On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Mohamed Magdy mohamed.m.k@gmail.com wrote:
This really sucks.
As Kat Walsh alluded to on ... Facebook?!?... free/libre real-time services are more important than a lot of Wikimedians think (because we've spent so long pushing back against "merely" social uses of our wikis?). In the grand scheme of the things we care about, development in that area may be a more critical immediate need than continued work on MediaWiki. Brion put it perfectly:
"People need the ability to control their own presence on the web instead of hoping Facebook or Twitter always treat you the way you want."
Wikipedia has had enough success that it's bought some time in terms of establishing the ability (and right) of people to control and use educational material how they want. There's still a lot to do, but the free culture approach is starting to pick up momentum. For so-called social networking services, it's still an uphill battle.
-Sage