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March 2015 OSI Newsletter
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Open Source Initiative
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...formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community.
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Collaborate, Contribute, Co-create
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One of the biggest changes in the Open Source Initiative's history was our transition to a member-led organization in 2012 with the shift from a self-appointed Board of Directors, to Directors selected by our community of Individual and Affiliate Members. The Board is now represented by five Board Directors elected from the Individual Membership, five seats elected by the Affiliate Membership and one seat held by the OSI General Manager who serves throughout his or her employment.
Our 2015 elections opened with nominations on January 1st and again we were very fortunate to receive interest from a diverse group of open source source enthusiasts: community leaders, project contributers and dedicated activists. This year or elections corresponded with our first membership drive, allowing us to promote our member focused vision a nd include our each of our newest members in the voting.
The OSI is happy to report another highly successful election for our Board of Directors. The elected Board Directors for the Individual Membership include re-elected Directors Allison Randal (22%), Richard Fontana (17%) and Leslie Hawthorn (14%). The Affiliate Membership re-elected Mike Milinkovich (36%) and elected Paul Tagliamonte (18%) who is serving his first term as a Board Director.
 New OSI Board Director, Paul Tagliamonte
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The OSI will launched our first ever Individual Membership Drive this year, coinciding with our 17th anniversary, Feb 3rd, 2015 and running through April 1st, 2015. Our membership drive goal was to sign up 2,398 members in celebration of our founding on 2/3/98 — "2,398 for 2/3/98" — see what we did there? :-) The membership drive will also ran in parallel with our annual Board elections, with nominations opening on Feb 2nd. The membership campaign will become an annual event.
We would like to thank all of our new members who voiced their support for open source software and the important work of the Open Source Initiative. It is only through the ongoing efforts of our community that the OSI can continue our work in promoting and protecting open source software licenses, development and communities.
Unfortunately we did not reach our goal of 2,398 new members, but plan to use the same mark for our future campaigns. The good news is that after the final tally of the one month member drive, we were able to increase our membership by almost 50% and are happy with the overall growth in the Individual Membership program considering it is still relatively new to the organization.
Remember, it is never too late or too soon to join the OSI, and memberships are available throughout the year. If you are already a member, thank you, and please consider tapping a friend on the shoulder who also understands the value of increasing the awareness and adoption of open source software.
 2015 OSI Membership Campaign
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Affiliate Profile: California Association of Voting Officials
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As many may already know, the OSI recently welcomed the California Association of Voting Officials (CAVO) as an Affiliate Member. CAVO's mission is to develop and make available open source voting systems for use in public elections, as well as to provide training, education and management practices to election officials for the effective employment of technologies. Basically CAVO works to raise awareness among government administrators and elected officials, as well as the general public, of solutions currently available to address the crisis surrounding proprietary election systems: solutions that involved better designs, commodity of the shelf hardware, and General Public License open source software.
The OSI interviewed CAVO Board Secretary, Brent Turner, to learn more about the project, the organization and how open source software and our community can help. In addition to his work with CAVO, Mr. Turner is a civil rights activist whose efforts have included volunteer work for the homeless, children’s health, and environmental issues. After 2004, his efforts became solely focused on election system issues. “I soon found that the solution was software based. I have been advocating that jurisdictions adopt open source system ever since.”
OSI: How does open source development and open source communities provide unique opportunities for CAVO, elections, voting systems beyond traditional approaches?
Turner: CAVO is a vehicle that was created after the signing into law of SB-360 ( Padilla ). This law allows California to "opt out" of the Federal voting system certification process and develop our own California systems. The idea is for CAVO to fill roles and spaces that are necessarily useful to the overall work. A lot of CAVO's mission has been fulfilled as an educator, but we still must provide leadership toward final implementation of the better systems. Regarding the open source community—I think the more people get interested in the open source voting system the better... and the more the merrier. People that are interested can help in numerous ways, from the code to the politics to the oversight.
OSI: What are some of CAVO's highlights of 2014 or previous years?
