![]() ![]() To scale to larger numbers of desired edits offline, the flags would definitely need a note mechanism. This would work for relatively small numbers of desired edits between editing sessions. You could then call up a list of all the articles you’ve flagged, and hopefully you’d remember why you flagged them. Among other things, the WikiReader doesn’t store the articles in their original format, so attempting to edit them would prove pointless.įor a start, “flag this article for later editing” seems simple and useful. I think you have the right idea: rather than attempting to allow edits directly on the device, you want some mechanism allowing someone to make notes about what they want to change. Editors could help merge these changes back into the articles. When the data on the card is updated, messages from this log could be uploaded somewhere - perhaps the talk pages of the articles in question or some dedicated page or ticketing queue. Perhaps the device could be extended so that people could write short comments about articles from their reader - there’s an on screen keyboard after all - which could be saved to a log on the SD card. Over the last few years, Sj and I have talked repeatedly about a simple method for contributing back from offline devices that would even be possible from devices like the Om Wikireader where editing the articles is probably impractical. I think it is important to start implementing a simple method to allow users of these types of devices to contribute back. After all, the ability to change and contribute is the thing that makes Wikipedia interesting, empowering, and successful cutting this functionality out kind of misses much of the point. I hope the device becomes successful but I’m worried about what success will mean for the already indefensibly large gap between the number of readers and editors on Wikipedia. One of my colleagues at the Center for Future Civic Media suggested we should put one in every bar to help settle drunken arguments. Not only does it make it possible to bring WP to a bunch of places that are otherwise impossible or impractical, the thing is built entirely with free software. It’s essentially a touchscreen-based device dedicated to displaying Wikipedia articles offline.Īnd while I’ll never forgive the thing for not having an Edit button, I’ve got to admit the device is pretty cool. My friend Sean from OpenMoko recently gave me one of OM’s new WikiReaders.
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