Mangalore in Australia

11 September 2009

Did you know that there is another Mangalore in Victoria, Australia, which has a railway station and an airport? This fact came to light during a workshop aimed at helping people to contribute and edit Wikipedia content on the Internet held at St. Aloysius College here on Friday.
Participants came to know that there is another place called Mangalore when they were discussing the Wikipedia page on Mangalore, which is available in 25 languages including French,
Suomi, Galego, Polski, and Svenska, besides many Indian languages. A participant surprised everyone when he asked whether resource person G.N. Prasanth, a medical professional from Bangalore, was from “our own port city or the Australian township”. ‘Disambiguation’

Mr. Prashanth, a registered user of Wikipedia, pointed out that there was a note right under the head – Mangalore – which clearly pointed out that “For the town in Victoria, Australia, see Mangalore, Victoria.” When two places are called by same name, Wikipedia posts such a note and offers a link “disambiguation”.

Resource persons told the participants that information on Wikipedia could not be written in the way blogs were written. Instead, the information should be objective.

For several Internet users in Mangalore it was news to know that each of them could contribute and edit the content on the Wikipedia website and that the general public was contributing information to build the website on Mangalore. The participants were taught on how to edit content by registering their names as editors or even without registering their names. All changes made are cross-checked by volunteers who have registered their names as administrators of Wikipedia.

Swebert D’Silva, Principal of St. Aloysius College, and Richard Rego, Head of the Department of Journalism in the college, were among those present.

source the hindu