User talk:GeoffBrigham (WMF)/Strategy

Chapters

Hi Geoff. I note that there is no mention of chapters in this strategy document - is there a reason for that? I'm particularly surprised that they aren't mentioned in the "Support of fundraising and grant-making" section (where chapters play a large and important role in raising funds and providing grants to Wikimedians) and "Support of global expansion" (where chapters are generally leading non-US outreach and expansion, given that they are comprised of local individuals that will inherently know the best approach to that outreach and expansion in their country). Thanks. Mike Peel 22:13, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Hi Mike and happy new year. Sorry for my delay in answering; just noticed people are actually reading this.  :) Good point. We do support the chapters in coordinating legal advice and raising issues that we saw. I had discussions and communications on fundraising legal matters, for example, with a few key fundraising chapters this year, including legal issue spotting. We share our best practices as well, including professionally translated versions of our updated donor privacy policy (which received legal review in the U.S. and Europe). It is important that chapters ensure compliance with local laws, where they are ultimately responsible (and liable). I expect that legal and finance will also spend quite a bit of time supporting the grant program once forumulated.

To be honest, we have not been called on much to support global outreach by chapters, though, when they engage in such activities, chapters should be thinking about legal and finance compliance issues (such as tax issues surrounding grants to other countries). As to be expected, we do spend a significant amount of time on WMF global outreach projects.Geoffbrigham 14:44, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

juridical point of view about Wikexperience project

Hello, I am writing a project to propose WKM for January 15 in 2012, named WIKEXPERIENCE, for experience's knowledge (see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikexperience). I think necessary to create an academic statut of university to diplomate individuals or groups who have made a big free contribution to increase Wikimedia's knowledge with experience's knowledge, a kind of knoledge that is not recognized by academic graduate.

This point is very important for poor people and for country without many universities process.

But I ask you about the legal questions for this project, graduate (in France for example) is dependant from State. Is it possible to create a free licence for free academic process ?

Can you give me some ligth about this problem ?

Hi. I can only give legal advice for WMF, but I believe this is legally possible. My suggestion is that you propose your idea to the community for ideas ... both legally and with respect to Wikimedia practice. My experience is that the community is extremely sophisticated on these types of issues and can help with the brainstorming. Good luck on your project. Geoffbrigham 14:48, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks

This is really interesting! Thanks a lot for explaining the strategy and actions of the Legal Department. ~ Seb35 [^_^] 00:00, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

yeah. Very late thank you as well from I ;) Anthere (talk)