Thanks, Shane. Apologies for not posting about this earlier - I have unfortunately been ill with COVID for the past week, and am still recovering. I will miss today’s meeting. Looking forward to reading the notes, if someone could take them!
Oh no – richard, get rest and get better fast!
Shane and I just connected and briefly discussed the notes.
There are several resources worth referencing; I shared one of a similar project (never fulfilled) from MetaGov that Shane and I agreed is a bit too high-level to be useful (big-G statecraft Governance). But I can also reach out to Seth Frey & co in the MetaGov network to see whether there are any other already-existing resources worth mentioning.
g
Hey everyone - I apologise for missing the last meeting due to COVID. It took me over a week to get over it, and then I was thrown directly into FOSSY. Next week, I am wrapping up work before heading hiking for most of August.
Do we want to schedule a meeting for next week, or for late August? What works best for you all?
Zow, I guess everyone was doing summer vacation! (I’ve also been busy deciding if I should volunteer for a local newspaper nonprofit board…)
Would love to reconnect in August, especially since I and a couple of folks have added more ideas to the working docs: SustainOSS Governance Definitions - Google Docs
I’m busy 22-24 August dropping my new college freshman off at UVM, but otherwise free, and could definitely use a distraction from sitting in our empty house crying our kiddo is gone!
I’ve also been busy deciding if I should volunteer for a local newspaper nonprofit board…
Yes. As a local newspaper columnist, this is important!
The week of August 28th works for me, if someone else wants to coordinate it!
This seems like a relevant funding opportunity: 2023 Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund RFP - Ford Foundation
Meanwhile, I also saw this and i’m not sure if that really works for the topic or if it could work for ours but the format might be worth considering as a layer of a potential product.
Am i reading right that there’s interest in reconvening this conversation during the week of Aug 28th, but nobody on point to actually schedule and set it up? Do we want to try?
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Hi folks – just following up on this. If we did want to apply to the Ford infrastructure fund to support R&D of a governance guidebook, we have a month to get a proposal together. Any interest?
You were reading that right - I was AFK for the last month. I’m happy to organize a meeting now. How about next Monday? Does that work for you, Greg?
We can talk about applying then.
Indeed the Ford program sounds like a great fit if the right people here had a shared project plan. We certainly have the interest here, if not (lately) the time present.
Next Monday is Labor day in the US, so some folks may have a different schedule, but I could be free then.
Hi Greg,
(First sorry I’ve been awol from this list. I had some health issues this summer. Better now. I hope you and others on this list are well).
I don’t have the bandwidth to work on this, but if for some reason it helps to have some kind of connection to what we are doing at UMass Amherst around this stuff, let me know. I’d be happy to write a letter of support or whatever you need.
Charlie Schweik
UMass Amherst
@RichardLitt @ShaneCurcuru Monday (9/4?) could work for me after 9a Eastern.
@cschweik sorry to hear you’ve been ill this summer (I’ve been struggling too!) glad to hear you’re better now. Thx for your offer would be great to get a briefing on where your initiative is at, because I suspect we might be able to leverage it in our proposal. And one way or another if we apply, a letter of support could be helpful somehow (although I don’t think they ask for it, but I have some ideas)!
g
Hi,
thanks @greggish (and @RichardLitt) for moving this. I think the call suits quite well what we have been doing here. I would like to join the call to discuss and explore the next steps.
Cheers,
Shoot. Realizing that Monday is Labor Day. Tuesday at 11am ET?
I can’t do that time… i could do 30 min at 10a. but that day’s kinda booked up. monday’s all free (and this aint work work for me)!
My Monday got booked up, unfortunately - I’ll be driving and won’t have great internet where I am. Since you’re leading this effort for applying, is there another day that works for you?
OK so I was the only one who showed for the meeting that @RichardLitt set up today – which is ok, I just used the time to review the RFP more carefully and start building a document. I’ve shared with the folks who’ve expressed interest on this thread – if someone else out there wants to work with us, let me know.
Some notes:
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I went ahead and started building a proposal to iterate on the Governance Matrix, in the context of translating Ostrom’s governance theory into a guidebook for OSS governance practice.
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Big TBD questions about what specific deliverables we’d aim to produce, what kind of team we’d need, etc. I don’t assume this is a $125k project; I wonder if we think that the lower amounts would be sufficient, that might increase our chances of getting funded.
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One way or another, I imagine this would involve a) further fleshing out the matrix with its questions, b) developing processes/interfaces for applying those questions in practice (like a decision tree? card deck?), and c) testing and iterating. Very open to further ideas.
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I previously applied to something similar for a different version of this project (initially focused on data commons, but leveraging the same approach we developed at SustainOSS events) and copied over most of that previous proposal into this new draft. It will need to be further tweaked, and fleshed out.
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In the last couple of conversations we’ve had about this stuff, a lot of time has been spent talking about stuff like “what is the definition of sustainability?” and “should we use the term ‘governance’ if people don’t like talking about governance?” I do sometimes have time for semantical wangling, but in this case I’d hope we can move beyond all that to something practical. We know what sustainability is; it’s ok to talk about governance. Etc.
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If this is something we work on together, I’ll probably have to do it in mornings / nights / weekends. But I could find time for a couple of workday meetings this month. What do you suggest?
g
Apologies for the no-show, I understood there was no meeting (I didn’t get any invitation for a call either). Thanks anyway for kick-starting the proposal; it looks really nice.
I’ve been working on the document, touching and writing here and there. I worked in suggesting mode, so feel free to accept/reject my changes. There are still some open points, but I think it’s in good shape.
Regarding your notes:
- It’s also hard for me to see the top funding level (i.e., 125k).
- I like your ideas on the outcomes (e.g., decision tree, card deck, etc.). Maybe we could do some brainstorming and decide on some specific digital resources to produce.
- I’d also avoid defining (again) concepts. Let’s be pragmatic and create a definition “for us” and go ahead.
- Except next week, when I’ll be on a trip and with little (or no) time, I can allocate some time to work together on this in the coming days (having into account that the deadline is Sep 30th)
Cheers,
Thank you for this work, Greg! I apologise for not publicizing this better.
Some nights work for me, if that’s easiest for you. This weekend should also work, if you’re free, Javi. I’ll take a look at this when I get a chance. I’ve been busy working on the Academic WG recently and haven’t had one yet.
good input, @jlcanovas and @ShaneCurcuru, thank you.
Right now, I wonder if we have any questions that we’d want to put toward the organizers about the funding. Questions to them are due by 9/26 whereas the proposal itself is not due until the end of that week.
@cschweik I’d also like to review with you and get any input that might set us up to leverage the work you all are doing.
@RichardLitt am I right that the Academia workgroup is just about open source software in academia? Rather than academic research on open source software? Just wondering if there might be anyone involved there who would want to be involved here.
I can find an hour or so maybe this weekend, and again later in the month, to flesh out the rest of this into a complete rough draft. If y’all want to find a time we can work through it together during the weekend, let me know. I imagine evenings in US time would be difficult for @jlcanovas to join, but we don’t all need to get on a call to make it worthwhile – Tues/Wed/Thurs evenings could work for me next week.
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Hi Greg,
as commented before, this week (monday-friday) I’ll be attending a conference and I don’t believe I will be able to find a spot for joining the call. I’ll follow the advances async.
Cheers,