Difference between revisions of "The Wiki Fire:Code of Ethics"

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Thoughts:
 
Thoughts:
  
* we should make available the Creative Commons license that prevents the use of the materials for commercial purposes. This will encourage people (I'm thinking photographers) to contribute without fear that anyway can just take anything and make money off of it.
+
* We should make available the Creative Commons license that prevents the use of the materials for commercial purposes. This will encourage people (I'm thinking photographers) to contribute without fear that anyway can just take anything and make money off of it.
 
* The reason I made it completely free is so publications, which are commercial, will be able to use the information. I feel like free information should mean free information. A photographer's incentive, therefore, could be recognition. There is no rule against putting a credit to the photographer in the caption, or, let's say, a link to his/her photo Web site.
 
* The reason I made it completely free is so publications, which are commercial, will be able to use the information. I feel like free information should mean free information. A photographer's incentive, therefore, could be recognition. There is no rule against putting a credit to the photographer in the caption, or, let's say, a link to his/her photo Web site.
 +
* Well of course free information is free information, as it is free information by definition no doubt. It just seems that we run the risk of limiting content when we don't allow people to say "Hey, I'm sharing this with all of you, you just can't sell it or make money off it." While the probability that someone looking for stock art or something runs across a Wiki image and takes it and uses it is fairly low, it would make me feel better (if nothing else) if I had the option to say "Hey, you can use this for personal use, but you can't use it commercially." I would certainly contribute more if this were the case. People are still going to use the images whether or not it's legal, I guess the point is if someone ''really'' uses an image, then legally I would be protected and I could make them stop using it. I'd rather put up my own stuff and make it high quality rather than someone swiping it from somewhere, putting up a low quality image, and then attributing it to someone else (which has already happened on here.) Just my thoughts. Oh, and most photographers consider name recognition on things like this to be pretty worthless.
  
 
=== Ownership ===
 
=== Ownership ===

Revision as of 21:32, 12 May 2007

The Wiki Fire community must follow the guidelines of libel law if it is to be positive and useful.

However, after that, the code of ethics is open for discussion. The college-aged generation now is the first generation to grow and develop with the power of the Internet. Media is changing, and it is on our shoulders to decide where it goes. Therefore, feel free to edit this page as you see fit.

Pages about members of our community

It it obvious that one of the first things people will do on this site it create a page about themselves or their friends. Please read the page on libel law before writing something that could be controversial. The most important statements to avoid are ones concerning someone's sexual history or sexual habits.

Mood

As the creator, I would like The Wiki Fire to be a positive source of free information. However, what I want the most is for this wiki to reflect its community, and not everything in this community is positive.

Therefore, what (if any) guidelines should we as a community of contributers aim for concerning the mood of this site? Please add ideas.

  • Information should be of an objective nature. Even at a college as small as Knox, there are a wide variety of opinions regarding individuals, organizations, departments, events, and Knox in general. Therefore, your opinion is just that, your opinion. For this reason, subjective statements should be excluded, or at rewritten to refer to facts instead of mere opinions.
  • Edits should be made to entertain or inform, not to cause harm. This includes information accusing an individual, group, or organization of illegal activities. Even if the allegations are true, take a moment to consider what consequences might arise as a result of your posting them here. The WikiFire isn't an exposé. If people start getting in trouble because of things on WikiFire, it will only discourage people from using it.

Editorial power

This site has an ever-changing and growing team of editors, similar to that of Wikipedia does. Wikipedia must have them to prevent vandalism and keep the pages "true".

The Wiki Fire, however, is not going to serve the entire world in the same fashion as Wikipedia. The Wiki Fire is, at its core, about Knox College, a school of 1,351 students.

If you would like to become an editor, e-mail the editor with your reasons why and your user name.

Creative Commons — mostly free information

This site retains few rights to anything published here. Under a Creative Commons license, anything written or uploaded on this site can be used by anybody for any use they see fit. In this way, it is completely free information. All software used to create this site is open-source, as well.

However, should the information be completely open to public use? For example, there are Creative Commons licenses that prevent the use of the material for commercial purposes. Should The Wiki Fire prevent this as well? I do not think so, but the debate is open to the community. If there is enough objection, this can be changed.

Thoughts:

  • We should make available the Creative Commons license that prevents the use of the materials for commercial purposes. This will encourage people (I'm thinking photographers) to contribute without fear that anyway can just take anything and make money off of it.
  • The reason I made it completely free is so publications, which are commercial, will be able to use the information. I feel like free information should mean free information. A photographer's incentive, therefore, could be recognition. There is no rule against putting a credit to the photographer in the caption, or, let's say, a link to his/her photo Web site.
  • Well of course free information is free information, as it is free information by definition no doubt. It just seems that we run the risk of limiting content when we don't allow people to say "Hey, I'm sharing this with all of you, you just can't sell it or make money off it." While the probability that someone looking for stock art or something runs across a Wiki image and takes it and uses it is fairly low, it would make me feel better (if nothing else) if I had the option to say "Hey, you can use this for personal use, but you can't use it commercially." I would certainly contribute more if this were the case. People are still going to use the images whether or not it's legal, I guess the point is if someone really uses an image, then legally I would be protected and I could make them stop using it. I'd rather put up my own stuff and make it high quality rather than someone swiping it from somewhere, putting up a low quality image, and then attributing it to someone else (which has already happened on here.) Just my thoughts. Oh, and most photographers consider name recognition on things like this to be pretty worthless.

Ownership

Who should own The Wiki Fire? How should it be organized? Someone has to pay $120 a year ... how should that be handled?

If anybody would like to take the initiative to establish The Wiki Fire as a not-for-profit entity, e-mail the editor.