Offline-l September 2020

offline-l@lists.wikimedia.org

7 participants
4 discussions

Kiwix/openZIM is moving to Zstandard compression
by Emmanuel Engelhart 28 Sep '20

28 Sep '20

Hi The ZIM format relies on third party compression algorithms to provide the best user experience. This means, high compression level, quick decompression, high portability, etc. Overtime the ZIM has used gzip, bzip2 and since almost 10 years the lzma2 version of the xz library. Time to time new modern compression algorithms are created and we use to evaluate them to see if this would bring a significant improvement for our users. Usually it would not be worth the effort of switching, but this has been different in the case of Zstandard (zstd). The key advantage is that zstd offers a higher decompression speed for a similar (to lzma) compression ratio. That means articles are displayed even quicker than before and the energy consumption is a lot less. You can read the whole discussion at https://github.com/openzim/libzim/issues/84. The decision of switching from lzma to xz has been made earlier this year and actually most of our Kiwix ports have been able to read zstd based ZIM files since more than a quarter. We are approaching now the end of the transition stage for Kiwix readers and therefore we will soon (during October) start to publish ZIM files using the new compression zstd. For 99% of the users this move will be totally transparent and they should only notice the reading/searching speed-up. For the 1% left a few things have to be considered: * If you can not read a new ZIM file, please update to the latest version of your (Kiwix) reader (this is always a good advice). * For all non Kiwix readers, but still libzim based, these readers should be re-compiled/re-released with the latest libzim. * For users relying on ZIM files but not on the libzim/Kiwix software stack, the software needs to be fixed. We don't plan so far to discontinued the support of lzma compression algorithm even if we discouraged to use it as zstd is simply always better. Older ZIM files are still perfectly readable, and this won't change in the next couple of years. Regards Emmanuel -- Kiwix - Wikipedia Offline & more * Web: https://kiwix.org/ * Twitter: https://twitter.com/KiwixOffline * Wiki: https://wiki.kiwix.org/

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[Wikipedia 20] Rapid Grant survey
by Samir Elsharbaty 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

Hi everyone, (Apologies for cross-posting.) As part of the upcoming celebrations surrounding Wikipedia's 20th birthday[1], the Wikimedia Foundation is publishing a short optional survey[2] that will help us understand the needs of people who would like to host a birthday event. The survey is expected to take three to five minutes to fill in and will remain open until 23:59 UTC on Wednesday, 30 September 2020. Before taking the survey, please review the privacy statement policy[3]. We would also like to announce that the Foundation will be supporting Wikipedia 20 anniversary celebration events through multiple grant programs: * Rapid Grants[4] to support celebration events up to 2000 USD. * Additional funding for Conference & Events grantees (e.g. for a regional or thematic conference) who wish to incorporate a celebration event to an existing conference. * Conference & Event Grants[5] to support celebration events for more than 2000 USD.* *Round one applications for conference & event grants [5] is now open until 28 September 2020. On behalf of the Wikipedia 20 team, Samir Elsharbaty [1] Wikipedia 20 meta page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20 [2] Survey link: https://wikimedia.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4GyxYcdRSSM5M8J [3] Privacy statement: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_20_Community_Feedback_Surve… [4] Rapid grants page on meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid [5] Conference grants page on meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference Samir Elsharbaty (he/him) Brand Associate Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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Raspberry Pi self-hosting for education/collaborations?
by Željko Blaće 09 Sep '20

09 Sep '20

hi folks - new here... Anyone experienced or interested in running self hosted apps (Wikis & co) offline on Raspberry Pi for open-air outdoor education/ collaborations? What else would you have on the device? Etherpad? Jitsi install? Links would be welcome, especially if with documentation of possible issues :-) Best Z

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Offline : Membership
by Florence Devouard 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

Hello I will remind members of this list that our wiki portal is here : * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_for_offline_wikis Membership page for the UserGroup : * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_for_offline_wikis (feel free adding yourself if you want to be member of the group) Last, I published our annual report * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Offline_Projects/Reports Flo

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Offline-l September 2020