IOFFL Proposal: Working Groups

Dangger

In an effort to allow our members to contribute in a structured manner to the work of IrelandOffline we are proposing the setting up of working groups within IrelandOffline. We will be looking for volunteers to join these groups to aid with the day to day compilation of information, report writing, and lobbying. We are proposing three primary working groups, Research, Lobbying and Membership. Although there may be a need for more later on, we believe that this pretty much covers everything, and any further groups can be created as subgroups of these three. The working groups will compile information and carry out tasks according to their remit, including communicating with other groups as required.

Research Working Group

This group would be responsible for, obviously, research. That involves researching and reporting technical, legal and regulatory matters; but it also covers the retrieval, sorting and storage of relevant documentation for reference, including technical documents, statistics and reports, and even news items that are relevant to the organisation. They would also be responsible for distilling the information to suit different purposes for the other working groups, and the webmaster (and so the membership). The output from this group will greatly help with our lobbying efforts, as it will be easier to retrieve or compile reports, and allow for speedy press releases from the PRO.

Lobbying Working Group

There is a definite need for a dedicated group to handle political and representative organisation lobbying. Suggested tasks include research and development of possible lobbying targets; strategy development, preparation of material that will best represent the group and the organisation of meetings and follow-ups in association with the liaison.

Membership Working Group

This group would also be responsible for communicating with the members, through regular mailings, meetings if necessary, and even support to a degree. They would also handle the organisation and marketing of public meetings and seminars. They should always be pressuring for public meetings, and encouraging the members to come up with new ideas, which should be compiled and handed off to the group responsible.

Please note that this is at a proposal stage, we are not inviting people to become members of the groups at this time, we are simply looking for feedback on the basic concept. In the coming days we would like to be in a position to fine tune it and invite members to join a specific working group which they feel they could contribute to.

David Long
Vice Chairman IrelandOffline

MarcusGarvey

Very good proposal this.

irishguy

good idea to organise our resources you can put me down for research when its up and running

Matfinn

Lo Dave and a happy new year to you

You can put me down for any of the three.

Matt

murcielago

Question for Clarification

Is the scheme of working groups given in the opening thread - research, lobbying & membership - final from the committee or is it open to suggestion from members? If still open I may wish to offer an alternative structure. However, if it is final, so be it. Anything is an improvement on the current situation where the incumbent committee members and officers are not in a position to work actively while at the same time others who would have the willingness and capacity do not have an opportunity to work within a structured framework.

Prosperous New Year to all


Murcielago

dahamsta

It's not final Murcielago. The scheme you see here was hammered out between Dangger, SkepticOne and myself in Cork a few weeks ago[1]. A report was posted to the committee mailing list, and feedback was requested. Most feedback was favourable, and although there were a few concerns expressed, no alternatives have yet been suggested[2]. We're looking for a reasonable consensus from the membership on this additional "arm" to the IrelandOffline organisation, but any reasonable suggestions will be considered, although we can't of course guarantee that they'll be accepted.

adam

[1] It should be noted that other changes were mooted too, but this is what we're doing first. The membership will be consulted on all major changes to the organisation.

[2] It should also be noted that the last few weeks have been a wee bit messy for IrelandOffline, as is evidenced by the flame wars on this forum, because of personal and business committments by many committee members.

seamus

Great Idea

I would just suggest using us students for the research aspect. We have tonnes of free time, all day internet access and specialise in subject extremely relevant to the research, ie Computer networking, programming, law, business, etc

c0y0te

Let me preface this by saying that I've been reading these boards for months now, but only posting / commenting rarely. Beyond the flames and bull****, there are some good points being made, however I have always felt that key points sometimes got lost in the 'noise', and that progress seems to be an elusive element within the context of overall objectives of the group (as defined on the website). This is not a criticism of the committee, or the membership.. simply an observation based on the posts and replys.

So - with that in mind I have a suggestion in response to the proposed structure as follows:-

I would recommend that whatever structure you come up with, the key priority is to determine and allocate short-term goals, within the context of the overall 'philosophy' and 'objectives' of the organisation. To date the lofty goals have been bandied around, but as far as I can see (and I will gladly stand corrected if I am in error in making this assumption) no real progress has been made in attempting to get closer to the goals, rather than actually hitting them outright. In other words - it seems to be all or nothing... so far. Anyways...back to the new structure...

