Good evening everyone,

Thank you, Mohammed, for the introduction (and for coming to meet at the University of Ghana yesterday). And thank you everyone for the warm welcome! Like Mohammed said, I am an American graduate student at the University of Washington, and I am in Ghana for about a month doing research on Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero.

My research is focused on how Ghanaian mobile users interact with Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero. This includes how people think about them and the Internet in general; why people use (or do not use) them; and if/how the they affect how people purchase data (e.g. deciding on carriers and SIM cards, choosing a data plan vs. pay-as-you-go, deciding how much data to buy, etc.).

Beyond those questions, though, I am most interested in hearing what you in the Wikimedian community think is most important about Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero. What are their greatest benefits, and biggest problems? How do you think they are serving different people and communities in Ghana? What do they mean for the future of the Internet in Ghana and internationally?

Any feedback you can give me will be immensely valuable. You can email me directly, or just respond to the listserv and we can get a discussion started.

Thank you in advance! Gennie

---

*Gennie Gebhart* MLIS Candidate, 2016 University of Washington Information School gennie@uw.edu 206.354.7510 Twitter: @gegebhart | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213355889 | Skype: genniegebhart

On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 10:02 PM, Celestine Sucess <celestinesucess@gmail.com

wrote:

Welcome Gennie On Sep 1, 2015 10:00 PM, "Ray" rayopk@gmail.com wrote:

...

Welcome Gennie.

masssly@ymail.com wrote:

Gennie is a researcher interested in the Open Internet, more specifically Net Neutrality and Zero Ratings. Her research promises to provide interesting insights concerning the use and extent of Internet.Org and Wikipedia Zero in Ghana. This would go a long way to answer some of the pertinent questions we’ve been asking about them.

Also, she and her team are touring the country to visit interesting places, and as you’d expect - they’ll be taking loads of pictures : ) which I promised we can help upload onto commons.

Let us welcome her to this mailing list.

-Masssly Sent from Windows Mail

---

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---

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Good to hear from you, Gennie.

And welcome to Ghana. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Concerning the questions you raised: What are their greatest benefits, and biggest problems?

*Internet.org* Benefits:

- I see no benefit with that thing. Its to most extent, a devil in disguise.

Problems:

- It doesn't even work for PCs. Many using mobile devices doesn't totally mean the whole world has gone mobile compulsorily. - It doesn't play well with Wikipedia, especially when it comes to editing. Other websites aside Wikipedia loaded by the internet.org is heavily stripped down. - Pages requested by users go through a proxy server, and who knows what is stored or looked at or tracked by whatever the proxy server is.

*Wikipedia*: Benefits.

- Reading/Editing works the same and seamless - viewing on PC/Mobile allowed, - communication with Wikipedia server is a one-on-one affair, without any middle-proxy-server things. - Pages aren't stripped down, What you request is what you get!

Problem:

- I won't say its a problem, but room for improvement. Lack of more network providers supporting Wikipedia Zero cause. Again that's not necessarily a problem, because it ain't the fault of Wikipedia Zero.

How do you think they are serving different people and communities in Ghana? I think some survey or research into this will be great. I'll love to hear the findings.

What do they mean for the future of the Internet in Ghana and internationally? Wikipedia Zero means everything, in terms of education and research. I wish I could say same for Internet.org, but honestly, makes no sense (at least to me) at the moment.

Just my 2¢ rexford.

On Wednesday, September 2, 2015, Gennie Gebhart gegebhart@gmail.com wrote:

Good evening everyone,

Thank you, Mohammed, for the introduction (and for coming to meet at the University of Ghana yesterday). And thank you everyone for the warm welcome! Like Mohammed said, I am an American graduate student at the University of Washington, and I am in Ghana for about a month doing research on Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero.

My research is focused on how Ghanaian mobile users interact with Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero. This includes how people think about them and the Internet in general; why people use (or do not use) them; and if/how the they affect how people purchase data (e.g. deciding on carriers and SIM cards, choosing a data plan vs. pay-as-you-go, deciding how much data to buy, etc.).

