[okfn-coord] Large phone bill from Advisory Board Member...

Sun Jan 10 13:00:41 UTC 2010

I definitely agree with Ian. This also speaks to Jordan's explicit
(and I suspect, quite a few other Board members' implicit) concerns
that those who volunteer their time to OKFN for free should not face
any financial penalty for doing so.

2010/1/10 Ian Brown <ian.brown at oii.ox.ac.uk>:
> I think in this circumstance it's reasonable to cover the whole mount, but as you say find some MUCH cheaper arrangement in future...
>
> Cheers,
> Ian.
> --
> http://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/brown/
>
> On 10 Jan 2010, at 12:23, Jonathan Gray wrote:
>
>> Unfortunately Peter Suber, one of our Advisory Board Members, was
>> charged $307.49 for dialling into our December Advisory Board meeting.
>> I can confirm that he used a landline, and as far as I can tell this
>> must just be the going rate for dialling internationally into a run of
>> the mill UK conference call number.
>>
>> We should probably start paying for a service whereby we can use local
>> dial in numbers to prevent this sort of thing happening in future.
>> Rufus and I thought we should probably offer Peter something in way of
>> compensation. What do people think would be reasonable?
>>
>> Jonathan
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Peter Suber <peter.suber at gmail.com>
>> Date: Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 1:44 PM
>> Subject: Re: [okfn-advisory] Details and agenda for OKF Advisory Board
>> conference call, Thursday 3rd December @ 1800 GMT
>> To: Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>
>>
>>
>> Hi Jonathan,
>> My phone company charged me $307.49 for participating in the December
>> 3 conference call.
>> I don't know what I expected, but I didn't expect that.
>> Is there any way that OKF could help with some of bill?  If not, I
>> understand.  I just thought I'd ask.
>>     All the best,
>>     Peter
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Please find below details for connecting to OKF Advisory Board
>>> conference call on Thursday.
>>>
>>> As requested, I've also drafted a summary of the OKF's recent
>>> activities, and questions to guide discussion (also below). This is a
>>> bit longer than I hoped, but a skim should give you a flavour of what
>>> we've been up to and what we're looking for advice about!
>>>
>>> Looking forward to it!
>>>
>>> Jonathan
>>>
>>> ## Connecting to call
>>>
>>> To join the call, please dial in and then enter the Passcode when
>>> prompted followed by the # key.
>>>
>>> * When: Thursday 3rd December, 1800 GMT
>>> * Passcode: 901854
>>> * Telephone number:
>>>   * UK only: 0844 84 84 84 0
>>>   * Germany: 01805 123 0131
>>>   * Everywhere else: +44 844 873 60 60 or +49 1803 002 063
>>>
>>> Low cost evening rate via 0844 8 360 360 after 6pm.
>>>
>>> ## Agenda
>>>
>>> ### The Foundation and its community
>>>
>>> The OKF (okfn.org) is a not-for-profit community-driven organisation
>>> dedicated to promoting open knowledge in all its forms, "from sonnets
>>> to statistics, genes to geodata".
>>>
>>> We have a wealth of projects and working groups, which can be seen here:
>>>
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwyg/3878224172/sizes/l/
>>> http://okfn.org/projects
>>> http://wiki.okfn.org/wg
>>>
>>> I have provided a summary of the most important developments with
>>> respect to these below.
>>>
>>> We are currently working hard to make it easier to understand what the
>>> OKF does, to make its operations more transparent and to make it
>>> easier for people to get involved. We are reorganising its structure
>>> and governance to reflect the fact that it is democratic, meritocratic
>>> and, crucially, driven by representatives of the community it serves.
>>> In the next few months we are planning to make a series of micro-short
>>> films about different areas the OKF works in and why they matter.
>>>
>>> Main general questions for Advisory Board:
>>>
>>> * What should the OKF be focusing on?
>>> * What can it do better?
>>> * Any ideas for new opportunities?
>>> * How can it encourage more people to get involved?
>>> * Ideas for better publicity and communications?
