This article reminded me of one of the images on FayssalF's userpage on the English Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FayssalF http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:FayssalF&oldid=429702014 Look at the image on the left and read the caption too. anirudh 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”. > > Now it can be told: Gandhi was a free knowledge activist. Consider what he > was encouraging his readers to do. In short order, a person reading Indian > Home Rule in 1910 would have been able to copy the book freely, distribute > those copies widely, translate the book into other languages, and join the > conversation as a participant and not merely as an observer. I know of > Gandhi’s radical copyright intentions because I’ve seen an image of the > cover of this rare first edition, even though it is mostly unavailable in > museums and archives. Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie and Isabel Hofmeyr, two South > African scholars, photographed the book and generously shared it with the > world. And how did they do that? By putting it on Wikimedia Commons, where > anyone can use it, in any form, for all time — exactly as Gandhi intended. > Indeed, the universe is cyclical. Gandhi would have been a Wikipedian. > > Prabhala is a Bangalore-based researcher and writer, and serves on the > advisory board of the Wikimedia Foundation * > > Regards > Tinu Cherian > pr...@wikimedia.in > http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news > > Important Note : The publisher ( The Indian Express ) of the above news > article owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to kindly not > reproduce or circulate the content further. The information is only shared > only with an internal community who have been featured on this article. > All copyrights are duly acknowledged. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Wikimedia > Chapter, India Member's Group. > To post to this group, send email to wmin-memb...@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > wmin-members+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/wmin-members?hl=en?hl=en >
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