[okfn-discuss] New infrastructure working group

Sat Aug 22 21:22:54 UTC 2009

Jonathan, Thank you for your reply.

It will take some time because of the way I'm approaching this. I want 
to build a culture of workers who do earn money but not tit-for-tat. 
I've started a task list http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Tasks and 
included several that you mention including translating the Open 
Knowledge Definition, which is good practice for us.

I share my letter which I wrote. Also, Franz Nahrada alerts us: "Michel 
Bauwens, Phoebe Moore, Nathans Cravens and others are convocating a 
workshop on virtual collaboration platforms in Manchester also at the 
beginning of November. I alert Andrius and those in our network active 
on the tools side to see if they can participate. I see very important 
practical endavours emerge from there."

Andrius Kulikauskas

-----------------------------------------
Tasks for our Economy of Dreams
-----------------------------------------

I invite our help to create an "Economy of Dreams".

Write about your life's dream... What do you wish to do with your life? 
What would you like to happen? How can we help?

I'm collecting answers at our wiki:
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Dreams
We can also make a survey about our life's dreams.

I also invite our help with the many tasks at our lab. I have started a 
list:
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Tasks

You can add a task to our list by going to any wiki page and adding 
metadata:
* TaskUpdated = 20090823 or whatever today's date is, in such numeric 
form (2009, August, 23)
* TaskTeam = write your name and others who are helping
* TaskToDo = write what needs to be done, what you need help with that 
others might do
* TaskDone = write this as the task is underway or completely finished
In this way, we end up with two lists, for "tasks to do" and for "tasks 
done" at
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Tasks
and then we can pay attention to those who have been helping us.

It's very important for me that we help as a team with all of the work 
at our lab. Many of us have benefited from Minciu Sodas and Worknets. I 
make sure to pay us in advance for work so that we don't work on 
speculation, we don't work without guarantee of pay, especially if we 
are poor. Of course, I also encourage us to work for free on our own 
projects.

For our Economy of Dreams we also need to be able to help each other 
without pay. If we know each other's dreams, then we can help each other 
directly, and that can be much more efficient than converting everything 
to money, which often leads to all kinds of waste because we may avoid 
working together. So I ask us to help with our many tasks so that our 
leaders - I and Franz and Janet and Edward and Samwel... - can be free 
to focus on those things that others can't do for us. (I also have such 
a list, see AndriusTask at http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgiTasks)

I believe that if you help with our tasks, then others will help you, 
too. But furthermore, if you help with our tasks, then when I get paid 
work for our lab, then my priority will be to include you. And if you 
are doing a lot of tasks then I will make an effort to pay you, too. I 
want to avoid a "tit-for-tat" approach and instead want to be supportive 
of those who are supportive of us all.

Dennis Kimambo will be online all this coming week to help me and 
others. Fred Kayiwa is also interested. I invite Sasha Mrkailo, Thomas 
Chepaitis and all who would like to join us when I find paid work in the 
future. I also invite Franz, Edward, Janet, Samwel and all to let us 
know how we can help you.

I share below my chat with Fred.

