[Foundation-l] New wiki creation moratorium

[Birgitte SB]

--- Simetrical <Simetrical+wikilist at gmail.com> wrote:
\ 
> I'm not on any committees and have no special
> standing or knowledge
> and have not signed any nondisclosure agreements, so
> the above may be
> nonsense.  But if the issue is something along those
> lines, it would
> make a considerable amount of sense as a reason not
> to start any new
> wikis for a few months if necessary, if there was
> reluctance from the
> other participants to move up the date too much. 
> It's not really a
> big price to pay.

But they are already started.  The material exists and
is already licensed and is continually built upon even
now.   Not having the official url doesn't really mean
anything in regards to the licensing of the existing
material or the ability to create new material under
the current license being phased out.  The url is only
important as a milestone to the communities involved
and creating greater exposure for the project.  But it
doesn't mean the the project doesn't already exist
under the current version of GFDL or that new material
can not be licensed under that version in these
languages.  If that was the intention of the
moratorium, the reality of the situation fails to
achieve that.  Of course, just because it fails
doesn't mean WMF wasn't required to do this.  Maybe no
one thought it through very well.  Or it could also
have been a concession offered by WMF to show
commiment to the processs that the other parties did
not realize was so undermined by the existance of
Incubator.  (i.e. "Look we are so commited to this
process we pledge in writing not create any new wikis
with the current version")  Such an agreement may have
gained some corresponding concession for WMF that was
quite valuable.

Anyway I think is it clear that a public clarification
is not going to be forthcoming.  I think the best
approach here is imagine WMF gained something
wonderful by this agreement and focus any discussion
with frustrated parties on the fact that they can
still create content in Incubator.  Emphasize that
this delay in granting the formality of the url is not
a reflection on their work nor does prevent them from
doing anything substantial with their project.  

The main, really helpful thing WMF could do would be
to give deadline on this. (i.e. The moratorium will
not last longer than X months reagardless of the
status of negotiations.) Even if it is a really long
date, like 12 months.  People have much more
confidence in these things when they are not
open-ended.

Birgitte SB


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