DAPSI call deadline 20/01/2021

Yes, I’ll join by phone.

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Message received from the mentor today:

Loïc, Pierre-Louis, je ne vous vois pas connectés, ce qui me fait soupçonner que vous avez peut-être pris quelques jours de congés. Aussi je repousse cette proposition de réunion à la semaine prochaine : dites-moi si cela vous convient.
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The missed appointment will be scheduled next wednesday. I apologized for missing it:

Bonjour,

Oh… je suis tout a fait désolé! Comme je n’avais pas eu de confirmation de ce rendez-vous, j’ai pensé que cela n’était pas possible. Ce que j’aurais très bien compris dans la mesure ou cela déborde des sessions que nous avions prévu et que tout le monde a le droit de prendre des vacances :slight_smile:

Nous sommes disponibles le 11 sans soucis et je viens d’accepter l’invitation.

A la semaine prochaine!

Reply from the mentor today:

Pas de soucis, et à la semaine prochaine :slight_smile: !

In the following document:

fedeproxy designates the signatories of the DAPSI agreement, Pierre-Louis Bonicoli and Loïc Dachary.
[redacted] is the business coach.
[redacted] is the individual coach assigned to fedeproxy.

Executive summary

The DAPSI agreement unambiguously sets the fedeproxy project in a non-commercial context and as an experiment limited in time. We, signatories of the agreement, hereby submit a formal statement including the definition the non-technical and non-commercial KPIs that are the outcome of the coaching sessions, as required by the agreement (4.2). They are to be used when evaluating the progress of the fedeproxy project instead of the generic business KPIs that apply to commercial projects. This statement was deemed necessary because the non-commercial KPIs adapted from the business KPIs are the outcome of a conversation that spanned over a period of months (May 2021 to August 2021). Moreover, the assessment of the fedeproxy project and the payment schedule is grounded on those KPIs for 40% of the grading. They are therefore of a critical importance.

Definition of the non-commercial KPIs

  • Non-Commercial validation
  • Problem and solution (8 points out of 40)
    • The solution is trying to solve an identified problem
    • Description of the solution
    • Global overview
    • Why you?
  • Significant contribution to the internet community (8 points out of 40)
    • The size of the Free Software developer community
    • The size of the internet community impacted by the Free Software developer community
    • Does the targeted internet community exist?
    • Is the emergence of a de-facto communication standard between forges possible?
    • Is the communication standard presented in a well identified and analysed network (developers, forge maintainers, forge authors)?
  • Cooperation (8 points out of 40)
    • Present your cooperative environment
    • Which are the main actors willing to cooperate (forge users, forges instances, forges authors)?
    • Main actors description: deep description of 3 principal actors
    • Conclusions after analysing the actors
  • Usage value and adoption (10 points out of 40)
    • Communication plan
    • Number of support from individuals or organizations published publicly after Phase I
    • How does it contribute to the decentralization of forges?
    • How does it help forge ensure durability of the user data?
    • How does it reduce the risk of forge maintainers under the RGPD?
  • Execution (6 points out of 40)
    • Financial planning and 18 months forecast

Legal framework

The DAPSI proposal template allows for non-commrecial proposals:

  1. Excellence/innovation: “Explain the exploitation potential of your project: if you plan a Commercial exploitation, non-commercial but with a relevant contribution to the internet community, or other. […] In case you plan a commercial exploitation; it is expected that the applicant explains what business stage defines it best. In addition, based on the current stage, describe the ideal 1st customer, partner, user, integration, pilot, PoC. Be as specific as possible.”

The fedeproxy proposal does not contain any information related to a Commercial exploitation and is set to be non-commercial as well as experimental as stated in:

2.1-Idea and Objectives: “[…] to experiment on federation with a proxy based on the forges API (or even web scrapping) before attempting a native integration by modifying the code of a forge”

The DAPSI agreement requires the signatories to work with their coaches to define the KPIs:

Section 4.2 Distribution of the financial contribution: “… the financial grant to be paid will be always subject to: a favourable resolution by the evaluators and coaches responsible for assessing the Project in each of the stages (a set of KPIs will be set-up by coaches and their achievement monitored during the incubation process execution) …”

Annexe 2: GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS: EVALUATION OF PHASE 1: “The selected DAPSI teams will have an initial set-up KPIs (by the coaches) to set clear and objective indicators to which the funding will be linked. The assessment of the KPIs execution will be done twice at midterm of the period and at the end.”

The KPIs section of this document is the outcome of the work of the signatories to fullfill their obligations.

The payment schedule depends on an evaluation based on the KPIs:

Annexe 2: GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS: FINANCIAL SUPPORT PROVIDED: “A 100% completion of the KPIs will unlock the total of the second payment A lower completion of the tasks will launch the proportional payment. If the KPIs are met by less than a 50% the payment will be retained until the end of the phase. If less than a 25%, the teams will be automatically disqualified from the process.”

