Re: [Bug-gnupedia] Censorship vs. Discretion (GNUpedia & Nupedia)

[Jimmy Wales]

>> This is twice this has been raised - their site offers
>> no source code for the web site, or how their indexing
>> works. Gnupedia should be "open" in every possible
>> sense, IMO.

Seth Nickell: 
> This could definitely be problematic. It would be important that not
> only could anyone access the information, but anyone could mirror the
> information, change it, redistribute it, etc without needing access to
> proprietary systems for information archival, storage and delivery.

Absolutely.  All of our code is released under the GPL.  I am making
sure later today that the code is more easy to find on the site.

One of the most powerful incentives toward objectivity is the threat
of a fork.  If there is a credible threat of a fork, the Nupedia
maintainers must strive to do the right thing.  This will, in turn,
give greater overall credibility to the project.

<soapbox>
Sometimes, you'll read articles by clueless Microsoft-friendly journalists
who say "Who needs source code?  What's the average person going to do with
source code?"  That approach misses the whole point.  Freedom (free speech,
not free beer) is important even to those who do _not_ actually plan to fork,
because the _potential_ for a fork is sufficient in most cases to keep things
on the right track.
</soapbox>

I'll email this list later today with information about how to download
the source.  (I just have to check with Toan to see where he puts it.)

--Jimbo

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