[foundation-board] an interesting potential coordinator

Mon Aug 30 22:31:20 UTC 2010

dear Becky, all, sorry for the lag here,
On 27/08/2010 19:32, Becky Hogge wrote:
> perhaps something to revisit?

Right, i'm contradicting what was agreed at the board meeting, having 
had a few weeks to think it over - sometimes i think very slowly.

> To me, the project coordinator fulfills all the roles of an
> executive director minus the strategic role, which is delegated

This is kind of my problem - the governing structure that this implies.
Board as head, people as legs, etc. Are we serious in our desire to make 
a "decentralised, networked organisation" in which case is hiring 
someone to be in the centre, a good place to start?

However for once rather than talk abstract/structural/philosophical 
stuff i would like to *try* to stay pragmatic - looking at OKF's 
operational needs and trying to work from there.

To me it seems clear that CKAN could really use a project manager who 
isn't Rufus, thereby freeing up his time, as for WDMMG i don't know how 
long that has left to run, funded, or how much marshalling the community 
will need after the money goes.

Sysadmin - lots of stuff getting dropped on the floor, no clear 
responsibility for things outside of projects, lots of time-consuming 
firefighting. "Squeaky wheel gets the grease", i am told; i get enough 
of that in my work-day life in an inefficient hierarchical structure 
which seems to have great difficulty in taking decisions...

> hopes that you would not share.

I'm never sure what i think, which may not be much help ;) but i hope i 
am a bit clearer now...

I still don't see that coordination and project management are the same 
role, it wasn't clear to me at the F2F meeting that this was certainly 
the case.

It seems to me that hiring a few people for less time over time 
represents less risk to us and more spreading of responsibility...

love,

jo
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