[okfn-coord] Formal partner or 'branch' organisation in Germany

Tue Oct 6 22:59:10 UTC 2009

I've recently been in contact with the Open Data Network in Germany.
They are very keen to become a branch or partner organisation of the
OKF in Germany:

  http://opendata-network.org/

The two main guys behind the network, Urs and Daniel, are very earnest
and ambitious - and are already engaging with various government
representatives in Germany. Short term objectives include a German
version of CKAN for government and scientific data - as well as
putting on events and providing a network for relevant groups and
individuals in Germany. They seem to be very interested and pretty
clued up about this area - and look like they plan to get things
moving very quickly.

They are now at the stage of making a legal entity for the network -
and are wondering whether to create a German non-profit (specifically
an 'eingetragener verein' - registered society or association), or
whether there is another way they could be legally related to the OKF.

I wonder if anyone has any advice on how we should move on this? I
think this has longer term implications, for what the OKF is. Jordan:
do you have any legal suggestions? I guess obvious parallel cases
would be with Wikimedia Foundation/Wikimedia local chapters, Creative
Commons/Creative Commons National Projects, Open Street Map/OSM local
groups. I am under the impression that WM have most formal local
groups (legal incorporation, money moving between them, etc.),
followed by CC (where project leads may be affiliated with
universities and other orgs) followed by OSM (which may be informal
interest groups - not legal organisations).

Thinking about it, my feeling is that local chapters/groups/arms could
make a lot of sense in terms of working on, e.g. public domain or open
government data across Europe - with different languages, different
national organisations and so on. Also means, for example, that we
could open doors to new funding avenues. What do others think?

-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org