I have noticed that many people believe that a number of Wikipedia articles are very US-centric and I think in some occasions this is true. I would say that you might need more non-US contributors.
Have you considered using geotargeting advertisement for solving this problem? For example, you could target ads to places like India, Japan, South Africa, UK, Brazil or Canada.
NSK wrote
I have noticed that many people believe that a number of Wikipedia
articles
are very US-centric and I think in some occasions this is true. I would
say
that you might need more non-US contributors.
That's truly amazing! Why has no one ever come up with this idea before, even if they live in Canada, UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, Russia, India, Australia or other countries that provide many contributors to Wiki-en?
Or could it be that we often have this in mind, and it is simply a fact that US academia is so large that it provides a quite high proportion of our more learned posters?
Charles
Charles Matthews wrote:
NSK wrote
I have noticed that many people believe that a number of Wikipedia articles
are very US-centric and I think in some occasions this is true. I would say
that you might need more non-US contributors.
That's truly amazing! Why has no one ever come up with this idea before, even if they live in Canada, UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, Russia, India, Australia or other countries that provide many contributors to Wiki-en?
Or could it be that we often have this in mind, and it is simply a fact that US academia is so large that it provides a quite high proportion of our more learned posters?
More to the point is a general antipathy toward advertising of any kind.
Ec
On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 08:09:17 -0700, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Charles Matthews wrote:
More to the point is a general antipathy toward advertising of any kind.
What is being discussed, I believe, is not advertising ON wikipedia, but advertising BY wikipedia?
-Matt
On Friday 29 October 2004 00:42, Matt Brown wrote:
What is being discussed, I believe, is not advertising ON wikipedia, but advertising BY wikipedia?
Yes, for example in Google AdWords.
Just a question...
Have you noticed NSK, that aside from the english wikipedia, there are other languages buzzing with activity ?
Yes, there are.
And most of the bigger encyclopedia show a lot of activity to promote wikipedia in other languages.
The german encyclopedia is especially successful for reaching media, the french is beginning to have nice success as well, and the japanese seems to do well.
We get new contributors everyday, and some of them trickle to the english speaking encyclopedia; each trickle help to balance.
Note that I tried to reach north africa, largely french speaking, during the last global press release, but we are not meeting much success right now.
Anthere
NSK a écrit:
I have noticed that many people believe that a number of Wikipedia articles are very US-centric and I think in some occasions this is true. I would say that you might need more non-US contributors.
Have you considered using geotargeting advertisement for solving this problem? For example, you could target ads to places like India, Japan, South Africa, UK, Brazil or Canada.
On Saturday 30 October 2004 11:33, Anthere wrote:
Note that I tried to reach north africa, largely french speaking, during
I have extreme interesting in national development of countries in Africa, South America and Asia: I am always thinking how I could help the people living there. How have you tried to reach north Africa, what is WMF's position on bringing free knowledge in the Third World and what do you think that residents of Europe, North America and Oceania can do via the Internet for the rest of the planet?
NSK wrote
... what is WMF's position on bringing free knowledge in the Third World and what do you
think
that residents of Europe, North America and Oceania can do via the
Internet
for the rest of the planet?
I wonder how well-informed you are on Wikipedia. Jimbo Wales typically mentions a whole-planet view when he is interviewed. I would say that it is a *given* in serious discussion of WP, that it is a vehicle to do just this; if debates seem to be on 'knowledge' and 'implementation' it is because there is less consensus on those. Unfortunately, defining knowledge (as if we had to) seems to take up 95% of the bandwidth.
In perspective, Wikipedia has succeeded in under four years in drawing together:
- an admirable tech support team that works for nothing - a fundraising mechanism that has worked in some well-judged campaigns - hardware that is only under pressure so much because the demand always absorbs the supply on a timescale of weeks - very good word-of-mouth publicity - recently, some high-profile media publicity - an effective program to break out of the linguistic monopoly of English (barring some early troubles) - the best interwiki solution ever (because it's simple and the problem in general is hard) - last but not least, a large community who write, edit and do admin chores, some of whom are the kind of driven people who are needed to make a voluntary project get somewhere.
I'm not quite sure what difficulty you see yourself addressing on this list. Perhaps you could phrase it in terms that make more sense to those who share my perspective.
Charles
On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 11:36:25 +0100, Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com wrote:
- the best interwiki solution ever
What does this mean? I.e. what's an "interwiki solution"?
Perhaps more to the point, what's the "interwiki problem"?
phil hunt wrote
Charles Matthews wrote
- the best interwiki solution ever
What does this mean? I.e. what's an "interwiki solution"?
Perhaps more to the point, what's the "interwiki problem"?
See http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?InterWiki. Some of us on the list tend to use Meatball-style jargon.
