Re: [kFW] Needed: Collaborative systems for driving consensus...

[Daniel Harris <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Gordon and All,

At 10:01 01/11/01 +0000, Gordon Ross wrote:
>Not sure the suggestion of a traditional organisation structure aligns with
>the Kendra way of doing things.

Why is that then?

>Two suggestions
>1    A monthly informal social at a pub in London and New York (First
>Tuesday of the month?) Anyone can go just to keep up to day and keep the
>more formal bits going

Cool. What are the formalities of which you speak? Personally, I'm more 
interested in structure but if you want to meet in pubs for socials then 
great. I am really mindful of not excluding anyone from meetings due to 
geography constraints. Travel costs a lot of money too. Kendra Initiative 
is global. How can we work this? Any ideas?

>2    Special Interest Groups (SIGs) each of which nominates a person and
>these people form a coordinating group (maybe meeting quarterly (again both
>London and New York) to clarify issues which can be bought back to full
>meetings. The Special Interest Groups report on their own individual trials
>and developments at the larger meetings, and the full group addresses wider
>issues and interfaces between the SIGs

Cool. What's wrong with using email discussion group for the SIGs (sounds 
like cigarettes)? Sounds like a lot of travelling to me. It's expensive and 
so prohibitive for some people. Can we talk about the functions that all 
these people need perform and then talk about the best way of implementing 
the functions?

>Special Interest Groups could reflect teh current Kendra Membership (details
>in the minutes) i.e.
>
>        Music focus
>        Films
>        Writers
>        maybe as specialisms within a Content Creation Group
>
>        Content Distribution e.g. ISP's and others
>
>        Infrastructure (Hardware and Software and Networks)
>
>        User Interface (we can show some things that deliver convergence
>user interfaces across PC, TV, 3G and content)
>
>        Billing systems and payments
>
>        General group of people with many interests, consultants and
>individuals not interested in any of the above specific SIGS
>
>        and maybe a group looking at Sponsorship, Events, Promotion,
>Membership, and Marketing.

Excellent list! Wicked. Maybe add a Metadata group/trial too?

Kind of how the mailing lists are forming, yes? We could simply add some 
new mailing lists to the 4 we have covering your suggested specifications, 
yes? It's a start. What else would we need to do?

>Each focal person servers for a fixed period (8 to 12 months) and rotates

Why the reason for the rotation?

>Then a Chairperson and Secretary or Secretariat

What do these people do?

>Nice and Simple and dynamic. Maybe worth considering.

Everything is worth considering. Now we must add form to the ideas and help 
them grow.

>Convergence cannot happen by default or accident. Just too many things to
>consider. We need convergence by design and this might give it.

Absolutely mate!

Cheers Daniel