Minutes 2019-11-07

Notes for the SAOSS meeting dated 7 November 2019.  
1.       Why did the forum collapse?
1.1.    Review and identify strength and weaknesses
–     Perform self-assessment to determine the root cause of the collapse;
–     Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the forum as an institution and its members;
–     Scan the market both inside government and outside for risks and opportunities;
–     Assess the attitudes and messaging within the business and political environment.
1.2.    Make recommendations
–     Prepare a set of recommendations for adoption by the forum;
–     Review/develop constitution and supporting policies.  
2.       Structure
2.1.    Identify structure
–     Identify, discuss and agree on target audience and membership;
–     Agree on the structure that should be relevant taking into account that the forum has members inside and outside government;
–     Manage risks of the structure, its leadership and membership that may come when members in private sector are elected into leadership positions.   
2.2.    Task team
–     Appoint task team to drive the forum so that it does not lose momentum and Mbombo, Karl and Prince were given the task to be the coordinating task team.  
3.       Build Capacity
3.1.    Both private and public sector is concerned about the capacity to develop, implement, maintain and support open source products and therefore the technology uptake is delayed;
3.2.    Develop a strategy to build the necessary capacity starting with:
–     Identifying and stratifying the markets;
–     Developing content;
–     Developing training programmes;
–     Providing training;
3.3.    Possible funding sources
–     Public sector institutions e.g. MICT SETA, DST, and Department of Communications;
–     Private sector;   
3.4.    Possible training platform
–     Schools;
–     Universities;
–     Private sector businesses running on open source.
4.       Recruitment and communication
–     Identify communication messaging and related audiences;
–     Establish a team to look at recruitment and communication team;
–     Develop and implement recruitment and communication plan;
–     Share success stories and pursue rekindle past international relationships.
4.2.    Targeted sources of membership:
–     Community members through workshop and social media platforms;
–     Government institutions through workshops and lobbying leadership;
–     Partnerships with local government institutions  
5.       Identify projects
5.1.    Identify low hanging fruits
–     Use these to attract clients;
–     Create interest and critical mass.  
5.2.    Medium-term strategy
–     Identify medium-term projects that will be used as a launching pad
6.       Next meeting:
–   Next meeting will be on 3 December 2019 at 3pm;
–   Following meetings will be on the first Tuesday of every month.