[okfn-be] Collaboration with Wikipedia

[maarten deneckere]

Wouter,

seems we're on the same wavelength about this new organisation. However,
this means the okfn organisation (vzw/asbl?) will be mostly a
administrative organisation, that will have to control the different
smaller organisations. The umbrella organisation will hopefully be a
vzw-asbl because of donations, no problems with taxes, ...

Pieter, I can't attend the first meeting (currently working overseas). I
hope a colleague Wikipedian (Romaine? Lodewijk? Kris?) will be able to
attend.

Grtz,
Maarten

2012/1/8 Gmail - Wouter <wouter.vanden.hove at gmail.com>

> **
> Op 07-01-12 20:29, maarten deneckere schreef:
>
> Hey all,
>
> some more about a possible cooperation between the local community of
> Wikipedia and a new "free data organisation".
>
> In Belgium we have been trying to set up a local Wikipedia organisation.
> ...
>
> Setting up has been a long struggle due to the language barrier and the
> lack of interest.
>
>
>
>
> IMHO It's more lack of critical mass, then lack of interest.
> There are many interested people in all kinds of "open" projects,
> with each person understandably having their favorite topic.
>
> There are various international organisations that have local chapters.
> But in belgium, each of those lack critical mass to get something up &
> running.
>
> Just to list a few:
> - Wikimedia,  [source:
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Belgium/Members]
> - Creative Commons  [source: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Belgium]
> -  Open Source Geospatial Foundation [source:
> http://www.osgeo.org/content/chapters/index.html]
> - Openstreetmap Foundation [source:
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Belgium/Chapter]
>
> These are succesfull organisations, but with no active chapters in Belgium,
> while synergies between these organisations are plenty and natural.
>
> So instead of 2-3 very motivated people trying to setup Wikimedia-Belgium,
> and 2-3 other people trying to setup CC-Belgium,
> and yet another 2-3 Openstreetmap Belgium,
> a more successful strategy could be to setup a single formal
> "umbrella"-organisation with broad enough scope
> to attract enough active people where everyone can work/promote their
> topic of interest in informal working groups.
> IMHO, OKFN-BE should be that organisation.
>
> Volunteers should be able to focus on Getting Things Done, instead of
> fighting with administrative issues.
>
>
> This allows the different volunteers to work within a light, existing
> organisation. They can focus on the growth of their group, up to the level
> that they decide to start up a new legal entity. Such "umbrella
> organisation" would really foster smal opensource initiatives in Belgium.
>
>
> Exactly my idea.
>
> I added following comment to
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Belgium/Members:
> In Q4 2011, several people decided to found a Belgian chapter of the Open
> Knowledge Foundation (OKFN-BE). Open Knowledge encompasses all topics
> related to open content, open data, free culture,... OKFN-BE will be an
> official non-profit organisation, but is open to all topics promoting open
> data, open content,.. This can range from just bringing like-minded people
> together to organising events, hackathons & conferences. cfr.
> http://wiki.okfn.org/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter/Belgium IMHO, OKFN-BE
> can act as an umbrella-organisation also for local wikimedia-related
> projects by having a Wikimedia-working group. If this group is active
> enough, with enough active participants, the decision can be made to
> spin-off into a more formal organisation to become an official
> Wikimedia-chapter. WouterVH<http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebruiker:WouterVH>
>
>
>
> Greets
> Wouter Vanden Hove
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-be/attachments/20120108/78770f29/attachment-0001.html>