[Foundation-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Brasil + WMF

[Ray Saintonge]

On 09/02/11 12:25 PM, Theo10011 wrote:
> 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.

I would not want to think of this in terms of "singling out Brazil", nor 
would I want to jump to conclusions about who came up with the idea. It 
could even have been someone on the Brazilian side.   Suffice it to say 
that I consider it a bad idea. A strong autonomous Brazilian chapter is 
long overdue.  The only previous issue was the desire of some Brazilians 
to avoid having a legally responsible corporate structure. That is being 
worked on satisfactorily.

For the WMF to regard Brazil as a key element in its Global South 
strategy is rational, but at this stage it has the appearance of 
compromising the development of a Brazilian chapter.  This may be less 
problematic once WMBR is firmly established.

Ray