[Foundation-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Brasil + WMF

[Béria Lima]

>
> *If the point is to improve communication, then a more practical approach
> might be to designate "observers" who are not given authority but merely sit
> in with a chapter board. That's assuming that the chapter board level is one
> of the places where it makes the most sense to add a communication
> interface.
> *


35 people from WMF to observ every single chapter?
_____
*Béria Lima*
<http://wikimedia.pt/>(351) 925 171 484

*Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter livre
acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. É isso o que estamos a
fazer <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Nossos_projetos>.*


On 2 September 2011 21:02, Michael Snow <wikipedia at frontier.com> wrote:

> On 9/2/2011 12:11 PM, Florence Devouard wrote:
> > On 9/1/11 5:37 PM, Jimmy Wales 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.
> >>
> >> --Jimbo
> > I can not help commenting a bit more on the matter of "conflict of
> > interest". I think I can probably say more on the matter than most
> > people here.
> >
> > First because I pushed a LOT for the adoption of a COI policy on the
> > board of WMF. And this generated lot's of painful discussions between
> > you, Michael and I. In particular with regards to your involvement with
> > Wikia.
> For those reading whose memories may not be quite long enough - I assume
> Florence is referring to Michael Davis here, not to me. The conflict of
> interest policy was adopted in 2006, before I was on the board. I just
> thought it would help to make the distinction explicit, as it wouldn't
> be the first time somebody has gotten us confused.
>
> Meanwhile, on the subject of mutual board appointments between chapters
> and the foundation, I figured I'd chime in as I helped push the idea for
> chapters to select foundation board members in the first place. For one
> thing, there's a very different power dynamic between the chapters
> collectively choosing a couple members of the foundation's board, and
> the foundation solely choosing a member of an individual chapter's
> board. The chapter-appointed seats cannot really be controlled outside
> of the selection process itself, so those board members can act as
> freely as their colleagues, and certainly no single chapter can force
> them to act in a particular way. This is partly by design, since the
> ultimate fiduciary obligations of those board members are still to the
> foundation rather than a chapter, and is why we emphasized that they are
> not necessarily being selected as "representatives" of the chapters.
> However, somebody appointed to a chapter board by the foundation would
> be directly answerable to the foundation, and it could be fairly easy to
> argue that they are an agent of the foundation. It undermines the
> organizational independence much more dramatically.
>
> If the point is to improve communication, then a more practical approach
> might be to designate "observers" who are not given authority but merely
> sit in with a chapter board. That's assuming that the chapter board
> level is one of the places where it makes the most sense to add a
> communication interface.
>
> --Michael Snow
>
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