My speech on the opening ceremony of the 2. Chinese Wikipedia Conference

女士们先生们，各位贵宾们，朋友们，你们好

我首先想感谢澳门和香港维基协会的朋友们和义工们为组织这次会议付出的心血和劳动。我知道组织这样的聚会不容易，许多一开始意想不到的问题会半途出现，许多烦心的事情需要有人管理和做，虽然如此还是会有许多人不满意，批评，怀疑。要坚持下来，真的使得年会举办，使得它举办得好是一件非常不容易的事情。因此我想在这个时刻，在会议开始的时候，向各位表示我的万分感谢。谢谢你们的心血和劳动。

维基百科有五个支柱。我们所有的规则和工作都是在这五个支柱的基础上发展出来的。我们所有其它的规则都可以改变或者被放弃，但是这五个支柱，我们可以说是维基百科的基本法是不可改变的。请问各位贵宾朋友中有谁能够立刻说出这是哪五个支柱？

维基百科的五个支柱是维基百科是百科全书，中立，开放，互重和勇于创新。

维基百科是一部百科全书。这是我们的第一个支柱，是我们基础的基础，因为它定义了我们工作的范围和目标。但是什么是百科全书？哪些内容是百科全书的内容，哪些内容不是百科全书的内容？当维基百科刚刚开始的时候，我们没有想到过它会发展成今天的样子。我们当中有许多人把经典的百科全书如大英百科全书当作榜样。那个时候我们觉得不论从数量上还是质量上能够发展到大英百科全书的地步都会是一个非常艰巨的任务。当时还有人列了表，大英百科全书有哪些词条，我们还缺乏哪些词条。今天我们在词条的数量上已经远远超过了大英百科全书。我们的使用者远远超过了大英百科全书在其整个历史上的用户人数。我们的条目中有这些词条，它们是大英百科全书里没有，也永远不会有的。这些词条是百科全书的内容吗？按照经典百科全书的定义它们显然不是，但是我们的社群，你们，决定这些词条是百科全书内容。这说明什么？这说明我们的社群扩展了百科全书的含义。我们创造了一个新的百科全书的定义，它超越了经典百科全书的内容。

维基百科的第二个支柱是中立的观点。智慧是人的本性。人类没有锋利的爪牙，没有出色的嗅觉，没有翅膀飞翔，没有厚厚的皮毛，但是人类有探求万物的本性，有把知识有效地收集和传播给他们的后代和其他人的特殊本领。我们生活在一个复杂的，多元化的，全球化的世界里。不论在工作、学习、日常生活中，我们每天都要做出决定和选择。要做出理智的决定，我们需要尽量全面地领会这个决定的前提和环境。我们需要全面的和中立的知识。40年前，红卫兵为中国带来了巨大的灾害。不是因为他们邪恶，而是因为他们无知，而且他们所拥有的那些知识也只是片面的，是别人经过过滤后告诉他们的，因此他们无法正确地估价他们破坏的文物，无法正确地认识他们摧残的生命的价值，无法分别哪些决定和言语是正确的，哪些是错误的。我们的任务不是告诉别人什么是对的什么是错的，我们没有为别人判断对错的能力和权利。假如我们开始为别人决定什么是对的什么是错的的话我们很快就自己会成为把这些人错导到造成巨大破坏的道路上去的人。我们的任务是提供全面的、中立的知识，来让我们的用户自己做出决定，什么是对的，什么是错的。从山海经到河南血祸，从毕达哥拉斯到哈利·波特，在传说中、文学中，还是历史中或者现实中，我们总是会碰到一些人觉得某些知识特别危险而企图把这些知识封锁起来的故事或者事情，但是事实最后总是证明无知比有知危险，片面的知识导致的危害远远比全面的知识导致的危害大。

只有一个开放的社群才能保证我们收集的知识的中立性。我们每个人有自己的信仰、自己的偏见，有我们自己知识上的不足，因此一个封闭的社群的知识也只是有限的。开放对于我们来说有两重意义。我们的社群是开放的，我们收集的知识是开放的，但是这也意味着我们必须对我们的用户负责。许多人不理解我们为什么这样注重他人的著作权。我们经常听到别人职责说：网上就是大家互相抄，为什么维基百科偏偏不允许。我们注重著作权有许多原因，但是其中最重要的是因为我们需要保证我们收集的知识可以为全人类自由使用。假如我们不注重他人的著作权，其他用户在使用我们的知识的时候就会冒风险。其他的人可以来说，你们收集的知识实际上是不自由的，这威胁我们的使命，威胁我们的声誉，威胁我们收集的知识的价值。不开放的知识很可能是不中立的，因为它的主人可以决定谁可以利用这些知识，他可以过滤这些知识。

