[Foundation-l] what do we do in the event the Foundation fails? - Re: Policy governance ends

[teun spaans]

another assumption: DoJ seizes all servers tomorrow.
(Indynews servers in the UK were seized once, perhaps they still are).

I would find it a very reassuring thought if a limited number of copies were
on trusted sites elsewhere.
Kennisnet comes to mind, and I wouldnt object if two long term stewards (1
in europe, 1 in asia) would be elected to store a copy of harddisks at a
trusted place.

I wish you health and happiness,
teun spaans

On 4/18/07, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> On 4/18/07, Platonides <Platonides at gmail.com> wrote:
> > If WMF defrauds its userbase, there will be forks anyway, as there were
> > on the past, like the [[Enciclopedia Libre]], which is still being
> > developed in paralell.
>
> Let's assume, for a moment, that WMF does not suddenly turn evil but
> instead that it gets sued out of existence by some other entity with
> very deep pockets (software patents, libel, submarine copyright
> infringements, what have you).
>
> Perhaps it would make sense for the organization to have an open
> bidding process where other non-profits can apply to be the
> "designated successor organization". The DSO would have to be written
> into the privacy policy as regards transfer of private data, and
> perhaps should also be given a certain amount of seed funding that it
> can only access in the event that WMF ceases to serve Wikimedia
> project content. Naturally, the DSO would have to make local backups
> of all data in regular intervals.
>
> This DSO status alone would hopefully ensure that there wouldn't be
> much of a fight among competing "next Wikipedias", but that users
> would instead flock to the new organization, even if that one could
> not be up to speed immediately to host all the content.
>
> As for the "turning evil" scenario, even here, such a DSO might be a
> good idea, as users who campaign for a fork would have a clear
> rallying point -- the only problem here is that it's hard for an
> external organization to objectively decide when the time has come to
> switch. I would not consider serving ads necessarily "evil", for
> example.
>
> I think this would be a good topic to get some lawyers to brainstorm
> about. :-)
> --
> Peace & Love,
> Erik
>
> DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of
> the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.
>
> "An old, rigid civilization is reluctantly dying. Something new, open,
> free and exciting is waking up." -- Ming the Mechanic
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>