This is a response for Delphine, who asked what's going on with
Wikimedia Canada, and why things aren't working.
I can't speak well for anyone else, but I'll give my own ideas for why
I'm not more involved with getting this off the ground:
1. I don't know who else is involved. Who's idea was this, and
who's pushing it forward?
2. I don't know what work has been done already, or what needs
still to be done. Are we at square zero? Are we several steps
along? I don't know. What are the steps we need to take?
3. I'm not sure what Wikimedia Canada would do.
So: what needs to be done to get us going? Is it just the formation of
the association? What is the next step needed to get that going --
finding a lawyer, collecting funds to pay him/her?
-Evan
Why isn't Wikimedia Canada taking off?
What can I do to help Wikimedia Canada get off the ground?
Delphine
--
~notafish
La critique, art aisé, se doit d'être constructive. -- Boris Vian in
*Chroniques du menteur*
NB. This address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails sent to
this address will probably get lost.
Now that school has started and summer is starting to wind down, I'd like to
start to move the Chapter
creation process forward, and give it a solid schedule.
I've made preliminary contact with a lawyer with the intention of getting
some assistance in drafting the various bylaws
that are required to give Wikimedia Canada a legal footing. I'm hoping
having someone with skill and knowledge will
shorten the time that it is taking us to tackle this task at present.
My intention is to keep the process as open as possible, and make available
the by-laws on wiki (and possibly on the
mailing list), so everyone can review and comment on them before we submit
them for official consideration.
I'd like comments or questions and concerns.
Thanks,
Gerald.
Hi everyone,
The list has been quiet during the summer, and I'm hoping now that school is
starting we can get a few things done.
First thing I'd like to mention is that Toronto has tossed its name into the
hat of contenders for hosting Wikimania in 2008.
If you can help, or even if you want to express your support, visit
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2008/Bids/Toronto#Local_team
and add your name.
Thanks,
Gerald.
Hi everyone! My name is Mitch and I hope to help get Wikimedia Canada going!
Right now though, I am hoping to update the Mailing list page on Meta with
this list. Who is the admin for this list?
Thanks!
Mitch (Greeves)
I have put together a first draught of the membership section of the
proposed by-laws at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Canada/Membership
This is a very rough draught, but it puts out an initial structure.
Please feel free to comment in the alternatives section below, or on the
talk page. I would prefer that you avoid making changes to the draught
itself, as this could make it difficult to maintain the structure of the
article. I'll try to incorporate ideas as they are presented. When
suggestions stall I hope to start a poll to see if there is indeed
support for this section.
Ec
One of the challenges in writing the by-laws is the structure of the
Board of Directors.
1. How big should the Board be? If it's too big it may not be able to
do its work efficiently; if it's too small there may not be enough
people to do the work. The Foundation board started with five members
but has needed to expand since it was established.
2. How do we best integrate regional and provincial interests.
Eventually we should support the growth of sub-chapters but that could
take a few years before it can be accomplished across the country.
These sub-chapters can be represented at the federal level. Few people
outside of Toronto would want the board to be Toronto dominated.
3. How do we choose directors? A few should probably be appointed to
bring desired skills to the Board, but they should remain a minority.
How many should be chosen by the general membership, and how? How many
should be chosen by the online community. Can non-Canadians participate
as members of the online community?
Other issues may also arise.
Ray
Perhaps this isn't the best time to create a legal entity around
Wikimedia Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070419.wwikipedia0420/…
Could this guy add us to his lawsuit, even though we have no control
over the content of the site, even less so than the Wikimedia
Foundation does? Under US law, the Foundation is fine if they comply
and take down offending content at request of the offendee, but we'd
be under Canadian law, and I don't know if like provisions exist.
Nick
Salut-hi, everyone! Many of you have already received personal
invitations to attend RecentChangesCamp Montreal; for those of you who
we've missed, I wanted to send this broadcast message. I realize it's
slightly off-topic but I think it's of general interest to
Wikimedia-involved people in Canada. Apologies for dupes; feel free to
chew me out off-list.
My name is Evan Prodromou; I'm a Web technologist, writer, Free
Software/Culture advocate and entrepreneur. Among other things, I'm the
founder of Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org/), the Open Content,
wiki-edited travel guide. I'm also a MediaWiki developer and a Wikipedia
en: administrator. I've been a Wikipedian since 2002.
I'm writing as one of the volunteer organizers of RecentChangesCamp
Montreal. RecentChangesCamp is a world-wide "unconference" for wiki
technologists, wiki users and wiki admins. Also invited are people from
related technology and community practises, as we look for common ground
on community, collaboration, and self-organizing behaviour. The event is
free of charge for all participants. The previous two RecentChangesCamp
events in Portland have been extremely fun and interesting for
participants.
http://www.recentchangescamp.org/
RecentChangesCamp Montreal ("RoCoCoCamp") will be held in Montreal from
18-20 May 2007. It will be a three-day conference with the agenda set by
the participants, using [[Open Space Technology]].
http://www.rocococamp.info/
No keynotes, no hours-long slide presentations, no conference tracks:
the emphasis of RecentChangesCamp is on bringing together smart,
passionate, talented people for productive, peer-to-peer talks.
People involved with or concerned about the Wikimedia Foundation and WMF
activities in Canada are strongly encouraged to attend. Not only will
there be opportunities to talk about and work on Foundation issues with
other WMF participants, but there will also be participants from other
non-profit and for-profit wiki organizations as well. It's a great
opportunity for sharing WMF experiences and for gathering information
about the rest of the wiki world.
If you would like to attend, please sign up on our wiki:
http://www.rocococamp.info/Participants
We're arranging lodging for a variety of budgets (from couch-surfing to
the Hyatt). Travel to Montreal for most Canadians will be relatively
inexpensive, given the great variety of rail and air options.
Please check out our wiki if you have any questions; also feel free to
contact anyone in our all-volunteer organizing group. You can write to
me directly or call my cell phone (+1-514-554-3826).
Thanks,
-Evan
________________________________________________________________________
Evan Prodromou <evan(a)prodromou.name>
http://evan.prodromou.name/