> As to personnel, I'm happy to take an active
rĂ´le in the UK Foundation;
> David has said that he'd rather take a more back-seat affair (non-exec.
> Board member, perhaps?); others?
I definitely want to be involved but not in any high profile way, for
two reasons - I'm not currently living in the UK, and I'm hoping to
remain on the Board of the Foundation for the coming two years.
One VERY important thing is how to make it as clear as
possible, under UK
law, that "Wikimedia UK" has no control whatsoever over Wikimedia or over
site content. Otherwise we will be a target for every crank, nutter and
serial litigator in the country seeking to use the UK's appalling libel
laws to their advantage.
Absolutely.
For those not following the progress of the other chapters, the French
Wikipedia has had a little trouble recently related to the President
of their chapter deleting an article following legal threats about it.
This action was highly controversial, despite him feeling it was
backed up by their chapter's bylaws. Their bylaws state that they are
legally the representatives of the Foundation in France, and therefore
they do have legal responsibility for the content. In hindsight, this
is looking more and more like a bad idea, and I would strongly advise
future chapters to avoid such clauses. Having the chapter separate
from the actual projects is a much safer and simpler approach. This
also goes for legal ownership of any hardware in the UK, and possibly
even the UK domain names.
Angela.