That was just one bullet point. What I meant was that the current style of interwiki links between Wikipedias in different languages is clearly practical and works. It operates without any fuss about the name spaces. I would guess that the number of links it has created runs into the hundreds of thousands.
Charles
Charles Matthews wrote:
... what is WMF's position on bringing free knowledge in the Third World and what do you
think
that residents of Europe, North America and Oceania can do via the
Internet
for the rest of the planet?
I wonder how well-informed you are on Wikipedia. Jimbo Wales typically mentions a whole-planet view when he is interviewed. I would say that it is a *given* in serious discussion of WP, that it is a vehicle to do just this; if debates seem to be on 'knowledge' and 'implementation' it is because there is less consensus on those.
Charles is right about everything, as is typical. :-)
NSK, people would probably appreciate it if you spent some time learning about the community. Your input is certainly welcomed, but the problem is that you have too often of late written comments that are likely a bit frustrating to many people, because you haven't done your homework.
"what is WMF's position on bringing free knowledge in the Third World?"
Did you imagine that I would say "I'm against it?"
--Jimbo
--- NSK nsk2@wikinerds.org wrote:
I have extreme interesting in national development of countries in Africa, South America and Asia: I am always thinking how I could help the people living there. How have you tried to reach north Africa, what is WMF's position on bringing free knowledge in the Third World and what do you think that residents of Europe, North America and Oceania can do via the Internet for the rest of the planet?
"Imagine a world in which every person has free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing."
"...we are pursuing grants to fund the packaging and distribution of Wikimedia content to places that do not have access to the Internet."
from http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising (linked from over 2 million pages across all Wikimedia projects)
At least one grant we are interested in would fund the printing of as-yet-to-be-written high school biology textbooks in both English and French that would be distributed to students in Africa. Content development for that would happen on Wikibooks.
See also: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants
-- mav
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
NSK wrote:
On Saturday 30 October 2004 11:33, Anthere wrote:
Note that I tried to reach north africa, largely french speaking, during
I have extreme interesting in national development of countries in Africa, South America and Asia: I am always thinking how I could help the people living there. How have you tried to reach north Africa, what is WMF's position on bringing free knowledge in the Third World and what do you think that residents of Europe, North America and Oceania can do via the Internet for the rest of the planet?
Finding computers for them would be a good start. If people in the developed world get bored with that they could try arranging for them to have the electrical power for running the computers they were given. ;-)
Ec
NSK a écrit:
On Saturday 30 October 2004 11:33, Anthere wrote:
Note that I tried to reach north africa, largely french speaking, during
I have extreme interesting in national development of countries in Africa, South America and Asia: I am always thinking how I could help the people living there. How have you tried to reach north Africa, what is WMF's position on bringing free knowledge in the Third World and what do you think that residents of Europe, North America and Oceania can do via the Internet for the rest of the planet?
Charles gave you a very good answer, so I have little to add :-)
Two additional points :
''Did I try to reach Africa ?''
I'd like to mention that "trying" to reach Africa is not a one person effort, but a collective effort. So, the point is not "me".
Very personally, I think I sent possibly 70 press releases in september. I could track some, mostly through french google news. But google news do not exist in north african countries, and it just would take too much time, so I have no idea of some of my mails went through or not, or just made some journalists begin to refer to Wikipedia or not.
I went to seek for the maroccan media I contacted in september. Here is the list below of media I tried to contact. A couple of mails went back. Marroco is a french speaking country. Some of those media are french speaking, and others arab speaking. For the latter, I gave the link to the arab wikipedia as well as the french one.
