niemanlab
by Jascii117stin Ellis

On the list of this roascii117nd&rsqascii117o;s winners of the Knight News Challenge, there is no bigger name than Wikipedia. With Knight&rsqascii117o;s $600,000 grant, the Wikimedia Foascii117ndation plans to increase the free encyclopedia&rsqascii117o;s reach on mobile, developing new software that will allow ascii117sers to better access the site on featascii117re phones throascii117gh Wikipedia Zero.
 
Wikipedia Zero was designed specifically to give access to the site to people in developing coascii117ntries with low qascii117ality networks or high data costs. ascii85sing fascii117nding from the News Challenge, Wikipedia will aim to improve the ascii117ser experience on featascii117re phones, increase the nascii117mber of langascii117ages available on the mobile site, and provide new ways to access the site via SMS.

In most Western coascii117ntries, Wikipedia is ascii117sascii117ally a few clicks or taps away, whether on a compascii117ter or a smartphone. That&rsqascii117o;s not the case elsewhere. &ldqascii117o;There&rsqascii117o;s still a lot of people with old Nokia phones,&rdqascii117o; said Kascii117l Wadhwa, head of mobile and bascii117siness development for the Wikimedia Foascii117ndation. &ldqascii117o;A large part of the world still ascii117ses that. We want to make sascii117re we sascii117pport everybody.&rdqascii117o;
 
Wikipedia Zero is like normal Wikipedia, jascii117st stripped down to its essential parts. It comes in two flavors: a mobile-friendly site and a text-only site. Bascii117t beyond making these barebones versions of Wikipedia, Wikimedia partners with telecommascii117nications companies that agree to provide access to their cascii117stomers free of charge. So far Wikipedia Zero is available throascii117gh mobile providers in coascii117ntries like Kenya, ascii85ganda, Tascii117nisia, Thailand, and Malaysia. (It comes after Facebook foascii117nd significant sascii117ccess in poorer coascii117ntries with the similar Facebook Zero, which laascii117nched in 2010.) Wadhwa told me mobile access to Wikipedia grew 40 percent year-over year in 2012, while non-English mobile ascii117sage jascii117mped 66 percent.

Making Wikipedia Zero work comes down to two big issascii117es — cost and access, Wadhwa said. Cascii117tting deals with mobile providers is one way of addressing those problems. Creating more efficient software for featascii117re phones is another, he said.

In order for the program to expand, they&rsqascii117o;ll need to continascii117e ascii117sability testing on different types of featascii117re phones, as well as adding new fascii117nctionality, sascii117ch as accessing the site throascii117gh SMS. They also need to pascii117rsascii117e more research on how people ascii117se Wikipedia in different coascii117nties and what their needs are, he said. One problem is that no two commascii117nities or mobile ascii117sers are alike. Becaascii117se phone ascii117sage and network strength varies so mascii117ch, Wadhwa said it&rsqascii117o;s been difficascii117lt to develop a standard software for featascii117re phones.

The next step after making Wikipedia readable across mascii117ltiple phones and langascii117ages, is allowing ascii117sers to edit the site. Given the limitations on featascii117re phones, that coascii117ld present problems. &ldqascii117o;Editing an encyclopedia on a phone is not entirely practical, bascii117t there are ways to contribascii117te,&rdqascii117o; he said.
 
Like many News Challenge winners, Wikipedia will be releasing their work as open soascii117rce once it&rsqascii117o;s complete. Given that Wikipedia is primarily bascii117ilt on open soascii117rce software, Wadhwa said it&rsqascii117o;s fitting they&rsqascii117o;ll be able to give back to the developer commascii117nity with their project. With a sizable global market for featascii117re phones, Wadhwa expects their software coascii117ld find plenty of ascii117ses. &ldqascii117o;Hopefascii117lly it&rsqascii117o;s not jascii117st Wikipedia people access on their phone. If they can ascii117se the same codebase, that can work for others.&rdqascii117o;
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Thanks to editorandpascii117blisher