[p2p-research] Fwd: [okfn-announce] The Open Knowledge Foundation needs your support

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
Date: Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 4:53 PM
Subject: [okfn-announce] The Open Knowledge Foundation needs your support
To: okfn-announce <okfn-announce at lists.okfn.org>


This month the Open Knowledge Foundation is five years old. Over those
last five years we've done much to promote open access to information
-- from sonnets to stats, genes to geodata -- not only in the form of
specific projects like Open Shakespeare and Public Domain Works but
also in the creation of tools such as KnowledgeForge and the
Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network, standards such as the Open
Knowledge Definition, and events such as OKCon, designed to benefit
the wider open knowledge community. (To find out more about what we've
been up to in the last year, read our latest annual report [1]).

While we have achieved a lot, we believe we can do much, much more. We
are therefore reaching out to our community and asking you to help us
take our vision further.

Our aim: at least a 100 supporters committed to making regular,
ongoing donations of £5 (EUR 6, $7.50) or more a month.

These funds will be essential in expanding and sustaining our work by
allowing us to invest in infrastructure and employ modest central
support. To pledge yourself as one of those supporters all you need to
do is take 30 seconds to sign up to our "100 supporters" pledge at:

<http://www.pledgebank.org/support-okfn/>

(You also can act on the pledge right now if you wish, just visit:
<http://www.okfn.org/support/>)

We will always be a not-for-profit organization, built on the work of
passionate volunteers. But with these additional funds, we believe we
can make our efforts go much, much further. Please consider becoming a
supporter and help us take our work forward.

Regards,

Rufus Pollock
Board Member, Open Knowledge Foundation

[1]:http://www.okfn.org/board/reports/2009/


### What will the money be used for?

These funds will be essential in expanding and sustaining our work by:

1. Allowing us to employ modest central support to:
 * Co-ordinate voluntary work
 * Apply for substantial grant funding for specific projects
 * Put on special events

2. Allowing us to upgrade and maintain our technical infrastructure
(servers etc)


### What have you achieved over the last 5 years?

Among other things: we've started projects that have allowed
Shakespeare and Milton to enjoy a rebirth in the digital public
domain, begun the huge task of cataloging public domain sound
recordings, and opened a raft of economic and historical material.

We've also developed tools, standards and events which have benefited
the wider open knowledge community: Knowledgeforge stores the
parliamentary data for theyworkforyou and publicwhip, the Open
Knowledge Definition provides a standard for what "openness" is, Open
Data Commons is developing the data license to be used by Open Street
Map, and our workshops and annual Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon)
bring together individuals and organizations from across the open
knowledge spectrum.

More information can be found in:

 * <http://www.okfn.org/projects/>
 * <http://www.okfn.org/events/>

And in our annual reports available from: <http://www.okfn.org/board/>

_______________________________________________
okfn-announce mailing list
okfn-announce at lists.okfn.org
http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-announce



-- 
Working at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University -
http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html -
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

Volunteering at the P2P Foundation:
http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net -
http://p2pfoundation.ning.com

Monitor updates at http://del.icio.us/mbauwens

The work of the P2P Foundation is supported by SHIFTN,
http://www.shiftn.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20090602/4d6f7156/attachment.html>