From: Robert Horning robert_horning@netzero.net Guillaume Paumier wrote:
On 5/18/07, Andrew Whitworth wknight8111@hotmail.com wrote:
I got this email today, don't know if it's legitimate or what. I also
dont
know why they singled out me, or thanked me for Wikibooks. Anyway, what
do
people make of this?
Proposals of collaboration or usage of Wikimedia brands / logos must be addressed to the office. Also, please don't publish private emails containing names, addresses, phone numbers etc. on publicly archived
mailing
lists :)
I'm not entirely sure what exactly this means. Why is it not possible to request a collaboration with the community that is producing the content rather than having to use individuals who may not even be familiar with the project that collaboration is sought with?
I certainly wouldnt advocate leaving the WMF out of the loop entirely. I do know that the WMF's official stated policy is that it does not make partnerships or whatever with other organizations. However, i'm not prepared to say "this is Wikibook's business, and the WMF can suck a lemon". If it's a matter simply as small as them posting a link to us, and us posting a link to them, I can't imagine that it's even a big deal. If it were more then that, such as Wikibooks book PDFs being hosted on the other site, or wikibooks/wikimedia logos being posted on their sites, then yes we would want to get the WMF involved.
I would try to encourage them to look at some of the featured books that can be found here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Featured_books
Agreed, we can put our best foot forward in situations like this, and I would say that the community is sufficiently discriminant in this process that many of these books really are worth advertising.
Andrew is certainly what I would consider to be a legitimate contact point for a request like this.
Thank you! I do think it's a good idea to have a centralized contact for an outside group to communicate with Wikibooks. It's certainly easier then exposing the outside groups to our mailing list, or asking an external group to post questions on the staff lounge and attempt to determine the community consensus on the matter from the responses there. It's certainly something we should talk about as a community, however.
--Andrew Whitworth
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