[okfn-discuss] new brand, new website: coming up next week

[Rob Myers]

On 15/04/14 07:41 AM, Aaron Wolf wrote:
> Just to be succinct so it isn't missed, I posted this proposal earlier:
> 
> "Open Knowledge: Empowering people by freeing ideas"
> 
> That includes Free and Open and People and Knowledge and Ideas, it's
> very flexible and inclusive.

This is more like the Purpose statements on the Wiki rather than the
Tagline, which is a call to action and dialog.

The specific language is less focused and more problematic.
"Empowerment" can be an exploitative managerial buzzword, "free" defines
one contentious term using another, and "ideas" falls foul of the
idea-expression dichotomy that Open Licensing relies on.

It's also less of a big idea than "change the world".

I think that freeing/sharing/open/opening up could be usefully inserted
into the Tagline to explain Open Knowledge's particular value at the
expense of making the proposition less intriguing, but each has
problems. "freeing" introduces another undefined term, "sharing" is
rapidly becoming a synonym for renting, and "open" or "opening up"
repeat an undefined term when used to define Open Knowledge as in the
example on the Wiki.

- Rob.