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696 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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WM chat
by Michael Graaf 31 Aug '20

31 Aug '20

Hi all, just letting you know that the Foundation is now hosting a Mattermost chat server, which already has a "wiki-offline" channel. See https://chat.wmcloud.org/signup_email Cheers, -- Michael Graaf, M.Phil (UCT) Researcher, Editor & Community Informatics Practitioner Mob +27795487242 WhatsApp +27647754342 ORCID 0000-0002-1951-5739

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[KIWIX][GUTENBERG] 60, 000 public domain books can fit on a flashdrive
by Emmanuel Engelhart 28 Aug '20

28 Aug '20

60,000 public domain books can fit on a flashdrive There are still parts of the world where access to the global internet is limited. Rural parts of world from Alaska to Africa to Asia have bandwidth to that is unevenly distributed. Governments regularly cut off website and apps access to their residents, with education often a collateral damage. There is and will always be a need for offline access to online resources. Project Gutenberg <https://gutenberg.org/> is a 48 year old organization whose mission is to make public domain works available for free on the internet. For the past two years, the Free Ebook Foundation has been working with Project Gutenberg to improve their website and ebook-building infrastructure. Kiwix has been developing content modules for some time now to facilitate their distribution effort. It was only a matter of time for these two orgs to meet and plan mischief together. Together with a team of computer-science seniors from Steven Institute of Technology <https://www.stevens.edu/>, and building on our development work with Project Gutenberg, the Free Ebook Foundation undertook to improve the usability and currency of Kiwix-developed Gutenberg content modules. The students added bookshelf functionality to the modules, and helped to streamline the process of module creation. These enhanced content modules are available today on the Kiwix website – a list is available <https://ebookfoundation.org/openzim.html> on the Free Ebook Foundation website, along with links to a demo site and the software used to create the content modules. USB flash drives that can store 128GB of data are can be found for as low as $20 on most online stores – that’s more than enough storage for all 60,000+ books. About the Free Ebook Foundation The Free Ebook Foundation <https://ebookfoundation.org> is a 501(c)3 New Jersey non-profit corporation. The Free Ebook Foundation envisions a world where ebooks will be funded, distributed and maintained for the benefit of all, by coordinating the efforts and resources of many. About Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg <http://www.gutenberg.org/> was the first provider of free electronic books. Its mission is to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education. About Kiwix Kiwix is an offline reader for online content like Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, or TED Talks. It makes knowledge available to people with no or limited internet access. The software as well as the content is free to use for anyone. Kiwix is a non-profit organisation and is based in Switzerland. Our software is open-source available for free. The work we do is partially provided by volunteers, partially funded by individual donations, and grants from foundations. -- Kiwix - Wikipedia Offline & more * Web: https://kiwix.org/ * Twitter: https://twitter.com/KiwixOffline * Wiki: https://wiki.kiwix.org/

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Invitation to affiliate members to complete a survey about WMF wide Universal Code of Conduct
by Florence Devouard 27 Aug '20

27 Aug '20

Transfered from Mervat She is inviting you to answer this survey, to help the Trust and Safety team to create a safter environment for all on our projects with the design of a global set of conduct rules. Please weight in Florence ==Message to Members== Hello; My name is Mervat, and I am helping the Trust and Safety team to reach out to affiliates in order to discuss the Universal Code of Conduct. There has been talks about the need for a global set of conduct rules in different communities over time, and finally, Wikimedia Foundation Board announced a Community Culture Statement, enacting new standards to address harassment and promote inclusivity across projects. Since the universal code of conduct that will be a binding minimum set of standards across all Wikimedia projects, will apply to all of us, staff and volunteers alike, all around the globe, and will impact our work as groups, individuals and projects, it’s of great importance that we all participate in expressing our opinions and thoughts about UCoC, its nature, what we think it should cover or include and what it shouldn’t include; how it may develop, drawback or help our groups. This is the time to talk about it. As you are a valuable contributor to the Wikimedia movement, your voice counts. Before starting to draft the code of conduct, we would like to hear from you; We invite you to devote some minutes to take this survey; your answers will help us create a safer environment for all on Wikimedia: (English): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd36dNdU3C5shXEkKp9itJOhuCTx9hZE5A… <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd36dNdU3C5shXEkKp9itJOhuCTx9hZE5A…> It’s possible that you are a member of more than one affiliate; hence you may receive this survey more than once, and you may have participated previously in the discussions or filled out a previous survey during the first round of consultations about UCoC which targeted wikipedia/wikimedia communities. We apologize for this; it is really difficult to identify if a wikimedianbelongs to multiple groups that work to spread free knowledge. Looking forward to your thoughts and opinions and hoping that you can respond within the next 2 weeks. If you have any questions about the surveys or difficulties accessing the link, please contact me by email (msalman-ctr(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:msalman-ctr@wikimedia.org>) Results will be considered during the drafting process for the UCoC Thank you for your participation Mervat Salman Trust & Safety (Policy) Facilitator Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment."

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[WIKIMEDIA TECH TALK] In 3 HOURS: openZIM/Kiwix ETL toolchain for Wikipedia dumping
by Emmanuel Engelhart 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

Hi In 3 hours I will make a Wikimedia Tech Talk to present our toolchain to publish offline content: ==== Enjoying Wikipedia offline wherever, whenever is easy with Kiwix. But behind the scenes, a bunch of tools are needed to make it work. From article selection to dump publishing through scraping, optimisation and packaging: here is a quick overview of how we do it. ==== Join at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rFWaPSP3AM Regards Emmanuel -- Kiwix - Wikipedia Offline & more * Web: https://kiwix.org/ * Twitter: https://twitter.com/KiwixOffline * Wiki: https://wiki.kiwix.org/

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UserGroup Report :)
by Florence Devouard 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

Hello everyone This is this time of the year where... report is back ! Please take a few minutes to summarize the last few months * Achievements * Challenges * Next steps * Anything you think relevant... https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Offline_Projects/Reports/June_2020 Thanks in advance Flo

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[OPENZIM] Introducing Python-libzim
by Emmanuel Engelhart 28 Jul '20

28 Jul '20

Hi I'm happy to introduce you to Python-libzim. Python-libzim package allows you to read/write ZIM files in Python. It provides a shallow Python interface on top of the libzim C++ library. It supports out-of-the-box macOS and GNU/Linux. For the other OSes you will have to compile the libzim manually. After Node.js, this is the second scripting language for which openZIM proposes a binding of its famous reference implementation of the ZIM open specification. This move is really important to allow more people to benefit of the file format and ZIM files already published. On our side, Python-libzim was critical for a few other projects which are currently running. In the next months a few critical scrapers will be migrated from zimwriterfs to python-libzim and benefit of a sensitive code simplification and speed-up. Install easily python-libzim with pip and give it a try: https://pypi.org/project/libzim/ Happy coding! Regards Emmanuel -- Kiwix - Wikipedia Offline & more * Web: https://kiwix.org/ * Twitter: https://twitter.com/KiwixOffline * Wiki: https://wiki.kiwix.org/

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