Turner: 2014 was our first year and we hopefully accomplished the first phase of educating the officials that there are options coming when it comes to their voting systems. Currently they are caught in a self described "vendor trap" with just a few vendors selling high priced systems. The vendor systems have been condemned by government studies and county officials. Purchasers have been waiting for relief, so the officials are receptive to alternatives. When they find out about the cost savings of a publicly owned / open source system they pay even more attention. This education campaign has been going on for years, but 2014 really gave it some traction. CAVO managed to brief everyone from the White House to the counties regarding open source licensing. We also worked with Open Voting Consortium, which did a much of the heavy lifting on the technical side building on the work of Brian Fox and Alan Dechert who demonstrated an open source ballot printing systems as far back as 2008.
OSI: What are some of CAVO's goals for 2015?
Turner: In 2015 we are hopeful that we see a GPL system developed and certified for incremental deployment in California counties. We feel we have the political will and the current Secretary of State is the person that can lead the way.
OSI: What motivated CAVO's membership in the OSI as an Affiliate?
Turner: We look to OSI to provide clarity regarding the licensing and vocabulary around software issues. It became apparent we were completely aligned, so we were glad to join as members. Our organizations also share a common contributor and advocate, attorney Lawrence Rosen.
OSI: What do you hope the OSI can do as a CAVO partner and more broadly, to promote open source awareness and adoption?
Turner: OSI is already serving a great purpose as the keeper of the standard. " Open -washers' and other nefarious types are rampant in the space of elections, so having a strong community is essential.
OSI: How can folks get involved with CAVO?
Turner: Please send an email to turnerbrentm@gmail.com. We are always looking for talented people that want to help.
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The GNU Manifesto Turns Thirty The newly formed Open Source Initiative held a conference in response to this move, calling on developers to “dump the moralizing and confrontational attitude that had been associated with ‘free software’ in the past and sell the idea strictly on the same pragmatic, business-case grounds that had motivated Netscape.” - The New Yorker
IRS Grossly Unqualified To Make Determinations About Software Related Exempt Applications So when a program is open source you not only get to use the working program, you also have the information that allows you to see how and why it works and you are able to make modifications which you can distribute. Open Source Initiative (a 501(c)(3)) organization) has a more detailed definition. - Forbes Magazine
India backs open source software for e-governance projects Instead of coming up with a new definition for free and open source software, the policy should have used the definitions available at the Free Software Foundation and Open Source Initiative websites. - PC Advsor
Beware licensing issues when using open source Organizations such as the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative have defined what "free software" (as in free speech, not free lunch) means in terms of such"open source" licenses. While free software must include the source code, open source code is not always free. - EDN Network
Will voting systems adopt open source? We recognize this as an attempt to sell code to the government via openwashing, and we have been quite aggressive in highlighting the differences between GPL, open source, and proprietary code. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has been a great resource here. - opensource.com
3 key elements that define every open source project Once your code is checked in under an Open Source Initiative (OSI) license to a public repository, it is fully accessible to anyone and everyone to take—and modify—for their own purposes. - opensource.com
17 years of defending open source: Join the OSI today The Open Source Initiative (OSI) serves as an international nexus of trust, protecting and promoting open source software as well as the communities that develop and depend on it. - opensource.com
Getting some respect: OSS out of the shadows OSS is software that can be freely used, changed, and shared by anyone. Most OSS is distributed under OSS licences that comply with the Open Source Definition, a document describes what conditions a licence must fulfill in order to be termed an open source licence by the Open Source Initiative. - Canadian Lawyer Magazine
Life lessons in cooperation and sharing The Open Source Initiative and Maple Hill Middle School work with 6-8th grade students on building computers in the Schodack schools - The Times Union
Did Tesla's Actions In Detroit Put Its Patents In The Public Domain? Why Investors Should Worry Indeed there is an actual global non-profit entity called the Open Source Initiative ("OSI") that defines what it means. The OSI is the keeper of the Open Source Definition. The OSI states "Open source software is software that can be freely used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone." - Seeking Alpha
Guide to Building and Deploying to the Open Cloud The project is released under an open source license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) which guarantees full and unrestricted access to its codebase. Examples include the GPL used by the Linux kernel or an alternative such as the Apache or MIT licenses. - App Developer Magazine
OSI Top Tweets
A little fun for our membership drive, #OpenSource Developers, "What My Friends Think..."
http://opensource.org/2015campaign
We say: Happy Anniversary, @OpenSourceOrg — RT: If you support #opensource The OSI needs your support. #for2398
OSI Affiliate @ThePSF launches new job board! https://www.python.org/jobs/
OSI launches membership drive: http://opensource.org/2015campaign
Excited about @socallinuxexpo in a few weeks? Stop by OSI Sponsor @nginx booth79 & talk #devops #opensource software http://bit.ly/1yDmRAh
#opensource spans the globe—as does our membership. We're in last 30 days of our member drive http://opensource.org/2015campaign
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FLOSS Weekly: The Open Source Initiative Simon Phipps and Patrick Masson to talk about the Open Source Initiative (OSI).
