[okfn-discuss] Open Knowledge Foundation Governance

Mon Jul 15 08:27:13 UTC 2013

Hi Abbas, Laura, all,

we have already touched upon this issue last year in Helsinki and
discussed again in OKFN's winter summit. I think there is a general
agreement that chapters, local groups, working groups and perhaps
other stakeholders of the international community should have some say
on certain decisions that effects them as part of the global network.

Until today, in fact, the board of OKFN central takes decisions for
the hole network. This is not a good situation and should be changed.

However, we have not agreed on how this representation might look
like. I think there are multiple options. For example we could think
about an model were members of the community join OKFN central board
for a period of time alternately. Or of a model were an additional
international board is established, that itself becomes some say in
the decisions of the OKFN central board.

Perhaps we should start by thinking of what kind of decisions should
remain in the responsibility of OKFN central board and what kind of
decisions the international community should become involved in
decision making process.

@Laura, I think it would be good to already include members of the
international community in this governance discussion. Perhaps the
newly created OKFN-International-Council is a good place to start
with?

All best
Daniel

Daniel Dietrich

Chairman & Direktor Policy
Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland
www.okfn.de | info at okfn.de | @okfde
+49 30 57703666 0 | Fax: +49 30 57703666 9

Wir setzen uns für offenes Wissen ein.
Mach mit: http://www.okfn.de/getinvolved

On 14 July 2013 19:06, Laura James <laura.james at okfn.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> By an amazing coincidence, just today there's been a Board Retreat and we've
> discussed this very question. We agreed that there should be a community
> representative on the board, and we'll be putting together a process for
> this shortly. So watch this space!
>
> Other board members are selected to ensure the critical board functions
> around governance can be delivered by people with the appropriate skills and
> expertise; we hope to refresh the processes and documents to explain this in
> more detail shortly too.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Laura
>
>
> --
>
> Dr Laura James
>
> Co-Director  | skype: laura.james  |  @LaurieJ
>
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>
> Empowering through Open Knowledge
>
> http://okfn.org/  |  @okfn  |  OKF on Facebook  |  Blog  |  Newsletter
>
>
>
>
> On 14 July 2013 12:34, Abbas Mahmoud <abbasjnr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm interested in knowing how the Open Knowledge Foundation Board of
>> Directors are selected. I'm pretty new to the OKFN movement, so I'd highly
>> appreciate some pointers to relevant links, if any.
>>
>> Also, has the OKF ever considered empowering the community to (s)elect
>> some seats at the Board Level? I know that other like-minded organisations
>> like Wikimedia Foundation and Creative Commons usually does that, which
>> tends to give the community a sense of belonging and a voice at the
>> decision-making level.
>>
>> Your thoughts?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Abbas.
>>
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