[foundation-board] CEO Update 10 / 2016

Helen Turvey (King) helen.turvey at shuttleworthfoundation.org
Wed Oct 19 09:14:05 UTC 2016


Thanks Pavel, great update as always.

I would like to intro Viderum team to: http://openoil.net/ - I think there
work would be of interest to each other, esp. now with contracts in the
extractives industry.

The work of the RTEI is really solid - esp. love the questions you pose,
both practical and policy.  I do find the name complicated, as the right to
education is either there or not, if someone is fulfilling obligations is
another matter.  I know it is explained further down the site one drills,
but wondered if it was deliberately so?

Fingers crossed for Omidyar news!

HT

On 18 October 2016 at 18:55, Karin Christiansen <karin at karinchristiansen.org
> wrote:

> Very helpful. Thank you.
>
> Karin
>
> On 18 Oct 2016 3:34 p.m., "Pavel Richter" <pavel.richter at okfn.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> please find below an overview of the highlights of the last month here at
>> Open Knowledge International. As always, you can find the same text as a
>> Google doc here
>> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xtV7OXKbVeiK3IT3PIfiNCJNvpm7aLxd--kV-kQvJIs/edit?usp=sharing>
>> .
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Pavel
>> Highlights from Tech/ Projects
>>
>>    -
>>
>>    There has been solid progress on the technical and methodological
>>    aspects of the Global Open Data Index (GODI) platform. Data
>>    collection for GODI 2016 is scheduled to start on the first week of
>>    November.
>>    -
>>
>>    Work on the new tooling of the OpenSpending platform is ongoing while
>>    the testing of the Fiscal Data Package specification continues after the
>>    launch of the pilot with the Mexican Government.  Work is underway with
>>    Open Knowledge Germany on a project to collect all EU subsidy data and get
>>    it into OpenSpending, this is funded by Adessium
>>    -
>>
>>    Regarding OpenTrials, the beta launch of the platform accompanied by
>>    a hackathon in Berlin and an announcement occurred at the World Health
>>    Summit on 10th October.
>>    -
>>
>>    In Frictionless Data, the working group around the specs has kicked
>>    off with great success, and with a commitment made to get all
>>    specifications to v1 by end of 2016 with representatives across civic data,
>>    academic, and commercial solutions providers. Work on the Registry has
>>    begun and will be a key outcome of the project. Considerable interest was
>>    generated from International Data Week conferences and discussions and
>>    opportunities are underway with many new partners including the creation of
>>    new working groups and new areas of research - the first likely to be in
>>    Agricultural data
>>    -
>>
>>       The FIWARE project came to an end in September following the
>>       update of the platform to the the new CKAN release 2.6. The project ended
>>       with a presentation from OKI on the work done as part of the project at
>>       CKANCon as part of IODC. The CKAN platform will continue to be promoted by
>>       FIWARE and supported by the community.
>>       -
>>
>>       The Right to Education Index (RETI) has been published:
>>       http://www.rtei.org/en/
>>       -
>>
>>       Work on the IBP tracker continues, ad is due to be completed in
>>       October
>>       -
>>
>>    FutureTDM held its first high profile Workshop in Brussels with
>>    presentations and a keynote by Julia Reda. The event was sponsored and
>>    Chaired by the European Parliament Digital Agenda Intergroup.
>>    <http://digitalagendaintergroup.eu/> Attendees included EU policy
>>    shapers - advocacy organizations and representatives from the Parliament
>>    Commission and Council - alongside the broader TDM community that we have
>>    been engaging with for the past year. The FutureTDM project poster was
>>    selected to be presented at various events such as the GTM2016, University
>>    of Southampton IClick and at  RDA Plenary, where we also took part in the
>>    IG session on education and formed a new working group on TDM.
>>    OKFN representing FTDM gave a presentation at Digital Infrastructures
>>    for Research.
>>    -
>>
>>    Regarding School of Data (ScoDa), we're organising a special event
>>    during Abrelatam in Colombia, early next month. The event will be about
>>    connecting CSOs and newsrooms that are data driven for them to share common
>>    challenges and lessons learned.
>>    We organised a capacity building event in Madrid in partnership with
>>    MediaLab Prado and Open Knowledge Spain which sought to teach journalists
>>    data-skills. We also participated in IODC as Action Anchors, curating,
>>    moderating and reporting on panels on the capacity building track. Our
>>    contributions eventually made to the final report of the conference.
>>    -
>>
>>    ROUTETOPA: Work started on piloting tools built by other partners in
>>    the consortium
>>
>> Viderum Updates
>>
>>    -
>>
>>    On business: We've started delivery on the new project with Shell. We
>>    also closed the renewal of the Birmingham hosting contract. While we still
>>    haven't closed on HPE, talks are now under way with Energinet, the Danish
>>    gas and electricity grid operator, to build an open data portal including
>>    near-real-time energy consumption data. Developer team size has grown again
>>    to 5 contractors in order to meet the demands of the ongoing projects.
>>    -
