US Discussion: does ofn need a killer app?

This all sounds great - Iā€™m very excited about this whole conversation!
What @MikeiLL proposes sounds very wise to me, especially when judging from the UK experience, where theyā€™re basically ready to launch in terms of the technology (well, almost), but while they do have some skilled and invested tech people, theyā€™re missing the whole tech team that you outline, Mike. So theyā€™re on hold until both the funds and the people can be secured to launch [@lin_d_hop correct me if Iā€™m wrong].
If the US starts with a solid tech team, that would certainly be a very strong start and bring more resilience to the whole global structure. You could even think about a US/Canada tech team and pool resources with @tschumilas, whoā€™s setting up things in Canada and has some funding, too.
A HO does sound like a good idea. Let me know if you want me involved.
Go team US!! :smile:

@MikeiLL and everyone - Iā€™m slammed with other things this week, but a hangout any day after next Monday (10/26) should work for me. Best times are between Noon and 3pm (est). Iā€™m having some trouble with my laptop overheating and shutting down on my when I try and video chat, but I should be able to attend with just audio until I can get it fixed. If I happen to drop out suddenly, youā€™ll know why. :stuck_out_tongue:

In the mean time, Iā€™ll search through my contacts for connections who are experienced with Rails and may be interested in contributing, see if I can get some ideas for generating interest in the project. Assistance in finding the funding has been promised, but we will need to put together a detailed projected budget and timeline for development and launch so can write the proposal for submission. We need to compile a list of the minimum team positions needed to start - developers, Systems Admin, email support, etc., along with median wage information, cost of hosting, etc. Also, figures from the other instances which have launched or are trying to. @Selmo, Perhaps you could assist us with gathering some of that information as well as the needs/requirements OFN-AU would have for global development support from the project? :smiley:

Let me know what days/times might work best for you all next week, and weā€™ll schedule a chat.

Hi to @Angie-US and other US folks - my name is @tschumilas Theresa Schumilas (email me directly at: tschumilas@rogers.com). I have funding from the Laurier University - Centre for Sustainble Food Systems to set up a basic Canadian Instance of OFN. We are purchasing services from the Aus team to do this because I have no tech partners at the moment. Iā€™m thinking that I need something to ā€˜show and tellā€™ so I can build interest in other Canadian locations and build a tech community around me. I am in the process of talking with funders, and trying to put together a 3-5 year funding plan to get OFN-Canada into a self-sustaining position. Iā€™d be really happy to participate in a skype call or HO with you folks from the US if you want to swap plans. I also think we should look toward a joint Can-Am OFN early days hackathon say in Feb-March or something like that to help create buzz and draw interest (from foodies and techies) in the project. I donā€™t have a website to refer you to yet - but you can go to my own farm site - www.gardenparty.ca to see some of the blog posts on ā€˜farm 2.0ā€™ that Iā€™ve done, that kind of describes how this is evolving here.

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@tschumilas, @eric @Angie-US Iā€™m not seeing Ashley/Fresh Start Farms on here. Will send an email.

Theresa, I missed you in our discussion today. Not sure if maybe wires got crossed in scheduling.

Eric, Angela and I, with some input from @Selmo discussed today that our next step should probably be forming an organization with the purpose of creating one or more OFN instances in America and that it probably makes sense for the organization, at least for now, to include Canada.

We want to talk about

  1. Name
  2. Mission Statement
  3. Board of Directors/Roles
  4. By-laws

Please respond so we can all be in on determining on how best to proceed. We scheduled another web conference for Monday, Nov 9th at 1pm EST, but this could be shifted depending on availability.

Sorry - I didnā€™t see a conclusion on the meeting time - so missed it.
I can certainly join a discussion on Nov 9 at 1:00 EST. Is this a hangout? can someone send me a link in an email: tschumilas@rogers.com. I seem to be terrible at hangouts - but I will do my best.

