I expect resources will continue to be hosted across many different sites and servers, but I think the point was that at the moment it's not clear which site you go to in order to find those resources. An obvious example - sites that imply that they are for DJs include linuxdj.com, djcj.org and openjay.org (the latter is down at the moment). I think of all the related sites, linuxmusician.com comes closest to the kind of thing the people at the meeting were talking about. The site content matches the name well, and it has a content management system (Mambo) which means that adding material is not the responsibility of just one person. We're all busy with our own projects, so it makes sense to share the editorial load where possible - and hopefully create better sites at the same time. Cheers Daniel

I think this is a good opportunity to investigate, so it would be great if you could devote a little time to understand the various options available in the Netherlands. The number doesn't seem to be a specific problem here. We can probably better define the mission of the consortium in its specific points, but that can be done while we study the various available options available for creating a formal entity. I'd say that: 1) the ability for people from different countries to be a part of the organization; 2) the ability of the organization to collect money (whether as donations, grants and/or merchandising) as long as the money is devoted to the fulfilment of the social mission; are two necessary characterics which the formal entity should have in order to be a viable option for us. There could be other points, too, but I'll let people speak on this. Do you know anybody who could lend a hand with webmastering, at least from the start? I think I can handle finding server space and connectivity and/or trying to convince my mother organization to pay for (a part of) the related expenses. bye, -- Andrea Glorioso andrea.glorioso(a)agnula.org AGNULA Technical Manager http://www.agnula.org/ M: +39 333 820 5723 F: +39 (0)51 930 31 133 "Libre Audio, Libre Video, Libre Software: AGNULA"

I already asked Jörn Nettingsmeier if we could have an RSS feed from the linux-audio-announce mailing list, since that's an already established channel for relevant news, and is moderated. He was already planning to work on that, it turns out. I think if we get a decent content management system in place from the start then there won't be too much maintenance to do. No-one wants to maintain static pages by themself any more! If anyone has suggestions for a CMS other than Mambo, I'd be interested to hear them. I've used Post-Nuke in the past, but I found it quite inflexible. Cheers Daniel James Director http://linuxaudio.org

Zope/Plone are both quite capable and easy to set up. Wikis are also quite easy. jack.

Thank you so much for your help, it's really appreciated. bye, -- Andrea Glorioso andrea.glorioso(a)agnula.org AGNULA Technical Manager http://www.agnula.org/ M: +39 333 820 5723 F: +39 (0)51 930 31 133 "Libre Audio, Libre Video, Libre Software: AGNULA"

Hi Jaromil, Thanks for your work looking into this. I'm not sure if the tax issues are going to be very relevant to linuxaudio.org at this stage! In the UK we have a not-for-profit structure known as a 'company limited by guarantee' which can be registered for a couple of hundred pounds. Here's a definition from http://www.ukincorp.co.uk/s-45 : "There are two types of limited companies - those limited by shares (e.g. commercial companies) and those limited by guarantee (usually charities or non-profit distributing companies). Companies limited by shares are owned by shareholders, of which there only needs to be one, and are run by boards of directors. Companies limited by guarantee have members and are usually run by a committee of management. In general, trading is carried out by companies limited by shares since guarantee companies can't usually pay the benefits of their trade to their members. A company limited by guarantee is a registered company having the liability of its members limited by the memorandum to such amounts as the members may respectively undertake to contribute to the assets of the company in the event of its being wound up. Such companies are widely used for schools, professional and trade associations, clubs and management companies for blocks of flats. The main differences between a guarantee company and a company with shares are: Its members do not receive share certificates and whilst they control the guarantee company, through decisions taken by them at General Meetings, they do each not "own" a proportionate part of the guarantee company. Its members cannot receive any dividend, profit or other income from the guarantee company, nor can they share in its assets if the guarantee company comes to an end. Its members enjoy limited liability, but usually have to pay an annual subscription (at a rate set annually by themselves at General Meeting) and, if the guarantee company comes to an end through a liquidation, they are obliged to pay a final sum of £1.00 each to the Liquidator. The members elect the Board of Directors (usually called Trustees or Governors to avoid connotations of salaries and bonuses) which is responsible for setting and overseeing the policy of the guarantee company. The directors also enjoy limited liability, provided that they have not acted negligently, or fraudulently, or have not permitted the guarantee company to continue trading when it was insolvent (this is known as "wrongful trading")." I'm not personally bothered which country that linuxaudio.org is registered in, but I now recall that I have a contact which provides low cost legal advice for not-for-profits here: http://interchange.org.uk/legal/ I'll ask them what they think. The Agnula project is going through a similar process of formal registration, and I've suggested to Andrea Glorioso that we work together on this to reduce duplicated bureaucratic overhead, since the aims of both entities are very similar. Cheers Daniel

Thank you very much for your work! Just a single thing I'm not sure I understood: does `nominated' in this context means that beneficiaries of the assets should be declared beforehand and not changed throughout the lifetime of the "Stichting"? bye, -- Andrea Glorioso andrea.glorioso(a)agnula.org AGNULA Technical Manager http://www.agnula.org/ M: +39 333 820 5723 F: +39 (0)51 930 31 133 "Libre Audio, Libre Video, Libre Software: AGNULA"

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Sat, May 29, 2004 at 04:08:33PM +0200, Andrea Glorioso wrote: i think you should consider 'nominated' as categories, different individuals or associations can match thru the lifetime. ciao - -- jaromil, dyne.org rasta coder, http://rastasoft.org