[advocacy-discuss] Kiva.org

[Jim Grisanzio]

Alexander Gnodtke wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> some of you might have heard about Kiva.org a hugely popular
> non-profit site that enables users to hand out micro-credits to small
> businesses in the developing world.
>   

I met the founder of this site at a conference here in Japan. Very cool 
guy. And an absolutely outstanding concept (especially nowadays, too!).

> Kiva.org has a feature that allows its users to form Lending Teams
> around common interests such as businesses, clubs, common interests,
> colleges etc. (Click on the Community link at the top of the page).
>
> Lending teams already exist for business such as:
> Microsoft, Sun Microsystems
> (http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=3097), Intel,
> Accenture and many others.
>
> There is also a GNU/Linux and Free Software team
> (http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=1115).
>
> I thought it would be nice to start an OpenSolaris team but I do not
> know if this would require some sort of permission or if there is
> someone who takes care of these sorts of things in the OpenSolaris
> community.
>   

You could treat this as an OpenSolaris User Group pretty easily. You 
could create a name such as Lending OpenSolaris User Group, Caring 
OpenSolaris User Group, OpenSolaris Community Lending Group or something 
like that.  That would be a legal fair use. And as your UG lends, they`d 
be lending on behalf of themselves as members of the OpenSolaris 
Community. It`s also an easy way to publicize your group within the 
OpenSolaris community because we could give you some space on 
opensolaris.org and a mailing list and send you some stuff to give out 
(which we do for all OSUGs when we have the resources).

And, actually, the more I think of it ... Treating this as an OSUG could 
be cool because it would not be a geography-specific group like the rest 
of the OSUGs. It would be a global project treated as a UG on our site. 
That would be the clear link to opensolaris.org, and then you`d have 
your own space on kiva.org as well.

More on trademark issues here:

http://opensolaris.org/os/about/faq/trademark_faq/
http://opensolaris.org/os/trademark/

> Infomation that is required is team name: OpenSolaris, OpenSolaris.com
> or OpenSolaris.org? I would favor OpenSolaris.
> What logo could I use? I really like the OpenSolaris.com style artwork.
> Lending Team website? opensolaris.com or opensolaris.org? I would
> favor OpenSolaris.com.
>   

I wouldn`t recommend exploring the use of the logo itself because then 
you`d run into trademark licensing issues with Sun. Try to stick to fair 
use areas. It just makes life simpler. :) I mean, you could, but I`d 
have to send you to marketing or somewhere to start that process and I 
have no clue what`s involved. Why not just use something else? A screen 
shot? A photograph? A person wearing a t-shirt? Etc.

I like the idea ...

Jim
-- 
http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/