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

[Gregory Maxwell]

On Jan 19, 2008 3:29 PM, Brion Vibber <brion at wikimedia.org> wrote:
[snip]
> We won't even consider touching the software itself with a hundred-foot
> pole until they can support the free environment and formats we require.
> That's a condition they're well aware of.

I hear you Brion.  But not everyone is saying the same thing here.

If it were all really that simple the press release could have said
something like  "We think this sounds interesting, and we'll give it a
poke once they figure out how to make it open".

But instead we've got some foundation staff counter concerns by
arguing that a strong commitment to free formats is a form of
religious fundamentalism.  And this isn't new, and I don't bring it up
to single out Godwin, Erik used a similar approach in a prior argument
for flash ("dogmatic isolationism", saying I can't assume good faith).

The argument that the concerns do not matter does not jive with your
position that we will do nothing until the concerns are addressed.

I appreciate your words on this matter and I am not claiming that
Wikimedia is, as of yet, deploying anything objectionable. Rather, by
discussing our concerns about the apparent direction we're will
hopefully make it clear to everyone that we consider these issues
important.

[snip]
> Encouraging them to move their tool in the directions we favor is the
> ONLY thing we're doing.

And the counter is that their tool, while written in flash, can't get
to where we really would need it to be.  A better direction is good,
but there are many other possible partnerships
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FORscene for example) which Wikimedia
has walked away from taking which would be in a better position to
achieve a solid outcome.