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moulin Wiki - the Offline Wikipedia
Challenges Entered:
The moulin wiki project is our attempt to improve the access to basic information and reference material in developing countries by making it possible to access Wikipedia, the world’s largest, free encylopedia, offline.
The moulin wiki project is an attempt to improve the access to basic information and reference material in developing countries by making it possible to access Wikipedia, the world’s largest, free encylopedia, offline.
Most people in the developing world have limited or no access to the basic reference tools that can be used to enrich life. For the price of a CD-ROM and access to a computer the benefit of Wikipedia can now be shared. In many countries like Mali, computers are becoming increasingly prelavent, however, high connectivity rates will likely mean that most of these computers will remain offline for the foreseeable future. We see moulin as a powerful first step towards bridging the content gap.
Moulin's mission is three fold:
- 1. To continue to develop and make available a free offline version of Wikipedia (updated periodically) that can fit on a CD or DVD. We hope to eventually support all major languages
- To work with partners to distribute moulin widely to make Wikipedia accessible to people who do not have access to the Internet or where the content they can access is censored.
- To promote the generation of local content by developing methods to help facilitate offline contributions to Wikipedia to make it a more complete, accurate and globally representative base of knowledge.
Social Impact
People will benefit from access to a base of knowledge that was previously unavailable to them. One no longer has to be online to access Wikipedia.
WHAT WE NEED:
- Partners to help with distribution
- Volunteer programmers
- Money for distribution (CD pressing, postage, local trainings)
- Extra computer for processing the compression of Wikipedia data
- Translators to help release moulin in other languages
- Partners to help with distribution
- Volunteer programmers
- Money for distribution (CD pressing, postage, local trainings)
- Extra computer for processing the compression of Wikipedia data
- Translators to help release moulin in other languages
Location
Bamako
Mali
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I like this a lot
This project really strikes me. Have you had discussion with the Wikipedia people? I would think they would be very supportive of this as a community and a tremendous resource.
Wikipedia Vs. Traditional Orgs
Hey- how are you?
This seems like a cool idea- just curious...what made you choose Wikipedia? I assume there's a bulk rate for traditional CD encyclopedias that might have more relevant info than Wikipedia. Just wondering about your work- either way, congratulations on your effort.
Best,
Phil
Cauzoo.com
Re: Wikipedia Vs. Traditional Orgs
Of course there are other CD encyclopedias, but none are free ; which is very important when you plan to distribute widely.
Plus, because of the specific needs of our target users ; we needed to hack on some parts (build a simplified UI, make it fit on a single disc, etc). Thoses are stuff you can't do with a copyrighted material.
Plus, I think that Wikipedia has a lot of highly revelant articles about non-encyclopedia-correct topics which are very usefull to some people.
Finaly, we love the Wikipedia approch : from the people, to the people. We plan to set up a way for thoses offline users to insert content back into Wikiepedia.
"Finaly, we love the
"Finaly, we love the Wikipedia approch : from the people, to the people. We plan to set up a way for thoses offline users to insert content back into Wikipedia."
I love this part of your game. Sounds like a very important step to your project. Offline users inserting content back into wikipedia. Anybody with ideas about how this could be feasible for people in the rural areas, or kids, or any illiterate knowledgeable elder with untangible heritage to deliver? Great idea.