[Labs-l] Discussion needed: Technically feasible, legally okay... but want tools do we want?

[Silke Meyer]

Hi!

Jan, I see your point. Only it is *very* hard to change legal requirements,
especially in an international context like this one. What is legal in one
country is illegal in a different one. What is considered "no problem" in
parts of a diverse and international community is seen as highly
problematic in other parts of the same community.

The concerns and expectations are very different, depending on the social,
political, historical contexts people are from. I think it's the art of a
community to be able to listen to all the different points of view and
think about solutions. For those who criticize the "Deep User Inspection"
tool, it is a special feature of the toolserver that this conversation is
possible there.

That's why I would encourage us to reflect as a community if we want to go
further than legal requirements in Tool Labs, as a common political
decision that takes these concerns seriously. Let me cite some of the
concerns I read about Deep User Inspection:
"I registered to write an encyclopedia, and not to serve as an example for
what is technically feasible with my data."
"Tracking people like this keeps them from contributing."

Of course, the data would still be available even if we required a user
opt-in. But the political decision in this would be to say "not here".
(Same as we say "not here" to proprietary tools.)

In the end, I'm afraid it could really harm the prestige of Tool Labs as a
successor of the toolserver if the concerns remain unheard.

Lots of stuff in this world is legal but I would never do it because I can
decide to do better.
Silke




2013/9/29 Yuvi Panda <yuvipanda at gmail.com>

> +1 to what Jan said. Placing artificial restrictions on what can be done
> with data that is collected *and* made publicly available does not seem to
> make sense to me - nor will it actually be effective.
> --
> Yuvi Panda T
> http://yuvi.in/blog
>
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-- 
Silke Meyer
Internes IT-Management und Projektmanagement Toolserver

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Obentrautstr. 72 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 260

http://wikimedia.de

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