administrator's blog

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is managed by a member-elected Board of Directors that is the ultimate authority responsible for the organization. The Board's responsibilities include oversight of the organization, including its operations, staff and budget; setting strategic direction and defining goals in line with the mission, and; serving the community through committees and working groups. The eleven person Board is composed of Directors elected by OSI Individual Members (5) and Affiliate Members (5). The General Manager of the OSI also serves on the Board as a Director (ex officio). The results of elections for both Individual and Affiliate Member Board seats are advisory with the OSI Board making the formal appointments to open seats based on the community's votes.

Five years ago the community team at DigitalOcean wanted to create a program to inspire open source contributions. That first year, in 2014, the first Hacktoberfest participants were asked for 50 commits, and those who completed the challenge received a reward of swag. 676 people signed up and 505 forged ahead to the finish line, earning stickers and a custom limited-edition T-shirt.

This year that number is an astounding 46,088 completions out of 106,582 sign-ups. We’ve seen it become an entry point to developers contributing to open source projects: much more than a program, it’s clear that Hacktoberfest has become a global community movement with a shared set of values and passion for giving back.

The OSI was honored to attend the 2018 China Open Source Conference hosted by OSI Affiliate Member KAIYUANSHE in Shenzhen China. Over 1,600 people attended the exciting two-day event, with almost another 10,000 watching via live-stream online. The conference boasted sixty-two speakers from twelve countries, with 11 keynotes (including OSI Board alum Tony Wasserman), 67 breakout sessions, 5 lightning talks (led by university students), 3 hands-on camps, and 2 specialty forums on Open Source Education and Open Source Hardware.

The Open Source Initiative^® (OSI) is thrilled to announce the largest single donation in organizational history, a $200,000 contribution from Handshake. Handshake is a new system for the internet namespace that builds in security, openness, and reliability from the start. Handshake's work—as a community-oriented organization, and the open technologies delivered—will jump-start a new era of public internet commons, where critical infrastructure is owned by the open source developers who build and sustain it.

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