[Social-mediagoblin] DRAFT 3, more edits added

[Deborah Nicholson]

Hi all,
New working draft. Next time maybe we'll use a wiki :)
Cheers,
Deb

GNU MEDIAGOBLIN: FREE AND DECENTRALIZED MEDIA SHARING IN DEVELOPMENT

April 30th, 2011

GNU MediaGoblin is a new software project that will provide users with
freely licensed and distributed photo sharing. Lead developer Chris
Webber says, "We believe people should be able to own their online
data and that means someone has to build the tools to make it
possible. We decided that someone would be us." For the past two
months, Webber's been assembling a team of contributors to start
building GNU MediaGoblin.

GNU MediaGoblin is being built by free software activists. Chris
Webber and Will Kahn-Greene, both longtime Miro contributors, are
leading the Development Team. Matt Lee and Rob Myers from FooCorp, the
makers of GNU FM (the software that powers Libre.fm) and GNU social,
are providing infrastructure. Deb Nicholson, founder of the Women's
Caucus, is helping with community outreach. GNU MediaGoblin also has
the official support of the GNU Project. As of this announcement, GNU
MediaGoblin is actively welcoming new contributors,
http://mediagoblin.org/join/

Distributed web services enable the user to retain control of their
data without giving up the benefits of the web. "Centralization and
proprietization of media creates a fragile internet with no
accountability. Free alternatives to proprietary services must be
developed to give users control over their data." (AS A QUOTE) ""We're
thrilled to see more web services following the Franklin Street
Statement's recommendations. Freedom savvy users of Status.net and
Libre.fm will finally have a way to share photos that they can feel
good about." (AS A QUOTE) GNU MediaGoblin will be licensed under the
GNU Affero General Public License and federated using OStatus, making
it compatible with other free network services such as GNU social,
StatusNet and GNU FM.

An alpha release of the distributable photo-sharing system is planned
for this fall. Later versions of GNU MediaGoblin will include support
for video and other media as well as tools to encourage user
collaboration on media projects.

Please contact (who??) with questions about how to get involved in
building GNU MediaGoblin or how to donate. (donate link?)