Re: [OSCOM] Plan: OSCOM Revised (3 weeks for feedback)

Hi!

Here is wikified copy/paste of the plan:
http://oscom.avantech.net/Plan

Please note that Wiki Syntax is off (because it sometimes creates 
unwanted links). If you want a link to another page, please use the 
following Syntax ((LinkToAnotherPage))

I didn't put each project on it's own page because many are only a few 
lines. I invite people to create and link to another wiki page if the 
project has more info.

Best regards,

M ;-)



Sandro Groganz wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> please find my suggestions below - far from being complete!
>
> Let's use this to start a thorough discussion and brainstorming.
>
> In 3 weeks, I will summarize your input (see schedule below).
>
> Take your time to read and enjoy :)
>
> Sandro
>
> ----------------------------
> PLAN: OSCOM REVISED
>
> * Purpose *
>
> The purpose of this plan is to identify the projects and actions it 
> needs to have the international organization for Open Source Content 
> Management (OSCOM) gather momentum.
>
> The proposed ideas should help to get a better understanding of the 
> OSCOM goals and how they can be reached more efficiently and with more 
> contributors.
>
> This draft does not necessarily formulate the official view of the 
> OSCOM board, it is rather a basis for discussion. The draft is far 
> from being complete, any feedback is highly appreciated.
>
> * Principles *
>
> Open and transparent: All issues concerning this plan should be dealt 
> with openly and in a transparent way.
>
> Cooperation and participation: It is highly important that all 
> involved persons act in a cooperative manner and that everyone can 
> participate.
>
> * Vision *
>
> We want to establish OSCOM as the number one umbrella organization for 
> all issues related to Open Source content management.
>
> * Brainstorming *
>
> Some brainstorming has been going on on the OSCOM general mailinglist. 
> Most ideas have been included in this plan. The plan foresees that 
> there will be one more round of brainstorming/discussion about the 
> general content of this plan, as well as further brainstorming for 
> each project of this plan.
>
> * Organizing *
>
> The detailed planning of projects will be done at a later point.
>
> * Actions *
>
> These are the next actions concerning this plan:
>
> 1. (3 weeks): discussion/brainstorming of this plan on OSCOM general 
> mailinglist
> - include as many as possible from the content management area
>
> 2. (1 week): summary of input, revision of plan
> - done by Sandro Groganz + OSCOM board
>
> 3. (1 week): decision on acceptance of plan
> - by 2/3 on OSCOM general mailinglist
>
> 4. (2 weeks): planning of projects
> - priorities/schedule
> - responsibilities
> - next actions
>
> * Projects List *
>
> Please note that the term "projects" is being used in a wider sense 
> and is not specifically aimed at software projects.
>
> We need dedicated persons for most projects, who volunteer to be in 
> charge. Feel free to add your here:
>
> - Organization: Define Scope and Goals
> - Organizations: Define Involved Groups and Projects
> - Organization: Define Organizational Structure
> - Organization: Bylaws
> - Organization: Define Roles of President, Board, Members, Community
> - Organization: Define Decision-Making
> - Organization: Elections of President, Board, Members
> - Organization: Generate new Members/Contributors
> - Organizations: Affiliations
> - Information: OSCOM Wiki
> - Information: Definition of Terms
> - Information: Collection of Resources
> - Information: Collection of Events
> - Information: Collection of Content Management Projects
> - Information: Personal Page of OSCOM Members
> - Information: CMS Matrix
> - Information: Planet OSCOM
> - Collaboration: Software Implementation
> - Collaboration: Software Specification
> - Collaboration: Student Projects
> - Collaboration: Mailinglists
> - Events: Conferences, Roadshows
> - Events: OSCOM Awards
>
> * Projects Details *
>
>
> - Organization: Define Scope and Goals -
>
>
> To establish OSCOM as the number one umbrella organization for all 
> issues related to Open Source content management, we need to broaden 
> its scope.
>
> OSCOM should not only be about CMS, but include any kind of Free 
> Software and Open Source content management application. This 
> includes, Wikis, Weblogs, etc.
>
> The wider scope makes perfect sense, given that CMS integrate Wiki and 
> Weblog functionality and vice versa.
>
> Seen from that perspective, it is one of the tasks of OSCOM to 
> continuously define what is Open Source content management and bring 
> the players in this area together.
>
> The main goal of OSCOM is to foster innovation in the Open Source 
> content management segment by creating the potential for information 
> transfer between all involved persons.
>
> To formulate the main goal in a different way: What is the unique 
> selling point of OSCOM? It is the potential of becoming the main 
> information hub for knowledge transfer within interest groups of the 
> FOSS CMS segment (e.g. software projects, consultants, solution 
> providers, etc.).
>
> In this segment, information is critical for success. In this respect, 
> OSCOM can be of benefit in two ways:
>
