THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil is on an e-mission to bring out the ‘true information’ on ecology for the citizens.
Speaking to ‘Express’, Gadgil says the official machinery has been projecting distorted facts. The Wikipedia movement has already been launched in Marathi and will soon come up in Malayalam and Kannada as well. In a novel initiative to make use of Wikipedia for information dissemination across the country, Gadgil is attempting to develop a culture where reliable information can be brought out through social media.
To ensure the credibility of the information, it’s mandatory to mention the source of info. “The initiative has already started in Marathi about six months back. Now, the attempt is to extend the same to other languages.
While the Malayalam version would hopefully be launched in the coming few days, the next one in Kannada may come up in a couple of months,” he says. In future all citizens can be part of this initiative.
There are Wiki pages in 21 Indian languages in addition to English. These can all be employed for the purpose. This can be effectively used by the general public, Gadgil adds. Gadgil says attempts to distort the information by deleting or modifying the content can also be identified. “In US, some citizens started updating the profiles of politicians along with the promises that they made during elections and how many of them were actually implemented. Politicians with the help of cohorts deleted the same. But in Wikipedia when you delete them it will remain in the history page. Also, you can identify the IP address of the computer from which it was deleted,” he points out.
As part of the mission, a two-day workshop on Wikipedia is being organised in the city for those who wish to contribute contents to the wikipedia initiative on Wednesday and Thursday at Vakkom Moulavi Foundation Trust Hall Thekkinmoodu.
Ecological awareness
■ In future all citizens
can be part of the initiative. There are Wiki pages in 21 Indian languages
■ To ensure the credibility of the info, it’s mandatory to mention the source of info