[Foundation-l] [Commons-l] Wikipedia Invites Users to Take Part in Open, Collaborative Video Experiment

[Ben McIlwain]

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Erik Moeller wrote:

> I'm not going to argue with you about the technical merits of either
> approach. There's no point in doing so: I am happy to let the open
> source ecosystem compete for the most viable solution.

Care to clarify that?  If you mean compete *within* the open source
ecosystem, then yeah, that's what we're already doing.  If you mean
having open source compete against proprietary technology, then you've
missed the point of the Wikimedia Foundation entirely.  We do not use
Flash because it is not free, in all senses of the word.  It is not
gratis, because there is a large tax in the form of the program for
making Flash that has to be bought, and it is not libre.  How is Flash
at all acceptable?

Keep in mind, in every other area, we've always favored truly free
formats over proprietary: SVG, Ogg, etc.  Why stop now?  Why are we
supporting Kaltura, which isn't really free beyond a trivial open
sourced MediaWiki plugin?
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