February 9, 2021-agenda

Introductions and Call opening (5 min)

• Notes from Jan Governance call

January Notes

Welcome

Review agenda for this call

COVID 19 Edition Survey for Countries

(3 min)

We are depending on our network of partners to help circulate a short survey, across all the countries that we work in, to help us paint an accurate picture of their digital tool needs to support COVID vaccine distribution. This information will help us to adapt OpenLMIS accordingly to become a key tool in the COVID19 vaccination efforts.

The OpenLMIS for COVID- Country Survey is in google forms, here is the link: https://forms.gle/da9zafYpefu1rYMU7

Rebecca Alban (Unlicensed) to send follow up email- match the partners with current implementing countries; ex: Guinea for PSM

Carl: WHO work on smart vaccination certificate could be relevant use cases: 1) international border travel and being able to link vaccination event to a person crossing borders 2) continuity of care; to track doses given. There is a lot of metadata around the vaccines to make sure we are well situated to respond to (batch numbers, vaccine codes, etc.); Perhaps the survey could provide evidence for planning. Hopefully will also have GTIN and list of health facilities; maybe a follow up question could be if they are using standardized list of health facilities (standardized list or drawn from a separate system)

Gaurav: both of those use cases were included as potential use cases; we recognize that these will be of importance. Those questions are listed as optional; we can probe further with in-country contacts to learn more if needed. We've asked for immunization and distribution strategy. 

Rebecca Alban (Unlicensed) to check in soon to report back on interest from countries; connect with this group and Carl to move forward to coordinate ; share updates with Carl as well to be able to show interest

So far, 12 responses mostly from CHAI countries. Only CHAI and VR have signed up for circulating this in their countries. We ask for all partners to do so via this sign up sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F5CPe7LjkSsSHlCZu_eTpd221D_gctP0TqEYJSMvdiY/edit#gid=0

UNDP LTA opportunity: update

(2 min)

Submitted! Thanks for all who are part of the consortium for their cooperation (VR, SolDevelo, JSI, BAO, CHAI, PATH). This is an important opportunity for the community, to be able to get UNDP funded country-specific contracts over the next 3-5 years. 

Next step is review from UNDP and hopefully the award of a LTA from UNDP to OpenLMIS (via VillageReach as contracting mechanism).

Update on Transition Activities, Next steps

(15-20 minutes)

Rebecca-

• Role of partners re: in country communications
• Request partner contact lists for in country stakeholder engagement (MoH, in country partners stakeholders to circulate memo to)
• Review of draft key messages (if time allows) 

Brandon: Does this comms plan reflect what the partners need to disseminate this information? Will it make sense to someone, for example, in Zambia? 

Edward: This is about v3 and moving ahead; there will be questions about what does this mean for them. This is a question we will need to address

Ashraf: We can discuss within the group how best to approach it; can organize a small group discussion and bring in people from the JSI countries. Stewards can participate in these calls/meetings. If they are not given the context they will not understand; 

Kim: Are there key messages for the v2 countries that we should be sharing? Brandon: Yes, this partnership applies to v3 and not to the previous versions. Those previous versions remain supported by their current partners

Brandon: How do we want to pull together the small groups? Count on the partners to organize who woud be involved. Ashraf and Edward can lead this process from the JSI side

Kim: When everyone shares their list of contacts, it might be helpful to identify if there’s a desire to have this type of side meeting

Originally the Stewards team suggested a CAA mechanism (in the IP Summary we shared).

Since this was flagged at our last Working Group meeting, JSI and VillageReach have been meeting to discuss this. We have agreed in principle to a CLA mechanism--where JSI and VillageReach would each hold copyright, but would sign a CLA to formalize and document contributions to the open source project. 

CLA is also common in the open source world; in the past we have had an informal CLA process. 

Recommendation for the OpenLMIS Community is that we recommend contributors sign a CAA to give copyright of their contributions, but we would also provide an alternative CLA option.

The downside of CLA for the community, is that the more organizations who hold some of the copyright, the harder it is to get all those parties to agree to transfer it to a neutral third party fiscal sponsor, or to agree to change the license (if we ever wanted to), or to go to court for infringement/enforcement claims, for example. So CAA is still cleaner and better for the community as the preferred option.

Questions: 

• Questions or Concerns about this approach? We plan to revise the IP Summary document to establish a preferred CAA as well as an alternative CLA option for the community contribution guidelines going forward. We would bring this policy written up to the Governance Committee next.

Next step: Steward team to write this recommendation up more and bring back the formal process to the Working Group and/or Governance group; VR and JSI will also sort out and document our process and ensure there is clarity and no lingering questions around copyright

Identifying and establishing a neutral third party is something that will happen after the Handover Partnership begins, and it may take 1-2 years. In brief, no existing fiscal sponsor checks all the boxes of the criteria that make them ideal for OpenLMIS (or for other Global Goods in our space).

Apache foundation is great, but they only like apache licenses and don't have development/aid relationships. Have explored options with others in this space (DIAL OSC, others); Vitalliance have agreed in principle that VR is looking for a new fiscal sponsor

Questions: 

• How would the partners like to be involved in the selection and choice of a future fiscal sponsor/neutral third party?
• Ashraf: Not interested in day-to-day basis, not milestone discussions where decisions are being made we would be interested to provide feedback
• Gaurav: Would like to be informed
• LB: Informed
• Carl: Wants to follow along what the conversation; not provide specific direction but have an overview 
• Brandon: Will want Digital Square's input on this evolving foundation idea

How does the group feel about re-purposing next month's call to bring in reps from Vitalliance to: make short presentation about their vision, be introduced to everyone, and engage in Q&A

Carl: schedule for 1.5 hours for next month? so there is room to expand the conversation;

Ice Breaker activity could be built in to help people get to know eachother

Conferences and Meetings

Conferences provide the community the opportunity for OpenLMIS members to speak or represent the OpenLMIS software and community in public forum.

Opportunities documentation

Definitions to use shared terminology:

• Implementation opportunity: an opportunity for an implementation or deployment of the OpenLMIS software.  Usually this is done at a national or sub-national level within a ministry of health. This can also include feature work which would be done within the implementation and contributed back to the global codebase.
• Community opportunity: a funding opportunity to support an organization or individual to work directly on the global codebase and/or administrate the community processes. This may include funding specific features on the community roadmap.

• This Trello table is being updated on an ongoing basis; to help the core team to track and manage implementation opportunities, but also provides a detailed snapshot of the scope and status of current implementation opportunities for stakeholders.

Community Opportunities:

• New Trello table! Similar to the above table, this tool is being used by the stewards to track our exploring of new product opportunities and partnerships

Study Tours:

• Study Tours wiki page tracks applications received, study tours completed, and other key milestones related to OpenLMIS Study Tours (this activity is no longer active due to COVID-19)