[Devnations-l] Fwd: 1M Entries of Free Knowledge Go To Africa

[Manuel Schneider]

This is a report how and where ZIM is used.

Nothing directly related to our development, but I'd like you to know
and share this as a heads-up ;-)


/Manuel


-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Betreff: [Devnations-l] Fwd: 1M Entries of Free Knowledge Go To Africa
Datum: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:15:10 +0200
Von: Asaf Bartov <asaf.bartov-***@public.gmane.org>
Antwort an: Growing Wikimedia in developing nations
<devnations-l-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+***@public.gmane.org>
An: devnations-l-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+***@public.gmane.org



Hello, everyone.

Below is a report I just sent about Wikimedia Israel's recent work to
spread free knowledge in Africa. I bring it to your attention with
particular emphasis on the *means, *as I consider it an excellent
example of what we had identified as an effective approach in the
Proposed Agenda
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Proposed_Agenda_for_Wikimedia_in_Developing_Nations.pdf&page=1>

document, namely: reaching out to organizations *already active *in
developing nations and *give them Wikimedia content*.

Cheers,

Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Israel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Asaf Bartov* <asaf.bartov-***@public.gmane.org <mailto:asaf.bartov-***@public.gmane.org>>
Date: Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 8:08 PM
Subject: 1M Entries of Free Knowledge Go To Africa
To: "Local Chapters, board and officers coordination (closed
subscription)" <internal-l-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+***@public.gmane.org
<mailto:internal-l-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+***@public.gmane.org>>


Hello, everyone.

Here's a rough translation of a press release Wikimedia Israel has
issued yesterday, about the "Africa Center" project I had mentioned in
an e-mail to this list on June 30th 2010 (see that e-mail for more
background on the Africa Center at Ben Gurion University).

=== START OF PRESS RELEASE ===
TITLE: Wikipedia Goes To Africa -- Israeli Students to Leave for
Humanitarian Work in Africa, Equipped With Portable Static Wikipedia

SUBTITLE: Ben-Gurion University's "Africa Center", Wikimedia Israel, and
Hamakor cooperate in making free knowledge accessible in Africa

The Africa Center at BGU, headed by Dr. Tamar Golan, annually sends a
group of students on a three-month humanitarian expedition to developing
countries in Africa. This year's group is going to the Repbulic of
Benin and the Republic of Cameroon.

Learning about this while approaching the Africa Center for help with
developing Africa-related entries on the Hebrew Wikipedia, Wikimedia
Israel decided to equip the students with computers running free
software and containing an offline (static) version of the French
Wikipedia, so that the students can bring free knowledge to Africans
without access to the Internet.

Wikimedia Israel reached out to Hamakor, the Israeli Free and Open
Source Software NGO, and Hamakor helped obtain computer donations,
refurbished them and installed the Linux operating system on them.

Wikimedia Israel collaborated with members of Wikimedia Switzerland and
Wikimedia France to produce an up-to-date static version of the French
Wikipedia (numbering about 1 million entries, and including images),
French being a major language of reading and writing in Cameroon and Benin.

"The students also have portable installations of the offline Wikipedia,
so that they may install it on any other computers they may run across
in Africa," explained Asaf Bartov, who coordinated the project in
Wikimedia Israel, "and they have received training on using Linux and
Kiwix, the offline Wikipedia reader (free) software, so they may train
others to use the computers".

Incidentally, the Linux version installed on those computers is called
Ubuntu Linux, 'Ubuntu' being an African word (in the Zulu language)
roughly translatable as "unity of mankind" or "mutual reliance".

Supporting and promoting the distribution of free knowledge in
developing countries is one of the five major goals identified by the
Wikimedia Foundation as central to its five-year strategy plan,
developed by thousands of members of the Wikimedia Movement.

=== END OF PRESS RELEASE ===

I'd like to specifically express our gratitude to Emmanuel Engelhart,
chief developer of Kiwix, for all his help in getting the content ready
and working on a tight schedule.

We are very pleased with this project, and consider it a prime example
for seizing an opportunity for outreach that we never expected to come
our way.

As always, questions, comments, translations and relaying (of the press
release) to other lists/communities are welcome.

Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Israel

[Asaf Bartov]

FYI.

Asaf

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Asaf Bartov <asaf.bartov-***@public.gmane.org>
Date: 2010/9/16
Subject: Re: [Internal-l] 1M Entries of Free Knowledge Go To Africa

Thanks for the congratulations.

We will be sure to share some photos and blog posts by the students once
those become available, in the coming months.

In the meantime, some of you have asked for a linkable version of our press
release, so here's a link to a wikified version:

http://wikimedia.org.il/Press_release:Wikipedia_Goes_To_Africa

Cheers,

Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Israel

2010/9/15 KIZU Naoko <aphaia-***@public.gmane.org>

Thank you Asaf for letting us share the news, and congrats for

launching the project! I'm looking forward seeing it success -
possibly you'll give us updates in Haifa next year? :)
--

Asaf Bartov <asaf.bartov-***@public.gmane.org>