About
I am a former OSI board director and largely oversaw the license review process during my time on the board and certain related reforms, including the publication of a revised statement of license approval criteria. I have a long history of involvement as an expert and leader on open source legal matters, including open source licensing, going back over 19 years, and have engaged with stakeholders in the open source community to a degree that is not typical of most lawyers involved in open source issues.
Current employer
Red Hat
Other affiliations
None
What areas of the Board’s work do you see yourself contributing towards?
I am most interested in, and, I think, most useful, in resuming my past involvement in the OSI’s existing activities around maintaining open source definitional norms and the open source license review and approval process. That said, I believe there are various other aspects of the board’s activities that I would welcome the opportunity to contribute to. I hope to provide further public comments at a later stage of the board election process.
What goals do you hope to achieve for OSI and the world of open source by serving on the Board of Directors?
I am most concerned about preserving and expanding the OSI’s authority and credibility in what has been its core field of community responsibility: maintaining open source definitional norms as technological circumstances and community values evolve, and practical involvement in the review of candidate and existing open source licenses. If approved for candidacy, I will provide further public comments, including, perhaps, a position statement, at a later stage of the board election process.
The full platform is published on https://codeberg.org/OSI-Reform-Platform/platform.
Previous board service
Board director 2013-2019
Main social media account or blog
https://mastodon.social/@richardfontana
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