Meeting: 8 Sep 2010

Glen and I are big believers in "minimum viable product", a fancy term for
"doing the least amount necessary to get the job done".  We started Open New
Zealand as a loose group of people who share a roughly common agenda: a mailing
list, a web site, a wiki, and a source code repository.  That was over a year
ago, and it's been wonderful to see the list grow, the ideas spread, and more
government data come out.

Now's as good a time as any to look at how that year has gone, and what we
might do different for the coming year.  Questions like:
- do we need more structure?
- should we incorporate?
- data is only valuable when it's used--how do we get funding for projects that
help citizens?
- how can we offer advice to the government without the busy officials having
to subscribe to the mailing list?

We've got a booking at the Silverstripe board room, Level 5 Symes Da Silva
House, 97-99 Courtenay Place:
 4-6pm, Sep 8
There's no agenda, just an occasion to have a conversation (we'll take notes).

At 6pm, we have a reservation at Great India.  You're welcome to come to the
dinner even if you can't make it to the meeting--the conversation will
continue, more fragmented and without the note-taking.

Whether you can make it or not, feel free to start the conversation here on the
list.  After the meeting, we'll summarize discussion and I'll figure out next
steps.

Please RSVP using the wiki--edit the page at http://wiki.open.org.nz/AGM2010
and add your name.  If you can't figure out the wiki or don't have time, feel
free to mail me and I'll add you.

Cheers;

Nat

Hi all,

I'd like to flag something for discussion, and I'm wondering if the Ninja's
might be the best group to get this started, and take leadership for it in New
Zealand.

Overseas we have seen the growth of open communities such as
CrisisCamps+CrisisCommons and Random Hacks of Kindness for repsonding to
disasters (both in their own country, and in support of others overseas such as
Haiti, Chile and now Pakistan), as well as open source projects such as
Ushahidi and Sahana. A lot of these groups rely on an open approach (except
where personal information is involved of course) to data for disaster response
and recovery.

I'm keen to start a group in NZ that is focused around open data, open source,
and of course, as emergency management is a function of Govt (both national and
local) - the Ninja's seem as good a home for it as any. One of the big issues
is ensuring that solutions used for emergencies can also be used on a
day-to-day basis to ensure people have ongoing familiarity with the system.

My intention is that whilst the Ninja's may be the best home for it, we would
try to also be the official 'franchisee' for the likes of CrisisCamps, Sahana,
Ushahidi, and others that are used for emergency management.

I'm very keen to start this discussion now - before the next disaster, and
would be keen to see a potential crises or emergency subgroup of the Ninjas
formed to work on this.

Cheers Gav



On 2010-08-23, at 06:44 , Nathan Torkington wrote:

> Glen and I are big believers in "minimum viable product", a fancy term for
"doing the least amount necessary to get the job done".  We started Open New
Zealand as a loose group of people who share a roughly common agenda: a mailing
list, a web site, a wiki, and a source code repository.  That was over a year
ago, and it's been wonderful to see the list grow, the ideas spread, and more
government data come out.
>
> Now's as good a time as any to look at how that year has gone, and what we
might do different for the coming year.  Questions like:
> - do we need more structure?
> - should we incorporate?
> - data is only valuable when it's used--how do we get funding for projects
that help citizens?
> - how can we offer advice to the government without the busy officials having
to subscribe to the mailing list?
>
> We've got a booking at the Silverstripe board room, Level 5 Symes Da Silva
House, 97-99 Courtenay Place:
> 4-6pm, Sep 8
> There's no agenda, just an occasion to have a conversation (we'll take
notes).
>
> At 6pm, we have a reservation at Great India.  You're welcome to come to the
dinner even if you can't make it to the meeting--the conversation will
continue, more fragmented and without the note-taking.
>
> Whether you can make it or not, feel free to start the conversation here on
the list.  After the meeting, we'll summarize discussion and I'll figure out
next steps.
>
> Please RSVP using the wiki--edit the page at http://wiki.open.org.nz/AGM2010
and add your name.  If you can't figure out the wiki or don't have time, feel
free to mail me and I'll add you.

>
> Cheers;
>
> Nat
> -----------------------------------------
> Full text of this topic in The Open Government Ninjas:
> http://groups.open.org.nz/r/topic/1KEfsdhaJzsdYLJh9PQfHb
>
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