I'm sure many of you noticed the mention of the Internet Book List on slashdot (at http://www.iblist.com/ , a new database intended to be for books was imdb.com is for movies). I'm excited about the project and sent an email with many questions to Patrick Roos. In that email, I asked what the copyright terms were of the site and if Roose knew about the FDL. He did not. I referred him to the official GNU FDL page.
I'm not very familiar with the FDL, though I recognize it as a Good Thing (tm). I have several questions:
1) if the IBL is put under the FDL, what would be required if they wanted to use e.g. a wikipedia biography of [[Stephen King]]--a linkback, and nothing else? I ask this question because I'm sure each article is under the FDL (else Encarta could rip them off), but I hope that each article is not considered a separate "Document" under the FDL terms. (if they were, they would all need a new title--"let's file Stephen King under [[Barnaby Jones]]") ;-) The "Document" is the entire 'pedia, right?
2) would it be better for the project, if they consider adopting the FDL, to link to the wikipedia articles rather than forking them? (mostly a rhetorical question, though I'm aware I don't usually think of *all* possibilities).
3) what considerations would you encourage Roos et al. to make before committing (or not committing) to the FDL?
4) anything else you'd say?
best wishes,
kq
I am tempted to say that foreign characters showing up in people's sig would go a long way in demonstrating that the W is international.
As a compromise, I would say that those who prefer to write their name in their native script should be allowed to do so, bet should also put the english version in parenthesis if they are meaning their post for an international audience.
Comments?
===== Christopher Mahan chris_mahan@yahoo.com 818.943.1850 cell http://www.christophermahan.com/
__________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
Christopher Mahan wrote:
I am tempted to say that foreign characters showing up in people's sig would go a long way in demonstrating that the W is international.
As a compromise, I would say that those who prefer to write their name in their native script should be allowed to do so, bet should also put the english version in parenthesis if they are meaning their post for an international audience.
I *like* foreign characters. I can't read them, but I feel about them pretty much like Hofstadter does (in /Metamagical Themas/). but if several users start signing with them, most of us can't distinguish between them (yet). and if on most systems they're just "??" ...
bilingual signing is an excellent compromise. :-)
In case anybody hadnt seent this.. heres the sketch I did of a Meerkat as a possible mascot...
koyaanisqatsi@nupedia.com wrote:
- would it be better for the project, if they consider adopting the
FDL, to link to the wikipedia articles rather than forking them? (mostly a rhetorical question, though I'm aware I don't usually think of *all* possibilities).
I think it's hard to say. Our NPOV/encyclopedic approach would make for a nice reference work of the kind he's contemplating, but at the same time, POV book reviews are very useful. I can totally see why another project might use our work as a 'reference' standard to get started, and then deviate from NPOV according to their own purposes.
(One of the reasons for NPOV is precisely this: our work can serve as a useful reference for lots of purposes because it is so neutral.)
- what considerations would you encourage Roos et al. to make before
committing (or not committing) to the FDL?
I think it's really great if lots of people are using compatible licenses. Wikipedia could be the first major project in a huge movement of free content. Incompatible licenses would hinder that process.
Having said that, the GNU FDL is complicated and was clearly not written with a wild and wide-open wiki environment in mind. The stuff about "Cover Pages" and the like are hard to mentally think about in an online environment.
--Jimbo
