Agenda
Wiki Spot Board
Agenda
Thursday May 26th, 2011
8 PM California time (UTC-7)
Participate via the instructions you got from ZipDX immediately after you were sent the calendar invitation. The call will be recorded, and the recording will be available after the meeting is concluded.
You can also join #wikispot-board on irc.freenode.net. Someone on the conference call will be transcribing the meeting as it takes place. See the IRC page for more information on how to use IRC.
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Call to Order.
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Approval of minutes.
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Project updates
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Funds report.
You can read this report here: funds_report_public.pdf
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Board job description.
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Executive Director job description.
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Board search
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Secretary, Chair Board positions.
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Any other business.
Minutes
Notes were taken in IRC and are being cleaned up.
Times are currently Central. The meeting started on time (technically 5 minutes late). The duration was 55 minutes.
Parenthetical items are uncertain, sometimes due to noise on the line. Either they need to be reviewed by the people who made the statements, or the recording referred to.
Notes originally taken and cleaned up by Evan Edwards.
In attendance:
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Philip Neustrom
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Arlen Abraham
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Graham Freeman
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Evan Edwards
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William Lewis
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Mike Ivanov
[22:05] Graham, as acting chair, calls the meeting to order.
First item, approval of minutes from last meeting. There are no minutes, so this item is skipped.
[22:06] Philip speaking on current status of project (Presumably Local Wiki, although he hasn't specified) They are talking to communities. He mentions a figure of 300 different people in different places which they are looking to narrow to 5. They are looking for autonomous communities and then find what happens (a few) months from now. The software is said to be at a point where it is "very very usable" and "80% of everything that is used on Davis Wiki". PN notes that it doesn't have certain functionality, which describes as "polish". They were looking to get basics done and cite "really really nice rich text editing", "rich text diffing" and, that they "developed a very flexible framework" atop Django.
He says it is "very easy to diff [lists many data types]", but notes that there are still "lots of little bugs". He considers the timeframe to be on track with Knight grant timeline. They rearranged a couple things: some things are done early, but others — like video — were pushed back. He describes the items remaining (or pushed off? both?') as "pretty straightforward".
As for the pilot wiki, they are looking a a couple different places. He notes that last week they put up first instance of software not running on PN or MI's laptops. They are still looking at mapping stuff.
[22:10] ???? Pilot in the next week?
[22:11] (pls confirm above... glitched out)
They are planning on moving forward in next weeks, with some of the heavy lifting done by Dade Foundation. This matches their contract and the milestones they laid out. During the rollout, they will be working on semantic features, "integrating with the mapping stuff", but mostly "seeing how things pan out", looking at unintended things that pop up during the rollout.
Philip talking with community foundation in Chicago... worked on it, looking to resume talking to them in the (coming weeks?)
[22:13] >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Note, clarification points are in parens
[22:14] Philip notes that the focus is going to be almost entirely on the first pilot community or communities in the next few months. Evan asks what "selecting means", to which Philip replies that it means choosing a community — they already have a short list of ten places. Where it goes from there depends on the community... at least two weeks before any given community "is using the new stuff". He notes that they have five different places that seem like "really really good places".
With regard to publicizing the pilot community selection, Philip notes, "We don't want people to think, oh hey, they picked them, they didn't pick (me)". They are looking at choosing one a month for six months and work with them to have something really solid and launchable.
[22:19] William asks about announcement to people who pledged (note: Kickstarter fundraiser had a reward level to help choose a pilot community). Philip says we'll have "a poll", but notes that the first community is kind of a special case, where we're working both ways. We want to work with somebody new, somebody who is not us. Philip moves back to the topic of the pledge drive and worries that "People would kind of get the wrong impression", and says will not announce the pilot community selection.
William expresses that there is concern among donors as to "what their money is doing" (uncertain quote). Philip notes that an annoucnement would make sense.
Arlen asks if anybody contributed at the level where they would be promised a pilot. Mike (uncertain voice) says a couple people did. "We'll figure that out in the next few months" Mike notes that we'll be rolling out pilots for a year or so, so we'll have an opportunity to set them up, we don't want them to have a bad experience, don't want to set them up until the bugs are ironed out.
[22:28] (Evan asked questions... missed some here... need to go back)
[22:28] Philip announces that Hackathons are planned and more movement on the open source side of things
[22:28] Accounting is brought up, and Philip notes that they are looking into having somebody come in and help with the books.
[22:29] Philip is planning to build up a knowledge base, with non-technical people contributing help. He points out Davis Wiki and the larger community people, but notes that, "making a decision about outreach is premature right now" - PN
[22:31] He sees two options: a paid outreach position, or a community web to build that, if it works.
[22:39] (Sec. note: missed a bunch; was involved in the conversation here... will go back to the recording. Recall it was about the rollout timetable and syncing it to other actions)
[22:40] The original timetable shifted forward 3 months (due to the delay in starting) is still on track and matches the original grant proposal.
[22:41] Philip feels that there is no need to wait for more progress to reach out to prospective contacts and board members... that there is enough under our belts to show. Philip notes that he's talked to people about moving forward.
[22:44] Philip wiould have to put it off for two months. (Clarify)
[22:45] Urges people to move on board issues faster.
[22:45] William raises legal issues in a vague way, Evan urges to speak frankly. A discussion of Brent Laabs continuing negative interest in the organization and concern over any potential technical liabilities with the organization. Graham mentions that regardless, we should keep an ethical course.
[22:51] Philip nominates Graham for Chair. Graham accepts. Two people second. (Evan and ???) Graham is voted in as Chair unanimously.
[22:52] Philip nominates Evan for Secretary, Graham seconds, Evan accepts, Evan is voted in as Secretary unanimously.
[22:56] Philip presents budget [PDF was sent to attendees]. There are two basic plans: minimal core numbers vs spending on outreach... he discusses the possibility of seeking a microgrant to pay for misc expensive OR take on more pilots. He pretty much runs through the outline of the report sent. Evan asks about the timetable and source for the microgrant. Philip replies that they will resume discussions next week with the Chicago group, and they should know about the 25k grant soon. Given the small amount, they can provide the funds immediately.
[23:03] Graham asks for any more business. Evan proposes a general agreement to have a meeting in six weeks due to the lack of recent meetings and the speed at which things are moving. Graham agrees to send a Doodle invite to schedule a meeting.
[23:03] Graham thanks everybody, adjourns. Meeting ends [duration 55 minutes].
