Rough notes from 16 Feb conference call
Alex Rose
Monica – Boston
Tom – Boston
Alex – Los Angeles
Heather – DC
Heather – Toronto
Need to divide up into subgroups so we can start to work some of
issues that were raised in notes that are on the wiki
• Project Management/Software Lifecycle
• Legal Subgroup
Tom from Boston recap of email to Heather:
1. Business of Crisis Commons should be of organizing labor, as
opposed to projects
2. Be in business of collating best ideas from NGO’s, Academics,
Governments, etc.
3. Less in business of initiating projects, should be providing labor
to people with good ideas
4. Boston idea of full weekend conference
a. New volunteers, getting them up to speed of concept
Peace-time camps are traditional Bar Camps. Haiti camps have been
hybrids and mixed with a Hackathon.
Incubation of idea process. In development of life cycle, it spins out
of incubation cell. But that is not necessarily rapid development.
What we are doing with Haiti is not necessarily the norm.
If we are proposing to provide services to Asia or Africa that are
under duress and looking for a specific system
Project managers should be selling their concepts to camps, rather
than vice versa
Should we craft the framework now?
Could we agree that before the facilitated meeting at end of March
have a framework so that we don’t have these conversations again.
What would we need to do utilize face-to-face time better?
Documenting lessons learned
At least create a fishbone of a strategic framework
Heather in Toronto suggested to do a Mind Map and put into Crabgrass
Of course we can create a strategic plan, do a SWOT analysis, etc. –
but how can the commons through its strategic framework really
represent our culture and values. If you read Google’s prospectus from
when they went public, it was very personal and relatable. The
framework is influenced by the decentralized and disorganized way that
the commons is.
Alex proposed perhaps doing an activity where each city is asked to
list three projects that they see as important.
Heather in Toronto – There needs to be research how other open source
communities work. Also need to get list from NGO’s. Third, we have
connections to Emergency Management organizations and integrate how
they work. Need to go down road of infrastructure.
Discussion that Wiki is not a great tool for collaboration. People
seem to be leaning towards Google Group. Where are we going to capture
all of this conversation?
What we are not:
I am very interested in us being independent and having an independent
voice. We are not free labor for a non-profit not to do its work. We
don’t take sides. When people develop things, they are invested in it.
Do we endorse things?
Thom
First, can someone (Heather?) write a quick paragraph (or even just
sentence) on what these terms mean, especially in the context of the
CrisisCommons and the governance groups?
* Project Management
* Software Lifecycle
* Architecture
Those words have meanings to me, but I want to make sure we're all on
roughly the same page (especially before I sign up to join one or more
of the subgroups).
Second, I'll post my email to Heather as a separate post, so folks can
maybe get a better picture of what I was proposing.
- Thom