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Mobile phone users in Iraq overwhelmingly lack the means to pay for expensive data plans, but a new partnership will give millions of them free access to Wikipedia.

Wikimedias not just the editorial muscle behind the worlds largest crowdsourced encyclopedia if todays announcement is any indication, its quite the philanthropic enterprise. On Tuesday, Wikipedia members in Iraq, the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, and Asiacell, one of Iraqs largest mobile operators, announced a partnership thatwill see access to Wikipedia provided free of charge to Asiacells 11 million Iraqi customers.

Its part of Wikimedias ongoing Zero effort, which seeks to provide Wikipedia free of charge on mobile phones. The program, which was launched in 2013, waives fees for subscribers of participating mobile operators so that they may read and edit Wikipedia without using any of their mobile data. Its been deployed in Malaysia, Kenya, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Kosovo, Nepal, Nigeria, Ghana, Myanmar, Angola, and Algeria, and collectively spans 68 mobile operators in 52 countries.

More: The visually impaired may soon have an audio version of Wikipedia

Its aimed at addressing what the Wikipedia Foundation claims is one of the greatest barriers to internet access globally: Affordability. An estimated 57 percent of the world cant afford a 500MB monthly data plan at current prices. Ina recent Wikipedia Foundation survey, a majority of participants in Iraq reported that mobile data costs limited their use of the internet.

The Asiacell effort was spearheaded by Sarmad Al Taie, an Asiacell employee and Iraqi volunteer Wikipedia editor. In 2015, Sarmad and his wife, Ravan Al Taie, organized workshops in Erbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, to teach people in Iraq how to edit Wikipedia. Later that year, the burgeoning community launched Iraqi Wikimedians user group, the first Wikimedia affiliate group recognized by Wikipedias broader global community of editors.

Worldwide, Wikipedia is recognized as an important learning resource, but it also offers a platform toshare knowledge with the world, a company spokesperson said. Edits from any country contribute to the worlds common knowledge repository, seen by hundreds of millions of people every month [] With this partnership, Asiacell customers will be able to edit Wikipedia without mobile data charges adding to and improving articles in their preferred language and sharing knowledge of Iraqs rich cultural history, heritage, and its people with the rest of the world

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News of Wikipedia Zeros expansion comes on the heels of the Wikimedia Foundations accessibility efforts. In May 2016, the nonprofit embarked on a joint project with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden that adds text-to-speech synthesis for certain parts of article entries, allowing them to be read aloud. Its slated to be off the ground by 2017, at which time English, Swedish, and Arabic speakers will be able to hear as well as read Wikipedia posts.

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Asiacell Grants 11M Iraqi Subscribers Access to Wikipedia | Digital ... - Digital Trends