Some interesting news and reports have surfaced this week regarding the hugely popular Wikipedia megasite. With all the information you’d ever need in over 25 million articles the company is looking for ways to deliver their content to more people. Mainly users in developing markets that might not have high-speed internet, WiFi, and 4G LTE to quickly access the content. Their plan is to deliver it through text messages later this year.
Their new plan, which is being completely funded by a donation foundation will aim to deliver all of their 25 million articles via text message to those in need. Instead of requiring a data connection just simply request information over a text message. Sounds crazy right?
Users will be able to send text messages to the website through SMS or another standard called USSD, and then in return get the article and information delivered in a matter of seconds. All using the current text message platform already available in developing markets. More details on the entire project and funding can be found at the Knight Foundation Blog.
They even state this new platform for delivering Wikipedia content could roll out in the next few months, something I’m sure many would love to see materialize. While not everything you read on Wikipedia can be taken as truth (it is the internet here folks) they do have millions and millions of articles with highly accurate information. Being able to offer this to smaller markets, developing countries, and even feature phones would be awesome. It sounds like a great project and certainly worth the read. Who uses Wikipedia around these parts?
[via The Verge]
