On 22/05/11 18:29, WereSpielChequers wrote:
We are likely to reach each of the following on the way to our target, and it would be great to announce them when we reach them: 1 90% of literate people have a version of wikipedia available in a language that they understand 2 95% of literate people have a version of wikipedia available in a language that they understand 3 99% of literate people have a version of wikipedia available in a language that they understand 4 90% of literate people have a version of wikipedia available in their native language 5 95% of literate people have a version of wikipedia available in their native language 6 99% of literate people have a version of wikipedia available in their native language
WereSpielChequers
This raises the interesting prospect of bringing Wikipedia to the billion or more people who are currently illiterate, as the cost of access to mobile phones and network connectivity continues to fall to the point where it is becoming available even to some of the poorest people in the world, regardless of literacy. (Consider, for example, the reported increases in literacy in some parts of Africa as people learn literacy skills simply to be able to SMS their friends and use Facebook.)
As part of the WMF's mission, I wonder if it could be worth considering providing a Web-based English (or other language) literacy course that could start with very simple video lessons to give an elementary vocabulary first, and then allow the user to slowly bootstrap their language sophistication from there? Although this would be a massive job to create, once the mission was put in place, many people might be willing to crowdsource the needed content.
-- Neil