Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Wikipedia Offline for WEP Algeria

Hi bachounda. Is this proposal ready for review? If yes, please change the status from "draft" to "proposed"? Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 20:24, 14 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Alex :) ; done and I think all is Ok , I've changed le status --Mohammed Bachounda (talk) 08:13, 21 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

WMF Questions[edit]

Hi Bachounda, have you thought about applying for a Wikipack Africa?--KHarold (WMF) (talk) 00:08, 22 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Kacie i will going to ask about more details, and i return to you :) --Mohammed Bachounda (talk) 10:54, 23 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Bachounda

You give me the opportunity to start a FAQ on WikiFundi it seems :)

Ok, here are some clarifications

WikiFundi and Kiwix are two different projects, complementary.

Kiwix provides you with an offline read-only access to all of Wikipedia (and many others, such as Wiktionary etc.). And it is made available on a plug. It is available in many languages, including English, French and Arabic.
Wikifundi allows you to create and modify articles in a wikipedia like environnement. It is not based on Kiwix at all. It is naturally based on MediaWiki. It does not contain Wikipedia (it is done on purpose to avoid confusing people), except for some sample articles. It is only available in French and English.

Kiwix is a mature application. It has been around for many years. Kiwix is an application. It is fairly easy to download and use directly. Or you may get it on a plug indeed.

WikiFundi is still in pilot mode. A first release was installed on Raspberry PI distributed by Orange Foundation to their 500 schools network. Stéphane and I were both yesterday with OF and I got one of those boxes (with WikiFundi on it). I'll take some screenshots later this week to illustrate the whole thing :) The second release, for Wikimedians, should be done late December or early January. Wikifundi is a bit complicated to set up all by yourself, as it is essentially an offline website. You may download it, but installing is quite complicated I fear. Which is why we propose to make it available on Raspberry PI. We will put more stuff on the boxes, including Kiwix. Actually, the technical elements of WikiFundi are done by Emmanuel.
We have funding to set up 14 of those boxes for wikimedia users. And we expect to get feedback on those, so that we know whether it is seen as completely useless or useful and if so, to know what should be changed in the future. As such, it will be very interesting if you have training sessions planned because you will be in a great position to test those :) 14 is not a lot, but that depends on how many groups volunteer to get a box. We can commit providing you with one. Two... I am not sure. It may make sense for you to also ask for a Kiwix plug independantly...
The boxes will be set up by Emmanuel in Switzerland. Emmanuel can either ship some to individuals. Or it can ship a bunch directly to Ghana. Or it can ship a bunch to me and I will put them in my suitcase and distribute them during WikiIndaba. So it fairly depends on whether you attend Indaba :)
In terms of timing, I do not know when your training sessions are planned. But I am sure it will not be available until mid January or late January.

Anthere (talk) 12:34, 23 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from WMF[edit]

Hi bachounda. Thank you for this proposal and all your work with the education program. We are happy to support a series of workshops and trainings for university students that are involved in the education program. However, we are unclear about this request. It sounds like you want to train students to edit Wikipedia, but the main challenge it seems is internet connectivity. You want to address this issue by having the students edit offline and then upload the articles when they have connectivity. As Anthere wrote about, Kiwix will not help in this situation. Kiwix is a program that let's you download Wikipedia content and then read it offline. You cannot use it to edit.

The only option for offline editing at the moment is WikiFundi. As Anthere said, it would be great if you could use your planned activities to test one of the WikiFundi/Raspberry Pi devices as part of their pilot. I would suggest connecting with her to plan to receive one of them (either at WikiIndaba or through a shipment).

If our understanding is correct and you would like to move forward with WikiFundi, please withdraw the proposal (by updating the status to "withdrawn". Thanks, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 04:28, 18 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Alex it's exactly that, after many discussions we have seen wikifundi is the best solution for our exigencies. thanks a lots four your support --Mohammed Bachounda (talk) 15:30, 20 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]