I would be grateful to learn how this Wiki project fits alongside Simple English Wikipedia:
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page ...and how the project intends to avoid a situation where well-meaning volunteers find themselves spending a lot of effort doing work that's already been done. Bodnotbod On 19 February 2014 23:31, Mathias Damour <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > Since I was able and glad to come in EduWiki 2013 in Cardiff, to make a > presentation about the Wikikids proposal : > https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/EduWiki_Conference_2013/Abstracts#Wikikids_-_Mathias_Damour > we have gone forward and we are about to launch Vikidia in English on the > 28th of February. > It's already open with restricted access, and the early editors mainly come > from the other Vikidias and from WikiKids.nl. > > Nevertheless, I would be glad that Wikimedia UK or some of it's member gets > involved and supports this project, (Wikimedia France does), provided that > if it makes its way properly, it can have a great impact for our goals. > > If you want to have a look, it's http://en.vikidia.org and the codes are > "vikidia" and "aidikiv" > We have set up most of the basic/frame pages and we better them before > launching the wiki. > Here they are : http://en.vikidia.org/wiki/Vikidia:Talk/2014/8 > > Here is a scratch communiqué/launching message : > May you be interested in this project and spread, advice or help it ? > > ***************************************************** > > A Vikidia opens today, let's built a children wiki encyclopedia in English ! > > Vikidia is the equivalent of Wikipedia for children: an online encyclopedic > project, for 8-13 year-old readers, open to contributors of any age. It was > launched in November 2006 in French, then in Spanish, Italian, Russian and > now English. It aims both to offer a suitable corpus of knowledge for > children and to let some of them, as well as teenagers them be involved in > building it. It is very close to Wikipedia in its aim and functioning, > except the age range. > > Such wikis have proven their sustainability, relevance and success, the two > biggest ones this model being Vikidia in French and WikiKids.nl in Dutch, > with respectively 16000 and 14000 articles and hundreds of thousand readers > every month. > > Many children already use Wikipedia daily, for the substantial content and > the well known convenient way it is to find material on any subject. > However, the level of Wikipedia articles makes them hardly accessible for > children or even other people on some subjects and they may read it for lack > of a better resource. > There is some television programs for children, some books, some movies for > children and even some newspapers and magazines. It would be unsound to > consider that they couldn't make a great use of a children encyclopedia. > Many children really need and appreciate when it does exist to have a more > readable content for them. They tell it on the French Vikidia guestbook, on > which the main remarks are that they like it and that they would like to > find more articles and more content in most articles. It is not designed > only for children but for everybody who want a simple explanation on a > subject. That mean that the content must be suitable for 8-13 years old > children, based on the general perception of what is or not considered as > possibly offensive for this age range. That also mean that we take each > subject seriously in order to build a quality and substantial documentary > resource. > > To offer to some children and teenagers to take part in such a resource and > to be active in the building process is also obviously a matter of > empowerment. The mere possibility to add something may also change one > child's motivation for the content as a reader. > > Everybody is invited to edit Vikidia without age restrictions. There are no > mandatory or forbidden roles or status related to the users real ages. > Vikidia both needs grown-up contributions and enable children and teenagers > to write and to be involved in building the encyclopedia. Young people can > also be involved within educational activities organised by schools. They > may gain some digital/media literacy by learning about the functioning of a > resource they will use extensively few years later: Wikipedia, although the > goal is still to create content an the "knowledge resource" benefit of such > a project: school projects are welcomed provided they consider the wiki's > rules and content objectives. > > - Adults involvement is essential for building content that is of quality > and significance, fostering basic maintenance: to watch and ensure a certain > stability in the functioning of the wiki, > - children's involvement, even when they don't produce very long articles, > let appear works on subjects that interest their peers, it responds to their > aspirations and their desire to participate and they definitely take their > share in growing the content and in maintenance tasks, > - older children, teenagers that don't (yet) edit Wikipedia can have the > chance to do it here, and to make a good work. The advantage is both the > amount of work they can bring, and what this work can bring to them, like > for the younger ones and like any Wikipedia editor. > > http://en.vikidia.org/wiki/Vikidia:For_children_or_by_children%3F > > Vikidia representatives used to work on a proposal to be adopted within a > multilingual Wikikids project. They no longer ask for it and decided to > remain it independent from the Wikimedia Foundation and now to open a > Vikidia in English. > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikikids/Vikidia%27s_withdrawal_of_the_adoption_proposal > > Vikidia is handled by the Association Vikidia, located in France, a > non-profit-organization. The servers are hosted by Tuxfamily, a > non-profit-organization that host free softwares and free content projects. > Vikidia is free according to the principle of Free Knowledge. The general > license used is CC-BY-SA. > Vikidia especially implements and complies with the articles 12, 13 and 17 > of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. > http://en.vikidia.org/wiki/Vikidia:Relation_to_the_Rights_of_the_Child > > -- > Mathias Damour > 49 rue Carnot > F-74000 Annecy > 00 33 (0)4 57 09 10 56 > 00 33 (0)6 27 13 65 51 > [email protected] > http://fr.vikidia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Astirmays > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia UK mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list [email protected] http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
