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gmaxwell at gmail

Oct 13, 2009, 8:33 AM

Post #1 of 6 (1319 views)
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Fwd: [openmoko-announce] WikiReader

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sean Moss-Pultz <sean [at] openmoko>
Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 1:51 AM
Subject: [openmoko-announce] WikiReader
To: announce [at] lists, List for Openmoko community
discussion <community [at] lists>


Dear Community!

Today, with the greatest of pleasure, I am ready to share with you the
birth of our third product -- WikiReader. Three simple buttons put
three million Wikipedia articles in the palm of your hand. Accessible
immediately, anytime, anywhere without requiring an Internet
connection. No strings attached. With WikiReader you'll be prepared
for those unexpected moments when curiosity strikes. And once you have
it, you'll realize how often you ask yourself questions during the
day.

WikiReader takes our original ideas of openness and accessibility to
an even greater realm. WikiReader is so amazingly simple. There really
is no interface. You turn it on and instantly become immersed in the
rich world of reading specific topics or the serendipitous pleasure of
discovering something by chance. It's perfect for all ages.

From the "Aha!" moment when we held our first prototypes, to the last
few months as we worked around the clock to polish every last detail,
this product was a joy to make and even more fun to experience. We are
head-over-heels in love with WikiReader. Never have I found so much
fun in the little moments of curiosity life offers us. Try one and I'm
sure you'll agree that we've delivered the essence of reading
Wikipedia in an addictively simple form factor.

Sales start today at http://thewikireader.com. Enjoy. Tell your
friends. And let us know what you think!


Sincerely

Sean Moss-Pultz

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pharosofalexandria at gmail

Oct 13, 2009, 9:07 AM

Post #2 of 6 (1250 views)
Permalink
Re: Fwd: [openmoko-announce] WikiReader [In reply to]

On a side note, this looks interesting:

"For Parents: WikiReader offers an easy way to protect your child from
adult-oriented content."

This is the first time I've heard of a adult filter designed for all
of the 3 million+ articles, as opposed to a schools selection that
only includes a small subset of pre-approved articles.

Thanks,
Pharos

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 11:33 AM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell [at] gmail> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Sean Moss-Pultz <sean [at] openmoko>
> Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 1:51 AM
> Subject: [openmoko-announce] WikiReader
> To: announce [at] lists, List for Openmoko community
> discussion <community [at] lists>
>
>
> Dear Community!
>
> Today, with the greatest of pleasure, I am ready to share with you the
> birth of our third product -- WikiReader. Three simple buttons put
> three million Wikipedia articles in the palm of your hand. Accessible
> immediately, anytime, anywhere without requiring an Internet
> connection. No strings attached. With WikiReader you'll be prepared
> for those unexpected moments when curiosity strikes. And once you have
> it, you'll realize how often you ask yourself questions during the
> day.
>
> WikiReader takes our original ideas of openness and accessibility to
> an even greater realm. WikiReader is so amazingly simple. There really
> is no interface. You turn it on and instantly become immersed in the
> rich world of reading specific topics or the serendipitous pleasure of
> discovering something by chance. It's perfect for all ages.
>
> From the "Aha!" moment when we held our first prototypes, to the last
> few months as we worked around the clock to polish every last detail,
> this product was a joy to make and even more fun to experience. We are
> head-over-heels in love with WikiReader. Never have I found so much
> fun in the little moments of curiosity life offers us. Try one and I'm
> sure you'll agree that we've delivered the essence of reading
> Wikipedia in an addictively simple form factor.
>
> Sales start today at http://thewikireader.com. Enjoy. Tell your
> friends. And let us know what you think!
>
>
> Sincerely
>
> Sean Moss-Pultz
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l [at] lists
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>

_______________________________________________
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foundation-l [at] lists
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rarohde at gmail

Oct 13, 2009, 11:17 AM

Post #3 of 6 (1248 views)
Permalink
Re: Fwd: [openmoko-announce] WikiReader [In reply to]

I got to spend an hour playing with a prototype a few months ago. I
was quite impressed at how much they were able to accomplish with a
$99 price tag and reasonably intuitive interface. It is article text
only, no images, but it is clean and easy to read. The prototype had
several software problems, but I'll assume that those were fixed in
the intervening months.

Anyway, this appears to be a good way to increase Wikipedia's reach by
giving it physical form. Good luck to Openmoko.

