[Advocacy Advisors] Wikipedia Zero and net neutrality

[Nathan]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 3:29 PM, Lila Tretikov <lila at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> I have a question for all of you here, which is not specific to NN, but is
> about the evolution of the internet:
> Do you believe that there should be "public space" on the internet,
> available to all as the basic right, for no access charge. Things like:
> government info, medical, social services, 911?
> Thanks all!
> Lila
>
>
I think that would be great. But how do we make it work in a world where
most network infrastructure is owned by corporate entities? We have to work
within the paradigm that exists, and we must consider the knock-on effects
of our actions (such as promoting zero-rated content, or effectively a free
"slow lane" on the net) within this paradigm. But...

Our mission is to provide a public service (a source for knowledge) to as
many people as possible; the Wikimedia movement is not dedicated to open
source content, or to net neutrality, or universal internet access, or even
to freedom or democracy or other extremely positive and necessary goals.
Many of these things are crucial or beneficial to the success of our
mission, but the movement can't solve every problem or reduce every
barrier. We should focus our advocacy efforts on those things which are
most tightly linked to our mission. Universal internet access, as an
example, is much closer to our core goals than net neutrality.
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