the power of local media. 

Anyone can start a Wikipedia Academy. The whole idea is to get a small place where people who are interested in Wikipedia can learn.  You can do this in your home, school or a nearby park. You don't need to take permission from anyone to conduct an academy. It's very low cost too. 

It would be great to see such Wikipedia Academies take place all over India. Be it cities, towns or villages. If you need any assistance, there are many of us who are eager to help assist you. Please call me at 98415 97744 or email Kiruba @ Kiruba.com. 

Tamil Wikipedia Academy on Jan 18th

Here's an opportunity to learn how to edit Wikipedia in Tamil. In this 3rd edition of Wikipedia Academy, we will get learn from experienced Wikipedians who have spent many years contributing to Tamil Wikipedia.

One of the major objectives of the Global Wikimedia Foundation is to grow the contribution to regional languages worldwide. The Indian Chapter of Wikimedia Foundation will focus heavily on encouraging regional language contribution.

While there are a healthy number of Indian volunteers who contribute to Wikipedia, most help out in English. Regional languages, for example, Tamil Wikipedia, pales in comparision. Another matter of concern is that most of the edits are done by Tamilians who live outside Tamilnadu. Most of these are passionate Tamil lovers who live in US, UK and other countries. It's time we encouraged more people in Tamilnadu.

There's a lot of good intent to help. It could just be the case of sheer ignorance. That's where the Tamil Wikipedia Academy aims to help out.

We have experienced Wikipedians like Ravi, Sundar, Mayuranathan and Ganesh who have volunteered to come help teach. Learn more here.

We'll also use this opportunity to meet together to discuss on what strategies we can use to grow Tamil Wikipedia. Everyone is welcome. You don't necessarily have to deal with Tamil Wikipedia. Any Wikipedia enthusiast who is willing to volunteer and help out with ideas and efforts is welcome.

Please take note of the venue and the timings.

Day: Sunday, January 18th.

Time: 3 pm to 5 pm

Venue: F5ive Technologies, C-1, Raj Paris Apts, 82, Kamaraj Steet, Virugambakkam, Chennai - 92.

Directions: On Arcot Road, after Avichi School and a big Raymond's Showroom, take the first right. This is Kamaraj Street. After 100 meters, the road splits into right and left. (a 'T' junction). The venue is exactly at this 'T' junction. It's opposite to an Amman Temple.

Call for help: Should you need help, please call me at 98415 97744 or email Kiruba@Kiruba.com

We request you to help pass the word around to friends who might be interested. Please blog or tweet this information. Thanks in advance.

Nila Soru : Re-living a Childhood Memory

Pic by Bohemian

The full moon was stunning. I don't remember the last time I've seen it this bright. Maybe it had to do with the power cut. I stood watching it for a full minute soaking in its beauty. It reminded me of my childhood days.

Back in Rettani, my maternal village near Tindivanan, we kids would gather around on the terrace and our aunt would feed us 'Sambhar Boova' (that's kidspeak for sambhar rice). With outstretched hands, we would receive riceballs in turns while listening to some fascinating story.

My journey down memory lane was cut short when the power came back. The bright city lights diminished the luminosity of the moon. No wonder we never notice it that often. That's when I thought about my kids and felt bad for them. Will they ever get to experience the small pleasues that we were fortunate to enjoy. An idea struck me. Why not have a 'Nila Soru' dinner tonight?



My wife and Mom are a fantastic sport. I told them the idea and they were party to it immediately. They made nice sambhar rice (with lots of ghee, yumm) and potato 'poriyal'. The kids in our apartment are a connected lot and the word spread quickly. They all assembed on the terrace and after a bit of dancing and playing, it was food time.

The only person missing though was the moon! At 8:30 pm, no sight of the main character. I was told he'd take time to come up. We were all hungry and decided to go ahead.

My wife placed rice balls in each kid's hand one by one. I followed by keeping the potato sidedish. The kids seemed to love it. Just the sight of joy on their faces was worth it. In our daily rush and a commercialized lifestyle, we fail to realize the happiness in small things. Many of the kids parents came up to the terrace too and it was their chance to reminiscence about their childhood.

Podcast: Mark Yolton, Head of SAP Communities, on Social Media

I'm passionate about Social Media and even more interested in knowing how Companies leverage the Net effectively. I've been closely following how some of the leading companies globally use social media. One company in the list is SAP,the World's biggest business application software company. I've been impressed with them specifically with the way they have built their communities both amongst developers and business professional.

There are over 1 million members in SAP community and they have used both online Enterprise 2.0 strategies and real world events to actively engage them.

When I was invited to attend SAP TechEd, it was just the opportunity I needed to meet Mark Yolton, the key person behind SAP communities. Mark comes with over 20 years of experiece and has held senior management profiles at Oracle, PeopleSoft and Sun Microsystems. Watch the interview.


Kiruba Interviews Mark Yolton, Head, SAP Community Network from kiruba on Vimeo.

The New Year Celebration I Won't Forget in a Long Time

In 13 years since our apartment has been built, this is the first year that a New Year has been jointly celebrated. When we took over the responsibility of the apartment association during mid-2008, this was on the must-do list. And huge credit should go to the kids for pulling a remarkable event together. I was pleasantly surprised by their organizing skills and financial acumen.


The kids performing a dance for the song 'Yeh Ishq hai' from Jab We Met. I must've listened to this song a hundred times while they were rehearing the dance at my home. My wife was the troupe's choreographer.

Notice the colourful screen in the background. It's made out of 64 sarees, generously lent by the ladies in the apartment.

There were many games during the 3 hour event. One such is the musical chair contest for men.


The buffet was the highlight of the celebration. Each home took the responsibility of cooking one special item of their choice for everyone. It reminded me of unconferences where folks picked up their own topic to speak. We had over 3o items and I can tell that this can rival any 5 star hotel food.


Just before midnight, we all got together for a group photo. That's just half of them. Few had to leave for churches and temples for New Year Pooja.


We bought some classy fireworks (these are monstrous guys) and we timed it beautifully with the New Year countdown. Then came a huge cake where the eldest couple and the youngest kid in the apartment jointly cut the cake. Then followed a melee of cream splashing spree!

To see the unity amongst the residents and the amazing spirit and talent of the kids was fantastic. A New Year Celebration I won't forget in a long time.