Open Source Content Management Framework

Time to create a Midgard association

  1. Time to create a Midgard association

    Tue December 01 2009 09:20:10 UTC
    Hi, all

    In the Midgard Gathering a year ago we made initial plans to create a
    foundation to manage the Midgard project. After some examinations and
    time, it seems foundation is simply a too heavy model for our
    purposes.

    Therefore I'd like to propose a lighter model: founding an association.

    The association would:
    * Have membership open for all Midgard contributors
    * Govern Midgard copyrights through Fiduciary Licensing Agreements
    (http://www.fsfe.org/projects/ftf/fla.en.html)
    * Arrange Midgard Gatherings
    * Have a sponsorship model for Gatherings and other operations
    * Seek to register a trademark for Midgard and the Midgard logo
    * Provide the base infrastructure needed for the project (website, bug
    trackers, version control etc)
    * Have a yearly Midgard member meeting in a Gathering

    The Midgard Project has individuals and many companies participating.
    Having an association would provide us with a legal neutral ground for
    cooperation that would safeguard the advancement and sustainability of
    the project.

    To make things move forward as quickly as possible, I'd like to invite
    you all to a founding meeting of the association still this month. A
    doodle is open in http://www.doodle.com/5ynrns8pwp838btr

    An initial working name for the organization is "Association for free
    and open web", as the association should have a higher goal to pursue
    in order to keep the Midgard project on the right track. This will
    also enable other projects to possibly join the organization once
    things are moving. It will also help us with sponsorship
    opportunities.

    As things progress I'll try to get Free Software Foundation Europe,
    Apache Software Foundation and COSS somehow involved in the process.

    /Henri

    --
    Henri Bergius
    Motorcycle Adventures and Free Software
    http://bergie.iki.fi/

    Skype: henribergius
    Jabber: henri.bergius@gmail.com
    Microblog: http://www.qaiku.com/home/bergie/

    My Royal Enfield Bullet 500 is for sale, see http://www.nettimoto.com/844397
    _______________________________________________
    dev mailing list
    dev@lists.midgard-project.org
    http://lists.midgard-project.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
    •  Reply
  2. Re: Time to create a Midgard association

    Fri December 11 2009 09:37:30 UTC

    Hi, all

    Therefore I'd like to propose a lighter model: founding an association.

    The founding meeting will be held on Saturday Dec 19th in Angleterre on Fredrikinkatu 47 in Helsinki, Finland.

    Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=230652325434

    For our international contributors we'll do our best to make the event work also on Qaiku #midgard channel.

    Current idea is to have two competing proposals on the table:

    1. Create a Midgard association that will completely coordinate and manage the project
    2. Apply for Midgard to become an Apache project, but create an association for handling event sponsorships and other such matters as that wouldn't be possible through ASF

    Welcome!

    /Henri

    •  Reply
  3. Re: [midgard-dev] Time to create a Midgard association

    Mon January 11 2010 16:30:05 UTC
    Hi,

    On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 11:37 AM, Henri Bergius <henri.bergius@iki.fi> wrote:
    > The founding meeting will be held on Saturday Dec 19th in Angleterre on Fredrikinkatu 47
    > in Helsinki, Finland.

    Based on the decisions of that meeting (http://www.qaiku.com/go/5269)
    we're now in the process of setting up an association to support the
    project.

    Quick summary:

    * There will be an association called Midgard Project ry, based in
    Helsinki, Finland
    * Everybody who has made contributions in a previous year will be a
    full member of the association for a year
    * People who have made contributions in the past, but not in a
    previous year will be alumni members (and can become full members by
    contributing again)
    * Contributions can be also other things than code, for instance
    documentation, artwork, or Gathering arrangements
    * Copyright assignments to the association will not be mandatory, but
    the association can act as a fiduciary to those developers who want it
    (see http://blogs.fsfe.org/adridg/?p=628)
    * Membership is limited to individuals, but companies and other
    organizations can of course sponsor us
    * Membership is not limited by nationality, though the chairman and
    half of the board must be Finnish residents
    * A yearly meeting of association members (where board is chosen etc)
    is held between January and May, to coincide with the spring Midgard
    Gathering

    We had a preparation session with Oskari and Lauri after Christmas,
    and as result here is the current draft of the association bylaws:

    in Finnish:
    http://docs.google.com/View?id=dhp98xhm_10d85z8bhk

    in English (quick translation, not an official one):
    http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd4m6zsj_1gcnm8xkt

    Please comment!