I am happy to be part of the discussions re: forming an organization - but fyi, Iā€™m in the process of registering a Canadian charity for this purpose. But I agree its a good idea to stay in touch. These would, I believe, be ā€˜sisterā€™ organizations, each structured in their respective legal environments. But to the extent that charitable registration requirements are the same, we would be able to share materials. I doubt that Iā€™d be in a position to register a charitable organization here for a while - there are very tight restrictions on charities here.

Please send me details for the meeting.

Hi Theresa. It will be a Google Hangout and @MikeiLL will be sending out the invite link to everyone. I hope you can join us, and look forward to discussing ways we can collaborate on mutual goals. :smile:

Hello everyone!

@MikeiLL, @eric, and @Selmo - It was great to talk to you all last week! Thanks so much for bearing with me on my technical difficulties. I hope to have my video troubles taken care of by Christmas. :blush:

I wanted to post a few thoughts/notes from our meeting to continue the discussion as we decide how best to organize moving forward. :wink:

Organization and Tax Exempt Status: I think weā€™ve pretty much agreed that we would like to form a 501Ā©(3) non-profit organization. We will need to discuss whether this should be in the form of a public charity, a private foundation, or the hybrid private operating foundation which combines some of the tax benefits of a public charity with the financial control of a private foundation.

My research:
ā€œPublic Charity vs. Private Foundationā€ - https://www.501c3.org/public-charity-vs-private-foundation/
ā€œWhat it Takes to be a Private Operating Foundationā€ - http://mauilandlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/What-it-Takes-to-be-a-Private-Operating-Foundation.pdf

Name: Iā€™ve suggested Open Food Network US, which would be consistent with and supportive of global branding efforts and used in conjunction with the domain name openfoodnetwork.us. But Iā€™m open to other ideas. :wink:

Iā€™m working on assembling drafts for by-laws, purpose, etc. and should have them set up in a shared Drive this week. As we develop our Mission Statement, I am reflecting on OFNā€™s Partner Values discussion. :heart:

Thank you all for the time and effort youā€™re dedicating to this. Iā€™m so excited to be a part of it! Hope youā€™re all having a great week! :smiley:

We probably need to determine, as well, what state we will incorporate in, so that our articles meet the required criteria for 501C3. I think, and hope, that you and @eric have more knowledge about this than I do.

I agree that Open Food Network US is the most obvious name for our group. You with us in that @eric?

@MikeiLL - My suggestion would be to file in one of the states we live in so the person living in the state we choose can also serve as the organizationā€™s Registered Agent. I will put together some info on filing requirements and costs for Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida next week.

@eric and @tschumilas, Iā€™ve had something come up on Monday that Iā€™m not able to reschedule and wonā€™t be able to make a 1pm hangout. Would there be a time Monday evening or Tuesday afternoon that would work for everyone? If not, please feel free to go ahead without me and one of you can fill me in after. :wink:

Hope youā€™re all having a wonderful weekend!

Iā€™m good Monday evening anytime. Tuesday evening after 4:00 also works. Wednesday anytime works.

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@Angie-US, @eric, @tschumilas - Wednesday is wide open for me. I could also do Tuesday evening at 5pm EST for one hour.

Tuesday evening or Wednesday anytime works for me too. I havenā€™t heard anything from @eric.

Hi OFN Humans!!

This is my first post. Not sure if this conversation is still alive somewhere else, but Iā€™m interested. Usually I live in Montana, Iā€™m traveling at the moment. OFN is super cool!!! So many great ideas, and dedicated people doing good work, I am feeling really excited. I want to help.

Iā€™m a somewhat experienced Sys Admin, been running my own servers for 12+ years. And light programming in php, ruby, and javascript too. I am definitely not an experienced developer, but I understand linux environments decently well, and Iā€™m competent with GIT and rails and webservers, and I have been wanting to continue my development skills.

