Bobbie Johnson at Gigaom worries: Is France Plotting to Kill the Free Internet?, and “can’t help be concerned at what the summit might mean, given it’s essentially a closed shop of governments and corporations discussing how best to carve up the online world for us.”
I’m happy to say that I’ve been invited to participate in this meeting, and I’d like for it not to be just that. I’m therefore turning to you for help: what should I put onto the agenda? What are the important perspectives that are likely to be overlooked or ignored? What do you want to say about the Internet to the leaders of the G8 countries?
Jimmy Wales 
1) more open communication to the public (not the way ACTA was pushed through)
2) network neutrality (seeing the internet as a common infrastructure such as roads)
3) laws that are in the interest of the majority of the people and businesses, not just movie studios, record labels and proprietary software companies
I realize this might be the wrong forum, but I didnt know where to reach you and likeminded people. please create “wikimapping” and map the connections (hyperlinks) between all articles on wikipedia. We should be able to create a degrees of separtion (# of hyperlinks) between all ideas/articles. right now you link from search engine to point of interest then to related articles. you should be able to easily use/create a mapping software to so the shortest distance between two ideas, like driving directions on google maps, but for thought (thinking directions). this would encourage more people to create hyperlinks from one article to the next improving the value of your knowledge network and reducing the shortest distance between two thoughts (articles). I know you have a google mapping feature for geographic related articles, but why stop there? please map the human consiousness, thanks. Its nice to be able to click the wikipedia home button and start over again, but after an hour on wikipedia it would be nice to be able to track the path that I traveled from one idea to the next or even see an actually map so I can chose where I want to go. I like your site and contributed recently, not much but something. I signed up for twitter with the express intent of passing along this thought. I love the site and the fact u made it free. Institutionalized thought remains the greatest threat to mankind. sharing is caring. That being said, you didnt invest encyclopedia’s nor did you invent sharing. All ideas are simply recycled under new pretenses.
As we moving towards open platforms by harnesing the power of world wide web, How can G8 the so called developed economy think of regulating internet? Is it really to control terrorism or control Tunisia Egypt and likes
Hello Jimbo and all!
Good that at least you will be there. I would suggest that you bring with you the “Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge” and the “Sustainable Models for Creativity in the Digital Age”. Two policy-oriented charters defined at the frame of the Free culture forum (an international encounter of civic society actors on free culture, digital rights and access to knowledge) and endorsed by more than 300 international civic society organizations and actors. Both summarized the main claims by civic society. Available here: http://www.fcforum.net/
Good luck!!!!!!!! Mayo PD: Great if you could report back how it goes.
We need a open and together world!
I would like to see an Internet Bill of Rights that guarantees that NO country’s government has any control over the commonality of Internet. Any country that does not sign on is making an obvious and direct statement that they are choosing to do their best to refuse to acknowledge everyone’s right to free speech, freedom to acquire information, and freedom of journalism (for the Internet is nothing, if not a worldwide journal).
more lol-cats
Hi Jim, thanks a lot for your work!
For the G8 meeting agenda:
1. Network neutrality, no controls over the Internet.
2. Freedom for Julian Assange and Bradley Manning.
3. Hands off Wikileaks.
There can’t be no more negotiations without these three points. Good luck bro, one love.
Cleanweb is coming:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-wise/the-clean-economista-quie_b_848374.html
Dear Mr Wales,
I would like you to put forth the suggestion to have a wholesome and concerted effort on the part of the governments to take a much more serious and concerted effort at controlling and regulating the disposal of e-waste.
On the internet front ,it would be great if there could be a greater collaboration towards leveraging the power of the internet to have more openness in inter-national diplomatic communications, on less sensitive and developmental issues.
I think you should talk about the importance of science, reason, logic. You may think this is obvious and your colleagues think it’s obvious. Sadly it is not you should talk about the importance of acquiring knowledge, education and scientific reasoning. Isn’t it what Wikipedia is all about facts and facts?
Commitment to prefer (or at least support as an alternative) open standards. I hate it when government sites offer services/information in proprietary formats.
