Cool, huh? The first newsletter of the Open Forum Foundation and you’re one of the few who are receiving it (yes, there are five of you) – early adopters! Not to be concerned – the Facebook group is doing really well – 83 members after only a few days in existence and it continues to grow.
Status
The website and wiki are live and open to the public – one big hurdle accomplished! If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should! It needs you. This marks a serious accomplishment as it is much more than just an informative site. It is the summation and expression of many months of deliberation. It is an open forum for the improvement and development of the ideas that are presented there. It is the foundation for a collaborative resource that will allow projects with a similar focus to share ideas and develop common data standards, greatly increasing their longevity and geographic applicability. It is, however immodestly, the base which will enable the Open Forum Foundation to give every person around the world a voice in the decisions that affect their lives (see Mission Statement).
This naturally opens the way for a whole raft of new hurdles, but that’s what makes life fun! Here’s the current status of the organization (click through for more details or to contribute your ideas):
- Working on Articles of Incorporation, ByLaws, and the identification of Directors for the Board. We’re working with a really good lawyer named Beth Kingsley.
- Reaching out to multiple communities to find the people who are interested in this sort of project, including:
- Technology-based government-related, aka e-democracy, open government, etc…
- Open Source programmers
- People in government, especially on Capitol Hill
- People that work for Advocacy Groups
- Searching for a fiscal sponsor – someone to accept donations for us under their tax-exempt status until the IRS approves ours.
Things we need
- Critiquing. What? I know – everyone’s good at it and it’s fun, but why would I ask for it? Well, because the site needs it! I’m sure there are spelling mistakes and bad ideas and false assumptions all over the place. Am I effectively explaining what we’re trying to accomplish, or just talking to myself in mumbo jumbo? Without YOU to tell me, how am I gonna find them? This is not my project, it’s everyone’s project. Critique away!
- People. Tell everyone you know that may be interested. This is their project also! Post it on your blog, on MySpace, on Squidoo, or Digg. Send people to the site. It’s that simple. We need people to visit, gain an understanding of what we’re doing, and tell their friends that really care enough to get involved.
- Design assistance. If you or someone you know wants to design (or help design) the first prototype for the web interface, this is a great time to get involved. It’s literally a blank slate right now and people don’t really grasp a thing until they can see it. Well, let’s give ‘em somethin’ to look at!
- SEO assistance. Are you a web guru? Know someone who is? We need to perfect our search engine optimization – you know, make it easy for people to find us on Google and Yahoo, etc..
That’s about all there is to report for right now (without boring you to death). If you want more, there is TONS of information about the Open Forum Foundation on our website – almost all of it actually. We are completely transparent and accept full engagement from anyone who is interested. I’m sure there are a few things that haven’t made it up there yet, but feel free to call us on it and we’ll get it fixed.
Thank you for your support, and I hope to see you online!
Wayne
Monthly Newsletters
Wayne Moses Burke
September 10th, 2008 6:09 pm
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