On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 3:20 PM, geni <geniice(a)gmail.com> wrote:
2009/5/31 Anthony <wikimail(a)inbox.org>rg>:
HTTP uses TCP/IP, not UDP/IP. Your comment was
"If it doesn't work over
IP
then it isn't the internet". If
you'd like to change that to "If it
doesn't
work over TCP then it isn't the
internet", fine. But it probably
wouldn't
be difficult to run the Wave protocol over UDP.
Then you could send
one-way
Wave updates through a one-way satellite feed, or
a one-way OTA feed.
Add
in a low-bandwidth or intermittent connection to
send in the other
direction, and you can get an email account better than most people had
in
1995. Remember when BBSes used to subscribe to
UUCP email?
However that has expensive upkeep costs and is reliant of functioning
infrastructure. Books do not stop working just because somebody broke
SAT-3/WASC.
Depends on the topic. Some books go obsolete pretty quickly, and delivering
new ones is quite expensive.
I've got nothing against books, though. They're a big part of any
solution. That said...
On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 3:14 PM, geni <geniice(a)gmail.com> wrote:
2009/5/31 Anthony <wikimail(a)inbox.org>rg>:
On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 2:34 PM, geni
<geniice(a)gmail.com> wrote:
There are a number of existing projects to send out school text books.
An encyclopedia however is a useful part of wider learning.
I guess, but a print copy of some subset of Wikipedia doesn't seem like
the
best solution for someone who already has access
to school textbooks. If
you're talking about a major language, there are already encyclopedias
written for them, and copies can probably be had for much less it would
cost
to publish a print edition of Wikipedia.
Evidence? Remember there are rather a lot of major languages where any
native speaker well educated and rich enough to actually buy an
encyclopedia (even in the west britanica was a middle class symbol) is
unlikely to want to buy one in that language.
Brand new and for retail price, sure. But used and/or at cost (which surely
there are publishers willing to provide for this sort of thing), I don't see
how you could beat the established players.
If you're talking about a minor
language, I don't know. Are there languages
for which Wikipedia is
unarguably the best encyclopedia, with enough native speakers to make a
print run feasible, and for which offering an encyclopedia in a
non-native
language wouldn't be more effective?
Tagalog is the first example that comes to mind. Telugu perhaps but
the pro English bias there would be an issue.
Maybe. Want to start that focus group?
It's not a focus group issue. It's a document what encyclopedia's
actually exist in non European languages issue.
I'm not sure we should waste everyone on this mailing list's time going
through the details and formulating a plan. Let's take Tagalog. We've got
22 million native speakers, of which what % have internet access, and what %
of those without it would be interested in a copy of Wikipedia? What kind
of technology do these people have? What % have electricity? What % have
access to a library? What are the schools like for them? Do the schools
have computers? Do the libraries have computers? What topics would be most
important? How big is the Tagalog Wikipedia? What are its strengths? What
are its weaknesses? What is the government's role in education? How is the
funding? What's the mean and median income?
I'd love to put something into action here. But it's not something I see
being worked out over foundation-l.