On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 8:53 PM, Nagarjuna G <nagar...@gnowledge.org> wrote: > 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!
Another page to show everyone ... https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Indian_Home_Rule ;-) -- John Vandenberg _______________________________________________ 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
