In order to express its opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act, Wikipedia plans to go offline tomorrow. The bill, SOPA, gives the United States government power to stop citizens from accessing foreign websites accused by rights holders of piracy.
Wikipedia’s choice to shutdown the website will enlighten internet users across the planet on the prominent influence of this user-generated, free online encyclopedia. For user that cannot go a day without this convenience, there are alternative ways to access the online encyclopedia during its blackout.
Download Wikipedia Content
You can download original Wiki content today in order to have access to the information during the blackout tomorrow. There are ways to download the entire archive to your personal computer. However, this will take quite a bit of time and take up a significant amount of space on your hard drive. Instead of taking that route, you can consider downloading only the information that you may need tomorrow.
If you know that you will have something to research that Wikipedia will help you with, consider visiting those pages today. Take a few moments to copy and past the information that you need into a document. Then save it for use tomorrow and you won’t be hindered by the blackout.
Use A Mirror Website
The encyclopedia offered by Free Dictionary provides users with Wikipedia content through its site. It will allow you to access original Wikipedia content in the midst of this blackout period. Once you arrive on this mirror site, select the “Wikipedia encyclopedia” tap to access the Wikipedia content. You can then search whatever you need to find on Wikipedia and it will take you to that information.
Choose An Alternative to Wikipedia
There are several alternatives available to Wikipedia. These sites also produce free, user-generated content. Before posting, authors must verify alleged credentials. It will help you to access some information whether you are writing a blog post, article or paper. While its not the Wikipedia we all know and love, it may help you make it through the long day without it.
Create Your Own Blackout
While your own boycott of the Internet may not have the same effect of Wikipedia’s blackout, it is still a viable option for this day. By abstaining from using the Internet for a day, you will not have the need for Wikipedia, and may finally get to read that dusty book on your shelf.
Wikipedia has scheduled the blackout to begin at Midnight EST and will continue for a span of 24 hours.