[Foundation-l] This is not an Advertisement

[Daniel Mayer]

--- Brad Patrick <bradp.wmf at gmail.com> wrote: 
> Hmm, I think you may be missing something pretty important.  In fact, the
> definition of community is the single most difficult thing to agree upon.
> What is my community, your community, etc. does not have answers.  The Board
> retreat could not answer it with the 25 people who were there.  The Board
> itself cannot agree on the meaning.  Certainly, though, you do not have the
> hubris to think that this thing called Wikimedia exists only for editors, to
> the exclusion of the millions of people who view it every day?  I view the
> orthodox idea that the community consists of, and can only consist of,
> editors as being at least as insulting as the opposite would be to Horning.
> Millions of people *read* the site, and do not contribute a comma.  And
> that's okay!   Generators *and* consumers of free culture must be
> incorporated.  If we are philosophically opposed as people who differ on
> whether a sound is made when a tree falls in  forest, so be it.

If we are going to reach for a definition of what our community is, I do not think it would be
hubris to say that it includes everybody who helps us toward our goal of making free content
available to everybody in the world in a language they can understand. That would certainly
include all editors but also includes everybody who donates or even those who spread the word
about our projects and our goals. Extending that to all regular readers is not much of a leap
since they are sharing in the proceeds of our goal and furthering it just by tuning in and giving
our editors a practical reason to edit well. 

-- mav


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