Wikimedia by moulin is an effort to bring the global knowledge to people in developing countries who lacks information resources.
Our solution is the creation and the distribution of a computer software giving access to the whole Wikimedia content (including Wikipedia) without the need of an Internet connection.
Computers are getting installed in more and more new places everyday ; starting with global startegies like the ones of Intel, AMD or OLPC. Also, the last decade has seen
All those computers, at least the ones we've seen in Africa, comes content-free. Wikimedia by moulin want those machines to be filled with the great Wikimedia content so that it became accessible to local communities for educational and cultural purposes.
Since its creation in 2001, the crazy Wikipedia project had grown to eventualy become one of the 10 most visited websites in the world. With more than 2 millions articles in english, half a million in french and thousands in a large number of languages, it centralizes the largest amount of freely-available knowledge.
Its core principles: freedom, neutral point of view (helped by the not-for-profit motivation) and self-regulation makes it competitor-free as candidate for developing-countries populations.
Targetting such a goal is not an easy task and we don't have much resources to conduct all the activities we would like to (See Kunnafoni).
As stated above, Wikimedia by moulin is two very different projects:
In order to distribute this content, we had to develop a custom platform based on a lot of open-source technologies. The result itself is GNU GPL code to which anyone can participate (See Group and Code). To enhance quality and ensure sustainability, we set up a partnership with Kiwix, the software behind the WikipediaOnDvd project.
Distributing the software is really hard. One have to burn CDs, mail them, install them and train at least one «teacher». Our strategy is to leverage partnerships with local organizations which would conduct those actions. Unfortunately, we can't reach every organization working in the field ; that's why we maintain this website and give talks in various places. So, Spread the news: Wikimedia by moulin exists and works ! Use it !
Please, take a look at the distribution page to get an insight of what's done with it. Also, Kunnafoni, the non-profit behind moulin has plans to distribute it through different ways.
Wikimedia by moulin results of the initial work of Kasper Souren, Frederic Renet and Renaud Gaudin, all former Geekcorps Mali volunteers. After being supported (and widely distributed) by Geekcorps Mali, the moulin crew set-up the Kunnafoni not-for-profit organization working in the global Access to Information field.
While Kunnafoni is very active in moulin's activites, it is an open project in which anyone can contribute, just like Miguel Galán (spanish, catalan), Bassem Jarkas (arabic) and others.