[okfn-coord] To be submitted on Friday: Application for COMMUNIA membership

Fri Jun 27 18:02:29 UTC 2008

Hi All,

Apologies, but I was travelling, so I did not have time to get back to you 
earlier.

The bad news is that I cannot add my bio in the OKF proposal as I am already 
participating to the COMMUNIA NoE as LSE staff.

The good news is that I can vote in favour of OKF :)

Also, I will be in London for a whole month starting from Wednesday the 2nd 
of July, so if any of you have some time it would be great to meet up and 
catch up.

Best wishes,
pRo

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jonathan Gray" <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
To: <okfn-coord at lists.okfn.org>; "Rufus Pollock" <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>; 
"Jo Walsh" <jo at frot.org>; "Jordan S Hatcher" <jordan at opencontentlawyer.com>; 
"Prodromos Tsiavos" <p.tsiavos at lse.ac.uk>
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 10:52 PM
Subject: To be submitted on Friday: Application for COMMUNIA membership

> Hi all,
>
> Tomorrow I will send off our application for membership of the COMMUNIA 
> network. Please find the completed form below. All suggestions welcome.
>
> Jo, Jordan, Rufus - if its alright with you I will include your 
> biographies that we used for the FP7 application in the "key persons in 
> your organization that could be involved in COMMUNIA" section.
>
> Pro - it would be great if you'd be interested in adding yours!
>
> Jonathan
>
> ---
>
> ## 1. Name of your organization;
>
> The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF)
>
> ## 2. Type of organization (academic, NGO, enterprise, government, etc.);
>
> Not-for-profit organisation
>
> ## 3. Location of your organization (country, city);
>
> Registered office in Cambridge, UK.
>
> ## 4. Short presentation of your organization;
>
> The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a not-for-profit organisation 
> founded in 2004 and dedicated to promoting open knowledge in all its 
> forms. It is a European leader in this field and prominent on the 
> international stage.
>
> A small Executive Group is responsible for running the Foundation on a day 
> to day basis and for coordinating the activities of its volunteers. This 
> is supplemented by the expertise of technical contractors and a 
> distinguished Advisory Board.
>
> The Foundation has pioneered work in developing robust legal mechanisms 
> for sharing data - and has taken a central role in helping to develop 
> standards for openness in knowledge and services. Crucially it acts as a 
> hub, drawing together representatives from across the knowledge society - 
> from academics, public servants and entrepreneurs to data experts, 
> archivists and web developers. Forums and an annual conference serve to 
> strengthen this network.
>
> In addition to research and policy work, it contributes to the 
> infrastructure for open knowledge users and producers. This includes CKAN, 
> a registry of knowledge packages, and KForge, a suite of tools for 
> managing software and knowledge projects. It has also initiated several 
> open knowledge projects - such as Open Shakespeare and Open Economics.
>
> ## 5. Brief explanation of your organization's interest in the digital 
> public domain;
>
> COMMUNIA's working definition of the digital public domain broadly 
> overlaps with the Open Knowledge Definition (see opendefinition.org). 
> There are strong areas of common interest - from scientific research to 
> public sector information to creative works. Many of those involved with 
> the OKF are academics or professionals engaged in research and policy work 
> relating to the digital public domain in its various forms.
>
> ## 6. Brief explanation of your organization's specific interest in the 
> COMMUNIA project;
>
> We are committed to strengthening the European network of groups and 
> individuals interested in open knowledge and the digital public domain. 
> Also we are very interested in the various working groups of the COMMUNIA 
> project. We have discussed the possibility of initiating projects with 
> network members under the auspices of COMMUNIA - such as a set of public 
> domain calculators for Europe (to calculate whether or not a given work is 
> in the public domain in a given jurisdiction).
>
> ## 7. Brief description of what your organization could contribute to 
> COMMUNIA, if selected to join the network;
>
> We could commit time and energy to COMMUNIA activities that intersect with 
> the aims of the OKF. We would be particularly keen to work on project 
> relating to mapping the public domain in Europe, and to consolidate the 
> activities of the various competence centres on the public domain in 
> Europe. We are also interested in helping to facilitate the growth of a 
> shared knowledge base of research and policy work in relevant fields. We 
> have experience in organising events such as our Open Knowledge Conference 
> (OKCon), domain specific Forums, and technical workshops.
>
> The OKF may be able to commit to helping with administrative tasks - from 
> event organisation to the preparation and dissemination of publications 
> and reports. Most importantly we could bring the expertise of our 
> Executive Group, our Advisory Board and our international community of 
> volunteers and contributors to the COMMUNIA project.
>
> ## 8. Names and short bios of key persons in your organization that could 
> be involved in COMMUNIA;
>
> == Rufus Pollock ==
>
> Rufus Pollock is a Founding Director of the Open Knowledge Foundation and 
> Mead Fellow in Economics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. His 
> research focuses on innovation and IP, with particular attention to open 
> models of innovation. Other areas of particular interest include 
> two-sided/platform industries (e.g. Operating Systems, Search Engines), 
> and research on happiness and well-being.
>
> He is author of The Value of the Public Domain published by the Institute 
> for Public Policy Research (IPPR), and co-author of Models of Public 
> Sector Information Provision via Trading Funds commissioned by HM Treasury 
> and BERR. He is currently working on an European Commission funded project 
> analysing the scope and nature of the public domain in Europe.
>
> == Jordan Hatcher ==
>
> Jordan has made the study of intellectual property and IT law, especially 
> US/UK/EU comparative aspects, his main focus. He is a graduate of the 
> University of Texas School of Law, and holds an advanced degree in IP and 
> technology law from the University of Edinburgh School of Law.
>
> Jordan has worked on a number of projects related to open content and 
> copyright, including a study by the CIE about UK public sector use of 
> Creative Commons and similar licences in 2005, an Eduserv Foundation 
> funded study on use of open content by the cultural heritage sector in 
> 2007, and on the Creative Commons Scotland localisation in 2005 and in 
> 2007.
>
> He is one of the principal developers of the Open Data Commons project and 
> Chair of the Advisory Council for the Open Knowledge Definition.
>
> == Jo Walsh ==
>
> Jo Walsh is a geo-spatial data expert currently working for the European 
> Space Agency. She is also Board Member of the Open Source Geo-Spatial 
> Foundation and co-author of O'Reilly's Mapping Hacks. Her technical 
> interests have been in metadata exchange and the web; the semantic web; 
> spatial applications and spatially processing information. She studied 
> English at Linacre College and Magdalen College at Oxford University.
>
> == Jonathan Gray ==
>
> Jonathan Gray is Operations Manager at the Open Knowledge Foundation. He 
> studied at Cambridge University, the Open University and is currently 
> doing research at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has a 
> background in the library sector. He recently sat on the programme 
> committees of I-SEMANTICS '08, Graz and Linked Data on the Web (LDOW2008), 
> Beijing.
>
> ## 9. Any other relevant information that could convince the COMMUNIA 
> members to select your organization rather than other applicants.
>
> In addition to working with other European groups and networks, we work 
> closely with international organisations - from Creative Commons, the 
> Internet Archive, SPARC, W3C, F/OSS groups and others. Our diverse 
> technical experience could also prove to be valuable. 