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:
- 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.