On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Robert Rohde <rarohde(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 8:06 AM, Milos Rancic
<millosh(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 4:31 PM, Pharos
<pharosofalexandria(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 9:13 AM, Brianna Laugher
<brianna.laugher(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Is it too much to say we need our own Facebook?
If only Ning was open source.
I've done some a little research on this issue, and this appears to be
the most promising option:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software)
It's open source, relatively popular, and is used in academic communities.
I think that it should be solved differently. Wikia already has some
kind of extended profile which includes some basic social networking
abilities.
It is expensive (in the sense of contributors' attention) to run two
different models. Even keeping blogs at Planet Wikimedia (officially)
and at Open Wiki Blog Planet (unofficially), as well as at some other
places (unofficially in different languages; I know, at least, for
French version) -- is expensive.
At the other hand, MediaWiki is able to be extended in that direction
(which Wikia used extension shows). Also, contributors would be able
to ask for new features more dynamically, as well as it would be a
significant development path for MediaWiki itself.
In other words, I would like to see a very rudimentary extension (like
Wikia's) with solved inter-project issues for the beginning. When we
have that, we would be able to think about improvements.
Personally, I'd like to see more social interaction/networking tools
built into Mediawiki. However, after seeing the incredible pushback
on enwiki surrounding things like Esperanza [1] and to a lesser degree
Userboxes [2], I am somewhat skeptical about whether the community
would actually embrace social networking tools.
There are many who seem to feel that using Wikipedia for socializing
and fun is contrary to our mission, especially if it attracts people
who aren't contributors to the encyclopedia. Personally, I think
that's nonsense, and the community benefits from increased cohesion
when there is fun and socializing to be had, but I realize that many
people don't see it that way.
We should keep in mind that there is a much broader community out
there beyond Wikimedians, who are interested in cooperative efforts in
promoting priojects.
Personally, we've had great success working with the 2 Students For
Free Culture chapters in New York City, who have supported Wikimedia
projects as ardently as any Wikimedians.
On a level of real-life organization, there should be no sharp line
between people with Wikimedia user accounts and those without. The
basic skills in organizing real-life events and projects are
orthogonal to particular technical skills or specializations.
What we really need is a social networking site for the whole Free
Culture/Open Source community, so that we can build a thousand
coalitions in a thousand different cities.
In researching this idea, I happened upon this proposal last year from
the Free Software Foundation for a "Planet Libre":
http://www.libervis.com/article/july_2007_letter_to_free_software_foundatio…
That particular initiative appears to have foundered over recent
months. I suggest we should revive it, and in cooperation with Free
Software Foundation, develop a "Planet Libre" social networking site
based on Elgg.
Thanks,
Pharos
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