Imagine a classroom with no internet, no computers, and students relying on older cellphones to stay connected. Now imagine that the same teachers and students are coding, creating apps, and sharing knowledge with each other. At Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi, App Dev For All showed that offline doesn’t have to mean out of reach.
Wikimania, the annual global conference of the Wikimedia movement, marked its 20th anniversary this year, and its first time in Africa. Volunteers, technologists, and educators came together around a shared mission: expanding free knowledge and open collaboration worldwide.
Our founder, David Schachter, joined Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB)’s Adam Holt to showcase solutions designed for communities with little or no internet access. In schools around the world where connectivity and computing resources are limited, App Dev For All and IIAB envision systems that can be installed permanently or rotated between classrooms. With these setups, teachers can create and share their own curriculum materials, while students can use phones to explore resources, complete assignments, and build apps.
App Dev For All also introduced an exciting new development: the ability to run large language models (LLMs) through our app, making app creation even more accessible and practical in low-resource settings.
The combination of offline technology and community-driven innovation has the potential to reshape learning for underserved regions. IIAB’s “learning hotspots” already provide access to Wikipedia, Khan Academy, healthcare libraries, and OpenStreetMap in dozens of countries. With App Dev For All’s tools for offline app development, this partnership advances a shared vision of digital equity, ensuring that access to knowledge and opportunity is not limited by connectivity or resources.
Wikimania 2025 underscored the power of collaboration, innovation, and accessibility in education. Together, App Dev For All and Internet-in-a-Box are showing that even without live internet access, learning opportunities can reach everyone, everywhere.
