Hi !
In short, we’re now looking for people with technical expertise to replace three individuals who have stepped out of the M365 DPIA project.
Those of you who have followed our DPIA work know that we take a bottom-up approach to producing the national DPIAs (Google Workspace for Education and Microsoft 365). This means we “buy out” time from people who work for school owners (county authorities, municipalities, or private schools) and ICT cooperatives to help write the DPIA itself.
We do this because we believe the quality of these national DPIAs is highest when the people who know where the shoe pinches are the ones helping to create them.
As mentioned, three people have left the project, and we’re now looking for new project team members to join the DPIA work for M365.
Specifically, we’re seeking people with technical expertise—professionals with experience in configuration, security, and administration of M365 for use in schools, as well as integrations with other systems. You don’t need lots of formal certifications, but we want hands-on experience setting up, operating, and managing M365.
Are you that person? Or do you know someone who might be? Get in touch by replying to this email!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I participate more than 20%?
Yes. If your employer can release you for more than 20%, we’ll gladly say “yes, please!”
Can I participate less than 20%?
No. We’ve set 20% as a minimum. As a project team member you need to set aside one day a week to participate meaningfully. There’s flexibility here: we don’t require that you work on the project on a specific day each week.
Each project member will be part of a working group responsible for one or more deliverables. You’ll organize yourselves within the group in whatever way is most effective to get the work done.
20% is not a hard limit that we police. We understand things happen, and sometimes you’ll need to prioritize other tasks at work, meaning you might dip below 20% for a period. There’s flexibility for that.
But 20% is the baseline to ensure each person has time to participate meaningfully. Some of those who left the project did so because they ultimately didn’t have the time—and we’d like to avoid that. So we want to be clear from day one: you must be able to allocate 20% of your working time. That’s one day per week.
How long will the project last?
The project will last at least 1 year, and 1.5–2 years is realistic—similar to the Google DPIA. Most project members in the Google project participated for about a year; some stayed the whole way, but at less than 20% during the last 6–12 months. There’s flexibility depending on what your employer can spare and what predictability they need.
How many meetings will there be?
We have a standing all-hands every Wednesday at 11:05, plus a weekly meeting with your working group and the project manager. The purpose of these meetings is (1) information, (2) building project culture, and (3) organizing to get the work done—including checkpoints to get necessary clarifications from the project manager. Our meeting culture is quite efficient: if there’s nothing to discuss, we finish early—and that happens often.
Each project member will also be part of a working group responsible for one or more deliverables. As noted, the group decides how to work to solve the tasks, and you should expect some additional meetings there.
As a project participant, do I have to attend all meetings?
Short answer: no. You decide your own attendance based on your information needs, workload, capacity that week, and other preferences.
As project manager, I trust you to attend what you need in order to deliver on your tasks. That means you’re free to skip full-group status meetings if you don’t need them. People are simply different—some find more frequent updates useful; for others it’s a source of stress.
Is this a digital project?
Yes. This is primarily a fully digital project with online meetings only, because the team will include people from county authorities, municipalities, ICT cooperatives, and other school owners across the country.
This means you need to be comfortable working fully digitally.
We don’t dictate where you work—home office or at your employer’s office is up to you.
I have general competence but not specialized expertise in M365—can I still participate?
No. Right now we’re looking for people who specifically know M365.
I wish you a wonderful, privacy-friendly week-end!
Best regards,
Ida Thorsrud
Project manager national DPIA
This newsletter was translated from Norwegian to English with assistance from ChatGPT by OpenAI. While it guided our translation, we made independent editorial choices. Any discrepancies result from this combined approach.