Any dispute regarding the assesment and its consequences is to be settled as explained in “Article 17 – Settlement of disputes” of the agreement. Fedeproxy is represented on this matter by Stanley Claisse, lawyer at Morvilliers Sentenac & Associés.

Summary of the discussions

fedeproxy attented all mandatory sessions of the “DAPSI Value Proposition Training” from May 2021 to June 2021. The content of the sessions were exclusively related to commercial activities (see slides 1 and 2) and therefore irrelevant to the non-commercial activities fedeproxy project. In this context, on June 5th, 2021 the coach driving the sessions required an assignment that was declined as follows: [fedeproxy] “will not be able to fill it because the fedeproxy project does not include a business part, it is an experiment with no foreseeable business development” but the coach insisted that the assignment is relevant and must be completed, claiming that: “customers and users are interchangeable in this context”. Since these sessions were collective and there was no opportunity to clarify the difference: in order to fullfill its contractual obligations and mandatory participation in the sessions, fedeproxy filed the assignment even though it was meaningless.

July 5th, 2021 fedeproxy received from DAPSI a:

[…] “detailed document” explaining the evaluation process that will take place in September to assess you progress and do the payments accordingly If you have any question for the business KPIs, you can contact the business coach […] in cc of this email.

To which fedeproxy replied:

Dear,

The proposal template proposal reads under the “2/ Excellence/innovation” section, I quote "Explain the exploitation potential of your project: if you plan a Commercial exploitation, non-commercial but with a relevant contribution to the internet community, or other.

In the fedeproxy proposal “2/ Excellence/innovation” there is no commercial exploitation or business mentioned, only the “relevant contribution to the internet community”. The fedeproxy proposal does not mention any commercial or business application anywhere else in the context of the call.

In the original call for applicants guidelines the page 21 reads, I quote: “These KPIs will measure the technological advance, the progress in the business strategy if any, but also the commitment and involvement of the teams (i.e. attending periodic call meetings with the coaches, meeting the deadlines for reporting, etc).” with an emphasis, on my part, on “if any” since fedeproxy does not include a business part.

As a consequence it is my understanding that the fedeproxy project is not required to meet any business KPI since it does not plan a commercial exploitation and that it was selected based on a proposal that does not include anything related to business or commercial exploitation.

Would you please be so kind as to confirm the fedeproxy will not be graded based on business KPI as presented in the document you sent in this email?

Cheers

To which the business coach replied July 6th, 2021:

Hi Loic

thank you for your email. We perfectly understand your worries.

The grid with KPIs was validated by the European Commission and it applies to all the selected projects.

The situation you mentioned I know it as soon as we already discussed together and a had a clear feedback from your coach [redacted], my colleague.

As soon as you have participate to all the sessions and the asked deliverables has been done we consider that on the “business part”, even if is not necessary the main point in your proposal, the work has been started.

I definitely hope that in the future strategy of the development of your project you will take in consideration all this inputs that you received.

It’s very important because those points you still have to present in September in front of our jury (half business and half tech).

All my best

The emphasis on the importance of the business KPIs was not overstated: they make for 40% of the grading that is required to release the funds. The individual coaching sessions were well under way and the business KPIs were the main focus of the discussions after this date.

On July 7th, 2021, the outcome of the individual coaching sessions were the non-commercial KPIs included in this document. They are largely inspired by the business KPIs and designed for projects that are non-commercial in general and fedeproxy in particular. They were sent via email the same day to the individual coach and the business coach.

On July 29th, 2021 the individual coach sent the following mail (translated from French):

[…] le rapport que vous soumettez en septembre doit montrer votre progression côté technique mais aussi côté compréhension de l’écosystème auquel vous vous adressez et la manière dont votre proposition de valeur pourra se développer de manière soutenable, pérenne.
Les KPIs viennent en plus pour étayer l’évaluation du jury de Dapsi.

[…] the report that you will submit in september must show your progress on the technical side but also your understanding of the ecosystem that you address and the way your added value can develop itself in a sustainable, durable way. The Dapsi jury will, in addition, ground their evalution on the KPIs.

The same day the following was sent as a reply (translated from French):

Grace à notre dialogue autour des KPIs pendant notre dernière session et nos échanges courriel c’est maintenant assez clair.

Thanks to our dialog on the topic of the KPIs during our last session and our mail exchanges, this is now reasonably clear.

On July 30th, 2021 the individual coach sent the following reply (translated from French):

Très bien.

Very well.

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Sent the following mail to:

Found via https://www.cnb.avocat.fr/fr/annuaire-des-avocats-de-france and selecting those who speak English and are specialized in technology.


Cher Maître,

Pierre-Louis Bonicoli et moi même sommes bénéficiaires à titre individuel d’une subvention Européenne dont j’attache la convention pour information. Nous souhaiterions avoir recours à vos services afin de représenter nos intérêts dans le cadre de ce contrat. Il s’agit dans un premier temps d’adresser un courrier à l’organisme gérant la subvention afin de clarifier nos obligations. Vous trouverez un brouillon de ce courrier à l’URL suivante: DAPSI call deadline 20/01/2021. Si cela ne suffisait pas nous serons amenés à engager une procédure en suivant vos conseils.

