Indians speak English
By Techgirl

Like most technology journalists, I use Wikipedia to research a number of subjects.  In my view, some of the fantastic Wikipedia articles on technology cannot be matched by any other site.

Mumbai has been hosting two key Wikipedia events this week – the WikiConference India and a Hackathon.  The Hackathon 2011, which ended Nov 20, was to ‘help Wikipedia improve access to Wikipedia and Wikimedia's other projects across all languages, via mobile devices, and for people without Internet access’.

Being based in Mumbai, I dropped in and you could feel the positive energy at the Wikipedia events.  There is something so admirable about  highly paid and highly qualified techies volunteering their time to help provide free knowledge to the world.

Wikipedia Internationalization / Localization outreach consultant, Gerard Meijssen, has blogged on how most Indian computer programmers and analysts see themselves as speaking English

“
At the Mumbai Hackathon many Wikimedia developers are present but there are many, many more Indian developers. The one thing that is quite funny is that when you ask them “what language do you speak”, they say that it is English. Only when you ask “do you speak any other languages?” you learn “eh, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil..”
“

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog techgirltalk.blogspot.com.  Techgirl has been ejected from Twitter for satirizing an Indian Minister.  Her satire blog has links to her Times of India interview detailing her being kicked out of Twitter, and then being invited back.