Did you miss State of the Source? Not to worry we have you covered! Presentations from our first ever world wide summit are available to view on our Youtube channel. You can find six videos from our State of the Source Summit on Youtube to watch whenever you like!

“The critical importance of use-neutrality in F/OSS licensing” presented by Roland Turner. Roland outlines why embedding exclusionary "ethical use" obligations in F/OSS licenses seems like a great idea, however it undermines both the freedom objectives of Free Software and the inclusiveness objectives of Open Source Software. Then he details what harm expanding the Open Source Definition to support it would do, and what cooperation between F/OSS and exclusionary communities might be possible.

 

“GPL Exceptions: Filling the Spaces between GPL, LGPL and permissive licenses” presented by Karen M Sandler and Bradley M Kuhn. In this talk, Kuhn and Sandler will introduce the general idea of GPL exceptions and how they work to carve out the spectrum of licensing between the GPL, LGPL, and the highly permissive licenses. Specifically, Kuhn and Sandler will cover in detail the GCC Runtime Library Exception, which they both helped draft. They will also discuss the AGPLv3 Web Template Output Additional Permission, which was published by Conservancy initially for use by the Houdini project.

 

“Open collaboration successes and hard lessons: Practical lessons from 10 years of Eclipse Working Groups” presented by Gaël Blondelle. Open Source is an enabler for collaboration! Easier said than done. In 2010, Airbus reached out to the Eclipse Foundation with an idea: Could they replicate our established governance in their own domain? This inspired a new concept: Eclipse Working Groups. Since then, we have created more than 15 working groups. Along the way, we have learned from each of them, identified different kinds of collaborations, and experienced outstanding successes as well as frustrating failures. 

 

“Lightning Talks Round One”. 5 minute lighting talks from a variety of different presenters. In Round One you’ll hear from Jomar Silva: Challenges to revamp the Open Source Communities in Brazil. Javier Perez: Time to Spell Out the Open Source Software for Mainframes. Christina Hupy, PhD: Open source: A Unique Opportunity for Career Development in Underrepresented and Underserved Populations Entering the Tech Industry. Stephen Jacobs: Open@RIT a University Open Programs Office. Alyssa Wright: Publish or Perish Your Open Source: When Academia partners with companies to sustain Open Source. A John Hopkins case study. Robert Jacobi: Create to Stop Churn * Jim Hall: Why Linux only has 16 colors. Deb Goodkin: FreeBSD - A Model for Code, Community, and Collaboration. Brian Douglas: Path to Open Source Contributions and “Lightning Talks Round Two”. In Round Two you’ll hear from Kevin Kovadia: How to measure open source score. Jose Manrique Lopez: Open Source Program Office to help on open source sustainability. Panos Kalorogiannis: Code Software, Choose the License Wisely. Shodipo Ayomide: Design from the dimension of open-source. Alexander Sander: Public Money Public Code – Global problems need global solutions! Ruth Ikegah: A Beginner-Inclusive Approach to Open Source. Emmanuel Nwolisa: Free Open Source software movement in Africa and beyond.

 

“Closing Session of State of the Source 2020”. Join us for closing remarks, lessons learned, and shout outs to all the amazing individuals that made this event possible.

 

Thank you to our Video Recordings Sponsor eng@salesforce!

This year, OSI Board member Elana Hashman began a project to survey OSI's stakeholders. This was the first time in our history that we have formally surveyed people in our community. Some of the results were surprising and some were expected, but on the whole, the participants we spoke with want to see OSI do "more." Let's take a look at some of the highlights.

Who did we talk to?

Hashman conducted 58 interviews with current, past, and prospective OSI members. Our goal was to find out what open source practioners who aren't already significantly involved with OSI are interested in as well as talking to our long-time supporters. We asked questions to better understand our audience, how they view us and what they'd like to see us undertake in the near future. In addition to the membership survey, we are also working to survey other OSI stakeholders, such as sponsors and policy organizations, in order to make recommendations to the board and inform long-term planning efforts.

Elana Hashman, OSI Board Director said, "I'm very excited to present the report for the OSI's first members survey. As the Membership Committee Chair, I think it is crucial to seek input from our members in order to ensure that the OSI's strategy is informed and representative. Participants have put many hours into sharing their thoughts on how they view the OSI and how we can improve the organization, and I am so appreciative of the community's thoughtful responses and contributions."

Response rates:
7% of our members participated
10% of our affiliates participated

Who's in our community?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do people think about us?

People give the OSI feedback all the time -- both positive and sometimes negative -- but we mostly hear from people when they are really excited or really frustrated. We hoped to get sense of what people think of our work when they are considering us in the larger landscape of open source advocacy organizations.

"The vast majority of survey participants define the OSI’s core mission as stewarding the Open
Source Definition. This includes maintaining a list of open source licenses, advocating for and
raising awareness of open source, bridging a wide variety of open source participants, providing
common resources on the topic of open source, educating the public on the meaning of open
source, and fostering a diverse and inclusive open source community." excerpted from the report.

