[Wikinews-l] Proposal for the creation of a Wikinews foundation

[Messedrocker]

First of all, I had always thought it was a good idea that an association of
accredited Wikinews editors would stay away from the Wikinews trademark, and
officially be unrelated to Wikinews, as this avoids the process of being
licensed to use the trademark and it allows for it to branch out in many
more directions.

I probably was the first Wikinewsie to come up with the idea of a Wiki
Journalism Foundation (at least I was the first to pitch it to Erik
Moeller), which would exist for the sake of accrediting reporters and giving
grants for reporters to, for example, travel to an area devastated by a
hurricane so they can report on it. I am pretty sure grants are out of the
question unless the organization receives a large grant. In any case, the
Wiki Journalism Foundation -- at least per my brainstorms -- would be a
member-based organization, with its members being the accredited reporters
(and serial donors would be considered 'auxiliary members').

However, it appears that Wikinewsies have decided that it would be best to
officially associate an accrediting body with Wikinews itself; I am fine
with that. After all, if the Foundation was cool with the idea, there would
be very minimal headache in establishing the organization.

Sadly I probably won't be able to become a member of such an organzation,
and I'll probably lose accreditation once the accrediting body changes from
the vaguely defined "Wikinews community" to a non-profit corporation
established with a state's government. However I think this would greatly
improve Wikinews's image as a news organization.

On 8/22/07, Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 22/08/07, Wikinews Markie <newsmarkie at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Does the organisation *have* to be only centered on Wikinews? Can't it
> > > be called "wiki journalists of the world"?
> >
> >
> > how many wiki news sites are you aware of?? i'm afraid i only know of
> the
> > one :-)
>
> Is the wiki aspect a significant part of Wikinews? I would not have
> thought so. There are many tools you could use to collaboratively
> write news.
>
> Is the "citizen journalism" part an important part? -there are many
> colleagues there.
> Is the free/libre part an important part? IIRC this was a strong
> argument when Wikinews began, that many people offer limited
> free/gratis news, but no one free/libre news.
> Is the 'neutral' part an important part? I would guess so.
>
> cheers,
> Brianna
> commons:user:pfctdayelise
>
> --
> They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
> http://modernthings.org/
>
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