-Robert Rohde

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 8:33 AM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell [at] gmail> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Sean Moss-Pultz <sean [at] openmoko>
> Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 1:51 AM
> Subject: [openmoko-announce] WikiReader
> To: announce [at] lists, List for Openmoko community
> discussion <community [at] lists>
>
>
> Dear Community!
>
> Today, with the greatest of pleasure, I am ready to share with you the
> birth of our third product -- WikiReader. Three simple buttons put
> three million Wikipedia articles in the palm of your hand. Accessible
> immediately, anytime, anywhere without requiring an Internet
> connection. No strings attached. With WikiReader you'll be prepared
> for those unexpected moments when curiosity strikes. And once you have
> it, you'll realize how often you ask yourself questions during the
> day.
>
> WikiReader takes our original ideas of openness and accessibility to
> an even greater realm. WikiReader is so amazingly simple. There really
> is no interface. You turn it on and instantly become immersed in the
> rich world of reading specific topics or the serendipitous pleasure of
> discovering something by chance. It's perfect for all ages.
>
> From the "Aha!" moment when we held our first prototypes, to the last
> few months as we worked around the clock to polish every last detail,
> this product was a joy to make and even more fun to experience. We are
> head-over-heels in love with WikiReader. Never have I found so much
> fun in the little moments of curiosity life offers us. Try one and I'm
> sure you'll agree that we've delivered the essence of reading
> Wikipedia in an addictively simple form factor.
>
> Sales start today at http://thewikireader.com. Enjoy. Tell your
> friends. And let us know what you think!
>
>
> Sincerely
>
> Sean Moss-Pultz
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l [at] lists
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l


rarohde at gmail

Oct 13, 2009, 11:41 AM

Post #4 of 6 (1248 views)
Permalink
Re: Fwd: [openmoko-announce] WikiReader [In reply to]

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 9:07 AM, Pharos <pharosofalexandria [at] gmail> wrote:
> On a side note, this looks interesting:
>
> "For Parents: WikiReader offers an easy way to protect your child from
> adult-oriented content."
>
> This is the first time I've heard of a adult filter designed for all
> of the 3 million+ articles, as opposed to a schools selection that
> only includes a small subset of pre-approved articles.

At the time I talked to them, they weren't doing any filtering though
we did talk briefly about how this could be done. It's possible that
they did implement a content filter, but I don't know.

In terms of kid safety though, I think the biggest points are probably
A) that it is not connected to the scary scary internet, and B) it is
only text.

-Robert Rohde

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steven.walling at gmail

Oct 13, 2009, 1:32 PM

Post #5 of 6 (1245 views)
Permalink
Re: Fwd: [openmoko-announce] WikiReader [In reply to]

From the demo video TechCrunch did, it looks like they are doing filtering
which you can turn on selectively.
Steven Walling

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Robert Rohde <rarohde [at] gmail> wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 9:07 AM, Pharos <pharosofalexandria [at] gmail>
> wrote:
> > On a side note, this looks interesting:
> >
> > "For Parents: WikiReader offers an easy way to protect your child from
> > adult-oriented content."
> >
> > This is the first time I've heard of a adult filter designed for all
> > of the 3 million+ articles, as opposed to a schools selection that
> > only includes a small subset of pre-approved articles.
>
> At the time I talked to them, they weren't doing any filtering though
> we did talk briefly about how this could be done. It's possible that
> they did implement a content filter, but I don't know.
>
> In terms of kid safety though, I think the biggest points are probably
> A) that it is not connected to the scary scary internet, and B) it is
> only text.
>
> -Robert Rohde
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l [at] lists
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
_______________________________________________
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Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l


erik at wikimedia

Oct 13, 2009, 2:41 PM

Post #6 of 6 (1247 views)
Permalink
Re: Fwd: [openmoko-announce] WikiReader [In reply to]

2009/10/13 Steven Walling <steven.walling [at] gmail>:
> From the demo video TechCrunch did, it looks like they are doing filtering
> which you can turn on selectively.

My understanding is that it's a simple keyword filter, so I wouldn't
expect too much from it.

We've played with the product during its development and connected
them with some people in the community; the last versions I've seen
don't have most of the early bugs anymore, though there's still plenty
of room for improvement as well. It remains to be seen whether it can
be commercially successful, but it's still nice to see alternative
approaches to distributing free content. I've put up a blog post about
it here:

http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/13/openmoko-launches-wikireader/

--
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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