[Wikipedia-l] Re: foundation of a German registered association

Fri Jan 23 13:02:04 UTC 2004

Jimmy Wales wrote:

> There is no reason to think that the current group of people involved
> in Wikipedia would do any of that, but we must plan for the longterm,
> for what might happen 50 or 100 years from now, after we are all gone.
> Institutional decisions made today have ramifications many many years
> into the future, especially if we are not cautious.

You are absolutely right. But I find it quite funny that in all your 
future scenarios the American foundation are always the good guys, while 
you fear the international ones might only want to make money out of the 
project. I can imagine other scenarios, for example a take-over of the 
American foundation with the help of many faked accounts is much more 
easy than in the German "e.V." where only "real" people are allowed to vote.

I can understand your concerns, but please try to imagine that many 
people on the international Wikipedias have exactly the same kind of 
concerns about the American foundation.

We need a system of Checks and Balances: The foundation should be able 
to control the national organisations, and in return they should be able 
to control the foundation. Elian proposed that a contract should be 
formulated with obligations for both sides, but I think this is a long 
process and the signing of course can only take place after the 
association is founded.

I'll now take a look at isoc.de, thanks for the hint, Lars.

(BTW, I missed the public discussion of the foundation's bylaws. Where 
did it take place?)

Kurt