[foundation-board] OKF consultancy policy?

[Jason Kitcat]

Hi

On 24 May 2011, at 10:48, Jonathan Gray wrote:
>  * Is there an expectancy that they do this with OKF hat? I.e. can
> they go off and do things by themselves? I have a mild preference for
> encouraging people to do things with OKF hat where possible - but
> obviously we want to minimise risk that people will do things with OKF
> hat and then not deliver, do something sub-standard, etc.

If people are willing then I think, yes, we can do this through OKF with 15% overhead clawed back into core funds (if not more).

It would need some oversight to manage reputational risks and quality control. I would suggest that I review and sign-off:

* Who the client is
* The plan of work & contract

>  * Do we want documentation somewhere about what this involves? Does
> the standard overheads rate apply? Could this be worth writing up
> quickly so we have some kind of basic policy and some material on how
> to do this? (E.g. making a request, expectations, process, etc.)

Yes I think it is worth writing up and I will add this to my list.

> Background: Tim McNamara is potentially going to be consulting for New
> Zealand government - we discussed whether or not it would make sense
> to do this with OKF hat or not. From my point of view this would be
> highly desirable - e.g. for official contact with public bodies, Tim
> is great and will represent OKF very well, etc.

Agreed.

> Also it would be useful to have something like this so that e.g. we
> know what to do if one of our core developers gets directly approached
> to do something related to something they've been doing in the OKF.
> 
> Jason: this seems like I wonder if you'd be willing to take this on?
> As its a contracts / HR / money thing, seems within your remit?
> 
> Jason: would really love to hear your views on this, qua OKF legal counsel. ;-)

When I was at Sussex Uni they did something similar to try and keep profs from being dragged into running their own consultancy companies. The only problems were the Uni was:

a) Bureaucratic so billing was a nightmare
b) They set the scale of fees, which many felt to be too low and inflexible
c) The people doing the work didn't see much of the fees!

So as long as we keep things light touch, let people keep most of the fees themselves and the fees are set appropriately I think it's ok for OKF to do this.

All the best,
Jason

--
Jason Kitcat
Foundation Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation

+44 (0) 7956 886 508

http://www.okfn.org
http://twitter.com/jasonkitcat