[Advocacy Advisors] Wikipedia Zero and net neutrality

[John Mark Vandenberg]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 7:05 PM, Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 2:28 AM, John Mark Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 4:35 AM, Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > 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,
>>
>> err .. what?
>>
>> The mission of the WMF is almost solely dedicated to open source content!
>> Or, as written "educational content under a free license or in the
>> public domain".
>> Which links to
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_content
>>
>>
>
>
> I should have written open source software, true.

That makes more sense!  Thanks for clarifying.

> But again, I think these
> are great goals that are secondary for us, and we use them as tools in
> achieving the primary goal. My point is that Wikimedia is not an advocacy
> organization on behalf of net neutrality or many of these other worthy
> goals, and we don't need to be out on the frontlines here or zealous in our
> adherence to principles secondary to our actual mission.
>
> That doesn't mean we should actively harm efforts that we generally agree
> with, but I haven't seen much evidence that WP0 is actually being used to
> undercut net neutrality. If that's happening, and the concern isn't purely
> theoretical, I'd like to read about it and would appreciate any links.

The PR put out by WMF and Facebook about their respective Zero
programs is remarkably similar.
Unfortunately, whether good intentioned or not, Wikipedia Zero is
muddying the water.

That may not be a problem if the EFF endorse the 'zero lane' and
believe that it doesnt detract from their overall message.  But if the
EFF doesnt publicly agree with the WMF's 'zero lane' and work it into
their strategy, or worse publicly rejects the WMF's position, expect
to see a large cohort of donors sending money EFF's way instead of
WMF's way, and that cohort of donor is unlikely to return, _ever_ .

--
John Vandenberg