[Foundation-l] Contact in Thailand

[Walter van Kalken]

Anthere wrote:

>Cormac Lawler wrote:
>  
>
>>On 5/19/06, Walter van Kalken <walter at vankalken.net> wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>You are starting to speak like a repetative record. A bit more respect
>>>in your tone could well get us somewhere. A person interested in
>>>wikipedia. I have spend more fucking hours in the past 2,5 years for
>>>wikimedia FOR FREE then you will ever do on your salary! Without people
>>>like me contributing to these projects there wouldn't be any money to
>>>pay for your cushy job earning topdollars over my back. So a bit more
>>>respect and a more normal tone should be warranted. Also you are not on
>>>the board as far as I know.
>>>
>>>Waerth/Walter
>>>      
>>>
>>
>>Walter,
>>
>>you're misinterpreting what Brad said - he simply pointed out that
>>you're not (legally) authorised to speak for the foundation - which is
>>true. The fact that you're interested in pursuing a collaboration is
>>great - he even said this (read it again - it's below).
>>
>>I'll also repeat what Michael pointed out in that Brad has done *huge*
>>amounts of work for the foundation, behind the scenes, *for free*.
>>Really, huge. He really believes in our ideals - and he knows how the
>>community works. But the fact that not many people know him possibly
>>isn't such a surprise :-)
>>
>>If this collaboration goes well, you're welcome to pass it on to the
>>Special projects committee
>><http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special_projects_committee> - we're
>>here to help out in any way.
>>
>>All the best,
>>
>>Cormac (Cormaggio)
>>    
>>
>
>hmmm, tiny correction Cormac (I know it is just an issue of phrasing it 
>more clearly). If the collaboration goes well, Waerth should not *pass* 
>it on the committee. He should goes on working on this collaboration and 
>consider the committee as his contact (rather than the board's). The 
>committee is not meant to take over what editors are trying to organise. 
>It is meant to "second/replace" the board in helping the collaboration 
>to become official. Cormac knows this very well, but I think the words 
>used may be confusing :-)
>
>ant
>  
>
Thank you Anthere for this. This does give a person a smile :) I had a 
quick introduction today with 2 other persons from the Thai side and I 
basically had to tell all over again what wikimedia is and is 
doing/tries to accomplish (sometimes things go very slow in this part of 
the world). Good thing is I had a free lunch :) And tomorrow we will 
speak again, again around lunchtime. The young people are convinced 
(were already convinced before meeting me) that wikimedia is the 
solution for them. Now we need to convince the older decision people. 
And we need to convince them in such a way that it looks like the idea 
is theirs! And not from some foreigner and their juniors. This is a 
difficult process and if they loose face because it looks like the 
foreigner and/or their juniors came up with it ........ well then forget 
about it. This is why I am non to thrilled if people from other parts of 
the world not knowing the local culture (which is even less than the 
tiny bit I understand of Thai culture) announce they want to take over. 
No pun intended, but this ain't the States nor Europe. Things work 
differently here. And like I said I cannot afford loosing my own face 
amongst these people. I am but a foreigner here. My next re-entry in 
Thailand I can be refused on whatever grounds people like and no lawyer 
who would get me out of that mess.

Waerth/Walter