Proposal Charter for External Communications:

The reason a charter is needed for External Communications is to ensure a consistent voice of the DataPortability Project and to ensure ownership by members of specific communications channels as outlined below. 

The Action Group Responsible for the External Communication Charter will be called the "Communications Action Group" and the Communications Action Group Chair will be responsible for ensuring that the External Communications channels provide a consisent voice to the marketplace. The current Evangelism Action Group will be rolled up into the DataPortability Communications Action Group and Evangelism will continue to be an essential piece of communications.

Summary:

The 'Communications Action Group" is responsible for ensuring that there is a consistent voice for all external communications for the DataPortability Project. The Chair of the 'Communications Action Group" is responsible for driving the channels described below and ensuring that the DataPortability project members that participate in any of these channels are consistent and true to the DataPortability Project message.

External Communications Official Channels are broken into two channels:

Channel 1: DataPortability Project documentation open to all Data Portability Projects members but with assigned owners

1. Wiki : http://wiki.dataportability.org 
2. Google Discussion Groups: Multiple lists

Channel 2: Outward facing Communications by specific Project members but specific assigned owners:

3. Website: www.dataportability.org
4. Monthly reports
5. Blog : blog.dataportability.org
6. Managing Official Speaking Opportunities on behalf of DataPortability Project
7. Press/Media contacts and Communications

1. Wiki: 

• Need to have 'owners' to ensure Wiki organization and making/keeping the pages easy to navigate
• Need Wiki Administrators to clean wiki (eg. spam)
• Pick specific pages that should have owners i eg. Landing pages for each Action Group and Task Force, FAQ, etc.
• Specifically landing pages that are linked from dataportability.org (see above)
• Anonymous user posting should not be allowed, all changes should be traceable

Task	Owner	Status
Identify Volunteer to head the Wiki team
Confirm Wiki Administrators
Select Specific Pages that will have owners and assign owners

2. Google Discussion Groups: Multiple lists

• Have identified list managers (Google aTlready presents this information in members listing)
• Have identified list managers to manage spam. All lists should have controls in which first posting is moderated
• Need to have naming criteria consistent when needs discussion lists are created

Task	Owner	Status
Formalize naming and requirements to start an official DataPortability Project discussion list	Chris
Identify List Managers		Chairs
Add the main lists to gmane.org		Postponed

3. Website: www.dataportability.org-
- Currently being maintained by Chris Saad need to formalize the process for making changes to the site

Requirements: Ensure that each of the landing pages are always correct:

• Users: http://wiki.dataportability.org/display/dpmain/DataPortability+for+Users
• Developers: http://wiki.dataportability.org/display/dpmain/DataPortability+for+Developers
• Executives : http://wiki.dataportability.org/display/dpmain/DataPortability+for+Executives
• Press: http://wiki.dataportability.org/display/dpmain/DataPortability+for+Press

Task	Owner	Status
Formalize process for making changes to dataportability.org	Chris	searching for a web dev company

4. Monthly Report 

The monthly reports should 'report' on issues that affect that the Data Portability Project and should highlight key members and events. 

Task	Owner	Status
Identity volunteers to write articles for monthly report	Daniela	Ongoing

5. Blog : domain TBD

• A blog needs assigned authors guidelines for posting, subject matter scope (previous blog discussion here : http://groups.google.com/group/dataportabilitycommunications/browse_thread/thread/b01786be6336bd4c )
• Create planet.dataportability.org, prototype exists at http://dp.worldofsl.com, needs better design, more blogs and some simple rules. It's a blog aggregator which aggregates blogs talking about the topic.

Task	Owner	Status
Identity volunteer to head the Blog options evaluation and deliver recommendations	Chris	Done - Wordpress on blog.dataportability.org
Confirm Blog team	Chris	Will begin calling for volunteers based on the charter
Finish the planet and change the domain name		Postponed

6. Managing Official Speaking Opportunities on behalf of DataPortability Project

• Expand on the Speakers Bureau- to include both information for people who are looking to find someone from the DP Project to speak at their event (suggest 1-3 people are main contacts for this and they in turn will distribute speaking opportunities based on event need) as well as a place for people to suggest and volunteer for specific speaking events.
• Previous discussions around templates for presentations with standard branding and DP Project messaging to be used consistently if needed

Task	Owner	Status
Identify lead for maintaining Speakers Bureau and speakers resources Updated

7. Press/Media contacts and Communications

• Manager to maintain the Press Room on the Wiki
• Identify X amount of people that would be press/media contacts. List those people in a Contact page like this. Those people will be 'trained' to speak on on behalf of DataPortability Project to media and will reference

Task	Owner	Status
Identity manager to maintain the Press Room
Confirm X amount of people that would be press/media contacts
Develop Press/Media Communication Plans