Re: Printable version (was RE: [Wikipedia-l] Why Wikipedia needs linkbacks)

On Thu, Nov 15, 2001 at 06:58:45PM -0800, Larry Sanger wrote: Absolutely. Require that text at the bottom of each page, then? If I decide I want to do something slightly different, can I approach you with my proposal? I suggest you state in the copyright and GFDL implementation text that you can be approached for special situations. No general solution is going to work for everyone. Does Bomis hold official copyright on Wikipedia? I didn't see it on the site. You really should post a copyright notice on the main page, directly, which includes the implementation of the license in it. I am concerned that you run into a violation of the *spirit* of the GFDL, if not the precise letter, if you require some large or intrusive attribution on derivative works that doesn't exist on the live Wikipedia pages. In my case especially, since it isn't really a `derivative work' but just a downstream packaging of Wikipedia content, as it were. Hopefully, given my track record of unpaid volunteer work for the Linux Documentation Project, and now some fair amount of unpaid volunteer work for the Wikipedia, you know that I'm not a money grubber who is trying to take advantage of Wikipedia or Bomis. I want to see you get fair attribution. My goals, in large part, are your goals. I want you to succeed. However, I also want the maximum flexibility in how I attribute you, within reasonable parameters of course. Your suggestion here sounds like something I can live with. I've also decided definitely that all Wikipedia content that is packaged beside the LDP documents in Linux distributions will contain a live linkback to directly edit the page. That could easily bring a million Linux users to Wikipedia every month. More if you count the local page views. That is a good thing for Wikipedia and for Linux. Please give me your views or guidelines on how I might approach this effort. My goal is to start having Wikipedia content used as part of Linux help, but I don't want to move the LDP over wholesale (and it would be rude to my authors, even those who GFDL'ed), nor do I want to simply leech. I'm just knocking around ideas right now, so if you can suggest any I should consider I'd appreciate hearing them. I will be formatting the output differently from Wikipedia, though. I will make the output look as similar as I can to the other documents. I have to merge man pages, html, and docbook documents, and it is a challenge to make the presentation of all those documents seamless across format, but that's what I'm trying to do. I want the transition to and from Wikipedia pages within the Linux documentation database to be similarly seamless. I'll attribute Wikipedia pages, and probably put up a logo for graphical browser users. I will run the final stylesheets past you once I get to that point. Live release in actual Linux distributions is probably six months away, so there is no hurry. I promise to be very amenable to following your suggestions, as long as you keep in mind that the user experience comes first in my page layout philosophy! Thanks for resolving this issue quickly. It really is fundamental and the sooner you resolve it, the better for everyone. Then it becomes a non-issue and we can all get back to work where we should be. :-) Regards, -- Dr. David C. Merrill http://www.lupercalia.net Linux Documentation Project david(a)lupercalia.net Collection Editor & Coordinator http://www.linuxdoc.org We turn the wheel to welcome her Every breath is sacred Opening, we welcome her Every breath is sacred As we walk this ancient path Every breath is sacred We are stronger than we know Every breath is sacred -- The Midwife's Song, Calla Unsworth