[Foundation-l] [Commons-l] Wikipedia Invites Users to Take Part in Open, Collaborative Video Experiment

[Chad]

On Jan 19, 2008 4:13 PM, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> working with a company that wants to embrace open source & open
> standards as best they can.

"As best they can" still isn't free. Flash isn't free, so as long as Kaltura
is flash-based, it will never /truly/ be free.

Chad

On Jan 19, 2008 4:13 PM, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> On 1/19/08, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> > My understanding is that Michael Dale was told that Wikimedia would be
> > using Kaltura and that it might consider metavid some day 'in the
> > future'.
>
> We've made no firm commitment to using Kaltura anywhere. This is the
> problem with speculation about leaked presentations: They lack context
> & positioning. When we've talked about our technology roadmap to
> potential donors or partners, we've always made it clear that it's
> highly tentative & dependent on lots of factors. The Kaltura
> screenshots are pretty, that's why they are in there.
>
> > Many months ago I asked if I could travel to Australia (on my own
> > dime, none the less) to attend FOMS for Wikimedia.
>
> Whom did you ask?
>
> > Correct. Yet WMF is putting our press releases and calling for
> > community help with one and not the other.
>
> I'd be happy to have an open-ended discussion with Michael about ways
> we can drive open source interest in the project.
>
> > Being all things to all people is worthless if you are nothing to
> > yourself. The world does not need another ocean, but it does need a
> > collection of uncompromisingly free knowledge.
>
> Wikimedia should always be accessible (including full participation)
> to people using only free software. That makes sense -- because
> otherwise, projects like OLPC would run into problems when they want
> to access our content. One of the ongoing discussions we've had is
> whether it's OK or not to make things easy & friendly for people using
> proprietary systems (i.e. the vast majority of web users). My position
> has been consistently that we should at the very least get a good
> evaluation of the cost of choosing not to support proprietary systems.
>
> WMF is not the Free Software Foundation; our core mission isn't to
> promote free video & audio formats. The reason, in my view, that we're
> supporting them is to broaden access and participation, and to ensure
> long term sustainability. These are highly practical reasons that sync
> up with our mission statement. So does, in my opinion, making it easy
> for users of proprietary systems to access our content and to
> participate in its development. (I found it interesting, in this
> context, that Sue implemented Ogg Vorbis on the CBC website, for
> exactly the same reason: to give more people access to CBC content.)
>
> In the last few discussions we've had about this issue, you've
> consistently taken the side of what I deem isolationism: against
> Creative Commons, against parallel distribution, and now against
> working with a company that wants to embrace open source & open
> standards as best they can. I don't think that's the majority view in
> our community, and I don't consider it the strategic stance that the
> Foundation should take. (Obviously, some of these parameters are
> ultimately for the Board to figure out and we'll live with whatever it
> decides.)
>
> There's always going to be some tension between the extremes: Recall
> the recent discussion on this list about us not making sufficient use
> of fair use exemptions. I expect that the Foundation will get flak
> from both camps regularly, both of them making apocalyptic predictions
> of our future. It's like Wikipedia itself -- as long as it's seen as
> both a vast right wing conspiracy and a bunch of liberal treehuggers,
> we're probably doing okay. :-)
> --
> Erik Möller
> Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
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