User:Peterstrempel/Wikimania-2011-email

To the Wikimedia Foundation

Dear Sir or Madam

Knowing it is already too late to alter the Wikimania 2011 programme, I nevertheless ask you to consider the irreparable damage you will be doing to any real or claimed neutrality of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in light of the overtly ideological nature of two key discussion topics under the heading of Wiki Culture and the Community.

With all respect, Wikimedia should not be seeking to ask or answer the question: 'Can people of different cultural backgrounds create an encyclopaedia according to common rules?' It implies that facts are subject to rules, which is in itself a subjective (and likely ideological) statement, and that cultural differences can be justification for distorting facts to suit particular 'cultural' perspectives. No matter how high-minded the discussion of this topic might be, it will result in publication of ideologically-driven, politically partisan rhetoric under the aegis of Wikimedia. It makes no difference that I might personally agree with it, or that millions of others might agree with it too.

As a contestable aside, I believe that cultural understanding is never the result of debate and good intentions, but always the evolution of individual realizations gradually coming to a fruition of one kind or another. A discussion consensus counts for nothing if and when bullets start to fly. Likewise, cultural 'sensitivity' must never be allowed to censor facts or information because of petulant demands for, or warm-hearted feeelings about 'cultural respect'. A touchy-feely discussion of that issue under your auspices can, at best, impose a politically correct perspective on how such discussions are to be held, and at worst, inflame the passions of those who believe they weren't heard.

It is simply impossible to retain neutrality after promoting 'cultural understanding' and 'acceptance'. This is so obviously a bien pensant doctrine it cannot but promote a particular, doctrinaire perspective on conflict. Wikimedia's role should be the promotion of free access to information, the promotion of a community of interest that provides and updates that information, and that acts to remove as a matter of mission any political and ideological bias. Failure in any part of that mission is failure for all of it, and heartbreak for those who tried to make it work.

The principles I mention above are already in action in the Wikipedia project, to which I contribute. I see it every day. Passionate people driven to irrational statements being gently coaxed, prodded, debated, corrected and led to an understanding that information is neutral, and interpretation is exactly that. Interpretation is no longer just information, but becomes ideological, doctrinaire, or just plain silly. If Wikimania discussions are seen to be the pet political project of people with a particular ideological bent, all the myriad other aspects of Wikimedia become tainted by that failing.

Sincerely