[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: [kFW] Kendra Foundation: Forming and Funding Company...
Perhaps we can keep a checklist/outline with all of the items that need
to be completed in one place. This place obviously should not be in
email format, but I guess that it will do until there is a better place.
Below are some initial questions that we should work on. One question
is omitted below - who answers these (and other) questions, and how is
the process of a resolution reached?
1. Organisational Structure
a. What type of business/organisational structure should be
created?
b. Are there existing structures that we can use to model our
own? (e.g. Apache Foundation, Linux, MySQL, Java (Sun),
StarOffice/OpenOffice (Sun), Netscape/Mozilla (AOL))
c. What are the legal implications of each structure?
d. Does a particular type of organizational structure prohibit
Kendra from being used in any specific cases?
e. What type of license do we develop Kendra under (e.g. GPL,
LPGL, Commercial Open Source, etc.)
f. What is the strategy for financing the organization?
- Grants and public funds (government)
- Corporate grants
- Pricing for product (small users are free, large
users pay)
- Venture capital firms
- Banks
- Partners
g. Is there a way to make Kendra self-sustaining (e.g. able to
exist without constantly looking for £££/$$$?)
h. Does a beginning business plan exist, and if not, who will
write (or make sure it gets written)?
i. What physical area should the organization be based? (e.g.
UK, US, other?)
2. Market
a. Who are the major users of Kendra?
b. How big of a marketplace are we talking about? (In terms of
users and $$$/£££)
c. What markets and organizations will be identified as the
early adopters? How do we create relationships with these folks?
d. What functionality do these early adopters need in order to
use the technology?
e. Are there existing products/movements that are similar?
f. What market research can we draw from?
3. Technology
a. What technology has already been developed?
b. What does the development process look like? Does anything
need to be changed so that it can be the most efficient?
c. Is there an architecture already built? Who is going to
build it?
d. What is the 'blue sky' for future development?
e. What is the initial prioritized set of functionality?
f. What sets of tools/standards/processes are we going to
adhere to? (e.g. Rose or Erwin Diagrams, XML Metadata Standards,
ISO9001 or FDA processes)
g. What existing products can we leverage (e.g. Linux, Apache,
JBoss, Lucene, Divx, Darwin)
4. Partnerships
a. Hardware (e.g. EMC, Sun, IBM, Dell, Cisco)
b. Software (e.g. Linux, Apache, MySQL, Darwin?, Digital Envoy,
Paypal, Divx, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, MPEG-4, etc.)
c. Infrastructure/ISP's (e.g. Exodus, Globix, UUNet, etc.)
5. Marketing
a. How are we going to attract users to Kendra?
b. How are we going to attract partners to Kendra?
c. How are we going to attract developers/testers/volunteers to
Kendra?
d. How do we handle PR?
Scott Switzer
-----Original Message-----
From: kNews [mailto:k-news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 12 July 2002 13:21
To: scott@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [kNews] Kendra Foundation: Forming and Funding Company...
Dear Scott Switzer,
Time to get this show on the road...
- What's going on now: Kendra Foundation
- Advice (legal, funding and any) needed: forming non-profit company
- Kendra project structure
What's going on now: Kendra Foundation
--------------------------------------
I'm going to set up a company, a foundation/structure on which to build
Kendra Initiative: Kendra Foundation. It'll be non-profit. I'll hire a
small team (preferably <5) to keep things moving on and provide
infrastructure to facilitate interested parties to come together as
Kendra Initiative to build the Kendra system.
This has been discussed on kFW for the last few weeks but please
continue to add comments/suggestions (good? bad?). For archives see:
http://www.kendra.org.uk/lists/archive/k-framework/msg00059.html
Advice (legal, funding and any) needed: forming non-profit company
------------------------------------------------------------------
I need legal advice and also need to have a firm of lawyers to register
the company with. If you have any experience in non-profit companies
and/or you know about gaining funding for projects like this please
either reply to this email or, better still, join in the discussion on
kFW list. I have a hit list of people/orgs to talk to but more are
always welcome.
Kendra project structure
------------------------
For an understanding of where Kendra Foundation fits in here's a brief
description of the Kendra project:
Kendra Aim - to see facilities for consumers to be able to get access to
all digital content, when they want it and be able to pay for it easily
and conveniently. To see facilities for content owners to be able to
make their digital content available to consumers and be able to charge
for it (if they require) easily and conveniently.
Kendra System - a system that satisfies the Kendra Aim.
Kendra Initiative - a group of people (that's us!) using their
Initiative to bring Kendra to reality by going through a collaborative
design process and participating in Kendra trials.
Kendra Foundation - to provide organisational, legal, and financial
support for Kendra Initiative. Kendra Foundation would ensure that
Kendra Initiative trials continue to exist beyond the participation of
interested organisations and individual volunteers, to enable
contributions of intellectual property and funds on a sound basis, and
to provide a vehicle for limiting legal exposure while participating in
the trials and contributing to software projects. Kendra Foundation
would provide hosting for the Kendra Initiative website and develop
web/email tools to facilitate the collaborative design process, between
Kendra Initiative participants, necessary to create the Kendra system.
Coordinating marketing efforts, meetings and conferences. I'm sure
there's more...
What? Even more fun?... Yes! ;-)
Cheers Daniel