With President Michael Tiemann’s recent retirement from the board and the appointment of new board members, it was time for the OSI Board to choose officers for a new, one year term.
read more

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.
read more

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.read more

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.read more

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 [...]

OSI is very pleased to welcome two important new members to the Affiliate scheme for community groups.read more

Last Friday the OSI Board held a special meeting to fill vacancies that had arisen by the departure of three directors – Mike Godwin, Andrew Oliver and Michael Tiemann. Michael Tiemann left the Board after serving as OSI President for many years and leaves a large gap which the board will only fill thoughtfully; as a consequence, Martin Michlmayr, currently OSI Secretary, was temporarily appointed Acting President and the election of a full new President scheduled for a later meeting of the new Board. The Board warmly thanks all three for the contribution they have made to OSI. read more [...]

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 [...]

OSI is changing, and you can help!  I spoke at FOSDEM in Brussels on Saturday, on behalf of the Open Source Initiative
(OSI) where I serve as a director. My noon keynote covered a little of
the rationale behind OSI and a quick synopsis of its last decade from my own perspective and then
announcements on OSI’s behalf about the work we’re doing to make OSI strong and relevant
for a new decade.
Time For Change
For the last three years, the OSI Board has been aware of a need for
change.read more

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!

New Hampshire has passed a new law that is summarized as follows:

This bill requires state agencies to consider open source software when acquiring software and promotes the use of open data formats by state agencies. This bill also directs the commissioner of information technology to develop a statewide information policy based on principles of open government data.

They are living up to the high standards of their state motto!
read more

In preparation for my keynote at FOSDEM, I was interviewed by the team who have just posted the interview. In particular, I noted this background to the governance reform, which readers here might find useful:

Why exactly did OSI decide to reorganize its governance from a board-only organization into a member-based structure?read more

As courses, certificates, and curricula are created, it’s valuable to bring together people who are working to develop and deliver this material into a community where we can jointly define a central body of knowledge related to free, libre, and open source software. That goal has led me to take the first step toward creating this body of knowledge, termed FLOSSBOK. The initial outline, intentionally very brief, can be found on our FLOSS Competency Center site.
read more

The Open Source Initiative Board joined many other civil society organizations as co-signatories of an open letter expressing concern about SOPA and PIPA.
As human rights and press freedom advocates, we write to express our deep concern about S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and the threat it poses to international human rights. Like H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), PIPA requires the use of internet censorship tools, undermines the global nature of the internet, and threatens free speech online.read more

Last week saw a quiet landmark in the history of the open source movement with the formal release of version two of the Mozilla Public License (MPLv2) and its approval as an official open source license. While to many it may look like just another legal detail, it is significant both for the way it was conducted and for the intent with which it has been created. This is a license aimed at unity. read more

On November 11, 2011, the government of the State of Rio de Janeiro – the second largest state in Brazil in terms of population and GDP – published a new law, which mandates public entities and companies in Rio de Janeiro to give preference to open document formats, in particular ODF. The publication of Law #5978/2011 was celebrated in an official event with representatives from the government, several state companies, and the FLOSS community.
read more

This page preserves the news flow from the OSI home page at the start of 2011 concerning the purchase of Novell’s patent portfolio by the CPTN Consortium. read more

Last week it was announced that former Cape Verde president Pedro Pires won the $5 million Mo Ibrahim prize for exceptional African leadership. As the citation explains, Cape Verde is among the smallest countries in Africa, poorest in natural resources, and yet managed to move its population of 500,000 forward much faster and much further than many other countries that shared similar (or presumably stronger) attributes. The key to their success? Openness.
read more