[Foundation-l] Fwd: Wikimedia India Program Trust

[Joan Goma]

>
> Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:12:42 +0000
> From: B?ria Lima <berialima at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Fwd: Wikimedia India Program Trust
>
> *The way I see is India is a land of immense potential for the Wikimedia
> > Movement. IMHO, There is enough space of 10 chapters and Wikimedia
> offices
> > to co-exist and work together in India.*
> >
>
> Did you ever read the Chapter Agreement you signed with WMF? That document
> states that WMIN is the ONLY chapter of WMF in India, and that any one
> organization must have their "approval" to work in Indian soil (I'm saying
> that based in WMPT agreement, WMIN one might be different.)
>
>
I think that the spirit of an agreement is more important than its wording but
I would like to comment both.

Regarding the wording, in my opinion what the contract says can be
interpreted exactly the other way around. It says that to create another
chapter in the same geographical area WMIN will be consulted. [1] It
doesn’t say that the approval of WMIN is needed. Furthermore to create an
organization different than chapters not even that consultation is foreseen.

As for the spirit I feel that the impression that chapters have private
ownership of land is a big mistake that can leads us to a situation contrary to
our values. This exclusivity is contrary to the spirit of sharing. We are
not cultivating potatoes where the owner of the land keeps the potatoes. We
give the potatoes away. The more and better people working the land more
potatoes can give away. We don’t need land owners, what we need are
people working
the land.

I think these organizations should be happy of having there each other andsee
a chance that what one of them can’t do, perhaps will be done by the other.



http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Agreement_between_chapters_and_Wikimedia_Foundation#3.%20Geographic_limits