[FS-UK-announce] FIPR looking for volunteers
Julian T. J. Midgley
free-sklyarov@effector.xenoclast.org
Tue, 21 Aug 2001 03:09:03 +0100 (BST)
The Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR- http://www.fipr.org)
is looking to fill several volunteer and some paid positions.
Why should you consider volunteering your services?
---------------------------------------------------
Succinctly: the FIPR is on our side, has a lot of contacts, and carries
significant weight in political circles.
The Internet, and other recent technological innovations have brought with
them changes in society, culture and business practices. The law has been
slow to keep up with the pace of change, and those laws which have been
enacted have often been written by those who understand only poorly the
technological framework within which they must operate. The FIPR seeks to
redress the balance, by conducting research into information policy from
a technically informed perspective and promoting dialogues between
technologists and policy-makers. More details from www.fipr.org.
I'd like to volunteer, what do I do?
------------------------------------
Check the list of roles below to see if there are any which suit you. If
so, email Caspar Bowden <cb@fipr.org> with your CV and a covering email
detailing the role you're applying for and your suitability for it. Given
that he's a busy man, it would be helpful if you could also email me
<jtjm@xenoclast.org> to let me know which position you've applied for, so
that I can ask people to hold off for a bit if we get too many volunteers
for the same position.
What roles are available?
-------------------------
The FIPR is looking to fill the positions below. Initially, most of
these will be volunteer roles - some may become salaried later for
suitably competent candidates.
All work will be from home. FIPR is, and expects to remain a virtual
think-tank. They will try and wangle a home ADSL installation ASAP, and
then expect to use the Net (inc. webcam conferencing for meetings). They
also expect to settle on some type of web-based collaborative groupware
(e.g. www.groove.com).
Consequently, there are few geographical constraints on anyone
thinking of volunteering. Realistically, you will need to be able to
travel to London for a few initial meetings.
Positions:
a. Contact List Reviser/Maintainer
b. Personal Assistant to Caspar Bowden
c. Webmaster/designer
d. Development Officer
e. Technical Policy Analyst
Contact List reviser/maintainer
-------------------------------
Requirements: familiarity with Outlook, VCF, majordomo
Responsibilities: to bring the existing contact list up to date,
and maintain it thereafter.
Remuneration: Volunteer
The FIPR currently has one large blob of a list. This person will take
charge of splitting this up and maintenance of several separate lists
(both list in sense of blocks of data in Outlook and majordomo e-mails
lists), and subscribe/unsubscribe hassles etc.
Personal Assistant to Caspar Bowden
-----------------------------------
Requirements: Well spoken, previous PA experience an asset, previous
experience of fund-raising beneficial.
Responsibilities: standard PA - writing letters and making calls on
behalf of C.B. in the furtherance of the FIPR's
activities, esp. fund-raising.
Remuneration: Volunteer initially, to become part or full
time position later
Webmaster/designer
------------------
Requirements: Previous experience of designing and maintaining high
quality websites, viewable in all browsers. Experienced
with HTML. Useful to have previous experience of writing
CGIs in Perl, PHP, or Python.
Graphic design experience - familiarity with Photoshop
or the Gimp.
Responsibilities: Initially to overhaul the FIPR's website, thereafter
to maintain and develop same.
Remuneration: Volunteer initially; this may become a salaried position
later for an outstanding candidate.
Development Officer
-------------------
Experience: Management consultancy or NGO planning/development
background.
Requirements: Reasonable technical awareness, and computer literacy
Excellent communication skills, diplomatic and tactful
where necessary, and forceful and candid when required.
Able to project confident image of FIPR, without
bullshitting outside area of competence.
Responsibilities: Planning the growth of FIPR from 1 employee to 10
Consult on break-down of interlocking
organisational, technical, policy and personal
skills for next few FIPR hires. Devise and execute
fundraising strategy. Survey candidate grant-making
trusts and foundations, pursue and complete grant
applications.
Remuneration: Salaried
Technical Policy Analyst
------------------------
Requirements: familiarity with Windows (Office, etc.) and
(optionally) Linux/Unix. In short term, own
machine/laptop will be required.
Familiarity with Free Software/Open Source software
movement's philosophy. Ideally experience of
development of open source software. Good standard of
written English.
Responsibilities: "Policy Analysis"- Postgrad qualifications called
"public policy" or "policy analysis" are available-
think-tanks usually employ such people. Neither
qualification is a fatal disadvantage, but a
candidate will require either extensive knowledge of
computing or other subject specialist knowledge
(IPR/FOI/privacy/human rights/law). It definitely
helps if someone has been a programmer to some
degree. We want economists and sociologists, even
management science, as long as they have thought
hard about what's the same and what's different on
the Net.
The other skillset is knowing how the State
works. This involves...
Being a cynic. Knowing a bit about the civil
service, parliament, and legislative process. Being
able to read white papers, and Bills. Knowing how to
tell who is any good in their field. Being a
compleat web-surfer, but knowing when and how to
supplement if web doesn't provide. Being able to
phone experts up and talk to them without making a fool
of yourself. Being able to talk to general and specialist
journalists.
...and drafting and organising material for papers,
presentations, conferences etc.
Remuneration: Volunteer position at present, if found to be an
exceptional all-rounder may become salaried later.
--
Julian T. J. Midgley http://www.xenoclast.org
Cambridge, England. PGP Key ID: 0xBCC7863F
UK Free Dmitry Protest: http://uk.freesklyarov.org/
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