@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/backup-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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>
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