Beyond those questions, though, I am most interested in hearing what you in the Wikimedian community think is most important about Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero. What are their greatest benefits, and biggest problems? How do you think they are serving different people and communities in Ghana? What do they mean for the future of the Internet in Ghana and internationally?

Any feedback you can give me will be immensely valuable. You can email me directly, or just respond to the listserv and we can get a discussion started.

Thank you in advance! Gennie

---

*Gennie Gebhart* MLIS Candidate, 2016 University of Washington Information School gennie@uw.edu javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','gennie@uw.edu'); 206.354.7510 Twitter: @gegebhart | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213355889 | Skype: genniegebhart

On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 10:02 PM, Celestine Sucess < celestinesucess@gmail.com javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','celestinesucess@gmail.com');> wrote:

...

Welcome Gennie On Sep 1, 2015 10:00 PM, "Ray" <rayopk@gmail.com javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','rayopk@gmail.com');> wrote:

...

Welcome Gennie.

masssly@ymail.com javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','masssly@ymail.com'); wrote:

Gennie is a researcher interested in the Open Internet, more specifically Net Neutrality and Zero Ratings. Her research promises to provide interesting insights concerning the use and extent of Internet.Org and Wikipedia Zero in Ghana. This would go a long way to answer some of the pertinent questions we’ve been asking about them.

Also, she and her team are touring the country to visit interesting places, and as you’d expect - they’ll be taking loads of pictures : ) which I promised we can help upload onto commons.

Let us welcome her to this mailing list.

-Masssly Sent from Windows Mail

---

Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org'); https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh

---

Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org'); https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh

Thank you so much for the thorough response, Rexford! Can you (or anyone else) tell me more about what you think of as the most important differences between Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero? It sounds like editing capability, how much content is or is not stripped down, and server considerations are key. Anything else? Do you consider the speed/quality of various networks, as well?

And thanks for chiming in, Raphael - very much looking forward to hearing what you think.

Thanks, Gennie

---

*Gennie Gebhart* MLIS Candidate, 2016 University of Washington Information School gennie@uw.edu 206.354.7510 Twitter: @gegebhart | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213355889 | Skype: genniegebhart

On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 12:56 PM, Raphael Berchie rberchie@gmail.com wrote:

Good to hear from you Genie I will let you know my thoughts pretty soon.

Regards

*Raphael Berchie* Marketing Manager Farm Fresh Dairies http://www.bioplasticsghana.com Wikimedian https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Ghana,Open Advocate, Climate Change Activist,Blogger http://rberchie.blogspot.com/ P.O Box CT 10469 Cantoments Accra Ghana

On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 5:18 AM, Nkansah Rexford nkansahrexford@gmail.com wrote:

...

Good to hear from you, Gennie.

And welcome to Ghana. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Concerning the questions you raised: What are their greatest benefits, and biggest problems?

*Internet.org* Benefits:

• I see no benefit with that thing. Its to most extent, a devil in

disguise.

Problems:

• It doesn't even work for PCs. Many using mobile devices doesn't

totally mean the whole world has gone mobile compulsorily.

• It doesn't play well with Wikipedia, especially when it comes to

editing. Other websites aside Wikipedia loaded by the internet.org is heavily stripped down.

• Pages requested by users go through a proxy server, and who knows

what is stored or looked at or tracked by whatever the proxy server is.

*Wikipedia*: Benefits.

• Reading/Editing works the same and seamless
• viewing on PC/Mobile allowed,
• communication with Wikipedia server is a one-on-one affair, without

any middle-proxy-server things.

• Pages aren't stripped down, What you request is what you get!

Problem:

• I won't say its a problem, but room for improvement. Lack of more

network providers supporting Wikipedia Zero cause. Again that's not necessarily a problem, because it ain't the fault of Wikipedia Zero.

How do you think they are serving different people and communities in Ghana? I think some survey or research into this will be great. I'll love to hear the findings.

What do they mean for the future of the Internet in Ghana and internationally? Wikipedia Zero means everything, in terms of education and research. I wish I could say same for Internet.org, but honestly, makes no sense (at least to me) at the moment.

