Open Coalition/2014-15 report
This report was written by Bekka Kahn, Open Coalition project co-ordinator, in February 2015. It covers the period from May 2014, when Bekka started work, to February 2015.
Summary and overall learnings
Since beginning work nine months ago, the Coalition has enjoyed a great deal of support from various organisations and individuals in the open sector. The need for an organisation like the Coalition, which advocates on behalf of those working in and on the open web, as well as promoting open practices more widely has been highlighted by this support. This has been due, in no small part, to the support from Wikimedia UK, who have shown commitment to the project through their ongoing funding and material support, whilst allowing the Coalition to remain independent. Some aspects of the project have taken longer to implement than desired. As a one-person team, it would have been useful to have access to web designers and developers when setting up the initial look and feel of the Coalition, as well as helping to develop a fully-functional website as quickly as possible. However, this has not hampered the success of the project thus far, and ongoing development of these pieces of infrastructure are continuing.
Quarterly Reports
Quarter 1: May, June & July 2014
During the first Quarter of the Coalition’s existence, activity had two main areas of focus:
1. Internal organisational development 2. Projects involving external partners.
Internal development activity:
- Establishing communications channels for the Coalition, in as open and participatory a manner as possible.
- Hosted mailing lists (Google groups)
- Various social media accounts (Twitter @opencoalition, Flickr, Google+)
- Recruiting community members beyond the founding partnership organisations
- Building relationships with organisations and individuals involved in open advocacy work and the open movement.
- Developing materials for presentations at Open Knowledge Foundation’s OKFest (Berlin, mid-July ‘14) Wikimania (London, early-August ‘14) and Mozilla’s MozFest (London, late-October ‘14). These events were selected with consideration to the initial six-month timeframe of the Coalition project, as they represented useful progress markers for evaluating the project’s activities and achievements.
External Engagement
- The Coalition put out a call for submissions to the crowd sourcing democracy project run in conjunction with Wikimedia UK and DEMOS.
- Presentation at Wikimania Fringe Free Culture (June 7-8) resulted in discussions with Wikimedia Netherlands on the possibility of replicating a similar project in Europe.
- John Cummings and Bekka Kahn presented a session at OKFest along with Creative Commons Australia’s Elliot Bledsoe, entitled “Building The Open Coalition – Developing a Wider Community of Open” over 50 attendees from across the open sector discussed issues around open governance, open washing and sustainable open practices.
Quarter 1 Priorities
Priorities for Quarter 1 were internal and external - developing a web presence and easily recognisable logo were high priority. Externally the project focussed on supporting the Open Knowledge Foundation and Open Data Institute’s project to build a map of the open space, as well as working with the Wikimedia UK team on an Open Drinks networking event to take place in the lead-up to Wikimania. From the beginning it was important to network and build the community and profile of the Coalition, in order to make contact with potential funders in order to extend the existence of the Coalition beyond the initial six months for which funding was allocated.
Quarter 2: August, September & October 2014
Quarter 2 involved a lot of travelling and speaking engagements for the Coalition, as well as developing projects. During this period the need to develop internal infrastructure of the website became more urgent, highlighting the need for budget to hire a web designer and developer to assist with this.
As the Coalition entered this next phase of growth, the need for strategic planning, with as many stakeholders as is logistically possible became clear. As part of this process, Wikimedia UK fundraising staff began working with the Coalition to develop project proposals. Planning also highlighted the need for a plan for the dissemination and (if necessary) ongoing hosting of the materials produced by the project.
Budget evaluation showed that in the first six months of the project, Wikimedia UK funded open space advocacy activity to the tune of £10k. This covered the salary of the Co-ordinator, the website development and hosting costs and event attendance. Other things unrelated to the coalition have been funded from here, including funding the Wikimedian in Brussels to attend Wikimania (ticket and accommodation) and for Stevie to attend the Brussels advocacy meeting. Extending the Coalition project would mean a salary cost of £2.6k for every three months. This represents extremely good value and is a perfect fit under strategic goal G5 for Wikimedia UK.
Internal Activity
- Focus progressed from building consensus and momentum to consolidating activities and producing publications and materials.
- Began developing website which has repository function for all materials produced by the project and partners.
- First stage of handbook for community managers in open organisations drafted in preparation for a sprint at Mozfest event.
External Engagement
- Partnered with staff from Creative Commons, The School of Open, Open Knowledge and Mozilla to develop an additional track on Community Building at Mozilla’s MozFest.