> 1. Distribution of commoditized knowledge, which is information that 
> has become standard knowledge in our segment. This could for example 
> be a Wikipedia page explaining what is WebDAV?
>
> 2. Distribution of first-hand information, which is information only 
> available to an exclusive group of persons. Typically, such 
> information is exchanged face-to-face at conferences, during talks or 
> in private talks.
>
>
> - Organizations: Define Involved Groups -
>
>
> We'd like to involve the following groups in the Open Source content 
> management segment:
> - developers
> - project managers
> - consultants
> - journalists
> - vendors
> - solution providers
> - users/customers
> - others? (feel free to add)
>
> This is a list of projects which could be involved:
> - MediaWiki
> - TikiWiki
> - WordPress
> - FluxBlog
> - Drupal
> - Typo3
> - Joomla!
> - Magnolia
> - Plone
> - others? (feel free to add)
>
>
> - Organization: Define Organizational Structure -
>
>
> In essence, we do not change the organizational structure, we just 
> define roles more clearly as well as the processes of participation.
>
> The Apache Foundation-like structure of OSCOM is ok, but has been 
> anticipated as too exclusive up-to-now. What is needed is a rather 
> loose interpretation of the existing organizational structure, to give 
> it a more inclusive spin and to allow more groups and persons to be 
> involved with a low barrier of entry.
>
> We want to keep the OSCOM foundation as a legal entity, mainly for the 
> purpose of financial administration. This includes that final 
> decision-making concerning financial matters is bound to the rules 
> defined in the bylaws.
>
> The OSCOM foundation thus only forms the very basic legal realm for 
> the OSCOM community. All non-financial decisions should be made within 
> the community, based on defined processes. These processes ensure that 
> the community is actually in power of decision-making and that 
> decision-making is effective.
>
>
> - Organization: Bylaws -
>
>
> Unfortunately, oscom.org is not accessible currently. Thus, I was not 
> able to go through the bylaws and relate them to this plan.
>
> I assume, that most things stay untouched by this plan. Nevertheless, 
> if we see that certain things should be changed in the bylaws, we 
> should do this now, because we have enough momentum to change things.
>
> The major change I propose is that only the president and the board 
> members are legal members of the OSCOM organization. The "normal" 
> members, are not a legal subject of the OSCOM organization any more. 
> This way, we strip down the organization to its core to have it deal 
> with financial and legal matters only. (Following a suggestion by Paul 
> Everitt)
>
> We need someone in Switzerland, as OSCOM is there registered as a 
> legal entity, who can fix issues for us.
>
>
> - Organization: Define Roles of President, Board, Members, Community -
>
>
> The roles of the president, the board, and the members are in general 
> laid out in the Bylaws, but we might need to redefine or clear them a 
> bit.
>
> The president of OSCOM is in charge of representing OSCOM. He clearly 
> needs to distinguish between his role as the OSCOM president and any 
> other affiliations. Whenever he acts within his role as the president, 
> he needs to follow the principles of OSCOM and pursuit the 
> organization's goals.
>
> The board is only in charge of decision-making when it comes to 
> financial issues. Other then that, the board members are part of the 
> OSCOM members and community. I suggest that the board members should 
> represent the groups of OSCOM, thus it should include one 
> representative from each group (see above).
>
> OSCOM members are persons who actively participate in or already 
> contributed to an OSCOM project, be it maintaining the events list or 
> organizing a conference, etc. The term "member" is ambiguous, because 
> it could be understood as a member of the OSCOM community or a member 
> of the OSCOM organization. We need to make clear that someone is only 
> called a member if these two criteria meet:
> - the person is currently or has been active in the past
> - and the person is elected by other members as a member
>
> The OSCOM community simply comprises all persons interested in OSCOM, 
> actively or passively.
>
>
> - Organization: Define Decision-Making -
>
>
> The basic formula is that we want bottom-up decision-making.
>
> Existing members (which includes board members) can recommend new 
> members.
>
>
> - Organization: Elections of President, Board, Members -
>
>
> The president could be elected every year, just like the Debian 
> project does for its project manager. The goal is to ensure that the 
> most dedicated persons become the president of OSCOM.
>
> The board should consist of representatives of the interest groups in 
> the FOSS CMS segment. This means we need to define the interest groups 
> and perform elections for each representative as well. There should be 
> elections for each board member. A board member should be elected by 
> the OSCOM community, i.e. active and passive persons. Elections could 
> be every 2nd year and not overlap with elections of the president for 
> more then 3 months. Anyone can run for the elections, you don't have 
> to be a member.
>