Dear Sir Wales,
I think the best thing to say in eG8 meeting could be a road map to Globe without Governors! A society that is based on collective wisdom decisions. It is something that can be compared with Wikipedia work in Education area. I will give more explanation if it interests you;)
It’s probably a waste of time (I’m very pessimistic), but I’d love to see the e-G8 tackle serious intellectual property reforms. The public domain is being killed by overly-long copyright terms…fair use and first sale are under siege…the blame for piracy isn’t being directed at the ridiculously-high prices that content owners and deliverers charge…and only international effort can change things, given the Berne Convention, etc.
something like free internet? no censorship? no borders? make IT infrastructure stronger? invest more in tech sciences?
Hi, i would like to request you to ask the following in the meeting
1) to cast a bill that can Ban on websites where sex with minor /children is shown
2)high check on social networking sites
3) Raise an issue on the torrent sites where many film industries are complaining that their films are being published in the net ( Piracy) on them
4)measures to take on controlling fradulent and phising websites
Thank you Mr Wales.
Systems have always been divided into software & hardware, the Internet into hosts & services. Who controls the host dictates the service.
At some point all free services will start charging – whether financially or culturally, which is ultimately financial in any case. At that point it will be up to every person or group of people to accept the terms or host their own service. Even patented software is essentially open by its role as a proof of concept. All of Google’s services can be reproduced in time – hence the company’s necessity for innovation. But as we’ve seen with Windows, it gets to a point where consumers see little value in innovating further, and they rebel against the ‘tribute’ they are required to pay. Hosting then is the only honest wage if you will.
So, lets continue to design open, distributed services that mitigate the conflict inherent in hegemonic citadels like Facebook. Ideally, we should all have the option to host our own services.
I think the greatest challenge for the Internet however is identity and trust. With event streams challenging our conventional conception of the Internet as a collection of pages, the paradigm of search engines will have to adapt, and these form the very basis of the user’s Internet experience. The entry point, the event horizon, is the identity. With search engines this is merely an impersonal IP address. Email is to an extent impersonal. Facebook is always personal. With privacy becoming more of a concern, and an increasing proportion of information disappearing into private networks, will access to services eventually require personal identification? Certainly it is in the curators’ interests to track users.
What perspective is likely to be ignored? – that the Internet is an infernal machine. It is controlled by no-one and its progression is inevitable. This has been the fulfilment of our wishes – to replace an irrational God with a rational theory – overlord to 7 billion irrational minds. The utilitarians took the crisis of existentialism and implemented it. We live with the result.
But the irrational God was at least open to appeal. We are all human and we make mistakes. Now who is no father to confess to who can wipe our discretions from cached pages? Who will forgive us, who can forgive us? It is a very hard age we are entering.
Hmmm… Perhaps there is no other way to say that there is a limit to our will, but not to our vision. Vision of course doesn’t come from leaderless G8 management summits, but I’ve heard there are wise men who cluster around summits. Your call for comments is precisely the deference we need to take to our most respected elders, however unfashionable it may seem. Wisdom traditions are still with us, watching quietly. They linger in relative obscurity, for the age of systems obliges it.
Fighting for a free and open web, against laws that try to restrict the access to information, – all this is important. But besides fending of the powers that try to restrict and limit the ability of the net and the people who use it, someone should also focus on the great innovations the internet and the digital age in general have fostered: Wikipedia is a great example for great people coming together and producing a great thing that helps everyone. *That* achievement of the digital age – collaboration, volunteering on a global scale, altruistic sharing of ones knowledge with the world, that is something that is only possible with the internet. If you are able to give the G8 leaders a little glimps on this great thing the internet is, I think you would have achieved a lot :-)
P.S.: Wikipedia for World Heritage Site!
I so often hear well-intended comments like those at fcforum.net (above) about a right to free and unlimited network access. This is absurd and will be ignored. Network infrastructure is costly and finite. The perspective must be on regulation of just and equitable access. The net has close analogies in public power and snail mail “utilities” and should be regulated, metered, and priced in similar ways, for the benefit of all.
Sarkozy invit you and other mediatic people to fix his own public image. Don’t be a toy in his hands. Please be well informed about French Internet situation, and about the HADOPI.
Its time copyright was brought up to date for the electronic age. Urge all countries to return to the US constitution’s original copyright and patent terms of 14 years + a further 14 years on application. Make it a civil not a criminal offence.
