[Copy of a Blog post, in the main page of the OST NING, for those of you that and are not there yet - Artur]
Some people have transmitted us their concerns about what will happen to the OST NING after the decision from the NING organization to stop the non premium Ning sites. By the way, this has been discussed in the NING session that has been convened by myself, Lisa Heft and Shufang Tsai (whom was not present in person, but only in spirit) in the recent WOSonOS in Berlin. First, we want to clarify that the OST NING is a premium NING, since we have decided to pay 25 US$ per month to have this NING ads free. So the decision of the NING Organization to change its policywill not affect us negatively in the short term. Indeed, that change of policy may eventually be good for us, with a reduction from 25 US$ per month to 20 US$ per month... Second, that amount (25 US$) has been paid by OSI Portugal during the past months, as they have decided to support that cost during 6 months (from March 2010 until August 2010, I think), as a donation from OSI Portugal, Indeed, the support of all the NING OST costs is (and will be) in all cases supported directly by OSI Portugal, that will collect all donations and make all payments to the NING organization. This will be a separated "cost center" in OSI Portugal accounts, and will be overtly and openly displayed to all of you. Let me also clarify that all donations made through the "donation button", at the right of the main page, will be collected by OSI Portugal, and will be used only for the purpose of supporting this NING. As OSI Portugal is a registered non-for-profit organization in an EU country they will in all cases provide a receipt that, I think, is valid for tax deductions in all European Countries (but please check with your local authorities). Third, as this provision for tax free donations does not apply to the USA, I want to publicly acknowledge and thank to OSI-USA, as they have decided to collect donations to the NING from American citizens and give them to us. People from US that want to make tax free donations to this NING, please contact OSI-USA. Fourth, I also want to acknowledge and thank the fact that I have received at WOSonOS in Berlin two donations from the USA, made through OSI-USA, one from Lisa Heft and the other from another American citizen that prefers to be kept anonymous. This was an amount of 250 US$, equivalent (at the time of conversion) to 170 Euros (unfortunately, due to the loss of the value of the Euro since then, this is no longer equivalent - at least for the time being - to 250 US$..). Anyhow I want to publicly thank OSI-USA, as well as Lisa and the anonymous donor. In conclusion, I think that we will not have problems during one year from now. Then, unless something better and cheaper than NING will appear, I hope that we will have other donations from those of you that love this place as we do... Artur, (in the name of your NING hosts: Artur, Lisa and Shufang) * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
