[BoST Call Dec 12, 7 pm GMT] - 2016/2017 - General Call #6
Open Conference Call of the OSCEdays Board Of Stewardship
Please confirm your participation @BoST @Frans
Moderator: Silvia
Scribe: Jose___
[Agreements and next steps]
I put here the main agreements got from the meeting as a way of summary and then the discussions that took place per item in the agenda:
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The next global event is proposed for June from 8th to 12th 2017.
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Sharon will take care of setting up and exploring a patreon account as an alternative to get funding: https://www.patreon.com.
3)We agreed that the physical event is important to get to know us more, but it is not clear when or where. It was an idea to use it as an opportunity to also prepare the global event, but no decision has been made. For now is on hold.
4) For now we keep using skype.
###NEW TECH
This weeks search for a new tech to connect will make us use Appear.In. For this one you don’t need to install something, just click this link: https://appear.in/oscedaysbost
If you can make it already earlier pls. test the solution before the call. Does the page work for you? If not, let us know in the comments.
There is no need to change to a new technology, we keep stay the same for now.
Skype is the preferred mean to do the conference calls.
Google Hangouts will be our back-up.
##1 Introduction Round
How is everybody?
Are there new people? Let’s have a quick introduction round.
##2 News
####2.1 Open Labs Documentation is up
Check the documentation.
Concerning the Open Labs documentation, according to Lars is not enough, the documentation delivers something but he is not satisfied.
Frans proposes to wait to get feedback from the content by others.
####2.2 Sponsorship For Events In Canada Possible
Check this. (only available to @BoST because of private data). It is about possibilities to get local OSCEdays events in Canada funded. If you are interested in that, please contact us.)
We have to solve the problem of having a bank account to receive money.
Several funding opportunities has been discussed:
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Related to Canada, Vancouver and Belinda. Belinda says she can get sponsorship for all events in Canada. It was asked to her if she could also manage to get sponsorship for the global organization. She was going to explore this possibility.
(Vancouver has been an important pillar for the community.)
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In relation to sponsorship it is important to have a brief summary of what we OSCED can offer. According to Silvia, " we offer infrastructure, access to information, flyers, workshop and consulting". This should be made public.
##3 Future Projects
####3.1 New Global Event? - DATE?
Hi, we still haven not decided, if we want to run a new global event this summer. We already have 4 requests for dates. If we decide to go with it, we should start a discussion, how we can try to improve the quality of the local events and documentation of them. This might relate also to the next point:
This was not clear, at the beginning but many of us agree that is good to have an event and it can be complementary to local events that are developed across the year. Some issues came across in respect to running global events which include the conditions that make such event sustainable and manageable for us:
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The global event can be a meeting and synchronized point in time to share the experience across he year.
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It is to early to stop such a movement.
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The cons related to running global events is related to sponsorship, financial stability, infrastructure, among other aspects. Many of the issues around this topic have been also placed in point 2.2. Sponsorship.
3.1.) In the global event 73 people were registered but no relevant content was created, this is something that we would like to avoid or change.
- There is agreement on the need to establish some exchange consistency which include money, operations, working hours, documentation. Concerning practicalities of implementation several ideas came across including:
4.1) To provide a form or template that gathers information and set some conditions in favor of the quality of the event and the results we expect (like documentation, contacts, grown community).
4.2) Ask for little money during the event to register as a donation (many of the most famous opensource initiatives including Wikipedia and Mozilla are financed like this). This seems to be unpractical.
4.3) Silvia says lets try all ways and explore what actually works.
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Ricardo says that local participants want to know what the global organization does with locals. Some locals might expect event to get some funding from the global organization. This is also something that needs to be clarified within the community.
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Gien has another interesting ideas related to exchange and sharing within the community. He is working with a colleague in an open house demonstration, where all the furniture will be developed without nuts and bults. The design will be shared so that anyone can do it. The idea is to provide the open designs so that locals can manufacture this furniture. This products can also be a source of income by the local community. This could be a source of income for the global organization. This solves several problems at the same time: people can learn how to manufacture locally, they get designs for free, and it could potentially be a source of income for them but also partially for OSCED, which supports the sharing and documentation infrastructure.
####3.2. Netherlands event
This was discussed briefly in the agreements above. It is important to have a physical event, but not necessarily urgent. For now we leave it on hold to wait for an opportunity to make it feasible.
####3.3 Writers Room Idea
How to produce ACTIONS - and therefor activities/meaningful content for local events? How about having an OSCEdays ‘Writers Room’ every month for 2 days. A little global event/invitation with an open video/audio channel, where people just sit down and create documentation/ACTIONS.
According to Lars we don’t have enough ACTIONS to support local activities.
Most of the ACTIONS haven’t been finished. So this is a problem, or limitation.
Silvia says she will meet with people in Indianapolis and inspire them to come up with a list of ACTIONS. But also chose topics or categories that are more valuable.
The categories are also important because they help to organize ACTIONS.
Which could be a catchy name for ACTIONS documentation? “Jam”, “Documentation”, "ACTION "???
##4 Formal structure for OSCEdays
Restart conversation about how to establish a non-profit/association for our organization.
Our formal structure would also influence our physical event. It is running the organization what takes time and money. There is still no money to support the organization.
Question: how does big organizations sustain themselves with little money? There are good examples out there.
Gien proposes to have all active members to write down their Specific Project, and then see if other members are interested around the globe. (this is actually how many healthy open source projects work, GIT HUB is a platform that allows to do this in software, see also the project collaboration platform of the Global Village Construction Set, and the case of Wikispeed)
This project could be visible in a spreadsheet, test it first within our group.
##5 Set-up interview with co-founder of http://www.1083.fr/
Silvia will coordinate. Target timeline: Jan 2017. Need to know the format (Google hangouts, Q&A with our community like our mentorship program or presentation by 1083, etc.) and participants.
Concerning this topic it was agreed that an interview would be better than any other approach to make it more natural. It would be nice to get them on board as mentors, and make them active members from the community.
##6 Pls. Add
Maike has agreed to talk online about the event in South Africa. This is related to an organization that does a lot of education and entrepreneurship with low income communities.
See the link https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/open-source-circular-economy-success-stories-from-indy-to-cape-town-tickets-29826872980
. . .