[Foundation-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Brasil + WMF

[Theo10011]

On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 9:07 PM, Jimmy Wales <jwales at 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. There are, and would
be conflict of interest, especially after the grants model is implemented. I
would argue that the onus is on WMF to aid in communication, there is still
not a single dedicated person on staff for chapter coordination/outreach,
instead most Chapter relation/oversight comes from an unusual overlap of
Global Development, Communications department and rarely Community
department. Let me put this in perspective, there are 3 Storytellers, a
Strategy department, dedicated researchers, full-time on staff but not a
single person to deal with chapters who have been around for several years.

If a board of chapters composed of volunteers who have to solely rely on the
foundation for activities have to do a better job in communications, the
Foundation has to do its part first.

Theo