Wikimedia Foundation/Comitê de Afiliação/Dúvidas

Hi!
My name is Tomasz Kozłowski, and I'm a member of the Affiliations Committee. I have been invited by Rodrigo to speak out here about the invitation to a Webex call about the process of recognising Wikimedia Brasil as a Wikimedia chapter that I sent to him, Castelo and Solstag yesterday.

For the reference, I am pasting the text of my invitation below:

Dear Rodrigo, Al-Scandar and Castelo,
I am contacting you on behalf of the Affiliations Committee to invite you for a Webex call about Wikimedia Brasil's process of recognition as a Wikimedia chapter.

We would like to use this call as an opportunity to discuss all matters related to Wikimedia Brasil's process of recognition as a Wikimedia chapter, specifically including the recent developments (since our meeting at the Chapters Conference in Berlin, Germany, at the end of March).

The Committee will be represented by Maria (CC'd here) and myself, and I have contacted you as the three most active and well-known members of Wikimedia Brasil that I could think of; I you feel that you will be unable to take part in the call or have another suggestions for people that should be part of it, please let us know. If possible, I would like, however, to limit the number of people taking part in the call to 5/6, because the bigger the group is, the harder it is to have a productive call.

On a more technical note: Webex is a web conferencing system developed by Cisco Systems, Inc. that is used by the Wikimedia Foundation. It enables people not only to take part in a conference via their computer, but also makes it possible to join the conference through a toll-free call-in phone number or to receive an incoming call from the conference (so you don't have to pay for the call).

The WMF has been using Webex for some time already, and I have also thoroughly tested it myself; it's very easy to use, and the possibility of calling-in the conference makes the audio quality verygood, much better than Skype or other VoIP services; also, the only requirement to use Webex is to have a Java-enabled browser.

If you'd like to take part in the call, please write down your preference using a Doodle form at http://doodle.com/nsv6yusym5dxgs8h. There are 5 hours of difference between Europe and Brazil, so I have tried to make it possible for all of us to take part in the call, scheduling it for a late afternoon in Brazil (which is a late evening here in Europe). Please note that the hours are given in UTC -- but you're able to convert them to your local time using a drop-down menu just above the suggested times.

If you have any questions about the meeting, please do not hesitate to ask.

Thanks in advance for your time,

Tomasz W. Kozłowski
a.k.a. [[user:odder]]
Affiliations Committee

Here is the e-mail I received from Rodrigo in return (and I think it was discussed between you before it was sent, is that correct?):

Hi Tomasz,

There were refusals to talk via Webex and this week is not good for us. You do not want to put the doubts on Wiki (br.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Comitê_de_Afiliação/Dúvidas)?

-- Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton
[E-mail and phone number cut out]

I am not having any doubts about the meaning of this message, and while I appreciate that you cannot meet with us this week, I also cannot really understand your refusal to talk with us via Webex.

As I pointed out in my e-mail above, it's an easy-to-use way to communicate effectively between a couple of people, also with the possibility of including a wider group listening in to a conversation (I think about 20-25 simultanous connections at a time).

I haven't been involved in any of the previous attempts at recognising Wikimedia Brasil as a chapter, and have only met with Rodrigo in Berlin earlier this year. I have, however, read the log from the 2010 IRC chat with Lodewijk, Delphine and Austin of the then-Chapters Committee, and I have to admit I don't find it very useful, and that's why I suggested a call via Webex.

To cut this long story short, I invite you to talk a bit about a possible call, and would very much appreciate it if you could state the reasons behind your refusal of my invitation. Again, thanks in advance for your time and your replies. odder (talk). 18h42min de 8 de outubro de 2012 (UTC)