What is the role of OSI?

 

 

 

 

 

 

What would people like to see us do in the future?

We know that our members value our core actvities; we also wanted to hear their opinions about current or potential  partnerships and endorsements. We asked a number of questions about activities we could expand or things that stakeholders wished we would do more of or other resources people thought we could provide.

Nearly 1 in 4 respondents explicitly called upon the OSI to show leadership in driving diversity
and inclusion in the open source community

People had many, many suggestions on ways that the OSI could build on its core work, including but not limited to:

•     Providing more educational resources
•     Showcasing best practices for open source
•     Helping define good open source citizenship
•     Developing legal resources for projects beyond licenses
•     Lead more discussions in the open source ecosystem.
•     Enable cross-pollination between projects and foundations

Want more? Read the whole report!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the membership survey -- we are really grateful for all the time you took to share your thoughtful reflections and informed opinions. Over the course of this year, the OSI Board is is surveying members and other stakeholders, looking at the organization's slate of activities and building a strategic plan to become more impactful and data driven in service of our mission to promote open source and provide resources for open source practitioners. The full report is available here or you can email us for a copy.

Interested in becoming a member or renewing your membership today? You can do that right here.
 

It is with great pride and excitement that I announce that OSI, as of today, is embarking on a search for an Executive Director.

This is the culmination of many years of work and dedication on the part of countless individuals, and should be taken as a sign that OSI is maturing as an organization. We are following in the footsteps of many organizations that have come before us: nonprofits often start as a scrappy band of volunteers, which then hire staff for day-to-day operations, and eventually the staff are empowered to lead the organization.

OSI as we know it today didn't exist until 2013. From 1998 to 2013, the organization was volunteer-driven and operated. From 2013 to 2020, OSI hired its first full-time staff member which kept the volunteer directors in the driver's seat while placing the responsibility for operations in the capable hands of staff. Over the last seven years, OSI sustained its core mission, shaped policy around the globe, worked tirelessly to mitigate open washing, built an alliance of more than 125 organizations representing hundreds of thousands of people, provided a home for projects like ClearlyDefined, and rolled out programs like FLOSS Desktops for Kids and Open Source Technology Management courses with Brandeis University.

We have seen incremental progress every year, with OSI expanding its programs and refining its operations. And yet, over the last couple of years, there has been broad agreement: the open source software ecosystem needs a bolder and more responsive OSI.

Hiring an Executive Director, a person who is empowered to lead, is an essential next step.

Now, let's get down to brass tacks. This is a full-time, permanent position, reporting to the Board of Directors, which comes with a competitive salary and benefits. Though we know these processes can take a long time, we are accepting applications starting today, hope to begin interviewing candidates in late January, and aim to bring on the new Executive Director by July.

Might you be the person we're looking for? Please, apply now! Maybe you know someone who'd be a good fit? Please, pass it on!

Help us get the word out by sharing this post with your networks. And if you have any thoughts or opinions on where we should be share this opportunity to ensure we reach a broad range of applicants, please let us know!

Please direct all inquiries to gm@opensource.org.

In service,

Josh Simmons
President
Open Source Initiative

PALO ALTO, Calif., October 20th, 2020 -- The Open Source Initiative® (OSI), the international authority in open source licensing, is excited to announce the affiliate membership of the .NET Foundation, the world's biggest repository of .NET projects and resources. Welcoming the .NET Foundation to the OSI Affiliate program further solidifies the .NET community's commitment to open source and highlights the open source movement's continued success across many different platforms.

Executive Director of the .NET Foundation Claire Novotny says, "We're excited to join the OSI and look forward to working together to support open source. The .NET Foundation is very interested in building on our existing commitment to interoperability and developer education with other members of the OSI Affiliate community."

The .NET Foundation was founded in 2014 and is dedicated to growing the open source ecosystem built around the .NET development platform. The Foundation started with twenty-four projects in its care, most donated by Microsoft. These days, you’ll find over one hundred active projects, including the .NET Compiler Platform, C#, ASP.NET, .NET Core, and Xamarin, along with many popular .NET open-source frameworks like xUnit, ImageSharp, Polly, and Reactive Extensions. The .NET Foundation promotes the broad spectrum of software available to .NET developers through NuGet.org, GitHub, and other venues and supports the community through advocacy, education, marketing and administrative support.

Josh Simmons, Board Chair of the Open Source Initiative adds, "I'd personally like to enthusiastically welcome the .NET Foundation to the OSI's community of open source practitioners. Organizations that support developers by fostering growth, learning and shared resources are the future of open source. I think it's safe to say that we're looking forward to learning from each other."

The OSI Affiliate Member Program, available at no-cost, allows non-profit organizations to join and support the OSI's work to promote and protect open source software. Affiliate members participate directly in the direction and development of the OSI through board elections and incubator projects that support software freedom. Membership provides a forum where open source leaders, businesses, and communities engage through member-driven initiatives to increase awareness and adoption of open source software.