Kiwix

Kiwix

Screenshot Kiwix window on OS X
Developer(s)	Emmanuel Engelhart, Renaud Gaudin
Preview release	0.9 / November 1, 2014 (2014-11-01)[1]
Repository	github.com/kiwix/kiwix
Development status	Active
Operating system	Windows, OS X, Linux
Platform	IA-32, x64
Size	30.6 MB – 106 MB[1]
Available in	100 languages[1]
License	GPLv3
Website	www.kiwix.org

Kiwix for Android

Screenshot Kiwix on an Android-powered tablet
Stable release	1.95 / August 2, 2015 (2015-08-02)[1]
Repository	github.com/kiwix/kiwix
Operating system	Android
Size	6.2 MB

Kiwix for iOS

Screenshot Kiwix MacOS
Original author(s)	Emmanuel Engelhart, Renaud Gaudin
Stable release	1.0 / August 11, 2015 (2015-08-11)[2]
Repository	github.com/kiwix/kiwix
Operating system	iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, OS X
Size	48.3 MB

Kiwix is a free and open-source offline web browser created by Emmanuel Engelhart and Renaud Gaudin in 2007.^[3] It was first launched to allow offline access to Wikipedia, but has since expanded to include other projects from the Wikimedia foundation as well as public domain texts from the Project Gutenberg. Available in more than 100 languages, Kiwix has been included in several high-profile projects, from smuggling operations in North Korea^[4] to Google Impact Challenge's recipient Libraries Without Borders.^[5]

History

Kiwix's CH Open Source Award (2015)

After becoming a Wikipedia editor in 2004, Emmanuel Engelhart became interested in developing offline versions of Wikipedia. A project to make a Wikipedia CD, initiated in 2003, was a trigger for the project.^[3]

In 2012 Kiwix won a grant from Wikimedia France to build kiwix-plug, which was deployed in universities in eleven countries in the Afripedia Project.^[6][7]

In February 2013 Kiwix won SourceForge's Project of the Month award.^[8]

Kiwix won a CH Open Source Award in 2015.^[9]

Description

Wikipedia on a USB drive, using Kiwix

The software is designed as an offline reader for web content. It is used on computers without an internet connection, computers with a slow or expensive connection, and to avoid censorship. It can also be used while travelling (e.g. on a plane or train).

Downloading new content files on an early version of Kiwix

Users first download Kiwix, then download content for offline viewing with Kiwix (see picture). Compression saves disk space and bandwidth. All of Wikipedia, with pictures, fits on a USB stick (54G as of May 2016, 16G with no pictures).^[8][10]

All content files are compressed in ZIM format, which makes them smaller, but leaves them easy to index, search, and selectively decompress.

The ZIM files are then opened with Kiwix, which looks and behaves like a web browser. Kiwix offers full text search, tabbed navigation and the option to export articles to PDF and HTML.^[1]

There is an HTTP server version called kiwix-serve; this allows a computer to host Kiwix content, and make it available to other computers on a network.^[11] The other computers see an ordinary website. kiwix-plug is a version for plug computers^[8] which is often used to provide a wifi server.^[12]

Kiwix uses the deprecated Mozilla framework localised on Translatewiki.net,^[13] but plans to replace it.^[14]

Available content

Reading “Le Petit Prince” through Kiwix on an e-book reader in Mali^[15]

Reading Wikipedia through Kiwix on a boat in the South Pacific^[16]

A list of content available on Kiwix exists; sublists for content in specific languages also exist. Content can be loaded through Kiwix itself (see screenshot).

Since 2014, most Wikipedia versions are available for download in various different languages.^[10] The servers are updated every two to six months, depending on the size of the file. For English Wikipedia, a full version containing pictures as well as alternative version containing text only can be downloaded from the archive. This allows users to save disk space and bandwidth while downloading.

Besides Wikipedia, content from the Wikimedia foundation such as Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikivoyage, Wikibooks and Wikiversity are available for offline viewing in various different languages.^[17]

In November 2014 a ZIM version of all open texts forming part of Project Gutenberg was made available.^[18][19]

Besides public domain content, works licensed under a Creative Commons license are available for download. For example, offline versions of the Ubuntu wiki containing user documentation for the Ubuntu operating system,^[20] ZIM editions of TED conference talks^[21] and videos from Crash Course are available in the Kiwix archive as ZIM file formats.^[22]

Deployments

A ship with Kiwix on board in Antarctic waters^[23]

One Laptop per Child deploys Kiwix

Locations of 13 universities where Kiwix was deployed as part of the Afripedia Project

A Raspberry Pi, with wi-fi dongle and a Powerbank, used to serve Kiwix in Tanzania

As a software development project, Kiwix itself is not directly involved in deployment projects. However, Wikimedia or third party organisations use the software as a component of their own projects. Examples include:

• Universities and libraries that can't afford broadband Internet access.^[24]
  • The Afripedia Project set up kiwix servers in French-speaking universities (some of them with no Internet access) in 11 African countries.^[25]
• Schools^[26] in developing countries, where access to the internet is difficult or too expensive.^[8]
  • Kiwix is installed on the computers used for the One Laptop per Child project.^[3]
  • Kiwix has been installed on Raspberry Pis for use in schools with no electricity in Tanzania ^[27] by the Tanzania Development Trust.
  • Kiwix was installed on tablets in schools in Mali in the MALebooks project^[28]
  • The Fondation Orange has used kiwix-serve in its own technological knowledge product they have deployed in Africa.^[29]
• Schools in the developed world
  • A special version for the organisation SOS-Kinderdorf was developed, initially for developing countries, but it is also used in the developed world.
• At sea and in other remote areas.^[8][30]
  • Aboard ship in Antarctic waters.^[31]
  • Kiwix is included in Navigatrix, a Linux distribution for people on boats ^[32][33]
• On a train or plane.^[8][34]
• In jail.^[8][24]
  • Wikimedia CH has deployed Kiwix in many jails in Switzerland^[35]

Stand-alone

Kiwix can be installed on a desktop computer as a stand-alone program through the Kiwix webpage.

Package managers and app stores

Kiwix was formerly available in the native package managers of some Linux distributions. However, Kiwix is currently not available in most package databases, due to XULRunner, a program on which Kiwix depends, being deprecated by Mozilla and removed from the package databases.^[36] Kiwix is available in the Sugar and ArchLinux Linux distributions. It is also available on Android.

The Kiwix Linux Packaging Project aims to get Kiwix into Linux package databases; it is currently seeking 10 000 Swiss francs and an SSL security certificate.^[14]

Kiwix is available on GooglePlay ^[37] and iTunes.^[38]

Motivation

Founder Emmanuel Engelhart sees Wikipedia as a common good, saying “The contents of Wikipedia should be available for everyone! Even without Internet access. This is why I have launched the Kiwix project. Our users are all over the world: sailors on the oceans, poor students thirsty for knowledge, globetrotters almost living in planes, world’s citizens suffering from censorship or free minded prisoners. For all these people, Kiwix provides a simple and practical solution to ponder about the world.”^[3]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kiwix.

• Official website
• Kiwix on SourceForge.net
• Explanation of Kiwix from Wikimania 2013
• Kiwix Mobile Android package at the F-Droid repository
• Kiwix stories on the Wikimedia Blog