[Foundation-l] Chapters

[Kirill Lokshin]

On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 11:39 PM, <Birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Decentralization isn't some random choice that somehow was attached to this
> movement; it is the only way the program functions at all. WMF professionals
> can't begin to account for the program work being accomplished by the
> movement.  Has there been a recent push to catalog local train stations on
> the Albanian Wikipedia or is the current trend of work translating articles
> from a larger Wikipedia? No one knows what is actually going on in all
> wikis. Only that something goes on. But why does it go on? Because all these
> people, who could never dream of all being able to speak to one another any
> more than they could stand to live in one another's cultures, all get a
> chance to comfortably make their mark on something that seems to matter. And
> they feel rightfully that this makes them a stakeholder in something that
> matters and perhaps also feel a little more securely about how much they
> themselves matter.  Recent changes doesn't move because of "the Wikipedia
> brand", nor because of how "professional" WMF is run, nor because someone
> that has no understanding of how the program work of Wikimedia is
> accomplished feels that a description of WMF operations fails his gut check.
> Recent changes moves because individuals feel empowered by Wikimedia
> websites.  Recent changes moves entirely based of human feelings of worth
> and power and changing those feelings can make it move faster or slower. And
> there is one overarching reason people click on the banners to donate $, and
> that is because they believe donating will keep website live and recent
> changes moving.  Everything WMF does, should be checked against how it
> either helps or hinders that. And it impossible to both centralize and
> empower disparate people at the same time.


This is all very true, and very insightful; but what does it have to do with
chapters?

Just about everything that makes Wikimedia projects what they are can and
does take place irrespective of the existence of a formal, legal
organization in a particular jurisdiction.  Our putative Albanian
contributors do not wonder, as they write their train station articles,
whether there exists within the borders of Albania a legally instituted
non-profit organization acting in support of Wikimedia principles; they see
themselves as participants in an online project, not agents of a local
charity.

Nor does off-wiki collaboration require that a formal entity be in
existence.  Off-wiki activities -- whether social meetups or more formal
outreach efforts to GLAM institutions and elsewhere -- are no less effective
for being organized by loose groups of interested participants.  So long as
there is no need to handle substantial funds -- and how much of Wikimedia
contributors' typical work requires such? -- the lack of a legally
constituted organization matters little.

But to take this one step further, let us assume -- for the sake of argument
-- that the activities of the contributor community _do_ require the
existence of a dedicated legal entity in a particular jurisdiction.  One
could, potentially, construct a scenario where this is the case; for
example, someone wishes to donate a set of copyrighted works, and prefers
that an organization subject to local laws be responsible for handling the
process.  Even in this case, however, there is no requirement that the legal
entity be a "chapter" of the Wikimedia Foundation -- or, to be more precise,
that the entity have in place a particular sort of trademark usage agreement
with the WMF.  I can think of no conceivable need that could be filled by a
local entity holding rights to (non-commercial!) use of Wikimedia trademarks
but could not be filled just as well by a local entity identical in every
way save for the lack of such access to said trademarks.

This is not to say that there aren't very good reasons for having these
trademark agreements in place, of course; but the reasons have more to do
with effective brand marketing than with any _need_ on anyone's part.

Kirill