administrator's blog

As many within the OSI community may know, the OSI has been following closely—and supporting—San Francisco's efforts to develop an open source elections system. Below is an update from Commissioner Chris Jerdonek of the San Francisco Elections Commision.

Siena College's Urban Scholars Program provides elementary and middle school students in the Albany, New York school district educational opportunities within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) related feilds through active, hands-on workshops. Participants work closely with Siena student-mentors, in small groups, that encourage critical thinking, teamwork, and persistance to never give up if something seems too hard.  In 2015 the Urban Scholars Prgram adopted the FLOSS Desktops for Kids program, and combined with other activities, has led to astonishing student outcomes: increased interest and greater success in STEM courses.

There are many organizations out there, from companies like Red Hat to internet scale giants like Google and Facebook that have established an open source programs office (OSPO). The TODO Group, a network of open source program managers, recently performed the first ever annual survey of corporate open source programs and revealed some interesting findings on the actual benefits of open source programs.

In a special guest post, Megan L. Endres, Professor of Management, at Eastern Michigan University provides a debrief of data gathering from a recent survey on knowledge sharing promoted with the OSI.

OSI Affiliate Member, California Association of Voting Officials (CAVO), has expressed concerns that a recent announcement by Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (Dean Logan) and the State of California's Secretary of State (Alex Padilla) was not accurate in their descriptions of a newly certified elections tally system, "Voting System For All People" (VSAP), as using "open source technology."

Convened by Bruce Perens, one of the founders of the Open Source movement in software and an authority on Open Standards, and Open Research Institute, Inc. the Open Cars Kick-Off Conference will be held November 6, at the Marriott Airport Lakeside, Orlando, Florida, USA

PALO ALTO, Calif. - July 5, 2017— Linux Australia, Inc, the organization representing thousands of Linux and open source community members in Australia, was recently accepted as a member of the Open Source Initiative, the global non-profit working to promote and protect open source software, further strengthening international relationships with partner organizations committed to free and open source software, hardware and culture.

Coade Stone, like that used in the Nelson Pediment at the Old Royal Naval College, is a fantastic artificial rock whose creation process was lost for more than a century because it was kept secret. Software too is a precious part of our cultural heritage.

As part of the 20th anniversary of open source software and the Open Source Initiative , the OSI is reaching out to our community of individual and affiliate members, sponsors, current and past board directors, and supporters to share their success stories. We want to hear from those who’ve succeeded in, and with, open source software, development, and communities. This time, we're hearing from OSI Premium Sponsor Cumulus Networks.

This update was provided by Chris Jerdonek (@cjerdonek) and has an important and urgent call to action to help defend elections in California: This Sunday, May 6 at 2pm in San Francisco's Mission District, an open source voting "campaign kick-off" event is happening with many city and state leaders speaking in support. Can you spare some time to help?