[iRail] Let's move together

Thu Nov 22 09:17:55 UTC 2012

Hi guys,

I honestly don't deeply care as much what we're doing with iRail/OKFN. I do
agree that administration- and cost-wise it would be smart to merge, but in
essence it's the people who keep this NPO running ( yesh, that's us !! ).
Meaning even if we merge we're still going to do some pretty damn awesome
projects with some cool people.

So, I don't mind the merge as well!

Best regards,

Jan

On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 9:32 AM, Sander Van der Maelen <sander at irail.be>wrote:

> 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
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>>>> >
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> iRail vzw/asbl
>>>> +32 (0) 486/747122
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>>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
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