[iRail] Let's move together

Sander Van der Maelen sander at irail.be
Thu Nov 22 08:32:34 UTC 2012


Hi all,

I don't know how long this idea has been brewing in the back of Pieter's
mind, but it is certainly a rational and good one. From an international
and organizational point of view, the merger would be a good thing for
iRail. Getting more people involved into OKFN and broadening the basis for
cooperation in all those projects already mentioned, is also a good thing
for OKFN. So yeah, seems pretty ok to me :-)

Kind regards,

Sander

---
Sander Van der Maelen
+32 474 05 79 12
sander.vandermaelen at gmail.com
Op 20-nov.-2012 22:58 schreef "Miet Claes" <miet at mietclaes.com> het
volgende:

> Hello everyone
>
> I'm happy about this evolution. We can communicate in a more clean and
> transparant way, without having to stutter about what we really do. It's
> going to be weird in the beginning, but I'm sure it will work out!
>
> Kind regards
> — Miet Claes • Freelance designer and in house designer at iRail<http://npo.irail.be>
>  • mietclaes.com
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 8:54 PM, Greet Derudder <greet at pimpajoentje.be>wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Wasn't it decided that the name for iRail was gonna change?
>> In any case, a merger makes a lot more sense to me too, more than the
>> rearrangements Pieter proposed in the first mail.
>>
>> Groetjes,
>> Greet
>> On Nov 20, 2012 7:50 PM, "Pieter Colpaert" <pieter at irail.be> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Christophe,
>>>
>>> Thanks for your reply. Our communication will be: "iRail is the open
>>> transport working group at OKFN Belgium". The problem was that iRail was
>>> not only the geek for geek organisation, but also a lot of different
>>> things (like Apps For Ghent organiser, iRail Summer of code, creator of
>>> BeLaws) and some things are better with OKFN than with iRail.
>>>
>>> The goal of this merge is to have a better focus for your geek
>>> organisation ;)
>>>
>>> Kind regards,
>>>
>>> Pieter
>>>
>>> On 11/20/2012 07:40 PM, C. Versieux wrote:
>>> > Merging both organizations seems obviously the best idea.
>>> >
>>> > « Eendracht maakt macht »
>>> >
>>> > The only negative point for me is the name.
>>> > I currently iRail a geek for geek organization and I am sure you will
>>> > prove me I am wrong.
>>> >
>>> > Okfn does not reflect at all the objectives... Go in the streets and
>>> ask
>>> > people what they think what the acronym mean, you won't receive a lot
>>> of
>>> > correct answers.
>>> > IRail was good at this... (The only positive point about this name)
>>> >
>>> > But the more important: I am 300% in favor of the merge even if that is
>>> > in 2 years.
>>> >
>>> > On Nov 20, 2012 7:29 PM, "Pieter Colpaert" <pieter at irail.be
>>> > <mailto:pieter at irail.be>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >     Hi all,
>>> >
>>> >     We have 2 issues, with 2 organisation that I am part of.
>>> >
>>> >     1. iRail
>>> >
>>> >     iRail supports digital creativity concerning mobility. We are
>>> pretty
>>> >     good at that, but our name does not reflect this any longer. We
>>> should
>>> >     change our name in something that reflects our "open" approach to
>>> >     current problems (such as mobility, transparency, identity
>>> management,
>>> >     business modelling, front-end design and so on).
>>> >
>>> >     2. Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN)
>>> >
>>> >     OKFN international is an organisation founded in 2004 which
>>> support open
>>> >     knowledge. OKFN Belgium, a local chapter, is an umbrella
>>> organisation
>>> >     for Belgian "open" and "free culture" initiatives. Amongst our
>>> working
>>> >     groups we have the organisers of the Apps For X events, we have
>>> Creative
>>> >     Commons Belgium and we have currently several possible upcoming
>>> working
>>> >     groups, such as: open education(al resources), data journalism and
>>> >     wikimedia. As another working group, for me, iRail is the open
>>> transport
>>> >     working group.
>>> >
>>> >     Currently there are a lot of people (not at all "all") of iRail
>>> involved
>>> >     in OKFN, and a lot of projects of iRail make more sense under OKFN
>>> (for
>>> >     instance: The DataTank, Summer of code, BeLaws, and so on) rather
>>> than
>>> >     under an organisation which support digital creativity concerning
>>> >     mobility.
>>> >
>>> >     A very simple solution for iRail and OKFN would be for us to
>>> merge. This
>>> >     is currently impossible from a legal perspective as both
>>> organisations
>>> >     are active in public tenders at this moment.
>>> >
>>> >     One solution would be that from now on, all communication is going
>>> >     through OKFN. iRail become the "open transport" working group at
>>> OKFN.
>>> >     iRail's current people helping at Apps For Ghent become people
>>> >     volunteering at OKFN, not iRail, and our blog hello.iRail.be
>>> >     <http://hello.iRail.be> moves to
>>> >     transport.okfn.be <http://transport.okfn.be>. This also means Miet
>>> >     will not be working for iRail
>>> >     anymore, but for the open transport working group at OKFN. In one
>>> or two
>>> >     years we will be able to merge both organisation legally.
>>> >
>>> >     What is your take on this? Feel free to reply both privately as
>>> >     publicly.
>>> >
>>> >     Kind regards,
>>> >
>>> >     Pieter
>>> >
>>> >     P.S.: At this moment we are paying for a bookkeeper twice, we have
>>> 2
>>> >     different bylaws, we have 2 different boards. For 2 organisations
>>> which
>>> >     have such an extensive synergy, this makes no sense at all.
>>> >     --
>>> >     iRail vzw/asbl
>>> >     +32 (0) 486/747122 <tel:%2B32%20%280%29%20486%2F747122>
>>> >     _______________________________________________
>>> >     iRail mailing list
>>> >     iRail at list.irail.be <mailto:iRail at list.irail.be>
>>> >     http://lists.rootspirit.com/mailman/listinfo/irail
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > iRail mailing list
>>> > iRail at list.irail.be
>>> > http://lists.rootspirit.com/mailman/listinfo/irail
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> iRail vzw/asbl
>>> +32 (0) 486/747122
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> iRail mailing list
>>> iRail at list.irail.be
>>> http://lists.rootspirit.com/mailman/listinfo/irail
>>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
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