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Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

projectnomad.us

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Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#21

Post by adsharma »

So this thing is based on Kiwix, which is based on the ZIM file format.

In the meanwhile, wikipedia ships wikidata, which uses RDF dumps (and probably 8x less compressed than it should be).

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Database_download

There is room for a third option leveraging commercial columnar database research.

https://adsharma.github.io/duckdb-wikidata-compression/

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#22

Post by adsharma »

Yokohiii wrote: post #16

I like the idea of an LLM that acts as a public knowledge base. But that doomsday framing on the site is pretty annoying.

This is not just a random idea.

AlexNet -> Tansformers -> ChatGPT -> Claude Code -> Small LMs serving KBs

Large LLMs could have a role in efficiently producing such KBs.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#25

Post by waynerisner »

Yokohiii wrote: post #16

I like the idea of an LLM that acts as a public knowledge base. But that doomsday framing on the site is pretty annoying.

I think there’s a difference between doomsday framing and preparedness.

Offline access and local models aren’t about assuming collapse—they’re about treating knowledge as infrastructure instead of something implicitly guaranteed.

That feels more like resilience than pessimism.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#26

Post by rtibbles »

lucasluitjes wrote: post #18
cousinbryce wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m convinced that the multitude of off-line Internet tools is a ploy to keep any one of them from gaining traction

The ones mentioned in this thread all use Kiwix for off-line wikipedia, OSM for maps, Khan for educational videos. It looks like internet-in-a-box is aimed at working well on low-powered devices, whereas nomad expects beefy hardware and includes local AI. Not sure how WROLPi differs from internet-in-a-box. Maybe it's like linux distros: all based on the same software, but optimized for different use-cases or preferen…

I mean, technically they use Kolibri for educational videos and exercises. A lot of them do come from Khan Academy, but we do a lot of work to make an offline first education platform, and also bring in a huge swathe of other open educational resources.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#27

Post by pdpi »

WillAdams wrote: post #4

Missing a chance to note (or configure for?) installation on a Raspberry Pi --- that'd make an affordable option to leave powered down, but ready to go in an EMI-shield/Faraday Cage.

They specifically state that they’re aiming for a “fatter” model that expects higher-end hardware, and other projects like Internet in a box already target rpi-style devices.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#29

Post by entropie »

iandanforth wrote: post #19

I like this idea! I don't need the LLM bits, and want it to run on an old Android tablet I have lying around. Can anyone recommend similar software where I can get wikipedia / street maps / useful tutorial videos nicely packaged for offline use?

A friend made this years ago. I never used it but the idea is awesome.

https://github.com/ligi/SurvivalManual

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