hi, My only contribution to this shall be this. I am irritated at a PoV being pushed on the list sometimes that FOSS is the best way of doing things. People who edit Wikipedia comes from various backgrounds and FOSS advocates on this list have pushed me towards Microsoft products and I've found that some of their products are better than FOSS alternatives. Eg. MS Office.
The outburst above is irrational. MediaWiki is FOSS. Perhaps, some technological under-pinnings (server, bots etc) are FOSS. What makes Wikipedia, and the important content is contribution by the people. They come from various backgrounds and belief systems. Not everyone supports FOSS and I am comfortable with this. We only share a need to share our knowledge and while open stuff enables it, we're not tied down by it. I do not see the need to bring time and again, the contributions of FOSS to Wikipedia on several threads. We acknowledge their contribution, that is all they ask for when they provide the user with the software. When we took their software, we did not know that we had to follow their methodologies to implement Wikipedia as well. Pradeep User:Prad2609 Handheld On 04/01/2012, wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com <wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > I was not attacking anyone, with reference to the link forwarded, pointing > to this statement: > > I think that almost any argument, on any topic, which has premises > beginning with "Jimbo said..." is a pretty weak argument. Surely the > merits of the proposal should be primary, not what I happen to think. > > - Jimmy Wales > > > Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 14:32:32 +0530 > From: gau...@prathambooks.org > To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FOSS and Wikipedia > > Please attack the argument on merit. Not the person articulating them. > Thank you. > Best, > Gautam > > (handheld) > On Jan 4, 2012 2:16 PM, <wheredevelsd...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > Refer: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Argumentum_ad_Jimbonem > > From: anivar.arav...@gmail.com > > Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 14:06:47 +0530 > To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] FOSS and Wikipedia > > > > > On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 1:57 PM, Gautam John <gau...@prathambooks.org> wrote: > > > > On 4 January 2012 13:38, Srikanth Ramakrishnan <rsrikant...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > >> list and off the list. Wikipedia so't wholely reliant on FOSS, and > >> will never be. I don't mean to offend anyone but this is it. Please > >> comment. > > > > Wikipedia relies on three kinds of openness. > > > > 1. The technical openness that makes the platform possible. Mediawiki is > FOSS. > > 2. The openness of content that makes participatory content creation > > possible. CC-BY-SA is one of the two definitive 'open' licenses. > > 3. The collaboration that is core to Wikipedia is an attribute of most > > FOSS projects. > > > > Wikipedia isn't FOSS but it certainly is FOS, at the very least. And > > it's important to remember that Wikipedia does not and cannot exist in > > a vacuum. > > > > So for the love of Wikipedia, can you guys please stop sniping about > > what is and what is not FOSS. > > > Pointing an old relevant article by Jimmy > > http://jimmywales.com/2004/10/21/free-knowledge-requires-free-software-and-free-file-formats/ > > > > > > -- > "[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and 'nonnumerical' > algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from other kinds of precise > information." - Donald Knuth > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > -- Pradeep Mohandas How Pradeep uses email - http://goo.gl/6v1I9 _______________________________________________ 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