Hi guys, I hope you are all doing well. I am forwarding you a copy of a press release of Wikimedia Israel about their activities with offline Wikipedia in Cameroon and Benin - I think it is very interesting and if you ever want to do something similar, you will know who to contact for advice.
Best regards, Bence Damokos
---------------------------------------------------------------- BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE --------------------------------------------------
Here's a rough translation of a press release Wikimedia Israel has issued yesterday, about the "Africa Center" project I had mentioned in an e-mail to this list on June 30th 2010 (see that e-mail for more background on the Africa Center at Ben Gurion University).
=== START OF PRESS RELEASE === TITLE: Wikipedia Goes To Africa -- Israeli Students to Leave for Humanitarian Work in Africa, Equipped With Portable Static Wikipedia
SUBTITLE: Ben-Gurion University's "Africa Center", Wikimedia Israel, and Hamakor cooperate in making free knowledge accessible in Africa
The Africa Center at BGU, headed by Dr. Tamar Golan, annually sends a group of students on a three-month humanitarian expedition to developing countries in Africa. This year's group is going to the Repbulic of Benin and the Republic of Cameroon.
Learning about this while approaching the Africa Center for help with developing Africa-related entries on the Hebrew Wikipedia, Wikimedia Israel decided to equip the students with computers running free software and containing an offline (static) version of the French Wikipedia, so that the students can bring free knowledge to Africans without access to the Internet.
Wikimedia Israel reached out to Hamakor, the Israeli Free and Open Source Software NGO, and Hamakor helped obtain computer donations, refurbished them and installed the Linux operating system on them.
Wikimedia Israel collaborated with members of Wikimedia Switzerland and Wikimedia France to produce an up-to-date static version of the French Wikipedia (numbering about 1 million entries, and including images), French being a major language of reading and writing in Cameroon and Benin.
"The students also have portable installations of the offline Wikipedia, so that they may install it on any other computers they may run across in Africa," explained Asaf Bartov, who coordinated the project in Wikimedia Israel, "and they have received training on using Linux and Kiwix, the offline Wikipedia reader (free) software, so they may train others to use the computers".
Incidentally, the Linux version installed on those computers is called Ubuntu Linux, 'Ubuntu' being an African word (in the Zulu language) roughly translatable as "unity of mankind" or "mutual reliance".
Supporting and promoting the distribution of free knowledge in developing countries is one of the five major goals identified by the Wikimedia Foundation as central to its five-year strategy plan, developed by thousands of members of the Wikimedia Movement.
Hi folks,
Wonderful report Oscar. So when should we next meet?
Bence: thanks for the 411.
For those of you who don't know Bence, he is a member of Wikimedia's Chapter's Committee(ChapCom). I met him while I was at Wikimania and we were able to discuss one or two things regarding the Kenyan chapter. So incase any of you have any queries, he may be an insightful source.
Regards, Abbas.
From: bdamokos@gmail.com Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:57:27 +0200 To: WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org; WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia Kenya] Wikimedia Israel's project in Cameroon and Benin
Hi guys, I hope you are all doing well. I am forwarding you a copy of a press release of Wikimedia Israel about their activities with offline Wikipedia in Cameroon and Benin - I think it is very interesting and if you ever want to do something similar, you will know who to contact for advice.
Best regards, Bence Damokos
---------------------------------------------------------------- BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE --------------------------------------------------
Here's a rough translation of a press release Wikimedia Israel has issued yesterday, about the "Africa Center" project I had mentioned in an e-mail to this list on June 30th 2010 (see that e-mail for more background on the Africa Center at Ben Gurion University).
=== START OF PRESS RELEASE === TITLE: Wikipedia Goes To Africa -- Israeli Students to Leave for Humanitarian Work in Africa, Equipped With Portable Static Wikipedia
SUBTITLE: Ben-Gurion University's "Africa Center", Wikimedia Israel, and Hamakor cooperate in making free knowledge accessible in Africa
The Africa Center at BGU, headed by Dr. Tamar Golan, annually sends a group of students on a three-month humanitarian expedition to developing countries in Africa. This year's group is going to the Repbulic of Benin and the Republic of Cameroon.
Learning about this while approaching the Africa Center for help with developing Africa-related entries on the Hebrew Wikipedia, Wikimedia Israel decided to equip the students with computers running free software and containing an offline (static) version of the French Wikipedia, so that the students can bring free knowledge to Africans without access to the Internet.
Wikimedia Israel reached out to Hamakor, the Israeli Free and Open Source Software NGO, and Hamakor helped obtain computer donations, refurbished them and installed the Linux operating system on them.
Wikimedia Israel collaborated with members of Wikimedia Switzerland and Wikimedia France to produce an up-to-date static version of the French Wikipedia (numbering about 1 million entries, and including images), French being a major language of reading and writing in Cameroon and Benin.
"The students also have portable installations of the offline Wikipedia, so that they may install it on any other computers they may run across in Africa," explained Asaf Bartov, who coordinated the project in Wikimedia Israel, "and they have received training on using Linux and Kiwix, the offline Wikipedia reader (free) software, so they may train others to use the computers".
