Re: [IAEP] [Sur] [SLOBS] New Co / Nueva Empresa
On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 1:07 AM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: It has been 7 months since the Bumblebee brainstorming group had its discussion in San Francisco. I'm not sure what we thought would work for us, My recommendation is to let each group do their own thing. It's their name, their reputation on the line. If the original SF Bumblebees run a successful deployment in X, an unrelated group in New Zealand has no business using the Bumblebee name (potentially asking for money or goods). They should use their own name -- build their own reputation. There are some specific cases where the _services_ of a non-profic org are extremely useful. Software for the Public Interest (SPI) comes to mind -- it helps administer money from various conferences and events related to FOSS projects. You'll note that Debian conference organizers (debconf) make use of SPI's services, and that saves them a ton of time. Each year debconf happens in a different country, and is managed by a different group. Setting up a non-profit in a different country every year is madness. SPI's help is used every year by a different group. But SPI is not an umbrella of any kind, and nobody operates in their name (except the few people actually part of SPI). In a case I am familiar with, the Debconf Helsinki team used SPI's bank accounts and legal entity to handle receipt of donations, payment of bills, importation of gear into Europe, sponsorship of visa applications... These service non-profits are very useful (they require a lot of work too!). OTOH, I am extremely wary of any umbrella name or umbrella organization, and I believe you should be too. I've sat through plenty of talks and presentations where people were asking for material help (money, equipment, services) based on the good work of someone else entirely. Makes my blood boil and, besides my personal ethics, it does not lead to good outcomes. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [Sur] [SLOBS] New Co / Nueva Empresa
(+1 Idea) * == English (Spanish bellow) ==* Hello all! Thank you Walter for promoting the dialog among the community. Back on January, I thought the structure and economic model of a cooperative, would make sense for the local lab in Perú to be able to articulate the contributions of local contributors and volunteers of Sugar and Sugar's Deployment. Unfortunately, the idea didn't evolve any further as after consulting with local advisors, it seemed like Perú is not ready yet (in terms of legislation) for the cooperative model. I believe it is worth to *include the cooperative model in the options*that are being drafted by the community regarding the incorporation of a new (international) org. http://goog_1302339638/ Co-operatives are a reminder to the international community that it is possible to pursue both economic viability and social responsibility. - Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General Warm regards, laura v. ID somosAZUCAR.Org *== Español (Inglés arriba) == * Hola a todos! Gracias Walter por promover el diálogo en la comunidad. En Enero pensaba que la estructura y el modelo económico de una cooperativa, permitiría al laboratorio local en Perú articular las contribuciones de los contribuyentes y voluntarios locales de Sugar y del despliegue de Sugar. Desafortunadamente la idea no trascendió, pués tras consultar con abogados locales, se evidenció que tal vez Perú aún no contaba con legislación suficiente para soportar el modelo cooperativo. Considero que* vale la pena incluir el modelo cooperativo en las opciones que están siendo delineadas* por la comunidad con respecto a la incorporación de una nueva (e internacional) organización. http://goog_1302339638/ Las Cooperativas son un recordatorio para la comunidad internacional de que es posible conseguir la viabilidad económica y la responsabilidad social al mismo tiempo. - Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General Saludo fraterno, laura v. ID somosAZUCAR.Org 2012/5/23 Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 1:07 AM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: It has been 7 months since the Bumblebee brainstorming group had its discussion in San Francisco. I'm not sure what we thought would work for us, My recommendation is to let each group do their own thing. It's their name, their reputation on the line. If the original SF Bumblebees run a successful deployment in X, an unrelated group in New Zealand has no business using the Bumblebee name (potentially asking for money or goods). They should use their own name -- build their own reputation. There are some specific cases where the _services_ of a non-profic org are extremely useful. Software for the Public Interest (SPI) comes to mind -- it helps administer money from various conferences and events related to FOSS projects. You'll note that Debian conference organizers (debconf) make use of SPI's services, and that saves them a ton of time. Each year debconf happens in a different country, and is managed by a different group. Setting up a non-profit in a different country every year is madness. SPI's help is used every year by a different group. But SPI is not an umbrella of any kind, and nobody operates in their name (except the few people actually part of SPI). In a case I am familiar with, the Debconf Helsinki team used SPI's bank accounts and legal entity to handle receipt of donations, payment of bills, importation of gear into Europe, sponsorship of visa applications... These service non-profits are very useful (they require a lot of work too!). OTOH, I am extremely wary of any umbrella name or umbrella organization, and I believe you should be too. I've sat through plenty of talks and presentations where people were asking for material help (money, equipment, services) based on the good work of someone else entirely. Makes my blood boil and, besides my personal ethics, it does not lead to good outcomes. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
Re: [IAEP] [Sur] [SLOBS] New Co / Nueva Empresa
Hi... At the olpcSF meeting last October some of us met informally and discussed the need for exactly what you are suggesting: an organization that would act as an umbrella for groups that wanted to fund small deployments and make other contributions to the OLPC, Sugar, and open source software in education (OSSIE). As far as I know, nothing has been done to implement this idea yet. Some of the suggestions we had were: * It should be a completely separate entity from OLPC and Sugar Labs to insure independence.* It should file as a registered 501c3 NGO that could act as an umbrella organization for the local groups that are meeting and raising funds for their deployments and other OLPC/Sugar Related activities. In addition to the NGO status, they could carry liability insurance so local groups under the umbrella would be able to qualify for free meeting space as a non-profit.* The name that we used for the group was Bumblebees. One reason for choosing that was it in no way indicates relation to OLPC or Sugar Labs. We didn't keep a list of who was there, but I do remember SJ, Craig Perue, and I think Mark Battley being there. They can probably fill you in with other info. It would be really helpful to local groups if this could happen. For olpc-SoCal, here in Southern California, it would allow us and other groups like ours to get free meeting space (insurance and NGO status required), to hold events like a Scratch Day and similar, and to raise funds for small deployments. Caryl Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 15:38:58 + From: alsr...@sugarlabs.org To: bk...@sfconservancy.org CC: t...@sfconservancy.org; iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org; olpc-...@lists.laptop.org; sl...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [Sur] [SLOBS] New Co / Nueva Empresa On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 10:55:50AM -0400, Bradley M. Kuhn wrote: Aleksey Lim wrote at 09:52 (EDT): 4.4 New organization should provide a way to forward funding (mostly crowdfunding) flows to particular program and provide everything to make this funding open/clear for donators and easy handled by local deployment people. Funding for new software development can always be done through Conservancy. I think it's important to make a distinction between funding for deployments vs. funding for development of Sugar Labs software itself. The former can't easily flow through Conservancy, but the latter can. Thanks for explanation. Yes, my idea was exactly about funding local deployments (not software development within the Sugar Labs itself). -- Aleksey ___ Lista olpc-Sur olpc-...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
