[Foundation-l] Relaunch Chinese Wikinews poll?

Erik Moeller erik_moeller at gmx.de
Sat Feb 4 22:22:32 UTC 2006


On February 7, 2005 we had a poll on Meta to gather opinions on how to 
deal with the particular problem of whether to launch a Chinese language 
edition of Wikinews or not. Back then, the main reason for not launching 
the project was that it might jeopardize the Chinese Wikipedia, i.e., 
put it at risk of censorship. The poll was evenly split, with half 
favoring launching the project given enough support (which it has), and 
the other half wanting the decision to be left to the Chinese Wikipedia 
community (which, incidentally, also voted 50/50):

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikinews/China

Exactly one year later, I think it might be a good idea to relaunch this 
poll, with the old votes archived, given that the situation has changed 
fundamentally. According to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_of_Wikipedia_in_mainland_China

Wikipedia has been censored in mainland China since October 2005. 
Furthermore, we have all seen large search engines cave in to the 
Chinese government in recent months. Interestingly enough, recent 
reports note that Google China is being censored in spite of filtering 
search results:

http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/afx/2006/02/03/afx2498050.html

To me, this indicates that it may simply not be possible to create an 
encyclopedia written from the neutral point of view which will be 
accepted by the current Chinese government. The question then becomes 
whether it is legitimate for us to continue to put a resource on hold 
that might be useful to millions of Chinese speakers outside the 
mainland, i.e. Chinese Wikinews.

So, are there any objections to relaunching this poll, or alternative 
suggestions on how to proceed? I think the "wait and see" approach has 
gone on long enough.

Best,

Erik



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