Board Meeting Minutes, December 2025
A meeting of the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) Board was held via video call on Wednesday 3rd December 2025 from 19:00 - 20:35.
Board members who dialled in: Vanessa Barnett (VEB) (Chair), Helen Turvey (HT) (Vice Chair), Tim Hubbard (TH), Renata Avila (RA) (CEO), Cassandra Woolford (CW) (DOF)
Apologies: Ira Bolychevsky (IB), Johnny West (JW)
Welcome & review of minutes & actions [Chair]
The board approved the minutes from May 2025.
Finance Update [CW]
The board approved the transition of Accountants for the 2025 year end audit.
Cassandra presented the Financial reports, ending October 2025, with a provisional forecast of the YE2025 position. OKFN continues to spend prudently within the financial constraints of the economic budget. The cash flow runway for 2026 was presented. The board confirmed that the reports are presented clearly and that the financial position is understood.
CEO Update [RA]
Renata presented the high-level objectives achieved in the previous year, including effective advocacy by "The Tech We Want" and the success of the Open Data Editor tool. Significant progress was made on open collaboration and governance mechanisms. A publication on governance models is planned, to share learnings and templates with other organisations.
The organisation is delayed in fully transitioning out of the Google/Big Tech ecosystem; the team is confident that this will occur in 2026. Alternatives under evaluation are Proton Mail/Drive or hosting our own email with the Nextcloud ecosystem. The goal is to be completely out of Google after the first quarter of the next year, driven by the issue of digital sovereignty in Europe and the increasing cost of Google's suite (partly attributed to Gemini integration). There is a plan to address the "shameful" 20-year-old archive on Google Drive next year by creating backups, removing unnecessary files, and moving it to a non-Google location.
Activity Highlights were leading global debates in Digital Public Infrastructure, launching the Open Technology Research Network in alliance with Open Source Initiative and Open Forum Europe. This network will replace "the academy" and broaden its focus to open technology research to produce evidence for policy advocacy.
OFKN Secured funding from the Open Society Foundation for exploratory research on both LEO satellites and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). The short-term project is aimed for completion by the end of May, the details were circulated to the board previously.
There are some new team additions: three women, a new Project Manager, focusing on professional project management, a new AI and Literacy publications lead, as well as a community coordinator with an open science background based in India.
Renata also shared the Strategic Focus for the Next Year: The four high-level objectives being: Delivering digital sovereignty, strengthening open knowledge through open, resilient, sustainable technologies and standards (including research), building capacities across institutions and communities and developing data and infrastructure governance models to advance digital autonomy.
To address sustainability, a multi-annual sustainability strategy is being developed with ambitious goals, including reaching a $1 million bank balance.
CKAN celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and will be highlighted with a year-long series of activities.
AOB
Meeting dates for 2026 were briefly discussed and the directors asked if they would provide any dates by email that should be blocked to not conflict with OKFN Board meetings.
It was shared that Astor Nummelin Carlberg is leaving Open Forum Europe and Stefano Mafulli left the Open Source Initiative. The Open Technology Research Symposium is tentatively set for late October/early November, which could be a venue for a board meeting.