Meetings/2007-06

= OKFN Monthly Meeting: June 2007 =

Where and When

 * When: Thursday 2007-06-07 at 1800 BST (1700 GMT)
 * Where: #okfn irc channel on oftc.net

Agenda

 * Project Updates and Planning
 * Guide to Open Data Licensing
 * KForge: next release (0.13) planned for end of May
 * Public Domain works
 * icommons end of next week and would be nice to do a push for that
 * http://www.ckan.net/ -- launching this soon in beta mode
 * opentextbook.org
 * relaunch this site with a wordpress install and focus on listing truly open material
 * Sysadmin issues: update on some of the problems/resolutions
 * can we find another server to help with load problems
 * need a backup sysadmin person for situations where rgrp is absent/away
 * AOB
 * OKF T-Shirts
 * OKF stickers

IRC Log
#!irc -->| YOU (rgrp) have joined #okfn zool: hey jo -->| jonathan (~jonathan@81-178-64-210.dsl.pipex.com) has joined #okfn hi jonathan -->| mmmmmRob (~FishyClie@82-46-200-139.cable.ubr04.king.blueyonder.co.uk) has joined #okfn hello great you could make it. for some reason irssi is not working and so I'm back using chatzilla ... -->| mhholloway (~chatzilla@85.189.220.242) has joined #okfn hi all hi michael  evening everyone  Hi mhholloway http://okfn.org/wiki/meetings/2007-06/ ok, we're definitely quorate :) and i know michael has to leave at 1830 for the org volunteers meeting so shall we get down to things are people good with that?  sounds good  Fine by me.  mmmmmRob: You going to sleep? ;-) ok then, first item up: Guide to Open Data Licensing this is currently on the wiki: http://okfn.org/wiki/OpenDataLicensing i've had some good feedback -- for example Peter Suber was very interested in publicising this around -- but i think it needs a bit more tidying before putting it out there it would also be nice to write some subject specific sections. For example something on geodata, something on bibliographic data, etc etc i'm definitely keen on helping that would be great sure Paul_Miller: in your work on the Talis Community license or with the biblio community have you produced any short intro we could add in there. all we would need would be a paragraph setting out the position. rather than writing up whole sections - perhaps people with less time could help by dumping notes/links that other people could help write up? that is a really good idea  I should be able to find something. We're also about to rename (to avoid the vendor association), and move to a more community home... we have some volunteers keen over at ORG keen to get writing - if you can provide raw materials they might be able to turn into useful prose  And pay for some solid legal opinion... especially vis a vis the non-European markets... that's a good idea Paul  Sorry... *we* are about to pay for some solid legal opinion around TCL. mhholloway: well we could definitely provide set topics (for example we need a write-up of Feist) and there are a list of TODOs in page that coudl be a starting point: http://okfn.org/wiki/OpenDataLicensing that is very useful  mmmmmRob: ?  rgrp, sorry to stop the flow, but I just realised I don't know who everyone is... absolutely: let's introduce ourselves I'm Rufus Pollock from the Open Knowledge Foundation I'm Jonathan Gray, also from the OKF I'm Michael Holloway from the Open Rights Group  thanks :-)  zool is Jo Walsh of the Open Knowledge Foundation and OSGeo  (but i think she may be currently offline)  I will try farm out tasks at that link to our budding writers (we had an excellent workshop with ex-New Statesman / Independent editor last week)  that would be great  ok, i think we can move on  Paul_Miller: have you thought where the new home for the renamed TCL will be?  (btw for everyone not sure what this is: TCL is the Talis Community License and is one of the only data specific open licenses out there)   looks like Paul's fingers have dropped off   so I'll tell you...  At the moment, the idea is to create a .org, and invite participation/engagement. *Some* overlap with Open Knowledge-type principles, but also a need to focus down on a specific set of data issues. So need to be careful not to duplicate...  OpenDataCommons.org, probably. Sounds good.  We should certainly talk about how best to make that fit with the wider agendas - possibly offline rather than hijack THIS agenda. I agree ...  