[@OKau] How can we fund important Open Source projects?

Tue Nov 10 22:37:54 UTC 2015

Hi Rosie,

I'm flat out for the rest of this week but just for reference around OK
Australia financials I expect we'll publish the read access login details
for xero soon. This has been led by me as Treasurer as the best way to
remain completely open with regard to such stuff without creating any
additional reporting burden for the volunteers operating OK Australia right
now.

As you know OK is structured so that each chapter and group operates with a
large degree of independence. This means there will be other approaches out
in the wild. Raising the question on discuss.okfn.org might get some
broader feedback from more mature groups :)

Cheers,
Steven

*STEVEN DE COSTA *|
*EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR*www.linkdigital.com.au

On 11 November 2015 at 08:04, Rosie Williams <BudgetAus at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Steven's question piqued my curiosity about how OKFN projects fund &
> sustain themselves and the role and extent of volunteer developers in open
> source projects. I'm interested to find out how many paid staff OKFN has
> and an estimation of volunteer devs but was not able to find such
> information in the Annual Report or accounts. Perhaps this is a list of all
> the paid staff https://okfn.org/about/team/
> <https://okfn.org/about/team/>
> Open Knowledge: Team
> Cecile joined Open Knowledge in 2015 and is coordinating EU-funded
> projects related to Open Government and Open Science, such as building a
> financial transparency ...
> Read more... <https://okfn.org/about/team/>
>
> Nor was there a breakdown in the accounts PDF image of grants other than
> a division between 'restricted' and 'unrestricted' grants with no
> explanation of these terms.
>
>
> https://d22739b8qd5enr.cloudfront.net/media/cms_page_media/61/OpenKnowledgeSignedYearEndAccountsMay2014.pdf
>
>
> There's no breakdown of donations either but perhaps this is reported
> elsewhere.
>
>
> I'm curious to know whether the issues Steven is experiencing are specific
> to CKAN or whether they are indicative of the issues faced by all open
> source projects or whether they are specific to a certain type of open
> source project? I would suspect that an answer to Steven's question 'How
> can we fund important Open Source projects?' involves an analysis of this.
> My understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that CKAN is the
> original and therefore most mature OKFN project, having been moved through
> the roadmap to become an independent project- that still relies on OKFN in
> some ways.
>
> Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)
> ________________________________________
>  NoFibs.com.au <http://nofibs.com.au> - Open Data Reporter | OpenAus
> <https://openaus.net.au> - Founder and Developer
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* okfn-au <okfn-au-bounces at lists.okfn.org> on behalf of Steven De
> Costa <steven.decosta at linkdigital.com.au>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 10 November 2015 7:07 PM
>
> *To:* Open Knowledge discussion list for Australia.
> *Subject:* Re: [@OKau] How can we fund important Open Source projects?
>
> I don't have that knowledge :)
>
> But, with a new CEO and advertised COO position I suspect OK international
> is in a process of remapping such stuff.
>
> CKAN is no longer an 'Open Knowledge' project but a CKAN Association
> assisted open source project that should now be self sustainable. Reality
> in concept is somewhat different to reality in practice as there are people
> and groups holding more of the weight than others, one such group being
> open knowledge International's services practice.
>
> I suspect OK international will have roadmaps for each project that
> incubate each toward a self sustainable model. Or, if their job is done,
> retire projects as required. Volunteers and international collaboration are
> a massive part of all projects from what I've seen. Orchestration of the
> community to rally around certain projects is likely funded from various
> sources over time (sponsors, grants, donors, philanthropic organisations,
> etc).
>
> This is the type of discussion I think would be best had via
> discuss.okfn.org :) Then other folks within country and region specific
> groups or chapters would be able to share their understanding. And the new
> CEO for OK international can also jump in if more clarity is needed.
>
> Cheers,
> Steven
>
>
> On Tuesday, November 10, 2015, Rosie Williams <BudgetAus at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> To what extent do OKN projects rely on volunteer coders to continue?
>>
>>
>> Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)
>> ________________________________________
>>  NoFibs.com.au <http://nofibs.com.au> - Open Data Reporter | OpenAus
>> <https://openaus.net.au> - Founder and Developer
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* okfn-au <okfn-au-bounces at lists.okfn.org> on behalf of Steven De
>> Costa <steven.decosta at linkdigital.com.au>
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, 10 November 2015 3:22 PM
>> *To:* Open Knowledge discussion list for Australia.
>> *Subject:* Re: [@OKau] How can we fund important Open Source projects?
>>
>> Agree with Paul - hackathons wont work for CKAN, but doing a sprint
>> attached to a CKANcon each year will bring people together and help with
>> collaboration through the remainder of the year.
>>
>> Yep - I've had a look at some of the platform options.
>>
>> I think I might have an approach that is very different which I'll
>> discuss with the steering group members soon. If they don't think it is too
>> crazy them we might do some experiments.
>>
>> But as I've said in the original post, we have an existing business plan
>> which is based on a sponsorship model that is setup and ready to go :)
>> Other options are more about providing additional mechanisims to support
>> the project so that we maximise innovation and keep it at the forefront of
>> data management systems. Specifically as a FOSS option.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>> *STEVEN DE COSTA *|
>> *EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR *www.linkdigital.com.au
>>
>>
>>
>> On 10 November 2015 at 15:06, Paul Walsh <paulywalsh at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Rosie, CKAN is a large code base with a fairly long commit history. It
>>> is not a great candidate for hackathons (complexity, onboarding, not fun).
>>>
>>> Steven, are you aware of the various platforms to support open source
>>> development like https://gratipay.com/ ?
>>>
>>>
>>> On 10 Nov 2015, at 1:13 AM, Rosie Williams <BudgetAus at hotmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't often recommend hackfests but wouldn't that be a way to get
>>> stuff done on CKAN?
>>>
>>> Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)
>>> ________________________________________
>>>  NoFibs.com.au <http://nofibs.com.au/> - Open Data Reporter | OpenAus
>>> <https://openaus.net.au/> - Founder and Developer
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* okfn-au <okfn-au-bounces at lists.okfn.org> on behalf of Steven De
>>> Costa <steven.decosta at linkdigital.com.au>
>>> *Sent:* Saturday, 7 November 2015 11:41 AM
>>> *To:* A List for Open Knowledge Networks in Australia.
>>> *Subject:* [@OKau] How can we fund important Open Source projects?
>>>
>>> I wrote this from the perspective of a commercial company owner/operator
>>> but am very interested in a more broad perspective from those who value the
>>> for-good benefit of open data.
>>>
>>> https://discuss.okfn.org/t/a-market-of-donors-beneficiaries-and-contributors-for-ckan-features/1534?u=starl3n
>>> Would you put $5 toward a github pull request every so often and help
>>> fund developers around the world in making contributions toward open source
>>> projects?
>>> Please note I've raise the potential of running a trial via OK
>>> Australia's books if there was interest, so such a thing would be pending
>>> approval from our executive Board :)
>>> Cheers,
>>> Steven
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *STEVEN DE COSTA *|
>>> *EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR *www.linkdigital.com.au
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> okfn-au at lists.okfn.org
>>> https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-au
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>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>
> --
> *STEVEN DE COSTA *|
> *EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR *www.linkdigital.com.au
>
>
>
>
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