[Foundation-l] Contact in Thailand

Sat May 20 19:10:49 UTC 2006

Michael Snow wrote:
> Delirium wrote:
>
>   
>> Patrick, Brad wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Don't assume anything.  If you are speaking as a person interested in
>>> Wikipedia, great.  I'm sure you have good things to say about Wikipedia
>>> in Thailand.  Good for you.  All I am saying is that you do *not* have
>>> the authority to speak on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.   
>>>       
>> I'm not sure if you're new here or what, but this isn't how we do 
>> things at the Wikimedia Foundation.  We discuss politely, if sometimes 
>> heatedly, on the mailing list, not brusquely and dictatorially.
>>
>> Waerth asked if the Foundation had confidence in him to discuss with 
>> this organization; not if he legally has the authority to enter into 
>> commitments on behalf of the foundation, which is quite a different 
>> matter.  In short, his question did not call for a legal opinion, and 
>> offering one unsolicited was unhelpful, misrepresenting the matter, 
>> and impolite.
>>     
>
> This criticism is totally misplaced. Note that Brad addressed whether 
> Waerth could *speak* on behalf of the Foundation, responding directly to 
> Waerth's question. The issue is not limited to whether Waerth is 
> authorized to act as an agent of the Foundation to enter into agreements.
>
> Lawyers are not restricted to giving legal opinions and nothing else, 
> sometimes they need to represent their clients in communicating with 
> third parties, as Brad did here. Brad's intervention was helpful 
> (because it got across his client's position), misrepresented nothing, 
> and if it wasn't as polite as suits your tastes, it's because more 
> polite ways of communicating this hadn't yet gotten the message across.
>   

It *did* misrepresent the matter, and does not appear to have accurately 
represented his client's position either, as the more helpful and 
accurate reply by Anthere (an *actual* board member) was quite different 
from Brad's.

-- Unhelpful reply (Brad): "You do *not* have the authority to speak on 
behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.".

-- Helpful reply (Anthere): "I think that is fine you go and contact 
these people. I'll be happy if something gets out of it. ... As long as 
you do not make believe others that you are allowed to make decisions in 
the name of the Foundation, that's fine. Just make that clear."

So the actual position of at least one board member seems to be, 
contrary to what you claim, that the issue *is* limited to whether 
Waerth is authorized to act as an agent of the Foundation (he isn't, and 
doesn't believe himself to be), but that it's perfectly fine if he 
contacts third parties for collaboration with Wikimedia as long as he 
doesn't represent himself as being an agent of the Foundation.  Which 
seems a lot more sensible and helpful as a reply to me.

-Mark