I think that this is extremely important moment in the existence of Wikimedia and contemporary free content movement. The future of the concept of free knowledge could depend on how Wikimedia positions itself in relation to this issue and the future similar ones.
This is not about our personal political opinions, this is about very real consequences, which could define would we have united movement as we know or just fragments of once great idea. All the lamest Wikipedia edit wars could look like quite decent past. Imagine any of our past conflicts. And that could look like a childish game. This is also the question of how mature our particular and broader movements are. Are we really a global movement or we are just a sum of people with good will, strictly determined by our citizenship? During the last six to seven years we lost few opportunities to become significant stakeholder on the global stage (cf. contemporary significance of Facebook). We lost the momentum few times and now we are absolutely irrelevant as the movement. And if we don't want to lose the movement itself, we have to be extremely pragmatic from now on. One very good fact is that it is not anymore a heresy to talk about the movement instead of data. Yes, our movement is the most important thing to preserve. Capacity of hard disks and links improved that much, that preserving data is just a matter of decent organizational work. Our movement is not just the most important thing to us. In my opinion, our movement is the best chance of our species to build the future. There were no and there is no comparable movements. We have to take this moment extremely seriously and start to work together on solving numerous obstacles which we'll find in the future. Our worst-case scenario is to disappear in irrelevance. It will start with inactive chapters. Formal organization is the most expensive thing to us. Our events will become less diverse. Our declining editor community will become less diverse, as well. Eventually, one by one, Wikipedia in particular languages will become less important source of information than third party collaborative sums of knowledge. (Keep in mind that Chinese Wikipedia is not the biggest and the most useful encyclopedia in Chinese language.) If we want to keep us as a movement, we have to fight hard for that. It's not about one challenge, it's about constant challenges which we'll have. This issue is just the first one. Wikimedia Foundation's job is to do the best -- and I don't count conformist answers as valid ones, as the time of plenty is behind us -- to solve formal obstacles. If the servers have to go to Singapore, they should go there as soon as possible. Chapters have to cooperate. That's especially important in relation to the chapters in the present and future conflict zones. I am aware that such things are far from an issue presently. However, it could be much harder in the future. The rest of us have to take this moment seriously, as well, and do the best in our personal capacities. That means writing Wikipedia and contributing to other projects. That means introducing one friend per month into contributing to Wikimedia projects. That means having active friendships with people from the other parts of the world. On Nov 13, 2014 2:01 AM, "David Gerard" <dger...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm presuming this is sanctions against Russia kicking in; all sorts > of business has been stopped dead in its tracks, not just charity > donations. There's even serious moves to kick Russia out of the SWIFT > network: > http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-04/ultimate-sanction-barring-russian-banks-from-swift-money-system > It strikes me as quite unlikely that there's anything at all WMF can > actually do about this. Possibly it could have been handled better, > but that won't change the fact. > > On 13 November 2014 00:12, Craig Franklin <cfrank...@halonetwork.net> > wrote: > > I'm sure that you're correct here Joseph, but this is another example I > > think where the Foundation should have notified the relevant chapter > > *before* taking the action, so that they would be ready when the > questions > > started rolling in. > > > > Unfortunately, I think we're getting back to the bad old days of chapter > > and user group press contacts being the last people to find out about > > potentially controversial issues like this. > > > > Regards, > > Craig Franklin > > (personal view only) > > > > > > On 13 November 2014 10:07, Joseph Seddon <josephsed...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > >> I would hate to preclude any answer from the foundation. However the > laws > >> that govern the foundation are that of the US. Given the previous and > >> renewed ongoing palaver with Ukraine and the presence of economic > sanctions > >> and the increasing likelihood of on top of what is already present, I > >> imagine this related to that. > >> > >> Im not sure of what legal risks accepting such donations would expose > the > >> foundation to. However such precautions have been made in the past > relating > >> to unrest. > >> > >> Its no slight on the country or its individuals, just a precautionary > >> measure. > >> > >> Seddon > >> On 12 Nov 2014 19:48, "Federico Leva (Nemo)" <nemow...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> > >>> rubin.happy, 12/11/2014 18:48: > >>> > >>>> We received some alerts from our users that donations are now blocked > >>>> when user is from Russia: > >>>> > http://habrastorage.org/files/31b/b1f/ec9/31bb1fec9b9e45abb6ac4babcc2371 > >>>> 84.png > >>>> > >>> > >>> Thanks for the information. Everyone can see the same warning by > clicking > >>> the "Russia" link in https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give > >>> Through what channels are donations blocked? Did anyone try sending a > >>> wire to the EU (SEPA) account (IBAN GB54CHAS60924241034640), or a > PayPal > >>> donation? > >>> > >>> Nemo > >>> > >>> P.s.: ROTFLOL "Please email don...@wikimedia.org for more information > on > >>> how to make a bank transfer to the Wikimedia Foundation." In case > someone > >>> forgets there is an ocean between Europe and USA. > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Fundraiser mailing list > >>> fundrai...@lists.wikimedia.org > >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/fundraiser > >>> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Fundraiser mailing list > >> fundrai...@lists.wikimedia.org > >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/fundraiser > >> > >> > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
