Re: Charitable collaboration discussion
Subject: Re: Charitable collaboration discussion
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 5/25/10, 11:52
To: Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com>
CC: Scott Mintz <scott.w.mintz@gmail.com>

In fact, the more I think about it (I had another long conversation on the topic with an ex-girlfriend who works for TED last night), the more it seems to me that that is correct, that we might be in a better position to pursue these sorts of efforts and that the advantages of doing so - not having to form an actual charity, for instance, and being able to obtain results with very little money, if any - are such that it might make sense for us to shift gears and approach that method exclusively, at least for now. We could always establish a more formal charity later when we are better equipped to pursue other efforts of the sort that would actually be facilitated by our setting up of such a more formal entity. I think that Clark is right and that we should focus on this particular effort for now - in part, because it would indeed provide us focus, and with the people we have onboard already, we could certainly do a fine job of determining the absolute best manner by which to approach this. Scott, what do you think?

On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 7:58 AM, Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> wrote:
Another thing discussed on last night's phone call was charitable collaboration, example: if the Project PM Africa project creates educational material (referencing Felipe Farley's concepts), PPM would partner with a charity with an established presence in villages who would in turn distribute the material.  Barrett may want to elaborate.  This was a new topic to me, I don't recall making any comments on it.

However, it did cause me to think further, after the call, that to the extent our charitable activities involve education, knowledge dissemination, network design to facilitate cooperation among charities, writing material for distribution, translation of written how-to resources, and other intellectual and communicative activities, that we need not adopt the model of a traditional charity (incorporate, raise funds, make grants) and the model could be more like Wikipedia or our blogger/journalist network.

Also, this may have some bearing on the liability issues that have surfaced, inasmuch as there is little liability potential in the latter models.




Clark Robinson
Chicago
217-722-8680

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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302