Hi Kasper,
I brought up the issue of NKo before as you will remember.
However unfortunately I have realised that it is an issue bigger than
simply conversion between scripts.
NKo is used to write a sort of "unified Mande" rather than individual
varieties, so it wouldn't work well for the Bambara Wikipedia.
Although mostly only old people use it in the area you are in, in
surrounding nations it is used by most of the Mande population, and
remember that it is an amazing miracle of indigenous literacy in
Africa (it spread from person to person and generation to generation,
across thousands of kilometres, without the framework of a formal
education system).
Especially in Guinea it is the primary means for writing Mande
languages, and there is already a huge body of existing technical
literature on diverse topics written in it.
Given the nature of NKo literature distribution, I think it's possible
some of the works in the language could be used directly on
Wikipedia
Mark
On 29/05/05, Guaka <guaka(a)no-log.org> wrote:
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
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