Talk:Wikipedia Zero

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Bbingham12.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:53, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

How will this work?
This article doesn't give any explanation about how Wikipedia Zero is going to give people without Internet access to Wikipedia for free. I'm sure for this project to exist, there's going to be a way. So why doesn't this article explain it?  Green CKE  00:11, 21 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Good question,  Green CKE . There's a page documenting the technical aspects of the system, and one documenting the program at large. --ABaso(WMF) (talk) 01:25, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Developing markets
That's not a very good phrase; we are not aiming at markets, but societies. Developing countries would probably be better. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 10:34, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
 * I used "markets" based on the ref and the existence of the Wikipedia article of the same name. -- Another Believer ( Talk ) 16:07, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Cost to the WMF?
There ain't no free lunch. Do we know how much the Wikimedia Foudation pays to Orange etc. in return for them providing free access to Wikipedia? – Thx.--Aschmidt (talk) 00:49, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
 * AFAIK there is not an out-of-pocket cost to WP. Carriers get the right to advertise its Wikipedia-related features and use Wikipedia branding in their marketing materials (but then my information is based on what I read before the deal went down). --Rhododendrites (talk) 02:52, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

Kenya
-- Another Believer ( Talk ) 16:08, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
 * https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Airtel_joins_Wikipedia_Zero_partnership_with_pilot_in_Kenya

Short Film
Here is a short film about the Sinenjongo students that could be added: Victor Grigas (talk) 00:21, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

Correction on "Reception and impact" regarding Chile
SUBTEL clarified that media outlets such as Quartz and Tech President, used as sources for the mentioned section, misinterpreted Circular 40. Such order never identified specific services, and no reference to Facebook Zero, Google Free Zone, or Wikipedia Zero was made. More detailed information can be found in WMF's blog entry about it. I would suggest clarifying this in the article. --Javp87 (talk) 00:02, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Is the video an ad?
I haven't watched it, but it seems that the video is a promotional ad. We don't have videos by Coca-Cola, Honda, or Barack Obama, and I don't see why this is different. -- Ypnypn (talk) 14:16, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Because it's CC-BY-SA. There is no reason why we wouldn't be able to have an ad for Coca-Cola on that article or on an article Advertising of Coca-Cola. Also, don't remove it if you're not even going to bother to watch it. -- CFCF  🍌 (email) 15:28, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Aircel (India) no longer provides free access to Wikipedia.
I added some content in this article. Aircel, is no longer partnered with wikimedia as you can found from this link : m.wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships

I would also like to tell you that I am a aircel subscriber and I can't access Wikipedia freely.

I edited the page to mention this, but I don't know if it was a appropriate section. If not, then please put it in appropriate section.

And yeah, before reverting my edits, please have a look at the list of mobile networks supported by wikimedia foundation. ( m.wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mobile_partnerships)

Note about my further edits: Added date from this: wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Mobile_partnerships&action=history. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 101.221.136.157 (talk) 04:20, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

2015 Newsweek criticism
This Newsweek article seems to be fair in covering how people in the developing world get access to Wikipedia, but not other sites for free, creating issues when Wikipedia has allowed a COI editor to become an administrator and used that to manipulate the article of an unaccredited degree mill.

Wikipedia Zero is criticised for exposing people to potentially biased Wikipedia articles without giving them the ability to research counter-balancing information for free. An administrator was coordinating 60 sock puppets or meat puppets (Indian call centre workers)

WMF has had the ability to respond to the article

One wikipedia editor is quoted in Newsweek “People in the developing world don't always understand how Wikipedia is created. It's such a credible website, it comes so high up the search rankings—people think it's just another encyclopedia.”

A related problem is that Internet.org access means that 65% of Nigerians and 58% of Indians agree that "Facebook is the internet" (only 5% of the US does - ) Facebook gives free access to Facebook and Wikipedia, but not to any website that users could use to fact-check wikipedia - in the case of an unaccredited university it means poor farmers re-mortgaged family properties to pay $15,000 US for a degree that they didn't know is unaccredited.

This is OR, but Note that Systemic bias shows low numbers of edits coming from poor countries - but now, high numbers of readers (while having few people vetting the information). Seems like readers in the developing world are exposed to greater risk of COI issues, because there are fewer good faith editors paying for internet access to vet information. -- Aronzak (talk) 19:46, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Explain what zero.wikipedi.org is
The article should explain what zero.wikipedi.org is. It seems to be blocked from most places, saying: ''Sorry, en.zero.wikipedia.org is only supported by select mobile carriers and is not available from your mobile carrier. If you are contacting your mobile carrier, mention that your IP address (...) is not supported.'' ★NealMcB★ (talk) 17:33, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

Outernet
It seems like there's a natural match between W0 and Outernet. They certainly satcast a lot of WP content. Shouldn't there be some discussion of collaboration? LeadSongDog come howl!  21:44, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

Map
List states Saudi Telecom Company as a provider of the WP zero service, while the map doesnt. fix this. • Sammy Habib-Kemal Majed   •  Talk   •  Creations  •  Wikipedia Arabic   • 12:21, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Source
re: phase out: https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/18/wikipedia-zero-ends/ --- Another Believer ( Talk ) 03:31, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

providing service to 800 million persons
Does anyone know how they were counted?

How has it ended?
The article says Wikizero ended in 2018, but if I look up my user page on wikizero.com, it is perfectly updated. Then how can it have ended in 2018?— Naddruf (talk ~ contribs) 00:56, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

In my opinion, while observing your case, Wikizero as a free service was in fact discontinued, while the website and servers are still up and running. As for your confusion as to the 'perfectly updated' portion, Wikizero merely sources all of its information from Wikipedia itself. Hope this helps. --Nathanieljay216 (talk) 02:26, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

Zero rating and net neutrality
There are still mobile internet providers that allow zero rating for one (customer chosen) social media application (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp). This is not in conflict with net neutrality; it is to be considered a commercial and tariff matter. There are also providers that offer bulk offers (unlimited traffic allowance plans). You could interpret those tariff plans as freedom of (customer) choice, stimulating network usage. To mee net neutrality is more about not blocking access, and not obstructing/disturbing using the net. Geertivp (talk) 17:48, 27 August 2022 (UTC)