[foundation-board] OKF consultancy policy?

Thu May 26 18:30:24 UTC 2011

Great - thanks for this Jason. Would you be happy to produce something
more generic for contractors about OKF consultancy.

Also is it worth drafting a clause to put into people's contracts at
some point? (No hurry - but next time we revise these we could add
something in perhaps...)

J.

On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 8:55 AM, Jason Kitcat <jason.kitcat at okfn.org> wrote:
> 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
>
>

-- 
Jonathan Gray

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

http://twitter.com/jwyg
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