11 ms·

Wikipedia over SMS: Getting Wikipedia to the people who need it most

62 points by alternize 14y ago

dbaupp 14y ago
This is awesome! I'd heard about it from a previous HN submission when it was still quite small, but it looks like it is really taking off. Interestingly, this is actually inspired by "Facebook Zero"[1], which may be the best thing Facebook will do for humanity: inspiring free information access for all. [1]: http://qz.com/5180/facebooks-plan-to-find-its-next-billion-users-convince-them-the-internet-and-facebook-are-the-same/ http://qz.com/5180/facebooks-plan-to-find-its-next-billion-u...
- mtgx 14y ago
  Wait. Facebook is inspiring "free information access"? Isn't that what Wikipedia and even Google have been doing for a decade? I think you're talking about free Internet access, which I think only works if the content provider is paying for it himself. Are these Wikipedia SMS's even free to the user?
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
qompiler 14y ago
Given more time the market will develop a solution if there is demand for it. Just like mobile phones are actually being bought in developing countries, something not really foreseen 15 years ago. Forcing something like this on telecom providers will result in the a delay in providing internet access to everyone, it will result in government interference with subsidies and cripple the evolution of the internet not only in developing countries but world wide. Patience is the keyword.
- McP 14y ago
  This isn't being forced on anyone. Mobile operators are doing this voluntarily: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships
- neilk 14y ago
  Woo, a TTL (time to libertarian) of 10 minutes! This is being done by the carriers themselves, not the government. And by the way, what makes you think the carriers don't understand their own business? Here's a Wikipedia page to review: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader .
alternize 14y ago
does anyone have some insight how that would work? the best rate i could find for sending sms in europe is around 0.015€/sms at a large volume - still that would probably be way too expensive for such a project. will Wikipedia Zero have to rely on the cooperation of the mobile carriers for that distribution channel as well?
- dbaupp 14y ago
  There's more specific information in the main info page[1], but the answer is yes: "In 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation signed Wikipedia Zero partnerships with three mobile operators [...]. In January of 2013, we signed a fourth partnership [...]" (from TFA). [1]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero
ianstallings 14y ago
Well I was going to concentrate on getting fresh water to them but I guess knowing the history of the Hapsburg dynasty is just as good.
- coob 14y ago
  Yes I'm sure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_well would be of no use at all in that situation. More seriously – once basic survival needs are met, the next most important thing is education. Life expectancy, living standards, family size and income all correlate highly to education level. Want to stop HIV/AIDs? You can't do it just by handing out condoms. You need the users to understand why.
- vidarh 14y ago
  And as usual someone assumes all of the third world are without clean water and/or food... E.g. take Africa: "In its latest quarterly update for the region, the analyst says it expects mobile phone subscriber penetration levels to pass 80 percent in the first quarter of next year." (article from last year): http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/28/abi-africas-mobile-market-to-pass-80-subscriber-penetration-in-q1-next-year-13-9-of-global-cellular-market-by-2017/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/28/abi-africas-mobile-market-t... And/or that technology can't be a benefit in improving access to those even for the people who actually are without clean water or food... In many of these countries mobiles have become a tool that is massively important in improving market efficiency by disseminating prices - vital in areas where communication is slow and knowing where to take your crop can make dramatic differences in return on investment - accessing information about farming, or the weather, or indeed - as someone else pointed to - to get information about technology that can cheaply help improve their standard of living.
theanalyst 14y ago
Generally won't sms kind of services are limited to 160 chars. by operators? How are large articles etc. going to be handled
- youngerdryas 14y ago
  Apparently using Vumi. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_over_SMS_%26_USSD http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_over_SMS_%26_USSD http://vumi.org http://vumi.org
- masklinn 14y ago
  Concatenated SMS. A thing. The standard allows 255 segments of 134 bytes, for ~39000 7-bit characters (GSM 7-bit alphabet) or ~17000 UCS-2 code units.
  - smn 14y ago
    fwiw, it's built on Vumi which is Open Source http://github.com/praekelt/vumi http://github.com/praekelt/vumi. Feel free to join us in #vumi on Free for any questions.
    - smn 14y ago
      s/Free/Freenode/
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  Concatenated SMS as someone else mentioned, but there is also USSD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data#Uses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Serv...
phil 14y ago
"Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring." - Clay Shirky
jdrols 14y ago
I'm extremely skeptical when I read an article that discusses growth percentages without mentioning a single raw number.
austinc 14y ago
This is hinting at the on-demand knowledge service to mobile handsets worldwide that Robert Steele proposed in this (very interesting) talk at Amazon: http://goo.gl/LKlcr http://goo.gl/LKlcr

