Well, all the sturm und drang on this one is on Facebook, in the Wikipedia Weekly group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediaweekly/posts/4534171036630692/ Other than that, there was a bit of drama on Jimmy Wales' talk page, where an admin removed the talk page section Jimmy had created about this as self-promotional, and Smiley on Wikipediocracy found bits of the long-lost, original Bomis test wiki in the Internet archive. And Joseph Reagle wrote a blog post: https://reagle.org/joseph/pelican/social/wikipedias-wiped-edit.html Andreas On Sun, Dec 5, 2021 at 10:26 PM Mike Peel <em...@mikepeel.net> wrote: > Hi all, > > tl;dr: huh, this is weird. > > I'm amazed at the muted reception to this. Even prodding David Gerard on > Facebook (who even wrote a book about the badness of Blockchain) didn't > go very far. > > The concept of NFT seems to go against the very principles of Wikipedia. > On one hand, we share our work freely, both in terms of access and by > using a copyleft license. On the other hand, this NFT takes something > that was shared freely, and then restricts it so that it can be sold. > > Copyright-wise, it actually looks OK: presumably the edit was released > under the GFDL (if that was even applied back then), and I think that > Jimmy owns all of the copyright here (maybe not some of the MediaWiki > interface?). So, while it's weird, it seems OK? > > On the other hand, I'd have loved to see an email thread here about > "Auction at Christie's" that would have seen Christie's releasing > text/media of the items they were selling under CC licenses, so that > they could be used on the Wikimedia projects. > > Or even better: we work with museums a lot, why not donate memorable > moments/equipment to them? Or perhaps we've already done that with > servers or later edits? > > Thanks, > Mike > > On 3/12/21 13:03:40, Jimmy Wales wrote: > > *Hi all, > > > > I am writing to let you know that I am doing an auction with Christie’s > > auction house, commencing today and closing on December 15th. > > > > We’re auctioning two things - the original Strawberry iMac that I used > > during the founding time period of Wikipedia, and an NFT artwork that I > > created to commemorate the earliest moment of Wikipedia. > > > > A bit of Q&A... > > > > **What is an NFT?** > > > > NFT stands for ‘non fungible token’, there is a fairly thorough article > > about it on English Wikipedia > > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token>. > > > > **What is this NFT exactly?** > > > > I saw earlier in the year that Tim Berners-Lee did an NFT of “the > > original source code of the web”. In his own words: “"I’m selling a > > picture that I made, with a Python program that I wrote myself, of what > > the source code would look like if it was stuck on the wall and signed > > by me.” > > > > I thought I should try to push forward from that and so instead of just > > doing a picture (screenshot) of what Wikipedia looked like when I first > > installed the Usemod software and typed “Hello, World!” I would prefer > > to do something interactive. > > > > The artistic concept is not just to see what Wikipedia looked like to me > > in that moment, but to relive the experience: here is this incredible > > vulnerable thing, a wiki, and you dream of it becoming an encyclopedia > > for the whole world, but will it? Will it be taken over by vandals and > > trolls instantly? What policies will you need? What kind of community > > can you attract? > > > > **Will any portion of the proceeds go to the WMF?** > > > > The Wikimedia Foundation board has explicitly asked that I not pledge > > any funds to Wikimedia. (They aren’t asking me not to donate, just not > > to pledge to do so up front.) I am pledging to donate to “help support > > a variety of charities working in the free culture world.” I’ll decide > > after we see how it goes in terms of what exactly I’ll do! (Advice > > welcome! I’d be interested in a community process to help choose.) > > > > I’ve worked with the WMF per the board’s instructions on getting > > approval on all the marketing materials to make sure that it’s clear > > that this is a personal project of mine and not a WMF thing at all. I > > believe the WMF will also post about that. > > > > **What about the environmental costs of creating an NFT?** > > > > Ethereum is moving from 'Proof of Work' to 'Proof of Stake', which > > requires a lot less energy per NFT - I’m happy to see that and hope it > > happens soon. > > > > In the meantime, I’ve looked for the highest estimate of the amount of > > electricity consumed to mint an NFT. I’ve found an estimate that the > > average NFT minting consumes 340kWh. For scale, my friend has a Tesla > > Model X, and 340kWh would charge it about 3 ½ times. This is roughly > > 81.6 kg of CO2. For further comparison an economy-class ticket to NYC > > from London generates about 1800 kilograms of CO2. (Citation needed, and > > very happy for anyone with expertise to help me improve these > calculations.) > > > > While I generally think it is better not to generate emissions than to > > generate and offset, I also think that generating withOUT offsetting is > > much worse. So I’ll be finding the most pessimistic estimate of the CO2 > > that I’ve generated and offset it by 5x. > > > > ** What is the estimate for the auction? ** > > > > Christie’s was unable to offer any public estimate for either the > > computer or the NFT. I can sincerely say that I have absolutely no idea > > what to expect. Given the current state of the NFT market, I’m very > > hopeful that some crypto whale will find this irresistible, who knows > > though? > > > > I’ll be around for the next 8 hours or so to answer any questions but to > > keep it all centralized, let’s keep it on my English wikipedia talk > > page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jimbo_Wales > > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jimbo_Wales> > > > > Article at Christie’s website here: > > > > > https://www.christies.com/features/First-Wikipedia-edit-to-be-sold-as-NFT-11983-1.aspx > > < > https://www.christies.com/features/First-Wikipedia-edit-to-be-sold-as-NFT-11983-1.aspx > > > > > > > > > > > > * > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/DGPRL2AC7AWQYHP4CTPDGVNVTBNVEGLA/ > > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/7ONDCEGLAUSP2UMRXUOXBMIJHWKEFV25/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
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