On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 9:07 PM, Jimmy
Wales<jwales(a)wikia-inc.com> wrote:
On 8/28/11 1:00 AM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
I think that developing such a legal entity
should be a high priority
for Brazilian Wikipedians to ensure that Wiki activities in Brazil are
controlled by Brazilians. At the same time I don't think there is any
value to having a WMF appointee on your board; such a person would find
it difficult to function under circumstances of perpetual conflict of
interest. No other chapter has such a clause.
I had never thought of this before,
but now that it has been mentioned,
I just wanted to disagree, quite respectfully because Ray is awesome of
course, and say that I think it is a very interesting idea to have a WMF
appointee on the boards of chapters.
There should be very few cases where there is a "conflict of interest"
since chapters and the Foundation are deeply tied together always (and
that's a good thing). I think having a Foundation representative on the
board of chapters does present some possibly insurmountable logistical
issues (who will they be?) but I actually think such an arrangement
might be incredibly valuable for improving communication and
*decreasing* perceived conflicts of interest.
I am sorry Jimmy, I don't
follow. I don't see who they will be, to be an
insurmountable logistical issue for a Foundation representative, but
instead, a complete reversal of previous policy and exercise. It undermines
the entire concept of local organizations and brings an unnecessary outside
influence on an independent legal organization. Are you arguing for such a
representative on other chapters? or are you singling out Brazil here.
In case this is about Brazil, I would like to question why a similar
proposal wasn't considered for India since it's also a priority area. The
entire notion, that having a WMF representative on a chapter board for the
purposes of aiding in communication seems wrong to me.
I would not want to think of this in terms of "singling out Brazil", nor
would I want to jump to conclusions about who came up with the idea. It
could even have been someone on the Brazilian side. Suffice it to say
that I consider it a bad idea. A strong autonomous Brazilian chapter is
long overdue. The only previous issue was the desire of some Brazilians
to avoid having a legally responsible corporate structure. That is being
worked on satisfactorily.
For the WMF to regard Brazil as a key element in its Global South
strategy is rational, but at this stage it has the appearance of
compromising the development of a Brazilian chapter. This may be less
problematic once WMBR is firmly established.
Ray