[[:en:Gross_domestic_product|Gross national product]] (GNP) vs [[en:Gross_national_happiness|Gross national happiness]] (GNH) vs [[en:Gross_national_knowledge|Gross national knowledge]] (GNK).
[[en:Gross (economics)|Gross]] vs [[en:Net (economics)|Net]].
More specifically that means
Freedom: internet neutrality, reducing patents and copyrights and increasing government grants for artists and scientists
Transparency: the virtual end of government censorship and secrecy. in extreme cases, certain things can be kept hidden, but this needs to be submitted to an democratic board against censorship and secrecy independent of all other institutions. also, if it is to be kept hidden, that fact that it is hidden cannot be hidden
Democracy: direct participation of the public in law-making; publicly initiated referendum via the internet for national and international law; perhaps even through wiki
Obviously: obvious.
Internet for all.
I am a citizen of developing country Nepal, though Internet has been around for many years now, a good connection to internet is too expensive for the middle class people like me.
Instead of wasting millions of dollars in war, it would be useful to help a country like ours to make internet accessible to everybody.
One suggestion:
To make most accessible and free for all Internet use databases, libraries, publication of research. Free access to all scientific output in the world which is funded by state funds.
An important topic would be limiting the expansion of the “intellectual property”.
This expansion is typically done in the name of “defending the creation of culture through protection of the rights and the income of the creators”. In fact, however, it achieves the opposite.
Novadays, most technology innovations are made in big companies. They, however, are prompted to innovate not by the protection of their innovatins, but by the competition. The monopoly-based protection (eg. patents) serves now only one purpose – decreasing the competition. Consequently, the patents hamper the innovation instead of promoting it. The development of the software technology is indicative – almost all truly innovative products in it were created before the software patents were introduced.
Art works have the same problem. It is nearly impossible to create one without basing it heavily on already existing works (and if it is fundamentally new, almost nobody will understand it – it will be a market failure). Too much emphasis on keeping art non-free hampers the creation of new art.
All this limits the creators. If a legislation (eg. state) offers more IP freedom, they will flock there, despite that their rights appear to be less protected. This state will get a huge technology and art boost, and countries that are heavily into IP protection will lose political positions and clout.
The politicians and corp managers are proverbial for short-term thinking only – they may choose to ignore this warning. But it will be recorded and remembered. And when the process starts, it will be a shame for everybody not to sign under what has been obvious to somebody years before. If you want to harvest tomorrow, you must plant today.
Jimmy,
MSLGROUP is the PR, Corporate communication and Events management arm of Publicis. We are working very closely with the French President’s team to organise this first e-G8. Don’t hesitate to get in touch. We want this to be a very international event, no French plot at all. The key idea is to discuss the impact of internet and information technologies on the economy (sustaining and accelerating growth), the emergence of a new digital citizenship (current revolutions in northern Africa and Middle-east are live examples), privacy and intellectual rights, net neutrality.
The objective is to have a few entrepreneurs present fresh ideas to the G8 heads of states who will meet the next day in France. All ideas are welcome
That there is no need to write special “Internet laws.” E.g. the aforementioned ACTA and let us add HADOPI, there already are laws governing this off-Internet why not use them?
If you could add the abolition of the SWIFT-regulation you’d do the civil society very good.
Hello!
I reading all comments. Historical France robbery all colonies. Today I do not know one country who in past is under rule of France and to be rich, powerful, big culture(they maybe have big culture but locality… Wikipedia is the place where make popular all places around the world) or without problems. I know today France want to get more attention and for that they try different things like supporting for war in Lybia. This declaration of France sounds they want to be owners of Internet. They are not creators… I know right subject what they mean is maybe copyrights and in this way can make discussions but free way of the Internet is that what build this world. The free way for everything is the basic key for success of this network. Servers can be anywhere, no restrictions of software or hardware. The big part of content is builded of the internet users like blogs, forums, video portals, wikipedia and others. Some companies ignoring languages but actually they are the key for big success… and Internet do not have restriction of that too. Internet is place without borders and full with a lot of information. Today I think that education is business and one good appeal to G8 is make free education for all people (or free education for more people)(in like way is wikipedia… wikiusers teach and learn themselves) another soft variant and not right that is to make cheap education… (in another way is that to make world not so different for technologies but I think they are not enough powerful for that)
The internet should remain uncensored, so blocking websites should not happen. Accessing a website in itself does no harm, just like watching a violent movie on tv does no harm.
