**Libraries Without Borders**Offline reading of Wikimedia projects is a significant and relatively well-supported use case. However, full access requires not just the ability to read but the ability to edit. This distinction is not particularly significant when we consider, for example, a Canadian user who reads Wikipedia offline during a backpacking vacation in South America and retrieves her ability to edit the articles she reads as soon as she flies back home. But it does become significant when we consider, for example, a Congolese refugee who has lived in a Burundian refugee camp since 2012.
This has two major aspects (which might be filed as blocking tasks).
1. **Technical**: Offline editing means that a user makes changes to a local copy of a wiki and, at some later date, their client synchronizes the changes to Wikimedia's servers. This is a significant challenge, but would share much of the technical work necessary for T3898.
Created in 2007 by the Historian Patrick Weil, Libraries Without Borders (LWB) is one of the leading international organizations working in culture-and knowledge-based development around the world. In both development and humanitarian contexts, LWB's aim is to provide access to information and culture for all by providing support to libraries in France and in 20 countries worldwide. Since 2012, LWB is developing several digital content projects in both educational (MOOC,2. collaborative learning,**Community**: Provide adequate documentation targeted specifically to Global South users and facilitators. etc.) and professional fields (specialized digital libraries,Define particular tasks (like translation of global language content into local languages) which these users are well suited to undertake. etc.)Find projects which are interested in receiving such contributions and editors who are interested in helping with the process.
**Ideas Box **=Details of the use case=
**Offline**: The changes would be synchronized a low-bandwidth, unreliable internet connection (perhaps once a day) or by a sneakernet made up of development staff (perhaps once a month).
The Ideas Box is a portable media center designed as a kit that fits on two pallets and can be installed in less than 20 minutes. The box creates a cultural space covering 330 sq ft and includes an internet connection, a Koombook server (see below) generating a LAN of 20 laptops and tablets, a library of both paper books and e-readers and a built-in cinema. The Ideas Box is a remarkable toolbox that empowers children and adults alike to pave foundations for a self-reliant future. Mobile, robust and with its own power source, the Ideas Box provides an area where creativity can flourish**Facilitated**: This task focuses on the case of a physical community of local users (likely with low digital literacy) supported by a facilitator or teacher who is more digitally literate but probably does not have specific Wikimedia experience.
KoomBook=Other projects to consider=
=History=
The KoomBook is an autonomous and ultra-portable digital library. Derived from the Swahili term Kumbuka which means to remember,is task originated from a request posed by the French development group [[http://www.librarieswithoutborders.org/|Bibliothèques Sans Frontières]] at the [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2015|Wikimedia Hackathon 2015]]. this compact and lightweight device provides wireless access to thousands of educational and cultural resources such as: WikipediaBSF has developed the Ideas Box, Khan Academy,a portable media center designed as a kit that fits on two pallets and can be installed in less than 20 minutes. TEDtalks,he box creates a cultural space covering 330 sq ft and includes a Koombook server running open-source Python software which serves as an autonomous and ultra-portable digital library. a curated selection from the Gutenberg LibraryThe device creates a Wi-Fi hotspot which gives connected devices access to locally stored content from Wikipedia, and thousands of other documents and videos.Khan Academy, The KoomBook creates a WiFi hotspot that users can connect to with a laptopTEDtalks, tablet or smartphone.a curated selection from the Gutenberg Library, Even with no internet connection,and thousands of other documents and videos. up to 20 simultaneous users can download or upload content that will automatically update when the KoomBook has access to the internet.The KoomBook creates a WiFi hotspot that users can connect to with a laptop, This remarktable innovation that is no larger than a book will be an indispensable tool in libraries,t or smartphone. medical facilities and remote communities around the globeUp to 20 simultaneous users can download or upload content that will automatically update when the KoomBook has access to the internet.
** OurBSF's challenge for theto Wikimpedia community**users:
>Wikipedia offline is one of the most successful usedpopular resources in the Ideas Box and Koombook. But it risks becoming yet another source of content created in the Global North and dumped in the Global South. We are working with Wikimedia on training our users on contributing to Wikipedia. But that currently cannot be done in many of our projects as internet is highly unreliable and/or extremely expensive. And these are some of the richest context in terms of uniqueness of contribution (language, topics etc.). Can we come up together with a solution for asynchronous contribution for low connectivity contexts?