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms at ms.lt

[21:02:54] kayiwa fred: hi Andrius
[21:03:42] Andrius Kulikauskas: Hi Fred, how are you? Are you free now? 
Can we chat in the chat room?
[21:04:40] kayiwa fred: yes
[21:04:43] Andrius Kulikauskas: ok see you there
[21:05:08] kayiwa fred: some times slow connections fails me but let me 
try there
[21:12:23] … am failing to sign in the net is on and off
[21:12:26] Andrius Kulikauskas: Hi Fred it seems that you can't write
[21:12:28] … yes
[21:12:47] … can you see our Task page: 
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Tasks
[21:12:57] … there is a list of tasks that you can choose from and help with
[21:13:09] … and then I can see who is helping with our tasks
[21:13:12] kayiwa fred: but am fine just looking ahead for my school again
[21:13:13] Andrius Kulikauskas: and then reward the people who do
[21:13:25] … with paid work and travel and help with their projects.
[21:13:27] … Is that fine?
[21:13:31] … can you help?
[21:13:57] … Also, can you write to us about your dreams? What would you 
like to work on or accomplish? How do you want to live your life?
[21:14:02] kayiwa fred: let me check the link
[21:14:02] Andrius Kulikauskas: What do you want to do with your life?
[21:14:04] … ok
[21:15:35] kayiwa fred: the link is not opening but will keep trying
[21:15:42] … besides whats all about these tasks
[21:16:28] Andrius Kulikauskas: So I have a list of tasks
[21:16:35] … and I am also collecting our dreams.
[21:16:44] … And if you help with our tasks then we help with your dreams.
[21:16:47] … One task is:
[21:17:03] … Ask Fred to get solar panels from Graham Knight and report 
to us on the business possibilities.
[21:17:21] … Are you in touch with Graham Knight and is he sending you 
solar panels?
[21:18:14] … Because I think you are a good entrepreneur and you can see 
what the possibilities are for selling them. They are small, inexpensive 
solar panels that produce enough electricity to charge a mobile phone 
and that can be useful in the villages.
[21:21:04] kayiwa fred: yes we are in tough but he has taken long to 
communicate
[21:21:09] … i should send him an email now
[21:21:12] Andrius Kulikauskas: ok that is fine
[21:21:16] … ok you understand, yes?
[21:21:28] … because he has had trouble helping anybody start a business
[21:21:33] … But I think you are good at business
[21:21:39] … and you can advise me what is possible.
[21:21:44] … yes?
[21:22:17] kayiwa fred: yes i can advsie where i can
[21:22:29] … i have never seen these solar pannels my self
[21:22:38] … i wonder if he gives them for free at first
[21:22:44] Andrius Kulikauskas: Yes he sends you free samples
[21:23:00] … and then he wants you to sell them and buy more at cost
[21:23:08] … so you can profit from it
[21:23:17] … or at least let me and us know
[21:23:20] … what the obstacles are.
[21:23:33] … You can find somebody else who might do the business.
[21:24:12] kayiwa fred: yes the good thing would be to first have the 
samples with me
[21:25:57] Andrius Kulikauskas: yes and you can send your letter to our 
group, too, yes?
[21:26:13] kayiwa fred: perfect
[21:26:47] … so Andrius if i may ask
[21:27:09] … where do u need my help on the tasks link you sent me
[21:28:02] Andrius Kulikauskas: any task that you see on the list, you 
can help with
[21:28:39] … for example: http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Luxsonjay
[21:28:48] … he approached us at our wiki and we need to reply and 
invite him
[21:29:13] … what African languages do you know? we need to translate: 
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?OpenKnowledgeDefinition
[21:29:17] … into different languages
[21:29:41] … we need to move wiki pages related to 
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?MathEncyclopedia to the EarthTreasury 
subwiki
[21:29:52] kayiwa fred: i only know my languange and its not international
[21:30:00] Andrius Kulikauskas: that's fine, what is it?
[21:30:18] kayiwa fred: luganda
[21:30:28] Andrius Kulikauskas: is it popular in Uganda?
[21:30:40] … do you have a national language?
[21:31:59] kayiwa fred: we hve over 25 and more languanges
[21:32:17] … but LUGANDA NAD ENGLISH IS widely spoken in uganda
[21:32:45] … 50% can understand it
[21:34:30] … let me be back soon Andrius
[21:34:58] Andrius Kulikauskas: ok by
[21:42:00] kayiwa fred: ok Andrius let me go and eat then in morning i 
go through the tasks and will let you know how i can help
[21:43:24] Andrius Kulikauskas: that's fantastic and also Dennis will 
help this coming week
[21:43:27] … maybe you can train him
[21:43:32] … and I will share our chat
[21:43:43] kayiwa fred: perfcte
[21:44:06] … i know u will train me first but let me go it through
[21:44:13] Andrius Kulikauskas: yes

