| 1 | .. MediaGoblin Documentation |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Written in 2011, 2012 by MediaGoblin contributors |
| 4 | |
| 5 | To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all |
| 6 | copyright and related and neighboring rights to this software to |
| 7 | the public domain worldwide. This software is distributed without |
| 8 | any warranty. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain |
| 11 | Dedication along with this software. If not, see |
| 12 | <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ======================= |
| 15 | About GNU MediaGoblin |
| 16 | ======================= |
| 17 | |
| 18 | .. contents:: Sections |
| 19 | :local: |
| 20 | |
| 21 | |
| 22 | What is GNU MediaGoblin? |
| 23 | ======================== |
| 24 | |
| 25 | In 2008, a number of free software developers and activists gathered |
| 26 | at the FSF to attempt to answer the question "What should software |
| 27 | freedom look like on the participatory web?" Their answer, the |
| 28 | `Franklin Street Statement`_ has lead to the development of |
| 29 | `autonomo.us`_ community, and free software projects including |
| 30 | `Identi.ca`_ and `Libre.fm`_. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | .. _Franklin Street Statement: http://autonomo.us/2008/07/franklin-street-statement/ |
| 33 | .. _autonomo.us: http://autonomo.us/ |
| 34 | .. _identi.ca: http://identi.ca/ |
| 35 | .. _Libre.fm: http://libre.fm/ |
| 36 | |
| 37 | Identi.ca and Libre.fm address the need for micro-blogging and music |
| 38 | sharing services and software that respect users' freedom and |
| 39 | autonomy. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | GNU MediaGoblin emerges from this milieu to create a platform for us to share |
| 42 | photos, video and other media in an environment that respects our freedom and |
| 43 | independence. In the future MediaGoblin will provide tools to facilitate |
| 44 | collaboration on media projects. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | |
| 47 | Why Build GNU MediaGoblin? |
| 48 | ========================== |
| 49 | |
| 50 | The Internet is designed---and works best---as a complex and endlessly |
| 51 | resilient network. When key services and media outlets are |
| 52 | concentrated in centralized platforms, the network becomes less useful |
| 53 | and increasingly fragile. As always, the proprietary nature of these |
| 54 | systems, hinders users ability to develop, extend, and understand |
| 55 | their software; however, in the case of network services it also means |
| 56 | that users must forfeit control of their data to the service |
| 57 | providers. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | Therefore, we believe that network services must be federated to avoid |
| 60 | centralization and that everyone ought to have control over their |
| 61 | data. In support of this, we've decided to help build the tools to |
| 62 | make these kinds of services possible. We hope you'll join us, both |
| 63 | as users and as contributors. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | |
| 66 | Who Contributes to the Project? |
| 67 | =============================== |
| 68 | |
| 69 | You do! |
| 70 | |
| 71 | We are free software activists and folks who have worked on a variety |
| 72 | of other projects including: Libre.fm, GNU Social, Status.net, Miro, |
| 73 | Miro Community, and OpenHatch among others. We're programmers, |
| 74 | musicians, writers, and painters. We're friendly and dedicated to |
| 75 | software and network freedom. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | |
| 78 | How Can I Participate? |
| 79 | ====================== |
| 80 | |
| 81 | See `Get Involved <http://mediagoblin.org/join/>`_ on the website. We |
| 82 | eagerly look forward to seeing you! |
| 83 | |
| 84 | |
| 85 | How is GNU MediaGoblin licensed? |
| 86 | ================================ |
| 87 | |
| 88 | GNU MediaGoblin software is released under an AGPLv3 license. |
| 89 | |
| 90 | See the ``COPYING`` file in the root of the source for details. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | |
| 93 | Is MediaGoblin an official GNU project? What does that mean? |
| 94 | ============================================================= |
| 95 | |
| 96 | MediaGoblin is an official GNU project! This status means that we the |
| 97 | meet the GNU Project's rigorous standards for free software. To find |
| 98 | out more about what that means, check out the `GNU website`_. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | Please feel free to contact us with further questions! |
| 101 | |
| 102 | .. _GNU website: http://gnu.org/ |