I agree with Gerard. The Wikimedia Foundation invested substantial money, and substantial reputational capital, into Wikipedia Zero, for many years. A sober analysis of the consequences of those decisions would be valuable
Jason Koebler wrote a fascinating and somewhat disturbing series of articles for Vice, about unintended consequences of the program; not long after, the program was shut down. For a major, multi-year effort of one of the world's top web sites, which is known to have had complex outcomes, it would be really worthwhile to have solid, well-vetted research into what the consequences and lessons were. I thought Koebler's take was fascinating, but it wasn't peer reviewed analysis, and I'm not aware of anybody else who dug into things the way he did, or any basis to confirm or challenge his conclusions. If anyone knows of internal Wikimedia program evaluation, or of independent research, it would be good to know about it. -Pete -- Pete Forsyth User:Peteforsyth On Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 9:34 PM Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijs...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hoi, > Kiwix and off line Wikipedia did exist at the start of Wikipedia Zero. It > is great that you brought some to Africa but you do not scale and it is not > a study into the effects of what the effects are of terminating Wikipedia > Zero. > > No idea what "Starlink" is but it is not a reality for a few more years.. > It sounds like we have thrown all these kids under the bus but hey, we have > plan. A plan/action is having our own caches in Africa and providing edit > and read capabilities for all who care to use it... and then measure the > extend it helps us recover from our Wikipedia Zero public. > Thanks, > GerardM > > On Tue, 26 Nov 2019 at 02:48, James Heilman <jmh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > We have offline Wikipedia. I have shipped devices to Kinshasa, and > > they arrived :-) > > > > Of course they do not at all address the need for two way communication. > > > > I am hoping Starlink will help when it comes online in a few years. > > > > James > > > > On Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 12:19 AM Gerard Meijssen > > <gerard.meijs...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > Hoi, > > > The BBC shows how dramatically expensive internet is in Africa.. For in > > my > > > opinion local political reasons Wikipedia Zero has terminated. That is > ok > > > up to a point; the point being that we understand the consequences from > > > this action. > > > > > > Given that our data is NOT local, people have to pay a premium. What > are > > we > > > going to do to compensate for expensive Wikipedia that replaced > Wikipedia > > > Zero? Did we study the effects or are we not interested in the > > consequences > > > of our actions? > > > Thanks, > > > GerardM > > > > > > https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-50516888 > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > > > > > -- > > James Heilman > > MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
