[Wikipedia-l] Stop for a moment, please

[Lars Aronsson]

Ulrich Fuchs wrote:
> Lars Aronssen mentioned on the german list the "Medizins sans frontiere" (is
> ist "medicines without frontieres" in english?). As far as I can see, they

I mentioned them as one of several international organizations that
have national chapters.  The French name is Medecins Sans Frontiers
(www.msf.org), the German section is www.aerzte-ohne-grenzen.de

One thing that can be observed is that on the top right of their
German website is a bank account for donations (Spendenkonto).
This is a German bank account that belongs to the German section.
This could be food for thought: If a German membership association
("e.V.") for Wikipedia is founded, and it opens a bank account, can
this bank account be displayed on the front de.wikipedia.org, or would
that be reserved for bank accounts directly belonging to Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., Florida USA?  Of course, the website ultimately
belongs to the American foundation, and so does the decision.

Of course, for MSF the main activity is sending doctors to work abroad
in developing countries or disaster areas, and their website is just a
minor expense in their budget.  The German MSF website belongs to the
German section, etc.  In contrast, the German Wikipedia website is not
owned by the German membership organization, but by the American
Foundation.

Another issue is to how big a degree a German Wikipedia membership
organization can be independent from the American foundation.  What if
two or three separate German organizations are formed?  The mother
foundation probably needs to appoint one of them to be the "official"
one, allow them to use the Wikipedia or Wikimedia name, etc., and
probably should prosecute any other organization for illegally using
these names.  Or perhaps my preconceived notions run away with me
here.  Could we live with a plurality of supporter organizations?

I was personally surprised to learn from the bylaws of the German
sections of MSF (URL above) and ISOC (www.isoc.de) that the annual
general assembly of members is free and sovereign to decide on
modification of the bylaws.  For Swedish membership organizations, it
is normal that amendments to the bylaws require decisions on two
separate general assembly meetings with at least a month between them.

In addition to this, for the Swedish chapter of ISOC (www.isoc.se),
any amendment to the bylaws must be approved by the ISOC Vice
President of Chapters.  The initiative and decision to amend the
bylaws must come from within the Swedish chapter, so no changes can be
pushed down from above; ISOC only has a veto power.  You can read an
English translation of the bylaws for ISOC-SE (particularly § 7) on
http://www.isoc.se/arsmote010314/engelska010301.pdf
However, no veto paragraph is found in the bylaws for ISOC-DE.

I personally find the Swedish ISOC bylaws quite acceptable.  If the
members of the Swedish chapter would suddenly vote to change the
bylaws to promote letter pidgeons instead of the Internet, then the
international organization should be able to veto this change.  The
veto paragraph (§ 7) was introduced because ISOC required it.  I have
no idea about the history of the bylaws for the German chapter.

I also learned that the Wikimedia Foundation is not a "foundation" in
the European sense of the word.  Swedish law defines different cases
for non-profit membership organizations, for-profit membership
organizations (coops) and foundations.  Foundations are inherently
void of democracy, since they cannot have members.  A typical Swedish
foundation is the Nobel Foundation, formed according to the will of
Alfred Nobel.  In Sweden, churches, political parties, and trade
unions are defined as non-profit membership organizations.  Naively I
had assumed that the German "e.V." was a direct equivalent of the
Swedish non-profit membership organization.  However, I was told that
in Germany, churches, political parties, and trade unions are not at
all of the "e.V." form, but organizations of other kinds, defined in
separate laws.

I'm really learning a lot here.  Hope these observations can be
useful.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se/