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[Transcript of the speech delivered at the 3rd Jahurul Haque-Abdullah Al-Muti Sharafuddin Memorial Science Lecture Series organized by the Bangladesh Association for the Popularization of Science on January 15, 2007]
3rd Jahurul Haque – Abdullah Al-Muti Sharafuddin Memorial Science Lecture Series
Wikipedia: The Encyclopedia of the People
Introduction and Thanks
Assalamu Alaikum. Respected guests, first of all, I would like to thank the Bangladesh Association for the Popularization of Science for giving me the opportunity to speak at the 3rd session of the Jahurul Haque and Abdullah Al-Muti Sharafuddin annual science lecture series. I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of you for attending this event.
By profession and passion, I am a computer technologist. That’s why my discussions often revolve around computers and technology. But today, I am not going to talk about the technical complexities of technology. Rather, I will focus on its meaningful use for our lives and our minds. The topic of my speech today is the people’s encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Practicing Science for Life
A long time ago, I read something in the writings of Professor Muhammad Zafar Iqbal that left a deep impression on me. I don’t remember it word-for-word, but the essence was—science that is close to life, that is true science. The science that meets the needs of our lives, our joys and sorrows, hopes and ambitions, our history and heritage—that is true science.
Today’s world is awash in an information technology tide. Email, the Internet, SMS, fourth generation mobile phones—all these technologies have now reached the doorstep of people all over the world. Like an unstoppable tide, these have become a part of every aspect of our lives. But instead of being mere consumers of technology, we must use it for life, for our history, for the appropriate preservation of our centuries-long knowledge. And to bring all this information together, we need a consolidated compilation of information—an encyclopedia.
The Universal Right to Access Information
There is no alternative to practicing science if we want to progress in life. But for that, we need information, and with that the right to access and use information freely. The right to access information is a universal and fundamental right. To ensure this, we must create comprehensive compilations of life, education, science, and guarantee everyone’s access to them.
A Brief History of Encyclopedias
The effort to gather knowledge and science together is not new. For thousands of years, scholars and scientists have been writing encyclopedias this way. More than two thousand years ago, Aristotle wrote an encyclopedia. After him, historian Pliny compiled a vast encyclopedia in 37 volumes. In the 9th century, Chinese scholars created such an encyclopedia. Muslim scientist Abu Bakr al-Razi wrote an encyclopedia of science. Ibn Sina wrote an encyclopedia of medicine. In the 18th century, French philosophers worked for 29 years to write an encyclopedia. In response, in 1768, with the efforts of many specialists in Scotland, the first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in Britain in three volumes.
The first encyclopedia in the Bengali language was written at the end of the 19th century by Narendra Nath Basu. At the end of the 20th century, under the initiative of Bangladesh Asiatic Society and with government support, the Bengali language encyclopedia Banglapedia was created at a cost of several crore taka. It mainly focuses on Bangladesh and undivided Bengal. However, it lacks information about other parts of the world and various branches of science. Thus, there is still a significant absence of a comprehensive information repository in Bengali. For most people in our country, it’s not feasible to buy expensive foreign encyclopedias. And for the general public, it’s not easy to read and comprehend articles written in English. To bring all the knowledge and information of the world to the people, we need to make the most of modern technology, and that needs to be done in our mother tongue.
That was the history of encyclopedias. Now, let’s see how information technology can contribute to this cause.
The History of Wiki Technology on the Internet
The Internet, which originated in American universities and research laboratories in the 1960s, saw major expansion in the early 1990s. At this time, technologies like the World Wide Web emerged, making information immediately accessible worldwide. However, the early web pages were all read-only. That is, users could only read these pages and could not edit them. Because of this one-way nature, these web pages did not offer much support for collaborative efforts worldwide.
To change this, computer scientists and technologists started working. A programmer named Ward Cunningham first created such a software and called it Wiki. This word comes from the Hawaiian language word “wikiwiki,” which means to hurry or move quickly. The name was chosen because wiki technology allows webpages to be changed very quickly. Another goal of wiki technology was to make webpage creation much simpler, making it less complex than HTML or other web design languages, focusing more on content than appearance.
At the core of wiki technology is wiki software, which is hosted on a server. Because of this, wiki-based web pages can be edited from anywhere in the world. As a result, thousands of people can work on the same document at once, making it much more collaborative than any other technology. It’s also easy to revert to any previous version. So any unwanted changes can easily be rolled back to the correct version.
The Emergence of Wikipedia
Although wiki technology spread, its usage was mainly limited to universities and research labs. No one initially thought of using it for an encyclopedia.
Around the year 2000, an entrepreneur named Jimmy Wales initiated a project to create an encyclopedia called NuPedia. This was meant to be created with the help of professors and experts from various universities and institutions. But after a year, only about twenty articles had been started. In 2001, Jimmy Wales’ associate Larry Sanger suggested using wiki technology to create a fully open, public encyclopedia. At first, no one thought it would be possible. But within a short time, thousands of articles were created. Thus, Wikipedia was born in the English language.
