Wikipedia is now available on DVD for those who don’t have a proper internet connection. This wikipedia version 0.5 release contains around 2000 pages from the english wiki pages with topics ranging from geography, literature, arts and science.

The Wikipedia CD is compatible with Windows (back to 98), Macintosh (Intel) OS X and Linux x86. It can be purchased at the price of $13.99 from wikipediaondvd.com

Community members can participate either in the selection process of articles or by contributing to the Kiwix project, the project for offline wikipedia.

Martin A. Walker, a chemistry professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam, played a central role in the production of Wikipedia Version 0.5, and in setting criteria for article selection.

“Although this is only a test release, we really tried to produce something the Wikipedia community could feel proud of. We wanted to cover the major topics, while also including a selection of articles considered to be the very best of Wikipedia. These ‘featured articles’ aim to be well written and comprehensive, and also free from errors, bias, vandalism and marketing �, states Walker.