Trade Associations Are Never Neutral Richard Fontana recently pointed out to me that it is extremely rare for trade associations to call themselves foundations outside of the Open Source and Free Software community. He found very few examples of it in the wider world. He speculated that this may be an attempt to capitalize on the credibility of the Free Software Foundation, which is older than all other non-profits in this community by at least two decades. Of course, FSF is a 501(c)(3) charity, and since there is no IRS rule about calling a 501(c)(6) trade association by the name “Foundation”, this is a further opportunity to spread confusion about who these organization serve: business interests or the general public
Why I am a Member of the Open Source Initiative And you should be, too. By Leslie Hawthorn
Let’s all build a hat rack an interview with Leslie Hawthorn
OpenMRS joins Open Source Initiative as Affiliate Member We are delighted to have the OpenMRS project join us as an affiliate member. Their dedication to improving lives through open source medical records software not only supports the mission of the OSI, it makes the world a better place for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.” - Leslie Hawthorn
Why non-code contributions matter Leslie Hawthorn has written a brilliant piece on this¹, that goes into more detail, with better explanations than what I’ve written here. If you’re at all involved in open source, you should read it now. Most importantly, Leslie also provides a solution, and one that really should be obvious.
17 years of defending open source: Join the OSI today
By Patrick Masson
The Open Source Definition Brief explanation of the Open Source Definition and its influence on the development of other open initiatives. By Patrick Masson
Open source is better off without FoundationDB When FoundationDB mysteriously folded, some people thought it was an indictment of open source. On the contrary, the episode shows why open source is needed. By OSI President Simon Phipps
Best KDE Distros, GNOME Resurgence, Ubuntu 15.04 Beta Simon Phipps today wondered if LibreOffice software-as-a-service can succeed. Others have failed and if LibreOffice doesn't want to follow, he had some advice. He said "collaboration" needs to work and work well. It needs to stay open source and work with other office suite formats and online document services. He said if "done right, it could also offer a new lease of life to LibreOffice Desktop."
4 keys to success for LibreOffice as a service Trying to prevail where three proprietary companies failed, the LibreOffice project has announced an online version. Here's what it needs to succeed. By OSI President Simon Phipps
VMware heads to court over GPL violations The Software Freedom Conservancy alleges that VMware is using GPL-licensed code in its proprietary products. By OSI President Simon Phipps
Open source jobs: It's a seller's market This week's survey from the Linux Foundation confirms that open source skills are in high demand. By OSI President Simon Phipps
Untangling the intense politics behind Node.js Node.js needs the stability of a foundation to shepherd it. But is the one Joyent and others propose the right answer? By OSI President Simon Phipps
Is Pivotal's Cloud Foundry open enough? A year ago, Pivotal announced its intent to set up a foundation for the open source Cloud Foundry project, but issues lurk in the bylaws and ownership of the name.By OSI President Simon Phipps
Paid development pays off for LibreOffice for Android The Document Foundation's gamble delivers rewards with live demos at FOSDEM that show off the latest features in LibreOffice for Android By OSI President Simon Phipps
Cloud threatening software freedom, advocate says The public cloud increasingly is isolating users from the actual computing that they’re doing, threatening their control over the process and posing a danger to software freedom, said academic and former Debian project leader Stefano Zacchiroli on Sunday at LibrePlanet 2015.
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Our Newest & Renewing Members...
