This is a brief report from the FLOSS Conference in South Africa that
Erik and I attended this week. A more detailed version is on Meta at
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Conference_reports/FLOSS%2C_South_Africa_2005>;
so please read that one instead if you have time.
I was invited to give a presentation about the Wikimedia projects at
the international "Free/Libre and Open Source Software" (FLOSS) and
Free Knowledge workshop in Pretoria, South Africa. Erik was given the
opportunity to hold a workshop there about wiki technology. The byline
for the conference was "Knowledge for all, Education for all", so the
Wikimedia projects fitted in perfectly.
The first day was made up of formal presentations. A list of these is
on Meta. My talk was part of a "Digital Commons" panel. Much of the
second day was divided into two workshops, including Erik's. The theme
of Free Knowledge Communities was discussed on day 3, and there were
many areas in which Wikimedia projects could collaborate with existing
initiatives, and new ideas for using Wikimedia content:
* Spoken Wikipedia by cell phone. Many areas of Africa have high
cell phone coverage with access to SMS. Teemu Leinonen of the
University of Art and Design Helsinki is working on a project to allow
a user to send an SMS with the article title to a phone number. A few
seconds later, they get a call on their cell phone with a (usually
machine-generated) spoken version of the article they requested.
* Wikipedia in schools. Static HTML dumps on DVD, offline
applications that allow editing, and update feeds like rsync to
maintain offline copies, were all requested by people working on
getting Wikipedia into schools. Where people were interested in print
projects, they wanted to focus on printing out particular topics,
rather than having a copy of the entire encyclopedia.
* Wiktionary. There is a need for a repository of legal
terminology in the 11 official languages of South Africa since courts
often rely on untrained interpreters who need a reference guide for
dealing with unfamiliar terminology from any of the languages they
were not native speakers of.
* Wikibooks/Wikiversity/E-learning. With the price of textbooks
much higher in South Africa than in developed countriesfree textbooks
are of extreme importance, and Wikibooks could provide the content
needed for initiatives to deliver this. We discussed our existing and
potential future projects at length and talked to proponents of
various e-learning initiatives.
Again, see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Conference_reports/FLOSS%2C_South_Africa_2005
for details on any of these issues.
==Meetup==
On the evening of the third day, the first African meetup as held in
"Cafe 41". Four Wikipedians from South Africa participated: Laurens,
Alias, Renier Maritz and Andy Rabagliati. Renier's wife also joined
us, along with some people from the conference. We discussed ways to
promote the Afrikaans Wikipedia, methods to distribute Wikipedia to
Africa, localization of the interface, and possibilities for
e-learning.
==Future conferences==
Several upcoming conferences were mentioned as being of possible
interest to Wikimedia. Most notable of these are WSIS
(<http://www.itu.int/wsis/>;), which I believe Jimmy and Yann may be
attending, and the World Conference on Computers in Education
(<http://www.sbs.co.za/wcce2005/>;), for which no Wikimedia attendance
is currently planned.
Unfortunately, we did not see much of South Africa beyond the
conference centre. Nevertheless, the visit was very productive and led
to many new contacts and insights. We aim to follow up on the
discussions, and turn some of the ideas above into reality soon.
Angela.
--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Angela
Jimbo:
> My research (conducted in December) showed that half the edits by logged
> in users belong to just 2.5% of logged in users.
I was in the audience in Berlin when you talked about this.
It inspired me to add a table to wikistats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm#wikipedians
Erik Zachte
Hi, does someone of you know where I can find a discussion list for
wikisource? I just searched for it, but did not find it.
Please help! There's quite an interesting thing going on in Europe and
it could be a great thing for wikisource to "grow" with this project.
Sorry, don't have the time to describe now - if you want to know more,
let me know and I'll send a copy of the mail I'll write this evening to
this list.