Dear jimmy,
(although I’m active with Wikimedia France, I shall not give my name, as I’m speaking on my own account)
First : don’t be a fool. Sarkozy does not summon you to take into account anything you have to say, but for his own – dwindling – credit. On the information society axis, the policy he is leading is very much extreme-right. While present immigration controversies are well-known, his information-society policy focuses on gathering more information on people (more cameras in the streets…). Sarkozy knows very little about the internet, he is an older generation and specialized in police. He believes in “responsibility”, but for him that means “control”.
Second : the worst thing happening on the legislative front is not HADOPI (=fighting piracy), but LOPPSI I and II. Sadly there is apparently not English interwiki for LOPPSI ({{fr}} is http://goo.gl/16smN).
In short LOPPSI II requires internet providers to store and keep available one year a log containing your IP, online names, hardware type, physical address as well as login and passwords…
According to Sarkozy, this is done only to fight pedophilia and terrorism, but as you guess, when you start producing and storing that kind of data, it will be used. Any judge can obtain it legally, not to mention under-the-table arrangements with providers, hacking or leaks by engineers working with providers.
Third : most other invitees are business people, with a lot of business interest for a controlled internet, leaving mainly you to represent Civil society.
So although this is not directly Wikimedia business, I would insist on a pretty determined and frank approach invoking the threat to freedom of speech (after all Wikimedia refused to bow to China demands to what Wikipedia should say on tianamen, tibet..) and the threat a law like LOPPSI represents with his filtering and surveillance tools.
France, while a democracy, is in fact developing the tools and methods dictators everywhere dream of…
I do not care much whether you say this to Sarkozy himself, but this is what you have to say to other opinion-makers and to the international press. Let’s see if you catch the opportunity.
Once you start censoring the Internet at all it gives other countries a green light to censor it even more. Next thing you know education, art and film will all be under strict scrutiny.
Don’t want to say any more. Only one sentence; ” Supporting Wikipedia forever “.
Dear Mr. Wales,
This is not strictly a comment to the above entry, it is something that I would like to bring to your attention, although I realize you may be operating on a different level now. It’s about – well, the hijacking of the German Language Wikipedia by a group of fundamentalist catholics and their helpers.
I don’t know your personal opinions on religion, but I am quite sure that you would not approve of such practices as systematically deleting critical remarks or whole articles dealing with organisations like “Opus Dei” and individuals who belong to it. But that’s, unfortunately, just what’s happening in the German WP at the moment (and maybe in other WPs, I didn’t check).
And come to think about it, it reveals a fundamental problem of WP: If you have the means and the patience to get a large enough group of people into admin positions, you can practically do anything. It turns out that the support groups etc. either do not realize the problem or are equally infiltrated by those people.
In case you are interested, I can point you to some details, all in German, of course.
Forgive me for not leaving my real name here, but these people, at least in Austria, do have real power and I could get into substantial trouble if they knew who I am.
Please get back to me if you wish and if your time permits. And by the way: This actually IS something that you could bring up at the G8 summit, because it actually concerns the very delicate balance between freedom of the internet and abuse of that freedom, if not by political authorities, then by almost mafia-like structures which tend to arise within such power vacuums.
Best wishes
Clean, cheap energy
Protection of intellectual property
Mike Matas showed off an interactive book on TED which would improve Wikipedia content and toolsets for authors. It is worth a moment’s thought, possibly more.
I am happy that this year’s G8 summit is considering the likes of a billion people on this planet – The Internet. However, I feel that it is high time that Internet, as an entity, has its own summits and board of directors. I am not implying a world order on the internet and its usage.. but a relatively distinct disconnect from mainstream politics.
Mr. Wales,
Thank you for founding the Wikipedia enterprise. Wikipedia has helped millions of our fellow earth citizens get a clear handle of their lives and our world today. Any citizen of the world today can have an access to information and all they need is an internet connection or get information anywhere in the world by using a portable version of Wikipedia like the work of wikitaxi.org.
