I mean basic educational information about how things work, and how they relate to one another; data and facts; and maps, statistics, and visualizations of this sort of knowledge.
You cannot copyright ideas, nor should one copyright the simplest expression of them. The merger doctrine specifies a narrow subset of knowledge as uncopyrightable [1] -- basic dictionaries, catalogs, laws, manuals, and primers should be free as well.
This will be the case within a generation in many parts of the world -- and it will be hard to explain to our children why there used to be twenty different dictionaries and a hundred different "language 101" coursebooks for each language, all using the same types of words and vocabulary and images and yet struggling to look as if they were not all using shared source material.
SJ
[1] see the [[Idea-expression divide]]
On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 7:32 PM, Pavlo Shevelopavlo.shevelo@gmail.com wrote:
licenses -- data, overviews, and reference-style knowledge should all
Would you please explain what do you mean as "reference-style knowledge"?
On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 2:21 AM, Samuel Kleinmeta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
When I say "world of WP" I mean "world post-WP" -- the world we live in, in which certain businesses are failing now that basic reliable information and data are available freely...
It would be healthy to see compatibly-licensed projects that use different sets of core principles; not just wikinfo (for instance) but also POV specialist reference works. There is an audience for that, and they should also be encouraged to contribute to free knowledge. And if someone can find a way to keep professional encyclopedists from dying out as a breed, that would be good. I don't want to see other reference works go out of business; I do want to see them adopt free licenses -- data, overviews, and reference-style knowledge should all be free.
SJ
On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 6:32 PM, Kul Takanao Wadhwakwadhwa@wikimedia.org wrote:
- experienced professional reference-work writers (and we should help them find ways to sustain themselves, particularly in niche markets -- one way is by distributing the underlying work needed to find and organize data). there is room in the world-of-WP for effective, sustainable POV and specialist works
SJ - Just curious...where in WP do you think POV and specialist works could fit?
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