Open Knowledge Foundation
Board of Directors

Board Meeting Minutes, August 2009

Present: Jordan Hatcher (JH), James Casbon (JC), Paula le Dieu (PlD), Rufus Pollock (RP), Becky Hogge (BH), Martin Keegan (MK) (partial)

  • Approval of minutes from last meeting: The minutes were approved
  • Finances and Cashflow:
    • MK was unable to produce a financial report for this meeting due to incomplete information. RP presented a broad summary of financial activity.
    • The Board expressed their desire to see a financial report in good time ahead of meetings.
  • Vision:
    • PD apologised for not producing a report following the August "vision" meeting. She flagged that ongoing committments to her new job would make her unable to progress this for at least another two weeks.
    • RP agreed to get a one page statement on Google Docs so long as other Board members would commit to review the document. They did.
  • Supporters drive and Funding generally: The Board discussed the value of a supporter drive. It was concluded that we should change emphasis of supporter drive towards "badging" (getting as many people as possible to identify with the OKFN as supporters) with a supplemental ask for funding attached.
  • Report of activities:
    • CKAN: RP reported on client-side issues leading to a difficulty in predicting longevity of project and managing cashflow. The Board advised RP to ask client to specify a cap, and to start billing for project management time on these sorts of contracts moving forward. The Board agreed that OKF needs to maintain transparency around public money, and ensure we are delivering value.
    • farmsubsidy.org JH has met with farmsubsidy.org and put together a draft recommendation on licensing. Other deliverables are on track.
    • WDMMG (report from RP): Money has finally been received from Cabinet Office and contractors have been engaged. The Board agreed to look at the prototypes, which are available
    • Progress with 4IP uncertain. RP and BH are meeting with 4IP in November. Impression is that they remain unsure about ability to deliver. PD suggests we send them a little update of what we've been up to to reassure.
    • aidInfo (report from RP): An initial 10 days' work are complete, and OKF has committed BH, JG and RP to another 25 days work.
  • New Board Members: A discussion of new Board members was held over until the next meeting
  • Publication of the Minutes: The Board restated their desire for the minutes of Board meetings to be made public.
  • Next board meeting: Will be held on 17 November.