Seriez-vous disponible dans les prochaines semaines pour en discuter ?

Cordialement

The beneficiary isn’t myself as an individual but my company isn’it ?

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Yes but you’re the sole owner of the company: it is not an oversimplification.

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In order to get an adequate answer we should mention the date before which the letter must be sent.

In my experience the first contact with a contractor/service provider is better when there is no urgency, in general. Adding a date would express an urgency.

I guess in many cases, the date is required to get a complete response.
The date determines if there is an emergency from the point of view of the person who answer and avoid response such as “ok, could we meet the 1rst of September ?”.

You are correct. We’ll get a chance to clarify that during the first call.

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I asked for a quote on alexia.fr website using the following criteria:

  • voulez-vous faire une demande d'aide juridictionnelle: non
  • acceptez-vous un avocat qui traite votre dossier par internet: oui
  • souhaitez-vous impérativement un avocat de votre région: non
  • vous recherchez en priorité un avocat: qui propose des prix bas
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Sent the following mail to

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The notes from the individual coach as a followup of today’s meeting:

Merci Loïc et Pierre-Louis de votre temps ce matin pour partager un point d’avancement sur votre projet.

Ci-dessous quelques notes prises.

Passez une belle fin d’été et portez-vous bien !

[redacted]

Minutes

· Report : https://fedeproxy.eu/blog/2021/07/25/dapsi-step4/

· Code development is on its way, within the planning forecasted

· Partnerships :

o Chapril (few hundreds of users) : Loïc and Pierre-Louis have been onboarded as part of the board

o Gitea (several thousands of users, 10 k+ projects) : contact set up with Gitea contributors to create federation functionalities. Work under progress to support Gitea in creating a call for project and collect funds.

o Heptapod : FedeProxy is being adapted to Heptapod, which help to port modifications into GitLab

o ForgeFed : contact set up with ForgeFed contributors to use message format which has been developed by ForgeFed

o Partnership discussions have allowed to assess relevance of FedeProxy proposal for Forges managers and users.

· Next steps

o Build (end of September) a beta testers base into Chapril to debug FedeProxy. Then replicate (end of Q4 ?) with CodeBerg (Gitea), then Heptapod.

o For longer term perspective :

§ Identify the most relevant standard body (W3C ?) to develop an interconnection standard for Forges.

§ Think about next possible sources of funding for FedeProxy and Forge-standards making activity

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I had a good conversation with Stanley Claisse who agreed to represent us. It turns out we had a short exchange back in 2010, which I forgot but he was kind enough to remind me. Since I am the coordinator of the DAPSI project, I will be the point of contact with him. I will ask him how much transparency he is comfortable with. He is familiar with the Free Software world and it appears there is no conflict of interest. He understands that the letter, although formal, does not imply any kind of legal action: the goal is to make sure the letter is as clear as possible with regard to our legal obligations under the signed agreement.

The following was sent to http://numerilex.fr/ since we won’t be needing their services.


Cher Maître,

Nous n’aurons finalement pas recours à vos services. Encore merci d’avoir répondu à notre sollicitation et toutes nos excuses pour le dérangement.

Cordialement

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Received today:

DAPSI interview - OC2 winner.docx (9.1 KB)

Received today:

Dear All,

I hope you are having a very good and safe summer recharging your batteries for the coming weeks/months.

We are planning our next actions and we really need your feedback to organize training and activities accordingly.

Please, take just a couple of minutes while sipping your favorite cocktail to fill out the following survey… I will be very grateful!

Survey link: https://forms.gle/rcAH2tDD8gXvUaoZA

Thanks as always for your cooperation.

Best,

The form was filled with the following information:

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Received today:

Dear all,

The Data Portability & Services Incubator is preparing the launch of its third and last open call that will empower internet innovators developing solutions in the Data Portability field.

In order to collect the most important research questions and challenges w.r.t. the topic of Data Portability, a survey has been prepared. The goal of this survey is to revisit the identified data portability subdomains and determine a potential new subdomain for the next open call.

You are invited to contribute with your background and expertise by completing the survey, which should not take more than 5 minutes.

Your inputs are much appreciated!

Link to survey: https://form.123formbuilder.com/5970553/

@pilou a draft of the report due before Monday September 13th, 2021 is available under dapsi/2021-09-13-report.md in cloud.fedeproxy.eu. It is almost done but please ping me when you have time to proofread it: I’ll keep working on details until you do.

Here is a read-only link to the report for transparency purposes.

I’m done with the draft :tada: I’ll be available tomorrow starting 2pm via videoconference to work with you on polishing it. Very happy this is done: it definitely is not my favorite activity in the fedeproxy project :sweat_smile: