* Manuel Schneider manuel.schneider@wikimedia.ch [Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:14:56 +0100]:
have you ever looked into openZIM? The ZIM file format offers a highly compressed storage which includes a fulltext search index.
Currently there are Kiwix as a GUI reader application and the
zimreader
as a webserver available, along with special readers for embedded devices etc.
The Wikimedia Foundation is working on providing regular ZIM dumps of their wikis along with the SQL and XML dumps.
/Manuel
Certainly, a regularly updated compact offline version would be great for many purposes (eg. educational). I hope that reader will be available for different platforms, including the mobile ones (mobile internet here in developing countries is not so cheap comparing to ADSL). Dmitriy