[infrastructure] Note from Andy

Tue Jan 19 15:08:40 CST 2010

Here is the note I received from Andy Oram that I forgot to send earlier. 

Terri

On Jan 8, 2010, at 3:34 PM, Andy Oram <andyo at oreilly.com> wrote:

- Hide quoted text -

That was a great phone call. Here is a summary of our tasks, and
some ideas you can share with others at OSFA.

* Getting OSFA speakers at O'Reilly's Gov 2.0 Showcase.

 I put you in touch with two organizers. (And one pointed out that
 the deadline has passed.)

* More help from members of the mailing lists.

 It appears that, while nearly everybody at OSFA is a volunteer, some
 are intensely active and clued-in (steering committee members, for
 instance) while others just aren't in the loop. The 1,500 ordinary
 people who you told me joined the mailing list are in the latter
 group, and are underutilized. If we don't get them things to do
 soon, they'll drift away to some other forum with more interaction.

 Ideas:

 - Ask the active volunteers to post "Help me" lists. These lists
  should explain what the volunteer is good at, what he or she can
  do, and where help is needed. These could go on a wiki or other
  project site and a pointer can be posted to relevant mailing
  lists.

 - Posts lists of tasks that are already covered. For instance, I had
  to ask on mailing lists whether there was anyone in OSFA who knew
  details about open source implementations in Europe (I suspect
  there are--but still don't know) and therefore whether it would be
  a waste of my time to do that research myself. It's important to
  know not just what the expertise in OSFA is, but who is active and
  has the time to exert that expertise.

 - Find out what the 1,500 members know. You told me that there are
  some questions on the sign-up form, and indeed there are:

    http://www.opensourceforamerica.org/get-involved

  This is plenty to ask people when they first sign up. But at some
  point, it would be nice to get more precise information. Do people
  have experience designing apps that use OpenID and OAuth? Do they
  know which OpenOffice.org Calc features correspond to useful Excel
  features? What, precisely, can we tap from them?

  For 1,500 members (hopefully growing), this has to be organized as
  tags. I would also like wikis where people post their biographies,
  but that's too loose to help us find expertise. It's useful to
  help people build relationships once they discover each other.

 - Blog our accomplishments. This serves two purposes: it reminds
  members (as well as the public) that the organization is making
  progress, and it may give other members ideas about how they can
  jump in and help. Blogs can request particular types of help.

* OSFA can afford to be collaborative.

 On the open government issue, for instance, make sure to solicit
 input from other groups such as Sunlight Labs (which I see as one of
 our founders).

 Private firms have marketing and financial reasons to keep some
 things secret. Non-profit groups have much less reason. OSA could be
 radically transparent. You suggested in our conversation that the
 problem is not people hiding anything, but just people being so busy
 they don't think about sharing information. My suggestions are
 intended to provide incentives and easy mechanisms to share.

Andy

Terri Molini
(415) 480-4355

Support the use of Open Source software, it could save the U.S. federal government billions of dollars annually.

-----Original Message-----
From: Terri Molini <tmolini at aol.com>
To: infrastructure at opensourceforamerica.org
Sent: Tue, Jan 19, 2010 12:38 pm
Subject: [infrastructure] REMINDER: Infrastructure Call Today (4:00pm ET / 3:00pm CT / 1:00pm PT)

Reminder: 

Our call today is at 4:00pm ET / 3:00pm CT / 1:00pm PT

(866) 839-8189
394-0011#

Best regards, 
terri and the infrastructure team

Agenda: 
. Email sent to all members. What hiccups are we experiencing? 
. Review note sent from Andy Oram and see what items we can leverage. 

Minutes from last week's meeting: 

 Attendees: 
Steve Holden
Terri Molini
Chris Hankin
Issac Christoffesn

Short meeting. Basically need to check in with Ean and see where we stand in regards to open items. (Terri)
. Take emails sent from Chris and modify them based upon the decisions to be made during Steering Committee call on Friday. 

Best,

Terri Molini
(415) 480-4355

Support the use of Open Source software, it could save the U.S. federal government billions of dollars annually.

-----Original Message-----
From: Terri Molini <tmolini at gmail.com>
To: infrastructure at opensourceforamerica.org
Sent: Tue, Jan 12, 2010 12:30 pm
Subject: [infrastructure] Reminder: Infrastructure Call Today

Agenda: 
. We will be sending an Email to all members ASAP regarding input to the principles. 
. Need need to discuss the work that has been accomplished and anythat still needs to be completed to support theeffort. 

Our call today is at 4:00pm ET / 3:00pm CT / 1:00pm PT

(866) 839-8189
394-0011#

Best regards, 
terri and the infrastructure team

MINUTES: 
Create an e-mail list for comments from members (only). Commentswould be visible to anyone but to comments would only be for members.(Ean Schuessler)

Topic: Call for Comment regarding the Principles document upon which the OSFA's report card will be based. (Report Card team)

Location of draft document: opensourceforamerica.org/draft-principles (Terri Molini)

Comments: Input from all members as a mail list. (Collaboration) (ALL)

Editors: (Ean Schuessler) 
. Gunnar Hellekson
. Chris Hankin
. Tom Rabon
. Bruce Mehlman
. John Scott

- Subteam: 
. Melanie Chernoff
. Terri Molini
. Ean Schuessler
. Josh Berkus
. Elizabeth Ziph

___________________________________

Draft email (still to be finalized): (Chris Hankin)

For some time now, the OSFA Steering Committee has been considering anOSFA deliverable for 2010: a grading or report card on the various USgovernment agencies and their policies and practices as regards opensource software and openness more generally. (By openness, we intendthe same meaning as the Obama Administration: transparency,participation, and collaboration.)

With the Administration's issuance last month of its Open Government Directive ,we quickly came to agreement that this is a project that should goforward, but with a new twist. We would first like to issue a set of"Principles for Open Government Plans," to help guide the differentagencies as they each seek to publish their mandated Open 

GovernmentPlan by the April 7th due date. Our expectation would be toissue this set of principles the first week of February, thus providingthe agencies with sufficient time to take it into account.
Please help us write the OSFA“Principles for Open Government Plans.” Go to xxxxx, log in, and jointhe discussion. We have supplied a first draft, which we expect theOSFA community to significantly improve. We are opening this discussiontoday; and will close it on January 29th.

Following publication of our principles,we will then begin work on a set of metrics/questions that we wouldintend to use to grade the agencies following the April 7th launch of their Open Government Plans.

Thank you in advance for your assistance,
OSFA Steering Committee

end draft email ---------

___________________________________

Attendees: 
Tom Rabon
Terri Molini
Ean Schuessler
Josh Berkus
Elizabeth Ziph

-- 
Terri Molini
(415) 480-4355

Support the use of open source software, it could save the U.S. federal government billions of dollars annually. 

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