[Koha] Koha foundation resources and capacity

[Thomas Dukleth]

The capacity of any Koha foundation to fulfil purposes which some people
have expressed a desire for it to fulfil will be limited to the resources
which people donate to it.  Donated resources may be legal registrations,
such as trademarks and domains; material assets, such as computer servers;
monetary resources; or people's time.  Donation of some monetary resources
would be needed for the community to maintain some assets in the most
minimal manner even if all other resources might be donated.

Remainder of reply inline:


Original Subject:  Re: [Koha] Foundation forming #koha IRC meeting 29 October
On Thu, October 29, 2009 10:28, MJ Ray wrote:
> Thomas Dukleth asked:
>> On Wed, October 28, 2009 20:37, Ben Ide wrote:
>> > Dang.  I'll be busy again.
>> >
>> > Be sure to decide how much the community is willing to spend on
>> purchasing
>> > the assets it wants to acquire.
>>
>> Ben, why should the community necessarily need to purchase assets or
>> what
>> assets would the community necessarily need to purchase?
>
> I'm not sure that all asset holders have agreed to donate all assets,
> so it seems a worthwhile question.
>
> More generally, isn't it fair to at least reimburse any out-of-pocket
> expenses for registrations of things like domain names?

It would certainly be fair to reimburse those who need reimbursement for
reasonable expenses incurred to secure registrations such as domain names.
 Not everyone would necessarily be expected to have the capacity to donate
assets which a Koha foundation would need to function properly without
reimbursement of reasonable expenses.

The community would first need to know what reimbursements are being
requested and to have resources with which to pay for reimbursements which
might be needed.  The community cannot effectively decide how much is
reasonable to pay in an a priori manner.

Those without the capacity to donate resources would need to inform the
community what reimbursement is needed.  The Koha foundation would need to
receive some monetary assets.  The community would then need to decide
whether particular reimbursements are reasonable in themselves and an
appropriate use of community resources.

The wording of Ben Idle's question seemed to me as if it might imply that
some may seek more than reasonable expenses as a condition of releasing
some assets which the community may need.  I questioned whether purchases
as distinct from reimbursements would necessary.  (I recognise that the
distinction would not be a linguistic distinction in all uses of the word
purchase but the overall effect of how Ben put the issue implied a
distinction to me.)  I hope that no party places the community in a
position to have decide about whether to pay more than reasonable expenses
for any needed assets.

I hope that in most cases that parties will have the capacity to merely
donate assets as fundamental as legal registrations.  I expect that
generally those who had the capacity to acquire legal registrations in the
first place would have the capacity to donate them but I recognise that
might not always be true.


Thomas Dukleth
Agogme
109 E 9th Street, 3D
New York, NY  10003
USA
http://www.agogme.com
+1 212-674-3783


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