Working Groups/Guide

= Introduction =

Working Groups (WGs) are at the core of Open Knowledge Foundation's mission.

For the most part, Working Groups aim to:


 * Act as a central point of reference and support for people interested in open knowledge in a specific domain or area (e.g. science, international development, government data...).
 * Identify relevant projects and practices, curate collections of existing open material, and develop domain-specific guides.
 * Act as a hub for the development and maintenance of low cost, community driven projects around open knowledge in a specific domain or area.

Working Groups are composed of individual Open Knowledge Foundation Members. Each Working Group has autonomy regarding its projects and activities: responsibility is devolved. For every WG there is a Coordinator who performs basic housekeeping tasks.

Each WG can recruit as many participants as it sees fit, and is responsible for finding and inviting further participants as it progresses.

Working Group Members are encouraged to participate in regular meetings, in which existing work will be reviewed and in which new projects can be suggested. Projects may be proposed to the Project Committee to gain further central support from the Open Knowledge Foundation, or may be directly maintained and developed by the Working Group.

= How do I start a working group? =


 * Propose your working group on a similar Mailing List / via your own channels.
 * When it is clear that there is sufficient interest...
 * Email info [at] okfn.org and ask one of the team to set up a mailing list
 * Add interested parties - ping people in the original discussion to let them know you have done it.
 * Remember to add the new list to the wiki Mailing Lists directory.
 * Make sure someone from the Core Team adds the group to the Foundation Registry and to the official Working Groups List
 * Encourage WG members to define the aims/scope of the group, some objectives, and some mini projects (e.g. starting an X data group on TheDataHub.org - perhaps with assistance from Mark W). Use the Wiki working group template and create a page on the wiki e.g. wiki.okfn.org/Working_Groups/[Name]
 * Consider tweeting/writing a blog post to publicise the group's existence.
 * Nominate a WG Coordinator. Add them to the 'Projects Pack' Skype group.
 * Set up a Wordpress blog / website for the group - e.g. transport.okfn.org - based on one of Kat's beautiful templates.
 * Set up a regular Skype call.

= Working Group Membership =

Membership requirements
While there are no formal commitments associated with Working Group membership, there is an informal expectation that members will be relatively active in pursuing the group's aims.

Applying to join a Working Group
If you would like to join a Working Group, please contact the working group coordinator via the Mailing Lists mentioning what you do, what you are interested in and how you would like to get involved.

= Working Group Meetings =

Working Groups will have regular virtual and/or phone meetings. The number of meetings per year will be determined by group members - varying from 2 to 12 per year.

Format and Organization
Working groups can organize their meetings in any way they wish but if a tried and tested set up is described in HowTos/Virtual Meetings.

= Working Group Activities =

Working Group activities may include:

Getting started

 * Draft Standards: opendefinition.org + principles


 * Draft FAQ ..
 * why does this matter? What could you do differently if data were open?
 * What does open mean
 * What can I do in 5m?
 * Can I participate ...


 * Establish the state of play:
 * Simple google form and ask people to fill it in ...

Longer term

 * Locate and curate data
 * Curate open datasets on http://thedatahub.org/
 * Answer questions on http://getthedata.org
 * Providing news/updates on relevant developments in field
 * Suggesting guest bloggers for OKF blog
 * Suggesting project updates for OKF blog
 * Keeping abreast of relevant feeds
 * Curating a list of feeds from relevant individuals/organisations
 * Organising events
 * Identifying speakers and projects for OKF events
 * Suggesting talks/workshops
 * Panel at OKCon
 * Undertaking and coordinating work on WG projects
 * Suggesting projects/initiatives (incubator)
 * Tracking and assigning tickets on OKF Tasks
 * Coordinating volunteers (creating lists of tasks how people can get involved: e.g. What can I do in 5m?)
 * Informing OKF's core work and longer term strategy
 * Developing longer term vision and goals for WG's area of interest
 * Identifying volunteer opportunities and develop calls
 * Maintaining WG pages - with info on meetings, members, aims, etc.
 * Identifying new prospective members
 * Identifying relevant individuals, groups, projects, mailing lists to contact

= Things each Working Group should definitely have:=

A coordinator
Who is the main point of contact for the group, who oversees activities, adds new members, and ultimately keeps things moving. The coordinator will be the main (but by no means only!) liaison between the WG and the core OKF team. The Coordinator is responsible for:
 * Scheduling & running regular meetings (virtual or in-person) to keep momentum in the group running. See: http://wiki.okfn.org/Working_Groups/Guide#Working_Group_Meetings
 * Running the mailing list
 * Publishing updates from meetings on the Working Group Blog
 * Following up action items

A mailing list
The main discussion channel for WG members.

A basic website/blog
At [WG name].okfn.org. E.g. science.okfn.org, or linguistics.okfn.org. This should include:

Suggested website structure


 * Front page:
 * 'updates/blog'
 * A short description of the WG’s aims and purpose


 * Sidebar:
 * with upcoming meetings?
 * Twitter/identica feed with group hashtag


 * Elsewhere:
 * A list of all WG members
 * Minutes from meetings
 * A list of all WG projects
 * A mailing list sign up box
 * Information on how to get involved
 * Contact page - email of group (e.g. {group-name}@okfn.org) plus mailing list link
 * Link to wiki page (if has wiki)
 * An OKF Group – at okfn.org/groups/[WG name]. WG members can join this and display a biography, picture, links to relevant URLs, links to other WGs they are a member of, etc. This allow allows WG members to contact each other directly.

An icon
All working groups should have a consistent icon/logo to identify themselves. This could be simple text, but should be uploaded as an image on Flickr.

= Things each Working Group may want to have: =
 * Pages on the OKF wiki – for documents which are semi-fixed but which may be updated on an ongoing basis. For example see: http://wiki.okfn.org/wg/archaeology/thesauri. Fixed pages should be added to the blog/website.
 * An Etherpad instance – at [WG name].okfnpad.org. For temporary meeting notes, ideas, plans and so on. These should ultimately be transferred to the blog or website.
 * A Twitter hashtag / Twitter account.
 * Video material – e.g. #opendata film, or Public Domain Calculators film.
 * Printed promotional material – like leaflets, flyers, stickers, etc.
 * Online promotional material – like buttons, banners, and so on.
 * Standards and documentary material – this may be Guidance, tutorials, principles, FAQs and so on for publishing material openly. E.g. the Panton Principles for open data in science.
 * A tag on ideas.okfn.org – to keep track of ideas for projects and activities from WG members.
 * A regular online meeting – e.g. via Skype or conference call. These should be added to the OKFN Calendar.
 * Events and meetups – such as workshops, hackdays or project sprints. These should be organised through meetup.com.
 * A calendar of events either hosted by or of interest to working group members.
 * A designated blogger – to solicit for guest posts, to write for the WG blog – and to cross-post relevant items/updates on blog.okfn.org
 * An Advisory Board – as the group develops, to advise on key decisions.

Wiki revitalisation plan