OSI Board Meeting Minutes, Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Quorum

Quorum reached and meeting called to order at 08:14 am PDT. The Board approved the previous minutes and discussed the report from the Licensing Committee. The Board then, at 08:25 PDT, took a 30 minute recess to wait for Mr. Phipps in order to discuss the governance plan.

Board Members

1. Mr. Harshad Gune, Director
2. Dr. Martin Michlmayr, Director
3. Mr. Russ Nelson, Director
4. Mr. Andrew Oliver, Asst. Treasurer
5. Mr. Simon Phipps, Director (joined 09:00 PDT)
6. Mr. Michael Tiemann, President

Guests and Observers

1. Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma, Board Observer (until 08:25 PDT)

Expected, but Not Present

1. Dr. Fabio Kon, Director

Sent Regrets

1. Ms. Danese Cooper, Treasurer
2. Ms. Alolita Sharma, Secretary
3. Dr. Tony Wasserman, Director

Agenda

1. Minutes Review and Approval
2. Officer Reports
3. Committee Reports
4. New Business

Minutes Review and Approval

The Board reviewed the minutes of the September meeting. Mr. Tiemann moved that the Board approve the minutes. Mr Nelson seconded. Minutes approved by general consent.

Officer Reports

President's Report (Mr. Tiemann)

I was unable to attend the October 2-3 face-to-face meeting due to a death in the family, and as a result am at a disadvantage in terms of providing a report on the most current goings-on at the OSI. However, October continued to be a busy month for me in my role as President, which included

• The final production of the 3rd edition of the FLOSS 2020 Roadmap , published at OWF 2010, with a new section concerning BRIC Countries
• The production and distribution of a video for the launch of IRILL, a new organization sponsored by INRIA, UPMC, and Paris Diderot for research into free and open source software
• The production and delivery of a video for MyGOSSCON 2010 to be shown in Malaysia this week
• A presentation and discussion of open source software at the 2010 National Conference on Unemployment Insurance in Washington DC
• A blog posting which highlights the 50% increase in public open source policies from 2008 through 2010

All in all, the demands and expectations for the OSI are as high as I have seen them in the past 2-3 years. As open source software becomes more mainstream it becomes all the more important that we scale our capacity so that people who are looking to participate in the movement are not misled by those who are looking to subvert it, pervert it, or otherwise avert it.

Again, I sincerely regret that I was unable to attend the face-to-face meeting in Paris, and I look forward to the realization of all the goals discussed at that meeting.

Secretary's Report (Ms. Sharma)

Ms. Sharma reports:

• The following minutes have to be reviewed by the Board for approval:
  • September 8, 2010 - Monthly Board meeting minutes
• The following approved minutes are posted on opensource.org:
  • August 11, 2010 - Monthly Board meeting minutes
• The following approved minutes are pending posting on opensource.org:
  • February 27, 2010 - Face to face meeting, Raleigh, Day 1
• OSI Change of Address update from Guidestar: Ms. Sharma has initiated inquiry into OSI address update on Guidestar. She apologizes to the Board for not been able to follow-up this inquiry due to limited time availability. She will report back to the Board when update is completed.
• Paris Face-to-Face meetings: The face-to-face meetings in Paris were a success. The Board accomplished a lot including detailed discussions on membership structures as well as committee activities. More details will be posted in the face-to-face minutes. Special thanks again to Dr. Michlmayr for organizing the meeting venue at INRIA. We also had great support from the Debian community that was meeting at the facilities on the same weekend.
• Open World Forum 2010 Conference Participation: Most Board members who were at the face-to-face meetings in Paris participated in multiple sessions at the Open World Forum conference. OSI Board members presented in keynotes and sessions on FLOSS Competency Centers, Open BRIC think-tank Summit, Open CIO Governance track, Diversity Summit and other panel discussions.

Treasurer's Report (Ms. Cooper)

Not submitted.

General Counsel's Report (Mr. Radcliffe)

Not submitted.

Committee Reports

(Listed in alphabetical order)

Education Committee (Ms. Sharma)

The education committee met at the face-to-face meeting to discuss activities and follow-up on educational competency center listing work for flosscc.org.

License Committee (Mr. Nelson)

Mr. Nelson said that there was nothing to approve since the last meeting. There have been some discussions on the mailing list about the netX license as well as handling licensing when two projects merge.

Mr. Tiemann asked whether the licensing committee should be more vocal in the mailing list discussions about the OSI's views. Mr. Nelson expressed that he tries to lead with a light hand since he is worried that he might influence opinions unduly if he is involved too much in discussions. Mr. Tiemann wondered if there's an opportunity to reinforce what people are saying if it seems like community consensus. It reminds people of our opinions and provides incentives for people to participate. Mr. Nelson agrees that this is a good idea.

Dr. Michlmayr reported that he was approached by Patrick Moreau of INRIA after the Paris face to face with regards to the status of the CeCILL license. CeCILL is currently a free software license approved by the Free Software Foundation but it's not OSI-approved. Dr. Michlmayr forwarded the concerns about CeCILL that were raised a few years ago when the license was submitted to OSI to Mr. Moreau who said his legal team would look into it and prepare a new submission to the OSI.

Legal Affairs Committee (Ms. Cooper)

No report.

Membership-Governance Committee (Mr. Phipps)

Mr. Phipps described the current status of the governance revamp. At the Paris face to face, a set of documents were drafted that outline the vision of the OSI Board on the governance structure. These documents can be handed to the volunteers Mr. Phipps recruited to create a set of bylaws. Mr. Nelson has created a mailing list for this group. The next step is to get volunteers subscribed.

Mr. Tiemann asked how ready other organizations are to step up as affiliates. Mr. Phipps is sure that we'll be able to get affiliate organizations together from all around the world. Mr. Phipps spoke to some people casually and thinks it will be easy to recruit organizations if we put something together. The next step is put something together based on the documents created in Paris.

Mr. Tiemann moved that Mr. Phipps convene a governance committee composed of volunteers to meet on a regular basis in order to produce a plan for Board approval on how the governance plan agreed at the Paris meeting can be progressed and implemented. Mr. Oliver seconds. The motion passed with unanimous consent.

Mr. Phipps asked whether we should plan a physical meeting in the February to April timeframe to facilitate this plan. FOSDEM was suggested as a possible venue.

Policy and Economic Development Committee (Mr. Tiemann)

No report.

Administrative Committees

Communications Committee (Mr. Michlmayr)

The OSI Board responded to the majority of inquiries and questions addressed to it since the last Board meeting. The news section on opensource.org was continuously populated with fresh news.

IT Infrastructure Committee (Ms. Sharma)

Nothing major to report.

New Projects / Outreach Committee (Ms. Sharma)

No new activities to report.

New Business

None.

Next Board Meeting

The next OSI BOD meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 1, 2010.

Meeting adjourned at 09:42 AM PDT.