[ckan-dev] Future, flask, breaking things, funding.

Tue Sep 15 10:08:32 UTC 2015

Hi Steven,

Thank you very much for clarifying what the association is, and what it exists to do.  The only other real guidance on what it is, is that set out by Rufus in his blog post from March last year - http://ckan.org/2014/03/18/introducing-the-ckan-association/ and so my perceptions are based on the two sections of that blog post:

    # What “Assets” will the Association have responsibility for?

    The Association will have responsibility for items such as:

	• The primary CKAN codebase
	• The CKAN project roadmap including overseeing and steering technical development of CKAN
	• Oversee and drive user and community engagement
	• The ckan.org website and any related media assets
	• Managing any project finances and resources (e.g. from membership fees)

    # Will the CKAN Association have dedicated staff?

    We imagine that the CKAN Association may appoint dedicated staff on an as needed basis and where there are 
    resources to do so (also note that Members may contribute in kind resources in the form of staff time). However, 
    at least initially, the CKAN Association will not have dedicated staff but will have in-kind support time provided 
    by the Open Knowledge Foundation and other key stakeholders.

So you can probably see where my confusion originated. I now have a much clearer picture though - thanks! 

Cheers

Ross.

> On 15 Sep 2015, at 10:23, Steven De Costa <steven.decosta at linkdigital.com.au> wrote:
> 
> I should probably clarify something with regard to the purpose of the CKAN Association (as I understand it and therefore operate within it, at least). My view is that the main job of the Association is to support the 'community'. In large part this should really be the tech team and the extended community of contributors to the project. It isn't an Association that would dictate any roadmap direction, but through extension only in the support of the project/community it might work hard to do things which advance the consensus and actual word on on the roadmap.
> 
> How this would manifest, I think, might change over time but in a more mature situation some time in the future it could be two main activities:
> 
> 	• Maintain ckan.org 
> 	• Organise and facilitate CKANcons
> 
> This would pretty much put it on par with the mission of similar Associations, such as the Drupal Association.
> 
> So... those members who pay would help fund things like hosting and maintenance of ckan.org. The association might end up hiring, down the track, someone to do blog posts and social media; especially in overlap activities around CKANcons, etc. With regard to CKANcon, positions could exist to ramp these up and get them to the 'enterprise community' status that people would appreciate.  All of this might require a position such as an executive officer to run the admin of the association. Again, all of this is some time down the track (maybe soon if the user adoption keeps ramping up).
> 
> When it comes to the sort of funding opportunities that are out there in the wild, there are organisations that are for profit, not for profit, or some combination of both. It would be these organisations that could best bid for grants to achieve great works that both advance the roadmap AND support high value outcomes for the funding partners. 
> 
> In my position I straddle roles in Open Knowledge Australia, CKAN Association, Link Digital, GovHack and the Australian Government Linked Data Working Group. I need to be very careful to disclose conflicts where they emerge and honestly wear the right hat in each discussion. So, with that said...
> 	• I'm trying to recruit members into CKAN Association to mature its ability to support the CKAN community.
> 	• I'm certainly trying to win various CKAN related projects for Link Digital and would love to get paid appointments to work on the CKAN roadmap.
> 	• Within Australia, via Open Knowledge, I'm also trying to mature the organisation and help it to gain funding for great works. In this space I also need to be careful to disclose any potential conflicts.
> I'm keen to not attract funding into the association that is earmarked for any member organisation because that would certainly put me in a conflicted position. Getting funding for staff within the Association would help, but if in-kind support is offered then it is silly to reject it :) I should point out that the CKAN Association is currently still housed within Open Knowledge as an entity, so it is much easier for OKFN globally to pitch for funding that goes into staff via OKRN Services to support CKAN's roadmap. However, as per some of the presentations I've given this is identified as both a strength and a risk to the project. The community should be strong enough in its own regard without needing dedicated staff from Open Knowledge Services to keep things moving.
> 
> Recent activity to have David Read do the 2.4 package and release with Adria in support, is one of the ways we are trying to help the community outside OKFN take on more responsibility. My suggestion to divert support issues to stack overflow comes from this position too. It takes some pressure off core contributors that might currently be otherwise employed on paid engagements for their respective organisation.
> 
> Re this: https://github.com/ckan/ideas-and-roadmap/issues/152
> 
> I'm painfully aware of the fact I'm building a business on top of a project with technical debt to clear out. Whatever hat I'm wearing my interests are aligned on trying to find any way to fund that work. A paid for-profit project, a grant, a team of contributors working on 3.0 - any approach we can use is good for me :)
> 
> Hoots!
> 
> 
> 
> STEVEN DE COSTA | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
> www.linkdigital.com.au
> 
>    