NDSA:Membership
NDSA:Comment: Under eligibility, what does "maintain vendor neutrality" mean? --Amy Rudersdorf
NDSA:Comment: By "Vendor Neutrality" we mean that the Alliance and the work products of the working groups will not promote nor discriminate against any realistic players - either by making basic implementation too hard or by disallowing vendor-specific features or innovations or experiments, where appropriate. -- Michelle Gallinger
Given the extensive discussion over membership at the meeting, the lack of wiki talk, or public e-mail exchange on this issue is surprising. I wonder if we
At the last meeting, although discussion groups didn't come to consensus, there were a number of specific suggestions that weren't fully captured in the notes, and aspects of the original proposal that did did not result in any objection:
- allowing action groups to recruit participants from non-members - committing to transparency
--Micah altman 13:12, 22 January 2011 (UTC)
This version of the Membership Model was crafted after reviewing minutes of the meeting and trying to consolidate all of the concerns and wishes expressed at the December workshop.
We propose what we believe is a workable model that will address the desires of many to be open, inclusive and diverse. We have looked to the membership information that DPC provides for inspiration about how to be inclusive of commercial/IT vendors and international affiliates (see DPC Prospectus linked from here: http://www.dpconline.org/about/join), and have borrowed some of their language with their permission.
We heard at the workshop some of the positives of going with this approach:
- “NDSA is not a club” – speaks to the inclusiveness we encourage in our values statement.
- Open, broad membership is a benefit: offers a variety of experiences, knowledge. Access to high-tech and international members benefits us all. Brings in stakeholders that could inspire innovation.
- Institutions of any size may participate.
- Without need to have CC or a membership committee review and vote on new members, members could join at any time (LC would process applications as they come in).
- Encourages members to recruit new members, to think broadly about who might be encouraged to join.
- This model allows for us to develop clearly stated “we share common values across boundaries” with international organizations and high tech companies and others who may not meet full eligibility requirements.
- Brings in subject matter experts and specialists that would otherwise not be able to participate “officially.”
- No perception of favoritism because we aren’t inviting or sponsoring others to join. Membership information on the NDSA site will clearly define what is “a demonstrated commitment to digital preservation.”
- Clearly defines what the eligibility for international and commercial vendors memberships and expectations for membership.
Although there was some discussion at the December meeting about a formal application review and a process for that, we are at this point recommending that we keep it lightweight and have the Secretariat review and process applications, particularly with this more open model where we would allow all to apply. This model will also allow us to move forward now and we can review it in 3 years.