Ciao, Sabine
*****
Sabine Cretella
Translations
s.cretella(a)wordsandmore.it
skype:sabinecretella
Hey, all -
Reader's Digest (Canada) plans to reprint a version of this article:
http://legadoassociates.com/wikipedi.htm
My job is to fact-check the article before it goes into the magazine,
and to do that, I would like to talk with some Wikipedia
contributors. Anyone interested in helping me fact-check the article
should contact me through e-mail. A lot of the article is not base
so much on strict facts but is rather the author's opinion on
WIkipedia's place in the encyclopedia ecosystem, yet I still have to
check that. I need to report to my editors whether the author has
defensible ideas.
To do his, I wouldn't mind speaking to both avid contributors and
those with criticisms. Thanks in advance, all.
(Jimmy - I would like to get in touch with you about this, since
you're mentioned by name. I left voicemail for Terry Foote on
Friday, but I haven't heard back.)
--
Laurie Nyveen nyveen(a)videotron.ca
__________________________________________________________________
Editor, Netsurfer Digest - http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/index.html
"All we are, basically, are monkeys with car keys."
- Grandma Woody (Northern Exposure)
Hmm, I wonder if we can think of any websites to nominate in the
e-culture, e-learning categories? ;-) I haven't checked the website,
but these awards are given in 150 countries, so we have plenty of
opportunities to win a few dozen of them. ;-)
Maybe there is a global category.
--Jimbo
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [bjc] World Summit Awards USA competition
Date: Tue, 03 May 2005 09:15:44 -0400
From: Andy Carvin <acarvin(a)edc.org>
Reply-To: bjc(a)eon.law.harvard.edu
Organization: Center for Media & Community
To: bjc(a)eon.law.harvard.edu
Hi everyone,
I'd like to announce the official opening of the World Summit Awards USA
competition. The official digital content competition of the UN's World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which will take place in Tunis
this November, the World Summit Awards will hold competitions in more
than 150 countries around the globe. I'm serving as coordinator of the
USA competition.
We're seeking nominations for the best websites (including blogs) and
CD-ROMs from the USA in the following categories:
e-business
e-culture
e-entertainment
e-government
e-health
e-inclusion
e-learning
e-science
I've assembled a team of more than a dozen volunteers representing a
range of expertise in digital content. We will review the nominations
and select a winner in each category; the winner will then represent the
USA in the international competition.
To nominate a website or CD-ROM, please visit here:
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?id=93093
CD-ROMs should be mailed to:
Andy Carvin
EDC Center for Media & Community
55 Chapel Street
Newton, MA 02458
Nominations must be received by May 30, 2005; winners will be announced
by July 1, 2005.
Please feel free to share the URL and extend an invitation to colleagues
to submit nominations for the competition.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at acarvin @ edc
.org. For more information about the competition and WSIS, please visit
here:
http://www.wsis-award.orghttp://www.wsis.org
thanks,
ac
--
-----------------------------------
Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.nethttp://www.tsunami-info.org
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
-----------------------------------
I agree with the points Fred, Mathias, and Neil already made.
In addition:
"Not only that but Wikipedia is setting a blistering pace with a
thousand new articles being added each day."
It's 3758 new per day over all (although it is 1048 per day for the
English version) as of the end of April.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/TablesWikipediaZZ.htm>
"He added a few canny rules-of-order: Whenever someone edits an
article, a new version of the article is created and saved."
Revision histories are fairly standard in wiki software, so I wouldn't
say Jimmy added that. It was present, in a less useful form, in the
UseMod software which predates Wikipedia.
"Despite meteoric growth, Wikipedia has remained an all-volunteer
outfit, financed by donations."
This isn't strictly true anymore. We do have two paid staff now -
Brion Vibber on development and server work, and Chad Perrin on
hardware work in the Florida colocation facility. Part of the funding
comes from grants, sponsorship, and paid-for services such as an OAI
feed. The majority of financing is still from donations though.
Angela.
--
Angela Beesley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Angela
Forwarded on Wouter's own request
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Also, the English word "consequent" does not have the meaning of the
>Dutch "consequent" as one of its meanings. The word you meant is
>"consistently".
>
>Andre Engels
>
Ok, thanks about that André! Now you see why I contribute so little to en:.
I can't trust my English, being too poor. I'm happy if everyone understands
me, though...