in-line :-
On 07/03/2017, Manoj Khurana <hello(a)manojkhurana.com> wrote:
Hi Friends,
Hi Manoj,
Excuse but would be a big longish.
Offline Wikipedia is a requirement of many for sure.
More so in developing
countries, where internet can be quite unreliable. I had suggested talking
to mobile operators/manufacturers to provide preloaded offline Wikipedia.
Seeing this information about size makes this difficult to implement.
Solutions may be:
1. Arrange to make separate files for 8-10 Basic categories e.g. Science,
Commerce, Personalities, Arts, etc.
Not everyone needs everything.
This actually was the way before, at least till 2013-14 it was like
that IIRC but can guess what happened.
2. I personally feel current events articles are way
too much expanded.
Size vs. value ratio is far less for recent or ongoing events. e.g. try
reading US presidential campaign coverage at this time, now that elections
are over. Is there a way to shunt out/ such material from offline version?
There might be but it probably might be a longish process, why I think
that will share at the bottom.
3. I Agree that images etc. need to be checked. These
may be made
available after connecting. (Maybe illustrations etc. may be kept in
offline).
Agreed.
I am working for Hindi Wiki and I believe that in
order to make Wikipedia
popular, offline versions are must. If they can be preloaded in phones,
we'll surely gain millions of new contributors.
Agreed, but not just for gaining millions of contributors but sharing
knowledge with millions and billions of students who should have
access to the knowledge. That we believe to a basic human right along
with a critical eye to understanding how that knowledge is being
generated. But am going off-key here, sharing what I remember from the
past about kiwix below.
The problem with kiwix was always having enough curators. Just like
the upcoming wikimania, kiwix was also divided into a sort of Global
north and Global South which I had thought at that time to be too
simplistic.
The south itself has so many variances, differences in cultural
outlook that it makes weighing/rating articles very difficult indeed.
Sharing few simplistic examples -
a. Che Guvera is a revered figure in South and Latin America but in
India apart from the Goan Che Guvera T-shirts most people don't either
know much or don't give a damn. So as somebody who has to make a
choice which article should go into limited space, it calls for
judgement call which at least I dunno should we take or not.
b. Our classical dances, Kuchi Pudi, Bharat Natyam and others have a
high value within India, they perhaps might not have the same import
in other places and countries.
c. Lastly, the most intractable are probably controversial (to some
people) social science topics. For e.g. Abortion is a touchy topic for
many, and if you see the history and talk page of the article in
question, it has been in semi-protection since ever as people have
pretty strong views on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Abortion - Again this is merely an
example, there probably are more than a hundred or more articles like
that.
Even if somehow you were able to do the compilation one time, it
wouldn't suffice, it is and would be a multi-year effort.
FWIW, I don't see the bandwidth issues dying out so soon.
The correct way in my mind would be to have some funding and have 2-3
experienced wikipedians from India who have wide-ranging interests,
get stats about most read articles from Indian IP's which show
interest as well as have a non-profit or two to help/guide the whole
process forward with dedicated timelines.
Regards,
U:Anamdas.
<snipped>
--
Regards,
Shirish Agarwal शिरीष अग्रवाल
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