[foundation-board] Separation of concerns

Tue Jun 28 08:34:22 UTC 2011

On Jun 26, 2011 2:55 PM, "Jason Kitcat" <jason.kitcat at okfn.org> wrote:
>
> On 25 Jun 2011, at 12:52, Jo Walsh wrote:
>> Really at this point I want to see a cost/benefit analysis and establish
some conditions: is this something the board can agree is desirable?
(possibly not) and how can we judge when OKF is robust enough? Given the
Omidyar news, there's now a 3-year breathing space with support assured for
the "community" part. (I know this is new news but it would be very helpful
to see the conditions attached to the Omidyar grant).
>
> I don't think we've got anything definite from Omidyar legal yet...

Splitting out the potentially commercial activities of OKF was discussed at
the preliminary Omidyar meeting - no steer either way, just a realisation
that this was possible and worth considering. We may wish to invite someone
from Omidyar to sit on the Board - we should discuss this on Saturday. I
would be broadly in favour, especially if it was someone who has come to
Omidyar from eBay (several Omidyar people did) as they will have direct
experience of building an organisation around a community. In addition,
Omidyar also has a hybrid investment/philanthropy approach, and experience
both of grantees who have split operations, and grantees who have kept them
under one roof.

In this light, I think it makes sense to be discussing this in the terms
Jo's proposed, which I read as working to a "getting ready to decide" mode.

Bests

Becky
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