(I donā€™t have a fulltime job at the moment either, so besides travelling, and maybe a yoga cert, and some farming I am pretty free for the foreseeable future)

@Angie-US are you still working on a US project? Iā€™d love to help, I will be in range of internet access again in about a week, but figured Iā€™d go ahead and chime in now. I came across OFN from Luke Smith, who learned about it from @Selmo I gather.

Also, for what itā€™s worth, some context about where i come from. Iā€™m a total food centered human. Iā€™m absolutely convinced that food relationships and systems are an incredible leverage point for changing the world. I think everything is connected to food. I love fresh non processed milk, i like to eat raw meat, i sometimes drink unfiltered water from lakes, rivers, and streams

Some authors that have had big impacts on my life and worldview, Vladimir Megre, Ivan Illich, Martin Prechtel, Aajonus Vonderplanitz, David Abram.

Looking forward to getting to know some of you good humans in the near future.

best wishes,
Jared

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Hey @Jared-US, welcome to the community :smiley:

There are many many issues in the repository looking for some love from willing and able developers, and it would be wonderful to have you contributing to the codebase if you have some time. Weā€™re all located in various parts of the world, Iā€™m part of the Australian team who act as the custodians of the release process and code base, but we have a great bunch of people also contributing in other parts of the world.

You can check out the OFN codebase on GitHub here: https://github.com/openfoodfoundation/openfoodnetwork

Iā€™m sure @Angie-US and @eric and @MikeiLL will be in touch in terms of setting things up in the US, but if youā€™d like to become part of the team working on the core codebase then you would be more than welcome! We all chat on slack, so say the word and I can add you on there so you can get some help setting up a local version and getting an understanding of how it all works.

Happy travels,
Danni

Hello @Jared-US. Sounds like a great fit for our small US Team. Just messaged you my email. Looking forward to connecting.

Whenā€™s the next call for the US team? Iā€™m willing to help with server deployment & documentation. i also have contacts with farmer organizations.

I think some market analysis of the US would be apt. Thereā€™s no lack of tech companies trying to squeeze blood from stones by making local food marketplaces. If thereā€™s a nonprofit version that is easy to use lots of smaller farms would go for it.

I donā€™t know know what the server fees would run but if you were transparent with were the money goes I think you could sustain it with a patreon or something similar.

I think working with ATTRA would make sense. They are one of the national hubs for open access progressive farming information.

I think doing a OFN webinar with eorganic would be another good way to get exposure to producers.

Itā€™s probably an easier first step to get financial sponsorship from an existing NGO than to incorporate right off the bat.

Food banks & farmerā€™s markets associations would be a natural partners.

I second Ericā€™s notion about meat pre-sales being a good starting place to use OFN. Iā€™m not sure with a native app would be more useful than the web interface tough. What specific features are lacking in the software now that you would want in an app? What payment services are there now?

Itā€™s not letting me post more than two links at a link so hereā€™s a a pastebin with examples of existing commercial american projects in this realm.

localharvest/csaware, goodeggs, oklahoma food cooperative, localdirt, food-hub, farmigoā€¦

https://www.piratepad.ca/p/Farm_Direct_Marketing_SAAS_companies

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Great feedback. Iā€™m not sure when our next meeting is at the moment, but we are in the process of installing an instance within which to hopefully migrate the data from an existing group into a Pilot US Hub.

Just messaged you my email address.

Mike

Hi @mundotazo and @Jared-US. Iā€™m really excited to have you on board! We have had fits and starts of getting close to roll out and then other projects taking a front seat. We have an awesome umbrella org for the moment, Healthy Acadia, looking to implement the features of Farm Drop for a pretty big pilot with lots of users in Maine.

Hannah Semler is our contact there and Colin is the main Farm Drop tech guru. Iā€™m trying to get them to login here to participate in this discussion. Likewise, maybe I can loop @mundotazo and @Jared-US into our email chain to schedule the next call?

I think weā€™re looking at possible times at 10AM ET on April 26,27,27, May 2 or 3.