Organization

[kenshi]

If you have experience setting up 501(c)3 corporations and want to help with the organization of this effort, please post here with your experience and interest.

EDIT:We need ideas about the following

Comments

[dinkydo]

You might want to address immediately how this is not going to be a scam because I'm already seeing a wave of shit in communities for bringing it up.

And I certainly don't want to waste time having pathetic internet discourse with a bunch of uneducated 16 year olds.

[kat1031]

Excellent points. Any feedback on my response post below?

[kenshi]

Agreed. Two things need to happen immediately:

1. Foundation gets set up nice and legal, and,
2. Foundation gets a web presence with lots of transparency

Vermont's "Virtual Incorporation" option

[cshirky]

You may want to take a look at Vermont's new "virtual corporation" model. (http://onthecommons.org/content.php?id=2336) Project of the NY Law School's "Do Tank" (http://dotank.nyls.edu/VisualCorporation.html), its designed to make it easier for a geographically distributed group of people to found and run a company.

clay@shirky.com

[kat1031]

I've run a couple of small businesses and have some tech experience. Nevada (where I live) is a good place to set up a corporation.

I'd be in.

It might be a good idea to maybe set up a chat or something when we have a critical mass of interested people (perhaps 10 or so who have the skillset and the interest. Any more than that as a temporary board might get unweildy.)

To start, we'd want someone who had a strong financial background, someone with a strong legal background, someone with a good management background (I could probably be that person, if you were interested in having me... I'm currently CTO of my company, have a PMP certification and am good at the anal details of making and following through on a plan. I'd be more than happy to submit a resume if we want to be that formal) and we'd need several people with a strong tech background - a database person, a network engineer with large-network experience) and probably a few people who have a good mind and work well with others as a steering committee.

[dinkydo]

for the financial person, I would definitely nominate the community's organizer, kenshi. Not because he's the organizer, but because he has a brilliant financial mindset and the experience to do it. (not to mention the leadership qualities)

I'm sure with the plethora of tech savvy people we have on LJ we could find the other people needed. I have plenty of attorney friends that aren't on LJ that I could ask for help if kenshi needs it.

[kenshi]

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I'm not sure I'm the right person, simply because I'm so busy, but I'm happy to provide lots of vision and kicks in the arse to keep it moving.
Sound legal advice is crucial. If you know any corporate or tax attorneys, see what you can find out from them.

[dinkydo]

I was about to ask you in your other comment what I could do to help. Off the top of my head I know some GC attorneys for companies, an energy atty and a mergers and acquisitions atty. I sent out an email about this and we'll see what floats back. Chances are if they don't want to mess with it, they'll have a friend who will.

What are the odds of this community getting shut down because of it's subject? Do you think our russian friends will mind?

[zarex]

I have some of all three, but mostly #2, and little experience with nonprofits per se. Due to time constraints and professional reasons I can't get too involved, but I am happy to offer advice and guidance as much as possible.

[colonelperry42n]

what about the 20 people who were fired from lj? Could someone contact them about this?

[omahastar]

There weren't 20. It's an exaggeration designed to get sympathy and make people think there's actually a problem, when there really isn't.

[foxfirefey]

20 was actually misinformation originally spread by Valleywag--it wasn't designed to get sympathy, but to excite the interests of gossips and vultures, since that's what VW does. The juicier the better and all. Nobody needs to exaggerate to get sympathy from most--12 people were fired, only finishing out the week, with no advance warning and no severance. (Number 13 had already left just before this.) Whether or not cutbacks were necessary, that's still a rough thing to go through for the people who were involved.

Additionally, while it's not like the LJ sky is falling, that doesn't mean there might not be problems. The manner in which the layoff was done could suggest severe and sudden financial straights (not awesome), but since SUP is a private company, there is no way to know. There's also the matter of demoralizing the remaining US employees and the Support volunteers.

[wyliekat]

Well, hello kenshi.

I'm not one of your top three requirements, but I am a professional writer. You need compelling content to make this real? I'm your girl.

[kenshi]

How would you pitch the idea?

Off the top of my head and in a nutshell.

[wyliekat]

Livejournal was created with open source code. It was designed to be for the users, not for business. The internet these days is aswarm with people trying to make money from blogging - but with the international economy in a downturn, this is becoming increasingly difficult.

The Web 2.0 bubble may be bursting.

So how do we ensure that the bursting bubble doesn't mean we all lose out on the blogging service many of us have been on since the turn of the century?

Simple - we buy it. We run it. We tend it. We make it our own, as was intended from the beginning.