How Free Software makes Wikipedia possible

Presented at Software Freedom Day in Melbourne 2008.

Transcript

1. How Free Software makes Wikipedia possible Brianna Laugher, Wikimedia Australia http://www.wikimedia.org.au/
2. Wikipedia:
3. 1: encyclopedia
4. 2: website
5. 3: not for profit
6. 4: multilingual
7. 5: free (no cost)
8. 6: wiki
9. 7: open content
10. MediaWiki:
11. GPL GNU General Public License
12. LAMP Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
13. Bugzilla IRC Mailman JavaScript Python Perl
14. File formats:
15. Free knowledge requires free software. If we offer information in a proprietary or patent-encumbered format, then we are not just violating our own commitment to freedom, we are forcing others who want to use our allegedly free knowledge to themselves use proprietary software. Jimmy Wales
16. 1: OpenOffice.org
17. 2: SVG
18. 3: Ogg
19. Copyright:
20. GFDL GNU Free Documentation License
21. Read it
22. Copy it
23. Sell it
24. Change it
25. But! You must also
26. Attribute the authors
27. Pass on the freedoms
28. We owe an enormous debt to the GNU project and to the Free Software Foundation, as pioneers and leaders of a movement for sharing code freely, so that it cannot be used to coerce and restrict users, and so that it can be improved upon by others. That idea is one of the key inspirations for Wikipedia itself. Erik Moeller, Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
29. Wikimedia Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, whose primary aim is to promote equality of opportunity to access and participate in the collaborative creation of Free Cultural Works, especially educational works, and works about Australia, its culture, natural environment, and Australian news and media. contact @ wikimedia.org.au