[Foundation-l] We're not just here to run a hideously popular andexpensive website, after all

[effe iets anders]

Another main barrier that has to be lowered is the software... That is I
think one of the main issues that prevents a *lot* of people from editing.
Today I heard from a prominent Wikimedian "I wouldn't dare to send a teacher
to the English Wikipedia. He would get totally lost." indicating all the
templates that are being used, not even mentioning the not-nice attitude
that is normal with regards to sources etc (which might be necessary, but
are throwing up a barrier, especially as the reference system is so
complicated and makes things look even more like computer coding)...

BR, Eia

2008/3/5, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen op gmail.com>:
>
> Hoi,
> One of the things we are doing is localising MediaWiki. This will lower
> the
> barrier to entry for many of the language projects. For many projects
> including some big projects like Italian, Hindi, Polish and Spanish a lot
> more work needs doing. When you wonder how this impacts the not so
> connected
> world, we cannot provide off line content if it is not created on line
> first. All the work that we do to ease the use of MediaWiki will help.
>
> Another project that the WMF has been pushing is to develop software that
> allows for the export of MediaWiki content in the PDF format. In this way
> we
> can extract information off the Internet, print it and use it off line.
> This
> is surely of relevance for projects like Wikibooks. Obviously in this way
> much of thel formatting like Wikilinks are lost. There are multiple
> projects
> that have produced information for off line usage on memory stick or
> CD/DVD.
> I have a German, an English and a Farsi off line version of the Wikipedias
> for instance.
> Thanks,
>      GerardM
>
> On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 8:03 PM, mike.lifeguard <mike.lifeguard op gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> > Agreed. I seem to remember a talk [1] where Jimmy said "We're very
> > interested in the digital divide, poverty worldwide..." and so on,
> > indicating that we're not going to be just a website, but rather a
> genuine
> > effort to get knowledge out to the whole world. If that's the case, what
> > are
> > we doing to reach beyond the internet-connected world?
> > -Mike.lifeguard op enwikibooks
> >
> > [1] http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/37
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: David Gerard [mailto:dgerard op gmail.com]
> > Sent: March 5, 2008 6:38 AM
> > To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List; English Wikipedia
> > Subject: [Foundation-l] We're not just here to run a hideously popular
> > andexpensive website, after all
> >
> > http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/23906
> >
> > (in the bush in Africa)
> >
> > "Maybe I'm wrong, but I imagine that was the only video camera owned by
> > a local resident for miles around. The marginal benefit that one
> > uncommon piece of technology can have when no others are around must
> > be immense."
> >
> > Getting our content and the requisite technology out to the world has,
> > as far as I recall, always been expressly part of what we're all doing
> > here.
> >
> >
> > - d.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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