- Worked with Wikimedia Germany, Wikimedia Sweden and a consortium of other European digital rights organisations to apply for funding from the European Union to conduct activities and events around network building, increasing competencies and engaging in advocacy within the digital public sphere in Europe. (The bid was ultimately unsuccessful but a useful learning experience)
- Planning with Wikimedia UK, JISC, DEMOS and the London Knowledge Lab, to bring UK-based organisations and individuals together for a day of workshops and discussions concerned with open policy implementation in the UK in early 2015 (this is being held over to summer 2015 due to a shift in scope)
Quarter 3 – November, December ‘14 & January & February ‘15
Internal Activity
Much of the time in Quarter 3 was spent organising and analysing data from the Mozilla Festival Community Building Track. The overall objective of the track was to empower attendees to develop the skills needed to take action together, enable communities to have impact and to keep the web open. Thereafter, we worked to gather best practices to be effective as openly networked, distributed leaders.
- The track featured 15 sessions, run by over 30 individuals from organisations based all over the world, overseen by the Open Coalition’s Bekka Kahn, and Beatrice Martini from Open Knowledge. Attendees were surveyed, and the data collected, collated and addressed added to the Coalition’s mailing list, where conversations have been ongoing.
- The data is currently being analysed by Nathan Mathias at the MIT Media Lab, in order to provide a snapshot of the engagement, with an eye to developing future partnerships.
- The Coalition website went live, in beta form, with feedback and assistance from the community.
- Quarter 3 also included four weeks where Bekka was in South Africa, which provided opportunities for meetings with some coalition members.
External Projects
- Ongoing activity on the Community Building Handbook with the writing team. Chapters were allocated to various writers, and deadlines have been set for delivery of first drafts.
- Working with Open Knowledge to develop a survey of employment practices within the open sector, in order to conduct research into how organisations in the open sector manage expectations of openness and balance this with working realities. This is a long-term research project, in a very under-explored area.
- Working with the Open Policy Network to develop materials on open implementation, as part of their Hewlett Grant.
- Developing concept paper for a fellowship of fellows, in collaboration with Creative Commons South Africa to be presented to various funding bodies.
List of Individuals and organisations with whom the Coalition has had
Working contact
- John Falconer, British Library
- Susan Whitfield, British Library
- Mahendray Mahey, British Library
- Suzanne Ter-Minassain, Cabinet Office
- Ryan Merkley, Creative Commons
- Tim Volmer, Creative Commons
- Alek Tarkowski, Creative Commons, Poland
- Jane Park, Creative Commons, School of Open
- Kelsey Wiens, Creative Commons South Africa
- Michael Harris, Don't Spy On Us
- Carl Miller Demos,
- Tom Knight, Department of Culture, Media and Sport
- Gemma Waterson, Internet Archive
- Chris Booth, Internet Archive
- Rosie Curran, Internet Archive
- Edd Bagenal, Internet Archive
- Alice Rekab, Internet Archive
- Simeon Oriko, Jam Lab Nairobi
- Tobias Blanke, Kings College, London
- Alex Eisenberg, Live Art Development Agency
- John Bevan, Mozilla Foundation
- Michelle Thorne, Mozilla Foundation
- Ben Scott, Natural History Museum
- Kathleen Stokes, NESTA
- Hera Hussein, Open Corporates
- Chris Taggart, Open Corporates
- Mary Fitzgerald, Open Democracy
- Adrian Aldcroft, PLOS
- Matt Jukes, Office of National Statistics
- Andrew Hyde, Open Democracy
- Andy Mabbett, Open Street Map
- Neil Watkins, Office of Paul Farrelly MP
- Katelyn Rogers, Open Knowledge Foundation
- Laura James, Open Knowledge Foundation
- Beatrice Martini, Open Knowledge Foundation
- Briony Phillips, Open Data Institute
- Melissa Hagemann, Open Society Foundation
- Delia Browne, Peer 2 Peer University, National Copyright Office Australia
- Elliot Bledsoe, Regional Arts Australia, Creative Commons Australia
- Joe McArthur, Right to Research Coalition
- Nicole Allen, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
- Matt Hannigan, Sprout Fund / Carnegie Mellon University
- Isla Haddow-Flood, Wikimedia South Africa / WikiAfrica
- Nicola Zeuner, Wikimedia Deutschland
- Valentin Muenscher, Wikimedia Deutschland
- Rebecca LaMarre, Wellcome Centre
- Nathan Matthais, MIT Media Lab
Talks & Presentations to Date
- Open Knowledge Festival
- Hive Berlin
- Wikimania Fringe
- Wikimaina (Including Open Drinks event)
- Mozfest
- Ada Camp Berlin
- Open Data Institute
Project Partners
Digital Democracy Project
- Demos
- Wikimedia UK
Community Building Handbook Project Partners
- Mozilla Foundation
- Mozilla Corporation
- Open Policy Network
- Open Corporates
- Open Knowledge
- MIT Media Lab
Open Policy Network (on Steering Committee)
- Creative Commons
- Creative Commons South Africa
- Peer 2 Peer University
- SPARC
- Right To Research Coalition
- CETIS (Centre for Educational Technology, Interoperability and Standards)