Hey Leigh -- You're so right!!!!
The amount of time I spend in WikiEducator --- I wonder how I'll find the time to blog. Now that we have a Council in place, hopefully I'll have more time on my hands to blog. I'll need some good tips and advice from the gurus :-) Cheers Wayne On Fri, 2008-10-03 at 10:23 +1300, Leigh Blackall wrote: > Wayne, you need a blog.. > All this information, dispersed and broken up inside a google group > and different Wikipages. I think you need a blog so we can keep up > with everything you are doing and thinking about > > > On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 6:56 AM, Wayne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Thu, 2008-10-02 at 09:49 -0700, Steve Foerster wrote: > > > Wayne wrote: > > > > << WikiEducator 3.0 refers to the phases of our strategic plan: >> > > > > Oooooh, okay, fair enough. > > I've started a stub for Wkieducator 3.0 --- The idea being to > provide a synopsis of our strategy and concise history of the > project as the basis to ask the community to help us identify > the strategic and operational priorities of Phase 3 in our > development. > > > > > > << TImeline: Startup of the new International Center for Open > > Education is scheduled for 1 May 2009. COL has agreed to fund the > > technical infrastructure of WIkiEducator for the first 3 years, that > > is servers and technical support staff. COL's future support for > > WikiEducator is conditional and requires that WikiEducator is > > established within a new legal framework that COL considers > > appropriate for such support. Our discussions have been around > > setting up an independent and appropriate non-profit entity. >> > > > > I agree that this is critically important. In order to set up a > non- > > profit organisation, it must have by-laws, yes? And these would > > presumably refer to a governance structure, e.g., Board of Directors > > or Trustees or what have you? I ask because if that's the case then > > this would effectively replace our Draft Policy on Governance, and > if > > that's so we must be the ones to write it. > > Steve, replacing our Draft Policy on Governance -- not > necessarily. > > My personal view is that we should do everything we can to > respect and support the autonomy of the WE community taking > into account our history and what's been achieved to date and > the legal requirements. It is conceivable to have an > independent non profit that is responsible for maintaining the > technical and operational infrastructure of the WikiEducator > community in accordance with the policies approved by the > WikiEducator Community Council without interfering with the > governance of the community. I'm not a lawyer and we'll need > to get legal advice on this question. So let's wait till we > have feedback from the experts. > > > << Steve the Open Education Centre comes under an employer - > employee > > relationship. This is subject to the normal confidences afforded to > > employment agreements. >> > > > > I hope that doesn't mean that you foresee your relationship with > Otago > > would require confidences that would preclude you from sharing > > relevant information with the WE community. > > Nope -- I don't see it that way at all. We all have multiple > roles and identities. My participation in WE is as an equal > member of the WE family. For example, you work at a > University -- but participate in WE as a member of the > community. What I anticipate is a job description which gives > me the time to work for the WikiEducator project as an > organisational allocation of staff time. Increasingly, I hope > to see more institutions officially donating FTE (Full time > equivalent) staff time to the project. I've been thinking > about launching an FTE for WikiEducator initiative where > institutions commit real staff time to the project. > > > << The moment I have definitive detail on the relationship between > the > > operations of the International Centre for Open Education and the > > WikiEducator project -- I will be the first to let our community > know. > > >> > > > > Fair enough. > > > > > > << Suffice it to say, the establishment of an independent legal > entity > > for administering the funding for the WE project is a critical path > > decision for moving forward. Currently -- WE has no legal status. > WE > > is a community of association whereby individual members are > > personally responsible (and liable) for their activities in the > > community. >> > > > > Very good, on this I think everyone agrees. Can we assume the non- > > profit group would be chartered in NZ? (Fine with me if it is, so > > long as NZ recognises public domain dedications.) > > Yes -- the non-profit would be chartered in NZ. To the best of my > knowledge, NZ recognises public domain dedications. > > The final form of the non-profit is not my decision, nor > should it be. This has to do with taxation status of different > kinds of entities, for example an Educational Charitable Trust > versus a non-profit company with charitable purposes. In the > case of NZ Educational Trust, to retain "tax free" status has > implications regarding disbursements -- this has nothing to do > with the form of the entity but local taxation law. As an > international project we must ensure that WE can continue its > work at an international level. This international stuff gets > pretty complicated -- our server sits in Germany and we will > more than likely have our Phase 2 hosting located in Canada. > Each country has its laws around these things as well. I'm not > a lawyer and we will rely on the advice of legal professionals > working in the field. There is also the question of legal > liability of the organisation that funds operations etc. So > lots of detail that needs to be worked out. > > > > > > << I have always acted in the best interests of the WIkiEducator > > project. I hold the highest number of edits in the community and the > > accolade of being the first member of WikiEducator :-). Since the > > inception of the project I have always put community first and will > > continue to do so. >> > > > > I know. I really hope you don't think that I'm asking you these > > questions because of any doubt of that, as for the record I have > none > > at all. And hopefully everyone understands that you can't know > > everything yet. I'm only bugging you this way because I want to > > ensure that the community is as involved as possible in what happens > > to us, and you can't reasonably facilitate that if we don't do our > > part by asking what we need to know. > > I respect and admire your approach and ongoing commitment to > our project since the early days :-) --- keep bugging! > > Cheers > Wayne > > > > > > -=Steve=- > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > -- > Leigh Blackall > +64(0)21736539 > skype - leigh_blackall > SL - Leroy Goalpost > http://learnonline.wordpress.com > http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Leighblackall > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
