Newsletter #3

Hello all! Our work at the Open Forum Foundation continues unabated, and the time to raise funds is upon us. We have made significant progress in the last month, including becoming an official organization and drawing very close to formalizing several partnership agreements with organizations that are equally excited about seeing Project One come to fruition.

Money

That’s right, we’re ready to start bringing it in! We are positioning ourselves for great accomplishments, and although I can’t tell you all of the details until they are formalized, you’ll begin to get an understanding below. Honestly though, we all know what it takes to make great things happen in a short period of time – money!

I have committed my life and skills (and my good credit) to making this happen. Now I need to connect with people who believe in the need for every voice to be heard in the big decisions; with people who see the value of engaging a broader constituency to develop realistic solutions to the issues that we face today; with people who are committed to the ideals of representative government; with people who are willing to share their hard-earned cash with a project that supports their principles.

In the early stages of this project, what we need are a few angel donors who together can contribute a couple hundred thousand dollars in return for the recognition befitting the rare few that are willing to put themselves out front. As Project One gains acceptance and becomes respected as the easiest and most reliable way to communicate with your elected officials, these angel donors will become our Rockefellers and Carnegies, impacting the course of history by ensuring that each individual has a voice in the decisions that shape their world.

(What do you think? It’s my first time writing it out. Do you think it’s too heavy on the ideals or too exuberant in the honor that goes to the angel donors? Let me know in the comments, or send me an email. I would also be happy to be introduced to anyone that you think fits this bill or might know someone who does.)

Partnerships and Advisors

While nothing is official yet, we are in the process of formalizing partnerships with a number of organizations that will bring valueable expertise and technology to the Open Forum Foundation.

Foremost among these is Lou Klepner with Gateway to Gov, located in New York City. Lou has been working on a vision very similar to Project One for a number of years. He has already made significant progress on one of the most difficult components of it, a project that he calls CivicID. CivicID provides constituency verification, and he has already accomplished the difficult task of wading through the administrative mire of 20-some state governments to create the relationships necessary to maintain CivicID. Lou and I are in agreement about the importance of working together to make Project One a reality and are in the process of working out the details of that partnership.

Similarly, I am working on forming partnerships with David Stern of MixedInk, Lucas Cioffi of DeepDebate, and Noam Shore of Idealogue. All three of these organizations have developed software that, respectively, makes online collaborative writing easier, enables online discussion between a large number of people, and enables focused, online, small group and one-on-one conversations. Each of these solutions is a significant improvement over their predecessors – the standard wiki or discussion forums — and their founders are committed to enabling Project One to come to fruition.

In the congressional arena, I have been meeting with the Congressional Management Foundation. While we are still discussing how best to formalize our relationship, they are very supportive of the idea and the work that we are doing. Specifically, they feel that our tact of placing importance on the accomplishment of the solution as opposed to the means of the accomplishment, is critical to creating something that will meet the needs of Congress. Obviously, without getting Congress on board, the project will not appeal to any of the other stakeholders.

Finally, I believe the time has come to create a group of advisors. There are several people that I have come to know who do not fit the role of partner, but whose experience and knowledge will prove incredibly valuable in guiding the development of Project One. While this notion is not yet fully formed, look for more about this in the future.

Progress

As of October 20th, 2008, the Open Forum Foundation is an officially operating organization in the District of Columbia. On that day, we held our first official board meeting to adopt the Organizing Resolutions and Bylaws. This followed closely on the heels of filing our Articles of Incorporation on the previous Friday. If you’re a complete geek or just love the way lawyers write (and I know there are a few of you out there!), you can read all the gory details on the Legal Documents page.

Our founding board is composed of five extremely talented, and busy people (in fact, it took a near-Herculean effort to corral them all together at one time, and its accomplishment serves as further proof of the capabilities that are driving the Open Forum Foundation <wink>). Shadee Malaklou has graciously accepted the position as President of the Board with Ellen Williams as Vice President. Patrick Benz stepped up to fill the role of Treasurer and Kristen Guskovict has taken on the responsibilities of the Secretary. Rounding out the mix is Caroline Kissane. You can read all about them on the Who We Are page.

Close

So that’s us! We’re about to grow by a great deal and the next couple of months are sure to be incredibly exciting. If you’re interested in getting involved, please drop a line or just leave a comment. Thank you for your continued interest in this project and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
Wayne

Monthly Newsletters
Wayne Moses Burke
November 14th, 2008 10:01 pm
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