[Wikimedia-l] Afripedia, a project to help the development of Wikipedia in French-speaking Africa

[Adrienne Alix]

Hello,

Wikimedia France is very happy to announce a great new project :

A partnership has been formalized on last Friday between Wikimédia France,
the Institut Français
<http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_fran%C3%A7ais>(the network of
the french cultural institutes in the world) and the Agence
Universitaire de la
Francophonie<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agence_universitaire_de_la_Francophonie>(Association
of Universities of the Francophonie) to support a common
program about the development of Wikipedia in French-speaking Africa: this
project is called "Afripedia".

Afripedia is a project to support the "digital development" of Africa.
While the most part of the contributions and contributors on Wikipedia are
from the North, we want to make easier the offline reading of Wikipedia and
the production of content about Africa and made by African contributors.
The project entails projected workshops to help use the encyclopedia and
produce content on the Wikimedia projects.

Based on the offline technologies developped by
Kiwix<http://www.kiwix.org/index.php/Main_Page/en>(and helped by
Kiwix), the project will involve several phases:

1/ software development to produce offline versions of Wikipedia (and
probably other Wikimedia projects like Wiktionary) regularly and easily,
and then a download solution to get these offline versions easier, with no
technical ability needed.

2/ Installation of these offline versions on flash drives, plugged on
little computers extremely energy-efficient, without screen or keyboard.
The computer spreads the content of the flash drive (=Wikipedia) with a
wireless connection without internet (the content of the flash drive is
available just by connecting to this wifi) [see [[Plug
computer<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_computer>
]]

3/ Installation of the computers and flash drives and training of students
and professors on the "Digital campus of Francophonie", a network of
digital points supported by the Association of Universities of the
Francophonie, to support the dissemination of Wikipedia content without the
issues of irregular access to internet. One plug (with or without repeater)
can provide Wikipedia for dozens of students !

4/ Training in contribution on Wikipedia (in French and local languages)

5/ After a first implementation (autumn 2012) in 20 points in 15 countries
of West Africa, we will assess the project and extend it over a larger
scale for 2013, if the results are good.


As it is one of our missions, we consider producing free knowledge in
French and in local languages and making it accesible in territories
developping access to digital technology but having no active Wikimedia
community yet, to be essential. So we will also support the forming of
contributors communities in these countries.

See also (in french) http://www.wikimedia.fr/afripedia

==

The Institut Français is the operator for the French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in charge of the cultural action in foreign countries. Through its
French Language Department, the Institut Français works towards the
attractivity and spreading of French language across the world. It
particularly takes care of the development of the teaching of French
language and culture in secondary school and in universities.
http://www.institutfrancais.com/

The Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (Association of Universities of
the Francophonie) groups 786 higher education and research institutions
from 98 countries on the five continents, using French language as a
language for teaching and research. Its mission is to contribute to the
solidarity between French-speaking higher education establishments and to
the development of a scientific arena in French, respecting the cultures
and languages diversity.
http://www.auf.org/


-- 
Adrienne Charmet-Alix
Directrice des programmes - Wikimedia France
Twitter : @AdrienneAlix
adrienne.alix at wikimedia.fr | 07.62.92.42.01
http://www.wikimedia.fr