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'''Wikimedia Foundation''' is a private tax-exempt corporation | '''Wikimedia Foundation''' is a private tax-exempt corporation (IRS 501) in the state of Florida, USA. | ||
Generally, its critics point to Wikimedia as a classic [[insider culture]], and '''''not a good model''''' for [[Consumerium Governance Organization]] or any other nonprofit entity that is actually trying to serve users and disadvantaged people and other living things. | Generally, its critics point to Wikimedia as a classic [[insider culture]], and '''''not a good model''''' for [[Consumerium Governance Organization]] or any other nonprofit entity that is actually trying to serve users and disadvantaged people and other living things. This article explains why, and why [[precedent]] and rules decisions from '''Wikimedia''' can't and shouldn't apply to [[Consumerium:Itself]]. | ||
This article explains why, and why [[precedent]] and rules decisions from '''Wikimedia''' can't and shouldn't apply to [[Consumerium:Itself]]. | |||
==board status== | ==board status== | ||
It was founded by | It was founded by James Wales. It has no [[independent board]]: three of the five members have association with [[Bomis]] in the form of being employed by the corporation, ex-employee or owner. Wikimedia supporters claim that Bomis does not control the board. However, arbitrary assertions and requests from Wales have been cited as an excuse for some frequent contributors, e.g. [[English Wikipedia User Secretlondon]] to depart the project, and challenging Wales' [[GodKing]] status is often cited as a major reason for peopel to depart the project. | ||
==funding== | ==funding== | ||
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Bomis.com donates all the bandwidth needed for Wikipedia and its sister projects. | Bomis.com donates all the bandwidth needed for Wikipedia and its sister projects. | ||
==Claims of funding used to support MediaWiki software development== | ==Claims of funding used to support MediaWiki software development== | ||
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==Assets== | ==Assets== | ||
Supporters of the Wikimedia foundation claim that most longstanding participants in the [[Wikipedia]] project have greeted the formation of the nonprofit with great enthusiasm | Supporters of the Wikimedia foundation claim that most longstanding participants in the [[Wikipedia]] project, i.e. those that have knuckled under to the [[sysop power structure]] already, have greeted the formation of the nonprofit with great enthusiasm. | ||
Plans are in the work to set up nonprofit organizations in European countries to complement a global foundation. Wales has given all rights and ownership in the Wikipedia name(s) to these foundations. | |||
==Wikimedia's bias== | ==Wikimedia's bias== | ||
The much vaunted [[wiki ideology]] of "[[neutral point of view]]" is also very strongly criticized: "Though other editors ostensibly correct misinformation, there is no procedure to assure correction and when corrections are made, it can happen hours, days or weeks after the misinformation has been served and forked to readers and to other web services. | |||
During election or war-time propaganda campaigns, a few hours of misinformation can be useful, but this possibility of disinformation cannot be avoided in [[wiki]]s. | During election or war-time propaganda campaigns, a few hours of misinformation can be useful, but this possibility of disinformation cannot be avoided in [[wiki]]s. | ||
Jimmy Wales | Jimmy Wales tries to stay out of dipute resolution and remain neutral as much as possible as to not influence editorial decisions, but it is apparent that he does influence others who are burdened with the task of dispute resolution and [[block IP]]s for [[vandalism]], the most [[sysop vigilantiism|heavily abused power]]. When Wales chats with other users they get a picture of how Jimbo tends to see things and in awe to this person who [[initiator|initiated]] [[Wikipedia]] development among other people they may wish to skew issues towards the way Jimbo sees them. [[Group dynamics]] suggest that this cannot be avoided but staying concious about this kind of phenomenom helps to minimize the damage it does, the [[systemic bias]] it creates, [[groupthink]] reinforced. | ||
and remain | |||
but it is apparent that he does | |||
[[block IP]]s for | |||
the most | |||
When Wales | |||
tends to see things and | |||
issues towards the way | |||
[[Group dynamics]] suggest that this cannot be avoided but staying concious about this kind of | |||
==Wikimedia's response == | ==Wikimedia's response == | ||
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==Wiki management and policy criticism== | ==Wiki management and policy criticism== | ||
Many participants in the [[Wikipedia]] and other [[GFDL corpus]] projects have raised concerns with the people and processes employed by the "foundation". They claim that it has structural problems and that is unlikely to ever outgrow these. Most of the criticisms have to do with [[wiki management]] problems: | |||
* | *Treating use of ISO language codes in [[mediawiki]] as if they are invocations of Wikipedia in that language, not simply references to "that page in that language". For example [[Wikipedia:fr:Commerce �quitable]] or [[w:fr:Commerce �quitable]] map incorrectly to the [[interwiki link standard]] name which is [[fr:Wikipedia:Commerce �quitable]]: | ||
::It is not up to the service to decide what languages to serve in, nor is it up to the service to decide how to carve up space within that language - that's up to the language itself. Not only that, but the name of the service is itself expressed in a language; in this case Hawaiian and Greek. | |||
::It is not up to the service to decide what languages to serve in, nor is it up to the service to decide how to carve up space within that language - that's up to the language itself. Not only that, but the name of the service is itself expressed in a language | |||
*Promoting its own [[community point of view]] as if it were actually a [[neutral point of view]]. Under this policy, sysops are guilty of ignoring [[systemic bias]] questions, and letting [[sysop vigilantiism]] and [[sysop vandalism]] occur freely against outsiders, to the bizarre extremes of assuming that the Wikipedia mailing list consensus on legal issues overrules the best legal advice of actual qualified legal experts, or citing [[echo chamber]] assertions in [[Wikipedia]] articles as if they were true. | *Promoting its own [[community point of view]] as if it were actually a [[neutral point of view]]. Under this policy, sysops are guilty of ignoring [[systemic bias]] questions, and letting [[sysop vigilantiism]] and [[sysop vandalism]] occur freely against outsiders, to the bizarre extremes of assuming that the Wikipedia mailing list consensus on legal issues overrules the best legal advice of actual qualified legal experts, or citing [[echo chamber]] assertions in [[Wikipedia]] articles as if they were true. | ||
*Allegedly planning (certainly discussing open whether) to modify its contributor agreement to make Wikimedia the contributor's copyright infringement agent. This would pose some potential threat to the open content status of Wikimedia projects, by letting Wikimedia use a legal bludgeon to shut down even legitimate mirrors on the basis of even minor inconsistency with the GFDL in places where Wikimedia itself may be arguably inconsistent. At the moment it requires some degree of consensus before that could happen, since a fair number of contributors would have to sign up for any legal action. Eliminating that hurdle would significantly increase the potential for locking up the content. See [[w:Wikipedia:Submission Standards]] | |||
*Allegedly planning (certainly discussing open whether) to modify its contributor agreement to make Wikimedia the contributor's | |||
*[[Libel chill]] employed as a tactic to silence critics, including those who have raised simple legal issues re the [[GFDL]] status, which any contributor or citizen has a right to do. |