WIKIPINIANA: The Philippine Encyclopedia

Philippine education goes to cyberspace. Sixty percent of the countries' enrolled population are now using the Information Gateway for research because it is fast, easy, accessible and affordable to students and the masses. As government agencies now interlinks their basic services, the educational system is now taking advantage of the present technology to provide students, teachers and parents with the basic information and services through their websites. Colleges and universities can gain access to their class schedules, grades and enrolment process online and this would evolve in years to come. With the popularity of the Internet, students have become dependent and reliant to whatever information the Internet feeds them. But the problem here in our country is the scarcity of information of some websites about the Philippines. Books and related writings about the Philippines often can be found in foreign schools and universities. Most of the students turn to these sites to gather information for research on their thesis, projects and reports.

Filipiniana.net is addressing the need of these students by providing them a useful and informative website that they could hang on to, to support their research projects, to discuss their thoughts, to ask questions and to share knowledge too. As mentioned to its Mission and Vision, Filipiniana.net wants to be the biggest repository or knowledgebase on the Philippines. From manuscripts, books, images to audio and videos, all of these can be accessed in digital form through the site's portal.

For its second web project, Filipiniana.net will create a facility for online collaboration of the project. This site will interlink with its content to Filipiniana.net as the online community (people who use the internet) build its content 24/7.

THE WIKI PROJECT

Wiki is a term used to define "fast". But nowadays, it becomes more popular as an internet lingo for a "site that you can edit". Wikipedia is the most popular wiki site which emerged as the largest online encylopedia in the world with more that 2 million articles in english and other languages. It has been translated by its volunteer users into several languages and its the main factor that catapulted its popularity and became the world's largest online resources known today.

Wiki is based on the open content editing and online participative content development concept that is free for use and share. The underlying technology was also based on its GNU Free Licensing System that is based on copyleft principle.

Not all articles in Wikipedia are free from errors since it is a project in process and is being updated from time to time. But it will eventually be adapted by many researchers because of its rich, useful and informative facts.

Wikipiniana also envisions to be the Wikipedia of the Philippines. It will also develop the site with the same online principle and at the same time addressing the need for a collaborative work online. A project that could propel by itself through volunteerism work of online communities. These communities are mostly students, professionals, educators and experts in their respective fields. Filipiniana.net will build a "wiki" site to counter the existing flow of Philippine information to foreign sites.

Wikipedia, which is the world's largest online encyclopedia today and the number one resource site of students and researchers have toppled big companies such as Britannica and Webster in the online encyclopedia arena, one of its strongest points in opening its site to the public for collaboration. Their encyclopedia was built by the user itself and was being monitored and guided by volunteer editors and experts in their field of studies. The concept of it and accessibility to free information is gaining popularity and most of the people involved are experts in their own craft.

Wikipiniana is the answer of Filipiniana.net to the online encyclopedia needs of our students and researchers in the Philippines. Same features and facilities will also be provided by using the MediaWiki software that was popularized by Wikipedia. Wikipiniana will be the biggest knowledge base that is structured and well researched. Rare articles and other useful materials that can't be found in other Philippine sites is just within reached in Wikipiniana.

STRATEGIES

Wikipiniana being the first Philippine online encyclopedia will lead the campaign to popularize the use of the site for online research and at the same time create a community of volunteers to build its content. Wikipiniana will propel by itself and a pool of editors will be the one to validate the veracity of articles they have created.

At the start, Wikipedia has a number of Philippine related topics and we need it to harvest for Wikipiniana. The content is free for everyone that can be used and reused for non commercial value. The copyleft principle will also be implemented at Wikipiniana wherein the derivative works of Wikipedia will be used by Wikipiniana with the terms that it will also be shared to everyone.

Wikipiniana will also build its original content by coming up with a publication plan and pre-selected knowledge map on the Philippines. This will evolve into several topics under Filipiniana major subjects like history, culture, economy, government, society, religion and science which will also become its portal group of knowledge. Initial line-up of topics will be published online for the users to expand its content.

Some of its major topics are the Who's Who of the Philippines, Philippine Gazetteers, Cultural Encyclopedia and more. These entries will be mapped in order to build a vast map of knowledge for every topic in a particular category. Truly, this is an enormous project with a common cause - Providing Filipino FREE Access to Information.

This is a non-profit project that needs funding to sustain its objectives. Vibal Publishing at present, as the country's leading publisher of textbook materials is going to finance the project as part of its corporate social responsibility. It also believes in the UNESCO's vision that it empowers people by democratizing access to information and knowledge through free flow of ideas in words and images.

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