Incidentally, the Linux version installed on those computers is called Ubuntu Linux, 'Ubuntu' being an African word (in the Zulu language) roughly translatable as "unity of mankind" or "mutual reliance".
Supporting and promoting the distribution of free knowledge in developing countries is one of the five major goals identified by the Wikimedia Foundation as central to its five-year strategy plan, developed by thousands of members of the Wikimedia Movement. _______________________________________________ WikimediaKE mailing list WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
Hey guys, welcome wangai to the community.Thanks Abas and Bence for the 411.my suggestion is we meet on sat 25th.
On 9/16/10, Abbas Mahmoud abbasjnr@hotmail.com wrote:
Hi folks,
Wonderful report Oscar. So when should we next meet?
Bence: thanks for the 411.
For those of you who don't know Bence, he is a member of Wikimedia's Chapter's Committee(ChapCom). I met him while I was at Wikimania and we were able to discuss one or two things regarding the Kenyan chapter. So incase any of you have any queries, he may be an insightful source.
Regards, Abbas.
From: bdamokos@gmail.com Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:57:27 +0200 To: WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org; WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia Kenya] Wikimedia Israel's project in Cameroon and Benin
Hi guys, I hope you are all doing well. I am forwarding you a copy of a press release of Wikimedia Israel about their activities with offline Wikipedia in Cameroon and Benin - I think it is very interesting and if you ever want to do something similar, you will know who to contact for advice.
Best regards, Bence Damokos
---------------------------------------------------------------- BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE --------------------------------------------------
Here's a rough translation of a press release Wikimedia Israel has issued yesterday, about the "Africa Center" project I had mentioned in an e-mail to this list on June 30th 2010 (see that e-mail for more background on the Africa Center at Ben Gurion University).
=== START OF PRESS RELEASE === TITLE: Wikipedia Goes To Africa -- Israeli Students to Leave for Humanitarian Work in Africa, Equipped With Portable Static Wikipedia
SUBTITLE: Ben-Gurion University's "Africa Center", Wikimedia Israel, and Hamakor cooperate in making free knowledge accessible in Africa
The Africa Center at BGU, headed by Dr. Tamar Golan, annually sends a group of students on a three-month humanitarian expedition to developing countries in Africa. This year's group is going to the Repbulic of Benin and the Republic of Cameroon.
Learning about this while approaching the Africa Center for help with developing Africa-related entries on the Hebrew Wikipedia, Wikimedia Israel decided to equip the students with computers running free software and containing an offline (static) version of the French Wikipedia, so that the students can bring free knowledge to Africans without access to the Internet.
Wikimedia Israel reached out to Hamakor, the Israeli Free and Open Source Software NGO, and Hamakor helped obtain computer donations, refurbished them and installed the Linux operating system on them.
Wikimedia Israel collaborated with members of Wikimedia Switzerland and Wikimedia France to produce an up-to-date static version of the French Wikipedia (numbering about 1 million entries, and including images), French being a major language of reading and writing in Cameroon and Benin.
"The students also have portable installations of the offline Wikipedia, so that they may install it on any other computers they may run across in Africa," explained Asaf Bartov, who coordinated the project in Wikimedia Israel, "and they have received training on using Linux and Kiwix, the offline Wikipedia reader (free) software, so they may train others to use the computers".
Incidentally, the Linux version installed on those computers is called Ubuntu Linux, 'Ubuntu' being an African word (in the Zulu language) roughly translatable as "unity of mankind" or "mutual reliance".
Supporting and promoting the distribution of free knowledge in developing countries is one of the five major goals identified by the Wikimedia Foundation as central to its five-year strategy plan, developed by thousands of members of the Wikimedia Movement. _______________________________________________ WikimediaKE mailing list WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
Fine with me. Please do inform the rest of the team (assuming that they won't read this mailing list on time). I suggest that we have an internal meet up before meeting the multilingual & Google folks for preparation purposes.
Yours, Abbas.
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:15:30 +0300 From: oslimoke@gmail.com To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Wikimedia Israel's project in Cameroon and Benin
Hey guys, welcome wangai to the community.Thanks Abas and Bence for the 411.my suggestion is we meet on sat 25th.
On 9/16/10, Abbas Mahmoud abbasjnr@hotmail.com wrote:
Hi folks,
Wonderful report Oscar. So when should we next meet?
Bence: thanks for the 411.
For those of you who don't know Bence, he is a member of Wikimedia's Chapter's Committee(ChapCom). I met him while I was at Wikimania and we were able to discuss one or two things regarding the Kenyan chapter. So incase any of you have any queries, he may be an insightful source.
Regards, Abbas.
From: bdamokos@gmail.com Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:57:27 +0200 To: WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org; WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia Kenya] Wikimedia Israel's project in Cameroon and Benin
Hi guys, I hope you are all doing well. I am forwarding you a copy of a press release of Wikimedia Israel about their activities with offline Wikipedia in Cameroon and Benin - I think it is very interesting and if you ever want to do something similar, you will know who to contact for advice.
