Energy modeling projects, new funding opportunities, and legally-incorporated foundations
Robbie Morrison
Hi all
Some news today regarding California‑based outdoor clothing company Patagonia:
- McCormick, Erin (14 September 2022). "Patagonia's billionaire owner gives away company to fight climate crisis". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0261-3077.
Owner Yvon Chouinard is "making the Earth our only shareholder". And a new organization called the Holdfast Collective will disperse funding — although that name does not show up on web searches yet. There are other benefactor‑driven initiatives emerging in this space too, directed variously at climate observation, mitigation, adaptation, relief, and awareness raising — and often stressing open data, open science, and collective wisdom. The Creative Commons‑led Open Climate Campaign being another recent example:
- Open Climate Campaign. Website.
I imagine that some open source energy systems modeling projects would be of interest to these new funding organizations. The reason I mention this is that such projects might wish to consider forming stand‑alone entities incorporated under law to better interact with philanthropic funders. These entities are sometimes named "foundations" and the legal details depend heavily on their host country. They need careful design and navigation nonetheless. This well written but dense publication covers four case studies in the open source world more generally:
- Boehm, Mirko (2019). "The emergence of governance norms in volunteer-driven open source communities". Journal of Open Law, Technology and Society. 11: 3–39. ISSN 2666-8106. doi:10.5033/jolts.v11i1.131.
Perhaps some modeling and/or data projects have already
investigated these questions? If so, please post.
Note that I am not suggesting that the openmod heads down this track. Although that might be a question we may need to traverse at some point in time?
If anyone needs a referral for open source lawyers, I can assist.
with best wishes, Robbie
-- Robbie Morrison Address: Schillerstrasse 85, 10627 Berlin, Germany Phone: +49.30.612-87617