This post is part of a series where we share more about what we’re working on and what we’re learning. Read our last update.
We’ll be iterating on this format in the next month or so. Have a question or comment about anything you see here? Get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.
On to the update …
What we’re working on:
- We are exploring the challenges we would like to work on, and how. In the second week of our Strategy Retreat, IOI staff, Community Oversight Council and Steering Committee members discussed work values and expectations and defined what we need from each other. We also started identifying and understanding the top challenges that we should tackle as a group. This paves the way for us to start investigating solutions.
- We are scrutinizing and mapping out our communication and engagement efforts. We aspire to increase the transparency and openness of our work by establishing a more thorough understanding of who we are reaching and how. Stay tuned for new content and opportunities to participate in our work in the coming months!
- We are exploring relevant models for better understanding infrastructure and continuing our conversations with community members to plan out the next stages of our work developing the Catalog of Open Infrastructure Services (COIs).
- We are investigating methods and tools used to finance sustainable water infrastructure. In an effort to learn from other sectors, we are investigating the efforts of the OECD and IRC to reach the sustainable development goal of ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
What we’re reading:
Between IOI's strategy retreat and our emerging research agenda, we have been reading a lot. Some highlights:
On the analogous domain of water governance:
- Managing water for all: An OECD perspective on pricing and financing, 2009.
- Financing capital maintenance of rural water supply systems, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, 2013.
- OECD's Principles for water governance and Framework for the governance of infrastructure.
On nonprofit and organizational accountability:
- Martha’s Table CEO Kim Ford abruptly resigns, Washington City Paper, US, 4 Feb. 2022.
- Oklahoma nonprofit used federal funds for vacations instead of victim services, Oklahoma Watch, US, 10 Feb. 2022.
- Controversial nonprofit for Capitol riot defendants makes changes after criticism, US National Public Radio, 10 Feb. 2022.
- A statement from Library Freedom Project and Library Futures demanding transparency from Hoopla Digital over how materials in their collections were selected.
