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

Tue Oct 13 20:48:06 UTC 2009

On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 2:50 AM, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
> Jo: I'd be particularly interested in your input here on the situation
> with OSGeo.

Yes - I'd like to hear what Jo thinks too!

>> 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.
>
> Would they like to be e.g. the OKFN German chapter?

Yes they would. And I get the impression they would like to be the
OKF's official organisation in Germany (i.e. a higher level of
formality/affiliation than an informal local group).

Any suggestions for how this could work? Perhaps we could use this as
a test case...

>> 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).
>
> On the structural side of things I think we want to distinguish:
>
> Partners: other organizations which are allied in aims and with whom
> we have collaborations or regular contact and exchange of info. We may
> further want to distinguish "official" ones (listed on our website,
> longer relationship) and unofficial ones.

Agreed. In the medium term perhaps we could have something like an MOU
for orgs like Science Commons, mySociety and suchlike.

After speaking to Martin today, I think we should have a neater list
on main OKF site too (as opposed to rather messy list on wiki - which
includes, e.g. Andrius's Worknets which we may not want to give much
airtime on the main site).

> Chapters/Arms/Groups: more closely linked to OKFN like our working
> groups or projects (be they formal or informal in setup and
> structure).
>
> For this second category we already have:
> <http://wiki.okfn.org/LocalGroups> which correspond to a fairly
> informal and loose affiliation (hence the Group terminology).
>
> For these guys - if they really want to get closely involved with the
> OKF, groups may be a bit too informal and may want something more like
> a "Chapter" with its implication of closer and semi-formal
> relationship.

Exactly I think this is right. They seem to be quite serious and I can
certainly imagine, for example, a scenario where they might wish to
start fundraising for a German version of CKAN for gov and scientific
data.

> Perhaps we are also getting to the point where resurrecting the
> distinction between the "Open Knowledge Foundation" and the "Open
> Knowledge Foundation Network" would be useful.

This is true.

> Thinking it over my conclusion is that to keep things simple for the
> present the best thing would be to go down and OSM-type approach and
> invite these guys to form an OKFN German chapter/group.

Okay. I.e. have a chapter which is officially part of OKF?

>> 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?
>
> Going forward I think we definitely want to do something like this.
>
> Rufus
>
> _______________________________________________
> okfn-coord mailing list
> okfn-coord at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-coord
>

-- 
Jonathan Gray

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