[Foundation-l] Re: Do we have a partnership with Ourmedia?

Thu Mar 24 06:23:58 UTC 2005

Brion Vibber wrote:

> Michael Snow wrote:
>
>> http://www.podcastingnews.com/archives/2005/03/ourmedia_offers.html
>>
>> A story on the Podcasting News website describes Wikipedia as one of the
>> "partners in the effort" to launch the Ourmedia project. Is this true? I
>> realize that Angela is one of their advisors, but I hadn't heard that
>> there was any kind of official partnership. Is there some kind of
>> ongoing discussion that the community doesn't know about, or are people
>> just being sloppy about the nature of the connection?
>
> Well, I've never heard of them, but the ourmedia.org site has a little
> Wikipedia logo and link under 'Sponsors and partners' on every page of
> their site.

Ah, I didn't scroll down far enough to see that. I did check the story, 
which was pretty obviously a regurgitated press release, against 
Ourmedia's version, which didn't list Wikipedia as a partner, so I 
couldn't figure out if Podcasting News was jumping to conclusions or if 
Ourmedia was giving this impression themselves.

> It sounds more like 'some similarities in mission' than a 'partnership'

Yes, that's about how I would describe it.

Angela wrote:

>I did speak to Jimbo about this a few weeks ago
>when I first saw this on the Ourmedia site, since I wasn't sure if
>this should be seen as a problem. He said he didn't care for it, but
>when I suggested I could have it removed, he just said he had
>complained a bit (I don't know who to), and also said that it was not
>a ridiculous statement.
>
No, it's not ridiculous, just a little confusing.

Anthere wrote:

> The only thing I know... is that other associations started listing 
> themselves as being partners with wikipedia. I raised the topic on the 
> french mailing list about what could be a partner and how to decide 
> who was a partner and who was not.

Oh, what other non-partner partners do we have?

In the particular case of Ourmedia, the similarities mean that it's not 
something to get too worked up about. I don't mind if they want to do a 
little name-dropping - it's nice that our name is worth dropping - but 
it would be good to have an indication that the relationship basically 
amounts to moral support and advice. If our fundraiser donors got the 
mistaken impression that we're funneling money to outside projects, 
rather than spending it to address our well-known needs, it would not be 
a good situation. And we do need to be careful that people aren't 
misrepresenting the position of Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation, or 
any other project of the Foundation.

--Michael Snow