Mangaluru: With the aim of making Tulu and Kannada Wikipedia thrive with more articles, Karavali Wikimedians, a registered body of Wikipedia writers based in the city, will open Wikipedia associations in colleges in the coastal belt from this month. Karavali Wikimedians is affiliated to Wikimedia Foundation, San Francisco, U.S. U.B. Pavanaja, Secretary, Karavali Wikimedians told The Hindu that now Kannada Wikipedia had about 22,000 articles and Tulu about 1,200 articles.
Under the credit based semester scheme, students in colleges under Mangalore University enjoyed 50 marks per semester for extra and co-curricular activities. The Karavali Wikimedians would guide the faculty and students from the colleges in starting and managing Wikipedia associations. Contributing articles to Wikipedia would also help students academically as they could earn marks for extra and co-curricular activities, he said.
The first two-day workshop of the series was conducted in Ramakrishna Pre-University College in the city in May . The second workshop for three days was concluded in the same college in June. Kishore Kumar Rai Sheni, Principal of the college and Treasurer of the Karavali Wikimedians said that the college management has been providing its computer laboratory and premises free for Wikipedia writers. In all, 25 writers participated in the two workshops.
