[Wikimediaindia-l] troubleshooting Wikipedia for schools offline project

Sat Jan 22 12:08:41 UTC 2011

Hi Emmanuel and All,

I've re-christened the Wikipedia For Schools Offline Edition as WFSOE so I
can use a short form ;)

Updates:
I downloaded the 2.x GB pre-indexed kiwix+zim  zip file from kiwix.org. It
had a problem on extracting - the .zim file was broken. Emmanuel or folks
from Kiwix, could you check? I hope the problem was only on my side.
Link: http://download.kiwix.org/portable/wikipedia_en_for_schools.zip(2718mb)

Fortunately I already had gotten the wikipedia for schools .zim file
separately, and put it here - and now it works perfectly. The pre-indexed
version is much better and I'll be going to the school and replacing what I
had previously installed with this version.

I'm uploading the repackaged and working version on my mirror site (this
time compressed in 7-zip .7z format and also split, by 7-zip only, into
27x100mb parts):
http://www.4shared.com/dir/cwqa0nnC/WFSOE_Full_pre-indexed_with_sc.html
(give it a day or two to upload fully)

...And also have put up just the kiwix software in that package, without the
.zim file.
http://www.4shared.com/file/_yQEKn2r/WFSOE_with_kiwix-09alpha7_with.html
(107mb)

So, people who already have the schools-wikipedia-full-20081023-rc5.zim file
can simply put it in and start using it.
This whole folder, downloaded by either of the above options, can then be
directly copied over to a DVD or USB drive and it will become an
auto-launching thing then.

I've made a detailed blog post of this whole process with screenshots,
including shots of the working encyclopedia.
http://nikhilsheth.blogspot.com/2011/01/troubleshooting-wikipedia-for-schools.html

I'll make these updates on the wiki page soon.
http://education.wikia.com/wiki/Wikipedia_For_Schools_Offline_Edition

It would be great if someone can download from the above links and let me
know if it's all working properly or not. Do let me know if I'm doing
anything wrong here.

Cheers,
Nikhil Sheth
+91-966-583-1250
Pune, India
Teach For India <http://www.teachforindia.org> Fellow, 2011-13
www.nikhilsheth.tk
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On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 1:18 AM, Emmanuel Engelhart
<emmanuel at engelhart.org>wrote:

> On 01/20/2011 07:35 PM, Nikhil Sheth wrote:
> > Taking it to the logical next step, I've created a wiki page for this
> > campaign:
> >
> > http://education.wikia.com/wiki/Wikipedia_For_Schools_Offline_Edition
>
> I have sign up.
>
> > I will do my best to incorporate all your advice there; requesting you
> > to jump in as well!
> >
> > All are requested to gather here and collaborate! (including mumbai and
> > pune wikipedia lists here as well). Urging the volunteers who obtain the
> > wikipedia for schools dump to enlist themselves here, and we'll be
> > listing the schools that we empower - one by one!
> >
> > I'm proud to mention that a school I'm volunteering in Pune, where some
> > Teach For India fellows are teaching, is the first "empowered" school,
> > where I've installed Wikipedia for Schools in the computer lab and the
> > office! It's an under-resourced school but now the kids there have
> > access to a wealth of knowledge! And you should see them in action!
>
> I'm sure this was a great reward for your work. I never have had this
> chance!
>
> > Why I created the page in wikia : In Wikipedia, when I went to create a
> > new page, it clearly said the content ought to be encyclopedic in nature
> > - whereas THIS is more of a movement and recruitment page. So to be on
> > the safe side I went to the education wikia where things are a little
> > sparse ;). I've worked with wikia in toastmasters.wikia.com
> > <http://toastmasters.wikia.com> and am comfortable with it. If anyone
> > can establish a good location on wikipedia itself, which doesn't get
> > deleted later, and migrate everything there, it'll be great! There are
> > lots of external links on this so need to be careful.
> >
> > Further plans (if you guys can help!):
> > 1. A proliferation meetup where a lot of us can get together and copy
> > the dump to our laptop/netbook/USB drive. 1 goes to 20... and we can
> > scale up the project like crazy.
>
> Would be great, I'm interested in any simple Ideas/Solutions to build
> something like a small digital kiosk where people could easily choose
> what they want to get on their USB stick. The wireless version,
> something like a WIFI Spot with only one Web Site could also be
> interesting.
>
> > 2. To tie up with DVD distributors and bulk-produce, provided the costs
> > are as low as humanly possible. Maybe Wikimedia India could maintain a
> > stock?
>
> I see you have BIG projects, so just an idea: what about something like
> shipit.wikimedia.in with a similar principle as shipit.ubuntu.com. This
> would be certainly a logistical and financial challenge... but could be
> really efficient.
>
> An other good way to spread content fastly and for not too much money is
> to make a deal with a magazin which will be sell with the DVD... but
> someone has to take the publishing responsability.
>
> > (Seemingly Impossible) Requests:
> > 1. Can anybody add a link to versions of Kiwix that work on non-Windows
> > OS's like Linux, Apple, Android? My focus is on Android, for future
> > mobile perspective...
>
> Kiwix does not work on Android currently, but we should have soon an
> other ZIM reader which will be able to run on Android.
>
> It's also on the roadmap of Kiwix to be ported to Android, but this
> shouldn't happen this year.
>
> Otherwise Kiwix is available for MacOSX and GNU/Linux, all the necessary
> details are on the Kiwix Web site Welcome page.
>
> > 2. Can we get a version of this that doesn't have Image files? Then the
> > size will be much lesser. Of course, that's less attractive, but I'm
> > looking for an opportunity to take this to mobile devices. How can we
> > edit a .ZIM file?
>
> This should be possible with a little bit work.
>
> Regards
> Emmanuel
>
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