(This is a guest post from Adrienne Alix of Wikimedia France. You can read the original Afripedia post here and you can read the French version of this post here.)

The Afripedia project was initiated in late 2011, and engaged Wikimédia France, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and the Institut Français (IF). Kiwix also supplied technological support.

The partnership, which was signed in June 2012, started materializing in November 2012 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

What is the project about?

The Afripedia project aims to enable significant off-line consultation of Wikipedia and also to train contributors in French-speaking African schools and universities.

Hardware for Afripedia project.

Our starting point was the fact that, although African universities have begun to be well-equiped with computer hardware, their Internet connectivity is often poor, or at least too weak or irregular to allow frequent, natural use of Wikipedia. These issues and lack of Internet access at home are factors that prevent students and teachers from using Wikipedia as much as they might like.

It was important for us to combine the dissemination of Wikipedia with contribution trainings so that students and teachers could contribute to Wikipedia and enhance content about Africa, which is notably under-represented on Wikipedia (only 2 percent of contributors are from Africa, and most of them from North African countries). Thus, when quality Internet access comes, Wikipedia contributors will be ready.

Using Kiwix, which has been offering off-line consultation of Wikipedia for several years, we implemented a computer deployment project to broadcast Wikipedia through offline WiFi networks. This mechanism, in place in universities of West Africa and Central Africa, allows people from those universities to connect easily to the network and freely read Wikipedia without an Internet connection or desktop computer. A more detailed description is available on Wikipedia: projet Afripédia.

What have we done?

Afripédia training, Abidjan, 2012.

With the help of AUF, we hired about 15 people from French-speaking digital campuses in 11 African countries: Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Chad, Central African Republic, Mauritania, Niger, Togo, Mali and Burundi. From 5-9 November 2012, training took place at Abidjan’s French speaking digital campus, located in the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Cocody (Ivory Coast). Over five days, we taught how to use and install the Wikipedia offline consultation tools. We also taught Wikipedia editing, explained concepts such as free licences and introduced the various Wikimedia projects. The week ended with a public lecture available to students (around a hundred people attended), and a contribution workshop animated by the people trained during the week.

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Opening knowledge and sharing information are among the principles of the Wikimedia projects. Wikipedia’s spirit is that if you open knowledge, you can build a better encyclopedia and help more people in the world.

For many years, we didn’t see Wikipedia especially as a way of development, but people outside the Wikimedia movement see our experience and work more and more as such a model.

The Wikimedia Foundation and some Wikimedia chapters are involved in projects to use Wikipedia as a way to help development and education, by sharing Wikipedia content, supporting communities of wikimedians, and building educational resources.

The World Bank opened its data and resources and released them under a free license some months ago. The goal is to allow reuse and work with this open content.

During Wikimania 2012, the World Bank and Wikimédia France have organized an event to hear from organizations that are creating online and offline open source solutions to close this digital divide.

Participants at the event include:

• Cyril Muller and Michael Trucano from the World Bank, which is involved in a policy to be more transparent and give access to its data to improve research and control.
• Asaf Bartov, Head of Global South Relationships, Wikimedia Foundation, to speak about the Wikimedia Foundation’s projects in the Global South.
• James BonTempo, Thought Leader, ICT4D, Jhpiego, about development projects in impoverished countries
• Adrienne Alix, Director of Programs, Wikimedia France, about Afripedia, the initiative by Wikimedia France to make Wikipedia content in French more widely available offline.

Follow this link for more information about the event, taking place Wednesday morning, and to participate online.

Adrienne Alix, Director of Programs, Wikimédia France

This post is available in 2 languages:

français  • English

In English

Signing the partnership agreement for Afripedia

In mid June, Rémi Mathis, chairman of Wikimédia France, signed a partnership with the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (Association of Universities of the Francophonie – AUF) and the Institut Français (IF) to support a project called Afripedia. This initiative supports the development of Internet access in countries where, for now, the network is not stable and affordable enough. In French-speaking Africa, where most people have limited, expensive and poor quality access to the Internet, the goal is to encourage contribution and access to free knowledge. Wikimédia France intends to support future local contributor communities to move Wikipedia forward in French and in local languages.

The partnership is facilitated by the work of Kiwix developers, who for several years have been facilitating offline versions of Wikipedia in various languages. Utilizing the Kiwix platform, content from Wikipedias in different languages can be downloaded and shared all over the world to be used in diverse ways.

For Afripedia, Wikimédia France –working with Kiwix, the AUF and IF — will establish offline WiFi systems in areas where internet is not prevalent. The system essentially works like an Intranet. We will install small computers (Plug Computers) without screens or keyboards, which are very energy-efficient. Then we will connect a flash drive with the content of Wikipedia (and maybe other Wikimedia projects, like Wiktionary, etc.) and all the content will be shared by WiFi with all the computers that receive the WiFi network. To update content, you just have to update the original flash drive and every computer will receive the new information. We think that this system is better than the traditional sharing of content with flash drives or DVD, because it allows for easier and more accessible updates.

In a lot of countries, the AUF has a network of digital campuses near universities. We are in partnership with the AUF in order to benefit from that network and logistical help. We will start by setting up the project in about 20 universities in 15 countries in West-Africa and by training the staff to use Wikipedia, especially for educational use.

But we also want to encourage contribution by African people on African topics, given that there is too little coverage of those on Wikipedia. For this purpose, while we develop the offline dissemination of Wikipedia, we will organize tutorials and workshops to make it easier to contribute and collaborate with the Wikipedia community. With this training, we’re hopeful users will be able to contribute more easily when their internet connection allows them to do so.

If the project goes well, we intend to develop it further in 2013 with help from the AUF and IF. We’re starting with universities, but we can consider sharing Wikipedia content this way in schools, cultural centers and even (with wireless repeaters) in residential areas and villages.

This is a particular and unique experience for us to take part to this kind of project. It is very interesting to work with institutions with extensive experience in educationnal and cultural development. Since we have announced this partnership, and based on coverage in African media outlets, we have received several contacts from associations or people involved in cultural development. This should allow us to support new communities of contributors (and maybe future wikimedia chapters?) in these countries.

We look forward to updating you on our progress as the initiative proceeds.

Adrienne Alix, Director of programs, Wikimédia France

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