Search Charles Chaplin on Wikipedia and do the same in Txikipedia. Or if you want, enter Wikipedia “the rodent” and then Txikipedia. It is evident that in one you will find a written text with a long terminology, in the other the contents are of few paragraphs, simple written and with a didactic vision. The first one is for adults and the second one is for children and young people. This was a fact a few years ago, but according to a study by the Klexikon Wiki-Encyclopedia in Germany, 30 percent of young people accessing the Internet used Wikipedia. This encyclopedia is mainly used to perform the requested work at the center. There is no doubt that Wikipedia in Euskera is very successful in education, it is used by teachers, and, of course, like the German children, those here too often turn to Wikipedia.

In order to create more appropriate content for them, some wikilaris launched a Vikidia in Basque in 2015. Vikidia is also a wiki encyclopedia – anyone can write, modify and complete articles – but it is not part of Wikipedia. It was founded in France in 2006. The most developed vikidia are in French and Danish. Since the French version they have taken many contents and translated them into Basque, and adapted them for the Basque version. Thus, the Vikidia in Euskera consists of about 1,000 articles. Now, the contents of Vikidia have been transferred to the Txikipedia. These back and forth pose two questions to us: Why the shift from one side to the other? And what is the first children's encyclopedia on Wikipedia, Txikipedia?

Can you make a World Wikipedia for young people?

The answer to the questions was given to us by Juan Luis Biguri, creator of the Basque version of Vikidia and impeller of Txikipedia. To those who had the project in mind, it seemed especially important that the children's encyclopedia should be on Wikipedia, precisely because when they start searching for Basque content, they go almost entirely to Wikipedia. They face Viquidia with greater difficulty that they do not know. And why haven't they done the same thing in other languages? “In the world, speaking of youth education, there is no consensus on what and how young people should learn. In the West one thing can be acceptable and on the other side of the world not.” Biguri believes that it is impossible for the neighbours of different religions, cultures, languages and countries to agree on the education of children, and not only him, but there is a great debate on this subject. Young people are not recognised as having an autonomous critical opinion. For these reasons, although there is Wikipedia for adults, there is no Wikipedia for children. Basque Wikipedists have found technical loopholes to make it so and, for the time being, the Wikipedia project has not opposed it. The other languages are encyclopedias for children outside of Wikipedia, such as Vikidia in France and Denmark, and Klexikon in Germany.

Who should write in the children's encyclopedia?

There are different views. The Vikidia of France, for example, gives a great educational value to young people writing. It is common for the work carried out in the centres to be integrated into Vikidia. These works are often posted on the web or blogs of the center and then upload those contents to Vikidia. In Germany they have another concept. Young people, in their view, are not the best people to develop the content, but the experts in the field. Almost entirely, Klexikon is composed of articles written by adults.

Biguri's wish is to feed Txikipedia from both. At the moment, almost all content has been made by adults, except the contents of some Baccalaureate students from the Ikastola Jakintza de Ordizia. In Biguri’s opinion, “I don’t think the door of Txikipedia needs to be closed to those who work on projects in schools. Another thing is that the texts have to be both textual and scientific quality, and for this they need the control of the teaching staff”. There's another reason to be in Txikipedia: it's exciting for students to see their jobs on the school's website and realize that they're on Wikipedia, within anyone's reach, and that anyone can fix, complement and improve them.

Concern about the low capacity of Euskera

Txikipedia, is an age-adapted project. Biguri is concerned about an older factor, the competition in Basque for the youngest. On the one hand, Siadeco has recalled the study conducted for Elkar on the habits of cultural consumption. One of the reasons not to consume in Basque is to have problems of understanding. “The prose of many texts used in schools can cause problems of understanding, too complex phrases, terminologized texts... It is an area that we have analysed very little here. If we associate that with what the research says, I think it should give us what to think.”

On the other hand, think of an increasing group of children who do not have Euskera as the first language. Biguri says that they have a good chance that Euskera will not be the first language and a weaker language. The driver of Txikipedia, Biguri, has thought that it is necessary to reflect on what kind of content should be worked for the young people who have and will have these linguistic characteristics.