[okfn-discuss] Open Knowledge Foundation Strategy slides

Sun Jul 21 17:54:13 UTC 2013

Hm, I agree that out of the current slide deck, only slide 8 actually
addresses strategy in a meaningful sense, while the rest seem to be
donor-aimed presentation material. I've been creeped out by some of the
slide 10 bits for a while, organisations that claim to be "trusted,
non-partisan, pioneering and passionate" on their home page (cf.
http://okfn.org) usually are the opposite - I think it backfires, even
though it may apply to OKFN.

It would be fantastic to see a more detailed breakdown of what OKFN
perceives as its medium- and long-term internal and external challenges and
how it plans to address them; breaking some of the weasel lingo ("key
gaps", "beyond the community") down into defineable bits. Even more useful
might be to link this page up to the more specific and short-term pieces of
planning that may be available: chapter development strategy, wg
priorities, bizdev strategy, etc. etc.

Cheers,

 - Friedrich

On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 7:11 PM, Gene Shackman <eval_gene at yahoo.com> wrote:

> "About point 3, what is the problem with advertisement?"
>
> Well, as another person posted, a lot of this presentation is already
> about okfn. Since the slide show is supposed to be about the strategic
> plan, there should be more on that. Also, a lot of the terms used in slide
> 10, well, other organizations could say those terms apply to them too. So
> perhaps, slide 10 isn't really needed.
>
> "not fanatic". Well, it's more positive to demonstrate by doing. I'm sure
> okfn is not fanatic, so get people to work with you, and find out. You can
> also show that okfn is not fanatic, and is collaborative, by listing some
> projects that you worked together with other organizations, collaborating,
> acknowledging other's ideas and input, that you listen.
>
> Gene
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>  *From:* Everton Zanella Alvarenga <everton.alvarenga at okfn.org>
> *To:* Open Knowledge Foundation discussion list <
> okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org>
> *Sent:* Sunday, July 21, 2013 11:59 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [okfn-discuss] Open Knowledge Foundation Strategy slides
>
> 2013/7/20 Gene Shackman <eval_gene at yahoo.com>
>
> > 1. slide 9. I don't know that you need to say "not fanatic". Just
> "pragmatic" is good enough. Are you saying someone else -is- fanatic?
> >
> > 2. slides 7 and 9. You do define 'talking' as advocacy on slide 7, but
> when I got to slide 9, I'm sorry to say I didn't really remember seeing the
> previous definition, so all I saw on slide 9 was "talking", which doesn't
> sound very useful. Can you change that to "advocacy and creating"? That's
> immediately understandable, and looks like you are -doing- something.
> >
> > 3. Slide 10. Now that I've been on this list a little while, I see there
> are many organizations about 'open'. Slide 10 seems kind of like an
> advertisement, why okf is better than other organizations. No real harm in
> it, but just seems kind of marketing.
>
> On point 1, maybe saying we are "not fanatic" is not the best way to
> communicate, but I must tell this really help to bring people to OKF
> activities and projects. Yesterday I just had a live experience while
> talking to a journalist that liked very much OKF way of work. Just to
> mention one example, I told him about a poster [1] some volunteers
> made using a proprietary tool for an OKF event in São Paulo, and when
> I asked some help to some minor edits before printing, I was mocked,
> with some people saying it would be better to be done by hand and even
> not having any posters at all (and all this discussion was made on
> Facebook, haha, what contradiction). I know that is just one single
> example, but yes, I think there are lots of fanatics. And fanatics
> more keep people away than raise awareness about the importance of
> knowledge being open in a broad sense.
>
> About point 3, what is the problem with advertisement? If the OKF
> community thinks it does original, good and important works, why not
> trying to tell this to bring more people who share similar values?
>
> What I think is missing from these slides are two things I like very
> much of OKF values. One is about decentralized collaboration. "In
> particular, a primary aim is to help others develop open material as
> well as creating it ourselves. We believe that the future lies in
> collaboration between a multitude of different groups and that no one
> group or organisation can, or should try to, “do it all”. It is when
> we work together that we are the strongest." [2]
>
> The other thing I think is missing is to mention meritocracy. I am
> from a culture where it is bad to mention it, to value those who do
> better and people don't like to be assessed, which tends to a
> mediocrity state in several sectors of my country. Even in some top
> universities, where I've learned with the best professors I had on the
> importance of meritocracy, I believe we are far to achieve that.
>
> The last point of slide 10 mentions "community governance" and several
> times I read this "open discussion" on OKF pages and presentations. We
> are far from this. And I am not saying this is totaly bad, since
> several times we need to be more doocratic [3] than democratic to have
> *things done*. But obviously as OKF expands, it is important to hear
> the local communities, and in this sense of community governance I
> think it is doing well.
>
> The presentation is good.
>
> P. S. I share others concerns about using too much some proprietary
> tools and services. If all staff is aware of this problem and thinking
> on ways to solve that in the mid to long term, that is fine, whilst we
> have to have the work done. But I know examples where professionals
> contradicts the organization values and there is a great risk to
> become only a fashion organization as it grows.
>
> Tom
>
> [1] Isn't fancy?
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartaz_Ci%C3%AAncia_Aberta.pdf
> I could not do better.
>
> [2] http://okfn.org/about/
>
> [3] http://www.communitywiki.org/DoOcracy
>
> --
> Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom)
> OKF Brasil - Rede pelo Conhecimento Livre
> http://br.okfn.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> okfn-discuss mailing list
> okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
> Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/attachments/20130721/a506b2ef/attachment.html>