Daniel Mayer wrote:
--- Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)wikia.com> wrote:
My recommendation is that the German chapter
continue to work closely
with the Foundation and NOT go out and randomly accept a hosting offer
and buy random servers.
I did not suggest that they randomly accept a hosting offer or buy random
servers. Of course they need to work closely with the foundation and developers
on these issues. But, we’ve all been in the *exact* same situation since our
first co-organized fund drive in October 2004.
I agree that ill-considered hosting arrangements could compromise the
credibility of the entire project, or that poorly chosen equipment could
be incompatible with what already exists. At the same time it is
reasonable to expect that what funds are raised in Germany should be
spent in Germany.
The building of
a coherent global network is a significant technical and
organizational challenge that many good people are working hard on,
The German chapter has been in limbo for almost a year now as to how they can
help globally. It has been my observation that the trustees of that chapter
want to help globally but the issues relating to what can and can’t be done
with that money outside of Germany has been a major reason why little has been
done with that money outside that nation. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
So I simply suggested that everybody consider setting aside the issues that
have been stopping action for nearly a year. I did *not* suggest that any rash
decisions be made or that things get decided unilaterally or randomly. But I
did suggest that issues relating to legal ownership (a major bottleneck - in my
observation - so far) can be worked out in due time. As is, the great majority
of the money is just sitting there.
Admittedly, I have not followed what happens to funds very closely. I
have no technical knowledge about servers so I don't participate in
those discussions, and I'm not in Germany so that puts me further from
what happens with their funds. As long as Wikipedia could operate with
two servers in San Diego there was not much to worry about in the
ownership of the servers. The size of the recent fund drive, however,
makes it clear that we are not far away from a million dollar annual
budget. AFAIK there are no models for a wiki with that size of budget.
I think that the wikification of budgets will seem even stranger than
the wikification of an encyclopedia. It comes as no surprise when a lot
of people who have embraced the wiki way are oblivious to issues of
accounting and finance. I did notice that there was an item in the
budget to pay for external auditors, but before we get to that we need
to deal with internal audits. This could perhaps be through an audit
committee of Wikipedians who are independent of the money management,
and who are given full access to all the information that they need
including acess to receipts, cancelled checks, bank records and whatever
else they may find relevant.
I believe in a dispersed ownership where each national organization has
fiscal autonomy, and full ownership rights in whatever equipment it
purchases. A German organization should be accountable to the broader
membership as a condition of having the right to use our trademarks, but
it should be in such a way that it has no obligation or effect on the
reporting requirements of the parent organization to the U.S. Internal
Revenue Service.
If any national organization gets into legal trouble of any remotely
imaginable kind the organization should be such that no other national
organization is affected. This holds especially true for the
organization in the litigious climate of the United States where you
don't need to do something wrong to get sued.
I do not think
it is wise to give advice like this.
Then can you suggest a way for the process to be moved along?
Either the German chapter can help us with global issues, or their fundraising
page needs to be changed to tell exactly what money donated to the German
chapter can be used on and what it can’t. So far, everything seems to give the
impression that money donated to the German chapter can be used to help with
global needs. *That* is why I’ve been drafting budgets and coordinating fund
drives that include the German chapter as a means to help us attain global
goals. So I merely suggested a way that that could be done.
What are our understandings on this? Co-ordinated fund-raising makes
sense. It is also understandable that there would be global needs, but
there still needs to be a definition of what needs are global.
As more and more chapters get tax exempt status, this
will be more and more of
an issue. This issue needs to be worked out ASAP, before over half the money
generated in fund drives goes to chapters instead of directly to the
foundation.
In some countries tax exempt status depends on the funds so collected
being spent for needs in that country.
Mav, I know that you are working very hard at this, and that you are
approaching the task in an autonomous and independent manner, though at
times I do wonder whether you're in over your head. I would have loved
to have heard you views on this in Frankfurt, and was very disappointed
that you could not be there.
Ec