Asaf, thank you for noting the email. I hadn't yet joined the list when it was sent and somehow missed the mention when looking through the archives.
Gnosygnu, Thank you for all of this context and answering my questions. I downloaded the Android version and am playing around with it now. The Wikimedia Foundation's New Reader https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_Readers's initiative has identified offline https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_Readers/Offline use of online content as a focus area and so your work and results are very relevant.
I am sorry that lack of feedback has been an issue. Our vision and ecosystem are so massive that it is often challenging for staff to be both focused and aware of all of the other important work that is going on. Interest fluctuates as well: depending on what we are working on, a particular long-standing project might have significant overlap with our initiatives or be equally important/valuable and yet necessarily separate from our focus. I don't have any brilliant answers for how we improve on this, but wanted to at least give an explanation for why interesting work sometimes doesn't get the attention it ideally should. I am glad that your enthusiasm hasn't taken a hit!
Best,
J
On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 9:53 PM, gnosygnu gnosygnu@gmail.com wrote:
@Asaf: Thanks for remembering the email! It was indeed the late hours of July 31st [1]. It always feels good to hear from someone who notices your emails. :)
@Jon: I had been posting regularly to this mailing list, but was discouraged by the lack of feedback. I've still been releasing XOWA regularly over the past two years, so my enthusiasm for the project hasn't abated.[2]
In terms of use cases, XOWA appeals primarily to these types of users:
- Technology enthusiasts who are passionate about Wikipedia: XOWA
allows a complete, recent copy of Wikipedia on your computer or device. This concept appeals to people who understand the value of Wikipedia and love the idea of having all of it sitting on their computer. XOWA's primary draw here is that it allows you to build a Wikipedia with just the wikitext dump. Of course, some of XOWA's features are particularly distinguishing and attractive in their own right[3].
- Users with limited network availability who want a Wikipedia
experience: XOWA reproduces the look and feel of Wikipedia in a browser. This ranges from offering the same page layout (for example, the sidebar on the left) to having similar JavaScript behavior (for example, sortable tables). As such XOWA could be deployed as a drop-in replacement for Wikipedia. Note that XOWA also has an HTTP Server mode, so it can function as an isolated server for a group of local users. Also, XOWA Android has the same look and feel as an older version of the Wikipedia Mobile app (they've since changed that look and feel in the past few months)
- MediaWiki users who want an offline version of their wiki: XOWA
supports a wide range of MediaWiki functions and extensions. As such, it handles all 820+ known wikis[4] across 250+ languages and 10+ different wiki types. It even handles a read-only Wikidata[5]. It can also be used to offline Wikia wikis, as well as other sites that run on MediaWiki
- Developers / boutique users who want to do "custom things" with
Wikipedia: XOWA stores all its data in SQLite, does on-demand parsing, and makes this all available through API calls. It's also open-source. As such, various customizations are possible: ** Those who want to generate HTML dumps so they can scrape the HTML for research or analytical purposes ** Those who want to parse any wikitext to HTML to do editing or have their "personal" version of a wiki ** Those who want to build an education-friendly version of Wikipedia without "offensive" content
In terms of adoption, XOWA is still very small. XOWA averages something like 600 to 700 downloads per week for the past year [6]. I don't do any self-promotion, and really have been relying on word of mouth. As an independent developer, programming takes up nearly all my time and skill set, and leaves little (if any) for marketing. Of course, I'd love to have any help on this. Just as Asaf indicated, I also know of no direct involvement in XOWA by anyone at Wikimedia, but would welcome any participation.
I hope this is enough information for you. Please feel free to let me know if you need anything more here, or reach out to me off-list for further discussion.
Thanks!
[1]: See https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/offline-l/2016-August/ 001359.html [2]: For example, here are my releases in 2015: http://xowa.org/home/wiki/Change_log/2015.html [3]: Some of XOWA's notable features:
- Up-to date: XOWA imports directly from the dumps at
https://dumps.wikimedia.org/backup-index.html . As these dumps are generated on a bi-weekly basis, XOWA allows you to have a recent version of Wikipedia that can be only 2 weeks old.
- Complete: XOWA generates every page in Wikipedia, including pages in
the Wikipedia namespace ("Did you know" articles), Portal namespace, Category namespace, as well as Template / Module ones. Literally, it provides all of the text content of Wikipedia (and the images as well).
- Look and feel: XOWA reproduces as much of the look and feel of
Wikipedia as possible. You can see a visual comparison at http://xowa.org/screenshots.html#Comparison
- Integrates with other wikis: XOWA navigates seamlessly between the
offline wikis. If you're in English Wikipedia, and click on a link for English Wiktionary it will open up the page in your offline English Wiktionary automatically (and if you don't have an offline version, it will open up the online version in a web browser) [4]: Basically, all the wikis at https://dumps.wikimedia.org/ba ckup-index.html [5]: See http://xowa.org/screenshots.html#Wikidata [6]: Keep in mind that XOWA doesn't do any telemetry or analytics, so I'm relying only on download statistics from https://api.github.com/repos/gnosygnu/xowa/releases
On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 1:20 PM, Asaf Bartov abartov@wikimedia.org wrote:
Actually, its developer announced a release as recently as July 31st. (Subject line: "XOWA Android App released: v3.8.1.1").
I am not aware of deployments of XOWA by Wikimedians.
A.
On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 10:16 AM Jon Katz jkatz@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hey, I just heard about XOWA via a lifehacker article. I haven't seen XOWA mentioned on these lists too much (it hasn't had a subject line on "Offline-l" in over 2 years), so thought it was worth highlighting its existence and checking in.
Is there anyone who works on XOWA who would be willing to share any feedback on adoption or known use cases? I was just talking about
offline
desktop with Anne G. and we were speculating as to where and when this
was
valuable.
Best,
Jon _______________________________________________ Offline-l mailing list Offline-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/offline-l
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