A hackmeeting, many years ago. A conference on various open-source projects. They were talking about Kiwix. The audience seemed interested, nodding, asking questions. I sat in the back of the room with a doubt that seemed legitimate but that I didn't dare express out loud: “what's the point of offline Wikipedia?” I mean: the internet is everywhere. If you need to look something up on Wikipedia, you open your browser, search, read. Done. Why would anyone download gigabytes of data to consult an encyclopedia offline? It seemed like a solution in search of a problem. Something for nerds nostalgic for CD-ROM encyclopedias.

It took me years to understand how naive I'd been.