Open Source
At the heart of Wikipedia’s incredible success is trust in the people. Previously, the belief was that writing an encyclopedia was work meant only for experts. But the vast body of knowledge and information possessed by ordinary people—passed from generation to generation, orally or socially—can, when compiled together, create an ocean of knowledge. Wiki technology has made it possible for people around the world to collaborate this way. Through reading Wikipedia and working together online, millions have contributed to the collective knowledge base.
Every Wikipedia article can be edited. So anyone can add information to any article in an instant via the Internet. Generally, articles start with just a couple of lines. Links to these articles often appear on the first page of Google or Yahoo searches. If, while reading an article, someone notices that information needs to be added, removed, or revised, it’s just a matter of a few clicks to do so. This is a big advantage—because with encyclopedias like Britannica or Encarta, if there are errors, you have to wait for the next edition to correct them. But in Wikipedia, changes can be made immediately. For example, within a few hours of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Wikipedia contributors added comprehensive articles. In contrast, even the online editions of encyclopedias like Britannica and Encarta took much longer to publish this information. In print, it took up to a year for the update to appear.
Wikipedia is the people’s encyclopedia. Not only are its articles written by ordinary people, but all its information, images, and other content are released under free copyright licenses. Two such licenses are GFDL and Creative Commons. Because of these licenses, anyone can use, even print, Wikipedia’s articles and images for any purpose—as long as you mention that the content or image is from Wikipedia. After all, knowledge belongs to everyone; it cannot be “owned.” So instead of locking knowledge up with copyright and intellectual property licenses, everything on Wikipedia has been made open.
And because it’s open, there are many rules—no copyrighted text can be added to Wikipedia from here or there. The rules around images are even stricter. Only images released under free licenses or those whose copyright has expired can be added to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia Statistics — How Many Languages, How Many Articles
Wikipedia was first launched in English in 2001. Later, versions in German, Spanish, French, Japanese, and many other languages were launched one after another. Today, Wikipedia exists in a total of 250 different languages.
In the English Wikipedia, the number of articles surpassed one million as early as 2005. Now, that number has crossed 1.5 million, which is twenty times the size of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Among these are 1,200 featured articles, which stand out for their quality. The process of selecting these articles involves many criteria; only articles that meet specific quality standards are recognized as featured articles.
Who Is Writing
As an encyclopedia, Wikipedia has a unique advantage. With Britannica or Encarta, at most a few thousand experts can be gathered to contribute. But since Wikipedia is Internet-based, countless people from all over the world can participate. Over 100,000 people have made significant contributions to the English Wikipedia.
Why are people writing for this encyclopedia? No one is earning money from it, nor do writers receive rights to their work. Even so, people continue to contribute. There are many reasons: some write for the joy of writing, some to share research findings, and others out of pride in their country’s language, history, and heritage.
Rules for Writing an Encyclopedia
Since anyone can edit articles on Wikipedia—both those known and unknown—it’s essential to pay attention to the quality and reliability of the information. To ensure this, Wikipedia has adopted several guidelines through discussions, such as:
- Reliability: All information must be verifiable. If someone adds new information, they must cite the source. References should come from credible publications, books, or journals.
- Neutrality: Wikipedia does not allow opinions; rather, it publishes information with sources, presented neutrally so as not to reflect the personal perspectives of the author.
- Copyright: Every sentence added to Wikipedia must be free. No text or image may be copied from another book or website without permission.
In addition, articles should be written in an encyclopedic style, a bit formal and without embellishment.
About Bengali Wikipedia
Bengali Wikipedia was launched in 2004, but due to technical limitations and other factors, it did not develop much initially. Wikipedia, along with other languages, uses Unicode for web display and input. In the early days, there was a lack of proper software for displaying and inputting Bengali in Unicode. Gradually, such tools were developed. However, due to lack of outreach, the growth of Bengali Wikipedia remained slow.
By March 2005, Bengali Wikipedia had only 500 articles. At this time, with the inspiration of Mr. Munir Hasan, an organization called Bangla Wiki was formed under the Bangladesh Open Source Network. A mailing list operated via the Internet was used to connect with Bengalis around the world. Gradually, the number of active contributors and the number of articles on Bangla Wiki began to grow.
Our Status
Now, many people regularly write on Bengali Wikipedia, residing in Bangladesh, West Bengal, the United States, Sweden, Japan, and across the globe. The total number of entries, including full articles and drafts, has surpassed 15,000. As a result, Bengali Wikipedia is now the largest Bengali language website in the world. Among the 250 language editions of Wikipedia, Bengali Wikipedia ranks 43rd.
