[Foundation-l] Seeking clarification

[Jason Safoutin]

If I have to be the first to say it, I will. I know some of these links 
have been passed around here before, but for reference I will ad them, 
and then some.

It has become clear to me, at least a few things anyway. One bing that 
there is clearly a conflict of interest on Erik Moeller's part. He is 
currently on the advisory board for Wikieducator:

    * http://www.wikieducator.org/WikiEducator:Advisory_Board


"/WikiEducator's Interim International Advisory Board was assembled by 
project founder Wayne Mackintosh to serve as a means of involving the 
community until the project has grown large enough to elect a Board 
through democratic means. Once 2,500 users have joined the wiki, 
elections will be held to select a successor Board./", says the website.

Not only that, but Kultra has some involvement with Wikieducator, and if 
I am not mistaken Wikieducator is slated to be on WMF servers:

    * _ Kaltura Collaborative Video Editing Extension Enabled:_
      http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator/browse_thread/thread/345c056f8304e25c


The way I see it, Wikieducator is the same thing that Wikiversity is. 
Wikieducator is not to compete with Wikiversity, it is a means to IMO 
eventually replace it. Don't believe me?

Wikieducator:

    * *planning* of education projects linked with the development of
      free content <http://freedomdefined.org/Definition>;
    * *development* of free content on Wikieducator
      <http://www.wikieducator.org/Content> for e-learning;
    * work on building *open education resources* (OERs) on *how* to
      create OERs.
    * networking on *funding proposals
      <http://www.wikieducator.org/Metawikieducator>* developed as free
      content.

Wikiversity: /*Wikiversity* is a community for the creation of learning 
activities and development of free learning materials. Students and 
teachers 
<http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Wikiversity_teachers> are 
invited to join the project as collaborators in teaching, learning, and 
research. Wikiversity strives to be an open and vibrant community where 
you can explore and learn about your personal interests. Wikiversity 
hosts and develops free learning materials for all age groups. Please 
participate and help build collaborative learning projects and 
communities; at Wikiversity we learn by doing 
<http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Portal:Education/Wikiversity_model>, we 
learn by editing./

So...what is different about the two? Nothing...other than a few more 
bells and whistles.

We all heard about the wonderful amazing and quite eye catiching, The 
Encyclopedia Of Life - A collaborative encyclopedia to contain the 
entire earth's species....I thought that's what Wikispecies is? Not to 
mention that Erik is on their Institutional Council, which he also 
represents the Wikimedia Foundation. Again not another competition, but 
if you have been to their website, you will see what I mean about 
"replacement".

    * http://www.eol.org/home.html
    * http://blog.valuewiki.com/2007/05/09/encyclopedia-of-life/
    * http://www.eol.org/partners.html#p3

So let cut to the chase. What is going on in WMF? Why is the Executive 
Director involved with projects that are clearly designed to either 
replace or out do WMF projects? Why is the WMF involved at all? And why, 
is the Board of Trustees, the group the communities elected, not saying 
anything? Whats going on and who is making these decisions?

In all respects, we have to right to know at least some things. As it 
stands, Kaltura is directly endorsing the WMF on its front page:

http://www.kaltura.com/devwiki/index.php/Main_Page

"/As recently announced 
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Invites_Users_to_Take_Part_in_Open%2C_Collaborative_Video_Experiment>, 
the Wikimedia Foundation and Kaltura have begun a process aimed at 
bringing rich-media collaboration to Wikipedia and other wiki websites. 
The vision of this project is to enable the Wikipedia community to 
further enhance and enrich Wikipedia articles with rich-media content./"

They mention Wikipedia three times in just the first paragraph...

So who is in charge now????????????

Jason Safoutin