On 30 November 2014 at 23:30, Mike Godwin mnemonic@gmail.com wrote:
What's more--and this is central--Wikipedia Zero, by encouraging higher usage of Wikipedia without additional costs to users, actually increases demand on the mobile infrastructure. Providers will have to increase capacity to handle the increased demand. In the long run, this promotes overall increased internet access in the developing world. That is an unalloyed positive result, in my view. And the necessary build-out in capacity driven by Wikipedia Zero will make network neutrality--which I care deeply about--a more tenable policy in the developing world.
Do we have numbers showing this happening? If so, that's a powerful story we could use.
Trying to understand Wikipedia Zero as some kind of self-interested organizational move is a mistake, in my view. What it is, IMHO, is a logical development based on the core mission statement of Wikipedia. And in the long term it's actually helpful to the advancement of network neutrality without posing the anti-competitive risks that other zero-rated services may pose.
It's pretty clearly for the greater glory of free knowledge.
I wonder if we can get other free content along for the ride, get that zero-rated too.
- d.