Free Knowledge Communities is an initiative that was discussed while Erik and I were in South Africa (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Conference_reports/FLOSS,_South_Africa_2005). One of the aims of the initiative is to make it possible for anyone anywhere to gain the knowledge required for any purpose, by providing access to knowledge via the web, or on CDs distributed to remote areas with limited connectivity. The intention is to augment efforts to provide access to information and communication technologies in developing countries with provision of open content.

The vision is "Knowledge for all - Education for all, Empowering Communities to Empower Themselves with Knowledge - Towards Wisdom".

I believe this fits very well with Wikimedia's goals, so, along with other groups such as CSIR and MIMOS, I am hoping we will make a grant proposal related to this to the World Bank by the end of this year.

If anyone is interested in taking part in the development of the proposal and grant application, I would like to invite you to join the new mailing list at http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/fkc-l

The list content is to be kept private since the exact details of the grant application should not be made public before it has been accepted. For this reason, membership of the list is moderated. Public information will be placed at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Free_Knowledge_Communities

Angela.