[okf-coord] Getting funding

[Saul Albert]

hi rufus,

I'm very happy to be on the okf coord list - honoured in fact! I thought
your talk at the open-tech was great - and support seems to be building
for okf to grow laterally, even from Steve! I'm confidant this would be a
Good Thing.

I've spent rather a lot of time thinking about funding in the last few
months! I've even managed to get some. I'm kind of loosing interest in
asking the Arts Council for money, but would be willing to put my skills
to use in fund raising with OKF in the future (after I retire from Art
whiffle in April '06).

So, although I'm not really capable of holding these threads right now -
I'll put in a couple of suggestions:

>   1. What projects would we like to have funded

I'd like to see practical projects that combine FS development with wider
cultural goals - the kind of joined-upness that the Geodata forum has had
with openstreetmap / free map etc.. but maybe if we planned it better
from the start, and consulted more with developers / contributors, we'd
have a strong platform for supporting these projects, technically,
contextually, financially.

>   2. From whom is such funding available

>From my limited experience:

OSI is a good source. I know that they're now less willing to fund
individual producer projects (ie. Thomas Kragg & Sebastian Buetrrich's
Wireless Roadshow), and would prefer to support organisations with a bit
more proven  coherence. I think a growing OKFN can do that, without
becoming the evil dead zombie NGO type thing that tendes to grub up lots
of OSI funding with rhetoric alone. We should talk to Julian, Thomas,
Sebastian, others about WSFII 2006 - and partnerships between OKF and
the other organisations involved that might build a strong base for doing
and delivering funded projects.

Arts Council Eengland is actually a good funder - and I do think the
cultural implications of Open Knowledge are becoming a major issue for
artists and producers.  We could really work with the Film Council, ACE,
the British Film Institute, and other cultural institutions to move them
towards third-way CC reformist type stuff, and also reveal the more
libre-commons type projects that actually deal with Public Domain and
knowledge production. We also have good contacts there - Bronac Ferran is
dead keen on CC, and is talking to Christian Ahlert about it a lot - he's
great, and would be good to have on board on any of these kinds of apps.

The Young Foundation / Institute of Community Studies -
http://youngfoundation.org.uk/index.php?cat=1
- speculative, but I think Jo and I might be able to approach them for
  WSFII or maybe for the Open Congress. Funding through them might be
interesting.. and plentiful. They're very 3rd way New Labour though... 

The British Council pay for people to travel - I have contacts there. 

Consulates / Councils of collaborator's nations are always good for
flights / perdiems etc..

>   3. What coalition could we organize to apply for such funding

Informal / http://www.oplan.org / comwifinet.com / wireless london
coalitions...  / Node.London (if it works)

we probably need a big fish as well, if we're going to get serious money
for long-term research projects. Academic institutions are good for this
- Ravensbourne might be up for it..

>   4. Who would write (or coordinate writing) of these applications

After april, I'm happy to contribute. Julian is good - others...?

X

S.