Best regards, Bence Damokos
---------------------------------------------------------------- BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE --------------------------------------------------
Here's a rough translation of a press release Wikimedia Israel has issued yesterday, about the "Africa Center" project I had mentioned in an e-mail to this list on June 30th 2010 (see that e-mail for more background on the Africa Center at Ben Gurion University).
=== START OF PRESS RELEASE === TITLE: Wikipedia Goes To Africa -- Israeli Students to Leave for Humanitarian Work in Africa, Equipped With Portable Static Wikipedia
SUBTITLE: Ben-Gurion University's "Africa Center", Wikimedia Israel, and Hamakor cooperate in making free knowledge accessible in Africa
The Africa Center at BGU, headed by Dr. Tamar Golan, annually sends a group of students on a three-month humanitarian expedition to developing countries in Africa. This year's group is going to the Repbulic of Benin and the Republic of Cameroon.
Learning about this while approaching the Africa Center for help with developing Africa-related entries on the Hebrew Wikipedia, Wikimedia Israel decided to equip the students with computers running free software and containing an offline (static) version of the French Wikipedia, so that the students can bring free knowledge to Africans without access to the Internet.
Wikimedia Israel reached out to Hamakor, the Israeli Free and Open Source Software NGO, and Hamakor helped obtain computer donations, refurbished them and installed the Linux operating system on them.
Wikimedia Israel collaborated with members of Wikimedia Switzerland and Wikimedia France to produce an up-to-date static version of the French Wikipedia (numbering about 1 million entries, and including images), French being a major language of reading and writing in Cameroon and Benin.
"The students also have portable installations of the offline Wikipedia, so that they may install it on any other computers they may run across in Africa," explained Asaf Bartov, who coordinated the project in Wikimedia Israel, "and they have received training on using Linux and Kiwix, the offline Wikipedia reader (free) software, so they may train others to use the computers".
Incidentally, the Linux version installed on those computers is called Ubuntu Linux, 'Ubuntu' being an African word (in the Zulu language) roughly translatable as "unity of mankind" or "mutual reliance".
Supporting and promoting the distribution of free knowledge in developing countries is one of the five major goals identified by the Wikimedia Foundation as central to its five-year strategy plan, developed by thousands of members of the Wikimedia Movement. _______________________________________________ WikimediaKE mailing list WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
-- Limoke Oscar Undergraduate Student -JKUAT Bsc.Geomatic Eng. and GIS +254 717 845 316
WikimediaKE mailing list WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
Hi Bence, This is great news because internet around here is quite expensive. Am quite interested in this stuff. Thanks. Wangai Mwangi.
On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 6:57 AM, Bence Damokos bdamokos@gmail.com wrote:
Hi guys, I hope you are all doing well. I am forwarding you a copy of a press release of Wikimedia Israel about their activities with offline Wikipedia in Cameroon and Benin - I think it is very interesting and if you ever want to do something similar, you will know who to contact for advice.
Best regards, Bence Damokos
---------------------------------------------------------------- BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE --------------------------------------------------
Here's a rough translation of a press release Wikimedia Israel has issued yesterday, about the "Africa Center" project I had mentioned in an e-mail to this list on June 30th 2010 (see that e-mail for more background on the Africa Center at Ben Gurion University).
=== START OF PRESS RELEASE === TITLE: Wikipedia Goes To Africa -- Israeli Students to Leave for Humanitarian Work in Africa, Equipped With Portable Static Wikipedia
SUBTITLE: Ben-Gurion University's "Africa Center", Wikimedia Israel, and Hamakor cooperate in making free knowledge accessible in Africa
The Africa Center at BGU, headed by Dr. Tamar Golan, annually sends a group of students on a three-month humanitarian expedition to developing countries in Africa. This year's group is going to the Repbulic of Benin and the Republic of Cameroon.
Learning about this while approaching the Africa Center for help with developing Africa-related entries on the Hebrew Wikipedia, Wikimedia Israel decided to equip the students with computers running free software and containing an offline (static) version of the French Wikipedia, so that the students can bring free knowledge to Africans without access to the Internet.
Wikimedia Israel reached out to Hamakor, the Israeli Free and Open Source Software NGO, and Hamakor helped obtain computer donations, refurbished them and installed the Linux operating system on them.
Wikimedia Israel collaborated with members of Wikimedia Switzerland and Wikimedia France to produce an up-to-date static version of the French Wikipedia (numbering about 1 million entries, and including images), French being a major language of reading and writing in Cameroon and Benin.
"The students also have portable installations of the offline Wikipedia, so that they may install it on any other computers they may run across in Africa," explained Asaf Bartov, who coordinated the project in Wikimedia Israel, "and they have received training on using Linux and Kiwix, the offline Wikipedia reader (free) software, so they may train others to use the computers".
Incidentally, the Linux version installed on those computers is called Ubuntu Linux, 'Ubuntu' being an African word (in the Zulu language) roughly translatable as "unity of mankind" or "mutual reliance".
Supporting and promoting the distribution of free knowledge in developing countries is one of the five major goals identified by the Wikimedia Foundation as central to its five-year strategy plan, developed by thousands of members of the Wikimedia Movement.
WikimediaKE mailing list WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org