== Vision Statement ==
'''Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.'''
Comment:
One version from the Retreat contained the phrase "in their own language" at the end, but we removed that later--I made the argument that there are different ways to address language barriers, e.g. by teaching another language like English and then giving access to learning resources in that language. IMHO we should not explicitly endorse or reject any particular _strategy_ of knowledge dissemination in our vision statement.
The more I ponder this statement the more I dislike it. Forget dissemination -- what about knowledge collection? As if knowledge only exists in English, or major European languages. The "language barrier" goes both ways. To access some of the world's oldest and most classic texts, we should also advocate teaching everyone classical Chinese. How likely is that? The gift of accessing information in your native language should not be underestimated by those who are lucky enough to take it for granted.
The principle of multilinguality is what really gives Wikimedia *global* participation and therefore WMF a global voice and global influence. That is something amazing that I am not really aware of anyone else... anywhere... doing on the same scale. It deserves proper recognition -- I think the "in their own language" should be re-appended.
regards, Brianna