维基是一个社群合作的工具。我们在编辑维基百科的时候不能忘记这一点。社会合作也是人类的本性。和朋友们一起玩比一个人玩开心，这个经验我们都有过。合作的基础是互重。我们社群设计了许多不同的方法来促进社群内的合作：我们有维基星章、欢迎模板、有小天使、有动员令。我们的许多规则，比如不要伤害新手，比如不要人身攻击，比如讨论的时候针对事，而不要针对人，都是从这个支柱中引导出来的。互重是我们社群结合的胶水。自从维基百科出现以来网上出现了许多以社群提供内容和互动为主题的网站。但是维基百科是唯一由一个开放的社群有一个明确的目标共同建设的项目。对于一个开放的社群，对于一个依靠合作建设的项目来说，社群各个成员之间的互重是项目发展的基础。朋友们，在讨论非常激烈的时候，在年复一年、一次又一次不断地讨论和解释同一规则之后，一个人往往会觉得非常不耐烦。互重是我们最容易忘记的支柱，因此也是我们最应该铭记的支柱。

维基百科快要九岁了，九年在网上是一个漫长的时间。许多今天在网上名列前茅的网站在九年前还不存在。一些九年前在网上名列前茅的网站今天已经鲜为人知，甚至已经消失。九年前维基百科是一个创新。在九年的时间里我们从一无所有建立了一个非常受欢迎的、有相当权威的百科全书。我们为网上百科全书做了一个新的定义。我们为中立性开创了一个新的定义，我们开放性的合作至今是其它网站无法达到的，为了保证我们的开放性和合作我们设立了许多规则。但是我们不能因此停留下来，不能因为我们达到的就却步不前了。我们现有的规则不是天经地义，假如有新的方法和规则能够更好地促进社群之间的合作，能够更好地促进维基百科的发展，我们需要像在维基百科依然处于婴儿时期一样勇于讨论和采纳它们。

女士们、先生们、各位贵宾们、朋友们，今天能够与各位在澳门相会我感到非常荣幸，我祝愿我们的年会能够促进大家之间的友情，消除过去的误会，探讨未来的发展，开发新的主意，为维基百科带来新的动力。

谢谢大家。

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Ladies and Gentlemen, dear guests, friends, hello

At first I want to thank the volunteers and friends from Wikimedia Macau and Wikimedia Hongkong for their organization, for their hard work. I know organizing such a meeting is not easy. A lot of unexpected things can happen, a lot of details and things must be done. Despite all these works a lot of people would be unhappy, would criticize the organizers or even suspect them. To keep on and make the meeting happen, make it a good meeting, is a very hard work. Because of this I want to express my very much thanks. Thank you very much for your work.

Wikipedia has five pillars. All our rules, all our work, should be based on these five pillars. All other rules can be changed or outdated, but these five pillars, we can say the constitution of Wikipedia, cannot be changed. I would like to ask if any of the friends here can tell me which five pillars they are?

The five pillars are: Encyclopedia, Neutral Point of View, Free Content, Respect To Each Other and Be Bold.

Wikipedia is an Encyclopedia, this is our first pillar, is the basis of our basis. This pillar defines the scope and goal of our work. But what is an encyclopedia? Which content belong to an encyclopedia, which not? When Wikipedia started no one of us could imaging that it would develop to what it is today. At that time we took the classic encyclopedia, like Britanica, as our example. Back at that time we thought that it would take eons to match the quality and quantity of Britanica. Back then people even listed out which articles Britanica has and we still not have. Today the number of our articles had exceeded by far Britanica. And the number of our users also exceeds by far of all users that had ever used Britanica. We have articles that Britanica doesn't have and would never have, like stations of the Hongkong Underground, or bus lines in Hongkong. Are these content of encyclopedia? According to the definition of classic encyclopedia obviously not. But our community, you, decided that they are. What does that mean? It means that we had expanded the definition of encyclopedia. We created a new definition of encyclopedia, which exceeds the content of the classic encyclopedia.

