[foundation-board] Big review of OKF finances, contracts, HR, etc?

Wed May 25 09:22:35 UTC 2011

I think we were thinking the Foundation (OKF) would be the bit that
does contracts etc, and the network (OKFN) does the community stuff,
etc. Think Rufus has openknowledgefoundation.org or similar - so the
Foundation's stuff (board meetings, finances, etc) would go there -
and the network stuff (working groups, projects etc) would live at
okfn.org.

On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 9:12 AM, Jo Walsh <metazool at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ah!
>
> This looks like a big board meeting agenda item.
>
> Talked about this sort of thing with Becky when we met up with Ben Laurie
> late last year. About the prospect of separating out the Foundation
> (projects community, WGs) from its commercial activities, into differently
> managed entities.
>
> Since then I certainly havent followed it up; coincidentally enough was
> chatting to Will during a cab ride yesterday and he was mentioning this same
> idea.
>
> Stuff that this implies we ought to consider:
>
> * roadmap for open governance of the Foundation-community part (meritocratic
> membership a-la ASF)
>
> * which part keeps the OKF name (e.g. does the commercial arm become "OKF
> Labs" or something
>
> * how this would affect our tax situation, some reasonable-detail financial
> projections of the outcome
>
> Thoughts apprec
>
> On 24 May 2011 13:27, "Jonathan Gray" <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
>
> I agree that we should try to make more stuff public - but not so
> optimistic about how soon this will happen after speaking to Jason and
> others about this.
>
> One thing that we've been speaking about more and more is the (re-)
> division of the OKF into:
>
>  * The Open Knowledge Foundation - which takes on contracts, paid
> work, consultancy, pays people and is legally responsible for
> delivering on projects. The board is responsible for this bit. This is
> the bit that Jason is responsible for making sustainable. And where
> all the business development happens (e.g. doing CKAN customisation
> work, etc). And it dedicates resources/time/etc to ...
>  * The Open Knowledge Foundation Network - which is much more
> autonomous. The working groups, and all the smaller projects are part
> of this. This is basically 100% community driven. The executive group
> and WG leads work on this. The Foundation gives it an annual budget to
> spend on projects, events, and other activities as the community see
> fit.
>
> I am (obviously) most keen to work on the second part. I don't do any
> of the money stuff, nor am I keen to. I'd much prefer that there were
> dedicated people making sure these aspects of the OKF operate
> smoothly.
>
> What do people think?
>
> All the best,
>
> Jonathan
>
> On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 12:18 PM, Jo Walsh <metazool at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Predictably enough, I thin...
>
>> foundation-board at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-board
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
>
> http://...
>
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>
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>
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-- 
Jonathan Gray

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

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