From the Board

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!

Open Source CADNANO is unbelievably cool

Submitted by Michael Tiemann on Fri, 2012-02-17 17:53

I just read this in Nature:

The researchers designed the structure of the nanorobots using open-source software, called Cadnano, developed by one of the authors — Shawn Douglas, a biophysicist at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. They then built the bots using DNA origami. The barrel-shaped devices, each about 35 nanometres in diameter, contain 12 sites on the inside for attaching payload molecules and two positions on the outside for attaching aptamers, short nucleotide strands with special sequences for recognizing molecules on the target cell. The aptamers act as clasps: once both have found their target, they spring open the device to release the payload.

These robots may be able to identify and target cancer cells.

Help OSI - Complete Our Survey!

Submitted by webmink on Sun, 2012-02-05 14:09

UPDATE: Please note this survey was completed in March 2012 and the data was used to design OSI Individual Membership

The Open Source Initiative is switching to a member-led governance. For that, it will need members.

The OSI Board would be very grateful if you would complete the totally anonymous survey which will help us understand what attributes you would like from OSI membership in the future. Thanks for your help!

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