January 27, 2010

Present: Nancy, Riff, Bertha, Ana Maria, Natalie, Simone, Sophie, Camilo, Carl, Josien and Lucie.

1. KM4dev 2010 venue(s)

Do we have more detailed costs for Addis and Rome? Do we do multiple events in 2010? How do we move forward and who is involved?

Info prior to the call:

• Simone: A quick update before our call on Cali:The Cali Share Fair has been confirmed and the proposed dates will be two or three days probably in the week of May, 24. I can give more info during the call.
• FAO/CG folks meeting later in Feb in Addis to final the ShareFair there possibly 18-21 October or later. Still a possibility that we can piggy back and event. No cost data has been provided by the Addis folks (CGIAR/CTA)
• Need to consider appropriate including of funding meeting costs in proposal to possible funders. (Riff)

Main points from the call:

• The Cali Share Fair is a regional event taking place during the week of May 24. Simone officially proposed to host/piggy-back the annual KM4dev meeting during that week. The idea is to fully engage the community in the design/organization of the event. There is a lot of energy coming from Cali to make this happen.
• The Addis Share Fair will be held in either mid-late October or early November. A team (Enrica, Gauri, Stephen R, etc.) is going down to Addis in the first week of Feb to look into venues, connectivity, costs, etc. [Note from LL: I have just found out from Gauri that this has been postponed to March] There is scope for a KM4dev meeting but perhaps less so for the main event.
• We need to have a coherent approach when talking to IFAD/Willem re. potential funding. Nancy and Lucie will be in Rome in early Feb (Luca and Sophie also have contacts with them/him)
• KM4dev events come in all shapes and sizes (annual meetings, regional meetings, informal get-togethers, etc.) which is perfectly good, as long as the KM4dev domain/spirit/philosophy is respected. We encourage all models. The current context is interesting due to funding opportunities, interesting events, regional and linguistic diversity in the community to explore.

Decisions:

• We approved Simone's proposal for the Cali KM4dev event and develop the idea into a one-page concept to circulate. This would also include issues such as how to handle translation and funding. Bertha, Camilo and Ana Maria offered to be involved.
• We are still looking at Addis for a smaller KM4dev event (but not the annual get together). Riff offered to coordinate with Peter B (as in Ballantine?) , as he will be there.
• We are looking at keeping the Rome option for the 2011 annual event.

Next steps:

• Simone: will (1)inform the Share Fair team, (2)write to the Core group to inform them and invite those interested in being involved,(3) form the Cali organization committee, and (4) send an initial message to the KM4dev list to announce the date/location and that further info is forthcoming.
• Riff: will follow up with Peter B (not Bury!) re. Addis and send an email re. coordination of approach to IFAD on funding.
• Nancy/Sophie/Lucie: will follow up with IFAD/Willem, and the Addis fact-finding mission (Sophie and Lucie, for the latter).

2. Core group participation

Two more people have asked to join... how do we function with 25+ people? There are Core group members who have not contributed the minimum (i.e. "a Core group member contributes through regular email contact with the group, participates in at least 2 conference calls or meetings per year and agrees to take on some tasks based on his/her own interests. In total, this adds up to a minimum of 2 days per year")... do we "enforce" this given that we are a big group? (see comments on the Core group list from Carl, Simone, Karen and Lilia)

Main points from the call:

• For the Core group members who have not responded to being taken off, non response is consent to be removed from the list
• People are not keen on core/periphery model (from Lilia's blog) because it can appear to create two tiers of members but the openness issue is an important one
• In response to Lilia and Karen who don't much how much they can contribute being new to the Core group, it's important to stress that we are not "judging" contributions but rather looking at a certain level of active participation

Decisions:

• The cap is created by interest and non response, not by keeping the Core group at a certain number of people
• We keep Core group criteria (quoted above) as is
• Make the Core group notes and Dgroup more visible on the KM4dev site
• Keep a list of previous members that participated in the Core group but are no longer active, to recognize contributions made (i.e. "alumni")

Next steps:

• Lucie to follow up with (1)an email to the Core group to clarify what we mean by participation, (2)personal emails to current inactive Core group members, (3)create the "alumni" page on the KM4dev site, and (4)putting links to the meeting notes and Dgroup archives on the Core group page.

3. KM4dev wiki

See Satish Vangal's proposition sent to the Core group list.

Background from Nancy:

• Satish is supporting the transition for a South Indian NGO, into ICT entrepreuneurs. He wants them to have visibility (they do back-end UNDP wiki, which is remotely edited)
• They put summaries into the wiki. For a better ability to find, there is a formal taxonomy plus informal taxonomy, or folksonomy
• He is asking if we would we be interested in reusing these templates for KM4dev, for a more formalized taxonomy to improve our wiki, and to help the Indian village by paying them for this work, also summarizing. The visibility would be great for them. Satish wants us to take a look

Main points from call:

• Interested not so much in the summarizing but the templates could be interesting for better wiki organization. The volunteer driven nature of our summaries is great for learning and engaging, it provides an avenue for community participation
• KM4dev holds a unique position between formal and informal, this is valuable
• What they did is both impressive and frightening, seemed too structured, overkill
• Who was interested in extracting value from past discussions? IFAD? Could Satish and his group produce something different than the community wiki -- a "Best of the List"? (like the FAQ project revisited)

Decision:

• Two or three of us have conversation with Satish and his developper guy to look at (1)wiki templates for our wiki, (2) "Best of" option, and (3) a softer, gentler approach to "taxonomy"
• What is not easy about using out wiki? Carl's question would be the CORE of the inquiry with Satish et al.

Next steps:

• Inquiry team (Natalie, Nancy, Carl) to have an exploratory conversation with them mid to late Feb
• Nancy will follow-up Satish via email