[okfn-discuss] Our vision: Why, How and What for the Open Knowledge Foundation

Tue Jul 14 15:25:43 UTC 2009

2009/7/14 Andy Kaplan-Myrth <andy at kaplan-myrth.ca>:
> Forgive me for asking what may be obvious, but is the Open Knowledge
> Foundation actually a "foundation", i.e. with funding, like the Wikimedia
> Foundation or the Mozilla Foundation?

What do you mean by actually a "foundation". If you mean is that our
formal name and are we incorporated as some kind of legal entity, then
yes: we're a company limited by guarantee and that's our formal name.
Re. funding I would guess we are more (rather) limited in our funding
that either Wikimedia or Mozilla (at least at present!). However, I'm
not sure money need be the determining characteristic -- how much
money did wikimedia have when it began, how much did Apache?

> If so, then that's a major distinguishing characteristic in the open data
> space. If not, then I'd wonder whether its name might lend confusion about
> its mission...

Right, though I think one wants to distinguish between classic
charitable endowed "foundations" (the X foundation) and entities which
are there to support/represent particular communities (such as those I
just mentioned).

Rufus