[Foundation-l] Back to basics @ Danny

Tue Jan 2 19:50:28 UTC 2007

Danny do I have your permission to repost this mail in the Dutch 
villagepump?

Waerth

>With all the commotion, with the departures over the sitenotice, with the  
>infighting on various projects (and between various projects), with the bitter  
>debates over image policy, I thought it may be a good idea to go back to the  
>very root of all the Wikimedia projects. It is a simple statement, but what  
>it says--and doesn't say--summarized the very essence of what we are  doing.
> 
>"Imagine a world in which every single human being can  freely share in the 
>sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment."
> 
>Perhaps this should be the yardstick with which we make our decisions.  It is 
>inclusive ("every single human being") and devoted to free content ("can  
>freely share"), and it defines the parameters of our content ("the sum of all  
>human knowledge."). It recognizes that this project is still in the works: we  
>have not finished what we set out to do ("Imagine a world ...") 
> 
>That's our commitment.
> 
>As for what it doesn't say:
>It does not say, "Imagine an advertising-free world."
>It does not say "where every single person who speaks a English or a  
>European language ..."
>It does not say "share freely unless the unfree content is better."
>It does not say "free knowledge and links to where to find out  more/buy it."
>It does not say "That's what we did."
> 
>Let's try and refocus the discussions on what our goals are and how we can  
>best achieve them. Let's use this as our yardstick. 
> 
>Danny
> 
> 
> 
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