Nowadays using Wikipedia is a normal part of any daily routine, and we more or less take it for granted. But what about those rare times when you’re offline or – even more rarely – when you don’t have any access to the internet?
The Wikimedia Foundation is attempting to answer this demand by piloting Wikipedia Zero, a basic service providing Wikipedia content through text messages. Users have to input *515# and wait for a text message asking them what they would like to search for. Users are also given the option to pick the section they want to read, and can request more information by pressing “1”.
Whilst this might sound long-winded to those of us with smartphones this service could bring knowledge to those who do not have access or cannot afford connecting to the internet. The foundation plans to launch the three-month pilot in Kenya first, with plans to extend the service to at least 70 million new users through sub-Saharan Africa.