The second pillar of Wikipedia ist the Neutral Point of View. Wisdom is a human nature. The human being has no sharp claws, no sensitive nose, no wings to fly, no thick hide. But the to explore the world is the nature of the human being. The mankind can very effectively collect knowledge and pass it to their peer. We live in a complicated, multicultural and global world. When we learn, work or in our daily life we must make decisions and choices everyday. We can only make wise decisions if we can have the most thorough information. We need neutral knowledges to make decisions. 40 years ago the Red Guard brought China tremendous destruction. They did it not because they are evil, but because they don't have the knowledge, and the few knowledge that they have are filtered by other people. Because of this they are not able to evaluate the things they destroyed and they cannot evaluate the lives they destroyed. They are not able to select between right and wrong. Our goal is not to tell other people what is right and what is wrong. We don't have the ability and the right for that. If we begin to filter informations as good or bad, we are doing the same wrong thing like those people, who disguised the young people to do the destructions. Our goal is to provide thorough, neutral knowledge, so that our user can decide by themselves what is right and what is wrong. From Shan Hai Jing to the AIDS catastrophe in Henan, from Pythagoras to Harry Potter, in stories, history, literacy or now a day we can always meet people, who feels that some knowledge is too dangerous to be known by all the mankind, so that they must try to seal these knowledge to protect the society. But indeed the history had showed that no knowledge is always more peril than have knowledge, that filtered knowledge always do more harm than thorough transparent knowledge.

Only an open community can ensure that the knowledges we collected is neutral. Everyone of us has his own belief and his partial knowledge, no one knows everything. So the knowledge of a closed society is limited. Open has two meanings for us. Our community is open, and the knowledge we collected is also open. And that means that we have responsibility to our users. A lot of people don't understand why we take so many effort to respect the copyright of other people. We often hear people criticize us: In the Internet everyone copies everyone, why only Wikipedia don't allow this. There are a lot of good reasons why we respect copyright. The most important one is that we want to ensure that everyone can freely use the knowledge we collected. If we don't take care about copyright, our user would take risk if they use the content we collected. Other people can say: the content you collected is indeed not free. This would threat our mission, threat our reputation and threat the value of the knowledge we collected. Beside of this. Unfree knowledge is lightly not neutral, because its owner can decide who may use these knowledges and he can filter the knowledge.

Wiki is a social collaboration tool. When we are editing Wikipedia, we should never forget this. Social collaboration is another human nature. We have all the experience that gaming with friends makes more fun than gaming alone. The very basics of collaboration is mutual respect. Our community had devised deferent rules to encourage the collaboration inside of the community: We have barn stars, welcome template, Welcoming Committee, Contests. We have a lot of rules that are based on this pillar, like don't bite newbies, don't make personal insults, when discussing talk about fact, don't about person. Mutual respect is the glue of our community. Since the advent of Wikipedia a lot of new social content building and collaboration sites emerged, but none of them has such an open community, which is dedicated to a common goal like by Wikipedia. For an open community, which is collaborating to build up a project, the mutual respect of the community member between each other is the most important thing at all. Dear friends, if the discussion is tough, if we have to explain the same rules year after years, we get tired. But please let us never never never forget this most easily forgotten pillar.

Soon Wikipedia would be nine years old. Nine years is a long time on the net. Nine years ago most of the most visited sites didn't exist yet. Some of the sites that were very popular nine years ago are scarcely known today, or vanished. Nine years ago Wikipedia was an innovation. In these nine years we started with nothing and built up an extremely popular encyclopedia with increasing reputation. We defined encyclopedia new on the net, we introduced a new meaning of neutrality, our open collaboration is unchallenged by other sites. We have established a lot of rules to ensure the openness and collaboration on Wikipedia. But we cannot be content with this. We cannot stop with what was achieved. Our rules now are not unchangeable. If there are better means to encourage the collaboration inside of the community, to improve the growth of Wikipedia, we should be bold to discuss and adopt them, just as if Wikipedia is still in the time of its enfancy.

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear guests, friends. I am very happy and honored to meet you all today in Macau. I hope we can increase our friendship during the conference, can resolve our conflicts in the past, can discuss the future, develop new ideas and give new impulses to Wikipedia.

Thank you very much.