Hi Leigh -- Good thinking -- I think the first step is to develop the requirements for the project starting from a use case as a funding proposal on WE - see for example:
http://wikieducator.org/Metawikieducator Then we can ask developers from our community to help scope and refine the technical elements and cost the project. This way we will know what the funding target is -- but potential donors will also know what they are funding and have the confidence that we know what we're doing. Already we have different suggestions on the table to approach the bandwidth challenges. We need to get good solid advise from our technical team as well as inputs from the community. WikiEducator's strength is that we have built trust in the community and our external funders for doing things well and delivering on our commitments. A stitch in time saves nine <smile>. I'm very supportive of these ideas -- lets do them well. Trust takes time to build --- but is easily lost. Cheers Wayne On Fri, 2008-06-06 at 13:41 +1200, Leigh Blackall wrote: > How much funding do you think Wayne? Could we get a developer group to > quote to the brief, and then put a target fundraising bar on Wikied > for the rest of us to lobby for money for? > > > On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 7:52 AM, Wayne Mackintosh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > Dear Bjoern and Savithri, > > This is a challenge close to the hearts of all WikiEducators > and We've been thinking hard about how to move this forward. > > At least at a technical level -- this is solvable, but its > quite complicated and will certainly need a fair bit of > funding to get this right. > > Optimising the CSS for use on low bandwidth would be > relatively easy to solve -- and in fact this may already be > the case. When logged in - any user can change their > preference settings to use different skins. I've not > researched this, but it shouldn't be too hard to optimise one > of the existing skins for low bandwidth browsing. Lets hope > that there are some CSS gurus in our community that might want > to give this a try. Perhaps you know of someone who has this > technical knowledge -- see if you can encourage them to help > out <smile>. > > Wiki's are unique in the sense that they are dynamic. > Literally every second someone around the world could be > editing something. So this makes replication a little more > difficult. For example, if we have a local installation of > WikiEducator in Uganda -- how will the Uganda WikiEducator > synchronise with edits around the world. > > Benjamin Mako Hill of the Free Software Foundation has > developed a promising proof-of-concept for history sensitive > branching and synchronisation of wikis: > > http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:BMH1 > > So at least from a proof of concept perspective -- this would > be doable. However, is not a trival exercise and would need > considerable funding to get this operation. That said, it > would be a huge advance for the free knowledge community in > widening access to knowledge. Perhaps we should collaborate on > a funding proposal to secure the funding to get this work > done. I'm pretty sure that the Wikimedia Foundation would also > be very interested in solving this challenge. > > Cheers > Wayne > > > > > On Thu, 2008-06-05 at 06:28 -0700, Bjoern wrote: > > > Dear all, > > > > first post to the list - hello to you all. > > > > This is a post partially in reply to Wayne Mactintosh's presentation > > > http://www.wikieducator.org/Wayne_Mackintosh's_Presentation#.283:25.29_The_Big_Issue_for_Africa_.E2.80.93_How_do_you_get_Access.3F > > regarding access for Africa, and your comments on "Are all Open > > Educational Resources Equally Free?". > > > > The issues raised are very important, and I would like to make some > > practical suggestions. In my view, issues like web disability access > > are quite well understood, with relevant standards etc. However, low > > bandwidth access really hasn't come into the mainstream yet, and > > remains poorly understood. > > > > A good example for guidelines and recommendations are Aptivate's low > > bandwidth web-design guidelines, which are available here: > > http://www.aptivate.org/webguidelines/Home.html > > > > If you look at the top ten tips, you'll see that a maximum page size > > of 25kB is recommended. Wikieducator is currently about 150KB, and > > would take about one minute to load for typical user in a developing > > world university. > > > > Quite a bit of this is due to the css and javascript of the MonoBook > > skin (which is used by most mediawikis). So there's a real > opportunity > > here to have an impact by optimising the MonoBook skin. Perhaps even > > modifying the mediawiki code, so that the javascript is only loaded > > when needed. > > > > Unfortunately I don't have resources available to just get on with > > this, but perhaps this could somehow be addressed in a community > way? > > > > A second (more involved) area of interest is 'wiki replication', > i.e. > > to create a fully functional replicas (say of Wikieducator) within > > local area networks. This would be a full copy of Wikieducator, that > > can be read and edited on the local area network (of a university in > > the south), i.e. without international bandwidth constraints. The > > various 'replica' then synchronise themselves as and when permitted > by > > the international connection. Of course the goal would be a fully > > functional copy, that allows both read/write and resolution of > > conflicts etc. > > > > This is of course not a new idea, and it's also a complicated > problem. > > However, it is very relevant for low-bandwidth access, and perhaps > one > > could come up with some initial pragmatic solutions, that have less > > than the full functionality. For instance, one could replicate the > > content 'read-only', while 'edits' still take place on the main > wiki, > > but in a bandwidth optimised way (perhaps also with traffic shaping, > > so that bandwidth is available for this). This could give many > > institutions instant access to Wikieducator and Wikipedia. (In fact, > > Wikipedia of course has a distributed system of servers.) > > > > Of course one would start with a pilot project, to see whether those > > ideas really address some of the issues at hand. But if it works, it > > won't just make Northern content more accessible, but it could > really > > make Southern content more visible, and also enable South-South > > content sharing much more viable. > > > > I wonder whether there is critical mass to build a consortium around > > some of those ideas, and to see what's needed to make this happen. > > > > Looking forward to your feedback! > > Bjoern > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > -- > Leigh Blackall > +64(0)21736539 > skype - leigh_blackall > SL - Leroy Goalpost > http://learnonline.wordpress.com > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
