Dgroups Partnership MeetingApril 2009

Coordination Report 2007-2009Peter Ballantyne

Starting Points

• 2007 Meeting Report

• 2006 ‘Roadmap’

Dgroups in 2008

Dgroups in 2009

2006 Roadmap• Guarantee stability and security of the platform. The platform staggered

on until early 2009 when it was decommissioned.• Enhance the current platform. Some improvements to D1 platform;

Most features were incorporated into the D2 feature list.• Decide on technical hosting of the current platform. We stayed with

IDRC until early 2008, moving to IGLOO, then WA Research.• Extend and reinforce the administrator community. Two Latin American

workshops organized in early 2008. Admin communities function.• Decide on management mechanisms. ExCo established in January

2007. A Board takes over in April 2009.• Re-design the governance structure. We work with one category of

‘member’, each of whom votes to elect Board members.• Open up membership. New platform will be able to automate requests

to create groups. Several members contribute ‘in-kind’ to Dgroups.• Decide on legal governance entity. Foundation established early 2009.• Select financial model. Several new members joined. We are

investigating additional grant funds.• Create prototype web 2.0 architecture. These notions guided the

requirements specified for the new platform.

2007 Meeting• Members agreed on a set of ‘governing principles’ for the partnership.

Basis for the subsequent Dgroups Foundation statutes.• Members elected an Executive Committee. The mandate expires

today.• Members agreed that Dgroups should be a membership association,

with one class of member. Operationalised in the Dgroups Foundation.

• The Executive Committee will provide overall directions, a coordinator will support implementation, Bellanet to host and support the platform. Implemented, hosting moved outside IDRC in early 2008; Euforic has provided overall coordination.

• Members agreed to develop a multi-year ‘big bang’ project to take forward all necessary technical and organizational dimensions of the project. Overtaken by urgent need to organize platform hosting and stability.

• Members agreed to contract a technical scoping study of various scenarios. 2007 study recommended building own platform (rather than a Google-like solution).

Users

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

Apr-04

Jun-05

Jan-06

Jun-06

Sep-06

Jan-07

Jun-07

Nov-07

Dec-07

Feb-08

Mar-08

Apr-08

May-08

Aug-08

Jan-09

Mar-09

Major Milestones - 1

• Technical options review (2007)• Platform migration to IGLOO (2008)• RFP for new platform (2008)• Platform migration to WA Research (2008)• IDRC funds for platform transition• Hivos/IICD funds for platform build

Major Milestones - 2

• LatAm Admins Workshops (2008)• Foundation set up (2009)• 10 new members• KIT research on Dgroups• ICCO funds for outreach• ExCo leadership• Coordination by Euforic

Foundationboard

delegatedmanagement

egtechnology& support eg

training &outreach

egadmin &finance

member member member member member

groupadmin

groupadmin

groupadmin

groupadmin

groupadmin

groupadmin

groupadmin

WA research

support

peersupport

Schema

Finances - ExpensesExpenses 2008 2009 IGLOO technical platform hosting and support 76,605 4,968 Platform Hosting WA Research 55,000 Dgroups peer support 15,000 Euforic coordination 21,734 22,000 Euforic D2 build preparations and project management 48,419 21,480 D2 build direct costs 3,433 2,500 D2 build WA Research 12,960 34,240 D2 platform new features 10,000 D2 migration/IGLOO 4,800 2,000 Partnership meeting 2,000 Legal and accounting 10,000 Training and outreach 60,000 Contingency 9,000 Total costs 167,951 248,188

Finances - Income• Total 2008 income: EUR 228,630

– HIVOS (25,000)– ICCO (60,000, for outreach and training)– IDRC (65,000)– IICD (12,500)– Member fees (66,130)

• Total 2009 income: EUR 254,050– Member fees (95,900)– IDRC (44,971)– IICD (12,500)– Carryover from 2008 (60,679)– Target (40,000)

Priorities• Partnership governance• Partnership financing

• Platform usability and features• Platform hosting• Platform support• Terms of use

• Outreach and training