I'm suggesting short term goals be used as a stepping stone to the larger objectives. These goals (per sub-unit of the structure) should be driven by a project manager type/style person. I say this because even though all this is voluntary, and even though some of the objectives are long term by their very nature... without short term 'bites' of the elephant, and a decent project-orientated mind (with the will of a rabid dog driving the team to hit said goals)... all that will happen is more talk, lots of plans and bugger all execution.

I will offer my services in whatever capacity is needed to progress things here, and I've got decades of experience which can be brought to bare (including the rabid dog project management *LOL*).. but if I had one single piece of advice it is this:-

Think long term... BUT, aim short term and drive it home no matter what/who gets in your way.

That way progress is made, membership are happy (seeing said progress) and doors will open/close along the way based on CHANGE brought about by either successful or even failed projects to achieve the overall objectives. Either way - things happen, and that's what I believe is needed around here. Email me if you are interested. Thanks

Hope this helps..

c0y0te

Fergus

In relation to this proposed group and those considering how they could contribute, here are a few topic areas that I would like to see covered:

International Comparison:
(a) Cost of internet in other countries
(b) Availability/quality of internet in other countries
(c) Telecom Environment - Levels of competition, Public subsidy, investment, costs, etc

Irish Infrastructure:
(a) Current state of national infrastructure
(b) Investigation of true costs vs claimed costs
(c) History of investment / mis-investment

Damaging Effects/Examples:
(a) Higher costs and uncompetitiveness through lack of internet services
(b) Business closures, lost investment
(c) Inaccessible Markets (video on demand, internet advertising, etc.)
(d) Education

I'm sure we can build a more comprehensive list, as long as the goal at all times is to support the achievement of the IOffL objectives.

NeilF

Good proposal.

I hope it can be implemented fairly quickly because the extra input to the organisation is needed as it will lighten the load of the committee and give us a more balanced range of activities.

Tellox

excellent ideas there,If your looking for any new staff, walk my way

GoneShootin

all 4 it !!

should help decrease the ranter and such n such

Boston

now, what may will this be organized, nice group there btw, i fully support this in every way, i think its the best way to maximise our productivity, and allso allow members more interactivity with the comittee.

I feel these groups would be best severd by project approch. say each group has 3 members, those members would formulate a project in order to get ordinary members to help out.

I.E the research group, would post a sticky tread requesting, all articles on or around the internet in ireland over the last few year. the members would then go about it.

The lobby group would ask for an motion, act law, bill ect surounding internet in ireland, and the successfull ones abroad. the members woudl then go abotu it.

In a very short time, we would have alarge acumiliation of facts and details.

By projects i mean something like what fergus posted, except each one would be a project that members would hel pwith.

each workgroup would be responsible for compling the data proved.

In the past people peopel have complained about the lack of anythign happeing, these groups should insure we are allways contantly working towards our goals, both privately and publicly and should shut afew people up

Manic

(b) Availability/quality of internet in other countries

An independent website has been set up to help users in the UK to calculate whether broadband internet connections are truly available in their area.
Located at www.broadbandmap.co.uk, the site features maps from BT and the cable companies, plus its own diagram of broadband-enabled exchanges, including the initial and extended reach of each exchange.
The map was created after many users claimed that the extent of broadband coverage offered by BT and other cable operators was not reflected by their own experiences.

I do not know if that was of any help. But I quite like the Map idea and wonder if anything like this could be done to show the same information about Exchanges around Ireland. Not just to show the availability or not of broadband. But im sure someone out there could set it up in such a way that people from all over Ireland could see what Exchange they might be connected to and
submit information as to what sorth of connectivity they are getting in their area etc.

[Hyperlink corrected, duplicate deleted. - adam]

disConnected

Well, I think it's a very good idea to get more participation from the members. It will definitely make the group stronger.

Bard

Originally posted by disConnected
Well, I think it's a very good idea to get more participation from the members. It will definitely make the group stronger.

here here! well said !

c0y0te

When are we going to see some progress on this then?

Groups formed?
Objectives set?
Plans made?
Additional resources sought from membership?

etc etc etc

c0y0te

dahamsta

All three WG announcements should be posted tonight. Unless you have a general comment on the WG's, please post in the appropriate WG thread instead of here in future.

Thanks,
adam

PS. That was a general comment, not directed at the previous post.