Board Elections

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

2015 Member Drive

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

OSI In The News...

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

 

 

OSI Making News...

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.

OSI, Out & About

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

OSI Developments

OpenMRS joins Open Source Initiative as Affiliate Member

The Open Source Initiative ® (OSI), recognized globally for their work in promoting and protecting open source software and development communities, announced today the Affiliate Membership of OpenMRS®, a free and open source health IT platform.

 

California Association of Voting Officials, Latest to Join Open Source Initiative

Organizations aligned in goals of raising awareness and adoption of open source in government and elections.

 

 

Statement of Support: Open Source Licensing and Community Intent

Christoph Hellwig, supported by Software Freedom Conservancy (Conservancy), has initiated a lawsuit in Germany against VMware for alleged violations of the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2, an OSI approved license.