Free your mind: Wikimedia guru Jimmy Wales
Wikimedia, the charitable foundation behind Wikipedia, announced today that it was spreading its open, editable wings even further, writes Sean Dodson. Not content with an ever-expanding encyclopedia (which includes over 22 million entries in over 200 languages, and counting) a dictionary and a nascent news service, the wiki ethic will be extended into a number of new areas, including book publishing, according to the movement's founder, Jimmy Wales.
Speaking at Wikimania, the movement's first annual conference being held here in Frankfurt, he urged his hardcore of followers to develop a further suite of wiki products, including a wiki atlas, an audio archive of classical music and a open-source file format to rival the MP3.
If that wasn't enough, Wales said that the foundation's next move would be into book publishing. Wikimedia is currently negotiating with an "on-demand" book publisher to create books from existing Wikipedia content.
But the most controversial proposal is likely to be the establishment of an archive of high quality images of old masters. Most major museums and galleries routinely claim copyright over images of the paintings held in their collections, making it extremely difficult for third parties to acquire reproductions, even for charitable or educational work.
Wikipedia's mercurial founder urged his army of cohorts to take their digital cameras into museums and get snapping. "I'm not urging anyone to go out there and break the law," he said, tongue firmly rested in cheek. "But we will put them on the website and face the consequences," he said.
