Amical Wikimedia/Minutes2
Summary Of IRC meeting held on August the 21th:
/First of all we explained again why we think the state-based chapter's division is not suitable for the situation of languages like Catalan and why would need an association like a chapter to operate better in promotion of free knowledge./
/Then we tried to answer the questions that arose in the last meeting./
/For the first one: How do they make it other international organizations? We provided several examples. Delphine wanted to konw if there was any recognized international organization that operated in Catalunya. We talked about the UNESCO case, which she promised to study closefully (she declared herself a fan of UNESCO)./
/Later we turned into the second question: How can we guarantee that the suitable money goes to the suitable place? Our literal response was “the money and other resources do not go anywhere alone, it is necessary to get them. We will fish in different waters that the country based chapters and with different carnage. People wiling to cooperate with us is not the same people wiling to cooperate with a country based chapter”. The main point we wanted to show is that our potential donors would only help a catalan-speaking chapter, not the statal ones, and that they we wouldn't get money from it was actually flowing. We also wanted to state that this extra amount of donors would help the whole project, with consortiums an cooperation otherwise impossible. We illustrated it with a few examples./
/Delphine showed her disagree with the “different waters” part. Then it arose the exceptional situation of Catalan case. We don't want to change all the WMF rules or open a dangerous way to any local chapter, we just ask to be recognized as the case we are in fact. Delphine suggested that a special case should be dealt with special solutions, perhaps not a chapter (this point is not really clear for us, we think it should be a chapter in the future)./
/We decided to leave that and continue with the questions. The third one was “Does it intend to promote and support ONLY the projects in catalan?”. We want to promote Catalan as a first goal, but we are opened to help other languages, that's onte of the thing we could give to the whole community, apart from technical stuff and a part of our potential incomes, as we explained in the fourth question. Our experience and guidance can help other small languages to grow through WM projects, expanding free knowledge, that's our shared ultimate goal./
/A WM.cat chapter could be the interlocutor of Wikimedia for press and media in Catalan, too, because we would address to them in their own language, so that would help Wikimedia expansion and presence in the territory. We have already begun those media contacts, as we tried to show with a pair of projects./
/Delphine asked what would it happen with a WM-Spain chapter (which doesn't exist yet). That lead us to the last question, “How do we bring up the relationship with the country based chapters?”. We would like to coordinate with them, share big projects, have a total communication and invite them to join our activities, without overlapping with theirs. Delphine suggested us to speak with the already existing chapters, the French and the Italian ones. /
/ //Delphine said she is convinced that there is a need but what she is not convinced of is the fact that it has to be "a chapter". She said maybe we need to find some other official status and asked why we absolutely want a Wikimedia chapter. We answered we can tell what we want and you decide if it is a chapter or find a better name.///
/We explained we want: a) Create an association named wikimedia.cat or something similar clearly linking the idea of wikimedia projects and Catalan language b) Able to operate at least at Andorra, France, Italy and Spain and preferably everywhere where there are people interested in promoting free knowledge in Catalan or free knowledge of Catalan issues in any language. c) Where there is a country based local chapter, reach an agreement with them defining the rules of the game. d) Objectives according to what we have explained before//. /
/ We also agreed in the meanwhile we could create an association to promote WM projects in Catalan, with the support of the foundation, to operate internationally. That association would be as a chapter but the name seemed to be a problem, because it could open the way to other demands. We asked if that was the only actual problem to become a chapter: the definition and the potential claims. Delphine assured that was the main problem and that she was convinced of the need of an association.
At the end, some points seemed clear: a) we can start an organization to promote the projects and the foundation will help us b) we can continue talking about becoming a chapter (delphine's words were “we had a case”) trying to solve the potential problems of leading that new way (the famous “Pandora's box”) c) Perhaps Delphine comes to Barcelona in a few weeks (she is enthusiastically invited to do so!) d) She has a lot of patience (lol!)/