Telenor Myanmar 5th Net Monday @ Dagon University

Telenor Myanmar today held its fifth Net Monday at Dagon University with guest speakers from Wikipedia Myanmar. It is the first time such an event has been held at Dagon University and the topic was focused on enhancing wisdom through Internet.

More than 2,100 students attended the monthly event, which raised awareness and understanding of the role of Internet connectivity in promoting learning and enhancing education in Myanmar.

This month’s guest speakers were Telenor Myanmar’s partner Wikipedia Myanmar. Wikipedia is the world’s biggest free online encyclopedia and contains more than 30 million volunteer-authored articles in over 287 languages. The website is visited by more than 490 million people every month, making it one of the most popular sites in the world.

The following key topics were discussed:

• Internet connectivity as a means to promote learning, wisdom and enable Myanmar’s students to gain greater access to knowledge and become more competitive in the global market
• Telenor’s partnership with Wikimedia Foundation on the Wikipedia Zero project, which aims to encourage local content creation and increased access to knowledge and online learning resources.
• The socioeconomic benefits of increasing Internet connectivity for people across Myanmar
• The role of netizens and the online community in Myanmar in contributing accurate and more diverse online content in the local language
• Internet penetration to reach grassroots level in Myanmar
• How Wikipedia can be updated and differentiated from traditional encyclopedias
• The history of Myanmar Wikipedia that has been carried on by 5 members of managing team and 66 contributors providing 31991 articles, 47124 edits, 3730 pictures to 23153 users today
• References and citations verification process of Wikipedia to enforce the unbiased articles with useful information
• Telenor’s active involvement from the employees in contributing to Wikipedia Myanmar
• How Myanmar Wiki can contain information regarding culture and heritage of Myanmar which cannot be found in English version

Telenor and the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, announced in November 2013 that Myanmar was the latest country to be included in an agreement to bring Wikipedia Zero to Telenor customers in Myanmar. Through this agreement, Telenor’s future mobile subscribers in Myanmar will be able to access Wikipedia’s vast knowledge base free of mobile Internet charges when Telenor begins services in the country.

However, the Myanmar version of Wikipedia – my.wikipedia.org - currently only has around 30, 000 articles in local language. Through the partnership with Telenor Myanmar, creation of content is the first step towards launching Wikipedia Zero.

Dagon University Rector, Dr. Hla Htay said, “Today’s event is held through collaboration with Telenor Myanmar, Dagon University and Wikipedia. This event is an important step towards better education, stronger knowledge and most important of all, internet access. The students stand to benefit much from this session.”

Local Wikipedia representative Ko Zaw Thet Aung spoke to the students about the benefit of Wikipedia and said: “Knowledge and wisdom is power, and for students Wikipedia can offer an easily accessible platform with unbiased and useful information. In order for Wikipedia to become a household name and a natural ‘go-to’ place for information online, we need more contributors to create more local content.”

Mr. Furberg, CEO of Telenor Myanmar said, “Telenor is excited to be meeting with so many bright, young minds in Myanmar, and to be part of creating a platform where students can participate in shaping content creation. Access to knowledge is key and today is part of Telenor’s goal of providing a vibrant and supportive environment for the education and cultivation of talent in Myanmar. Telenor and our staff are also actively supporting Wikipedia in creating content in local language – we already held two training sessions and the engagement has exceeded our expectations.”

He added, “Today’s event is an extension of our partnership with the Wikipedia Foundation and Wikipedia Myanmar to contribute to the local community, and we are grateful to Dagon University to inviting us to their campus.

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