> Members can be nominated by other members and elected by 1/4 of the 
> members as long as there are less then 40 members. Max. 1/5th of votes 
> can be negative. With more then 40 members, it is sufficient to have 
> min. 10 positive votes. Given there are more then 40 members, you can 
> become a member with min. 10 positive and max. 2 negative vote.
>
>
> - Organization: Generate new Members/Contributors -
>
>
> The goal of the proposed organizational structure of OSCOM is to 
> provide an incentive for others to contribute to OSCOM. Thus, OSCOM 
> invites everyone to participate and rewards active persons by becoming 
> OSCOM members.
>
> Especially in the current situation, we should actively seek for new 
> members and invite representatives of related software projects, 
> consultants, journalists, etc. to participate.
>
>
> - Organizations: Affiliations -
>
>
> OSCOM could affiliate with other organizations and identify potential 
> common interests and projects, e.g.:
>
> - http://www.odfalliance.org/join.asp (idea by Michi Wechner)
> - FSF
> - Open Source Initiative
> - Typo3 Organization
> - Apache Foundation
> - LinuxTag
> - others? (feel free to add)
>
>
> - Information: OSCOM Wiki -
>
>
> It would be great to make the main oscom.org portal a Wiki where 
> everyone can contribute to. This allows for a simple way to 
> collaboratively share information.
>
> Alex Kempkens suggested to use a CMS instead, like the do on the 
> Joomla! portal.
>
> In the end, we need a solution which allows simple and effective 
> information sharing and we need to know what kind of information is 
> valuable to us.
>
>
> - Information: Definition of Terms -
>
>
> A kind of glossary on oscom.org, maintained in the Wiki. For example: 
> What is an Enterprise Content Management System? What is WebDAV?
>
> If there are already pages on Wikipedia, we could simply link there. 
> We could also contribute to Wikipedia and just link from oscom.org.
>
>
> - Information: Collection of Resources -
>
>
> A collection of links to online resources. For example related 
> organizations, articles, news, etc.
>
>
> - Information: Collection of Events -
>
>
> A collection of _all_ events in the content management segment, not 
> only those organized by OSCOM.
>
>
> - Information: Collection of Content Management Projects -
>
>
> A page for each content management software project with basic 
> information. Quality of the project is not an issue here, we simply 
> want all projects listed. The OSCOM Awards make the difference when it 
> comes to quality.
>
>
> - Information: Personal Page of OSCOM Members -
>
>
> Just like FSFE, each OSCOM member could have his personal area: 
> http://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows
>
>
> - Information: CMS Matrix -
>
>
> We need to be more active in maintaining the CMS matrix - how to do that?
>
>
> - Information: Planet OSCOM -
>
>
> Let's aggregate more feeds! Maybe add a contact form to the Planet 
> page to provide new feeds.
>
>
> - Collaboration: Software Implementation -
>
>
> We need more thinking here, whether OSCOM should keep hosting and 
> pushing collaborative software projects (like the WYSIWYG editors).
>
> I would say yes, but not with highest priority. Once we really achieve 
> such collaboration, this is a sign that there is a big need for it and 
> previous information sharing has actually lead to working on a 
> concrete result.
>
> For the start, we should concentrate on knowledge transfer, which will 
> hopefully foster collaboration in the software domain.
>
>
> - Collaboration: Software Specification -
>
>
> Maybe it would make sense to create a repository of basic 
> specifications. For example, what should be included in a Weblog, a 
> Wiki, a CMS, an Intranet, etc.? Not too detailed, but as a kind of 
> quality assurance tool for project developers as well as customers/users.
>
>
> - Collaboration: Student Projects -
>
>
> OSCOM could collect information for students who would like to do an 
> internship at a community/company/organization dealing with FOSS 
> content management. We could provide tips, or a list of potential 
> organizations.
>
> We could also collect information about ongoing student projects. They 
> could be in the field of actual software implementation, as well as 
> sales analysis, etc.
>
>
> - Collaboration: Mailinglists -
>
>
> We keep the mailinglists we currently have. Let's see if we need some 
> more in the future?
>
>
> - Events: Conferences, Roadshows -
>
>
> Conferences are good for face-to-face conversations and first-hand 
> knowledge transfer. OSCOM should support everyone in organzing related 
> conferences. We could do this by sharing experiences in the Wiki about 
> previous events.
>
> Roadshows are similar to conferences, but they happen at several 
> places and rather focus on product presentations.
>
>
> - Events: OSCOM Awards -
>
>
> To foster the goals of OSCOM, we could issue OSCOM Awards once per 
> year, where we reward persons or groups for certain achievements in 
> the field of FOSS content management. The main award could be issued 
> for the "Open Source Content Management Project of the Year". There 
> could be other awards like "Open Source Content Management Event of 
> the Year".
>
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