ACH-CHARK AL-AWSAT
Quotidien arabophone saoudien, édition marocaine imprimée à Casablanca depuis 1985. Mél : asharqm@mtds.com Web : www.aawsat.com
AL-AYAM
Créé en 2001, hebdomadaire arabophone indépendant. Mél : mediaayam@menara.com
AL-AHDATH AL MAGHRIBIA
Créé en 1998, quotidien arabophone indépendant. Mél : ahdath@ahdath.info www.ahdath.info
AL-ALAM
Créé en 1946, quotidien arabophone du parti de l'Istiqlal (P.I.). Mél : al-alam@iam.net.ma Web : www.Alalam.ma
AL-ASR
Créé en 1997, hebdomadaire arabophone du Parti de la Justice et du Développement (PJD). Mél : alassr-96@iam.net.ma
AL-BAYANE
Créé en 1972, quotidien francophone du Parti du Progrès et du Socialisme (PPS). Mél : albayane@casanet.net.ma Web : www.albayane.ma
AL-ITTIHAD AL ICHTIRAKI
Créé en 1983, quotidien arabophone du parti de l'Union Socialiste des Forces Populaires (USFP). Mél : ail@menara.ma
AL-OUSBOU
Créé en 1985, hebdomadaire arabophone indépendant. Mél : alousboue@menara.ma
AS-SABAH
Créé en 2000, quotidien arabophone indépendant. Mél : assabah@wanadoo.net-ma Web : www.assabah.press.ma
AT-TAJDID
Créé en 1999, hebdomadaire arabophone du Mouvement de l'Unification et de la Réforme (MUR). Mél : attajdid@attajdid.ma Web : www.attajdid.ma
AUJOURD'HUI LE MAROC
Créé en 2001, quotidien francophone indépendant. Mél : alm@aujourdhui.ma ou kidrissi@aujourdhui.ma Web : www.aujourdhui.ma
BAYANE AL-YOUM
Créé en 1971, quotidien arabophone du parti du Progrès et du Socialisme (PPS) . Mél : bayanealyaoume@casanet.net.ma Web : www.bayanealyaoume.ma
BAYANE AL-YOUM ASSABII
Créé en 2002, hebdomadaire arabophone du parti du Progrès et du Socialisme (PPS). Mél : bayanealyaoume@casanet.net.ma Web : www.bayanealyaoume.ma
ECONOMISTE (L')
Créé en 1991, quotidien francophone indépendant, à dominante économique. Mél : info@leconomiste.com Web : www.leconomiste.com
GAZETTE DU MAROC (LA)
Créé en 1997, hebdomadaire francophone indépendant. Mél : redaction@lagazettedumaroc.com Web : www.lagazettedumaroc.com
INDEPENDANT (L')
Créé en 1996, quotidien francophone indépendant. Mél : lindependant@iam.net.ma
JOURNAL HEBDOMADAIRE (LE)
Créé en novembre 1997, hebdomadaire francophone indépendant. Mél : lejournal@lejournalhebdo.com Web : http://www.lejournal-hebdo.com/
LIBERATION
Créé en 1964, quotidien francophone du parti de l'Union Socialiste des Forces Populaires (USFP). Mél : Liberation@mis.net.ma Web : www.liberation.press.ma
MAROC HEBDO INTERNATIONAL
Créé en 1991, hebdomadaire francophone indépendant. Mél : mhi@maroc-hebdo.press.ma Web : www.maroc-hebdo.com www.maroc-hebdo.press.ma
MATIN DU SAHARA ET DU MAGHREB (LE)
Créé en 1972, quotidien francophone. Web : www.lematin.ma
NOUVELLE TRIBUNE (LA)
Créé en 1996, hebdomadaire francophone indépendant. Mél : courrier@lanouvelletribune.com Mél : redaction@lanouvelletribune.com Web : www.lanouvelletribune.com
OPINION (L')
Créé en 1965, quotidien francophone du parti de l'Istiqlal (P.I.). Mél : opinion@iam.net.ma Web : www.lopinion.ma
REPORTER (LE)
Créé en 1998, hebdomadaire francophone indépendant. Mél : lereporter@iam.net.ma
RISSALAT AL-OUMMA
Créé en 1983, quotidien arabophone du parti de l'Union Constitutionnelle (U.C.). Mél : rissalataloumma@yahoo.fr
TEL QUEL
Créé en 2001, hebdomadaire francophone indépendant. Mél : courrier@telquel.info Web : www.telquel-online.com
VERITE (LA)
Créé en 2000, hebdomadaire francophone indépendant. Mél : laverite@wanadoo.net.ma
VIE ECO (LA)
Créé en 1978, hebdomadaire francophone indépendant, à dominante économique. Mél : vieeco@marocnet.net.ma Web : www.vieeco.ma
Additionaly, I left some comments to two maroccan journalists bloggers also known in the french speaking blogging community.
I may indicate that in Marocco, the website Menara published two articles in which Wikipedia was mentionned. At least one came through Jean-Michel Cornu from la FING, a french reference (www.fing.com I believe)
http://www.menara.ma/infos/includes/detail.asp?lmodule=Technologie&artic...
http://www.menara.ma/Infos/includes/detail.asp?article_id=9613&lmodule=T...
---------
what is WMF's position on bringing free knowledge in the Third World
Was a question essentially answered by Charles.
and what do you think that residents of Europe, North America and
Oceania can do via the Internet for the rest of the planet?
If you ask to an agronom engineer (right, this is me :-)), what *I* could bring would be better information on agricultural techniques, food transformation and preservation and waste and water treatment. Far away from any political fight, this is what many in these countries need. This is basic, but some lack this.
Possibly, this might not be through the internet, but even a brochure (booklet) explaining farmers how to better fertilise their fields to increase their yield hence reaching food sustainability, or helping moms to manage their kids diarrhea, or increase awareness of AIDS disaster and how to fight it, might be amazingly helpful.
French agronomists have a tradition to do that in many African countries, and associations such as Médecins sans Frontières are not american :-)
Help us get the content, the tools, the network and the money, and we will do it :-) It will take time, but we will, I am confident :-)
Other people might have other opinions on how to help Africa. These are mine.