{"id":69830,"date":"2013-02-04T13:13:32","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T11:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=69830"},"modified":"2013-02-05T09:34:23","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T07:34:23","slug":"wikipedia-targets-1-billion-users-with-mobile-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/69830-wikipedia-targets-1-billion-users-with-mobile-push.html","title":{"rendered":"Wikipedia targets 1-billion users with mobile push"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wikipedia<\/a> is aiming to use mobile phones to reach a billion people by 2015, a senior executive has said, doubling the present number.<\/p>\n

The rapid spread of cellular networks in the developing world is providing fertile ground for this expansion, even as it robs the site of potential editors, Jay Walsh<\/a>, senior director of communications at the Wikimedia Foundation<\/a>, told AFP in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Reaching people in far-flung parts of the world where computers are scarce requires a pared down, text-only version of the collaborative online encyclopaedia, he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s surprisingly challenging to take your website and make it available on the simplest phone,” Walsh said on the sidelines of a conference in the Japanese capital on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“In areas like the Middle East, opening your phone and accessing a project like Wikipedia could cost you the equivalent of the couple of US dollars, which is a serious amount of money in those countries.<\/p>\n

“We’re trying to eliminate that barrier so people don’t have to think about that,” he said, adding the site’s global audience stood at around 483 million.<\/p>\n

Tie-ups with telecommunications providers such as France-based Orange<\/a> and VimpelCom<\/a> of the Netherlands, are driving this expansion, penning deals that mean waiving data charges for customers accessing the site, in an initiative called Wikipedia Zero.<\/p>\n

According to figures from Morgan Stanley, the number of mobile phones and other portable devices accessing the Internet will overtake the number of laptops and desktops this year.<\/p>\n

But while browsing is easy on a handset, editing a page on a small screen and without a physical keyboard is more of a challenge.<\/p>\n

The number of active editors — someone who edits a page at least five times a month — peaked on the English language site in 2007 at 50,000, he said, adding it has been in decline ever since and now stands at around 33,000.<\/p>\n

“There’s a sense of the project being finished,” he said.<\/p>\n

Executives hope Wikipedia Zero will help rebalance the editorial brain drain, expanding into markets where local versions of the site remain in the start-up phase. The Swahili language version of Wikipedia — one of the 285 available — has just 88 active editors.<\/p>\n

But, admits Walsh, the constraints of the mobile phone as a tool for editing, remain a big hurdle.<\/p>\n

“Our main focus is on the technological infrastructure to make it easy for this to work,” he said. “It’s about big ideas, bringing about change and making the world a better place.”<\/p>\n

More Wikipedia nad Internet news<\/h3>\n

Wikipedia group launches free travel guide<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wikipedia editors in decline<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Coming soon to Facebook: More action and battle games<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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