[Foundation-l] RfC: Mission & Vision Statements of the Wikimedia Foundation

[Brianna Laugher]

> == Vision Statement ==
>
> '''Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share
> in the sum of all knowledge.'''
>
> Comment:
>
> One version from the Retreat contained the phrase "in their own
> language" at the end, but we removed that later--I made the argument
> that there are different ways to address language barriers, e.g. by
> teaching another language like English and then giving access to
> learning resources in that language. IMHO we should not explicitly
> endorse or reject any particular _strategy_ of knowledge dissemination
> in our vision statement.

The more I ponder this statement the more I dislike it. Forget
dissemination -- what about knowledge collection? As if knowledge only
exists in English, or major European languages. The "language barrier"
goes both ways. To access some of the world's oldest and most classic
texts, we should also advocate teaching everyone classical Chinese.
How likely is that? The gift of accessing information in your native
language should not be underestimated by those who are lucky enough to
take it for granted.

The principle of multilinguality is what really gives Wikimedia
*global* participation and therefore WMF a global voice and global
influence. That is something amazing that I am not really aware of
anyone else... anywhere... doing on the same scale. It deserves proper
recognition -- I think the "in their own language" should be
re-appended.

regards,
Brianna