Does anybody know the name of the lawyer who personally assisted Jimmy Wales in writing the Wikimedia Foundation's bylaws and in setting up the Foundation as a 501-c (3) organization? I know Anthony does -- he's mentioned him before.

It is Alex Roshuk, and he's a new participant on Centiare.com. I had the privilege of talking yesterday with this animated Brooklyn attorney. The man is disgusted with Wikipedia. His former user page on the project speaks volumes.

Essentially, he has three main beefs:

(1) The project was initially designed to be a free, open social experiment in sustaining a membership community around the principal of writing a better encyclopedia. Jimmy Wales personally derailed that design by striking "membership" as a construct, and by taking personal control of the encyclopedia's editorial process -- something which he is not qualified to do.

(2) Criticism from dissatisfied former contributors is all too often suppressed or erased.

(3) From a legal standpoint, Jimbo Wales doesn't have the foggiest clue what he's doing.

The guy is loud, boisterous, and really has his moral compass fixed with SuperGlue.

As a side-note, he also thinks Jimbo's confrontation with Wikipedia Review proved only one thing -- the "rule" is that the only person who can personally profit from Wikipedia is Jimbo Wales.

I am glad to have this new acquaintance and ally.

Jimbo Wales once said of Alex Roshuk:



In 2007 though, Alex says that Jimbo won't reply to his e-mails, nor will he meet with Alex when Jimbo is in New York City. So, Alex has this to say about Jimbo now:



You have to like this particular lawyer, eh?

Greg

Wonder if he would be game to helping file IRS legal complaints over Wikipedia's improper relationship with Wikia?

And I know you meant «animated» in the good sense of the word.

Jon Awbrey

"I'm not evil... I'm just drawn that way!"

We're slated to have another conversation soon. This topic will be discussed, I'm sure.

Greg

If he's interested, I'd love to hear his more detailed opinions on the GFDL mess and whether such licensing can legally be revoked/changed by the copyright holders.

I'm not convinced that Jimmy Wales personally *ever* intended for Wikipedia to be a membership organization, even if he did claim to Alex that he wanted this. In any case, as I discovered later, Jimbo had already stolen Wikipedia from its members on March 10, 2005, when he amended the articles of incorporation without a vote of the membership and declared that there were "no members or members entitled to vote on the amendment". See http://www.sunbiz.org/COR/2005/0316/70917147.Tif

I don't think there's anything we can do about it now, though, and I'm not sure there ever was.

We need a mailing list. Maybe even a super sekrit one.

I dunno. Doing everything in the open seems to drive Wikipediots crazy. Their projective paranoia makes them sure that we must be hiding something somewhere, and the fact that there's nothing to find only convinces them that we must be hiding it real damn good.

Jonny

Best of all the above is exactly the kind of sane statement that makes them act the most crazy.

WR has two members-only forums, and one forum that only moderators, staff, and a few invited members can read. The staff and moderators have also confessed to using email and carrier pigeons to communicate with each other.

This bit about membership is interesting. I've added Alex's resignation statement to my list.

And heliographs.

Thank you Greg,

I feel bad for the real honest hard working people of this world that become ground meat in the machine of ego and deceit.

Let's welcome Alex here and add him to our collection of brain powers that be.

Alex left a good comment on Kelly Martin's blog today.