On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 11:38 AM, CherianTinu Abraham <tinucher...@gmail.com> wrote: > > The Indian Express : "Would Gandhi have been a Wikipedian?" > ( Article by Achal Prabhala) > > http://www.indianexpress.com/news/would-gandhi-have-been-a-wikipedian/900506/1 > > http://www.indianexpress.com/news/would-gandhi-have-been-a-wikipedian/900506/0 > ( Single Page Version) > > In 1941, a young Argentinian librarian who would soon go completely blind > published a story about the futility of the “total” library. His inspiration > was Kurd Lasswitz, a 19th century German philosopher and science-fiction > pioneer, whose own idea of a “universal” library was a mathematical > nightmare of frighteningly large but finite proportions. The writer was > Jorge Luis Borges, and his story, The Library of Babel, (taking off from the > mythical Tower of Babel, a place of linguistic dysfunction) spawned a minor > publishing industry of its own. Borges’ library was not a happy place: its > chronically overworked librarians were suicidal, thuggish cults periodically > vandalised the books, people spent lifetimes searching for a catalogue > without success, and — wondrous as it all was — no one expected to find > anything useful there ever. > > Eighty years after it was written, Borges’ feverish fantasy is a cautionary > tale for those who are tempted to take Internet-era fantasies at their word. > When a Google executive was asked to describe the perfect search engine, he > is reported to have said, “It would be like the mind of God.” Preposterous, > yes; but also exciting. And anyone excited enough to adopt this as a mission > statement would do well to have a cold shower, and heed Borges’ conclusion > on the topic — “The library is unlimited and cyclical”. > > Happily, there are more human, and altogether more humble manifestations of > the desire to learn and share and prosper. In ancient history, the > pre-biblical city of Babylon was a working counterpoint to the biblical > Tower of Babel; a bustling site where diverse crowds made good together. In > the present day, we are no closer to knowing everything, but we have > Wikipedia: a bustling website where diverse people from everywhere in the > world create miracles. Wikipedia’s humility is the flip-side to its success, > and it comes from wanting to be precisely the opposite of the total library: > call it a perpetually partial library, if you will. No one who has spent > even a minute contributing anything to it would dare assume that the job is > done, the perspective complete, or the game won. > > Eleven years ago to this day, Jimmy Wales typed out “Hello world!” and > Wikipedia was born. In 1989, Richard Stallman pioneered a form of copyright > licensing for software that allowed programmers and users to do virtually > anything they liked with it. This formed the basis for free and open source > software, or FOSS. In 1995, Ward Cunningham used FOSS to build the > underlying software for a novel form of collaboration — the “wiki”. By this > time, the benefits of a generous copyright licence to software were > apparent, and it was extended to mainstream culture — to words, sounds and > images. Wikipedia was among the early exponents of this free culture > experiment, quickly followed by sister projects of the Wikimedia Foundation: > Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks and more. > > Wikipedia’s collaborative system of knowledge has exceeded everyone’s > wildest expectations. Today, it is the world’s fifth most visited website — > and the sole non-profit upstart in the oligarchical fiefdom that is our > online landscape. There are thriving communities of volunteers in countries > like India and South Africa, among several other places, who are helping us > discover that learning does not have to be a passive act, and that the value > of generosity can be productive and revolutionary at once. > > Interestingly enough, it was about a hundred years ago that a young, > idealistic lawyer set off on a similar journey. Affected by colonialism in > his home, India, and faced with debilitating segregation laws in his adopted > home, South Africa, he saw the productive and revolutionary potential in > generous knowledge. Over a long sea journey from London to Cape Town, he > wrote down his ideas on self-determination and independence. The young > lawyer was, of course, Gandhi, and his book, Hind Swaraj, would go on to > become the intellectual blueprint for the Indian freedom movement. The > original was written in Gujarati in 1909. One year later, it was translated > into English and published as Indian Home Rule. On the cover of the first > edition of this English translation is a prominent, if unusual, copyright > legend. It reads, “No Rights Reserved”. >
This is news to me. here is the link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Gandhi-Home-Rule-First-Edition-1909.jpg a page I will show to every one! -- GN _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
