[okfn-discuss] new brand, new website: coming up next week

Michael Bauer michael.bauer at okfn.org
Tue Apr 15 08:48:18 UTC 2014


Kersti,

On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 11:43:28AM +0200, Kersti Wissenbach wrote:
> As for the OKFN community I get the impression that we are moving towards a
> rather hierarchical structure than networked community feeling. Maybe this
> might weight stronger for those countries where OKFN does not have a legal
> chapter but rather only lose groups or ambassadors but specifically given
> OKFNs aim to expand towards broader and more dispersed communities I
> consider this problematic.

This is indeed a concern that is worth raising. Do you, or does anyone,
have suggestions how to fix this? 

Over at the School of Data we've been largely neglecting the community
around our project for a while - simply because we were stuck in work (up
to our ears). This has become more of a priority for me now and I'm happy
to learn whatever I can about how I (as a person that's paid by Open
Knowledge) can contribute to building this community.

> I believe attention on avoiding a dichotomous lingua when talking about
> central and the rest of the communities should be of importance.

Absolutely agree here. We seem to have a slight schizoid situation at the
moment. Part of it is: Open Knowledge has grown tremendously and as part of
this is paying more people now than it ever did before. This causes some
growing pains and a lot of inward focus. 

That inward focus has though made us live in an echo chamber and hear very
little from outside. I do think I speak for most of the team if I say: We
want to improve this. You (and everyone) around us are the reason we do
what we are doing: Tell us how we can help you be awesome!

Also: Do join the community feedback session! 

Michael

Ps.: Note: although im posting from @okfn.org this are purely my personal views
;)

-- 
Data Diva | skype: mihi_tr | @mihi_tr
Open Knowledge | School of Data
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