San Jose, U. S.: June 10, 2002 - The organizers of the Tamil Internet Conference & Exhibition 2002 (Tamil Internet 2002), which will be held in California from September 27 to 29, this year, have announced a world-wide competition for school children to design web pages in Tamil and English languages.

Tamil Internet 2002 is the fifth in the conference series which began in 1997.  Centered on the theme 'Bridging The Digital Divide', this event will focus mainly on technical, professional and business issues related to Tamil Internet and Tamil computing.  This year the event is organized by the US chapter of the International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT), the leading global organization dedicated to IT developments in Tamil.

In conjunction with Tamil Internet 2002, the organizers have created a global competition for school children who will be encouraged to create web pages relating to Tamil language, culture and heritage.  Mr Mani M Manivannan, chair of the US organizing committee, said, "Through this competition we would like to generate widespread interest in Tamil internet and Tamil heritage among Tamil school children.  In a medium dominated by English language content, this will be a small step in providing  information in Tamil." The competition themes on which the web pages should be created include Our Tamil Heritage, Local Music, Art, Craft forms,  People that inspired me/us, A Book that inspired me/us, Place that I/we love, Wonders of the World, Wonders of the Sky, Tamil as a global citizen,
Sports that Tamils Enjoy, and Internet

While teachers and parents could act as project leaders or mentors, the basic research and design must be done by students. The students could come from any grade below pre-university level. 

The competition will be open effective June 10 and all entries must reach the organizers by September 1st 2002.   

The entries will be judged by a panel of international experts and their decision will be final.  Winners will be announced on September 29th at the conference.  Winners will be notified by the organizers by email and also through mass media where possible.  Prizes will be distributed through the respective national representatives of INFITT.  Every participant will also be given a certificate of participation through mail.

Mr Manivannan said, "INFITT is planning to compile a selection of the entries into an online book that will be accessible around the world.  Hopefully it will be an inspiration to other Tamil children to pursue their language and culture."

The full details of this competition may be viewed at http://www.infitt.org/ti2002/competition/

For further media enquiries, please contact:
Mr Mani M Manivannan at ti2002@infitt.org or Mr A Narayanan at Tel: 65-62111141 or secretariat@infitt.org

You can also visit our website at http://www.infitt.org