Jonathan Gray wrote:
> Dear Andrius,
>
> On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 11:43 PM, Andrius Kulikauskas<ms at ms.lt> wrote:
>   
>> What are ways that we might work in synergy with Open Knowledge Foundation?
>>     
>
> Many thanks for the re-iteration of your kind offer to pledge
> volunteer time at the Open Knowledge Foundation!
>
> Below are some suggestions of things which we need help with, which I
> also sent you in June and July.
>
> Just to reiterate a couple of things that would be really useful:
>
>   1. Translating the Open Knowledge Definition into languages not
> already listed on http://opendefinition.org/
>   2. Adding open government data from different jurisdictions to CKAN
> (e.g. national statistics, postcode data, geodata, ...) as in
> http://wiki.okfn.org/ckan/eutransparency
>
> Also if you know any graphic designers there is plenty of design work
> that we would love to do!
>
> There is also a big list of things to do on our task tracker:
>
>   http://knowledgeforge.net/okfn/tasks/query
>
> The best thing to do, is probably to let me know who might be
> interested in doing what, and to set a day (preferably a Tuesday
> sometime over the next few weeks) when we can coordinate via IRC,
> phone or Skype!
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Jonathan
>
> ---
>
>     Many thanks for your message and for your kind pledge of twenty hours
>     of volunteer time! There are plenty of things volunteers could do to
>     help at the OKF. It would be great to hear more about the interests of
>     the participants who might work with us.
>
>     A few immediate things that I can think of:
>
>      * Translating the Open Knowledge Definition (opendefinition.org)
>      * Curating/archiving books at Open Text Book (opentextbook.org)
>      * Registering open data on CKAN (ckan.net)
>      * Book design for Open Shakespeare (openshakespeare.org)
>
>     There is some more information on volunteering at the OKF below...
>
>     Warm regards,
>
>
>
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://www.okfn.org
>
> --
>
> ## Volunteer with the Open Knowledge Foundation! ##
>
> The Open Knowledge Foundation (http://www.okfn.org) is a
> not-for-profit organisation that promotes knowledge that can be freely
> used, reused and redistributed - from sonnets to statistics, genes to
> geodata. It hosts a wide variety of volunteer driven projects and
> working groups that aim to produce and distribute open knowledge.
>
> Whether you are interested in making new editions of literary works in
> the public domain, making interactive visualisations of socioeconomic
> data, or in sharing textbooks for educational projects - there is sure
> to be something of interest! Current projects requiring volunteers
> include:
>
> * Open Shakespeare and Open Milton: complete editions of Shakespeare
> and Milton's works along with tools for analysing the texts - freely
> available for anyone to use or share. We need volunteers to proof edit
> and format texts, or even to create an original book cover design for
> a print edition of the plays!
>
> * Open Text Book: one of the primary online listings and repositories
> of textbooks free to access, build on and re-distribute. We need the
> assistance of a part-time editor to curate and extend our current
> listing and blog about new finds.
>
> * Open Economics "Where Does My Money Go": developer and researcher
> needed to develop prize-winning "Where Does My Money Go" project
> proposal which aims to help citizens make sense of UK government
> finance.
>
> * European Open Data Inventory: Just launched in Brussels - the
> project aims to track down and document official information  from
> public bodies across Europe. Get stuck into the budgets, socioeconomic
> information, environmental data or parliamentary transcripts behind
> the headlines!
>
> * Public Domain Works: help to chart which works have fallen out of
> copyright in different jurisdictions around the world. Find out more
> about intellectual property law and help to expose literary works or
> sound recordings which are in the public domain.
>
> Whether you've got a few spare hours or a few weeks over the summer -
> we'd love to hear from you! For further details contact us at
> info at okfn.org.
>   