62 points by alternize 14y ago

This is awesome! I'd heard about it from a previous HN submission when it was still quite small, but it looks like it is really taking off. Interestingly, this is actually inspired by "Facebook Zero"[1], which may be the best thing Facebook will do for humanity: inspiring free information access for all. [1]: http://qz.com/5180/facebooks-plan-to-find-its-next-billion-users-convince-them-the-internet-and-facebook-are-the-same/ http://qz.com/5180/facebooks-plan-to-find-its-next-billion-u...

mtgx 14y ago
Wait. Facebook is inspiring "free information access"? Isn't that what Wikipedia and even Google have been doing for a decade? I think you're talking about free Internet access, which I think only works if the content provider is paying for it himself. Are these Wikipedia SMS's even free to the user?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

qompiler 14y ago

Given more time the market will develop a solution if there is demand for it. Just like mobile phones are actually being bought in developing countries, something not really foreseen 15 years ago. Forcing something like this on telecom providers will result in the a delay in providing internet access to everyone, it will result in government interference with subsidies and cripple the evolution of the internet not only in developing countries but world wide. Patience is the keyword.

McP 14y ago
This isn't being forced on anyone. Mobile operators are doing this voluntarily: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships
neilk 14y ago
Woo, a TTL (time to libertarian) of 10 minutes! This is being done by the carriers themselves, not the government. And by the way, what makes you think the carriers don't understand their own business? Here's a Wikipedia page to review: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader .

alternize 14y ago

does anyone have some insight how that would work? the best rate i could find for sending sms in europe is around 0.015€/sms at a large volume - still that would probably be way too expensive for such a project. will Wikipedia Zero have to rely on the cooperation of the mobile carriers for that distribution channel as well?

dbaupp 14y ago
There's more specific information in the main info page[1], but the answer is yes: "In 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation signed Wikipedia Zero partnerships with three mobile operators [...]. In January of 2013, we signed a fourth partnership [...]" (from TFA). [1]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero

ianstallings 14y ago

Well I was going to concentrate on getting fresh water to them but I guess knowing the history of the Hapsburg dynasty is just as good.

coob 14y ago
Yes I'm sure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_well would be of no use at all in that situation. More seriously – once basic survival needs are met, the next most important thing is education. Life expectancy, living standards, family size and income all correlate highly to education level. Want to stop HIV/AIDs? You can't do it just by handing out condoms. You need the users to understand why.
vidarh 14y ago
And as usual someone assumes all of the third world are without clean water and/or food... E.g. take Africa: "In its latest quarterly update for the region, the analyst says it expects mobile phone subscriber penetration levels to pass 80 percent in the first quarter of next year." (article from last year): http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/28/abi-africas-mobile-market-to-pass-80-subscriber-penetration-in-q1-next-year-13-9-of-global-cellular-market-by-2017/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/28/abi-africas-mobile-market-t... And/or that technology can't be a benefit in improving access to those even for the people who actually are without clean water or food... In many of these countries mobiles have become a tool that is massively important in improving market efficiency by disseminating prices - vital in areas where communication is slow and knowing where to take your crop can make dramatic differences in return on investment - accessing information about farming, or the weather, or indeed - as someone else pointed to - to get information about technology that can cheaply help improve their standard of living.

theanalyst 14y ago

Generally won't sms kind of services are limited to 160 chars. by operators? How are large articles etc. going to be handled

youngerdryas 14y ago
Apparently using Vumi. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_over_SMS_%26_USSD http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_over_SMS_%26_USSD http://vumi.org http://vumi.org
masklinn 14y ago
Concatenated SMS. A thing. The standard allows 255 segments of 134 bytes, for ~39000 7-bit characters (GSM 7-bit alphabet) or ~17000 UCS-2 code units.
- smn 14y ago
  fwiw, it's built on Vumi which is Open Source http://github.com/praekelt/vumi http://github.com/praekelt/vumi. Feel free to join us in #vumi on Free for any questions.
  - smn 14y ago
    s/Free/Freenode/
TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
Concatenated SMS as someone else mentioned, but there is also USSD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data#Uses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Serv...

phil 14y ago

"Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring." - Clay Shirky

jdrols 14y ago

I'm extremely skeptical when I read an article that discusses growth percentages without mentioning a single raw number.

austinc 14y ago

This is hinting at the on-demand knowledge service to mobile handsets worldwide that Robert Steele proposed in this (very interesting) talk at Amazon: http://goo.gl/LKlcr http://goo.gl/LKlcr