[Foundation-l] [Wikinews-l] Proposal for the creation of a Wikinews foundation

[Craig Spurrier]

Florence Devouard wrote:
> Let me thank you for the words of appreciation of the Foundation :-)
>
>
>
> I fully understand your need of an organization to help "make contacts", 
> maybe because I saw several french wikipedians negociate pretty well to 
> get press access to political meetings during our elections in France. 
> It was done through the french chapter, and I am pretty sure it largely 
> helped them to refer to the association and to be able to show a nice 
> business card referring to the association, with an appropriate email 
> address.
>   
Being able to officially use the logo on business cards and being able 
to claim some level of officialness would greatly help us. The 
@wikinewsie.org e-mail address has already greatly improved responses. 
Even silly things like wearing a Wikinews polo shirt have improved 
response. These are all however effective solely because they convey a 
false sense of officialness, except in the places lucky enough to have 
chapters where even then they must make a very clear separation between 
the press activities and the association.
> Regarding your suggestion, I tend to share the same level of thinking 
> than Schiste. Wondering how it would work on an international scale. 
> Wondering how chapters could help here. Wondering who would govern that 
> Foundation. How would needs of non english wikinews be taken into 
> account. Etc...
There is no reason why this foundation could not support non-english 
Wikinews.
We actually already have several people with accreditation from 
non-english Wikinews editions. This puts the English language Wikinews 
in an awkward spot of denying many request for credentials because the 
people are to represent the English language Wikinews. At the moment if 
you do not speak and write English you can not get accreditation. This 
is a problem a foundation could resolve. There is no reason this 
foundation like the Wikimedia could not be multilingual.

Governance of a foundation would probably be in the style of an elected 
board elected either from/by the members of the Wikinews communities or 
by the community selected accredited reporters. For practical reasons it 
would probably be set up as a South Carolina based nonprofit(though if 
we can get someone else to establish it in a better location all the 
better :) ). South Carolina has a low fee for nonprofits, the legal 
benefits of being in the United States and is very convenient for me 
being where I currently live :) . The foundation location is only of 
concern for setup and basic legal requirements. All of the day to day 
actions of this foundation would be handled online or for stuff like 
verifying accreditation via mail and phone.

-Craig Spurrier
[[n:Craig Spurrier]]