[Foundation-l] Personal image filter: leave it to third parties

[Theo10011]

On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 5:28 AM, Phil Nash <phnash at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> MZMcBride wrote:
> > If someone wants to make Conservative Wikipedia or Kid-Friendly
> > Wikipedia or Tiananmen Square-Free Wikipedia, they're free to. They
> > can even sell it. Contributors made that deal long ago with the open
> > license of the sites.
> >
> > Wikimedia's goal is to provide free educational content to the world.
> > The world is then free to make its own filters ("personal bubbles")
> > or even impose them on others (in the workplace, at school, at public
> > libraries), but not with Wikimedia's help or harm. Wikimedia should
> > remain neutral in the matter. The content is available and it is
> > possible to fork and/or filter with technology today. (And, in fact,
> > some places undoubtedly already filter particular Wikipedia titles,
> > ineffective as some of these approaches surely are.) Leave the issue
> > to third parties / a free market. If there's really demand for
> > School-Friendly Wikipedia, someone will make it. But it's not
> > Wikimedia's place to say who should and shouldn't have access to the
> > sum of all human knowledge and what particular pieces of it
> > constitute (graphic violence, pornography, etc.).
> >
> > MZMcBride
>
> Don't [http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Simple] and
> [http://schools-wikipedia.org/ Schools Wikipedia] fulfil that goal?
> Perhaps
> I've missed the point you are making, but also, perhaps, WMF should make it
> clear that alternatives exist, and this is not a case of censorship, rather
> than targetting an approriate readership.


They are different, simple wiki is a different content project and
schools-wikipedia is a sanitized, hand-picked, individually collected
version from past dumps for schools, as in a not up-to-date version
(2008/9). MZ is referring to bubbles- certain governments, corporations,
schools etc. can make to protect their own standards and effectively live in
bubbles themselves, without any involvement from Wikimedia.

I absolutely agree that Wikimedia should remain neutral in this matter. The
sum of all human knowledge can not and should not, be sanitized or censored
for anyone. If there is a clear need for it, someone will fill it until then
it is our responsibility to remain completely open, unbiased and neutral.

Theo