[foundation-board] CEO update

Tue Apr 19 19:09:14 UTC 2016

Dear Members of the Board,

please find below my update on current events at Open Knowledge
International. You can find the same text in a Google Doc here
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/14sbAZwatm4MXaDp59zTlUjOSRwhfCkg6zubTBiRV5U8/edit#>
.

As always, I would appreciate any kind of feedback, including, but not
limited to criticism, questions, remarks, and praise.

I am CCing Mark, Sebastian and Sander in this mail, so that they can
respond to questions directly.

Cheers,

Pavel

_________________________
Highlights from our projects

   -

   School of Data is in the final process of selecting the 8 fellows for
   the 2016 global School of Data Fellowships, from 734 candidates who
   applied from 102 countries on 4 different tracks
   <https://schoolofdata.cartodb.com/viz/7d77e6ce-f631-11e5-b6ca-0ef24382571b/public_map>,
   consolidating the relationship with 3 NGOs around the world and three major
   funders
   -

   OpenTrials has published a paper
   <http://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-016-1290-8>
   in BioMedCentral, by Ben Goldacre and Jonathan Gray, setting out the grand
   vision "towards a collaborative open database of all available information
   on all clinical trials"
   -

   A research report by Jonathan Gray, 'Changing what counts', has been
   published <http://blog.okfn.org/2016/03/03/changing-what-counts/> (PDF
   <http://civicus.org/thedatashift/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/changing-what-counts-2.pdf>).
   It sets out how citizens and civil society organisations can influence
   policy by helping define what data should be measured, created or curated
   -

   As part of the Global Open Data Index project, we are drafting an MoU
   with the Web Foundation to frame our collaboration on the production of
   tools assessing open data released. This year we will look at harmonisation
   across the Open Data Barometer and the Global Open Data Index
   -

   OpenSpending was presented to 20 representatives of Ministries of
   Finance of 10 different countries during a 3 days workshop run by GIFT in
   Mexico, which raised the interest of at least six countries to pilot our
   tools

Operations

   -

   Payroll services re-aligned
   -

   Pensions ready for October Boarding, 9 months before original plan
   -

   Employee Benefit scheme implemented
   -

   Finance review completed in relation to CKAN commercial work (Viderum)
   -

   Re-alignment of P&L
   -

   First Budget and Forecasting system in beta version
   -

   Project Management software in roll-out stage
   -

   Organisation Values project reached phase 1
   -

   New HR assistant on board
   -

   New Operations Processes and Procedures in development and deployment
   -

   Pre-Audit Meeting planned for May

International employment is progressing smoothly, with a payroll provider
found to support both Germany and the Netherlands. Jonathan Gray has
confirmed he wants UK employment, to reflect his near-term plans, and Mark
liaised with him on the implications and requirements of this.

Viderum

   -

   Viderum has joined CKAN Association, with Sebastian joining the CKAN
   Steering Group
   -

   On business: Work is well under way for ongoing projects. We have signed
   another 60k GBP of work
   -

   On finances: A budget was prepared for the timeframe March through July.
   The ODINE proposal will need to resubmitted after feedback.
   Books/accounting have been set up for US and UK. Accurate accounting for
   commercial work within OKI still needs to be sorted out (refer to Mark's
   report)
   -

   On transition: 7 of 9 hosting customers are now using our cloud-based
   infrastructure. We have started work on novating existing OKI customers
   agreements to Viderum. The financial setup (i.e. bank accounts) has been
   completed. Arturas has moved to Viderum Ltd. starting 1 April

FundingOmidyar

I am meeting Martin and Andrew on the 13th to discuss the next phase of
funding in more detail.
Arcadia

Rufus has facilitated an introduction for me to meet Dr. Maja Kominko,
Cultural and Open Access Grants Manager at Arcadia, also on the 13th.
Hewlett

Discussion with David (Sasaki) is ongoing regarding a short-term bridging
grant. I will meet David next week in Barcelona for Tictech conference

StaffCurrent live vacancies

The following may be found at https://okfn.org/about/jobs/:

   -

   Portfolio Manager - Planting the Seeds
   -

   Portfolio Manager - Growing the Trees
   -

   Portfolio Manager - Harvesting the Fruits
   -

   Project Manager
   -

   Communications Officer: Social Media & Content
   -

   Full Stack Developer
   -

   OpenTrials Community Manager
   -

   International Community Coordinator
   -

   Also the Board Finance vacancy

New staff

John Molenaar joined as HR Assistant.
Departures

James Gardner gave notice and left at the end of March.

Nigel Babu gave notice to leave at the end of April.
Changes

Naomi Lillie goes on maternity leave on the 18th July and we are seeking
both cover for her period of leave as well as an assistant before then to
support her and the cover role.

Arturas Verbickas moved to employment by Viderum Ltd. on the 1st April.

Network

Monthly calls with Chapter leads continue to go well. We will be putting a
job ad live shortly for the position of Community Coordinator to support
this work.
OK Festival

The current status of OKFestival is that we will likely have a smaller
OKFestival around the IODC event in Madrid in October ‘16. Unfortunately it
has been confirmed that Shuttleworth will not fund an OKFestival this year
so we are looking at project funds that may be able to support an event
collectively. I remain keen on a 2017 bigger OKFestival and am discussing
practicalities with the Leadership Team.

AOB

The next in person meeting is on 11th May 2016 in London at Canonical.

Charitable Status application is ongoing, seeking advice from UK and US
lawyers (the latter via Hewlett) as well as updating the application from
the version Rufus provided mid last year.

We are discussing non-CKAN commercial services with the Tech Team, to make
sure we are aligned regarding managing potential opportunities.

Summer Summit set for last week of June in Berlin.

I will send the next CEO Update in the middle of June. Please do give
feedback on these

-- 
Kind regards

Pavel Richter
CEO
Open Knowledge International
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