Noob questions. 1. What does the new skunkworks server offer thats different from the current infrastructure? 2. How does the cost of running it compare with the current costs? 3. Who will bear the costs? And ultimately, who bears the responsibility of ensuring the brand new skunk server keeps running? 4. How about operation and admin? What gets hosted? What platform? Why? 5. What objectives would be met by the new setup cant be met by the current one? 6. How sustainable is it in terms of: a ) cost of running. (say something worth half its purchase price thats not covered blows up ) b ) freedom from interference, the piper and the tune analogy. C ) model. Can its model sustain it beyond now? I ask all these because they will definately come up. Unless the following is guaranteed upfront. A ) a company, (in this case kdn or safaricom ) volunteers at no strings attached data center rack space for life for the skunk server. B ) another company offers to pay an agreed amount to a techie to manage the server as a systems admin, with no strings attached. C ) then slunks volunteer, either through a standard registration fee or other fund raising method to take care of incidental costs as may arise. Otherwise i think the skunk server project is best treated as a limited, for profit company running the list (depending on the business model so chosen ) as a business. The business neednt be about charging for content, or subscription, or even advertising. There is plenty of ways to make money off an active list like this. On 2/16/10, Murigi Muraya <mmskunkworks@gmail.com> wrote:
Neutraility does not exist in humans. Instead, Skunkworks should have a constitution to keep it as open as possible to all kinds of views irrespective of who donates to it. That is what the Bill of Rights is all about. In fact the reason why Africans were colonized is because we just talked (had an oral culture) & documented no principles & procedures (= systems) to be productive.
Have been made to understand that Skunkworks once met with a CEO of a Multinational Telecom who asked about its purpose for existence. There was no good answer from what I heard. And like CEO, the Techie (Entreprenuer) who told me this concluded later this is list is not designed to achieve any goals. If Skunkworks is doing so well as it is now, why do we not have 300K in donations now? It just shows this list is not taken seriously as it is.
Who says Skunkworks cannot be run as a Virtual Org? Why are we afraid to learn to learn new concepts such as Team Building? Without its own funds, Skunkworks becomes even more dependent on external influences.
On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 12:58 PM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
A purely personal opinion, observing how Kenyan's organisations grow. At the moment, funding for Skunkworks is on a *needs* basis.... i.e. we need a server, money is raised for the server, server bought etc... No money actually goes through Skunkworks... The problem is, if we start receiving money, firstly, we would no longer be independent... secondly, Skunkworks would become political... If we have money, someone will have to be paid to administer it, etc etc. The motivation for running Skunkworks will easily change and become fiscal... _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AopdHkqSqKL-dHlQVTMxU1VBdU1BSWJxdy1f... ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke Other lists ------------- Announce: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce Science: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science kazi: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general
-- If you can't remedy the situation create a better one.
-- Posted on 100% recycled electrons