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.
Google has been doing similar things for years with Google Summer of Code. So did other organizations.
Free software is not necessarily non-commercial.
The whole point of Free Software is that everybody should be allowed to do pretty much everything. It cannot and should not be prohibited. Free software may, however, need to adapt to contributions from commercial organizations. When Google tried a few years ago to pay people to fill Wikipedias in languages of India with auto-translated articles, it was a big failure, because the editors community rejected it. When PR companies are filling Wikipedia articles in different with poorly sourced and biased information about their clients, it is also frequently rejected and deleted.
A different issue is constructive editing for money or for prizes. Some countries held article writing contests with prizes, and though there was some opposition to them, they didn't hurt the projects in the long run, especially if they already had established communities of volunteer editors at the time of the contest. In any case, very few articles are usually written in such contests. It's unlikely at this point that Wikipedia in any language will be overwhelmed with many thousands of articles written for money, although this may change in the future. Again, we cannot and should not prohibit it, but we may want to think about how we shall adapt ourselves to it.
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
2013/11/19 Mina Theofilatou theoth@otenet.gr
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.
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Amir I fully understand your arguments... but I see a conflict of interest here: they're encouraging students to write open code on the one hand, and keeping their own code proprietary on the other. Same with Google I guess.
I can also see a cheap and dishonest recruiting process going on here... not to mention the semantics of the #1 proprietary social networking platform in the world associating its name with Opensource and established Universities. It's a win-win (to the nth power!) situation for Facebook.
And finally: how would we volunteers at Wikimedia feel if Facebook did the same thing officially and "out in the open" (i.e. earning CSR credits) with us?
Tyson Henry has added an interesting comment on the page (last one as of now)... what do you think?
Mina ----- Original Message ----- From: Amir E. Aharoni To: Wikimedia Education Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 10:00 AM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Education] An alarming piece of news: Facebook teams with opensource???
Google has been doing similar things for years with Google Summer of Code. So did other organizations.
Free software is not necessarily non-commercial.
The whole point of Free Software is that everybody should be allowed to do pretty much everything. It cannot and should not be prohibited. Free software may, however, need to adapt to contributions from commercial organizations. When Google tried a few years ago to pay people to fill Wikipedias in languages of India with auto-translated articles, it was a big failure, because the editors community rejected it. When PR companies are filling Wikipedia articles in different with poorly sourced and biased information about their clients, it is also frequently rejected and deleted.
A different issue is constructive editing for money or for prizes. Some countries held article writing contests with prizes, and though there was some opposition to them, they didn't hurt the projects in the long run, especially if they already had established communities of volunteer editors at the time of the contest. In any case, very few articles are usually written in such contests. It's unlikely at this point that Wikipedia in any language will be overwhelmed with many thousands of articles written for money, although this may change in the future. Again, we cannot and should not prohibit it, but we may want to think about how we shall adapt ourselves to it.
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
2013/11/19 Mina Theofilatou theoth@otenet.gr 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.
_______________________________________________ Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________ Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Hi Mina,
It's their loss if they don't open their best work. In the robo-teacher future, authorship is still attractive to students. There's no way to be completely non-neutral if someone is paying you for work, which is why volunteer firefighters exist. Karma is the central idea of the folks who came up with zero 1,500 years ago, so it's okay. I hate Facebook and would never have a Facebook account, but some of my best friends work there and I have helped them in the past. If you know how to figure out Facebook groups then please tell me which ones would be best for talknicer.com/icryo and talknicer.com/susjam because if they keep supporting open source work then maybe I will change my mind.
Best regards, Jim
On Tuesday, November 19, 2013, Mina Theofilatou wrote:
Amir I fully understand your arguments... but I see a conflict of interest here: they're encouraging students to write open code on the one hand, and keeping their own code proprietary on the other. Same with Google I guess.
I can also see a cheap and dishonest recruiting process going on here... not to mention the semantics of the #1 proprietary social networking platform in the world associating its name with Opensource and established Universities. It's a win-win (to the nth power!) situation for Facebook.
And finally: how would we volunteers at Wikimedia feel if Facebook did the same thing officially and "out in the open" (i.e. earning CSR credits) with us?
Tyson Henry has added an interesting comment on the page (last one as of now)... what do you think?
Mina
----- Original Message ----- *From:* Amir E. Aharoni <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il');> *To:* Wikimedia Education <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'education@lists.wikimedia.org');> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 19, 2013 10:00 AM *Subject:* Re: [Wikimedia Education] An alarming piece of news: Facebook teams with opensource???
Google has been doing similar things for years with Google Summer of Code. So did other organizations.
