Follow up message about OSP community employment position
The responses to the proposal I made last week were tentatively positive, including some local support from SU. The comments everyone provided were very helpful to me and have encouraged me to pursue the idea further. My first set of emails were directed at individuals to "feel out" the situation. My gut tells me that a discussion of a community position is better held "out in the light", rather than through personal emails. What do you think?
From my perspective, this is an interesting position position to be in. Given that this is probably a temporary position, it isn't everyday that we see someone WILLING to give up their secure position within their own organization to work on the shared problems of the community. I have a window of time to offer this idea and bang on doors to see who is interested. After a couple of months (or less if the idea is rejected) the window will close and I'll have to be more serious about exploring my other options.
Many of the people I spoke with encouraged me to connect with IU, UMich and rSmart about this idea first (if I had not done so already). These groups are seen as the "central drivers" (their term) of OSP. My sense is that if these schools supported a community position, others might as well (although no one said that they had a check in hand contingent on that condition!) Investment in a position like this seems to be a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Groups are willing to consider it if we could get others to simultaneously invest. Some advice was provided that suggested that a starting point might be a voluntary contribution to a community fund of $5-10K per organization.
One response said that there should be some more leadership/coordination in OSP. While I think that was a vote of confidence for the my proposal, I would push back a little on the "leadership" idea. I wouldn't want to be seen as the person *setting* the direction of OSP, but I would be interested in *articulating*, *communicating* and *facilitating* the community vision for portfolio software in Sakai. I would be interested in finding ways for the smaller schools (many of which would have a hard time funding this position) to play a role in the community processes. Some have suggested that projects like how-to guides or white papers might be particularly interesting projects for me to perform and might be willing to fund. I would be VERY interested in more ideas like this that might be specific outcomes that the community would like to see performed.