[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Wikimediauk-l] Joint statement with the Foundation

[John Vandenberg]

On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 2:38 PM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Roger Bamkin <victuallers at gmail.com>
> Date: 29 September 2012 06:53
> Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Joint statement with the Foundation
> To: UK Wikimedia mailing list <wikimediauk-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>
>
> I have been encouraged to issue statements for the last week or so
> about the debate. I have resisted as I did not want to escalate what I
> saw as an unfortunate bit of publicity for Wikimedia UK and the
> Foundation. I'm very disappointed to see the latest press release  I
> believe that the statement on my talk page on the English, Catalan and
> Simple Wikipedia supplies some background.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Victuallers

Coping text of user-page here under CC-BY-SA; link above; attribution:
Victuallers.

"

It could be that you were unaware of my declared conflicts of
interest, however it wasn't your job to be aware, however they were
well known. Wikimedia UK were managing this. They said, Roger "... has
not voted in any Wikimedia UK decisions about Monmouthpedia since the
start of his consultancy relationship with MCC or on any decisions
about Gibraltarpedia or QRpedia."[1] Wikimedia UK made monthly reports
to the Wikimedia Foundation detailing all significant events. They web
cast their board meetings. They had little or no secrets.

Over the past ten months, Roger Bamkin, a Wikimedia UK trustee helped
lead two Wikipedia-related projects, Monmouthpedia and Gibraltarpedia.
Both of these projects were based on QRpedia which is a service that
has been offered free to the movement via Wikimedia UK. As part of
this award winning work, the Foundation signed a trademark agreement
with Monmouthshire County Council[2] and later with the Government of
Gibraltar.[3] Wikimedia UK were well aware of the trustee's commercial
involvement[4] in both cases and the Foundation as part of due
diligence would have found that out by talking to the trustee,
Wikimedia UK and the people they were signing the agreement with.
Roger stood again for the board and made it clear that he was a paid
consultant of Monmouthshire County Council working on Monmouthpedia in
his statement to the members. He was re-elected. Roger has received no
payments apart from expenses from Wikimedia UK. He has helped create
two projects which align with Wikimedia UK's vision and they have only
had to contribute a minority financial contribution.

Coincidentally this is the same trustee who led the Wikimedia UK board
to become a registered charity[5] and to obtain (£1m and) hundreds of
thousands of pounds worth of gift aid and partial funding for 2012/13.
Roger Bamkin stood down as chair here when he took "Monmouthshire
County Council (Wikimedia UK partners for the Monmouthpedia project)
as a client".[4]

The recent edits on the Gibraltarpedia project are shown here. There
are just the additions being made to the English Wikipedia. In the
last several weeks volunteers have added 200 new articles in many
languages. (Most of the new articles are not in English)

As a result of the action of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia UK
have "agreed" to not take part in the fundraiser.

Before this action was taken the following press release was issued[1]

regards Roger Bamkin

Notes:

QRpedia was shortlisted by the UK as best phone application

Monmouthpedia was voted the world's coolest wikiproject by the World
membership present at the annual conference

Gibraltarpedia is the first time that the Foundation has signed a
trade mark agreement with a Government.

On the left hand side of this page you will see some of the languages
who have been contacted and many involved in the projects described
here.

References:

1. Gibraltarpedia: WMUK press release
    http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/09/gibraltarpedia-the-facts/
2. Welcome to the world’s first Wikipedia town
    http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/05/welcome-to-the-worlds-first-wikipedia-town/
3. Volunteer’s efforts win Gibraltar the right to be the first Wikipedia ‘city’
    http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/07/volunteers-efforts-win-gibraltar-the-right-to-be-the-first-wikipedia-city/
4. Changes to the Wikimedia UK board – A message from Roger Bamkin
    http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/04/changes-to-the-wikimedia-uk-board-a-message-from-roger-bamkin/
5. What did you think of our annual report?
    http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/07/what-did-you-think-of-our-annual-report/

"

-- 
John Vandenberg