Wikipedia have shown the collaborative power of our earth citizens. Some people may not realize but when they search for information, Wikipedia presents the most organized and comprehensive explanation of information. In the sad state of the world today, there seems to be a need also to collaborate all political, economic and reform movements and developed a unified and comprehensive presentation of information necessary to transform our world into an equitable and sustainable global home. I think we might need a unified information and social internet platform that helps transform our system of government and business that we empower. Is there any way that we can work with key people and digital experts in developing this unified platform? Or the individual reform efforts of many earth citizens is sufficient to transform our systems?
I would appreciate to get your feedback and perspective. I have outlined mine at http://bit.ly/lVfaRI.
Thank you.
Joe Delsen
http://bit.ly/lVfaRI
Internet should never be regulated to stop ordinary people voicing their opinions. Yes, these regulations should be applied to illegal activities but it should never impact on the freed of search and speech.
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Administradores/Lista
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:P%C3%A1gina_principal
Because you asked for contribution to Wikipedia in Brazil in Brazil for the formation of a cartel administratively it, any researcher, any teacher, who edits on a subject studied is censored and no more then blocked for edit, wikipedia in Brazil became the thirty-page few admins, any increase is not part of who they censor and block them in the Brazilian university students who withdraw from the wikipedia articles are ignored and asked to make a new wikipedia for the study of Brazil is considered the cartel and the perspective of thirty- few people who called themselves the wikipedia admins owners.
Jimmy, please read my email. Adriano Vinícius.
Tell them that free money is coming to the Internet (just as free knowledge did.) Tell them that their debt-based money, with its wars, and its income taxes, and its bureaucratic banking system, will soon be brought down to the dust.
Please see my profile (specifically work I built at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as it relates to emerging economies…Speed and Scale article). I think we need to talk.
What ever you put on it – I have to delete it since it does not have any references (or what ever)!
Could you check those assholes in Wikipedia who are deleting peoples work just since they have nothing better to do!
saya sangat menyukai tulisan anda pak jimy
Projet d’aménagement de Wikipédia afin d’en développer l’accès et l’impact.
Constitution d’une “Wikidémie“ ayant le rôle de contrôler l’exactitude ou la réalité des affirmations introduites, qui donne un avis à intégrer à proximité de cette affirmation.
Seul le rédacteur peut supprimer le texte, qu’il a introduit ,sur les conseils qu’il a reçu, mais seulement si ceux-ci ne sont pas clairement interdits.*
Les affirmations interdites sont une affirmation reconnue illégale, fausse, incorrecte, inconvenante, secrète ou injuste par la “Commission des utilisateurs“ créée à cet effet.
Après un certain nombre d’’introductions d’affirmations interdites un utilisateur pourra être interdit d’accès au site .
Les utilisateurs qui tentent de détruire un texte, seront interdits d’accès au site de façon légale par la justice du pays de l’utilisateur qui pourra ainsi bénéficier des droits de recours légaux., sous le contrôle de la “Commission juridique “ de l’association prévue à cet effet.
Un effacement de la totalité des interventions d’un utilisateur interdit d’accès au site pourra être prononcé par la “Commission juridique“.
L’action des administrateurs sera soumisse au contrôle de la commission des administrateurs elle même respectant les décisions des Wikidémie , Commission des utilisateurs et Commission juridique .
Dans chaque pays, ces trois commissions Wikidémie , Commission des utilisateurs et Commission juridique , seront constituées de 9 utilisateurs chacune, tirés au sort sur la liste des candidats acceptés après soumission d’un texte de candidature original de 100 à 150 lignes.
Afin de pouvoir disposer de leurs droits civiques et en assurer les conséquences, ces utilisateurs
Hi Jimmy,
I could not find another way to get in direct contact with, beside by writing a comment. Hope you will read and react on it
I Invented a game and need to patent it. It is not possible to talk about what the game is before i patent it. I believe there mus be away to talk with you about it
Im very sure and have prove that the game as a huge potential. In the right hands there is a guaranty of generating lots of money, in the millions… This is a internet game and from studies concluded, there is nothing like it in the all market.
