Sorry for the delayed reply, busy day yesterday and another ahead:)
Having read all of your comments carefully, I think you're missing my point. Perhaps I didn't stress my main point enough: I understand that profit can be made from non-profit endeavours and that this is not something that should be criticized.
What is BEYOND me is the role Facebook has arbitrarily taken on in this case. Facebook is playing the middleman (there's a more "vulgar" expression in Greek that would be more appropriate, for those of you who understand Greek it's "νταβατζής").
I read the project description on the Fcebook page created for the "Open Academy Program". https://www.facebook.com/notes/open-academy/welcome-to-the-open-academy-prog.... If they're so keen on encouraging students to tackle real-life projects, why don't they offer paid internships? Why are they using Opensource as nothing more than a vehicle for their middleman role? Are Opensource communities like Mozilla so "desparate" to find developers so as to consent to Facebook being the "magic link" between Opensource and the academic community?
Asaf Bartov and members of the Greek Wikipedia Community certainly remember the conflicts we had with an EU and state-funded organisation that was trying to do the same with promoting Wikipedia in Greece. And they were not even a commercial enterprise!
If we are to be so lax in what we find acceptable in terms of opensource/open-content ethics, the future is certainly not promising, at least not in my eyes... I can only shudder at what we will see (and consent to) next.
Mina
----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred Bauder" fredbaud@fairpoint.net To: "Wikimedia Education" education@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 2:47 PM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Education] An alarming piece of news: Facebook teams with opensource???
"Facebook is giving back to open source" They use substantial open source programs in the operation of their sites. As to "not being allowed", perhaps their initiative will prove unpopular if enough opposition is ginned up. Open source includes profitable uses.
Fred
Hello all
I just wanted to share a link that I just found. It seems that Facebook is running a campaign to encourage Computer Science students to earn academic credits by contributing to opensource projects:
http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/13/facebook-partners-with-22-universities-to-...
I don't think Facebook should be allowed to do this. Imagine Facebook tried to pry its way into Wikimedia: I would expect all of us to revolt. A for-profit organization taking advantage of non-profit ideals??? MAKING PROFIT on non-profit? Would they even consider converting THEIR project into an open-source one? Of course not. Don't Mozilla and other Open Source Projects have ways of campaigning to attract CompSci students in their own organisations? Why does Facebook have to be the middleman? I find it revolting... if this is their idea of corporate social responsibility, I'll have to find away to stop using Facebook altogether in reply.
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