From the Board

OSI to Host DC Metro Open Source Community Summit May 10, 2013

Submitted by debbryant on Tue, 2013-04-23 19:10

Another in the series of public meetings to be hosted by the OSI around its next face-to-face board meeting, OSI will also host the non-profit DC Metro Open Source Community Summit at the Mayflower Renaissance in Washington, D.C. The May 10th, 2013 program will include short sessions by some of our OSI board members and an “unconference” format for maximum attendee participation, collaboration, and

Open Source License Clinic to be held May 9, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Submitted by debbryant on Thu, 2013-04-11 11:58

Pleased to share the news that OSI will host a three hour open source license clinic as part of its non-profit educational mission, in collaboration with federal agency participants and the Washington D.C. technology community. The event will take place May 9 from 9 a.m. to Noon at the Library of Congress and is free, pre-registration required. The clinic is designed as a cross-industry, cross-community workshop for legal, contract, acquisition and program professionals who wish to deepen their understanding of open source software licenses, and raise their proficiency to better serve their organizations objectives as well as identify problems which may be unique to government. More details available at the event registration site.

OSI Licensing - a year in review

Submitted by LuisVilla on Sat, 2013-03-30 16:41
Since it has been roughly one year since the newest board members were chosen, I'd like to put on my new hat as chair of the License Committee and recap some license committee highlights from this past year. Some things that got done:
  • Revised the opensource.org/licenses landing page to make it more useful to visitors who are not familiar with open source.

Obituary: Raj Mathur

Submitted by webmink on Sat, 2012-12-15 11:14

Former OSI Board member Danese Cooper writes:

One of the pillars of the Indian FOSS Community passed away this week. Known for his humor, his uncompromising honesty and his generosity in sharing FOSS knowledge with like-minded individuals. His sudden passing after a massive heart attack has shocked and saddened his friends across the FOSS World.

Survey Results Re Individual Memberships

Submitted by tonyw on Tue, 2012-05-01 23:54
As part of the OSI’s governance reform, we are planning to establish a mechanism for individuals to join the OSI. We recently conducted a survey to ask people about their interest in joining, and to learn some preferences about how best to proceed. We received more than 350 replies to the survey, which was initially announced at FOSDEM in February 2012. The respondents came from many different countries, and had widely differing experiences with open source software. We are grateful to those who took the time to participate in the survey.

FRAND and Open Standards

Submitted by webmink on Wed, 2012-04-25 07:17
Back in 2006, a detailed discussion at the Open Source Initiative led to the creation of a statement about what makes a standard open, and a set of criteria for determining if the requirement was met and a standard compliant. Both are very simple as well as fully explained. To save you the click-through, here's the OSI Open Standards Requirement and Criteria in full:

The Requirement

Thank you, Michael Tiemann!

Submitted by kfogel on Wed, 2012-04-04 09:54

The OSI recently instituted a term limit on directors (after two terms, a director must be off the board for at least one year). In the most recent election cycle, this resulted in Michael Tiemann stepping down from the board and the Presidency. The newly-elected directors officially started their terms this April 1st, and their first meeting was today, April 4th. At that meeting, the Board passed the following resolution by unanimous & enthusiastic consent, with the new directors participating:

The Open Source Initiative thanks Michael Tiemann for his decade of service and sensitive leadership on the OSI Board, and hopes that he will continue to be involved with the OSI for a long time.

Thank you, Michael!

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For over 20 years the Open Source Initiative (OSI) has worked to raise awareness and adoption of open source software, and build bridges between open source communities of practice. As a global non-profit, the OSI champions software freedom in society through education, collaboration, and infrastructure, stewarding the Open Source Definition (OSD), and preventing abuse of the ideals and ethos inherent to the open source movement.

Open source software is made by many people and distributed under an OSD-compliant license which grants all the rights to use, study, change, and share the software in modified and unmodified form. Software freedom is essential to enabling community development of open source software.