This game could be a source of money to support projects like wikipedia and many more ONG’s.
Looking for a partner that can help to bring it alive. I will share a percentage on the patented game.
Looking forward for your reply.
Thanks
Franzi
I just want to thank you for starting Wikipedia, which I have just recently begun using as a research & general learning tool. I really like it. That sounds so lame, right? – but I can’t put it more succinctly than that – it’s just a great resource & I am learning new things all the time on Wikipedia. As I am of a tangential bent of mind to begin with, the imbedded links in the entries are ideal & often take me on adventures into fields of knowledge I would not likely otherwise explore. I enjoy being in learning-mode, and Wikipedia has helped me to both expand & sharpen my mind. Thanks so much.
Sincerely,
Margaret Fex
San Mateo, California, USA
Hello Jimmy
I’m so disappointed with what I read, concerning Manifests at this link:http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest
Are you agree with what they wright? Do Wikipedia control all this stuff? And when, wish kind of control you have? Have you heard about Anonymus Hackers…
Kind regards,
Christina Schildknecht
Internet for all. Free internet access to all.
Estimado señor Jimmy Wales: Soy periodista y sociólogo de Perú, magister en Administración, sin trabajo desde hace muchos meses. ¿Podría colaborar en la redacción de artículos para wikipedia?…Espero tener la suerte de recibir su respuesta…Atte. Luis
Hello Jimmy
I’m a documentation technique expert from Switzerland with a PhD in Technical Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and work in that new field since over 30 years.
– The results of my work are consistent methods how to increase efficiency in professional writing (> 100 %) ¦ reading (> 50 %) ¦ translating (> 60 %) by a structures usage of language (functional language).
– Presently I am working on large software tools for end users to support these methods.
In a report from WikiMania in Israel this year, I read that you are looking for better qualified authors.
– I consider the qualitity of Wikipedia in my field as rather poor (sorry to say).
– The people behind the German posts are youngsters without specialized knowledge.
— They started a campaign against me, when I worked on their posts for a while. In the end they kicked me out as an author.
— They justified the campaign by saying that I present new theories that come from my company (which is correct), that I try to propagate these new theories (which is correct as well) and that I could eventually make money with it (which was not correct at that time, but might be correct sometimes in the future of other people than me, because of my seniority).
I consider my knowledge base as unique and could improve the quality of Wikipedia in that field considerably.
– It’s a lot of work for me because of the number of posts affected once I start modifing the basic definitions and bringing in consistency in the usage of language just in my field.
– I could do it step by step if Wikipedia let’s me do so and will not treat me like a gangster in the future any more.
Are you interested in getting me as a qualfied author in the field of professional usage of language? Please let me just know.
Kind regards – Konrad
Hi Jimmy,
I would like to upload a footage of UFO sighted in my place recently, but I don’t know the procedure how to upload. Can you please help me.
Regards,
Prakash
e G8 query. Please define the term “Prefunded Retiree Health Benefits Fund” These words, grouped in this order, are why our Universal Postal Union is being vaporized to the tune of $25 billion. Do they have any meaning beyond nominalization?
You could announce you are running for Senate in Florida and work to help keep the interwebz free here at home!
I think you should talk about the importance of science, reason, logic.
Agreed! We all miss it! That includes you Jimbo!
Your friends,
Everybody
Jimmy:
Good Morning
I Am Chilean, I have 10 Years old. I know little of your language but I tried to write the best English that I have. I ask permission to publish a book with your Wikipedia pages.
Please send me an email and remember to always admire you for how wonderful you are and what you have helped me
thanks, A Clap
Net Neutrality. Nuff said.