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 Ainsworth, Pete |
London |
United Kingdom |
Atwood, Mark |
Seattle |
United States |
Amanchukwu, Joey |
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United States |
Beard, Joseph |
Powell |
United States |
Blood, Thomas |
Monterey |
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Botti, Luca |
Carugate |
Italy |
Bowie, Lee |
Wakefield |
Canada |
Buchaus, William |
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Cafiero, Larry |
Felton |
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Chaiken, Alison |
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Coonan, Ryan |
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Crick, David |
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De Vriendt, Karel |
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Elliott, Blair |
St. John's |
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Ermacora, Chad |
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Fervoy, Paul |
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Fleming, Kevin |
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Fustini, Drew |
Chicago |
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Foss, Roger |
Kolfta |
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Garrison, Jim |
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Garza, Jesse |
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Gizak, Nadine H |
amtramck |
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Godshall, A |
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Goudman, Peter |
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Gould, Ted |
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Harding, Tobin |
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Heath II, Thomas |
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Iconomu, Cristian |
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Jo, Hoon Jeju-si, |
Jeju-do |
Korea |
Johansson, Olle E |
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Kenlon, Seth |
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Germany |
Lääkkö, Heikki |
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Finland |
Lauber, Susan |
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Laurens, Philippe |
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Lewis, John |
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Llewellyn, Gareth |
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Lo Rizzo, Romualdo |
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Lopez de la Fuente, Jose |
Manrique |
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Lounsbury, Ryan |
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Lynch, Dan |
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M-Kumar, Krishna |
Bangalore |
India |
MartÃn, Jorge |
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Spain |
Meyer, Jim |
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Murdoch, Robert |
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Nagy, David |
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Over, Florian |
Köln |
Germany |
Ottenhoff, John |
Rancho Cordova |
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Paris, Marcelo |
Villa Nueva |
Argentina |
Peter, Stefan |
Haegglingen |
Switzerland |
Petersen, Kirsten |
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Pierzina, Raphael |
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Germany |
Reincke, Karsten |
Frankfurt |
Germany |
Rider, Shawn |
Seattle |
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Risacher, Daniel |
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Rode, Anil |
Sugar Land |
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Rosado, Juan |
Miami |
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Rosloff, Genevieve |
San Francisco |
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Ryu, Sueng Ho |
Manan-gu, Anyang-si |
Korea |
Schwartz, Randal L. |
Tigard |
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Serpa de Sousa, Williano |
Uberlandia |
Brazil |
Sherlock, Chris |
Georges Hall |
Australia |
Shinde, Bharatagraj P |
West Valley City |
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Shockey, Kevin |
Gurabo |
Puerto Rico |
Smith, Christian |
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Australia |
Talikka, Toivo |
West Bridgford |
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Tarot, Jeremie |
Entraigues |
France |
Tringale, Susan |
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United States |
Tsatiris, Lucas |
Athens |
Greece |
Turnbough, Andrew |
Saint Louis |
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Vasile, James |
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United States |
Vecchi, Paolo |
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United Kingdom |
Vignoli, Italo |
Rozzano |
Italy |
Webb, Lonnie |
Richardson |
United States |
Wedgwood, Matthew |
Austin |
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Westergren, Lars |
Tierp |
Sweden |
Willing, Carol |
Encinitas |
United States |
Wisti, Brian |
Seattle |
United States |
Wright, James |
Green Cove Springs |
United States |
Yoo, FunFun |
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Korea |
*And another 57 Anonymous Members

Don't forget, if you're an OSI Individual Member you can request a Membership Card. These cards provide a variety of benefits from our Affiliates and Corporate Sponsors. Email us today to get yours.
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Open Source Festival 2015
Albany, New York Session Presenter Patrick Masson
April 15, 2015
LinuxFest Northwest 2015
Bellingham, Washington Conference Booth Diego Carrión, Allsion Randal,
Ben Resner, Brian Wisti
April 25th & 26th
OSI Spring Board of Directors Meeting Paris, France Full Board
May 13 & 14, 2015
Strategies for Manageing Open Source Software
Cambridge, Massachusetts Guest Panelists, Richard Fontana
May 20, 2015
ICCCF Macau, 2015
Macau, China Distinguished Keynote Speaker, Tony Wasserman
June 21-23, 2015
JavaOne Latin America 2015
São Paulo, Brazil Bruno Souza
June 23 - 25, 2015
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Visit/Join OSI Affiliates
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Thank You To Our Corporate Sponsors
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