Submissions/Why we need to pay people to create free knowledge

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2014.

Submission no. 2527

Title of the submission

Why we need to pay people to create free knowledge

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)

Presentation

Author of the submission

Lionel Allorge (Lionel Allorge (talk))

E-mail address

Special:EmailUser/Lionel_Allorge

Username

Lionel Allorge (talk)

Country of origin

France

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Member of Wikimedia France

Personal homepage or blog

http://www.lunerouge.org

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

In this presentation, we will do an overview of the areas where it would be important to pay people to produce free (as in freedom) works . Beyond Wikipedians in residence, in many cases we need to pay people to create works published under a free licence.

For example, many events are open only to professionals (journalists, photographs or videographers) like press conferences, meeting with politicians, actors or athletes, reports on places such as factories, military bases, etc.

In the field of journalism, it seems impossible to send a volunteer to do a documentary in a country in conflict. Being able to pay a professional would provide works under free licenses such as stories, photos or videos, which otherwise will only available under a non free license.

In science, the creation of images requires the use of very expensive equipments and to have the expertise to handle them. X-rays, images made with an electron microscope or a telescope are rarely published under a free license. We could pay specialists with access to these devices to provide images and videos under a free license.

In the field of geography, professional explorers could produce reports on places inaccessible for volunteers as mountains, caves, virgin forests, underwater locations, etc. like what Albert Kahn did at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The Free knowledge movement coming from the Wikipedia encyclopedia could create a fund, possibly legally separated from the Wikimedia Foundation (So the foundation will not appear as editing Wikipedia), to finance the production of free works that could then be incorporated into Wikipedia by volunteers.

Track

Legal & Free Culture

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long): 30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests

Interested attendees

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Fuzheado (talk) 01:52, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Ziko (talk) 22:30, 14 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
--Oona (talk) 21:34, 31 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Frank Hendriks (talk) 14:52, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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