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Wikipedia in Kazakh 23.06.2011 | |
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”Kazaksha Wikipedia” is a project launched in Kazakhstan to develop the Kazakh section of the free public universal multilingual internet encyclopedia Wikipedia. It was initiated and is sponsored by JSC “National Welfare Fund “Samruk-Kazyna” and Nokia, administrated by the public fund Wikibilim with the assistance from Wikimedia Foundation (USA), its partners are “Kazakh encyclopedia” and JSC “KazContent”. At the yesterday’s press-conference their representatives noted that Wikipedia is the only internet resource of public format, which is one of the world’s top ten online brands. BBC named Wikipedia a most famous brand of the XXI century, along with YouTube and Facebook. Currently, Wikipedia, which is visited by 400 million people a month, operates in 281 languages and has more than 18 million items, including more than 3.5 million in English. The other two million-mark languages are German and French, more than 700 thousand articles are in Russian. - The Kazakh part of it is at a very low level, - said Kazakhstani MP Murat Abenov. - Only 25 000 articles are in Kazakh, 15 000 of them – in the last month. This is the project we really need and expect a lot from. After we raised this issue in the parliament, we are getting support from the government, and it is very important that involved is the public fund Wikibilim, purpose-organized by Kazakhstani activists of Wikipedia at the initiative and for the money of Samruk-Kazyna. It is necessary to make a quality resource so that the knowledge it contains can be effectively used and easily accessed to by the entire population. Another important thing is to adjust the legislation so that in future there will be no problems with the authorship in the web and open access to this information. The main objective of Kazaksha Wikipedia is a rapid increase of the quantity and quality of articles in Kazakh. Writing and editing of articles should become an intelligent hobby to enhance the so-called on-line literacy of Kazakhstanis. The long-term goal is to promote the social role of and develop the state language. It is common knowledge that the development of language and culture to a large extent depends on the evolution of information transfer technology. The future of the Kazakh language is largely dependent on how seamless will be its merging into the modern information environment, how smooth will be its transition from a “book culture” to “screen culture”. The project should contribute to the “digital viability” of the language, and the special role is played here by the presence of high-in-demand, versatile and modern-generated content, which is created and consumed in the state language. More encyclopedic knowledge in the state language will create favorable conditions for expanding the scope and range of everyday use and thereby will strengthen its role in public life. In addition, the project has a great potential to boost the country’s image. Results of the first phase of the project will be announced on December 16, 2011, by that date the number of articles in the Kazakh part of Wikipedia is planned to be 200 thousand. Marina Mikhailova |