Grants talk:Project/Rapid/GastelEtzwane/SnailMail Kiwix

Hi GastelEtzwane. Thank you for this request and apologies for the delay in review. We really appreciate all the effort you have put into thinking through and testing different offline access options for communities that you are connected with. We were very interested in the learnings from your last grant as well as information shared with Anne regarding the rationale for moving from using Raspberry Pis to USBs. In general we are supportive of this project, but have a few questions before we can move forward.

1. Who will receive the USBs? The proposal talks about participants in seminars and workshops, nonprofit organizations, and individuals and schools. It is not sustainable or scalable for us to fund a project aimed only at getting drives to as many people as possible. We are more interested in understanding how the drives are used over a longer period and that entails developing relationships with the orgs/schools/individuals that will receive the USBs. It sounds like that is part of the plan, but please clarify.

   These are actually three categories of recepients: paticipants in workshops, non-profits and individuals.

   1. Participants in workshops and training seminars. -- I now hand out one USB flash drive for every 4 or 5 participants. The recepient of the USB is in charge of copying it onto the computers of his colleagues, and will also be a point of contact for the future upgrades in a year of two. These upgrades will then be passed on. In my experience, once somebody has become the source of the Kiwix files, people will keep on coming to this person so that they can have a copy installed.
   2. Non-profits -- Non-profit associations and NGOs active in education and health related development aid often distribute free digital resources (OER) as part of the development aid they provide. Most of these associations do not know about Kiwix, then are usually quite interested in the offline Wikipedia program once they know about it. This means that the program first needs to be demonstrated and then they need to be able to experiment on their own to see how to fit it into their current package of digital resources. They only need one flash drive and will duplicate the content to meet their objectives, I can add that they sometimes return the original key. In the future, these associations and NGOs download the updates themselves so that they may continue to provide the most recent versions.
   3. Individuals -- The individuals I am refering to are high-level government officials, or senior NGO staff that I meet on random occasions in Geneva or Swiss level conferences. I talk to them about Kiwix and leave them a copy of the program if I have a spare USB key available. The recipients agree to pass the program on to the proper department who might then in turn agree to include Kiwix in the programs they use and distribute. The follow-up is easier the because they accepted the USB and then have to give me some sort of feed back on where it went... This would require no more that 10 USBs per year.

   The USB flash drives are not freebies or give-aways: they are entrusted to individuals who can then be relied upon for further spreading Kiwix. It sometimes takes a while to appreciate the power of this off-line Wikipedia, and some individuals need to be able to experiment with it on their own before commiting 30 GB or more disk space.

   When working with people in Europe, I can send the USB keys or even hard drives by postal mail. When sending such equipment to Africa or South America, I give it to a person in Europe who will then use his or her network to transport it to the final destination. Trust is important, and so is the realization that the Kiwix program is quite important for an entire community. I only give the USB keys or other computer equipment to persons I trust and who believe in the value of the program. GastelEtzwane (talk) 01:53, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

2. How will you track usage of the USBs? The proposal mentions providing you with a report and you will get some on-the-ground support for those devices that are in Senegal (are they all in Senegal?). One challenge previously in getting feedback on your project was connectivity. How will you manage this challenge? Getting quality feedback in a relatively timely manner is an important consideration for funding the project.

   I will combine online questionnaires using Google forms, as well as the possibility to communicate using Facebook Messenger. Facebook is usually offered free (with no pics) with most mobile telephone plans. This will enable users to provide feedback when they happen to be in an area with connectivity. I am also setting up a network of people I can contact by phone so that they can help get the feedback from those who have not answered yet.

   The whole point of this project is to bring offline wikipedia to users who have little or no internet connectivity. Wikipedia 0 provides Wikipedia on cell phones, but it has not yet been implemented in all countries. This project will enable users to consult Wikipedia even if they are in an area with no cell phone coverage. One consequence is that it is quite challenging to contact thes users by electronic means, we will have to work with the tools they are familiar with.GastelEtzwane (talk) 01:56, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Looking forward to hearing back from you! Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 23:53, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

Sorry about the delay, the answers are directly in your text. GastelEtzwane (talk) 01:58, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Hi GastelEtzwane. Thank you for the detailed responses. We are especially interested in how you're adapting to the human issues of valuing the thumb drive, creating advocates/experts in the community, and adapting your evaluation to use the tools that are available (facebook messenger). We look forward to hearing how the project goes and your report. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 13:56, 4 September 2017 (UTC)