[okfn-coord] Hosting for OneClickOrgs?

Sat Apr 25 08:54:12 UTC 2009

Bit of background via GigaOm:

<http://gigaom.com/2008/06/17/vermont-oks-the-creation-of-virtual-corporations/ 
 >

This is really interesting!  I think we should support this project,  
but I have three questions/points:

===1. What is the nature of the proposed relationship?

-- they want a friendly host to be only a friendly host -- so we are  
acting as an ISP or a reseller only.
(and do we want to be an ISP service, at least for very long?)

OR

-- we are a "project partner" whose contribution is hosting and  
possibly doing more work.

===2. Liability

The liability for us is a bit different in each case (partner vs ISP).  
I'd like to be a bit clearer about our liability since:

-- they are going to be helping people incorporate.  Just doing a bit  
of lawyerly issue-spotting, but one question I'd have is "could this  
service run into Unauthorized Practice of Law problems?"

--If it's an ISP type role, I'd also like to make sure about things  
like privacy policies, defamation, that sort of thing.

===3. Payment...

Even for blog hosting, I don't think it is unreasonable to ask for a  
suggested donation each month, especially as, even if this is a non- 
profit, it definitely has the potential to be *profit-making.  Long  
term, hosting isn't free and seems like we should either be:

-- charging (even if at a reduced rate) for hosting
OR
-- seeing if we can write this off tax wise as a donation on our part  
(set an amount that we would charge for hosting).

Thanks!

~Jordan

On 24 Apr 2009, at 19:23, Jonathan Gray wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Charles Armstrong (of Trampoline Systems + the Circus Foundation) and
> a small team of developers are currently looking for somewhere to host
> a project called OneClickOrgs. The project aims to support the
> creation of a basic legal structure for an organisation and to
> facilitate collective decision making. They've had interest from the
> Berkman, from the lawyers behind the Vermont Virtual Corporations Law
> (Peter Erle and David Johnson), and from some people interested in
> setting up a charitable foundation at Oracle. More info on PDF
> (attached).
>
> Its a not-for-profit project and all their material is open (the code
> is AGPL and all content is CC-BY-SA - hence its OSSD compliant?).
>
> Would the OKF be interested in helping with hosting? In the first
> instance this would be for a blog and to test the service as they move
> towards the first phase this summer.
>
> As an aside: I'd be really interested to see if their constitutions
> could be of value for our Working Groups...
>
> (Disclosure: though I'm not part of the project team, I've been
> involved in discussions about the project since it started and am on
> their internal mailing list.)
>
> -- 
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://www.okfn.org
> <oneclickorgs.intro. 
> 200903.pdf>_______________________________________________
> okfn-coord mailing list
> okfn-coord at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-coord

____
Mr. Jordan S Hatcher, JD, LLM

jordan [at] opencontentlawyer dot com

More details at:
<http://www.jordanhatcher.com>

Open Data at:
<http://www.opendatacommons.org>