[okfn-be] Collaboration with Wikipedia

[Pieter Colpaert]

Hi Maarten,

I think that being an umbrella organisation is one very good goal of 
OKFN Belgium. For this we will indeed need funding because no one likes 
to do administrative work for fun (at least not the kind of people I 
know). At the first meeting we will discuss our first steps, how to get 
a start fund, working groups, and so on. I really hope to welcome some 
wikipedia/wikimedia (Jeroen Dedauw?) and OSM guys (Marc Portier?)!

But don't forget that it will be so much more as well: an enabler, a 
living lab, an organiser of events and so on. Think big! We can get 
funding for various projects in a lot of ways and we can make a lot of 
people cooperate.

Kind regards,

Pieter

On 01/08/2012 08:59 PM, maarten deneckere wrote:
> 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 
> <mailto: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
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> okfn-be at lists.okfn.org
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-- 
iRail vzw/asbl
+32(0)486/747122

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