Just my 2¢ rexford.

On Wednesday, September 2, 2015, Gennie Gebhart gegebhart@gmail.com wrote:

...

Good evening everyone,

Thank you, Mohammed, for the introduction (and for coming to meet at the University of Ghana yesterday). And thank you everyone for the warm welcome! Like Mohammed said, I am an American graduate student at the University of Washington, and I am in Ghana for about a month doing research on Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero.

My research is focused on how Ghanaian mobile users interact with Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero. This includes how people think about them and the Internet in general; why people use (or do not use) them; and if/how the they affect how people purchase data (e.g. deciding on carriers and SIM cards, choosing a data plan vs. pay-as-you-go, deciding how much data to buy, etc.).

Beyond those questions, though, I am most interested in hearing what you in the Wikimedian community think is most important about Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero. What are their greatest benefits, and biggest problems? How do you think they are serving different people and communities in Ghana? What do they mean for the future of the Internet in Ghana and internationally?

Any feedback you can give me will be immensely valuable. You can email me directly, or just respond to the listserv and we can get a discussion started.

Thank you in advance! Gennie

---

*Gennie Gebhart* MLIS Candidate, 2016 University of Washington Information School gennie@uw.edu 206.354.7510 Twitter: @gegebhart | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213355889 | Skype: genniegebhart

On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 10:02 PM, Celestine Sucess < celestinesucess@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Welcome Gennie On Sep 1, 2015 10:00 PM, "Ray" rayopk@gmail.com wrote:

...

Welcome Gennie.

masssly@ymail.com wrote:

Gennie is a researcher interested in the Open Internet, more specifically Net Neutrality and Zero Ratings. Her research promises to provide interesting insights concerning the use and extent of Internet.Org and Wikipedia Zero in Ghana. This would go a long way to answer some of the pertinent questions we’ve been asking about them.

Also, she and her team are touring the country to visit interesting places, and as you’d expect - they’ll be taking loads of pictures : ) which I promised we can help upload onto commons.

Let us welcome her to this mailing list.

-Masssly Sent from Windows Mail

---

Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh

---

Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh

-- +Rexford http://google.com/+Nkansahrexford | khophi.co http://khophi.co/about

---

Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh

---

Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh

Thanks, Rexford! That makes a lot of sense.

By quality, I was just referring to the quality of the network connection. Some people I have talked to have told me that network connection is much more important than Internet.org/Wikipedia Zero/other top-layer services when deciding which SIM cards to buy and use. What do you all think?

Thanks, Gennie

---

*Gennie Gebhart* MLIS Candidate, 2016 University of Washington Information School gennie@uw.edu 206.354.7510 Twitter: @gegebhart | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213355889 | Skype: genniegebhart

On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 9:20 AM, Nkansah Rexford nkansahrexford@gmail.com wrote:

Considering the *speed*, at the moment, it is hard to determine on my part, because Internet.org is provided by Airtel, but Wikipedia Zero by MTN.

Both networks might have different data speed transfer at any point in time in the day, thus it'll be hard to know for sure which is faster. Yet, I think both have good speeds.

With the quality, you mean, The quality of the presented material via Internet.org or Wikipedia Zero?

rexford

On Friday, September 4, 2015, Gennie Gebhart gegebhart@gmail.com wrote:

...

Thank you so much for the thorough response, Rexford! Can you (or anyone else) tell me more about what you think of as the most important differences between Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero? It sounds like editing capability, how much content is or is not stripped down, and server considerations are key. Anything else? Do you consider the speed/quality of various networks, as well?

And thanks for chiming in, Raphael - very much looking forward to hearing what you think.

Thanks, Gennie

---

*Gennie Gebhart* MLIS Candidate, 2016 University of Washington Information School gennie@uw.edu 206.354.7510 Twitter: @gegebhart | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213355889 | Skype: genniegebhart

On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 12:56 PM, Raphael Berchie rberchie@gmail.com wrote:

...

Good to hear from you Genie I will let you know my thoughts pretty soon.