    If everything works out OK, we'll submit the papers to the Finnish
    association registry next week.

    /Bergie

    --
    Henri Bergius
    Motorcycle Adventures and Free Software
    http://bergie.iki.fi/

    Skype: henribergius
    Jabber: henri.bergius@gmail.com
    Microblog: http://www.qaiku.com/home/bergie/

    My Royal Enfield Bullet 500 is for sale, see http://www.nettimoto.com/844397
    Sent from Helsinki, ES, Finland
    _______________________________________________
    dev mailing list
    dev@lists.midgard-project.org
    http://lists.midgard-project.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
    •  Reply
  4. Re: [midgard-dev] Time to create a Midgard association

    Mon January 11 2010 16:55:06 UTC
    On 11.01.2010, at 19:23, Henri Bergius wrote:

    > Hi,
    >
    > On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 11:37 AM, Henri Bergius <henri.bergius@iki.fi> wrote:
    >> The founding meeting will be held on Saturday Dec 19th in Angleterre on Fredrikinkatu 47
    >> in Helsinki, Finland.
    >
    > Based on the decisions of that meeting (http://www.qaiku.com/go/5269)
    > we're now in the process of setting up an association to support the
    > project.
    >
    > Quick summary:
    >
    > * There will be an association called Midgard Project ry, based in
    > Helsinki, Finland
    > * Everybody who has made contributions in a previous year will be a
    > full member of the association for a year
    > * People who have made contributions in the past, but not in a
    > previous year will be alumni members (and can become full members by
    > contributing again)
    > * Contributions can be also other things than code, for instance
    > documentation, artwork, or Gathering arrangements
    > * Copyright assignments to the association will not be mandatory, but
    > the association can act as a fiduciary to those developers who want it
    > (see http://blogs.fsfe.org/adridg/?p=628)
    > * Membership is limited to individuals, but companies and other
    > organizations can of course sponsor us
    > * Membership is not limited by nationality, though the chairman and
    > half of the board must be Finnish residents
    > * A yearly meeting of association members (where board is chosen etc)
    > is held between January and May, to coincide with the spring Midgard
    > Gathering
    >
    > We had a preparation session with Oskari and Lauri after Christmas,
    > and as result here is the current draft of the association bylaws:
    >
    > in Finnish:
    > http://docs.google.com/View?id=dhp98xhm_10d85z8bhk
    >
    > in English (quick translation, not an official one):
    > http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd4m6zsj_1gcnm8xkt
    >
    > Please comment!
    >
    > If everything works out OK, we'll submit the papers to the Finnish
    > association registry next week.

    After reading English translation:

    1) It is not obvious how membership-fees are related to membership-rules defined in section 3
    2) Would be nice to have something written about rights and responsibilities of members (all categories)


    _______________________________________________
    dev mailing list
    dev@lists.midgard-project.org
    http://lists.midgard-project.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
    •  Reply
  5. Re: [midgard-dev] Time to create a Midgard association

    Mon January 11 2010 17:00:05 UTC
    Hi,

    On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 6:48 PM, Alexey Zakhlestin <indeyets@gmail.com> wrote:
    > 1) It is not obvious how membership-fees are related to membership-rules defined in
    > section 3

    The annual meeting can decide on membership fees for both ordinary and
    alumni members. If we decide to have a fee and you don't pay you lose
    your membership. But I think at least initially there will be no need
    for having a fee. It just has to be in the bylaws to support the
    situation if we decide it is necessary.