Mr. Wales,
I think that at the e-G8 summit you should stress the importance of freedom of information and the harm that censorship can cause not only to freedom, but to society’s overall advancement. If people are prevented from sharing ideas or information merely because the government considers them offensive or objectionable, ideas that are contrary to the status quo and currently considered taboo, yet that are actually beneficial to society would be prevented from spreading, causing change to be delayed or altogether prevented. It was the movement of ideas and information that fueled every major revolution or movement in history, such as the civil rights movement or the American Revolution. Although the ideas these movements tried to spread were suppressed, they did eventually manage to prevail. However, if they were not censored merely because they proposed ideas that the prevailing zeitgeist of the time found taboo or objectionable, they most likely would have succeeded in their goals much sooner. Truth and good, I think, will always naturally win out in an environment where ideas and information are allowed to flow freely. But in an environment where only the ideas that are considered acceptable are allowed, society stagnates in a pool of what is considered right, but which in reality is far from optimal, and in fact is commonly repugnant. Who should be given the decision to decide what is acceptable and what is not? Which websites should be blocked, and which should be allowed? Won’t the ability of the government to control what is able to be viewed, downloaded, or accessed over the internet allow them to block content that is contrary to their personal opinions and morals, allowing one person to remove the rights of another merely because he objects to his opinions, fetishes, or preferences, even if they do not harm anyone? Is this really any different that if liberals banned conservative thought, or if conservatives banned liberal thought? I think that you should inform the policymakers and corporate spokesmen that they have no rights to the minds, opinions, or preferences of the general populace. They have no right to control the internet, and what people access on it, no more than they have a right to control our thoughts.
Good luck at the summit, and warm regards-
Joeseph
– A BIG appreciation and gratitude for creating the Wikipedia.
– I can find whatever I want to know about: history, companies, cities, civilization, movies …etc
– Thanks a lot to those who helped you in making it.
– Thanks to the editors who helped in adding info’s to the pages and all the other stuff.
– My best regards.
You are only one piece of the jig-saw.
People want what they don’t have. The truth of the matter is, as long as it brings your power, sex and/or money. Human beings will do what they can to get more.
Trying to control the internet is a natural evolution of the base emotions of human beings. At best you can stem them trying to control it, but unfortunately it will happen.
Its not all doom & gloom as people will just invent another media for ‘freedom of speech’ and so on.
In my humble opinion if people want to run a country and decide for millions, then they should lead by example.
Examples would be:
They only pay themselves minimum wage.
Live in a modest home (no great expense to the tax payer).
Answer questions honestly and truthfully – we really can handle the truth, stop treating us like idiots, we know the real reasons for the decisions you make. Don’t lie about it.
Be accountable for mistakes – we all make them
That sort of thing
If you really want to make a change, to decide for millions of people what is best for them and you’re not solely guided by greed then by all means take that responsibility and we will respect you for it.
However at present it’s very hard for us to take any of them seriously as we’re also human too.
PLEASE LEAD BY EXAMPLE – That is what I would like to say to them
Sometimes I feel like that kid from the emperor with no clothes fairy tale :)
Understanding how the rest of the world operates allows us to come together. If other states or nations actually can read from where you come from and what your ideas are… doesn’t that help eliminate ignorance and encourages respect? Think about it, I can go and wiki Dubai U.A.E and I can learn many valuable lessons; how do folks react to foreigners, what is considered respectful what is frowned upon etc…Wiki for me is a tool to understanding the world and it brings us closer together with those around us and afar…
tanx jimmy tanx jimmy tanx jimmy
I feel that Wiki needs a tool which will help us in Pronunciation! :-).
Dear Mr.Wales,
I feel that stressing the importance of the Internet and its free transfer of speech is what needs to be clarified with the summit. From what I am reading, there is a lack if information at stake here that can make a potentially dangerous move a grave mistake in the future if not acted upon strategically. If anything, the lesson that can be learned by the movements generated recently by the protest of SOPA and PIPA tells us who are going to be affected, and the reactions of people as a whole. Jan 18th proved that the widescale protest can make a difference and that each participant counts. In this Information age, ignorance is not an excuse and this is the lesson that needs to be learned.
It only takes one person to start a change and a small group of people to make a difference.
Thank you for reading.
Good afternoon,
Thank you for your contribution to society and philosophy of social freedom. I agree with you.
My suggestion; Ensure ALL Schools around the WORLD have internet access, with computers, (computer room) which can be utilized for class instruction and as a resource for student without internet in their home. Third world countries should be addressed first.
Secondary seperate suggestion: wikipedia, for Autism, it seems in light of all the recent news reports about medical marijuana and the benefits for some autistic children, I think the definition should include that medical marijuana has shown some promise…or something that may help those suffering children and their families.
Thank you and best regards.
Z