Regards

*Raphael Berchie* Marketing Manager Farm Fresh Dairies http://www.bioplasticsghana.com Wikimedian https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Ghana,Open Advocate, Climate Change Activist,Blogger http://rberchie.blogspot.com/ P.O Box CT 10469 Cantoments Accra Ghana

On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 5:18 AM, Nkansah Rexford < nkansahrexford@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Good to hear from you, Gennie.

And welcome to Ghana. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Concerning the questions you raised: What are their greatest benefits, and biggest problems?

*Internet.org* Benefits:

• I see no benefit with that thing. Its to most extent, a devil in

disguise.

Problems:

• It doesn't even work for PCs. Many using mobile devices doesn't

totally mean the whole world has gone mobile compulsorily.

• It doesn't play well with Wikipedia, especially when it comes to

editing. Other websites aside Wikipedia loaded by the internet.org is heavily stripped down.

• Pages requested by users go through a proxy server, and who knows

what is stored or looked at or tracked by whatever the proxy server is.

*Wikipedia*: Benefits.

• Reading/Editing works the same and seamless
• viewing on PC/Mobile allowed,
• communication with Wikipedia server is a one-on-one affair,

without any middle-proxy-server things.

• Pages aren't stripped down, What you request is what you get!

Problem:

• I won't say its a problem, but room for improvement. Lack of more

network providers supporting Wikipedia Zero cause. Again that's not necessarily a problem, because it ain't the fault of Wikipedia Zero.

How do you think they are serving different people and communities in Ghana? I think some survey or research into this will be great. I'll love to hear the findings.

What do they mean for the future of the Internet in Ghana and internationally? Wikipedia Zero means everything, in terms of education and research. I wish I could say same for Internet.org, but honestly, makes no sense (at least to me) at the moment.

Just my 2¢ rexford.

On Wednesday, September 2, 2015, Gennie Gebhart gegebhart@gmail.com wrote:

...

Good evening everyone,

Thank you, Mohammed, for the introduction (and for coming to meet at the University of Ghana yesterday). And thank you everyone for the warm welcome! Like Mohammed said, I am an American graduate student at the University of Washington, and I am in Ghana for about a month doing research on Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero.

My research is focused on how Ghanaian mobile users interact with Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero. This includes how people think about them and the Internet in general; why people use (or do not use) them; and if/how the they affect how people purchase data (e.g. deciding on carriers and SIM cards, choosing a data plan vs. pay-as-you-go, deciding how much data to buy, etc.).

Beyond those questions, though, I am most interested in hearing what you in the Wikimedian community think is most important about Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero. What are their greatest benefits, and biggest problems? How do you think they are serving different people and communities in Ghana? What do they mean for the future of the Internet in Ghana and internationally?

Any feedback you can give me will be immensely valuable. You can email me directly, or just respond to the listserv and we can get a discussion started.

Thank you in advance! Gennie

---

*Gennie Gebhart* MLIS Candidate, 2016 University of Washington Information School gennie@uw.edu 206.354.7510 Twitter: @gegebhart | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=213355889 | Skype: genniegebhart

On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 10:02 PM, Celestine Sucess < celestinesucess@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Welcome Gennie On Sep 1, 2015 10:00 PM, "Ray" rayopk@gmail.com wrote:

> Welcome Gennie. > > masssly@ymail.com wrote: > > Gennie is a researcher interested in the Open Internet, more > specifically Net Neutrality and Zero Ratings. Her research promises > to provide interesting insights concerning the use and extent of > Internet.Org and Wikipedia Zero in Ghana. This would go a long way to > answer some of the pertinent questions we’ve been asking about them. > > Also, she and her team are touring the country to visit interesting > places, and as you’d expect - they’ll be taking loads of pictures : ) which > I promised we can help upload onto commons. > > Let us welcome her to this mailing list. > > -Masssly > Sent from Windows Mail > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-GH mailing list > Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh > > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh

-- +Rexford http://google.com/+Nkansahrexford | khophi.co http://khophi.co/about

---

Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh

---

Wikimedia-GH mailing list Wikimedia-GH@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-gh

-- +Rexford http://google.com/+Nkansahrexford | khophi.co http://khophi.co/about

---

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