[okfn-coord] [Fwd: The Open Knowledge Foundation Board]

Fri Sep 14 11:33:26 UTC 2007

I have also sent an invite to Tom Steinberg and plan to send one to 
Francis Irving. If anyone has any suggestions for other possible 
appointees to the Board please let me know.

~rufus

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The Open Knowledge Foundation Board
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:26:06 +0100
From: Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
To: John Buckman <john at magnatune.com>

Dear John,

I am not sure whether you will recall, but I believe I mentioned to you
while at iCommons in June that the Open Knowledge Foundation was looking
to appoint some new Board members in order both to expand the current
Board and to replace leaving Directors. I am therefore writing to ask if
you would be willing to join the Board. More details about the Board's
responsibilities and the OKF itself can be found below.

Building up the Board and strengthening its role is a key part of
sustaining the OKF into the future. Your participation in it would be of
great value in achieving this so I do hope you will be able to join. If
you have any questions or would like to discuss this further by phone or
in person please let me know.

Regards,

Rufus
-- 
Director, Open Knowledge Foundation
m: +44 (0)7795 176 976
www: http://www.okfn.org/ | blog: http://blog.okfn.org/

The Board's Responsibilities
============================

The Board exists to oversee the activities and overall direction of the
Open Knowledge Foundation at a general level. While the Executive Group
is responsible for running the organization at a day-to-day level, the
Board is responsible for supervising the Executive Group. Board members
will also be expected to review and monitor the finances of the
Foundation as well as discharge the standard statutory responsibilities
(such as delivering accounts).

Time commitments for board members are expected to be relatively light
with no more than 1-2 days per quarter required and roughly 3-6 board
meetings a year. Due to the 'distributed' nature of the Board it is
likely that the majority of these meetings will be via phone or IRC
rather than in person. We would normally expect that Board members would
remain on the Board for at least 1-2 years.

The Open Knowledge Foundation
=============================

The Open Knowledge Foundation was founded in 2004 with the aim of
"promoting (and protecting) open knowledge in the belief that more open
approaches to the production and distribution of knowledge have
far-reaching social and commercial benefits."

The organization is not-for-profit and essentially charitable in nature
though we are not, for the present, a charity but simply a company
limited by guarantee. Over the period of our existence our work has been
supported through a combination of volunteers and donations. At the
present time we are looking for ways to expand our funding base
particularly through applying for grants to continue existing projects
and develop new ones.

The 'knowledge' in the Foundation's title is to be interpreted broadly
to include any kind of content, information or data, "genes to geodata,
sonnets to statistics" as we like to say. By 'open' knowledge we mean
knowledge which anyone is free to use, re-use and redistribute without
legal, social or technological restriction. We work specifically to:

   * Promote the idea of open knowledge, both what it is, and why it is
important.
   * Act at local, national and international levels on open knowledge
issues.
   * Run 'Open Knowledge' events, for example the Open Knowledge Forums
and OKCON.
   * Develop tools that help us and help others develop open knowledge,
such as KForge and the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network
   * Provide infrastructure, and potentially a home, for open knowledge
projects, communities and resources. See, for example, the
KnowledgeForge service.

Running through all of our activities is a strong emphasis on
decentralized collaboration. In particular, our primary aim is to help
others develop open knowledge rather than doing it ourselves. Of course,
that doesn't mean we don't develop specific projects (for example Open
Shakespeare) but we believe that the future lies in collaboration
between a multitude of different groups and that no one group or
organisation can, or should try to, "do it all". We therefore see it is
a key part of our mission to act as an open and participatory community
and our position as well as a hub and partner for existing open
knowledge networks.

Below are included a selection of links to further information about our
projects and activities.

  * The Open Knowledge Foundation: http://www.okfn.org
  * Current people: http://www.okfn.org/about/people
  * Overview of governance structure: http://www.okfn.org/governance
  * The Advisory Board: http://www.okfn.org/advisory_board
  * The OKF Projects page http://www.okfn.org/projects/
  * Annual Report 2006-7 http://www.okfn.org/board/reports/2007
  * The OKF Blog page http://blog.okfn.org/
  * The Open Knowledge Definition http://www.opendefinition.org/

-- 
Director, Open Knowledge Foundation
m: +44 (0)7795 176 976
www: http://www.okfn.org/ | blog: http://blog.okfn.org/