✍ Change at OSI

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Simon Phipps

The OSI Logo§ I gather that the Board of Directors of the Open Source Initiative met on Sunday to elect the board for their 2010-11 financial year. I am both honoured and delighted to discover that they have elected me as a Director, with effect from April 1st.

That’s an auspicious date 🙂 . One or two friends have asked why on earth anyone would want to commit time to OSI. They point out that the OSI has had a much lower profile over the past few years as the more notable founding members have moved on. It has been criticised for allowing too many licenses to be approved – including some of questionable merit.  It’s easy to find people ready to criticise – some apparently just for the sake of it – and hard to find much more than grudging respect.

But the OSI still plays a very important and relevant role in the world of software freedom. Some points:

  • Many government and business policies around the world point to OSI when defining what is acceptable as “open source”. The OSD remains the “gold standard”.
  • There is still a substantial authority connected with the organisation when the time comes for an abuser to be challenged to back down from describing their freedom-impaired activity as “open source”.
  • License approvals have become a much more onerous process, with the emphasis on avoiding creation of new licenses, updating old or flawed ones and encouraging the retirement of redundant ones.

There’s no question that the “open source” concept and brand remain powerful forces for positive change. That green logo carries weight.

I think it’s time for change, first at OSI and then more widely. OSI needs to move from a “supreme court” model to a member-based model. I’d like to see activities promoting software freedom around the world both encouraged and represented by OSI – education, policy development and perhaps organisational support for open source projects. And if there was any way at all to be a more uniting force or have a scorecard – well, I can dream!

My goal as a Director will be to facilitate that change, a change that is already well under way following recent face-to-face discussions and the great work that Andrew Oliver and Danese Cooper have already put in. Expect to hear more on this subject as the year progresses.

Filed under: Open Source, OSI, Webmink | Tagged: , |

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20 Responses

  1. Jeff Waugh, on March 11, 2010 at 13:41 said:

    Rock’n’roll — this is great news! 🙂

  2. Simon Phipps izabran kao direktor OSI | Programer, on March 11, 2010 at 13:59 said:

    […] načelnik Open Source Officer. On će preuzeti svoju novu poziciju u OSI odboru od 1. aprila. U objavljenom blogu potvrđuje imenovanje, Phipps kaže kako je “počašćen i oduševljen”, izborom u […]

  3. Stefano Maffulli, on March 11, 2010 at 13:59 said:

    Great! This is good news for everybody. Congratulations Simon.

  4. Giovanni Tirloni, on March 11, 2010 at 14:36 said:

    Congratulations! As a sysadmin, “avoiding creation of new licenses, updating old or flawed ones and encouraging the retirement of redundant ones.” always sound awesome! 🙂

  5. Dalibor Topic, on March 11, 2010 at 14:38 said:

    Congrats, Simon!

  6. uberVU - social comments, on March 11, 2010 at 15:40 said:

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by opensourcerer: Many congrats to @webmink on OSI appointment: http://tr.im/RqHs…

  7. patrickfinch, on March 11, 2010 at 17:20 said:

    So much for time off, eh? 😉

    Congratulations

  8. Sacha Labourey, on March 11, 2010 at 19:11 said:

    Congratulations Simon, this is an important battle.

    Onward,

    sacha

  9. David Johnson, on March 11, 2010 at 19:55 said:

    Congratulations, hope you manage to achieve what you set out to do

    David

  11. Terri Molini, on March 11, 2010 at 21:31 said:

    This is terrific news! Now what is it that I needed you to do for me, hmmmmm? Congrats!

  12. Rich Sands, on March 12, 2010 at 00:10 said:

    Great news, Simon! Another opportunity to make some meaningful progress. Go get ’em!

  13. Rob Taylor, on March 12, 2010 at 10:39 said:

    That’s great news Simon, well done! I’d love to see a reduction in the Open Source brand dilution that we’ve been seeing in recent years.

  14. Links 12/3/2010: Mandriva Focus, Simon Phipps the OSI Director | Boycott Novell, on March 12, 2010 at 14:42 said:

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  15. Mitchell Baker, on March 12, 2010 at 15:59 said:

    Congratulations Simon!

  16. Dave Neary, on March 13, 2010 at 00:05 said:

    Good luck Simon! You don’t pick the easy battles, I’ll say that much for you.

    Dave.

  17. Jim Grisanzio, on March 13, 2010 at 03:28 said:

    Excellent. Congrats, Simon. 🙂

  18. Most Tweeted Articles by Open Source Experts, on March 13, 2010 at 15:46 said:

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  19. Elin Waring, on March 13, 2010 at 22:26 said:

    Nice news, Simon; congratulations to you and to OSI.

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