he internet has always been an alien territory to many Bangladeshis. Part of the blame falls to the acute shortage of Bangla contents in the World Wide Web, which receives more contents than what is stored at archives of Library of Congress. And also for the lack of signs pointing to the Bangla web pages that are already in the internet. But the tide could be turning.
A new government initiative launched this week aims to bring more contents in the local language and put them under one roof for everyone. The National e-Content Repository, more popularly known as the 'e-Info Kosh', is available at infokosh.bangladesh.gov.bd, and already boasts over 50,000 pages of information during its launch. It contains information on a range of topics including education, agriculture, health, law, human rights and citizen services. “There is something for everyone,” says an official at the Access to Information programme at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). “It could be a district lawyer who is curious about a new law or a farmer trying to find the means to rid his croplands from an alien insect,” he said. “Or it could be an indigenous person trying to learn Bangla or a tourist looking for a place to stay in Teknaf,” he added. “The website has information for almost everyone.”
Apart from text pages, there are also audio, video and other multimedia based entries at the repository. More audio entries would be included in the future especially for the visually impaired people, government officials said. A total of 198 government non-government organisations have been working since last June to create the contents, which are expected to reach 5 million pages by 2013.
News Source: The Daily Star