Free software is not necessarily non-commercial.
The whole point of Free Software is that everybody should be allowed to do pretty much everything. It cannot and should not be prohibited. Free software may, however, need to adapt to contributions from commercial organizations. When Google tried a few years ago to pay people to fill Wikipedias in languages of India with auto-translated articles, it was a big failure, because the editors community rejected it. When PR companies are filling Wikipedia articles in different with poorly sourced and biased information about their clients, it is also frequently rejected and deleted.
A different issue is constructive editing for money or for prizes. Some countries held article writing contests with prizes, and though there was some opposition to them, they didn't hurt the projects in the long run, especially if they already had established communities of volunteer editors at the time of the contest. In any case, very few articles are usually written in such contests. It's unlikely at this point that Wikipedia in any language will be overwhelmed with many thousands of articles written for money, although this may change in the future. Again, we cannot and should not prohibit it, but we may want to think about how we shall adapt ourselves to it.
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
2013/11/19 Mina Theofilatou <theoth@otenet.gr <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'theoth@otenet.gr');>>
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.
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'Education@lists.wikimedia.org');> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'Education@lists.wikimedia.org');> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Facebook was created using PHP and MySQL , free software. They like Google are not required to release their code because they do not deliver the program, they provide a service. And the above is possible , because they use a license that allows, designed for a time when software was distributed , for that reason it was created by the FSF a new version of the GPL , the GNU Affero General Public License
What we should do is encourage students to license their work , free software works with that license.
The site of the FSF argues:
" That Developers use our General Public Licenses protect your rights with two steps : ( 1) assert copyright on the software , and (2) offer you this License Which Gives You legal permission to copy , distribute and / or modify the software.
A secondary benefit of defending all users ' freedom Is that improvements made in alternate versions of the program , If They receive Widespread use , Become available for other developers to Incorporate. Many developers of free software are heartened and Encouraged by the Resulting cooperation. However , in the case of software used on network servers , This May result fail to come about. The GNU General Public License Permits making a modified version and letting the public access it on a server without ever releasing its source code to the public .
The GNU Affero General Public License is designed específicamente to Ensure That , in Such cases , the modified source code available to the community Becomes . It Requires the operator of a network server to Provide the source code of the modified version running there to the users of That server. THEREFORE , public use of a modified version , on a publicly accessible server, Gives the public access to the source code of the modified version . "
Source: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html
Best regards, Fernando
2013/11/19 Mina Theofilatou theoth@otenet.gr
Amir I fully understand your arguments... but I see a conflict of interest here: they're encouraging students to write open code on the one hand, and keeping their own code proprietary on the other. Same with Google I guess.
I can also see a cheap and dishonest recruiting process going on here... not to mention the semantics of the #1 proprietary social networking platform in the world associating its name with Opensource and established Universities. It's a win-win (to the nth power!) situation for Facebook.
And finally: how would we volunteers at Wikimedia feel if Facebook did the same thing officially and "out in the open" (i.e. earning CSR credits) with us?
Tyson Henry has added an interesting comment on the page (last one as of now)... what do you think?
Mina
----- Original Message ----- *From:* Amir E. Aharoni amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il *To:* Wikimedia Education education@lists.wikimedia.org *Sent:* Tuesday, November 19, 2013 10:00 AM *Subject:* Re: [Wikimedia Education] An alarming piece of news: Facebook teams with opensource???
Google has been doing similar things for years with Google Summer of Code. So did other organizations.
Free software is not necessarily non-commercial.
The whole point of Free Software is that everybody should be allowed to do pretty much everything. It cannot and should not be prohibited. Free software may, however, need to adapt to contributions from commercial organizations. When Google tried a few years ago to pay people to fill Wikipedias in languages of India with auto-translated articles, it was a big failure, because the editors community rejected it. When PR companies are filling Wikipedia articles in different with poorly sourced and biased information about their clients, it is also frequently rejected and deleted.
A different issue is constructive editing for money or for prizes. Some countries held article writing contests with prizes, and though there was some opposition to them, they didn't hurt the projects in the long run, especially if they already had established communities of volunteer editors at the time of the contest. In any case, very few articles are usually written in such contests. It's unlikely at this point that Wikipedia in any language will be overwhelmed with many thousands of articles written for money, although this may change in the future. Again, we cannot and should not prohibit it, but we may want to think about how we shall adapt ourselves to it.
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
2013/11/19 Mina Theofilatou theoth@otenet.gr
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.
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
"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.
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
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.
