[okfn-be] Wikimedia Belgium

Mon Nov 19 16:59:42 UTC 2012

Hey all,

I've been active in setting up the WM BE as well but I differ in opinion
from Romaine. Setting up an organisation with only volunteers is not easy,
enormous amounts of work, and the result: troubles, discussions, fights,
....
I've experience things like this with WM NL and ZA, and in my opinion we
can avoid this by teaming up with an existing organisation.

If I look to the "working groups" within okfn, I would love to collaborate
with all four of them.

There will be some drawbacks of collaborating, especially on funding. But
as we will use grants in the first years, and via the FDC (Funds
Dissemination Committee), the impact of this would be limited in the first
years.

I touched on this with Lodewijk (Chapters Committee), he had no real
objections on using the detour.

Groeten,
Maarten

2012/11/19 Pieter Colpaert <pieter.colpaert at gmail.com>

> Hi Romaine,
>
> the same is true for creative commons belgium. They have their own brand,
> own budget, own working group board, own website and so on. I would advice
> strongly against having your own bylaws. You will spend too much time on
> other things than wikimedia belgium.
>
> The other reason why we founded OKFN Belgium is because we wanted, we even
> mentioned wikimedia as well, other groups to become part of one big
> organisation, which can then have a bigger leverage towards governments and
> even participate in European and Belgian public RFPs. Of course the brand
> of that sub-organisation will have to be safeguarded.
>
> kind regards,
>
> Pieter
> Op 19-nov.-2012 09:12 schreef "Romaine Wiki" <romaine_wiki at yahoo.com> het
> volgende:
>
> Hello Pieter,
>>
>> Thanks for the idea, but it would limit too much our possibilities and
>> opportunities. I shall explain.
>>
>> One of the reasons why we would like our own chapter, Wikimedia Belgium,
>> is to be able to use the brand Wikimedia Belgium. We are only allowed to
>> use this when we are officially registered with our own board, bylaws and
>> responsibilities with the Wikimedia Foundation. We would like to say: "this
>> project is organized by Wikimedia Belgium". At the moment we can only say:
>> "this project is organized by some users from Wikimedia projects". We would
>> like to use the name and logo, and our connection with
>> Wikipedia/sisterprojects/Foundation to have a strong background to the
>> public and organizations we have contact with. Another reason is that we
>> then are largely funded by the Wikimedia Foundation.
>>
>> We have done several projects in the past years, but without the official
>> name and the mentioned connections and background it is harder to set up
>> and organize projects. We also had already a small meeting to set up our
>> chapter, and with this meeting we had a sense of feeling that we do want
>> our own organisation.
>>
>> Perhaps there is more possible then I think, but still this is what a lot
>> of users wish for. They have been waiting long for it, while our
>> neighbouring countries already have their own organization for years. So
>> our goal is to set up our own organization.
>>
>> However, this doesn't mean we can't work together, I think that will be
>> the case. At least I must say, thanks for giving us the possibility!
>>
>> Greetings - Romaine
>>
>>
>>
>> --- On Mon, 11/19/12, Pieter Colpaert <pieter.colpaert at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Pieter Colpaert <pieter.colpaert at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [okfn-be] Wikimedia Belgium
>> To: "Romaine Wiki" <romaine_wiki at yahoo.com>
>> Cc: okfn-be at lists.okfn.org, Tanguy.DeLestre at agoria.be, "Cedric De Vroey"
>> <cedric.devroey at gmail.com>, "Jeroen De Dauw" <jeroendedauw at gmail.com>
>> Date: Monday, November 19, 2012, 7:36 AM
>>
>> Hi Romaine,
>> we would very much like that, but let's be pragmatic. Founding an
>> organisation in Belgium is a lot of work and you will need a lot of
>> commitment from certain people merely on the administrative level.
>> The reason why we have founded OKFN Belgium is primarily to be an
>> umbrella organisation for organisations supporting the open way of working.
>> iRail for instance started as a separate organisation but is now merging
>> with OKFN Belgium. Creative Commons Belgium started immeadiately under OKFN
>> Belgium, but has its own authenticity, own working group board and is
>> responsible for their own budgets.
>>
>> My preference, therefore not the only possibility, would be to start a
>> wikimedia chapter as an okfn working group. What do you think?
>> Kind regards,
>> Pieter
>> Op 19-nov.-2012 07:57 schreef "Romaine Wiki" <romaine_wiki at yahoo.com>
>> het volgende:
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> After busy work the successful Wiki Loves Monuments in Belgium and
>> Luxembourg, we are back on the track of founding Wikimedia Belgium, as
>> chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation.
>>
>>
>> Currently we are planning a meeting to talk about the founding. Currently
>> we are thinking of the afternoon of 30 November in Brussels. This because
>> in the evening we have our prize giving ceremony of Wiki Loves Monuments.
>>
>>
>> Wikimedia Belgium will be I think independent, but at the same time we
>> would like to support, work together, and engage partnerships with projects
>> and organizations which have roughly the same goals as we have.
>>
>>
>> Maybe I am a little bit too early with this message, but I was wondering
>> if some of you might be interesting in thinking
>>  with us in founding Wikimedia Belgium.
>>
>> Greetings,
>> Romaine
>>
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