Ray Saintonge wrote:
Anthere wrote:
Fred Bauder wrote:
I have always viewed Jimbo's suggestion that we "distribute a paper encyclopedia to African children" as quixotic but I have in connection with a possible board member wondered if we could create a series of documents which focus on public health which would prove useful in Africa, possibly also in China and other regions, and be worth distributing as part of a public health education campaign. There was lately a cholera epidemic in Angola which affected most of the country. There is a lot of ignorance involved in this sort of situation. I don't see this project so much directed to children as to local decision makers. It would contain information about disease and disease prevention, etc. The question, bottom line, is would a project of this nature actually prove effective? Or should we first see if we could even mobilize around it? One of the good aspects regarding this possible board member is that he is a hands on, computer literate guy with experience in give and take.
Regarding "would a project of this nature actually prove effective", I am giving a presentation end of august in an international health forum (http://www.hcuge.ch/genevahealthforum/) and this is exactly the type of question I hope can receive a beginning of an answer.
I do not really believe we can mobilize around it before setting up a framework around. We need partners for such project and these partners input will be essential to define which content should be included or not included, and what the audience would be.
However, admittedly, what I would worry about is, if a framework is set, with partners and of course, a deadline, I am not sure we would succeed to mobilize enough and in a sufficiently effective way to respect the limits. I think we can do huge things, but generally, we are bad with deadlines because a volunteer may come and go.
Also, one of the reasons why Wikipedia typically is successful is that it can be build by tiny bits. Doing just a bit is easy. A little step that most of us can climb without too much efforts. It is much more of a problem to participate to a long term project, in which significant amounts of efforts must be brought be each contributor.
The idea is commendable but strikes me as well beyond the scope of the things we do. We are more in a kind of educational publishing business rather than a vehicle for mibilising health care. Our information could include medical information, but publishing that information is not enough. We could include "The Barefoot Doctor's Manual" in Wikisource. (The English translation was published by the National Institute of Health in 1974, and that would likely make it copyright free as a US government publication despite the claims of subsequent reprinters.)
But the advances in Chinese medical practice at that time involved more than just publishing a book. It was a textbook for teaching. Putting it on-line won't do much for people who don't have computers. What the barefoot doctor mobilization did in China was was bring medical care to rural areas where no care at all was previously available; one should not, therefore, judge the skill of these practitioners by reference to the medical personel in developed countries where there is access to sophisticated equipment and drugs.
What's needed is to mobilize local people, give them a basic level of medical training, and send them out through the country where, as much as possible, they can use indiginous supplies in the practice of medicine. This may seem like quackery by Western standards, but it's better than the nothing that that public currently has. Our role in this can only be very limited.
Ec
Hoi, If we want to make a difference in Africa, we should make Africa more relevant. This is something that is not impossible, we should however consider the issues that we face to support Africa.
* Our user interface is not localised for the many African languages * Many people are reluctant to edit and have a bias against their own language * Due to "peering agreements" traffic from Europe or America is REALLY expensive and slow to reach Africa * We should spend more effort on African subjects in the Arab, English and French wikipedia
Localising the MediaWiki user interface is a job that takes in between two days and a week. It takes a week when the vocabulary does not exist in language. This means some research. Particularly the languages where Microsoft or Open Office have done there thing should be in relative good shape for the many other languages it is just a lot of work. This work can be done by people we pay or by people an NGO pays. In my opinion it is best when we do not pay and that it is done within existing organisations. When an NGO organises this, it is software that they are likely to use as well.. This helps a lot.
Many people who are literate in one language are semi-literate in their mother tongue. When they edit, they expect the same level of completeness, the same consistency of spelling. Many languages however do not have one formalised orthography and for many people this hinders rather than helps. When an NGO uses MediaWiki to spread its own message, people will see how it can be done. Getting a message in their own language is really powerful from a marketing point of view. It will also help make it easier for people to start contributing.. (Wikipedia is very much monkey see, monkey do)
We could have some servers in Africa... There is some reluctance of the developers to overcome.. We could hope that the project of the Vrije Universiteit bears fruit.. and help it where we can. With this project successful, it would mean a peer to peer MediaWiki whereby content is near the people that want it.
When we want to make Wikipedia itself more relevant, there is nothing stopping us, we can enrich the content about Africa. It is still very poor compared to what we know about the first world.
Oh yes, and when you want medical information, it is good to know that medical subjects have a mondial relevance. Would it work? Sure, but do not forget that people are looking for sex, sport and politics first in Wikipedia and it is important to get all the eyeballs that we can get.
Thanks, GerardM