On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 09:00:57AM -0700, Alec Conroy wrote: > > One *big* problem we have now is: Wikipedia has won. Wikipedia is the > > encyclopedia anyone actually consults, ever. Wikipedia now defines > > what an "encyclopedia" is in popular conception. > > > > So we don't have any tail-lights to chase. What sets our direction? > > Well, this is now completely and utterly off topic, but since I'm here... > I _think_ maybe I've known the answer for several years now, but I > still don't really know how to communicate it. But since you > asked--- > > The most exciting thing I've heard of is kinda hard to explain in > English-- at least it's hard for me to explain it. It can be > described in geekspeak by saying "How would Wikimedia be different if > it had been made after Git?" Go ask the Free Software people that > question and watch their faces light up with possibilities. To > other people you can say "What if Wikimedia projects were less like a > website and more like the internet itself?" and they'll get very > interested, even if they don't know precisely what you mean. > > Our "business model" is to take the lessons of Free Software and apply > them to the challenges traditionally faced by librarians and > educators. > > Since 2002, literally some of the best minds on the planet have been > working on the question of how large groups of strangers can work > together to create documents when they don't all want the exact same > finished product. The lessons they've learned, and the tools they've > created, are truly mindblowing. > > Imagine if virtually every editor's computer had copies of whole > chunks of Wikimedia projects, starting first and foremost with your > own contributions to the projects. > <snip cool stuff> > Such a wiki is inevitable, I just hope we can be the ones to develop it.
Would Ward Cunningham be ok? See http://wardcunningham.github.com/ He's working on the "Smallest Federated Wiki". :-D sincerely, Kim Bruning -- [Non-pgp mail clients may show pgp-signature as attachment] gpg (www.gnupg.org) Fingerprint for key FEF9DD72 5ED6 E215 73EE AD84 E03A 01C5 94AC 7B0E FEF9 DD72 _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l