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 GNU MediaGoblin
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What is GNU MediaGoblin
=======================

Three years ago (2008), a number of free software luminaries got
together at the FSF office to answer the question, "What should
software freedom look like on the participatory web?"  Those thinkers
included Richard Stallman---founder of the free software movement and
instigator of the GNU project, Evan Prodromou---the driving force
behind Status.net, a highly sucessful federated micro-blogging
service, and FIXME.

Since that time Identi.ca and Libre.fm have answered the
freedom-loving web-user's need for micro-blogging and music sharing.
Now, GNU MediaGoblin is building a format for users to share photos.
Later versions of MediaGoblin will include support for video and other
media as well as tools to encourage collaboration on media projects.


Why are we doing this?
======================

Centralization and proprietization of media on the internet is a
serious problem and makes the web go from a system of extreme
resilience to a system of frightening fragility.  We believe people
should be able to own their data and that means someone has to build
the tools to make it possible.  We decided that in this case, that
someone would be us!
 

Who are you?
============

Free software activists and folks who have worked on a variety of
other projects like Libre.fm, GNU Social, Status.net, Miro, Miro
Community, OpenHatch and other projects as well.  We're admirers and
contributors.  We're writers and painters.  We're friendly and
dedicated to computer user freedom.


How can I participate?
======================

See `Get Involved <http://mediagoblin.org/join/>`_ on the website..


How is GNU MediaGoblin licensed?
================================

GNU MediaGoblin software is released under an AGPLv3 license.

See the ``COPYING`` file in the source for details.


Is this an official GNU Project?  What does that mean?
======================================================

We are!  It means that we meet the GNU Project's rigourous standards
for free software.  To find out more about what that means, check out
`the GNU site <http://gnu.org/>`_.

Please feel free to contact us with further questions!