[Foundation-l] New project licensing

Wed Aug 24 23:58:52 UTC 2005

I've read the recent discussions on new project policies, and it seems
that there is somewhat of a consensus that focusing on the existing
projects is more important than recruiting new ones. I agree with this,
but I also think that this should not prevent us from working on some
policies for the future, as least on the question of licensing.

I participate in the WikiTree project [http://wikitree.org], and we're
seeing some success and popularity. Before we get too big, though, we
would like to know if there is any licensing policy that would be an
issue if we later would like to become a part of WikiMedia. We're
currently BY-NC-SA, and a license switch would essentially force us to
erase all data and start over. As such, we'd like to get it right.

>From an informal poll
[http://wikitree.org/index.php?title=WikiTree:License_poll], it seems
that most people support a liberal license, mainly either Public Domain
or GFDL. Would either of these be a good choice, and would they allow us
to participate officially in WikiMedia in the future? Or would something
else be more appropriate?

I look forward to your comments, either here or on the License Poll page
linked above.

- Joel