>>>
>>> ### CKAN, an open source registry of open data
>>>
>>> CKAN (ckan.net) is one of the OKF's flagship projects. It is an open
>>> source registry of open data and large collections of open content. It
>>> aims to make it easier to find and reuse open material.
>>>
>>> The UK Government recently decided to use the software for CKAN, the
>>> OKF's open source registry of open data, to build data.gov.uk [1].
>>> Though not yet launched, the new government site has received lots of
>>> favourable media attention (partly in the wake of the US's data.gov).
>>> We hope that in the near future the UK Government will authorise us to
>>> publish the thousands of datasets they are listing on the main CKAN
>>> site.
>>>
>>> CKAN also contains the European Open Data Inventory, co-created with
>>> the NGO EU Transparency and launched at a press conference in Brussels
>>> [2]. We also launched a 'Linking Open Data' group for semantic web
>>> data at a recent workshop in London [3]. We are currently creating a
>>> German version of the site aimed at German open government data and
>>> scientific datasets. We are also in discussion with several NGOs about
>>> using CKAN for open data related to international development.
>>>
>>> There are plenty of opportunities to use CKAN to document open
>>> government data, open data in science, collections of open content and
>>> public domain material. We are in touch with several groups about
>>> using it, and are starting to advertise volunteer 'editorships' to
>>> encourage people to get involved. We are testing a new 'Is It Open?'
>>> service which will allow people to make publicly documented requests
>>> asking if a given work or dataset is open.
>>>
>>> Questions:
>>>
>>> * What can we do to promote CKAN better (in different domains)?
>>> * What can we do to improve it? (E.g. visualisation of tags, better
>>> user profiles, ...)
>>> * Ideas for specific people we could contact? (E.g. Scientific
>>> organisations, Amazon Public Datasets, Google, ...?)
>>> * Ideas for specific collections that we should create where there
>>> might be demand? (E.g environmental data...)
>>>
>>> [1] http://blog.okfn.org/2009/10/08/datagovuk-launched-and-its-using-ckan/
>>> [2] http://blog.okfn.org/2009/05/11/european-open-data-summit/
>>> [3] http://blog.okfn.org/2009/11/20/after-the-open-data-and-semantic-web-workshop/
>>>
>>> ### Open Definition, defining the 'open' in open data, open content
>>> and open services
>>>
>>> The OKF aims to promote legal and technical guidance and standards for
>>> making content, data and software services open.
>>>
>>> Its most high profile success in this area is OKF Director Rufus
>>> Pollock's 'Raw Data Now' meme which was taken up by Tim Berners-Lee,
>>> who gave a TED talk on this topic (citing Rufus in his slides). This
>>> has received lots of attention in the media and in the blogosphere.
>>> Someone has kindly donated us RawDataNow.com, which we are planning to
>>> set up with details on how and why to publish raw data [4].
>>>
>>> Apart from that we have been continuing to work on OpenDefinition.org
>>> - which we are currently in the process of revamping. Open Definition
>>> includes definitions for 'openness' in content, data and services. We
>>> are aiming to provide specific guidance for open data in science, as
>>> well as for open government data (with input from Working Groups in
>>> each area).
>>>
>>> We recently authored a report on legal and technical aspects of making
>>> data open, directed at international development data [5]. We are
>>> currently starting to undertake a similar piece of work for the Open
>>> Society Institute about open government data and the (older) freedom
>>> of information movement.
>>>
>>> * What can we do to better promote opendefinition.org?
>>> * Are there specific people we should contact regarding third
>>> parties adopting it as a standard?
>>> * Ideas for how we might apply this work in new/emerging areas?
>>> * Ideas for how we can improve documentation?
>>>
>>> [4] http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/2009-October/001710.html
>>> [5] http://blog.okfn.org/2009/09/21/new-report-on-sharing-aid-information-is-now-open-for-comments/
>>>
>>> ### Open Data Commons
>>>
>>> OKF recently adopted the Open Data Commons legal tools for open data
>>> (opendatacommons.org). These are legal tools, a bit like the Creative
>>> Commons licenses, but specifically aimed at making data open. There is
>>> a public domain legal tool (the PDDL) and a 'sharealike' style license
>>> (the ODbL). Open Street Map is currently looking into using the ODbL.
