[Wikipedia-l] Putting wikipedia down in schools

Thu Nov 4 11:05:37 UTC 2004

Folks,

	http://www.wizzy.org.za/article/articlestatic/23/1/2/

  Just a heads-up on my experience putting wikipedia down in schools.

  Recently, I have been working with the Shuttleworth Foundation,

	http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/
	http://www.slug.org.za/

  who put Linux Thin Client (K12LTSP) classrooms down in South African
  township schools. I augment their install by adding internet (email,
  offline web cache) and wikipedia. I have done 14 schools to date.

  I still install the Mar2004 version. It takes long enough, and it is (only) five CDs.

  To recap, wikipedia needs:-

  * The software (mediawiki - currently Andy's RPM, tiny, needs apache, php)
  * a mysql server with snapshot (the text, which I install as a binary file for speed,
     but is distributed as a mysql database dump - compressed)
     I also package this as an RPM.
  * the pictures (optional) - 256 RPMs, to be able to pack it on CDs.

  It (Mar2004) will fit on one DVD. It is all (to first order of magnitude) pictures.

  The mysql database dump is CD-sized, probably until January 2005.

  Wikipedia, in 6 months, has doubled in size - db/pics from 700M/2.5G to
  1.2G/5G. Rapidly moving out of CD space, passing through DVD space, it
  is now a (mailed) hard drive.

  I am now putting the database on the main LTSP server (at a school),
  because I think it belongs there. However, I /really/ want the whole
  thing to be on one computer, so I am running tests - one school has
  the mysql server on the main (dual P4, 2Ggig), another has the DB on
  the (smaller, P3, 256M) wizzy server.

  At both schools, mediawiki and the pictures are on the wizzy server.

  The pictures (currently) must reside on the computer running the php
  software - mediawiki. Though they take a lot of space, it is not a
  difficult job - easily handled by a small computer with enough disk
  (Mar2004 needs about 4Gig).

  Mediawiki (as supplied) does a full text search on the database if
  there is not a hit on the encyclopedia article. This is (incredibly)
  expensive, and I turn it off now.

  I envisage a computer hard drive, mailed to people/schools, that you put
  into your (old) computer. It boots, discovers hardware, (like kudzu,
  open source from redhat) at boot, and delivers a wikipedia snapshot.

  An upgrade is:-

    * find another school/home/computer for an old one (hard disk)
    * get your new one

  I dual-boot to Ubuntu now - I am most impressed. The Shuttleworth
  Foundation will be moving over to Ubuntu in the future, so I
  need to learn how to make .debs.

  I am keen to grab the wikipedia front page, do a minor edit to
  add a BASE tag to <HEAD> to redirect links to the local wikipedia
  installation.

Cheers,     Andy!

http://wizzy.org.za/