FYI
On 1/6/07, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
I'd like to reopen the discussion about whether we officially consider MediaWiki a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Currently, the position of the Foundation on this issue appears somewhat ambiguous. While we run the Subversion repository, the website, the mailing lists, and pay the two lead developers, MediaWiki is listed, for example, on: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Our_projects
not as a Wikimedia project, but as a "related project." It is also not part of our usual list of projects. On the other hand, mediawiki.org carries the "A Wikimedia Project" button.
My view is that we should make this the consistent, official view and consistently promote and list MediaWiki as a Wikimedia Foundation project wherever other Wikimedia projects are listed. My hope is that, in doing so, we will make MediaWiki more prominent and attract more volunteers to work on it, just as on other Wikimedia Foundation projects. I also believe that this will help in making MediaWiki strategy a key part of the Foundation's general project strategy.
What are other people's thoughts? The only downside I can see is that this might be seen as a move to exercise additional control over the direction of development. But already, all major code changes to the core have to be approved by Brion, who is a Foundation employee. I actually think it will be easier to identify our responsibility towards outside users if we consider MediaWiki to be a key part of the free culture movement that the Wikimedia Foundation must support.
-- Peace & Love, Erik
DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.