[Commons-l] Fwd: [Gendergap] Photo of the Day on Wikimedia Commons

[Michael Snow]

On 5/16/2011 12:56 PM, Chris McKenna wrote:
> On Tue, 17 May 2011, Stephen Bain wrote:
>> In this context, applying some sort of 'least surprise' based approach
>> to what goes on the main page is simply a reasonable step toward
>> protecting a person's right to avoid speech they wish to avoid.
> But who defines what topics are acceptable for a "least surprise"
> approach?
It's not topics that define how a "least surprise" approach is applied, 
it's the setting and context. *All* topics can be put through a least 
surprise analysis. This relates closely to another issue in this debate, 
the question of what has educational value. Media have educational value 
according to the setting and context in which they are presented. Many 
pictures, including very good ones, would completely lack educational 
value without some kind of explanation or context of what the picture is 
showing.

For the purposes of this kind of analysis, the main page of Commons (or 
another project like a particular Wikipedia language) is not a setting 
that provides very much in the way of context for featuring a picture. 
As a result of this lack of context, it only makes sense that we would 
need to exercise a little more editorial judgment than usual in 
selecting what pictures appear there.

--Michael Snow