Re: [Wikimedia-l] Internet.org and Wikipedia Zero ?

Hei, I kind of sympathize with Jens' points. Mr. Zuckerberg, and especially Facebook as a business, are not necessary in a perfect synchrony with the mission and vision of the Wikimedia / Wikipedia movement. Even if this is the case we may ask does it still make sense for us to collaborate with their initiative? Would it advantage our very own mission and vision? I also think that we are all people, also Mr. Zuckerberg, and people have different sides. I interpret that in the internet.org a group of *people*, working for big corporations, have seen a possibility to do something *good* that is same time in the interests of their businesses. I think we often forget that also in big corporation there are people, individuals who do choices. I do not see in here any hidden agendas or wrong doing. I see people trying to do something good. Like GerardM pointed out, the internet.org may help us to get knowledge for people who otherwise would not have access to the Wikipedia. I do not see that this would move us somehow to the "dark side", especially when the *people* in the internet.org are not necessary evil. With the fact that the Wikimedia foundation is financially sustainable, we also have a great position to negotiate with the internet.org people. I actually think that they need more Wikimedia / Wikipedia than we need them. Still, I think collaboration with them could advance our mission. Best regards, - Teemu On 27.8.2013, at 9.32, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com> wrote: -------------------------------------------------- Teemu Leinonen http://www2.uiah.fi/~tleinone/ +358 50 351 6796 Media Lab http://mlab.uiah.fi Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture --------------------------------------------------