Type of site Internet encyclopedia Headquarters Miami, Florida Slogan(s) கட்டற்ற கலைக்களஞ்சியம் | Available in Tamil Owner Wikimedia Foundation Website ta.wikipedia.org | |
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The Tamil Wikipedia (Tamil: தமிழ் விக்கிப்பீடியா) is the Tamil language edition of Wikipedia, run by the Wikimedia Foundation. It was established in September 2003 and crossed 91,000 articles on March 2017. The Tamil Wikipedia is the 59th largest Wikipedia and the second largest Wikipedia among Indian languages by article count.[1] It is also the first Wikipedia of Dravidian origin to possess more than 10,000 articles. The project is one of the leading Wikipedia among other South Asian language Wikipedia's in various quality matrices. It has more than 91,610 articles and 109,691 registered users as of March 2017.
Cultural Significance
Contrary to common academic criticism of Wikipedia in the Western countries, the Tamil Wikipedia is widely regarded as an important source of information in the Tamil language on the Internet. The encyclopedia undergoes far less vandalism compared to larger Wikipedia projects, largely because the project has slower growth, mainly due to the lack of computers or Internet service in rural areas of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Most of the project's development comes from the overseas Tamil diaspora.
In April 2010, the Tamil Internet Conference held a contest for college students across the state of Tamil Nadu, India for increasing content on the Tamil Wikipedia. The contest was made with regards to the World Classical Tamil Conference 2010, a meeting of Tamil scholars across the world who discuss modern development of the language. With over 2000 contestants enrolled, the contest concluded with the creation of 1,200 new academically reviewed articles on the Tamil Wikipedia in various subjects.
In September 2013, The Tamil Wikipedia celebrated its 10th year anniversary.