Wikipedia to be made available on a CD

Wikipedia to be made available on a CD

The people behind the open source encyclopedia project are working on a static version of the Wikipedia to be stored on a CD.

A preliminary version has already been released. They are aiming to make available this CD to people who do not always have access to the internet and might require it for referencing.

Wikipedia added that if this initiative is successful they might consider launching Wikipedia versions in forms of books and other media.

Martin A. Walker, a coordinator involved in this project added: “Plenty of people do not have Internet access. They have a computer and no Internet, or just a slow Internet connection. There are many times when you may be offline anyway. You may be at a camp or something like that.”

The CD would have only a fraction of the content available on the website. They plan to have around 2000 articles stored on the CD. These articles would be mostly related to geography, literature and other topics which does not change very often and can be referenced over a long period of time.

They aim to make sure that the content to be shipped in the CD form is checked for any possible mistake or other signs of vandalism.

They are making available this CD for $14 plus shipping through a dedicated website located at wikipediaondvd.com.