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Hello everyone, let's not overestimate the risks. Looking on the provided pages, I currently see no mention of students organized to contribute to Wikipedia, nor do I currently see any link with Wikimedia whatsoever. Mozilla community, for example, sure can decide on its own if they want to cooperate with Facebook. And even if they did include Wikimedia in their plans, restricting such companies from providing us valuable help would make us look like complete ... (add a suitable noun here). :-) Vojtech ************************ Vojtěch Dostál Mail vojtech.dostal@centrum.cz vojtech.dostal@centrum.cz ______________________________________________________________
Od: Mina Theofilatou theoth@otenet.gr Komu: fredbaud@fairpoint.net, Wikimedia Education education@lists.wikimedia.org Datum: 20.11.2013 07:55 Předmět: Re: [Wikimedia Education] An alarming piece of news: Facebook teamswith opensource???
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... https://www.facebook.com/notes/open-academy/welcome-to-the-open-academy-program/216150918554109. 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-... http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/13/facebook-partners-with-22-universities-to-give-compsci-students-academic-credit-for-open-source-projects/!
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.
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
_______________________________________________ Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Fernando is completely correct that we should be trying to do more to encourage companies using and otherwise benefiting from open source software to support and adopt the GNU Affero General Public License. I'm sorry I neglected that important point in my earlier comments.
Best regards, James Salsman
Again, that's beside my point. There's a huge distance between companies using/benefiting from opensource, and the same companies coming out and saying more or less "The Opensource Community meets the Academic Community. Brought to you by Facebook".
(Replace "Opensource" above with Open-content to describe Wikimedia, and "Facebook" with the multinational for-profit organisation of your choice. There you have it: an emerging trend.)
If we're to be so elastic about who can usurp the labour put in by hours of work from dedicated volunteers by simply branding a publicity campaign, I see no reason why we "open" folks are so adamant about not having ads on the sites we love to contribute to. Which brings to mind my initial thought when I saw the news article: Facebook can't pry into the huge and promising open community by simply adding e.g. an ad on the sidebar of the Mozilla homepage or a "like/share" button at the bottom of each Wikipedia article. Looks like they found the way to pry in...
But I'll leave you all alone, it seems I'm the only one so alarmed and disturbed by this issue.
Mina
----- Original Message ----- From: "James Salsman" jsalsman@gmail.com To: "Wikimedia Education" education@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 11:30 AM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Education] An alarming piece of news: Facebook teamswith opensource???
Fernando is completely correct that we should be trying to do more to encourage companies using and otherwise benefiting from open source software to support and adopt the GNU Affero General Public License. I'm sorry I neglected that important point in my earlier comments.
Best regards, James Salsman
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 2:40 PM, Mina Theofilatou theoth@otenet.gr wrote:
Again, that's beside my point. There's a huge distance between companies using/benefiting from opensource, and the same companies coming out and saying more or less "The Opensource Community meets the Academic Community. Brought to you by Facebook".
(Replace "Opensource" above with Open-content to describe Wikimedia, and "Facebook" with the multinational for-profit organisation of your choice. There you have it: an emerging trend.)
Just because you labour for free does not mean your content cannot and is not usurped for commercial purposes. Wikimedia content is intentionally created with the intention of allowing and encouraging commercial repurposing of it. This is not really an emerging trend either, but one that has been going on since at least 2000 or so when AOL and other online service providers usurped fan communities, developed relationships with officially licensed content producers to host non-paid fan labour under their auspices.
There are issues at play here that are probably important, but they speak to larger issues regarding the state of employment in the United States where people are expected to labour for free as an internship. I believe in the USA there was high level litigation regarding this labour related issue. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/06/the-court-ruling-that-co... has some details but I have not followed up much on it since.
Hello Mina,
I agree with you that companies/foundations like Mozilla, Red Hat and some others should promote projects like that, providing special partnerships and academy programs to keep Computer Science students on the good side of the code, many of they are moving to the dark side through programs like Microsoft DreamSpark, Ambassadors Program, Oracle Academy and etc. In our case on the Brazilian Catalyst Program I'm trying to build a good relationship with IT Universities bringing students and teachers to the good side through the Education Program. We are promoting talks, hackathons and spreading the tech side of the wiki, providing info about all the APIs, data analysis and tools used to keep the projects running and growing, and probably, for the next months we will plan something in that field using our part of our budget with micro grants.
Wikimedia, Wikimedia UK and some others are doing that, but without a "marketing campaign", IMHO we need only to improve that area to have more people involved working with us. Unfortunately we cant compete with Google, Facebook on marketing and budget :( but we are moving in the right direction, I guess.