>>> Quite a number of open data projects have used them, including the
>>> Guardian newspaper in the UK.
>>>
>>> * What can we do to promote these tools effectively in different domains?
>>>
>>> ### Where Does My Money Go?
>>>
>>> 'Where Does My Money Go?' is project which analyses and visualises
>>> information about UK public spending. It was a winner of the UK
>>> Government's 'Show Us A Better Way' competition. We are currently
>>> working on a prototype with funding from the Cabinet Office [6].
>>>
>>> There has been lots of interest in the project, and we are currently
>>> in discussion with the UK's Channel 4 about further funding. The next
>>> stage is to have much more fine grained detail, more local
>>> information, and more useful analysis. Ultimately we're interested in
>>> porting this model to other countries.
>>>
>>> [6] http://blog.okfn.org/2009/11/11/alpha-release-of-where-does-my-money-go-prototype/
>>>
>>> ### Events: OKCon, workshops, COMMUNIA
>>>
>>> We have been busy with several events.
>>>
>>> In March we organised the EU funded 5th Communia Workshop (on "Public
>>> Sector Content and Data"), for which we had UK Government Cabinet
>>> Office minister as keynote, and talks from government departments,
>>> NGOs and cultural heritage institutions across Europe [7]. We also had
>>> our annual OKCon 2009 conference, which brought together open
>>> knowledge users and advocates from different communities [8].
>>>
>>> Last month we had a workshop on 'open data and the semantic web' which
>>> was a major event for the UK Linked Data community [9]. We were
>>> completely oversubscribed, and participants included the great and the
>>> good from the UK semantic web community, as well plenty of people from
>>> media and government. The BBC even came down to interview people! We
>>> also had a small focused workshop on building a set of European public
>>> domain calculators - to help find out which works are in the public
>>> domain in a given jurisdiction [10].
>>>
>>> We are currently organising OKCon 2010. We hope to have a big session
>>> on open government data. Details on other events are at:
>>> http://okfn.org/events
>>>
>>> We are also a member of Communia, a European policy network for the
>>> digital public domain. As such all advisory board members are eligible
>>> to receive support to attend events. The next events are scheduled to
>>> be in Luxembourg, Istanbul and Turin. Please let us know if any of you
>>> would be interested in coming along to any of these events!
>>>
>>> Questions:
>>>
>>> * Any other ideas for workshops we should have?
>>> * Ideas for sessions at OKCon 2010?
>>>
>>> [7] http://communia-project.eu/ws05
>>> [8] http://blog.okfn.org/2009/05/20/open-knowledge-conference-okcon-2009-post-event-information/
>>> [9] http://blog.okfn.org/2009/11/20/after-the-open-data-and-semantic-web-workshop/
>>> [10] http://blog.okfn.org/2009/11/17/documentation-from-the-public-domain-calculators-meeting/
>>>
>>> ### Other projects
>>>
>>> We have lots of other projects, including:
>>>
>>> * Open Shakespeare (complete works of Shakespeare in an open form
>>> with associated material),
>>> * Weaving History (exploring historical events using maps and timelines),
>>> * Public Domain Works (registry of works in the public domain),
>>> * Open Text Book (registry of open textbooks),
>>> * Open Economics (economic data store plus basic graphing facilities)
>>>
>>> More information can be found at:
>>>
>>> http://okfn.org/projects
>>>
>>> Thats all for now!
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jonathan Gray
>>>
>>> Community Coordinator
>>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>>> http://www.okfn.org
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> okfn-advisory mailing list
>>> okfn-advisory at lists.okfn.org
>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-advisory
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jonathan Gray
>>
>> Community Coordinator
>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>> http://www.okfn.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> okfn-coord mailing list
>> okfn-coord at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-coord
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> okfn-coord mailing list
> okfn-coord at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-coord
>