[Foundation-l] RfC: License update proposal

[Andrew Whitworth]

On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Sam Johnston <samj at samj.net> wrote:
> Please consider this, especially in light of recent research that shows that
>> most Wikipedia contributors contribute from egoistic reasons ;)
>
> Wikipedia is a community and those who contribute to it for egotistic rather
> than altruistic reasons (even if the two are often closely related) are
> deluding themselves given they were never promised anything, least of all
> grandeur. What value do they really think they will get from a 2pt credit
> with 5,000 other authors? If it is relevant to their field(s) of endeavour
> then they can draw attention to their contribution themselves (as I do) and
> if they don't like it then they ought to be off writing books or knols or
> contributing to something other than a community wiki.

I have "Author at English Wikibooks" listed very prominently on my
Resume, and often reference it in cover letters I send out. This is
especially true for job listings that require "good communication
skills". My work on Wikibooks, even if it showed nothing more then my
proficiency in the English language, helped me get my current job.
Part of my current responsibilities involve writing documentation, for
which I was considered to be very qualified because of my work on
Wikibooks.

So I would say that yes, our editors can derive very real benefits
from their work on Wiki. I will temper that by saying that it's up to
the authors to derive that benefit themselves. We don't send out
royalty checks so if authors want to be benefitted by their work here,
they need to make it happen and not rely on other people properly
applying attribution for them.

--Andrew Whitworth