Katherine: Thank you, that was beautifully written.
We all have our work cut out for us to preserve the free sharing of knowledge and experience across borders, and the very notion of reliable sources.
Mike, your perspective is deeply welcome.
Sharing the world's knowledge is fundamentally political. It has brought wikimedia directly into political disagreement with a number of national policies. We seem to be in the early stages of an all-out information war of global scope, and I expect the number of those regimes and policies to grow. I am proud that the WMF has principled stands on issues of freedom, access, and communication.
And The WMF does sometimes declare positions that I disagree with; as does the FSF! This is better than having no principles at all. I am firmly committed to the projects those foundations support because their goals, their understanding of how part of the world should work, and the people involved are all extraordinary.
Sam.