Submissions/Offline Wikipedia in Swiss Jails

From Wikimania 2014 • London, United Kingdom

After careful consideration, the Programme Committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2014 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this August.

Submission no. 3018
Title of the submission
Offline Wikipedia in Swiss Jails.
Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)
Presentation
Author of the submission
Muriel Staub, Emmanuel Engelhart
E-mail address
muriel.staub@wikimedia.ch; emmanuel.engelhart@wikimedia.ch
Username
Muriel Staub (WMCH), Kelson
Country of origin
Switzerland, France
Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)
Wikimedia CH
Personal homepage or blog
www.kiwix.org
Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)
We tend to forget but: Access to internet - and come along with it the access to Wikipedia - is not granted for everybody. With KIWIX - your offline Wikipedia you get Wikipedia without using the internet. It's for free and works no matter who or where you are: on a boat, in the middle of nowhere or in jail.
This offline access to knowledge is making a huge difference for inmates in Swiss prisons: In order to stimulate and support the interest for education of detainees, Wikimedia CH and the Bellevue’s Prison in Gorgier collaborated: Since March 2013, prisoners in the Swiss Bellevue’s prison can have access to Wikipedia offline. After a three month pilot phase, the project was considered very successful: Among the 36 prisoners of the Bellevue’s prison in Gorgier, 18 possess or rent a computer. All of these 18 prisoners requested the upload of Wikipedia offline on their PC and the feed-backs are unanimously positive : they reveal that Wikipedia is seen as an improvement of the education and information activities in jail. In order to establish a long term partnership, Wikimedia CH installed the Kiwix files and trained the IT team of the prison, who can now upload the software for every new prisoner who requests to get Wikipedia offline.
At the moment we're working on the extend of this project to other Swiss prisons and to detention centers for minors. By the time of 2014 Wikimania, we hope to be able to present further use-cases of Wikipedia offline in Swiss prisons.
Furthermore, we will quickly present how KIWIX - your offline Wikipedia works and are happy to hand out information material and equipment so that you can test Wikipedia offline yourself.
Track
  • Education Outreach
Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)
30 minutes
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
Not yet clear but probably yes.
Slides or further information (optional)
Special requests


Interested attendees

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  1. Kelson (talk)
  2. This is a fantastic talk. I heard about this at last Wikimania and still show off the advertising postcards. I would be excited to hear a follow-up. Blue Rasberry (talk) 22:18, 7 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  3. FKoudijs (WMF) (talk) 22:59, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Ziko (talk) 22:19, 14 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Add your username here.
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