Dear Vishnu,

First of all, let me say that I did not mean 'Kiwix of 5000 wikipedia articles' but 'Kiwix (ZIM file) of all the articles of those Indian wikipedias who have atleast 5000 articles'.

For some Indian wikis, Kiwix files are already created. It can be found here-

http://www.kiwix.org/wiki/Wikipedia_in_all_languages

But they are not uptodate but about 2 years old. You might be knowing that there is provision to make your own 'book' in Kiwix (and other formats) on Wikipedia. This is done, on Hindi wikipedia, using the channel following channel- मुद्रण/निर्यातhttp://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%80#* मेरा कलेक्शनhttp://hi.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%B7:%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AC&bookcmd=book_creator&referer=%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0+%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%80It is with title 'Book Creator' on english Wiki. Similarily, it will be with some name or the other on other wikis.

I know how to select articles one by one and then finally make a 'Kiwix book' out of it. But I do not know how to make a Kiwix book of ALL THE ARTICLES of a given wikipedia. Likewise, I do not whether it is possible to make Kiwix book by selecting some categories etc.

I feel that if we were able to filer some of useful articles, it will be better. For example, hindi wiki has aboout 1 lakh 5 thousand articles. But about 20000 (twenty thousand) may only be useful. But selecting them is time consuming. Fortunately, Hindi wiki has some articles in the category 'DVD project'. I feel that If we are able to make Kiwix file by selecting/deselecting categories, it will be best. If NOT, we should go for COMPLETE wiki download in KIWIX format.

We should contact KIWIX people to get solution of above problems if nobody from us has a solution.

As for as distribution is concerned, I do not have clear idea how to do it best. One thing can be easily done is collect email IDs of schools and institutions all over the country. write a common mail to them asking if they are interested to get the DVD. If they respond with 'yes', send them the DVD.

Second way is to go to 'BIG gatherings', Melaas and trade fairs. Distribute it there.

Some institutions and NGOs serving the 'Indian languages' can be identified. they can also be asked if they will like to receive the DVD and distribute it to people.

A website can be made for this. This will have the latest ZIM files of Indian language wikis and other information, like contact email for requesting FREE DVDs.

Let us discuss. Somebody might be having better and clearer ideas.

-- Anunad

========================================= 2013/3/15 Vishnu t visdaviva@gmail.com

Dera Anunad,

Sorry for this slight delay in replying to your mail. I am Vishnu and I head the programme Access to Knowledge (funded by WMF) at CIS.

Your proposal is very interesting and we would like to consider supporting this. Would like few more details before that.

1. Which will be these 5000 articles? (assuming that these will be from the

Hindi Wikipedia) 2) Will you or friends from the Hindi Wiki community be able to curate this? 3) Do you have a clear understanding of where you would like to distribute this DVD? 4) Is it possible to capture (at least in couple of locations) the 'multiplying effect' you mentioned? 5) How shall we take this idea forward?

Would be happy to hear your other friends thoughts on this. Should you prefer to speak to me, please feel free to directly call me on +91-9845207308.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Warmly, Vishnu