[Wikimedia-l] WMF Policy and Political Affiliations Guideline

[Nathan]

Andreas makes a really important point below. Now that I read it from his
perspective, it seems like what we're dealing with here is a surreptitious
attempt by the General Counsel to hijack the Wikimedia Foundation and its
projects to serve their covert corporate masters. Obviously the Bilderberg
Group, using Google as its tool, has subverted the movement for its own aim
of global domination.

On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 10:00 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'd suggest what you're struggling with may be the impression that someone
> very much *wants* Wikimedia or Wikipedia to lobby for political causes. I
> wouldn't even be surprised if the idea that Wikimedia should have a
> community advocacy department was suggested by some of Wikimedia's partners
> and sponsors.
>
> Basically, Wikipedia has enough traffic to be a top-ten website. So if
> Wikipedia says or does something, it's noticed by a heck of a lot of
> people. The job of the Advocacy Advisory Group seems to be to make sure
> that "the community" says the right thing.
>
> Several of the six decision types listed on the proposed policy page, e.g.
> "Collaborative Advocacy" (collaborating with another organization to take
> action on a particular policy or political question) and "Limited Trademark
> Endorsement" (permitting another organization to use the Wikimedia name and
> trademark to promote a policy or political cause), require neither board
> input nor wider community input, just consultation of the AAG.
>
> As I said on the proposed policy's talk page, that Advocacy Advisory Group
> is an odd thing. On the one hand, the proposed policy insists the AAG is a
> community organ, implying it is not under the Foundation's control. On the
> other hand, though, the proposed policy says the group is "managed by the
> Legal and Community Advocacy Department", which is part of the Foundation.
> So what does that mean? And who is in this group? Its name is hyperlinked
> to yet another mailing list:
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list
> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
>