At the same time, a collection of free content and images is being compiled. Many historic and significant places in Bangladesh do not have pictures released under free licenses; in many cases, even if they exist, copyright prevents their use. So many enthusiasts are taking pictures specifically for Wikipedia. Just last month, an effort in Old Dhaka captured more than 300 photographs of sites like Lalbagh Fort, the tomb of Pari Bibi, Bara Katra, and many more. These images have been released under free licenses so anyone can use them for any purpose free of charge.
Why We Need an Encyclopedia in Bengali
Bengali is our mother tongue. In 1952, people like Salam and Barkat sacrificed their lives to preserve its honor. Advancing the study of knowledge and science in Bengali is therefore our duty. Yet, in this era of information technology, Bengali lags far behind online. The number of Unicode-based Bengali websites is still small. And from email to SMS and other technologies, many young people are more comfortable using English than Bengali. In many cases, Bengali is even written in Roman script instead of Bengali characters. Since English dominates the Internet, and the majority of global knowledge is in English, gradually English is taking precedence over Bengali in scholarly pursuits.
Alongside this, there is a need to preserve our history and heritage. Every region of Bangladesh has a rich history. For example, the Azimpur area was named after Mughal prince Azam, or according to another account, after Naib Nazim Azim-us-Shan. There are so many stories behind the names of places like Palashi Barrack, Bakshibazar, and Karwan Bazar. Then there are the known and unknown figures in our history—the poet Ramai Pandit, builder of the bamboo fort Titumir, revolutionary Pritilata who stormed the armory. Many world encyclopedias do not mention these people. It’s not that they aren’t notable—rather, much about our country remains unknown to outsiders. It is up to us to document and preserve that knowledge.
We must remember, no one from outside will come to preserve our history and heritage for us—it is our responsibility.
Bengali Wikipedia offers us this opportunity. Articles are being created on every city and locality of Bangladesh and West Bengal, along with their history. This is not an easy task, but it is slowly progressing.
There is a significant shortage of comprehensive information compilations for the millions of adolescents and young students in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Buying a full encyclopedia takes thousands and thousands of taka, putting it out of reach for most. But Wikipedia is freely accessible, and its content is updated daily—something not true of other encyclopedias. Accessing Wikipedia does not necessarily require a constant Internet connection. It is even possible to store a compact version of the entire Wikipedia on a computer hard drive or CD for offline use.
What More Can We Do?
We can do a lot to advance Bengali Wikipedia. A year ago, I said we would create 10,000 articles by March 2007. We reached that goal by October 2006. Our next target was set at creating 1,000 well-written articles, and work is ongoing on that. However, we are in dire need of images released under free licenses—especially photos from the Liberation War. Although many can be found online, we cannot use them without permission. We have contacted the Liberation War Museum authority, and they have assured us we will get permission to use these images.
Volunteers from the Bangla Wiki organization are out taking pictures of different regions of the country. As I mentioned earlier, last month alone we took over 300 photos of all Mughal-era monuments in Old Dhaka in a single day. The rest of Old Dhaka, and all notable sites in the country, will also be photographed. These images will be released under free licenses for everyone worldwide to use.
We also need more enthusiastic contributors. You don’t need to do much; I am only asking for five minutes of your time each day. Just add two lines to an article whenever you are online—that is enough. You don’t need any technical knowledge; simply go to the edit page of any article. If you don’t know how to type in Bengali, that’s not a problem—phonetic typing will soon be available. Just give these five minutes. Visit the Bengali Wikipedia website and add a little bit.
Each of us possesses some information. If we can combine all these small pieces together, we can build a truly vast repository of knowledge.
The World of the Future
I have many dreams for the world of tomorrow. One of them is that computer technology and the Internet will reach every school child in every village of Bangladesh. They will use this technology completely in Bengali. Whenever they need information, they will be able to find it instantly on Wikipedia. The coming generations will learn about the golden Bangladesh—its history, culture, and heritage—through Wikipedia.
It won’t take long for my dream to come true. All we need is a little bit of effort and time from us. The people of Golden Bengal will surely make it happen.
Thank you, everyone.
Ragib Hasan
PhD Researcher, Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Administrator and Policy Maker, Bangla Wikipedia
More details: http://bn.wikipedia.org http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bangla_wiki http://www.ragibhasan.com
আমার ধারনা, উইকিপিডিয়া স্টুডেন্টদের জন্য পাঠ্যবইয়ের
অনেক বেটার বিকল্প।
আমার ধারনা, উইকিপিডিয়া স্টুডেন্টদের জন্য পাঠ্যবইয়ের
অনেক বেটার বিকল্প।
তথ্য সংযোগ করতে গিয়ে আটকে যেতে হয়, মনে হয় কোনও কপিরাইট ভাঙা হল কিনা? অথবা কিছু ব্যক্তিগত হল কিনা? অথবা কিছু ভুল বলে ফেললাম কিনা? তাই তথ্য সংযোগ করতে গিয়ে মনে হয় অনেকে পিছিয়ে যান।
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