Good. Action /me. ok back on topic. because I know michael has to go and he may be able to assist on this I wanted to bring forward the OKF stickers and T-Shirts item yup michael: would you be able to assist/give suggestions on doing this sort of thing happy to will drop you an email to work it out perhaps this is the kind of thing that we should back to okfn-discus. coolin exactly, that would be great. stickers are simple, t-shirts less so but yeah, leave it with me  ok, info like rough prices and suggestsions for whom to use are invaluable ok, onto the next item. -->| tim (~tim@85.189.220.242) has joined #okfn tim: hi tim, would you mind introducing yourself will do! Next item: KForge Hello all, Tim Cowlishaw here... I've volunteered on PD-Burn and assorted FC stuff... for those not familiar, KForge is some opensource software we've developed for managing collections of open source/open knowledge projects In particular it is used to run http://www.knowledgeforge.net/ KForge has now been around for nearly 2 years and stable for about 1.5 has a growing band of users outside of the OKF and KnowledgeForge now hosts ~ 8GB of material including all the data for theyworkforyou/publicwhip The next release of the KForge software is planned for end of June/start of July i'm ducking out now - see ya bye mike have a good ORG volunteers meeting thanks <--| mhholloway has left #okfn Development is ticking along nicely so this is a heads-up on the development schedule more than anything else ** Next item: Public Domain Works http://www.publicdomainworks.net/ This is a database of public domain works we've been working on. Main focus currently is recordings and we now have a fairly substantial set of data from various sources including BBC archives. rgrp - I was wondering, what has happened to the various data sets that have been donated? (Project is being done in collaboration with Free Culture UK and the Open Rights Group) Some of the raw data is online or in subversion. However plan is to put it all into a database with a nice web interface We built a prototype system based on a wiki last year but need to overhaul that. ok We're looking for people to help out with doing that as well as parsing the data we have (which is often in weird formats). <mmmmmRob> rgrp I can off er limited time to help with parsers aha, that is very useful an example of the data can be found in this mail: http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/pdb-discuss/2006-November/000105.html 20 MB of the dataset (which is sequential so you just take part of it with wget) is at: http://p.knowledgeforge.net/pdw/ (file A1.txt) <mmmmmRob> rgrp, ok will take a look cool. I also went to see CHARM at Kings College London who have got a whole AHRC funded project to build discogrpahices and digitize stuff http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/pdb-discuss/2007-June/000205.html They were very helpful and are happy to share data so that is somewhere we can source things from. As an addendum we're looking to talk about our progress at iCommons meeting in Dubrovnik next week so any help will get some immediate publicity I'll be in Dubrovnik and am happy to reprise the OKFN talk if needed.... tim: that would be great. I thought your presentation then was excellent. we're down as the co-presenters for that workshop anyway I believe Cool, Should I update it with the CHARM stuff before then too? I was never clear on whether it was actually scheduled as a workshop, did we get any confirmation, or is it a BOAF sort-f-thing? Yes, the other thing we should do is extract the actual list of out of copyright composers. I've already written the code for that and we might as well post the info up Great stuff. if you can send it over I'll incorporate it into the presentation somehow.... i'm not really sure either -- icommons have not been too clear on that ... I think we missed the deadline by a few hours, so perhaps it wasn't scheduled. I'm sure there'll be opportunity to do something either way though. sure, though I think we did make it ... anyways ...  tim: in the meantime it would be nice to post some of the more recent stuff on the Blog ... On to the next item: http://www.ckan.net/ No problem, I can draft something up over the weekend. great! -->| nfolson (~nfolson@CPE-76-177-177-204.natsoe.res.rr.com) has joined #okfn CKAN has now been up and running without mishap for well over a month which is good I think it is now time to beta launch it ... of course there is plenty of work still to be done on it (when isn't there room for improvement) but I think it is sufficiently stable and functional for the time being Sorry, couldn't make it any earlier than this. Will just observe. Please, please visit http://www.ckan.net/ and add material, reports any problems, suggestions for improvements to okfn-discuss :) nfolson: no problem ...  