ASK-Solutions

ASK-Solutions is the public name of the IRADIS Foundation, a Dutch non-profit foundation. The foundation works on shared knowledge, collaboration, free software and hardware, repair, privacy, digital autonomy, Right to Repair and Right to Ownership, practical technical education and social participation.

This work takes different forms. Knowledge can be shared through articles and documentation, but also by investigating, explaining, repairing, designing, building or learning something together. Other activities take shape in software, hardware or a specific project.

The Owl’s Nest is one of those projects. It is built around a shareable work model that can be applied by different operators and at different locations. ASK-Solutions is itself one of those operators. Read more about The Owl’s Nest and its work model.

The name for the foundation’s legal entity is the IRADIS Foundation. ASK-Solutions is the public name under which the foundation presents its work. Both names therefore refer to the same foundation.

In Dutch statutes, registers and correspondence from some public authorities, the legal entity may be referred to as Stichting IRADIS. This is the Dutch registrative designation under which the foundation appears there, but it is not a separate formal or public name that we use ourselves. In our own communication with organisations such as the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and other Dutch authorities, we also use ASK-Solutions or the IRADIS Foundation.

ASK-Solutions and the IRADIS Foundation are the same legal entity. Its legal form is a Dutch foundation. A foundation has legal personality, which means that it can enter into agreements, own assets, have obligations, carry out activities, receive payments and issue invoices in its own right.

Under Dutch registration and tax rules, a foundation can itself carry out business activities. In Dutch registration contexts this may be described as a stichting met onderneming. This does not create a different legal form: the activities are carried out by the foundation itself. Whether particular activities are treated as business activities for corporate income tax purposes, or make the foundation an entrepreneur for VAT purposes, depends on the applicable rules and the nature of those activities.

The substantive activities of ASK-Solutions themselves put the foundation’s objectives into practice. This includes, for example, transferring knowledge, providing education and workshops, investigating and repairing things together, developing and sharing free software and hardware and carrying out projects such as The Owl’s Nest. Some of these activities can also involve a financial arrangement.

The business or tax treatment of an activity therefore says something about its legal and fiscal treatment, not about a separate organisation within ASK-Solutions and not about a separation between the foundation’s substantive work and its objectives.

The objectives of ASK-Solutions take shape through concrete activities. Knowledge sharing, for example, happens by publishing information, but also by providing explanations, investigating something together and transferring knowledge in practice. Technical education can take the form of a workshop, but also of repairing, designing or programming something together, or finding out why something does not work.

Repair and reuse can contribute at the same time to knowledge transfer, technical self-reliance, Right to Repair and longer use of equipment. Developing and sharing free software and hardware gives practical effect to objectives around freedom, ownership, transferable knowledge and the ability to understand and further develop technology.

Projects can also bring several objectives together. Within The Owl’s Nest, for example, practical learning, making, repair, knowledge sharing, social interaction and participation come together within a shareable work model.

The practical arrangements differ by activity and situation. Some activities are accessible without payment, while others may involve an amount for participation, materials, parts, use or other specific arrangements. Ability to pay can also be taken into account. You can read more about this in the FAQ about payments and invoices.

The themes on this website describe subjects that run across different parts of the foundation’s work, such as freedom, privacy, knowledge, society and Right to Repair. A project is more concrete and may have its own software, documentation, development or practical activities.

A project can in turn have its own practical structure. The Owl’s Nest, for example, is a project built around a shareable work model. That model can be applied by different operators and at different locations. Read more about The Owl’s Nest and its work model.

For general, administrative and other organisational questions, you can use the central ASK-Solutions contact page.

If your question concerns a specific project, activity or location, use the contact information provided with that work wherever possible. For press and media enquiries, there is a separate press page.

That depends on the reason for your visit and the location. For organisational visits and appointments with ASK-Solutions, you can find the current information under Visits and appointments in the organisation details.

For a project or location, the practical arrangements stated there apply. For The Owl’s Nest, you can use the location pages.