Youngsters snub Arabic version of Wikipedia

By Vineetha Menon and Andy Sambidge on Thursday, July 24, 2008 Young people in the Middle East are snubbing the Arabic version of online encyclopedia Wikipedia in favour of the English version because of the shortage of keyboards that are compatible with the language. While the English version's article base is more than 2.5 million, its Arabic equivalent is struggling to attract more than 65,000 and currently ranks at number 29, just above Serbia and Slovenia, in the world's most popular versions. This was one of the major debating points as hundreds of Wikimedia volunteers and enthusiasts attended the fourth annual Wikimania conference held for the first time in the Middle East. Wikimania 2008, the official conference of Wikimedia's free knowledge projects that also includes Wikipedia, took place at the Bibliotheca... [read full story]