As part of a contract with Matera 2019 (not yet signed), we are supposed to deliver an event (small, but with an European dimension, so international speakers). This would stand back-to-back with OSMIT14, the annual meetup of the Italian OpenStreetMap community (3-5 October), and deal with community stewardship of digital assets. Arguably, the OSM dataset itself is a major digital asset, cared for by a community. We have put down a small budget (9300 euro) for speakers and services (info. See lines 24-29 of the “Budget 2.1” tab). This event may or may not merge with Living On The Edge 4 – The Stewardship. In general, in the unMonastery is live in the fall, we could attempt to do LOTE4 in Matera; if not,we’d probably choose Berlin. The digital assets event, on the other hand, has to happen in Matera.
This looks like a good chance for the Viral Academy. We could somehow engineer a path from the Piccianello event in May to the September event, in which an open server would be turned over to the community. This would be a teaching resource for the VA; at the same time, the VA could teach people in town how to maintain it, and spread practical knowledge about all things open with the excuse of the server. The final goal of all this is to skill up the community so that it can steward on assets, like an open server; the VA is a skilling engine.
Makes sense?
(maybe @napo and @simonecortesi have some useful advice. I am including them in the conversation here because they are both elders if the OSM community, and also on Edgeryders.)