Oh Wikipedia - not everyone loves thee - Dasha is an Arabic based media repository

By Copper Harding @ Monday, July 14, 2008 9:18 AM

Section - PCs/Internet

Wikipedia was the first of the wikis to provide information dissemination and a reach in to multiple different languages with varying numbers of articles in each language.

But it would seem that it isn't enough and it now has a rival. If you could call it that. More likely it's a site designed to fit the needs of people that Wikipedia wasn't meeting. Dasha,  is an Arabic Encyclopedia that allows volunteers to post books, reports, studies, articles and even video, audio and useful programs to the encyclopaedia.

This covers a broader range of media types than Wikipedia. Dasha was developed and managed by Jordan Tek, a software and web development company located in Jordan. Volunteers, while allowed to post media, are not allowed to edit other's posts but are allowed to comment. This provides a barrier to the free-for-all that is often Wikipedia but creates more work for the adminsitrators as they must edit based upon comments that improve the article or media.

This might become overwhelming and cumbersome as the site grows. Hopefully they have a business model designed to overcome the need for staff editing. According to Mohammed Marwan Meddah's translation of the About page,  'the encyclopaedia's library currently hosts around 60,000 books and collections. It also features different sections which contain thousands of studies and research papers, all properly categorised in their respective places, making it easy for users to access and make the most of, thereby saving him long hours of searching. This is in addition to the sound tracks and cultural and educational programmes which span different fields which are available on the site.'

 Overall this looks to be a contribution to the world knowledge of Arabic media and information. Thanks to this lot at Global Voices. X