There's nothing like replying to your own emails... ;-) I had a
meeting with Rupert Baines last week and discussed this letter.
Here's the latest draft. Comments please...
Dear Charles Sandbank,
As you know Kendra Initiative has been running for a number of years
now (since mid 2000). We are increasing our numbers on a continual
basis. We currently have over 1400 people on our mailing list. Our
network trial is modeling a global cross-vendor content delivery
network with 27 servers worldwide. We are set to expand this trial
to include live content too.
It is time to take the Kendra project to the next stage, giving us
consistent website development, hosting and collaboration tools. I
am going to create Kendra Foundation, a non-profit company,
employing a small team to keep things moving on and provide
infrastructure to facilitate interested parties to come together to
build the system.
I would like to call on your assistance in finding out what type of
organisation we would need to be in order to satisfy requirements
for DTI funding. So, to be blunt, we would like the DTI to provide:
1. Funding for Kendra Foundation.
2. Advice on company structures.
3. Help with networking, promotion and liaisons with other digital
content related groups.
Please could we set up a meeting with the relevant people in the DTI
to facilitate this process.
For a brief 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.
This system will be have an open architecture enabling any consumer
to transact with any content owner in an easy and convenient manner
and enabling any service provider to participate providing services
for consumers and content owners.
Kendra System - a system that satisfies the Kendra Aim.
Kendra Initiative - a group of people/organisations using their
Initiative to bring Kendra to reality by going through a
collaborative design process and participating in Kendra trials.
Trials will include content delivery networks and peer-to-peer
systems, commerce, digital rights management, metadata and interface
design.
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.
For more details see: www.kendra.org.uk
This letter has been discussed and reviewed on the Kendra Framework
mailing list.
I look forward to your response.
Regards,
Daniel Harris