[Wikipedia-l] Re: Proposal: commons.wikimedia.org

[Ray Saintonge]

Michael Snow wrote:

> If I may suggest another complication--I think using the name 
> "Wikipedia Commons", or a variation on it, such as a 
> commons.wikimedia.org URL, will give some people the impression that 
> material there is licensed under one of the Creative Commons licenses. 
> If this source repository is not going to restrict itself to any one 
> license, its name should not suggest that it does. 

My complaints have not been about Erik's basic "Wikmedia Commons" (not 
"Wikipedia Commons") but about its proposed merger with Wikisource.  I 
think that his fundamental idea is excellent.  Attention needs to be 
paid on techniques that will allow a sharing of information between 
projects and between languages.  I can see how the misinterpretation of 
"Commons" that you cite might arise , but the image that it evoked from 
me was quite different, and is based on a meaning of "Commons" that has 
been around for much longer:  the town square where everyone comes 
together to share what unites them.

> For that reason, I prefer the Wikisource name, and I agree with mav 
> that it seems like we could just expand our existing project instead 
> of starting a new one. I'm not terribly familiar with the activity on 
> Wikisource, but if Ec thinks the commons project would just compete 
> with it, he's in a good position to know. Why should we dissipate our 
> energy on setting up duelling projects?

"Compete" does not exactly describe my concern.  It's more a clash of 
visions.  I happen to think that allowing multiple visions is a great 
asset to our whole Wiki family.  I see Wikisource as more akin to an 
improved Project Gutenberg, and given the similarity in name formats, I 
would venture the guess that those who first proposed the Project 
Sourceberg name had something similar in mind.  Although I would not 
support such a move, a similar argument could be put forth to merge the 
Commons with Wiktionary -- after all the words which are its focus have 
a common utility to all the projects.

The Wikimedia Commons needs to develop its own identity.  In the 
unlikely event that other projects want to merge merge with it at a 
later time that should be allowed, but only after a consensus has been 
reached among the members of that project.  

Perhaps too, the Wikimedia Commons can begin the move toward unified logins.

Ec