[okfn-coord] Fwd: Proposal

[Becky Hogge]

Hi Rufus

This is a really interesting development, thanks for forwarding this email.

My reading of the situation chimes with yours. It's quite possible
that 4IP saw our application and went to MySociety to suggest they
approach us, perhaps because they think the project is ambitious
(we've admitted so ourselves in the initial application) and had a
better chance of succeeding if executed in partnership with MySoc. If
that's true (I wonder if Paula, you could get a view on this, I think
you're planning to speak to 4IP soon?) then it's highly unlikely that
we will get the funding by ourselves now.

Of course, partnering with MySociety will be excellent for the profile
of the project, and they also have good resources to offer, not least
in the shape of a full time ED like Tom. But there is a risk that OKFN
as an organisation loses out on getting the profile attached to the
project in favour of MySociety.

I guess that to mitigate against that we should be clear about what we
are offering any partnership from the off. What can we offer here? The
OKFN stack? The relationships we have and the funding we have
associated with this project from the work we've done so far? A
platform for launch in the shape of OKCon? Should we also stipulate
that some of the staff roles we indicate in the budget report to the
OKF executive group (and is this plausible, given none of us is full
time?)? Are there specific roles for each organisation that we can
agree while we're drafting a revised, and upscaled, application?

Speed may well be of the essence here - one way forward would be to
meet with Tom and thrash out these issues directly, he should
understand our concerns about the project contributing to OKFN's
profile more generally, and should also welcome the idea of a
diversity of organisations in this space - this shouldn't be a
competition! I'd love to be involved in such a meeting, but of course
I'm on holiday from tomorrow until 21 September.

B


2009/9/2 Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>:
> Dear All,
>
> Yesterday I had a call with Tom Steinberg of mysociety. He is
> interested in "collaborating" on "Where Does My Money Go" specifically
> in relation to a grant application to 4IP. We have already put in a
> grant application to 4IP (just a few weeks ago) -- which I explained
> to him. You can read more in his email below.
>
> Questions for us:
>
>  1. What are benefits?
>  2. What are costs/risks?
>  3. Should we do this (and how)?
>
> For me there are obvious benefits (greater likelihood of getting a
> grant, working with mysociety), but there are also obvious risks in
> the sense of us getting "left out" of the project - in this area
> mysociety are almost certainly better known at present than we are.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rufus
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Tom Steinberg <tom at mysociety.org>
> Date: 2009/9/1
> Subject: Proposal
> To: Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>, Matthew Somerville
> <matthew at mysociety.org>, team <team at whatdotheyknow.com>
>
>
> Hi Rufus,
>
> I am writing to ask if OKFN would like to collaborate on a joint
> proposal to 4IP relating to the development and growth of a website
> dedicated to making UK government spending more transparent.
>
> I am aware that you have already put in a bid to 4IP, but I would like
> you to consider withdrawing it and re-authoring it in conjunction with
> mySociety's team,and hopefully with some help from our uber FOI
> volunteers.
>
> The goal of the project from mySociety's perspective would be twofold
> - to make a useful site that adds value for citizens on day one, but
> more strategically to shape wider expectations inside and outside of
> government about what spending transparency looks like when 'done
> right'. The hope is that this can be used to persuade or cajole the
> new administration into publishing information either in a copycat
> way, or (better) in the formats we request.
>
> I expect that the project will require substantial design hurdles to
> be overcome, as well as masses and masses of semi-manual data cleaning
> - and that's just for the first version. As a consequence I'm not
> envisioning that this project would be likely to be built if we had to
> do it purely from our own spare resources, despite its popularity as
> an idea in our call for proposals. This is why the importance of third
> party funding like 4IP is paramount.
>
> Anyway, I'm concious that I don't want to be seen to be stepping on
> toes, but I do think this could be a great thing for us to collaborate
> on.
>
> best,
>
> Tom
>
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