The document discusses Wikipedia and its goal of providing free access to all of human knowledge. It emphasizes empowering individuals and communities through collaboration and sharing. Wikipedia's radical idea is that everyone would have access to the sum of human knowledge. The document outlines several ways Wikipedia aims to achieve this, including being free to use, nurturing critical thinking, allowing content to be shared and modified, using the MediaWiki platform to enable collaborative editing, and preserving linguistic diversity through language-specific Wikipedia sites.

1. WikipediA:
Empowering individuals and communities
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference
ICTs for Education and Development
12 - 13 september 2006
Florence Nibart Devouard
anthere@wikimedia.org
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

2. Empowerment
Collaboration, sharing, mutuality
Strengthening the power of others rather than decreasing it
Being able to act on issues we define as important
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

3. Wikipedia’s radical idea
Imagine a world in which every single
person is given free access to the
sum of all human knowledge.
www.wikipedia.org
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

4. Imagine a bookshelf…
Wikipedia,
The encyclopedia
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

5. 1st lever: learning from others
+ Free as in free beer (“gratis”)
- Requires internet access
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

6. Few hits from Africa, Eastern Europe…
Digital From Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard
World Wikimedia projects access hits stats (summer 2005)

7. 2nd lever: nurturing a critical mind
Neutrality of Point of View
• Readers are from diverse political, religious,
cultural backgrounds
• Content represent all significant views fairly
and without bias.
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

8. 3rd lever: reduce, re-use and recycle
Rights
• Use the information without limitation
• Distribute it in as many copies as desired
• Modify it, reduce or add to it
Duties
• All derivative work is to be kept free
• The source must be mentionned
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

9. 4th lever: teaching others
Mediawiki logo
MediaWiki: a plateform for collaborative editing
• Requires a computer and an
internet connection
• Allows users to add or edit
content
• Scalable and multilingual
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

10. Countries editing the english Wikipedia
Digital From Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard
World Wikimedia projects access hits stats (summer 2006)

11. 5th lever: preserving linguistic diversity
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

12. Some Nigeria languages Wikipedias
• English: 1 400 000 articles (http://en.wikipedia.org)
• Yoruba: 55 articles (http://yo.wikipedia.org)
• Hausa: 14 articles (http://ha.wikipedia.org)
• Igbo: 11 articles (http://ig.wikipedia.org)
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard

13. “Everyone loses if one language is lost
because then a nation and
culture lose their
memory, and so does
the complex tapestry
from which the world is
woven and which makes
the world an exciting place.”
Vigdis Finnbogadottir
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Languages
Digital World Africa 2006 Conference - 12 sept 2006 - Florence Devouard