[Wikipedia-l] Time to set up Wikimedia ProjectCommittees

[Delirium]

Elisabeth Bauer wrote:

> The bylaws say otherwise at the moment - they give the board of 
> trustees the right to interfere with the projects. And, giving you the 
> same answer Jimmy gave the German wikipedians: this may be fine now, 
> but we have to think of the situation in 20 years. Even in 20 years, 
> it should be guaranteed that the welsh wikipedians decide over the 
> policies of the welsh wikipedia, the wikibookists over wikibooks and 
> so on.
>
> The wikimedia foundation is for keeping the servers running, 
> collecting funds and defending the projects against legal threats, but 
> not for enforcing rules (or a however defined code of ethics) upon all 
> projects.

I'm not sure how you can really get an absolute guarantee of that 
though.  If the Wikimedia Foundation owns the servers, it has de facto 
control over everything, whether the bylaws say so or not.  And even if 
the bylaws set up some sort of "self-government" for sub-Wikimedia 
entities, the bylaws can always be changed by a future Board of 
Trustees.  Unless each Wikipedia is to purchase and administer its own 
servers, and choose its own name (other than "Wikipedia"), I don't see 
how we can have projects not be subordinate, at least in a legal and 
technical sense, to the main organization.

-Mark