Dear Alex,
congratulations for a very useful and interesting work!
I would be also interesting to know more about ADHO's expansion plans (I refer to your sentence "how we can move forward organizationally at the global level, through and around ADHO").
Although ADHO's efforts (like this group) should be recognized and encouraged, I think we should remember that ADHO is not a democratic organization with elected members, etc. as most of DH organizations in the world (including members of ADHO...). It is still a strange hybrid between an invitation-based Private Club and a corporate consortium. As I said in various occasions I would much prefer to see a "federation of diverse associations", instead of applying the "unity in diversity" model. That's why I'm suspicious of any "global leadership".
But above all, what I think it would be really strategic is to support and promote
South-South dialogue. I'd like to remember here the observations of Octavio Kulesz, author of an important survey of digital publishing in developing countries:
"Likewise, the electronic solutions that certain countries of the South
have implemented to overcome their problems of content distribution
can also serve as a model for others, thus facilitating South–South knowledge and technology transfer. (...) Sooner or later, these countries will have to ask themselves what kind of digital publishing highways they must build and they will be faced with two very different options: a) financing the installation of platforms designed in the North; b) investing according to the concrete needs, expectations and potentialities of local authors, readers and
entrepreneurs. Whatever the decision of each country may be, the long
term impact will be immense."
I think that similar questions can be applied to the DH world.