Also once we do the release announce (probably next week) please do put the word out there: post on your blog, mailing lists etc etc  Finally once again if there is anyone interested in doing a bit of python coding (or knows anyone that does) we could really do with assistance on developing the codebase  OK, onto our final item: opentextbook.org  Kindly, a few months ago Steve Coast (of openstreetmap) donated opentextbook.org to us  It would be nice to put this to good use  :) would it be a repository of links to open textbooks, rath Our plan is to start this off just as a blog/website with pointers to **open** material ... (yes, at least for the time being) nods Most of the current sites out tend to not distinguish much between free as in beer and free as in freedom jonathan: perhaps you'd be happy to do the editing if I installed the site? I've been emailing a chap who's running a sort-of-free-as-in-freedom (their own licence) medical textbook that could perhaps be linked to? exactly! that would be perfect tim: perhaps you would consider being the co-editor ;) I'd be happy to help  great  so: ACTION: rgrp set up opentextbook.org wordpress install I'll give it a go!  great: I think that concludes pretty much everything.  Does anyone have any other business they'd like to add?  what is the sysadmin issue?  (on the agenda)  aha, yes: 2 items  1. it would be nice to try and get some free dedicated server space donated for replication/backup/distribution pruposes Later, Paul  Paul_Miller: no problem and thanks for coming  bye Paul <Paul_Miller> Gnight... M1 here we come... :-( would that be server space for all the okf projects? not necessarily, just for some. ok Sorry all, going to duck out for the ORG meeting now. tim: cool, thanks for coming and look forward to see you in the 'real world' next week bye tim bye all! most useful space is that where we also have root access (i.e. full dedicated server) so we can install what we need etc bye! but just simple space even without root access is useful <mmmmmRob> night all :) night i'm sure i've seen services which donate server space to not-for-profits  goodnight!  sure, the first people we should contact are bytemark  ok, i think we should draw this to a close. we can talk further on list. :) good to talk to everyone yeah, i think i've seen in-kind donations like that, too... any sort of preferred timetable for the server? ie, when would you ideally like to have it? there is no rush since we are currently functional -- what were you thinking of nothing specific off the top of me head... but groups like NTEN/NetSquared sometimes arrange things like that i'll think on it that would be cool okay, i'm off. thanks to everyone for coming, see you next month if not here or on list before final piece of good news for you: i have purchased my first python book! :) wow that is wonderful: you should join http://lists.okfn.org/listinfo/okfn-help i'll take a look. night to all.  that is the general okfn development list: there's lot of stuff we need help with and we'd love to have your assistance  ;) o&o well, i'd rather not step into the china shop just yet. need lots of practice before i try anything remotely "real" ok, later! sure but that's why you have branches in a repository -- so you break whatever you want without harming the runnign system (or anyone else!) o&o for real ...
 * mmmmmRob nods
 * Paul_Miller also keen... not sure how much capacity I have right now, though...
 * mmmmmRob coughs politely
 * mmmmmRob is Rob Styles from Talis
 * Paul_Miller is Paul Miller, also from Talis.
 * mmmmmRob has a lot of experience with 'weird' formats
 * mmmmmRob gives a brief round ofm applause for Steve Coast
 * Paul_Miller has nothing.
 * Paul_Miller is sorry, but has to head off... Speak to y'all later...
 * <-- Paul_Miller has left irc.oftc.net (Quit: I'm off. See you next time.)
 * <-- tim has left irc.oftc.net (Quit: tim)
 * mmmmmRob has to go put kids to bed
 * <-- mmmmmRob has left irc.oftc.net (Quit: mmmmmRob has wandered off, could someonoe call the men in white coats?)