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

[Matt R]

--- Omegatron <omegatron+wikienl at gmail.com> wrote:
> In the years I've been contributing to the project, I have always
> understood that our goal is to create a neutral, reliable encyclopedia
> "of the highest possible quality" that can be distributed as widely
> and freely as possible.  "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia".  

Yes, and we're "Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia".

> Copyleft, free content is a tremendously important means to that end, but it
> isn't the end itself.

On [[Wikipedia talk:Fair use]], you said that you'd like to change:

    "The primary goal on Wikipedia is to create a free content ("free" as in
"free speech") encyclopedia which can be used by downstream users."

To:

    "The primary goal on Wikipedia is to create a high-quality encyclopedia
which can be used by downstream users." 

Sorry to be blunt, but I think you're simply mistaken about this. To answer
your question from the subject, I think the the Foundation Mission Statement
covers it as close as anything will:

   "Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to the development and maintenance of
online free, open content encyclopedias, collections of quotations, textbooks
and other collections of documents, information, and other informational
databases in all the languages of the world that will be distributed free of
charge to the public under a free documentation license such as the Free
Documentation License written by the Free Software Foundation Inc. at
http://www.fsf.org or similar licensing scheme, see http://www.wikimedia.org."

We need to discuss fair use policy from the basis that freedom is an aspect of
our goal, and not just a useful means to an end. It seems fruitless to argue
about the details of any particular policy if we disagree on the purpose of the
project.

-- Matt

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matt_Crypto
Blog: http://cipher-text.blogspot.com


	
	
		
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