[Wikipedia-l] Re: Setting a new server in France for french wikipedia

[Lars Aronsson]

Walter Vermeir wrote:
> If where let say Lars Aronsson the founder of Wikipedia it would be i
> think a Swedish foundation for Wikimedia.

Well, it would be "in Sweden", but it wouldn't be "a foundation",
because that is not the traditional way to organize things over here.

If it was in Germany, it would be an "e.V." (eingetragene Verein, or
registered membership association), and a similar construction would
be used in Sweden.  I think some kind of membership association is now
being discussed on the German wiki-de mailing list.

The Swedish chapter of ISOC is now a Swedish membership association,
and all I know is that it took quite a lot of bureaucracy to make this
interface with the international mother organization.  The problem
seems to be that Swedish laws require the Swedish association to be
independent, having their own bylaws, so its elected board can be
held responsible under Swedish laws, and at the same time the
international organization doesn't allow the chapter to be fully
independent, but its bylaws and board must be approved by ISOC.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation does not have a Swedish chapter,
but a completely independent membership association "with similar
goals" exists in Sweden (www.efs.se).  Saves a lot of bureaucracy.

If the Wikimedia foundation looks for a solution like this, a lot
could be learned from already existing international organizations
such as ISOC, the Red Cross, etc.  I could volunteer to be the
overpaid representative in Geneva with a secret bank account.  :-)


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se/