In the Spirit of OFFLFIRSOCH
2026-02-28
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I will likely not participate in OFFLFIRSOCH this year, mostly because I will be very busy with other projects in the month of March. In the spirit of the challenge, though, I want to identify something I do online and try to do it offline instead.
My secondary smartphone runs Kiwix, a tool to read offline archives of Web sites. I like to use it to read articles from sustainability projects, like Low Tech Magazine and 100 Rabbits, which have given me a lot of inspiration for reducing my own energy and resource usage. However, I wasn't using getting daily use out of Kiwix--I'd simply open it if I wanted to read something that could spark an idea.
This week I decided to use Kiwix more expansively. Their full English Wikipedia archive is a little too large for my device, so I went with something more targeted, and I downloaded an archive of Wiktionary. Now I don't need to fumble with a word on Google or DuckDuckGo, I don't need to ask someone else, and I can reference words in something I'm reading no matter where I am. I already find myself reaching for it more than I thought I would.
Of course, the aim of OFFLFIRSOCH is not just to replace an online activity with an offline one--it's to build the offline version myself. But if I can meet half that goal, I'm still making progress.
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[Last updated: 2026-02-28]