Edit page blog/2010/03

[wiki.git] / about

diff --git a/about b/about
index ff993e54e21ee8e911f6280d2f14e72cf1116abe..fdf9a915de56f5750572988dc1dbce3990a872aa 100644 (file)
--- a/about
+++ b/about
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ You may want to read the EditingTips to get started.
 Editing requires authentication.  If you don't have a real account, you can
 login as **Anonymous****Coward** with empty password.
 
 Editing requires authentication.  If you don't have a real account, you can
 login as **Anonymous****Coward** with empty password.
 

-=== About the software ===
+=== About the software powering this website ===

 
 This web site is powered by my own minimalistic wiki engine called [[GeekiGeeki]].
 
 
 This web site is powered by my own minimalistic wiki engine called [[GeekiGeeki]].
 


@@ -21,13 +21,17 @@ much as possible. Call me a fundamentalist, but I find it very disturbing to giv
 online identity to services whose conditions are established and changed unilaterally.
 
 The [[http://opendefinition.org/ | definition of open knowledge]] is still a subject of
 online identity to services whose conditions are established and changed unilaterally.
 
 The [[http://opendefinition.org/ | definition of open knowledge]] is still a subject of

-discussion. At this time, I generally boycot any online web services that make it
+discussion. At this time, I tend to boycot those online web services that make it

 intentionally hard bulk access to data created collaboratively by their users.
 intentionally hard bulk access to data created collaboratively by their users.

-Examples of badly behaving sites are [[http://www.imdb.com | IMDB]] and
-[[http://flickr.com | Flickr]].
-
-My current personal policy is to use these services in read-only mode, without
-helping them collect even more information.
-
-Call me a fundamentalist for going through these hoops, but I believe I'm acting in
-my best personal interest. I //do// care about my meta-self, and you?
+Examples of such badly behaving sites are [[http://www.imdb.com | IMDB]] and
+[[http://flickr.com | Flickr]]: both have been created by us, but try downloading
+substantial portions of their data, if you can. On the other end of the spectrum,
+the [[http://wikipedia.org | Wikipedia]] provides an interface to dump the
+entire database, including the history of edits. This is what we should demand
+from any online resource built collaboratively.
+
+My current personal policy is to use those non-reciprocal services in read-only
+mode, avoiding to help them collect even more information from me.
+
+Call me a fundamentalist for going through these hoops, but I believe I'm
+acting in my best personal interest. I //do// care about my meta-self, and you?