[WikiEN-l] What is the fundamental goal of the project?

[Steve Block]

Omegatron wrote:
> In Jimbo's 2005 "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia" post, he described the
> purpose of the project:
> 
>     Wikipedia is first and foremost an effort to create and distribute a
>     free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single
>     person on the planet in their own language.
> 
> Does this still hold true?  There have been a lot of major changes in
> policy in the months since, which, we all hope, are supportive of our
> fundamental goals.  I think almost everyone who contributes to the
> project agrees completely with this mission and wants to maintain it.
> But if you think about it, the statement actually contains several
> goals:
> 
> * free
> * (create an) encyclopedia
> * of the highest possible quality
> * (distribute) to every single person on the planet
> * in their own language
> 
> In fact, these goals occasionally conflict.  For instance, machine
> translations are considered "worse than nothing" because of their poor
> quality, so it would seem that "of the highest possible quality" is
> more important than "in their own language".
> 
> If Jimbo's statement is still valid, which objectives override the
> others?  Can they be arranged (preferably by Jimbo) in order of
> priority?
> 
> Can this statement or the principles it represents ever be repealed or
> changed?  Who has the power to change it?  Is this simply a top-down
> authoritarian mandate that can't be challenged, or do regular
> Wikipedians have a say when changes are made to the ultimate goals and
> priorities of the project?

I think you missed out a vital phrase, the term "effort to create and 
distribute".  And I don't think the rest of the statement can be pulled 
apart.  I'd imagine it's like JFK's statement "First, I believe that 
this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this 
decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to 
the earth."  Did people ask if it was more important to come back safely 
than to get there, or that the end of the decade was the goal, or that 
dogs would suffice?  I think the goal is all of it.


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