With a softer opinion of Indymedia than Jimbo, I would however say that I support him here. I do not think we should develop particular strong relationship and collaboration with Indymedia.
Indymedia is clearly biaised. It does not matter that many of us appreciate Indymedia, or even that some of us participate to it. What is important is that we are different, and we must stay different, not only in concept but in our readers view.
We both occupy the same ecological niche in the news ecosystem, but we do not have the same roles. Both roles are important and must be preserved separate. Our role will be to offer neutral news. Their role is much more to counter balance other biaised news network, which will keep on existing (and which MUST keep on existing). In a diverse world, neutral and biais is important.
However, not only do we want to be neutral, but we want to be **seen** neutral by our readers. It is even more important for a wikinews project, where news will be published in 4 hours. I deeply believe neutrality is a goal which can only be approached after hundreds of careful contributions by many many editors. Neutrality needs time to happen. In wikinews, articles will be published in less than a day. Most are likely to be written by a limited number of editors. This is why, it is even MORE critical for wikinews, to appear INDEPENDANT and UNBIAISED.
If we want to be seen neutral by our readers, we must NOT show in any way that we are linked or collaborating with a biaised news network. It is very very important.
And I say this not implying that I do not like Indymedia. This is just a question of principle and of public perception. We should not make collaboration with our pet websites, just because many of use approve them.
Anthere
Sorry if I appear harsh. As many here may be aware, I did not support the creation of wikinews as an individual editor. I chose not to oppose though on the board level because wikinews was largely supported by the community. However, I think there are several risks in the wikinews project, which might hurt our global project.
I see official collaboration between Indymedia and Wikinews as one of these risks, as it could decrease the public perception of us as a neutral source of information.
jeff a �crit:
Chuck0 wrote:
Jama Poulsen wrote:
On Sun, Nov 14, 2004 at 07:05:46PM -0800, Jimmy
(Jimbo)
Wales wrote:
Has anyone been thinking about how Wikinews could
cooperate
with the Independent Media Center (IMC) project (http://www.indymedia.org)?
I'm skeptical about this idea. What is the political orientation of Wikinews?
My guess is that it would have the "Neutral Point of
View". I've
been impressed at how well wikipedia has been able
to maintain
this goal on controversial subjects.
Indymedia exists as an alternative media space for the political left (broadly
defined). Is
Wikinews apolitical, left-leaning, or friendly
towards
neo-fascists?
That's a bit harsh. Can you point to a single
wikipedia article
that has been friendly to neo-fascists?
Indymedia is "left-leaning" but could certainly be
an
automated/semi-automated contributor to wikinews
even if there
are viewpoints on there that are generally not on
Indymedia.
Wikinews could have both, like news.google. Wikinews
is
probably more sympathetic to Indymedia than google
as well.
See the wikipedia entry on Indymedia--it's current &
good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indymedia
Or take a look at their entry on Anarchism (which
nicely links
to Chuck's infoshop.org): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism
I've been told that Wikipedia is run by right wing libertarians, so hwo do we know that the
volunteer work
put into a joint project won't be exploited by
venture
capitalists when they try to turn Wikipedia into an
IPO?
wikipedia is a non-profit and the articles are under
the GFDL. I
doubt it will ever go IPO... For more info, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Overview_FAQ#Who_owns_Wikipedia.3F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home
If it ever does turn commercial, you can download
the /entire/
database and set up your own wikipedia and do
whatever you want
with the articles as long as you comply with the
GFDL. See:
http://download.wikimedia.org/
I wish Indymedia database dumps were publicly
available!
I'm opposed to this partnership until it can be
determined
how Indymedia would benefit from any partnership
with a newly
launched project.
It could benefit by wider distribution of Indymedia
content.
Wikipedia has a huge audience, and deservedly so. In
general,
I'm in favor of collaboration between wikinews &
indymedia.
Chuck, stop dissing one of my favorite Internet
projects. ;)
Thanks,
-Jeff
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