Hi,
First, thanks to HaafLimbo (his alias on the Limburgish Wikipedia) who pointed me to this mailinglist :)
it's often a possibility that the person has seen a webpage but that writing the manuscript out in longhand is more convenient for them.
That can even be more convenient inside cities where there is internet, like Bamako. Many people have never touched a computer. In fact, last week I proposed an older Fulaar man, who is also head of a Fulaar cultural association, to simply bring me written articles.
Just because you don't have access to a computer doesn't mean you never HAVE had access. And you might have access to a computer, but it might be inconvenient compared to writing on paper and using conventional post.
Not to forget the costs of using the computer (let alone the internet).
Or should I register a special account to post all the articles created in the project? That will make searching them very easy, etc. What do you think?
Yesterday, when I added 5 articles to the Bambara Wikipedia I simply put the name of the author in the comment box.
Among our further plans is looking for such people in the villages of North Ossetia, where exists at least one highly literate group: the teachers of the Ossetian language. But most of them are not at all good computer users... So we have many interesting challenges.
<<Perhaps a collaboration with computer offer ?>>
Can you tell more about your idea? I didn't get it.
Reading this thread... An idea that pops up right now... Communities could be provided with one or more computers, under the condition they regularly write new Wikipedia articles. An internet connection is probably too expensive at such places. This way people can be provided with lots of valuable information in languages some people can understand while at the same time working on information in their native language.
Make computer usage free for people who contribute to Wikimedia projects (or localization, documentation, development of free software, free information projects), and people who don't contribute can choose to pay a small sum that pays the electricity, and possibly the internet connection...
I've been quite a while in Bamako now. And I've tried to get people interested. First with 200 CFA per article (0.3 EUR), but that didn't really work. I've tried with university students, but nothing really happened. Recently a new Geek arrived however, who has equipped a little community school/center with a bunch of computers, in one of the poorer areas of Bamako. And they are really interested. The university students and the more "well off" people couldn't be bothered with the 500 CFA. Poorer people however, don't have the money to use a cybercafe. 500 CFA per hour is considered cheap here, for using the internet, but is also unaffordable for at least 90% of the population.
Yesterday, at the center, I gave out the first 500 CFA pieces, and people are starting to get the idea.
I also installed a DICT version of Wikipedia on the computer, so they can access all the text from the French Wikipedia and translate that.
bye, Kasper