On 1/19/10, Jeffery Nichols arctic.gnome@gmail.com wrote:
There has been some discussion about things we could do, but I think the most promising idea was the creation of a Commons and Wikisource site for the hosting of the huge amount of Canada-related content that is restricted to not-for-profit use.
A Wikisource/Commons in Canada is about much more than Canadian content. It is a separate jurisdiction which has more suitable copyright laws as opposed to the US.
Tthere are many Australian works that are PD in Australia but are not PD in the US; these works are also PD in Canada. Wikimedia Australia could start up its own Wikisource, however a "Wikisource Australia" would need to reject a lot of content that a "Wikisource Canada" would welcome.
And so, we wait for Canada to pull together.
You can put me down as a potential member, if the eventual bylaws will accept overseas members.
As one of the main people who pulled Australia together, I strongly recommend that you focus on identifying which province provides the best environment for incorporation. In Australia, each state has different incorporation laws. We incorporated in the state of Victoria because its laws were the simplest to work with.
Once everyone in Australia agreed that Victoria was the best state to incorporate, people from other states helped us work through the incorporation process via email. Due to the vast size of Australia, we planned it from the outset to be a "virtual" organisation, with our bylaws permitting AGMs and committee meetings to be held via IRC. Our interim committee was not elected; it consisted of whoever was willing to be responsible for a) increasing membership and b) preparing for the first AGM which is when we held the first committee election.
Now that Wikimedia Australia is into it's second year with an elected committee, we are again looking at how to better support the other states, perusing non-profit status, etc. If we had tried to get these things "right" before incorporation, we might still be "discussing" them.
-- John Vandenberg