>>
>>    On finance: As a result of increased business in the past two months,
>>    Viderum's financial situation has improved somewhat. Once billings from the
>>    Shell project turn into receipts (expected for November), things should
>>    clear up significantly.
>>    -
>>
>>    On transition: Yesterday, the last customer moved onto our
>>    cloud-hosted infrastructure. With that, the transition project has come to
>>    its end.
>>
>> Operations Update
>>
>>    -
>>
>>    Pensions has been boarded as planned
>>    -
>>
>>    Charity application on going
>>    -
>>
>>    The reversals has been completed to minimise corporation tax exposure
>>    -
>>
>>    We currently have the ability to board key team members who are based
>>    overseas; updates will presented at the next board meeting
>>    -
>>
>>    Sanders reintegration to OKI planned for November.
>>    -
>>
>>    The Year-End Accounts
>>    <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2rJgDegDOWdWGlNRGZ3RGttYVFfV3pTdHFiRlYzYThHZ0VJ/view?usp=sharing> has
>>    been finalised. Regarding the attached Accounts; you will notice that Part
>>    3 is highlighted in yellow; so far we have reduced our corporation
>>    Tax exposure from £61,000 to £18,000.  However, Mark is convinced
>>    this will come down, with the intention of zeroing it out or receiving an
>>    actual Tax return from the Revenue. Unfortunately, these figures cannot be
>>    confirmed to be 100% this week.
>>    -
>>
>>    Please note that Buzzacott Auditors will be at the next Board Meeting
>>    to present the Accounts.
>>
>> Funding Omidyar Network
>>
>> Pavel, accompanied by Mark and Karin made a presentation
>> <https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/186qFxn04POwov2YWSgpqogeAbQsp6HDwwMkT4wwTYwA/edit?ts=57fb8d2f#slide=id.p>
>> to the Investment Committee of the Omidyar Network on 28th September. We
>> are expecting feedback on the grant in the next few weeks.
>> Sigrid Rausing
>>
>> In addition to the 2016 grant report, we submitted a new proposal
>> requesting for a 3year general core grant.
>>
>> StaffLive vacancies
>>
>> There are currently no open positions at OKI.
>> New Staff
>>
>>    -
>>
>>    Serah Rono, based in Nairobi, Kenya filled our Developer Advocate
>>    position. Serah comes to us from Code for Africa, and brings a wealth of
>>    knowledge to the role. Serah is focused on ROUTETOPA, and assists on
>>    Frictionless Data, and OK Labs.
>>    -
>>
>>    Our Junior Designer position was filled by Ewelina Woloszyn. Ewelina
>>    will work with our Senior Designer Sam Smith, who is now part time.
>>    -
>>
>>    Shireen Kovoor joined OKI on 3rd October as our HR Manager. Shireen
>>    has vast experience working in both the not-for-profit as well as the
>>    commercial sectors, having previously worked for the SSAT(The Schools
>>    Network), Heathrow Airport Holdings (formerly BAA), Balfour Beatty, Dubai
>>    World Trade Centre and Tata Consultancy Services, in the UK, Dubai and
>>    India.
>>    -
>>
>>    Nicky Trijssenaar will be joining OKI next week as a Project Manager
>>    for our NEXTGeoss project.
>>
>> Network
>>
>> We organized the Open Exchange for Social Change at the IODC16. It was
>> successful and we got good end products from it, including discussions
>> about open washing. Also, preparation for the Open Data Day with the
>> community has started. Our last community call on the topic had 60
>> participants.
>>
>> Regarding Research,  we co-anchored the research track at IODC and
>> started a new project with CIVICUS on the DataShift  project.
>> AOB
>>
>> The next in-person meeting of the Board is on 9th November, 2016 at
>> 5:30pm. The venue is Canonical.
>>
>> OKI’s Autumn  Summit is taking place on 21-23 November, 2016 in
>> Thessaloniki, Greece.
>>
>> I will send the next CEO Update in the middle of December. Please do give
>> feedback on these reports, so that I can provide you with the information
>> that you require.
>> What I have been thinking about / what’s concerning me this month
>>
>> A lot of time and effort went into the presentation for the Omidyar
>> Network investment committee. We will hear from them any time soon, I hope.
>>
>> A real highlight was the International Open Data Conference in Madrid. I
>> am usually not a big fan of these large conferences and find them not too
>> helpful for me. But in Madrid it was different. This time, I found the
>> panels very good, I found the networking very helpful (especially at the
>> Omidyar meetup on Monday and Tuesday), and it was great to meet with a
>> large part of our staff and see them “in action”.
>>
>> One thing that I am looking forward to is the project management training
>> that all our project managers are undergoing in October in London. We are
>> investing a lot of money and effort in this, but I am confident that we
>> will see improved collaboration and planning coming to our projects.
>>
>> October and November are very intense, in terms of conferences and
>> travel, and also for fundraising. But I found the last month to be very
>> productive and interesting, and I really like it that talking about our new
>> strategy, I get good feedback from people who know OKI for a long time.
>>
>> --
>> Kind regards
>>
>> Pavel Richter
>> CEO
>> Open Knowledge International
>>
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-- 
Helen Turvey (King)

CEO
Shuttleworth Foundation

website: www.shuttleworthfoundation.org
twitter: @helenturvey
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