    > 2) Would be nice to have something written about rights and responsibilities of members
    > (all categories)

    For ordinary members:
    * Speak and vote in the annual meeting, apply to become a board member
    * You have to have made an accepted contribution within the previous year

    For alumni members:
    * Speak and attend (but not vote) in the annual meeting
    * You have to have been an ordinary member before (or at least have to
    have been applicable for membership)

    /Henri

    --
    Henri Bergius
    Motorcycle Adventures and Free Software
    http://bergie.iki.fi/

    Skype: henribergius
    Jabber: henri.bergius@gmail.com
    Microblog: http://www.qaiku.com/home/bergie/

    My Royal Enfield Bullet 500 is for sale, see http://www.nettimoto.com/844397
    _______________________________________________
    dev mailing list
    dev@lists.midgard-project.org
    http://lists.midgard-project.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
    •  Reply
  6. Re: [midgard-dev] Time to create a Midgard association

    Mon January 11 2010 17:20:06 UTC
    Henri Bergius wrote:
    > Hi,
    >
    > On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 6:48 PM, Alexey Zakhlestin <indeyets@gmail.com> wrote:
    >> 1) It is not obvious how membership-fees are related to membership-rules defined in
    >> section 3
    >
    > The annual meeting can decide on membership fees for both ordinary and
    > alumni members. If we decide to have a fee and you don't pay you lose
    > your membership. But I think at least initially there will be no need
    > for having a fee. It just has to be in the bylaws to support the
    > situation if we decide it is necessary.
    In section 5 it says that the fees are set separately for each member
    group every year.

    >
    >> 2) Would be nice to have something written about rights and responsibilities of members
    >> (all categories)
    >
    > For ordinary members:
    > * Speak and vote in the annual meeting, apply to become a board member
    > * You have to have made an accepted contribution within the previous year
    >
    > For alumni members:
    > * Speak and attend (but not vote) in the annual meeting
    > * You have to have been an ordinary member before (or at least have to
    > have been applicable for membership)

    The idea is that at some point later on we write those official
    guidelines (as said in section 12) and in there these things are
    clarified. The guidelines would have topics like "minimum contribution",
    "how to apply to be a ordinary member", "how to suggest or apply to
    board member" and so forth. Bylaws are going to be as short as they can
    be, because changing those is a bit tricky (been there, done that, not
    happy). Guidelines are accepted by the annual meeting and as the name
    says, they are just a guidelines. I'll try to write these basic topics
    before the next gathering, because that's the first place we can accept
    those.

    //Osku


    --
    Oskari "Osku" Kokko
    oskari.kokko@iki.fi
    +35850 3838 513
    _______________________________________________
    dev mailing list
    dev@lists.midgard-project.org
    http://lists.midgard-project.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
    •  Reply
  7. Re: [midgard-dev] Time to create a Midgard association

    Tue January 26 2010 15:50:08 UTC
    Hi,

    On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 6:23 PM, Henri Bergius <henri.bergius@iki.fi> wrote:
    > * There will be an association called Midgard Project ry, based in
    > Helsinki, Finland

    The papers have now been submitted to the Finnish association
    registry. Processing should happen within next two weeks.

    http://www.qaiku.com/go/5k78

    If everything goes well we will have the first association meeting in
    the spring Midgard Gathering.

    /Bergie

    --
    Henri Bergius
    Motorcycle Adventures and Free Software
    http://bergie.iki.fi/

    Skype: henribergius
    Jabber: henri.bergius@gmail.com
    Microblog: http://www.qaiku.com/home/bergie/

    My Royal Enfield Bullet 500 is for sale, see http://www.nettimoto.com/844397
    _______________________________________________
    dev mailing list
    dev@lists.midgard-project.org
    http://lists.midgard-project.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
    •  Reply
Designed by Nemein, hosted by Anykey