On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 22:45:14 -0800, Scott Nelson scott@penguinstorm.com wrote:
If Microsoft decided to launch an MSN encyclopedia that was developed using Wiki software, then MSN Wikipedia would be a perfectly good name for it, in my view. Many (you included, I suspect) would argue otherwise - quite vigorously in all probability.
I think my main concern, if this happened, would be what we would then call the original Wikipedia, since anything we could well find ourselves with the word "Wikipedia" becoming associated *first* with the rival version. So we'd have to highlight that this was the "Wikimedia Wikipedia" or something equally ugly, in order to avoid just giving someone else all our publicity.
You are also assuming that Wikipedia would only ever be used to refer to a wiki-based encyclopedia, not just, say, some vaguely collaborative online one. If we're not going to take control of the term, people can use it for *whatever they like*. I don't think it's all that unlikely that a service like MSN or AOL or Yahoo! would decide that what you and I would think of as a "real" wiki was just too open to put their name to, but some "watered down" version would capitalise on our work nicely.
Rather than try to protect Wikipedia, let it spread and flourish. Wikipedia is the Wiki software's flag on the moon.
The other thing that you're not considering here is that there's a lot more to the ideal of Wikipedia than the fact that it runs on wiki software. In fact, some people would argue that the Wiki is just a means to an end, and what the project is really about is creating a freely available, neutrally compiled, comprehensive collection of information. And even if you think the concept of "The Wiki Way" itself is more central than that, it's still possible to have something that resembles a wiki in many ways, but doesn't adhere to the same ideals as are traditionally attached to them.
I guess what I'm saying is that it would be a shame to voluntarily give up control of our name, only to find it being applied to something we'd want to distance ourselves from - or even something against which we would feel fundamentally opposed - and then being powerless to change our minds.