Wikipedia supporters hold writing competition

A group of local supporters of Wikipedia - a free online encyclopedia with open editing policies for the public – will kick off on Thursday a writing competition for university students to enrich the website's contents and quality as well as the students' writing skills.

"This competition is aimed at increasing the number of active contributors," Siska Doviana, the Director for the "Bebaskan Pengetahuan 2010 Wikimedia Indonesia" or "Free Your Knowledge 2010 Wikimedia Indonesia" said Tuesday.

As many as 10 randomly selected universities in Jakarta, Bogor and Tangerang, would each send nine representatives to the competition, along with one lecturer each to sit in the panel of jury.

A one-day workshop preceded the competition on Saturday last week.

The winner of the competition will represent Indonesia at the Wikimania 2010 International Conference in Gdansk, Poland.

The Indonesian version of Wikipedia has a visitor rate of 1.2 million a day in February. This month, it houses more than 119,000 stories.

However, the number of active users who edit more than three times a day has stood at only 30 since 2005. (dis)