I am very disappointed with this decision and announcement. Surely anyone who has read this notice must be thinking that Brazil is at war, in wreckage. But that is not true.
Brazil has never produced so much positive impact in our movement as it has now. Both groups have extensively created many very innovative initiatives, making Brazil one of the leading countries among Wikimedia movement: GLAM reports https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:This_Month_in_GLAM_Brazil_reports Innovative GLAM partnerships and projects https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/April_2017/Contents/Brazil_report https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/November_2017/Contents/Brazil_report https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/February_2018/Contents/Brazil_report We spread the wikimedia movement in Brazil through many television participations https://youtu.be/9YOIXPwCqw4?t=46m32s (spreading the Wikipedia and fundraising campaigns), Radio interviews and many publications in Brazilian newspapers, portals and blogs. We organized the Brazilian and International Wikipedia Scientific Conferences, generating lot of new academic papers regarding the wikimedia movement and improving our relation with the academic community. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Congresso_Cient%C3%ADfico_Brasileiro_da_Wikip%C3%A9dia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:IWSC Such misleading narrative about a “war” has been exaggerated in order to prove to WMF it was a bad call to allow more than one user group in the same region. But it isn’t. Many countries have more than one group. In fact, a fairly amount of healthy competition may lead to more initiatives. Such artificial narrative ended up hurting both sides. This, of course, doesn’t mean there hasn’t been mistakes and conflicts among specific members. For sure some conflicts were very unproductive and made us spend energy in unfruitful discussions. But most members from both groups were genuinely interested in a peaceful and constructive relationship, being critical of other members’ refusal to mediation, dialogue and insistence on extended personal conflicts. I have tried informal mediation and requested WMF formal mediation several times. But no formal support was given, just disciplinary measures. This may be something to learn for the future. We are moving forward with the professionalization and incorporation of our user group since 2016, in a very slow process, with very few answers received from AffCom during this process. Recent timeline of interactions with AffCom: 19/12/2016 We sent a message to AffCom, regarding our affiliation status update, because we were working to incorporate our user group as requested by the Grants team. 07/01/2017 We received an answer from Carlos Colina requesting more information and our bylaws (originally in portuguese since he speaks portuguese for a first evaluation) 02/04/2017 We requested a conversation with members of the User Group Wikimedia Brazil durgin WMCON (they refused to talk), so during Wikimedia Conference I had a quick conversation with Kirill, about the bylaws sent to Carlos Colina and the general situation in Brazil. 03/05/2017 We received a new message from Aff requesting the translated by laws 06/2017 I requested mediation from AffCom/Iberocoop to have a conversation between both groups during Iberoconf in Argentina as informed in our comments (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Iberocoop:Iberoconf_2017/Preguntas_y_necesidades), User Group Wikimedia Brasil refused to talk, so we had a conversation only with Galileo and Carlos Colina from AffCom and we never received any feedback from this conversation. 26/10/2017 We received a message informing that they received the translated bylaws for evaluation, no comments about conflicts or problem between the user groups were cited. 08/04/2018 We received the revocation notice of our affiliation status I deeply believe in the Wikimedia movement. We have started and signed several partnerships and projects which be developed during the following years. So, with or without recognition, support or grants from the Foundation, we will continue to work, to advocate for open knowledge and to fix the current situation in Brazil. We will move on. It will be more difficult and slow, but we will always move forward. Rodrigo Padula Coordenador de Projetos Wiki Educação Brasil http://www.wikibrasil.org 21 99326-0558 ---- On Sun, 08 Apr 2018 15:19:55 -0300 Kirill Lokshin <kirill.loks...@gmail.com> wrote ---- Hello everyone, Recognition as a Wikimedia movement affiliate — a chapter, thematic organization, or user group — is a privilege that allows an independent group to officially use the Wikimedia trademarks to further the Wikimedia mission. To receive and maintain their status as recognized Wikimedia affiliates, groups are required to comply with certain requirements, which are identified in each group's individual chapter, thematic organization, or user group agreement. In particular, the terms of the Wikimedia User Group Agreement and Code of Conduct prohibit user groups from engaging in activity that poses significant risk to other Wikimedia organizations or Wikimedia projects. As many of you doubtlessly know, the two Wikimedia user groups based in Brazil — Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil and Wiki Education Brazil — have been engaged in a severe and protracted conflict, which has resulted in significant harm to past, ongoing, and planned Wikimedia movement activities in Brazil. As all reasonable attempts to resolve the conflict have failed, the Affiliations Committee is left with no choice but to withdraw the groups' recognition as Wikimedia affiliates. Consequently, the recognition of Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil and Wiki Education Brazil as Wikimedia user groups has been revoked, and the Wikimedia Foundation's legal department has been requested to formally terminate their respective user group agreements as soon as practicable. Further, the specific individuals who served as the primary contacts for these user groups will be prohibited from serving as primary contacts for any user group application or existing user group for a period of one year. The Affiliations Committee recognizes that this is an unprecedented and unfortunate development. However, we hope that this step will allow the Wikimedia community in Brazil to work towards a new organizational structure and model that will better serve the needs of movement participants and stakeholders in the country. Any questions regarding this matter should be addressed directly to the Affiliations Committee. Regards, Kirill Lokshin Chair, Affiliations Committee _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
