[Foundation-l] Back to basics

[daniwo59 at aol.com]

With all the commotion, with the departures over the sitenotice, with the  
infighting on various projects (and between various projects), with the bitter  
debates over image policy, I thought it may be a good idea to go back to the  
very root of all the Wikimedia projects. It is a simple statement, but what  
it says--and doesn't say--summarized the very essence of what we are  doing.
 
"Imagine a world in which every single human being can  freely share in the 
sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment."
 
Perhaps this should be the yardstick with which we make our decisions.  It is 
inclusive ("every single human being") and devoted to free content ("can  
freely share"), and it defines the parameters of our content ("the sum of all  
human knowledge."). It recognizes that this project is still in the works: we  
have not finished what we set out to do ("Imagine a world ...") 
 
That's our commitment.
 
As for what it doesn't say:
It does not say, "Imagine an advertising-free world."
It does not say "where every single person who speaks a English or a  
European language ..."
It does not say "share freely unless the unfree content is better."
It does not say "free knowledge and links to where to find out  more/buy it."
It does not say "That's what we did."
 
Let's try and refocus the discussions on what our goals are and how we can  
best achieve them. Let's use this as our yardstick. 
 
Danny