Wikimedia Australia/Draft Mission Statement

This document is redundant and applied only when we were considering incorporating as an co-operative

Wikimedia Australia is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations of the Wikimedia Movement (as detailed the Key Mission statement below) in Australia through a member-owned and democratically-controlled nonprofit enterprise.

Key Mission

The Wikimedia Movement is dedicated to the development and maintenance of online free, open content encyclopedias, collections of quotations, textbooks and other collections of documents, information, and other informational databases in all the languages of the world that will be distributed free of charge to the public under a free documentation license such as the Free Documentation License written by the Free Software Foundation Inc. at http://www.fsf.org or similar licensing scheme, see http://www.wikimedia.org. The goals of the foundation are to encourage the further growth and development of open content, social software WikiWiki-based projects (see http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki) and to provide the full contents of those projects to the public free of charge. In addition to managing the already developed multilingual general encyclopedia and almanac named Wikipedia, (http://www.wikipedia.org) there is a multi-language dictionary and thesaurus named Wiktionary, an encyclopedia of quotations named Wikiquote, a collection of e-book resources aimed specifically toward students (such as textbooks and annotated public domain books) named Wikibooks and a collection of source works called Wikisource; other projects are envisioned.

Wikimedia Australia will help the Wikimedia movement carry out this mission within the bounds of its Seven Organisational Principles, and Core Values.

Core Values

Wikimedia Australia is based on the organisational core values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. Wikimedia Australia believes in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others. In addition, Wikimedia Australia is dedicated to the core values of the open source and Wikimedia movements.

Seven Organisational Principles

The following principles are guidelines by which Wikimedia Australia will put its values into practice.

First Principle: Voluntary and Open Membership

Wikimedia Australia is a voluntary organisation, open to all persons able to use its services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.

Second Principle: Democratic Member Control

Wikimedia Australia is a democratic organisation controlled by its members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Women and men serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary co-operatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and co-operatives at other levels are also organised in a democratic manner.

Third Principle: Member Economic Participation

Members contribute equitably to, the capital of Wikimedia Australia through their annual membership dues, the uses of which they will democratically control. The contributed capital is the property of Wikimedia Australia. As Wikimedia Australia is a nonprofit organisation, members will receive no compensation on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses (after costs) for any or all of the following purposes: further developing Wikimedia Australia and furthering its cause, setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible, for future use; and supporting other nonprofit community organisations as approved by the membership. Should Wikimedia Australia be wound up, any remaining capital, after costs, shall be distributed to other nonprofit community organisations as approved by the membership.

Fourth Principle: Autonomy and Independence

Wikimedia Australia is an autonomous, self-help organisation controlled by its members. If it enters into agreements with other organisations, including governments, or raises capital from external sources, it will do so on terms that ensure democratic control by its members and maintain its autonomy in upholding its values and principles.

Fifth Principle: Education, Training and Information

Wikimedia Australia will provide education and training for its members, elected representatives, managers, and volunteers so they can contribute effectively to the development of their organisation, and open source content. It will inform the general public - particularly young people and opinion leaders - about the nature, values, and benefits of co-operation, Wikimedia, and open-source content.

Sixth Principle: Co-operation with Other Groups

Within the Limits of the 4th Principle, Wikimedia Australia serves its members most effectively, and strengthens both the community sector, and the open source movement, by working together with other groups through local, national, regional and international structures and agreements.

Seventh Principle: Concern for Community

Wikimedia Australia works for the sustainable development of the community through policies approved by their members.