Congrats Ashwin, and thank you for taking this project
up.
Just to clarify, what does "School" include? Is it the Indian definition
of school, that is classes 1-10, or the American definition, that is
classes 1-12?
Also, what is the intended target audience, is it from 1-10, or is it just
High school?
Best,
Swaroop Rao
(MikeLynch <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MikeLynch>)
2011/12/9 Ashwin Baindur <ashwin.baindur(a)gmail.com>
ANNOUNCING A NEW WIKIPROJECT
(WikiProject Offline Wikipedia for Indian Schools)
Dear friends,
This is to announce the beginning of a new project for WikiProject India
- WikiProject Offline Wikipedia for Indian Schools (OWIS). For quite
some time now, there has been a need for an offline wikipedia compilation
suitable to Indian schools. There are, and have always been, a whole lot of
Indian schools and students out there who do not have access to an English
encyclopedia. The web has killed off a whole range of printed encyclopedias
and factbooks besides paid encyclopedia packages such as Encarta. If the
school does not provide wide-spread, regular and dependable access to the
web. then the students have zilch. So, keeping in mind that English
Wikipedia has been around for more than a decade and has more than enough
material for an encyclopedia, we began this project so that all interested
people could pitch in and collectively prepare such offline compilations
which are the need of the hour.
About the Wikiproject
To do this, we began a new WikiProject in English Wikipedia, daughter to
WikiProject India. Titled WikiProject Offline Wikipedia for Indian
Schools (OWIS), it is intended to be the umbrella WikiProject for all
Indian versions of offline English language wikipedias for students and
communities. The WikiProject will concentrate on content issues and
leave the production to a team of technically oriented guys from the
community (to be decided later).
You can read about the WikiProject page here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Offline_Wikipedia_for_In…
Under this WikiProject, it is proposed to provide a variety of
compilations suitable for various needs, such as a full offline
encyclopedia, single disc collations on topics related to India etc.
The first project
To begin with, we felt it is best to create a single DVD compilation with
all subjects covered in sufficient detail. We have named it as Offline
Wikipedia for Indian Schools (Full version) or OWIS-FULL (in short).
It is based on and will be similar to the SOS Children’s Village Offline
Wikipedia for School which you can checkout for yourself at this link:
http://schools-wikipedia.org/
The project page for this first project is here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Offline_Wikipedia_for_Indian_Sc…
The SOS village compilation is CD based with approximately 6500 articles
based on the British educational syllabus. Naturally, it contains a large
number of topics relevant only to the UK and has a distinct Western flavour
in its overall choice too, which is only natural.
To make this compilation suitable for our environment, we will have to
not only add a whole host of new articles on Indian topics to the
compilation but also remove topics/articles irrelevant to Indian students.
In addition, the SOS Children’s Encyclopaedia, being in existence for the
last few years, is designed to fit on a CD with the consequence that the
number of articles on a subject cover a subject satisfactorily but
skimpily. Since we plan our compilation to be on a DVD, there is scope to
improve coverage on all subjects as well. Hence it is planned to have in
the region of around 9000 articles.
So where are we now? As a first step we have established the framework in
the form of the WikiProject and pages where one can work. The list of
topics from the SOS compilation has been prepared subjectwise. These lists
need to be vetted/improved/extended and then finalised.
As of now, six subjects have been opened up for topic selection - Art,
IT, Maths, Physics, Biology and Chemistry. We need motivated editors to
join the teams and pitch in. The selection of topics needs to be completed
in ten days time so that we can move on to other subjects, other tasks.
So, if this venture interests you, if you want to do something really
important with us, if you agree with our proposition that this is critical
for delivering the potential of Wikipedia to digitally-challenged
communities, sign up here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Offline_Wikipedia_for_In…
All the best to all of us to successfully complete this vital project.
This email is being reflected on Wikimedia India list for information.
But If you would like to respond to this, please respond to on the English
Wikipedia for India mailing list -
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-en
Everyone is welcome to subscribe to it.
Ashwin Baindur
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